by Leela Ash
Helen had been there that morning and no doubt had been the cause of Geraldine's sudden attack. Andrea felt the bile rise in her throat at the thought of the beautiful yet evil face. If only she had been here earlier, would she have tried to kill them all?
"It is the Beginning and the End, Andrea."
The grip on her hands slackened as the old careworn hands slipped out of her own and flopped lifelessly onto the table. Geraldine was dead.
At first she didn't know what to do and sat helplessly with large tears rolling down her cheeks. Geraldine had been her one ally and only sanity during the last year, and she suddenly felt weak and lost without her old friend.
She touched the soft grey head as it slumped gently onto the silent breast. They were the only customers in the cafe and the one waiting staff was busy in the kitchen preparing for the lunch orders. She wondered what to do.
A cry from the corner brought her back to her senses. She had almost forgotten about Elizabeth in the buggy. Rushing over to pick up the child, Andrea hugged her tightly. Life and death, birth and rebirth, the continuing cycle; that was something Geraldine always told her.
Andrea walked back over to the body of the old woman and kissed her gently on the forehead.
"Have a safe journey Geraldine, wherever you might be going."
It seemed callous to leave her alone, but Geraldine had warned her to leave immediately. She would have to find the runes and then somehow explain all of this to Alex.
The door to Geraldine's hotel room was unlocked. Someone had already been in there before her. Stepping quickly inside, she looked first on the bedside cabinet before opening the small drawer underneath. There was an embroidered handkerchief and a packet of mints. Andrea smiled as she picked up the folded handkerchief and brought it to her face. The faint aroma of rosemary and lavender still lingered in the white cotton weave; it was the scent of Geraldine, the smell of the past.
Soon she was outside and pushing the buggy towards the Abbey. Glancing back towards the hotel she could still see the tiny figure of Geraldine slumped in the window, and pitied the poor waitress who would eventually find her. It would be a great shock.
But now she would need to find Alex and tell him the whole story and she didn't have a clue where to start.
The day was still dull and all was quiet outside the Abbey. Andrea always felt a sense of deep calm in the shadow of the old stones and even today was no exception. There was something unearthly, some ancient wisdom in this sacred ground, now filled with the secrets and whispers of the dead.
The main doors were wide open and she wheeled the buggy up the disabled access ramp and into the ticket office cum gift shop.
Alex was standing drinking coffee at the back of the counter and gave her a surprised smile as she approached.
As soon as she reached him, the tears started to come and would not stop; the shock of Geraldine dying had just started to hit her.
Alex made her a coffee and made her sit down on a wooden pew in the Abbey until she quietened down. She could almost feel the presence of the dead saints as she sat quietly for a moment, gathering her thoughts and wondering what to say.
The two runes in her pocket seemed to be burning into her and they gave her the courage to continue.
At first Alex was incredulous and wondered if she were ill. She mentioned Geraldine but not the fact that she was dead. He loved his grandmother and it would be too great a shock for him, and it would make it almost impossible for him to return with her.
Holding out her hands she presented the runes, the curious little stones that wielded such power.
He took one in his hands and rolled it in his fingers.
"So, you're telling me that this little rock can transport me back in time, where I will embody and bring back to life the dying form of my ancestor Alexhander MacDonald and you will be my wife Andra?”
Andrea nodded meekly.
"And that my children, or their children, will save the world or even the Universe; that is unless the evil Helena doesn't get to them first?"
She nodded her head again.
"And somehow my Gran used to be a nun and is mixed up in all of this?"
Andrea smiled weakly. Coming from his lips it sounded ridiculous and she almost didn't believe it herself.
"Andrea, what kind of films have you been watching lately; do you think it might be something in the coffee they serve at the Columba? It sounds to me like you and dear grandmother are on some kind of drug related trip."
He laughed out loudly at the thought.
"Then you won't mind coming along with me to the chapel next door to show you?"
She teased him hoping that by playing along he would agree.
"Andrea, I have work to do."
"Please, it won't take a moment?"
He looked at her intently for a moment before taking a sip of his coffee.
"Ok, but I must be back in 5 minutes."
The sky outside was grey and the ground beneath them muddy. It was hard to push the buggy across the grass in the graveyard and Alex took charge.
As they walked the short way across to the old section of graves her mind worked overtime. As Geraldine had advised, with only two stones she would have to take Alex first; it would be too hard for him to take it all in on his own.
She could leave Elizabeth here in her buggy; in real time she would be gone and back in the mere blink of an eye.
There was no more time to lose or explain. Ensuring the brake was firmly on the buggy and that Elizabeth was settled, Andrea took one of the stones and passed it to Alex who eyed it suspiciously.
"So, what am I supposed to do with this, wish for Santa Clause?"
Andrea smiled tolerantly and led the way to the ancient grave of Alexhander MacDonald. As they reached the spot she could hear a bell start to toll midday in the distance.
Kneeling on the ground she beckoned for Alex to do the same. He rolled his eyes but followed suit, anything to keep the peace.
