“Tohhh-paz.”

“Tohhhhhhh-paaaaz.”

“TOPAZ!”

 

Topaz jerked awake at this thirteenth mention of her name. She rubbed at her eyes a bit but sensed that she should not open them yet – they seemed to be cemented shut anyway. She had been lying on her back, there was a dull ache throughout her entire body, and she wondered briefly if she had jumped off a balcony – her skin was burning, and her muscles were sore enough that had someone told her she was lying on a sidewalk because she had, indeed, jumped off of a building or something, she would have believed that person without needing any further explanation. Topaz knew that was not the case though. The beach towel spread out underneath her, and the sand she could feel underneath that, gave away her location, as did the sounds and smells of the ocean. A breeze carried a little of the sea on it and blew some of the saltwater into her face. It was refreshing, and made the idea of movement a little more tolerable.

“Topaz….”

And then an exasperated sigh. The sound had been building up in her dreams as some type of chant, when really it had been her sister, saying her name over and over in an exhausting attempt to wake her. Topaz had been jolted out of her dreams and sat straight up the minute that had Isobel lost her patience and yelled it, but in doing this, she quickly realized that it was not the end of the world. She decided to lie down again, and at the same time was struggling to open her eyes, which had not quite caught up to the rest of her in waking.

A sliver of white light nearly blinded her as she cracked open her left eyelid just enough to realize that she still was not ready to do so. She quickly shut it again and let out a groan.

“Topaz Grace, I know that you are awake, so don’t even think about faking it. You sat up and I saw your left eye start to open. Come one now…”

“Dammit Izzy, leave me alone. Shouldn’t you have… a man to hunt ….or something to that effect?” She slowly rolled onto her side and by default, slumped into the fetal position. That hurt as well. She couldn’t move without pain, it seemed.

“For Christ’s sake Topaz, try to be just a bit more aware of your surroundings, just for today, maybe. I have no idea how long you have been out here – I just got home maybe five, ten minutes ago – but you look like a fucking lobster. Oh, yeah, by the way, I’m home. I have been gone for two weeks and your first words to me are ‘leave me alone’? Thanks a lot – I love you too sister dearest. And to answer your question – no. Norm said a few things on the trip that brought me to the realization that he is definitely not worth it. I think am going to be swearing off of dating for a while. ”

Topaz groaned and sat up again, launching another halfhearted attempt to open her eyes.

“About Norm…of course he’s not worth it. I would say I told you so… but it seems that the situation is doing that for me. Honestly, Izz, the man’s name is Norm.” She spit out the name with a certain degree unmasked disgust. “And about the swearing off of men thing – I will believe it when I see it. Somehow I don’t think that you, of all people, are quite capable of pulling off the whole single thing. And what is this about lobster, then? Are you making lobster for dinner? What the hell possessed you to do that? You never make lobster.”

Isobel, in her own head, ran through everything she had just said to her little sister, in particular making a note about the “try to be aware of your surroundings” comment and the now quite obvious fact that her sister had chosen not to hear this.

“You, T., you are the lobster. I just got home so I have not given half a thought to dinner. I am jetlagged as hell. I really, really do not give a damn what either of us is going to eat for dinner at the moment. I am more concerned about the fairly alarming fire-engine red tint to your skin, and the fact that it does not seem to bother you a bit. You must have been lying on this beach for quite a while… dammit Topaz, open your eyes at least, would you? …well, that was an attempt, I will have to give you that… as I was saying, you must have been here for a while because you are burnt from head to toe my dear.”

Topaz forced her eyelids open with her fingertips, for the first time noticing the excessive pain involved in every movement, especially the movement it took to lift her hands to her face. The sun. That had been the white light that discouraged her from opening her eyelids on the first try. She looked down at her body and realized that her sister had not at all been embellishing upon the truth. She was head to toe crimson save the small portions of her body covered by her swimsuit. A minute or two of trying to mentally sum up her day and failing at it, as well as the lack of any form of clock nearby, forced her to the realization that she had no idea how long she had been lying on the sand.

The sun was going to set soon, she could tell that. After a minute, she concluded that a good estimate of how long she had been lying there would be something close to all day, and probably a good portion of the night before. What had happened last night? Had she spent the entire night and day on the beach? Why couldn’t she have transferred herself the few steps it took to get to the backdoor of the small house that she and Isobel lived in? These questions, along with a million others, raced through her head as she tried in vain to come up with answers.

“…Topaz.”

She snapped out of her trance to find her sister watching her expectantly.

“Are you going to answer my question?”

She had not heard the question, whatever it was, so she did not plan on answering it in the same way that she did not plan on answering this second question either. Instead, Topaz stood, picked up the beach towel that had been underneath her, made a few whining noises about her sunburn, and silently staggered toward the house, still wondering why had apparently been incapable of doing the same thing hours earlier.

 

* * * *

 

“Topaz?”

Isobel stood outside of her sister’s locked bedroom door and let out a somewhat exaggerated sigh. It was a valid and mostly real sigh, but she wanted to make sure that Topaz would hear it and interpret it as one of the many “I am sick of your crap” signs that seeped from most of Isobel’s daily actions. In twenty-four years she had yet to get the message, but each time her older sister hoped that this time might be it, that this time might be the divine revelation of sorts that… well, what exactly that would be was still a mystery even to Isobel. She was closer to her sister than anyone and had been firsthand witness to nearly all of her antics, yet she had no idea what exactly it was that bothered her so much, what it was that she so desperately wished Topaz would realize about herself. It was not a question of maturity – Topaz was more than mature enough and always had been. There was something else, something undefined but smothering in its presence that Isobel had been striving to change about her sister all of these years, and she had never really been able to figure out what it was or why she felt the need to change it.

She knocked on the door yet again, but there was still no answer. She wondered what had happened while she had been gone. She had left for a two-week business trip with two coworkers, one of whom was Norm, about whom Topaz had indeed expressed her opinion multiple times while Isobel for the most part blocked it out, until yesterday when she realized that everything her little sister had said was true. Well, almost everything. Isobel still did not judge him for his name, while Topaz obviously did.

She had not really been worried about her younger sister when she left – after all, Topaz was a grown woman perfectly capable of taking care of herself – but she had simply wondered if there would still be a house to come back to when she returned.

“Okay, Topaz, honey, you’re freaking me out a little bit. Could you at least say something? That would really help me out a lot, I am just a little worried…”

The door suddenly opened violently. Topaz stood in the doorway, eyes big, obviously distressed, her breath panicked. Isobel took a step back.

“Okay… and now you’re really freaking me out. What’s wrong?” Isobel wondered what had caused this sudden mood swing.

Topaz bit her lip.

“Izzy, you said you went on a trip?”

“Yes…”

“I don’t remember you leaving.”

“Why … not? Topaz, was there any decent percentage of these past couple of weeks that was alcohol-free? Tell me you were sober for at least some of it.”

Topaz looked offended. “Of COURSE I was. Well… I think I was.”

“What do you mean?”

Topaz bit her lip. “Izzy… I don’t remember anything after what must have been the day before you left.