She leans back onto her ankles when she sees me, and her smile radiates toward me. I walk faster and then I lean down to hug her. “I missed you.”
She laughs happily. “I missed you too.”
I drop down onto the grass next to her and watch her as she goes back to gardening. After a while she asks, “So? How was it?”
“Awful! Now he wants me to go there for the entire holiday.”
She looks back at me across her shoulder, a frown between her blue eyes. “Are you sure he said the whole holiday?”
“Yes.”
She looks back at the dark, brown ground in front of her, and then with her yellow garden-gloved hand, she carefully lifts an earthworm from the ground and places it gently into the back, behind a shrub where she has already taken out the weeds. She asks carefully, “Would you like to go for three months?”
“No, and please you have to talk to him. It felt so awkward being there and I know it was never their intention, but I could not help feeling like a guest. Don’t get me wrong, they are nice and friendly, but it is just, ugh, I don’t know how to explain it.”
“It is okay, Heather, I understand. I’ll talk to him, and I’ll tell him you will go for at least a week.”
“All at once, or scattered?”
She laughs softly. “All at once, and at the end of that week I am sure you will feel more at home there.”
“I seriously doubt it.” I lay back onto the spongy green grass. The sun glares in my eyes so I place my forearm across my eyes. I hear her move on, further away from me as she digs up the weeds, turn the soil and save the earthworms.
My mom is brave, independent, free-spirited and adventurous. Jeez, she saves earthworms and she does not mind picking them up. Would I rather want someone to keep me safe and protected or would I want someone who would be adventurous with me, who will let me be independent and free-spirited, someone who would bring out the wild side in me.
I ponder and mull over this until my mom nudges me with her toe and announces, “Come, it’s getting late and you are going to get wet out here. The dew is heavy this year.”
Upstairs, in my room, I look around at everything. My single bed with the faded purple duvet cover, the bedside table with candles in every imaginable colour, the lamp with the mismatched lampshade, the old-fashioned alarm clock. My eyes drift to my dressing table and the mess of lip-gloss, mascara, bangles, brushes and necklaces. The photos of Shannon and I pasted along the edges of the mirror, and the big brown wooden jewellery box, pasted full of red heart stickers. There is no jewellery in this box, but the contents are even more precious to me. It keeps every single love note I have ever received secure.
I drop down onto my bed and automatically my body finds that comfortable, familiar hollow space. I nuzzle into it and not long after I am fast asleep.
I wake up from a scraping noise and the house is dark and quiet. The streetlamp shines brightly into my room. I fell asleep without drawing the blinds and the curtain and I cannot remember opening the window. The lace-curtain is flirting with the cool breeze. Although the weather is beautiful and the days have been bright and sunny, there is still a chill in the air at night.
I stand up from the bed to close the window, rubbing my hands over my bare arms vigorously, hoping the friction will warm up my cold skin.
A shadow approaches me from the side, but I ignore it because I see these hazy patches of mist more frequently now. Although they frightened me in the beginning, I have gotten used to seeing them. I still have not told my mom to make an appointment with our GP. I am hoping it will just disappear. I would not want the doctor to tell me there is something seriously wrong with me. Although I suppose the faster, I see the doctor or a specialist, the sooner they can begin working on a cure for me. I realize shocked, what if it is mental? Would they have to lock me up in an institution if it got worse? Now, I really did not know if I should tell my mom or not.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I jump with fright when I feel a solid hand wrap around my arm. My heart pounds in my chest wildly. As I open my mouth to scream, I see Jayden’s dark, brooding eyes in front of me. He leans into me and his eyes narrow slowly.
I swallow the yell for help and hiss softly, “Jeez, Jayden what do you want? This is my room!”
“I only wanted to see you. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“This is just weird, you now? You cannot just come into my room at night. It is bad enough you can ‘sense’ me, but now you are levitating into my room?” I turn away from him toward the window. “It’s not right, and you shouldn’t be here.” I look out the window and tell him, “You have to go.”
I feel his hands rest on my hips. He leans into me and I feel his chest press against my back. He says softly next to my ear, “I am not going to kiss you, I am not going to try to influence you or take advantage of you, I only want to talk.”
I stare out at the night. Peculiarly, I do not want him to move away from me. “We can talk in the day.”
“Not really, tomorrow you will see Kieran and then I will just be a distant memory again.”
Swiftly I realize what he is saying is true, because no matter how fast my heart beats, or how I lose my breath or how Jayden makes my knees feel weak, whenever I see Kieran again, it is as if Jayden does not exist.
Determined I move away from him, and when I turn to look back at him, he captures my eyes, imploring me to let him stay.
With a soft sigh, I sit down on my bed, and I pat the space next to me, indicating for him to sit down.
He sits down and the mattress sink in under him.
I smile faintly. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
“Anything.”
