“He did? Why?”
“Well, because Daddy wanted to show Mommy how much he loved her.” She smiled and thought of how many years it had taken her to pick up on this. At first she had taken Jim for some kind of primitive tribesman who had erected a totem of her. Only after she spent more time with him did she begin to understand his depth. That was what she wanted Louise to see, though she might be too young to fully understand. “Isn’t it pretty?”
“Yes.” Louise studied the sculpture for a moment. “It looks like you, Mommy.”
“It is me, baby. Your daddy made lots of these that he put all over the sewer so Mommy could see just how much he loved her.” She brushed hair from Louise’s face, to look into her eyes. “He would have made some of you too if he hadn’t gone up to Heaven.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Daddy loved you very much.”
They encountered three more of the sculptures as Emma took Louise on a tour of the sewers. She took Louise to Jim’s workshop and said, “This is where Daddy slept.”
“It’s not as pretty as my room.”
“No it’s not. Your room is much prettier.”
“Prettier than Joanna’s?” This had become a bone of contention between the two “sisters” over the last two weeks. A sort of Cold War had set in, where if Joanna put stickers on her mirror, Louise wanted glittery stickers for hers. When Joanna insisted they paint her room pink like back in her home, Louise demanded they repaint her room a lighter shade of pink. Then came the bed debacle, where Louise threw a full-blown tantrum in the furniture store when Emma refused to buy her a bed as big as Joanna’s. “I’m as big as Joanna!” Louise had cried. For the first time Emma had felt the embarrassment of having a store full of people stare at her and cluck their tongues at her lack of parenting skills. She had taken Louise back to the car to have a firm talk with her that seemed to reach her.
“It’s just as pretty as Joanna’s.”
“Am I prettier than Joanna?”
“You’re both very pretty,” Emma said with a sigh. She had quickly found out that being a parent to two young children required more energy than to beat up a roomful of Don Vendetta’s goons.
After they left the workshop, Emma headed for another part of the sewer very dear to her. Before she got there, Marlin appeared in front of her. “There you are,” he said. “I’ve been looking all over this wretched place for you.”
“I’m just showing Louise around.”
“Mommy, who’s that man?”
“This is Marlin. He’s Mommy’s special friend.”
“Why hasn’t he got any legs?”
“Because I’m a ghost,” Marlin snapped. “Boo.”
Louise giggled at this. “He’s funny.”
“Yes, well, be that as it may, I have something to tell your mommy.”
“Scarlet Knight business?”
“No. The master says that he’s grateful for your help. Don’t know why, you didn’t really do anything. It was that other poor lass who did the real work, wasn’t it? Anyway, he says that he’s left a token of his appreciation for you. It’s up ahead in the tunnel.”
“Oh, well, thank him if you can.”
“Yes, fine, the next time you destroy the armor and banish me to the astral plane I’ll let him know.” Marlin floated down closer to Louise. “I hope you’re not as much of a troublemaker as your mommy.”
Louise waved a hand through Marlin’s beard and giggled again. “He feels tingly.”
“Yes, he does feel tingly,” Emma said with a smile meant more for Marlin than Louise.
“Well, I’ll leave you geniuses alone. Someone has to do some real work around here.”
Emma waited until Marlin had disappeared before she started forward again. She stopped as she neared the entrance to a pipe and saw another ghost. Only this ghost was real. “Pepe!” she blurted out. She bent down to stroke the silver stripe along the rat’s back to make sure he was real. “I thought you were dead.”
He squeaked that he had been dead and living with Jim—the king—on the astral plane. Then a strange man had showed up at the cave. Pepe didn’t remember what happened next, only that he woke up here.
“Who’s that?” Louise asked.
“This is Pepe. He’s my friend.”
Despite this, Louise shied away from the rat. Emma couldn’t blame her since Pepe was bigger than Louise and he didn’t exactly look like a stuffed animal. Pepe squeaked at her, to ask who Louise was. “She’s my daughter—and Jim’s daughter. I’m showing her around.”
Pepe nodded slightly. He told her he needed to go see his own family, his great-great-great-grandchildren or however many generations of Pepe there were by now. Louise relaxed a little once Pepe had swum off, though she still trembled a little. “Can we go home yet?” she asked.