The wind whipped up from the East and a low mist drifted in from across the ocean until it surrounded the graveyard of the tiny chapel of St Oran.
5.
Andrea awoke and looked around her. The bitter taste of herbs stuck in the back of her throat and she sat up and retched, bringing up the poison along with the contents of her stomach. The girl Elizabeth lay silently at her side, unmoving yet still warm. The faint pallor of death had already started to pass over her brow and Andrea gathered the small body into her arms and wept, even though she knew that her own child slept peacefully, hundreds of years away in the future. She had poisoned the child and herself - death and the possession of a rune stone being the only way to return back to the future; now she had returned to that very point of death to breathe life back into her ancestral form.
A shout heralded from the room downstairs. Alex must have woken.
Laying the girl back on the bed she sat up. There was no time to lose. She remembered the first time she had visited this place, it had been the year 1625 when she first arrived and it had been a shock to the system to say the least. She would return for Elizabeth soon and in turn she would breathe life into the lifeless form of Andra and Alexhander’s child, Elizabeth.
Rushing down the wooden staircase she entered the main room below. Alex was trying to sit up on the makeshift bed, his eyes wild with pain from his injuries and disbelief at his surroundings.
"Andrea, what the fuck has happened? What on Earth?”
Alex did not swear easily and it was a sign he was agitated. He lay back on the pillows, weak with the pain.
It was not the time to say I told you so.
"It's the runes - we are back in the year 1635, like I said we would be. I know it's hard to take in. The last time I was here, you, or at least Alexhander MacDonald, lay dying from his battle wounds, and your half sister Helena killed Geraldine, and you in turn killed Helena."
"But I don't even have a sister!"
She looked round to find th
e bodies of the two women. Only the slight body of the young nun, Geraldine, remained, Helena had gone.
"You look different."
Andrea had almost forgotten the difference in time. Elizabeth was 9 years old and of course she too was older than her future self. A wealth of memories returned to her. Things she had almost forgotten about from a former time. Some memories weren't even hers but were Andra's, long before she had travelled back in time to embody her ancestor, to keep the lineage alive, and she wore her memory like a shroud.
Alex lay back on the pillow; it was all too much to take in as she knew it would be. He too looked older, a rugged man back from the wars, not recently graduated from Edinburgh University. It would take some getting used to. His hand was still tightly clasped around the stone and he was now looking at it incredulously.
She noticed the blood on his bandages. He had been badly wounded and needed tending to.
"I better call for the physician to come and bandage your wounds again; he will give you something for the pain."
Alex looked horrified.
"No medieval medic is going to mess around with me!"
He winced as a wave of pain seared through him.
"Well it's either that or you die a long and painful death."
She stood up to summon one of the servants and stopped when she reached the lifeless body of Geraldine.
"Alex, I have something to tell you."
Although he could see the likeness between the dead young nun and his Grandmother, he could not believe that they were the same. He was too weak to think any further on the matter and she dare not yet tell him about the fate of his beloved relative. As the physician arrived she stood up to leave.
"Don't leave me Andrea, stay with me."
She had no choice.
"I have to fetch Elizabeth."
Taking the stone from his hand she kissed him quickly on his perspiring brow before heading back upstairs to her chamber.
There were two drops of poison left in the vial that had remained where she had dropped it, just enough to stop her heart.
6.
The young girl was soon coughing in her arms after retching up the poison. It was a shock to see her daughter again, now older. It was Elizabeth and yet not Elizabeth; the same genes but from another time. That would be something else that would be difficult to explain to Alex.
She left the girl sleeping soundly in the bed before quietly joining him. The physician had given him a strong draught; a mixture of bitter herbs that tasted vile, but before long he too was sleeping a deep and dreamless sleep.
"I'm afraid he has lost a lot of blood and is quite delirious. His words did not make any sense and he kept asking me to 'phone' for his own doctor?"
The change would take a lot of getting used to.
Alex awoke later that night after a sleep full of weird dreams and images. He thought he was still dreaming as he looked round the strange and antiquated room and it was only when Andrea appeared, dressed like an extra from the local medieval banquet, that the odd reality started to dawn upon him.
As he struggled to sit up, a sharp pain from the wound in his side caused him to cry out and soon Andrea was by his side.
"What on earth is happening to me Andrea? I don't believe it... I…"
Sinking back into the cushions he closed his eyes.
"Hush, you need to rest and get better. All will be well."
She stroked his forehead tenderly.
His eyes opened wide and he stared up at her, a dubious look on his face.
"All will be well? Andrea where on Earth are we? And what has happened? And more importantly what has happened to me?"
She fetched him a draught of the local spirit before she proceeded. It was the local mead made by the monks with Iona honey. It was quite a potent brew and she hoped it would help to settle his nerves.
Sitting on the edge of the couch she started to tell him about his great ancestor, Alexhander MacDonald, her own Grandmother, and his. How she had fallen in love with him, both in the past and in the future, and how their child Elizabeth was conceived in a period of history when Charles 1st was on the throne, and the English Civil War was raging.
