Heart Stopper

by R J Samuel

  Catherine Turner Art Gallery.

  Reyna stared at the painting and felt her heart break again. She could still taste the salt on her lips. She peered through the glass. Many of the paintings were Priya’s. She could see the scrawled signature ‘PJ’, but she didn’t need that to recognize the hand that had painted them. She touched her hand to the warm glass over the seascape she had picked up in Priya’s living room and through the wetness in her eye, she noticed the reflection below her; Skyler had his hand pressed up against a portrait of a sheepdog, its lolling tongue almost sticking through the glass to lick his palm. Reyna took his other hand and then picked him up and hugged him tight to her. He chuckled and she rested her forehead against his for a minute before carrying him back to the car.

  ∞

  The potholes in the back road to the house had been filled in and the car glided through the trees. Reyna pulled in at the back door and sat for a minutes taking in the familiar and the new. The skeleton of the building at the side had been renovated and extended towards the back creating a courtyard between the two buildings. The simple lines of the extension matched the old farmhouse. The window boxes on both buildings spilt out a profusion of blue and red and pink, the younger annex sporting even more, with yellow and orange added in to the mix.

  Skyler had already scrambled out and Reyna followed slowly. He headed towards the gap between the houses and disappeared around the corner. Reyna heard him giggle and walked around the corner to find him sitting on the cream stones. Sitting facing him was a sheepdog looking as surprised to bump into a little boy. The dog looked up as Reyna appeared and she felt a momentary dart of fear for Skyler, but the boy giggled again as the dog ignored Reyna and licked Skyler’s face. It got to its feet and Reyna realized it only had three legs. She reached down to rub its head and noticed that the purple bone-shaped tag on its collar read ‘Trio’. Reyna laughed as she took Skyler’s hand and helped him up.

  The extension had large sliding glass doors that were unlocked and Reyna stepped into a light-filled white-walled living room with oversized couches and armchairs spread around a huge fireplace. The early spring sunlight streamed through the skylights. There were photos and paintings hung on the walls, the splashes of sea-green waves and the layers of earth-brown bog inside competing in the battle of colors outside.

  Skyler and Trio were getting acquainted outside and the boy’s squeals of laughter trickled into the room and then faded as Reyna wandered through it. She stopped at a painting that hung in the corner, feeling a physical ache in her chest as she stared at the portrait. The light brown eyes, the smooth skin, the midnight black hair. She had dreamed this face for months and she was lost in it again.

  “Did no-one tell you it was rude to stare?”

  Reyna jerked back from the painting and turned to the door.

  Priya walked over to the mantelpiece and placed a wreath of lilies on it, the cream flowers resting their heads against the walls. She was thinner, the black suit hung on her slight frame. But she looked healthier than the last time Reyna had seen her lying in the clinic recovery room the day the pacemaker was installed.

  Reyna took a deep breath and tried to slow her sprinting heart. She gestured to her own collarbone and asked, “How are you doing?”

  Priya patted the slight rise of skin. “Most of the time I forget it is there.” She smiled. “Other times I panic when I think I can’t generate my own heart beat and I need this thing to keep working.”

  I miss you. “They miss you at the clinic.” Reyna managed to keep her voice business-like.

  “I use a home controller to transmit the pacemaker information to the clinic. Still have to do it under a false name. Mostly as a record and a double-check; I pretty much do the checks here.”

  Reyna nodded. “It’s safer this way. We can’t be sure whether he acted on his own. Whether there are others looking for that technology. The only place it is now is in your head. I brought everything back here and destroyed the device you used. And all the papers. I can’t be sure though. It was chaotic for a while, but I think I covered everything. Valerie had no idea what Gerry had been doing. She was just used over those last two days to put more pressure on him. She was too busy playing her own games.”

  They stood facing each other across the room. The silence was broken by the bark of a dog and Priya called out for Trio. She looked back in surprise at Reyna when the dog arrived followed by a little boy.

  Reyna walked over to Skyler and took his hand. She drew in a deep breath and turned to Priya.

  “This is my son, Skyler Turner. Skyler, this is Priya.”

  Priya hid her shock well apart from the slight widening of her eyes. She knelt with a smile and held out a hand to Skyler who took it shyly.

  “I see you’ve met Trio already. He was rescued off a calendar.” Priya smiled as Skyler looked in puzzlement at the dog who nudged him and headed back out looking over its shoulder.

  Priya said, “Go on out with him, he won’t let us rest if you don’t.”

  Skyler raced Trio out of the door, the three-legged dog almost as agile as the boy.

  Reyna asked, “Is my mother back too?”

  Priya got to her feet and gestured at the farmhouse. “Powli dropped us off. He’s been another unusual, but welcome, addition to our lives. Catherine went in to change.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t make it to Michael’s memorial.”

  Priya said, “I guess there are a lot of things that didn’t happen as we thought.” She turned away and walked towards the kitchen.

