by Jay Quinn
After a quick search through his clothes, Karl found the box holding the candle. He tore off the plastic sheathing and opened the box to pull the candle out. It rested heavily in his hand, and he held it to his nose and breathed in deeply. The scent was even more pronounced here at home than it had been in Sven’s store. He left the wrapping where it fell along with the box and walked back downstairs to show Caroline.
She wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen. “Caro!” he called. “Come here, I want to show you something. Where are you?”
“I’m in here,” Caroline said from the foyer.
Karl stepped from the living room into the foyer and watched as Caroline took down a small, framed watercolor that hung by the front door and placed it carefully on top of the foyer table. Without looking at Karl, she picked up her purse from the table and drew out his father’s crucifix. She took a moment to dust it with a Kleenex from her purse before she hung the crucifix from the nail. Once she had it hung and straightened with a gentle nudge of her finger, she looked back at Karl and smiled. “It fits perfectly,” she said.
Karl looked at the crucifix hanging there, and an image of his father’s foyer filled his mind briefly. The crucifix did indeed look as if it had been meant to hang by his own front door. “Thanks, Caro,” he said.
Unexpectedly, Caroline crossed herself and stepped away. She came to stand by Karl’s side and said, “I’ll take all the blessings I can get.”
Hesitantly, Karl switched the candle in his right hand to his left and crossed himself as well. Then he looked at Caroline and held out the candle. “Smell this,” he said.
Caroline took the candle and sniffed it, then followed with a strong inhalation of its scent. “It’s lovely,” she told him before she looked at the label. “Tynnigo?” she asked.
Karl took the candle from her hand and said, “It’s the name of the island my grandmother retired to. It also happens to be the name of Sven’s store. He has these made by some old guy outside Paris. It smells exactly like the island,” Karl told her excitedly. “He gave it to me.”
“Well, let’s bring it into the kitchen and light it while I make some coffee,” Caroline said as she took his free hand to lead him from the foyer.
Karl followed along with her to the kitchen and placed the candle on the table. As Caroline made coffee, he searched the junk drawer for a book of matches, then he lit the candle and moved it to the center of the table. “Sven’s shop is pretty amazing,” he told Caroline, “but I’m glad you didn’t go. I saw a settee there that you would have loved for your office, but it was nearly five thousand dollars.”
“Oh, my God,” Caroline said as she carefully measured coffee. “Was everything so expensive?”
“Proportionately, I’d say yes. This candle was marked fifty-two dollars,” Karl told her.
“I can’t believe you paid that much for a candle,” Caro said as she switched on the coffeemaker and joined him at the kitchen table. Before she sat down, she leaned over the candle and took another deep smell of its unique scent. “But if you did, I think it’s worth it.”
“No, Sven gave it to me,” Karl told her again. “Sven told me to let him know when it burns down, and he’ll ship me more. He was so pleased I recognized the scent and appreciated what it meant.”
“He really craves your approval, you know that?” Caroline asked him.
“Yes,” Karl admitted, “and I’m going to make it a point to start letting him know he has it.”
“He and Rob are pretty special,” Caroline said. “I wish they lived closer by. I think they’d make great friends.”
“I do, too,” Karl told her. “But no matter where they live, I want to make them a larger part of our lives,” he added with conviction.
“I’m glad,” Caroline told him. “It seems like you found your family again.”
Karl sighed and watched the candle flame. “I never really lost them—it’s just that this weekend reminded me I do have a family, and they’re pretty wonderful people.”
“Are you reconciled to what’s happening to your mom?” Caroline asked gently.
Karl looked at her a moment before he said, “That’s going to take some getting used to, but she did her best to free me from worry and grief. My mom is pretty remarkable.”
“And what about your father?”
“Oh, Dad and I are going to be fine,” Karl told her. “We’re enough alike that I can trust my instincts on how to take care of him to the extent he needs to be taken care of,” Karl said confidently.
“This visit home wasn’t what you expected at all, was it?” Caroline pressed.
“No,” Karl admitted. “But I wasn’t who I expected myself to be, either.”
“In what way?”
“I came home feeling better about a lot of things, including myself,” Karl answered. “Sometimes the answers are just inspired in unexpected ways. Don’t ask me to explain it—I can’t. It’s like waking up with the solution to a design issue clear in my mind. Sometimes, I just have to reach for it and it’s there.”
“That’s what I love about you.” Caroline smiled as she stood. “Your inexplicable Apollonian moments of inspiration. Your coup de foudre. I’ve learned to trust it over the years. It’s good to know you trust yourself.”
“Where are you going?” Karl asked as she moved away from the table.
“To tell Melanie there’s coffee,” Caroline answered. “And to get my chocolate that Sven gave me.”
“I need to call Dad and Sven to let them know we’re home safe,” Karl said.
“You do that, and I’ll be back shortly,” Caroline told him as she strode away.
Karl stood, meaning to walk to the wall phone in the kitchen, but instead he opened the back door and walked out onto the deck in the chilly, dark night. He felt a deep happiness at being back home, as well as an unexpected eagerness to get back to work the following day. It was either a result of having been away or a gift of his dream beachscape, but he felt there was nothing he couldn’t do. Some night bird tittered in the darkness, and Karl looked up past the row of town houses across the common area to gaze at the sky. The stars suspended overhead sharply glinted in the cold air. He noticed that two were moving toward each other. As he stared, he could make out wing lights on each bright point of light—it was two planes flying in opposite directions. He watched as they passed each other. Everything was moving, he thought. He felt lucky he’d had a chance to see just how unimaginably fast everyone he loved was moving as well.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Jay Quinn
Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media
ISBN 978-1-4804-9789-4
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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