"You can't be serious. You're saying that I'm my own daughter’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild? That's a little hard to take in?"
"I know and I can't explain everything. Geraldine told me that there had been a shift in the balance of power in the Universe and that Time itself is under threat. A channel has been opened in the Thin Place – Iona - where the physical and the spiritual are almost co-existent. It is that event that has allowed us to travel back in time, to put things right."
“But how are we supposed to put things right, and what are WE meant to do?"
"I'm not sure really. Geraldine told me that I would know when the time was right."
"Dear Grandmother. She would never be content sitting with her knitting and a tartan blanket over her knee. And will she be joining us at some point?"
He saw the shadow cross her eyes before she had chance to hide her feelings.
"What's wrong?"
The body of the young nun had been removed for burial by the physician and she stared at the space where the body had been.
"Geraldine's dead."
Her words shocked him and she could feel the tears spring to her eyes once again.
"Dead? But how? When?"
"It was Helena - or Helen if you prefer. She's back here with us now, but she killed your dear grandmother back at the hotel. She had a stroke just after Helen had visited her."
“So you were there?"
"No, but I was with her when she died. She told me to bring you and Elizabeth back here for safety and that we would know what to do. She seemed to have been expecting it and kept saying that it is the beginning and the end".
"I can't take all of this in Andrea; I think I'm slowly going mad?"
Andrea hesitated, there was just one more thing to tell him, but she wondered whether it would send him over the edge. Elizabeth had been a one year old baby back in 2016, now she was a young girl of 9 years old.
A life to breathe life into another life, the continuous circle.
The physician had left a draught of the sedative and she poured it into a beaker.
"Drink this Alex, I think you had better rest for a while."
7.
Alex got much worse before he got better. The wound was much deeper than first imagined and he was weak for several months. He struggled to come to terms with his circumstances and begged Andrea to let him return home, but she could not. If Alex left, then what would happen to Alexhander?
She had no way of knowing and without Geraldine felt lost and out of her depth.
The winter passed and spring slowly started to raise its head on the Island. The last few months had been hard and Andrea had struggled. Alex was almost better but he was bitter and resentful of her keeping him captive in the past and had become withdrawn and moody. At least now the weather was getting better and he had started to go outside to walk and to take in the air. Nothing had felt right since they had travelled back in Time and she wondered if Geraldine had been right after all. Maybe they should all just return back to the present; surely nothing could be as bad as their current circumstances.
Only Elizabeth had carried on regardless. The effect of a one year old baby travelling back into a child's body had been different. The young 9 year old Elizabeth had woken as if nothing had happened and had no knowledge of the future. She supposed it would be the same going back into the future, the babe would remember nothing of the child.
As she passed across the window a ray of sun flitted across the room and she shifted towards the light. The rare warmth of the sun was strangely comforting on her face and she placed her hands on her cheek as if to capture the illusive light. Overnight there had been a shift in nature and the early season had finally arrived. It was the spring equinox and there was to be a Pagan Spring Festival
in celebration. A great fire was to be lit on the dunes overlooking the Bay at the Back of the Ocean.
Andrea missed the old cottage by the ocean. Perhaps it was time to go back home after all? She could see Alex returning from his walk, slowly trudging up the track towards the house, and her heart ached for him. They hardly talked these days and that made the long days unbearable. How could she make him understand when she didn't even understand herself?
At least Elizabeth was happy. She had a new dress and cloak for the festival and was looking forward to the event. The child was innocent of the future and knew only of the present time. Her father was aloof, but most of her young life he had been away in war and battle and she did not seem to notice his moods. She was tutored at the small nunnery during the day and in the evening she sang and played. Elizabeth had adopted a sleek, black cat that roamed the Island and was now her constant companion and shadow. She was a loving and intelligent child but lived in a world of her own. When she wasn't in her classes she could be seen walking the shoreline, picking up shells, strange twisted roots and sea carved pebbles. These were her treasures and she stored them all in a large wooden chest in her chamber. On clear nights she loved to gaze at the stars and could recognize all of the constellations, ‘The Great Bear’, ‘The Archer’, and ‘The Plough’ amongst many. A young boy from one of the local crofts, Tom, had become her sometimes tutor and Andrea was pleased that her daughter had found at least one friend. Although raised on the island she did not fit in with the other young girls. She thought them silly and they thought her aloof.
The evening was cloudy and yet the atmosphere was bright and full of energy. The locals gathered on the beach to welcome in the spring and the great fire blazed away into the cold night air. Andrea and Elizabeth had gone out alone. Alex had not been in the mood for celebration and was sulking at home.
The fire warmed them and the blaze lit up their features like a red mask. The auburn and gold weave of the young girl’s hair glinted in the fiery light and her cheeks glowed with the heat. She looked so happy and so pretty; what would happen to the young Elizabeth if they returned home? Would this young girl still have a full life in front of her?