  Reyna tried to figure out the trace of anger in Priya’s voice. It had been Priya’s decision not to call her on the date and at the time they had agreed. Six months. February 1st 2012, 6 p.m. If she had wanted Reyna to come back. Reyna had told Simone about Priya and Simone had finally realized that Reyna would never let Simone hold her captive again. But Priya hadn’t called. Reyna had obtained custody on that day, Simone handing over the boy she had used to get what she could out of Reyna. And Reyna had waited for her other love to call her home, brimming with excitement and the freedom finally to tell Priya about Skyler and the hold that Simone had had over her.

  Priya said, “He’s a beautiful boy. Why didn’t you tell me about him?” She was not looking at Reyna.

  “At the time I couldn’t risk Simone finding anything out about me. And I didn’t want to feel anything for anybody else. To give her anything else she could use to control me. I didn’t want to lose him. And, I didn’t want him to lose me. His mother didn’t really want him; she just needed a way to get to me. And to my grandfather’s money.”

  Priya frowned.

  Reyna burst out, “I need to take Skyler in to his grandmother. She’ll be anxious to see him.” She ignored the confusion on Priya’s face and strode out into the courtyard calling for Skyler. The boy and dog followed her as she went to the back door of the farmhouse.

  Catherine was standing at the kitchen door watching a lime green van leave. The horn beeped and a hand waved from the driver’s window as the van passed under the canopy of trees. She beamed as she hugged Reyna and then Skyler and hustled all of them into the kitchen.

  ∞

  Reyna slumped down at the kitchen table and put her face in her hands. Skyler had agreed that Trio needed sleep as much as he did and was now asleep on the couch in the living room. The dog had jumped onto the couch and waited on the boy’s feet until he slept, then hopped out of the house.

  Catherine made them tea and sat down at the table with Reyna.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch in the last month.” Reyna’s voice was muffled in her palms. “After Priya’s decision, I just took off with Skyler. Did you try to get in touch?”

  Catherine said nothing and Reyna looked at her through her parted fingers. The look of confusion on Catherine’s face matched Priya’s face earlier.

  Catherine said, “You asked us not to contact you.” She shook her head. “I thought you and Simone didn’t want c
ontact with me.”

  “What?” Reyna stared at Catherine. “What the hell would Simone have to do with it?”

  Catherine sighed. “I knew I should have called you to check. But Priya was so upset and so sure.”

  “Priya? Mother, you are going to have to tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “From your reaction, I gather Simone is what is going on. I think that woman has managed to mess you up again.” Catherine patted Reyna’s hand. “Priya spent the six months healing. After the last few years, she needed that. And so did you. I didn’t protest at the time when you both decided to wait the six months. I knew you both needed to sort your own messes out and to heal. But I hated the idea that it would come down to one phone call.”

  “Which she didn’t make.” Reyna said bitterly.

  “Yes she did. She called you at 6 p.m. on February 1st as you both agreed.”

  Reyna said, “No, she didn’t. I waited by the phone.”

  Catherine paused, and then said, “You know I wonder sometimes how you two managed to agree on anything. Did you forget the time difference?”

  Reyna leaned back in the chair. A sheepish look wandered onto her face.

  “I guess there was so much going on…No, we didn’t clarify that bit.” She paused and thought back. “So Priya must have called at noon New York time when Simone was dropping Skyler off at the house. I left them there when I collected the papers from the lawyer’s office.”

  “Well, it was Simone who answered the phone. Which upset Priya anyway, but not as much as what Simone told her. Which was that you two were back together, that you had never stopped loving your wife and that no bit of fluff could ever come between you.”

  Reyna felt the familiar rage at Simone creep into her.

  Catherine continued, “It was devastating for Priya. She had moved out here soon after her surgery. She got to spend a lot of time with her father when he lived with us for a few months. She adopted Trio, finished her Art Therapy course. She started painting again and we set up the therapy room in Spiddal at the gallery. I was starting to heal as well; I spent a lot of time with her dad, Joe. We were all doing really well, coming to terms with all that loss and grief. You should see the portrait Priya did of you if you really want to know what she feels about you. Or felt. I’ve had to keep it in my room since that phone call. And then she calls you to ask you to come back and hears this from the woman she thinks is your wife. And I have to hear that you don’t want anything to do with us because I had tried to separate you again.” Catherine’s voice had risen as she spoke.

  Reyna couldn’t speak.

  Catherine lowered her voice. “After what happened with your grandfather, I think I hid away from you as well. I was scared you would never forgive me if you found out. I don’t know if I can forgive myself, but it was his choice in the end. I just gave him the means.”

  It was Reyna’s turn to be confused.

  Catherine got up and dragged a chair over to the kitchen cupboard. She climbed up, felt around the top of the cupboards, and retrieved an object that she carefully placed on the table in front of Reyna.

  The matchbox-sized device lay on the table winking silver in the light of the sun.

  Catherine whispered, “I hope you can forgive me.” She took the device in her hands and walked out onto the patio. She put the device down, grabbed one of the curbstones from the edge of the patio, and brought it down hard, smashing the device. The slivers of metal spread in a circle, wires and miniature circuits curling at their centre. Catherine gathered up what she could, dumped the pieces in the trash, her movements slow and tired.