He scoots back and sits with his back against the wall, his feet hanging over the edge of the bed. I push myself backwards until my back is against the wall as well and I am sitting next to him. He shuffles closer to me until our shoulders are pressed together against each other. We talk softly. He tells me about the things he did and experienced during the three hundred years he has been alive, and after a while, it does not feel weird anymore that he has lived so long. He is still human, still living and breathing. Instead of thinking of him as strange and creepy, I actually start to feel sorry for him. I cannot even wrap my head around the idea of living that long.
Later, he says, “It is almost pumpkin hour. I better go so you can get your rest.” He moves from the bed and I follow him.
It feels hilariously funny walking him to the window, instead of to the front door and I cannot help giggling.
He smiles widely down at me as if he can read my mind, and then unexpectedly he turns to me. He does not touch me, but he stands close. He leans down and involuntarily my eyes drift to his lips.
With the back of his index finger, he traces a path from the corner of my eyebrow to the corner of my mouth. It feels as if I am going to swoon. My lips tingle and then I moisten my lips.
His lips move into a smile, and embarrassingly I realize he must have noticed that little, unintentional action of pure, unadulterated desire to be kissed by him.
I step away from him mortified, and I cannot look at him directly. Without a word, I pull the lace curtains away from the window.
He asks amused, “Aren’t you going to be polite and ask me to come again?”
I gasp horrified. “No!”
He climbs over the windowsill and then I watch him hover in the air in front of my window.
My eyes dart up and down the road. “Jeez, what if someone sees you?”
“They won’t believe their eyes.” His eyes glitter with mischief. “I can only leave after you have given me another invitation.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
He crosses his arms against his chest. “I can stay here all night.”
“Fine!” I insist, “At least let me know next time when you will be coming, it is only good manners—as well.”
“Touché.” He laughs softly.
I
start to close the window. “Good night, Jayden.”
He salutes me, tilting his head sideways, “Good night, fair maiden.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The moon is waning, and the house is quiet, so while Jayden is out of the house, Kieran takes the opportunity to perform a spell of his own. A spell he has performed many times before, to prevent Jayden’s romantic attentions to have any effect on Heather.
He sits cross-legged in the centre of his room and with an ink pen, which he has had since the seventeenth century, he writes Jayden’s name on a piece of old parchment paper. He peels the clove of garlic, which he brought upstairs with him, slowly and then he wipes it across the name on the paper unhurriedly, deliberately. He folds the paper, and then he slides it into an envelope. He leaves the envelope lying at his feet before he picks up the purple candle.
He lights the purple candle and for a moment he stares into the flame meditatively. He picks the envelope up again and then he holds the candle at an angle over the envelope. The purple wax drips onto the envelope, and he seals it.
He holds the envelope to his forehead, and then he chants, “Jayden, I bear no malice, hurt or ill. Release Heather from your will.”
After a long time, when the chant is imprinted into his subconscious and a part of his mind will repeat the spell all by itself, he slowly removes the envelope from his forehead and then he holds it over the flame of the purple candle.
The flame licks at the corner of the envelope until the flame grows bigger and engulfs it. He holds the envelope between his fingers until it disintegrates into ash.
He pinches the flame of the candle between his index finger and his thumb, and with a hiss the flame dies. He sweeps all the ashes together with his hands and then together with the candle he goes outside to bury it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
While we sit on the grass in a circle during lunch break, Shannon suggests, “Let’s have a movie night.”
Kieran glances at me inquiringly and I shrug non-committal. I have not had the opportunity yet to speak to Kieran about his story and the choice I am supposed to make. Every time we have been together since the weekend I spent at my dad’s house, we have been surrounded by people on the train, at the station and at school.
Kieran offers, “We can have it at my house if you two can get there.”
Dermot says eagerly, “Only if I can sleep over.”
Shannon agrees, “Me too.”
“Okay. You can both sleep over, if you aren’t fussy about where you have to sleep.” Kieran nudges me playfully. “Are you also coming?”
“I suppose, I could.”
He looks at me thoughtfully, and then he turns back to Shannon and he asks her, “Know any girls you can bring along to keep my brother entertained?”
She thinks for a moment, and then she giggles as she says, “Candice.”
Immediately I exclaim, “No, not her.”
Three pairs of eyes look at me simultaneously. Dermot laughs as he says, “Why not? She will keep Kieran’s brother well entertained, and she isn’t shy at being friendly if you know what I mean?”
Shannon turns toward him abruptly. “Dermot McIntyre, how would you know this?”
He shrinks away from her, laughing loudly. “It is only what I’ve heard.” He leans closer to her and he pulls her into him. “You are all I need, sugar.”
She shrugs his arm off her shoulder as she grumbles incomprehensibly.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Late Saturday afternoon, Kieran fetches me from my home.
My mom has gone away on a girl’s weekend with her girlfriends from work, and I am glad she is not going to be sitting at home alone, brooding or feeling sorry for herself, although I doubt she ever does feel sorry for herself.
He takes my hand in his as we walk away from my home, and after we have walked a while, I say casually, “I have figured it out, you know?”
