by Nigel Jones
Your love and sacrifice is the most wonderful thing that I have ever witnessed, and you are the noblest person that anyone could ever know. I have been blessed that you chose to love me.
Thank you for giving me Sophie. Yes, she was your gift to me in this life; a gift you need not have given and I believe she will play a part in our future. But even in death I believe my future is with you, Sophie knows this.
Thank you also for Buster, dear Buster. You instinctively knew that I would need him, and in him I found another soul mate. I know you chose him carefully and gave me someone you loved deeply. I am with him now and he says, hello.
I am waiting for you, my darling, but don’t hurry, there will be time enough for us. Give yourself to your family for as long as you can. There is so much you can teach them.
These are not the final words you will hear from me, every conversation we have ever had will ring in your ears as they did in mine when I was alive. You constantly spoke to me with your wisdom and your heart.
I do not want to stop writing, but there is no need to carry on. I am with you, in everything around you, in everything you touch, everything you see will remind you of me until we are together again.
I love you more than a thousand letters can say.
Your Jacques x
PS. Sorry there is just one kiss, but that is all I ever got. Oh, but what a kiss!
Honeysuckle was smiling and crying. Even in death Jacques was protecting her, as he had protected her all the years he had loved her in life.
* * * * *
A few months had passed and it was spring. Honeysuckle had made her daily journey over to the Warren with Molly, Buster’s sister. She had taken a detour to see if the tulips Jacques had planted in memory of Sophie were still thriving after the harsh winter. They were.
She sat on the bench and her fingers traced the J of his name on the plaque she had added for him.
She took the ham sandwich she had prepared for Molly from its bag and handed it to her. Molly took it from her with relish, albeit with a great deal more decorum than Buster would have done.
She feasted her eyes on the view that had brought Jacques so much pleasure and sighed.
Within minutes she was a small girl again, tucked beneath Jacques’s arm with her own arms wrapped around him, watching the Spitfire that roared overhead.
THE END
POSTSCRIPT
Should you visit the Isle of Wight, walk upon Headon Warren. Continue to the top and past the barrows. Any of the paths will lead you to a bench.
There are no names on this bench, but it inspired this book.
Sit down and take in the view. Imagine and remember.
Nigel Jones (Author)
For information or feedback about this book email: [email protected]
THE VOICE
Also available on Kindle
Another novel by N. G. Jones
A sixteen-year-old English boy and a French girl are trapped beneath the ruins of a collapsed building. The result of a terrorist suicide bombing of the French barracks in Beirut, 1983.
They cannot see one another, but their voices keep each other alive for five days. Each voice beseeching and encouraging the other to survive the maelstrom within which they are incarcerated.
A lifelong infatuation with each other’s voice follows, and the search to hear that voice again and to find its owner begins.
Their searches follow different paths through the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, the genocide of Rwanda and to Afghanistan.
Relationships, tragedy and humour guide those paths, but there is only goal. That goal is to find the voice.
AUTHOR
Nigel Jones began writing as a hobby to fill the quiet and unproductive early hours of the morning. Hours left void after the bars of Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Cape Town closed. Hours the jet lag his career as an airline pilot suggested should be used more productively than watching early-hour TV reruns.
He has written four books. Two of which are available on Kindle and will shortly be made available on most other e-readers.
Coming soon, other books include Publish and be Damned, a thriller with a core message that could change your life. And February 29th, which is an epic tale of soul mates whose story begins in Kilkenny, with the burning of the first witch in Ireland and concludes with a doctor and a pilot in present times.
He continues to write and is currently part way through The Lake, a story of love and adventure in the style of The Bench and The Voice.
Nigel is married to Sandi who is involved in the editing of all his books. They have a son called Ashley, who is a space scientist and whose job baffles his father.
If you would like to give feedback about the The Bench or The Voice, please email: [email protected]
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY_ONE
TWENTY_TWO
TWENTY_THREE
TWENTY_FOUR
TWENTY_FIVE
POSTSCRIPT
THE_VOICE
AUTHOR
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY_ONE
TWENTY_TWO
TWENTY_THREE
TWENTY_FOUR
TWENTY_FIVE
POSTSCRIPT
THE_VOICE
AUTHOR