  Reyna still couldn’t speak and Catherine laid a hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m going to lie down with Sky. I think there is somebody you need to talk to.” She wandered out of the room to join the boy before Reyna could correct her.

  ∞

  Priya wasn’t in the extension and there was no sign of Trio either. Reyna heard the sound of barking from the direction of the lake and walked down the path through the forest.

  Priya was sitting on the grass where they had lain. She was throwing stones for Trio who dashed into the shallow water after every stone. He barked as he stared at each stone under water and then looked back at Priya for the next one.

  “Are you being cruel to the poor thing?” Reyna sat beside Priya. “Throwing things to him that he can’t get.”

  “I’m not the one who makes an art form of that. Besides, he goes in for them after I throw a few. He gathers them up in a little pile on the shore. He’s just delaying, and possibly showing off for you.”

  Priya threw another stone and Trio chased it, grabbing it in his mouth and hopping to the grass bank where he dropped it. He splashed off again and stuck his head in the water emerging drenched, but triumphant, with his prize, which he deposited beside the other stone before repeating the process.

  “Priya, there is so much I need to tell you.” Reyna caught her breath as Priya turned those eyes on her. She hurried on. “There was so much to deal with. I closed down the Research Company and sold TechMed and settled with the families of the technicians who died and with John Landon and also with Liam Whelan. I’m still going to run the Fairer Foundation, but I’m going to do it from here as I keep an eye on the clinic. I sorted out the divorce and custody.”

  She smiled as Priya’s mouth fell open.

  “Yes, Priya, my divorce. I have not been married in any sense of the word since Simone had the affair with that kid and got pregnant. I stayed with her because of Skyler, because she threatened to take him away. And I knew he needed me. She didn’t want him. When we finally reached an agreement, she came to the house to drop him off. I hear she spoke to you.”

  Priya nodded.

  Reyna said, “When I didn’t hear from you, I thought… But I couldn’t let it go like that. I figured that if I moved over and hung around, you might feel something for me again. I had a speech all ready for you and it was a really good one where I could finally tell what I felt. Then I see you and all the planning goes out of the window. I just know that you make me feel alive again, make me trust, make me laugh. I keep remembering your smile, your gentleness, your courage, your kiss. The cute way you misquote stuff and don’t even know you’re doing it. I didn’t expect to find out you had called.”

  She stopped speaking as Priya leant over and kissed her.

  They laughed as Trio interrupted a few minutes later with a shake and a spray of muddy water over them. He rested his head on Priya’s lap. His wet fur was sticking out in every direction.

  Priya said, as she smiled back at the dog, “I know he’s a mutt, but he’s beautiful to me.”

  Reyna pulled her close. “The way you’d say it, beauty is in the heart of the beholder.”

  THE END

  About the Author

  R J Samuel was born in Nigeria, to Indian parents from Kerala. She grew up in Nigeria with a brief stint in boarding school in the Nilgiri Hills in India and occasional summers in Kerala, London, and New York. She moved to Ireland at 17 to complete her medical studies and vividly remembers the shock of arriving at Galway Train Station on an icy October night. Despite that traumatic first meeting, she fell in love with Galway and has remained there since, apart from a 3-year episode in the southwest of France. She is an Irish citizen and now considers herself almost Irish as well as almost Indian. She has been writing creatively for many years, apart from her period in France where she wrote nothing creative, probably because she was running a restaurant-bar despite having a background in Medicine (she is a qualified medical doctor) and IT (she has a Masters in IT) and absolutely no background in restaurants, apart from eating in them.

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  Also by R J Samuel

  The Vision Painter Series

  Falling Colours – Kiran is a vision painter. The only vision painter working in Ireland. Her practice isn’t doing too well and she works as a waitress in a struggling restaurant in Connemara. Everything changes when she meets a woman. And makes a tiny wee mistake.

  See Chapter One of Falling Colours after the Acknowledgements

  Casting Shadows – The sequel to Falling Colours. A story of love, sacrifice, betrayal, and guilt. Of love and hatred that spans time and place. Of history that casts shadows on the future.

  Dedication

  To Jesse, Hamish, Clio, and the rest of the menagerie, past and present. Love is not a strong enough word.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to all my readers, especially those who have given feedback. Thanks to Maeve Healy and Felicia (Flish) McCarthy for pushing the boat off the shore and keeping an eye on it during the journey, with a steadying hand and encouraging words. Thanks to Mary McGann, Bernadette White, Yvonne McEvaddy, and Evelyn Parsons, my early readers who provided excellent feedback and helped me to continue and to finish. And to Susan Millar DuMars, for her thoughtful and very helpful critique. Thanks to the members of the Kujowriters group who patiently listened to the early chapters at Java’s (where one can find the best ‘vegetarian’ chicken Panini).

  My research into pacemakers took me to many websites where I found a lot of technical information, but I am also grateful for the human stories that influenced my approach to the technical aspects of the novel.