“Almost, baby. There’s one place I want you to see. It’s a very special place.”
She carried Louise into the pipe that fed into the harbor. This was where Jim went when he wanted to escape the hurly-burly of the sewers to relax and think. Not long before Louise was conceived, Jim had shown this place to Emma and they had shared their first mutual kiss. They had shared quite a few more since then.
Emma almost dropped Louise as she saw what waited at the end of the pipe. This must be Merlin’s “token of appreciation” Marlin had mentioned. She broke into a run, to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
She wasn’t. He stood at the end of the pipe, his back to the harbor as he watched them approach. She skidded to a stop a couple of feet from him and gaped at him until finally she worked up the courage to say, “Jim?”
“It me,” Jim said. He looked just the way he had on the astral plane, just the way he had before he died in Russia. There was no sign of the bullet wounds that had killed him, no sign that he had been dead for the last two weeks. “I back.”
Louise stared at him, her eyes wide. “Daddy?”
He nodded and bent down to look her in the eye. “Yes. I your father.” He held out his arms and Emma handed Louise to him. She didn’t whimper, squeal, or thrash the way Emma feared she might. She did cry as she put her cheek to Jim’s, to nuzzle against him. He brushed hair back from her face so he could kiss her forehead. “I here now. I love you.”
“I love you, Daddy,” Louise said.
Emma watched this for a moment before she joined them. She leaned down to kiss Jim on the lips just as she had years ago in this tunnel. In that moment they became a family for the first time and Emma knew that whatever the future held, they would face it together as one.
Also by P.T. Dilloway
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection, Volume 1: The Call: For thousands of years the Order of the Scarlet Knight has battled the evil Black Dragoon. When Dr. Emma Earl answers the Call, she becomes the latest Scarlet Knight. As such she wears a suit of magic plate armor that gives her super strength, makes her bulletproof, and allows her to turn invisible. But not even these powers might be enough to help Emma defeat first the Black Dragoon, then an invasion by demons, and finally a vindictive goddess named Isis. This collection also includes Volumes 1-3 plus the prequel novella Dark Origins and Sisterhood, the origin of witch sisters Sylvia Joubert and Agnes Chiostro.
Children of Eternity Omnibus: Samantha Young wakes up on the island of Eternity with no idea of who she is or how she got there. She soon finds the island is populated by nearly 50 other children who live under the strict 17th Century rules of the Reverend Crane. Thus begins Samantha's journey to find how who she is and who the children of Eternity are. Includes the entire series: Forever Young, Young Family, Young Hearts, and When You Were Young
Girl Power: When a supervillain's weapon turns Earth's greatest male heroes into its greatest heroines, they enter a whole new world. Can Apex Girl, Velocity Girl, the Mermaid, and Midnight Spectre come together in time to save the world?
Chance of a Lifetime (Chances Are #1): When Detective Steve Fischer investigates a robbery, he’s murdered by a
gangster and injected with an experimental drug known as FY-1978. Thanks to the drug, Steve comes back—as a woman. Now Stacey Chance has to find those responsible and make them pay.
About the Author
P.T. Dilloway has been a writer for most of his life. He completed his first story in third grade and received an ‘A’ for the assignment. Around that time, he was also placed in a local writing contest for a television station, receiving an action figure in lieu of a trophy, thus securing his love with the written word. Since then, he’s continued to spend most of his free time writing and editing. In the last twenty years, he’s completed nearly forty novels of various genres.
In 2012, Solistice Publishing published P.T.’s superhero novel A Hero’s Journey, Tales of the Scarlet Knight #1. That same year, December House Publishing included P.T.’s flash fiction stories as part of the collection We Are Now. Also in 2012, P.T. created the imprint Planet 99 Publishing to publish the remainder of the Tales of the Scarlet Knight series as well as a variety of other novels, all of which can be found at http://www.planet99publishing.com.
When not writing, P.T. enjoys reading and photographing Michigan’s many lighthouses. In order to pay the bills, he earned an accounting degree from Saginaw Valley State University in 2000 and for the past ten years has worked as a payroll accountant in Detroit. Visit his website: http://ptdilloway.blogspot.com
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 187
