“I sat with her for a few minutes, wondering if she had kept herself alive until she heard what she needed to hear. And then I noticed that I was feeling happy.”
“Me, too! Ever since she died I’ve been feeling like I didn’t get the chance to feel when I was sixteen.”
“Yes, yes. I think for me the feeling came when I told her Cal’s words. That was Cal’s final gift to me. I wonder if he had told me to do it not only because she needed to hear it but because I needed to say it. I would be free only when all of his truth meant as much to me as my own truth. Part of his truth was that he loved her.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been writing a long letter to my husband, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get to read it. I need to say something to him but I think what I wrote was what I needed to say to me. I’ll probably go home and catch the last snows of the winter and then, I’ll see.”
“I’ve got to go,” Robert said, standing up. “There’re still a thousand details to tend to for the funeral.”
She got up. “Let me give you a hug. You take care of yourself, and Kathy and Adisa. Marry her, Robert.”
They held each other tightly for a long moment, then separated.
“I’m glad you were here,” he told her. “Then and now.”
“Thank you.” She gave him another hug and he turned and walked away.
When he got to his car he looked back.
Elizabeth lay atop the grave like an answered prayer.
And All Our Wounds Forgiven Page 20
