Kaleidoscope Eyes Read Free Page B

see someone with so much love to share, so much talent and passion … ”
    Annie set her fork down. “You know what I see when I look at me? A warm marigold. Know what I see when I look at you? A rich rose. And Dan?”
    Kyla leaned back in her chair. “Marigold.” She sighed. “I’m your sister. Heavens, I helped you plant your garden with flowers and plants that have your colors. I know about your condition.”
    “You know about it, but you don’t really understand it. You don’t understand what it’s like to see shadows of a person’s color when you look at or think of him. That even though I’m not always conscious of it, I see pink whenever I look at you.”
    “Well … ” Kyla cupped her hands around her coffee mug. “No, I guess not.”
    “Don’t you see? That’s the point. I’m different.” Annie looked down at the food that had seemed so mouthwatering moments ago.
    “Just because you have synesthesia … ”
    “No. That’s only part of it.” Annie crossed her arms, hugging herself. “Yes, I have synesthesia. Yes, I perceive things others don’t—”
    Kyla rested her chin in her hand as she chewed. “Colors in numbers and letters. I’d really like to see that.”
    “Don’t be so sure. It’s not always fun, Kylie. Remember grade school, when the teachers thought I was just this side of crazy because I told them I didn’t like the number one?”
    Kyla’s lips twitched. “Oh, right. It was too arrogant.”
    “A total snot, to be exact. Thinking it was all that just because it’s first—” Annie caught herself, then offered a sheepish grin.“Okay, so I still don’t like the number one much. And therein lies my problem. I see things others don’t.
I feel
things others don’t. And it’s not just the synesthesia. I’m thirty-six and I still cry when I see an animal dead on the side of the road.”
    “A tender heart isn’t a bad thing.”
    “Maybe not, but people think you’re weird when you see a squashed cat or raccoon—”
    “Or possum. Or squirrel. Oh, and there was that snake once.” Kyla’s brows drew together. “At least I think it was a snake. I couldn’t really be sure.”
    “—and the tears start flowing.”
    Her sister speared a mouthful of cake. “I still can’t believe you cry over possums.”
    “See?”
Annie waved her fork in the air. “You’re my sister and even you think I’m odd.”
    Kyla caught Annie’s wrist and lowered the fork back to the plate. “Well, of course I do. It’s in my contract as big sister.”
    “Be serious.”
    “You think I’m not?”
    “And then there’s my art. And my search and rescue work with Kodi—I mean, it’s like I live in two totally different worlds, and yet I need them both. How schizo is that?”
    Kyla laid her hand on Annie’s arm. “It isn’t. Annot, you do both because you excel at both. You’re a wonderful artist, and you’ve helped so many people through search and rescue. It would be a loss, for you and for others, if you quit either.”
    Annie swallowed hard and her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. “I know that. But sometimes … I wish I could just settle into one world and stay there. Belong.” She brushed at her eyes. “There has to be someplace I fit in, Kylie.” She looked away, staring at nothing, fighting the longing that snaked through her, coiling around her heart, squeezing …
    “You belong with us, Annot. With me and Dan. Our family.”
    Annie lifted her coffee, let the hot liquid sear her tongue andthroat as she took a gulp. Kyla believed what she was saying, but the sad truth was that Annie didn’t fit there either. Not really Dan and Kyla thrived on being in crowds; Annie found more than two or three people suffocating. She far preferred the company of animals and silence. Kyla and Dan were so organized, so logical and in control. Annie? All her life she’d been called the flighty one. Miss Emotional.
    “This is my sister,” Dan loved to say about her. “The woman