by I Beacham
“He’s gone, Ele. I think he’s at peace, at last.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
John Stafford was not alone in finding peace.
When Ele returned home with Kier some days later, she felt changed and different. She felt electrified, as if she’d been in a dormant state, but was now pulsing with life. She was happy and knew everything from now on would change irrevocably. With Kier, she would never be alone again. Everything was becoming as it should.
En route home, she and Kier had food shopped at the out-of-town supermarket. They had bumped into Roger who told them how well Joan was, that she was sleeping better, and seemed more her old self. She was feeding her birds again, and the curtains were open. All were hopeful signs.
Ele felt sure that John Stafford was at peace as she stood in the kitchen putting groceries away. Though it would take her some time to stem the nervousness she still felt when outside, her heart told her he was gone, and the haunting over.
She bent to stroke Feathers as she fed him, and then crossed over to the sink to top up his water dish. As she did so, she looked out onto the courtyard to gaze at the stone seat. At first, everything looked normal, but something drew her attention back to the plastic pots, the ones containing the dead roses she had dragged off the garbage and placed by the seat to show Kier her future plans. Was she imagining it, or could she see tiny buds on them?
She crossed to the back door and went outside. Both plants clearly showed signs of life. There were small buds breaking out on them. The roses were alive.
“This is impossible,” she said to herself.
“What is?” Kier had followed her out.
She pointed to the roses, allowing Kier to make her own diagnosis.
“They were dead.” She watched Kier touch each bud before looking at her in confusion.
Ele walked to the refuse area and inspected the other four discarded roses. They were still dead. She held one up to show Kier. Only the two plants she had placed by the seat showed signs of growth.
“This is impossible, Kier. These plants were dead, but now they’re not.”
“Maybe it’s a mistake,” Kier said. “Maybe they weren’t completely dead, and when you moved them, they got the sun?”
Ele knew that didn’t make sense. “Roses do not start to bloom in winter, and neither do they bud this quickly. Just days ago they were snap dry twigs.” Ele examined the roses again, doubting her eyes.
They stared at them for a minute. “What does it mean, Kier?” A lump rose in her throat as she feared the haunting wasn’t over. But Kier stepped up close and smiled. A reassuring arm went around her and Kier smiled. Kier tugged her closer before she spoke softly.
“Live not your life with bareness grim,
Nor block the light to stem a love,
Or hinder by winds fierce blows.
But nurture it with shining sun,
As this that will give the rarest rose.”
She looked at Kier as she tugged her closer again.
“Ele, this is John Stafford’s way of thanking you. He’s given you a gift of the rarest rose.”
Epilogue
Four months later.
Ele woke.
For a while, she lay still and listened, vaguely aware that something had stirred her from sleep. She heard nothing, only the stillness of the night, and saw the usual shadows that filled her bedroom in the half-dark.
Nothing happened when she thrust her head back into the welcoming thickness of her pillow. It seemed she was awake now, and her body wasn’t inclined to return to sleep, not just yet. So she rose quietly and, putting her slippers on, walked out onto the landing to search for what might have disturbed her.
Moonlight streamed through the bathroom window, and she wandered into the room, captivated by the mesmerizing brightness. She caught her reflection in the mirror and grinned. Drop dead gorgeous, not! Her hair was wild and skewed, her face full of sleepiness. She grinned and rubbed her eyes.
As she was leaving, she thought she heard something in the courtyard below, a brief sound of laughter. She crossed to the small window that overlooked her studio and peered out. Though still dark outside, the moon cast its eerie, incandescent light, and she saw nothing untoward.
An owl screeched and drew her attention to treetops in the distance. Perhaps that was what woke her. It screeched again, and its shrill cut loud through the quiet night. But as she turned away from the window, her eyes registered something that told her sleepy state it was not right. Had she seen two silhouetted shapes on the stone seat below, shapes of a man and a woman sitting close, their arms around each other? Ele stared at the seat, this time alert, but whatever she thought she saw, it was gone. All she saw was an empty seat surrounded by an abundance of blooming roses.
She stood and watched for several minutes more, but apart from her noisy owl, nothing else happened, and eventually, she crept back to bed.
As she pulled the covers over her, she felt movement at her side and a sleepy Irish voice said, “You laugh in your sleep.”
She knew she didn’t, and cuddled up to Kier’s back. “Did I wake you, my love?” No answer came. Ele wondered if Kier would remember what she’d said in the morning. She doubted it; the woman slept like a hibernating bear. She nuzzled up closer and felt the heaviness of sleep finally approach.
In her last conscious thoughts, she considered how happy she was, and how happy the ghost of John Stafford. This was simply a happy home, filled with love on so many levels.
She fell asleep, smiling.
The End
About the Author
I. Beacham grew up in the heart of England, a green and pleasant land, mainly because it rains so much. This is probably why she ran away to sea, to search for dry places. Over the years, and during long periods away from home constantly travelling to far away places, she has balanced the rigidity of her professional life with her need and love to write. Blessed with a wicked sense of humor (not all agree), she is a lover of all things water, a dreadful jogger and cook, a hopeless romantic who roams antique stores, an addict of old black-and-white movies, and an adorer of science fiction. In her opinion, a perfect life.
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
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