He looks at me confused.
“I know the girl you were talking about in that story you told me, is me. I know I am the one who has to choose between you and Jayden and that if I choose the right one, the curse that forever holds you and Jayden here will be broken.”
He asks quietly, “It doesn’t bother you I have lived this long?”
“No.” I frown briefly. “You have explained magic and I have researched witchcraft on Google. Curses are real, and that old witch probably hated me with all her heart and soul, for such a powerful curse to have been cast upon me, and for it to have worked. She altered the very fabric of the universe with her curse, to have you and Jayden live so long and for me to keep coming back each time after I died.”
He walks quietly beside me, staring into the distance, while he strokes his thumb against my thumb nervously.
“So, the dark haze and shadows I have been seeing since I met you, are the witch or whatever waiting for me to choose, and if I choose wrong, they will kill me.”
He nods his head in solemn agreement.
“At first, I only saw these shadows when I was with you, but now I see them all the time. In fact, they are swirling about us now.”
“I know. I can see them.”
Quickly I turn to look at him. “You can see them?”
He nods his head gravely.
“Then how am I supposed to know who is the right one to choose? How will I know which one of you is the one who really loves me and has honestly loved me forever?”
He stops walking, and I stop abruptly as he pulls back on my hand.
I turn toward him, and he looks at me forlornly. “Does it really matter who loves you more? You are supposed to choose the one whom you really love, the one you have loved forever.” He hesitates for a moment, and then he looks at me seriously. “I have loved you since that first day I saw you. It will probably seem unfathomable to you, but I even remember the dress you were wearing. It was dark grey and came in around your waist with little gatherings. It fell to your small feet in layers of material. A small white frill peeked out from under the dress around your neck. You had a daisy, which Jayden had given to you earlier, stuck in behind your ear, and your brown hair escaped from the white bonnet you were wearing on your head, little wisps and strands were curled on your forehead. You were sitting next to your father on the church bench, and as I walked past you, I looked into your eyes and it was as if everything suddenly came together.”
“Then it must be you I am supposed to choose? So, this can stop?” I ask expectantly.
He looks away from me, and apologetically he says, “I am sorry, but I am not supposed to tell you. I cannot say whether I am the one or if I am not the one.”
I start walking again and he falls into step next to me. Pensively I say, “You know, I have always dreamt of love, of finding the one who is only meant for me, and when I found him we will never fight and argue to the point of screaming at each other. I never actually thought having to find someone who loves me could possibly have dire consequences. I have also always believed when I find someone and I grow to love him, I would not be able to hesitate to tell him I loved him, because it would just bubble up out of me, but having to choose someone so a curse can be broken, just does not feel the same.” I laugh derisively. “It’s funny how you can have this idea in your head, and then it does not turn out that way.”
CHAPTER FORTY
We walk a few steps in silence and I glance at him inquisitively. “Do you know if love, the kind that makes you feel weak in the knees, will ever last?”
He smiles impishly. “I don’t know. Why do you ask? Do I make your knees feel weak?”
“I am sorry, but I am not supposed to tell you. I cannot tell you whether it does or if it does not.”
He laughs cheerfully. “Hey. Don’t mimic my words.”
We continue walking to his house, changing the subject to the weather, school, homework, holidays, nothing of any importance. We leave the past, witches and curses behind us for the rest of the afternoon. Obviously, the shadows seem
to stick to me like glue, but they do not frighten me anymore, and I must admit I am happy it is not some kind of serious illness—of the humankind. Although I try to forget about all of it, everything remains at the back of my mind. When Kieran looks at me, I can see he also feels anxious, although he is laughing cheerfully.
When we get to Kieran’s house, Shannon, Dermot, and Candice are already there.
Shannon and Dermot are standing next to each other, leaning with their elbows on the island between the dining room area and the kitchen.
Candice is leaning against the basin cupboard. As we walk into the room, Jayden is leaning across her, placing an empty cup into the basin. Her hand comes around and touches him lightly in the small of his back.
Jayden moves and takes her hand into his. As he steps away from her, he says jokingly, “Now, young lady, patience is a virtue, but I assume you have none, and I am not talking about patience.”
Candice giggles.
I ask Shannon, “Are we late? What time did you get here?”
Jayden turns toward the sound of my voice immediately, and then he smiles amused as he realizes Kieran and I saw the entire basin event.
Slowly he leans with his back against the basin and he stands closely next to Candice. He stretches his arm behind her and then holds onto the counter behind her back.
I cannot help frowning when I see this, and then I turn away from him, when Shannon says, “We’ve been here for almost two hours already. Where have the two of you been?”
“We were walking here, but I see the party has already started without us, anyway.” I glance in Jayden’s direction sarcastically.
Kieran picks up the two DVD’s lying on the counter and he shows them to me.
Shannon says, “We chose an action movie and a romantic comedy.”
Looking down at the DVD’s, I ask, “So which one are we watching first?”
Timeless (ForNever) Page 11
