Do You Believe In DeJaVu?

 When I was in college, I went on a ski trip with friends. On the way we stopped for lunch at an old restaurant. I had a strange feeling about the place. I tried to persuade my friends to go to another restaurant a few miles up the road. They told me my choice was boring and I needed to lighten up.

The restaurant gave me the creeps. The place was busy. I reasoned nothing could happen to me with so many people around. I opened the menu, took a deep breath, and I could feel myself calming down and beginning to relax.

When our waitress finally arrived, I asked her if she knew Jake. She said she didn't, but his great-grandson was in the back. She took our orders and told me she'd get Nick for me.

When Nick walked out, I felt as though I was going to faint. The room got all wiggly on the edges of my vision and I seemed to zoom-in on him. I remember seeing peripherially that the table and chairs were wood and the customers were dressed in clothes of the early 1800's. I seemed to have gone through a time warp.

Nick looked exactly like his great-grandfather, except he didn't have a handlebar mustache and he had all his fingers. I asked how Jake was doing. It didn't quite register that over a hundred years had lapsed. He looked at me. I was obviously in my late teens and he was well over thirty. He asked how I knew Jake. I went into a long drawn out explanation of how we grew up together, how my parents moved east, but I did keep in touch and returned with my husband and children for a visit. He asked my name. I told him Elizabeth Edmunds. My friends at the table with me knew that wasn't my name. They couldn't imagine what game I was playing.

Nick told me his grandmother showed him a music box an old friend of her father's named Mrs. Edmunds had given her. I nodded and described it to him. He nodded in agreement.

Our food arrived, but no one seemed to be hungry. My friends were in a hurry to leave. I told them to go ahead. I had some things to do there. I'd meet them at the ski lodge later that evening.

I visited the cemetery. I also met Nick's parents. They showed me the music box, some old letters, and photographs. This opened up a flow of information I was able to give them. I saw a photograph of Mrs. Edmunds with her husband and children. I filled a gap for them, but opened one for myself.

I didn't meet my friends at the ski lodge that evening. I took a bus to visit my parents. I couldn't figure out what had just occurred. I was shaky and my mind was in a fog. I just wanted to go home and feel safe.

I didn't do much skiing after that. I never returned to that town. I threw myself in my studies. I don't know if I avoided my friends or they avoided me, I was too busy to notice.

This was a major turning point in my life. It's like a veil was lifted for a mere moment giving me a glimpse of who I am. I wasn't a great believer in reincarnation until that day. I wasn't given a great message of what I was to do with this life. I just knew there was so much I didn't know.