Then He Vanished

Rosie Walsh

"Seven days of life... then he vanished. 'It's like I've known you for a thousand years,' he tells her. 'It's like I've lived my whole life waiting for you,' she says. In an instant, love creates an atmosphere of intimacy between two beings who were strangers just hours before. That is the magic. That is the illusion. Sarah and Eddie were struck by lightning and lived a 'Thousand and One Nights' love story together in seven days. Then he had to travel. He bid her farewell and said, 'I'll call you,' but he didn't. Not from the airport, nor the next day, nor in the weeks that followed. 'Forget about him,' her friends advised. But she couldn't. There must be an explanation for his absence. She trusted him. Her trust was well-placed. Indeed, there was a reason for Eddie's disappearance, a reason that all the magic of love could not overcome, and all the familiarity that instantly blossomed between them could not erase. A reason related to the other's true identity, before love imbued it with a different reality, with another identity. "