Its You - Abridged

IT’S YOUHer name was Jazz. She was blonde, sky blue eyes and lythe like a sea nymph, she enchanted all the camp kids. But of all the 12 year-olds, she mesmerized Matthew the most. She could dive, swim, ski and she practically lived in the water from dawn to dusk. Matthew was terrified of the water, but he watched Jazz everyday from behind a large pine tree. Until one day, Jazz crept up on him. She taught him to learn to be “one” with the water. She put drops of water in his palms and told him that the lake was only droplets of water put together. She taught him to go into the water, put his face in the water. When he kissed her to thank her, she told him she would never forget him. They promised to meet the next day. That night Jazz’s father had a heart attack. The paramedics came and Matthew rushed to Jazz’s cabin and watched through a window as the paramedic saved Jazz’s dad. Matthew knew then he could learn to save people. All he had to do was learn how to do it.The next day, Matthew’s parents left the family camp and Matthew never got a chance to say goodbye. But he never forgot her.Jessica became a television journalist. Matthew became a Coast Guard Para Rescue. He learned to save people. But he always looked for Jazz. And never found her. Twice he saved her life. Once from a crumbling building hit by a reckless trucker, and once in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway where she had rushed out to save a stranded kitten. But she did not recognize Matthew. He did not recognize her. Destiny pulled them together and let them part....Was it to be that way always? And how would they every find each other when they did not even know each other’s last names. He only knew that they called her Jazz. By Catherine Lanigan. Author of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile