“A reunion of souls,” Ebony said.
“A reunion of souls,” Ethan said with a nod.
As he lay next to her, Ebony coughed. She coughed again. She felt miserable and weak, and a fever took hold of her. Ethan hugged her, trying to keep her warm, but as time passed, she got progressively worse. Around midnight, she fell into a restless sleep, tossing, turning, muttering incoherent sounds. Ethan could make no sense of what she said. He just held her and prayed with all his heart that her fever would break. But Ebony began to groan and labor for breath. If he could have carried her to a doctor, he would have, yet the howling wind and lashing rain forced his hand, leaving him with only hope.
“If I die tonight,” she said, her eyes weak and sick, “let us be joined one more time.”
“You are not going to die,” Ethan said.
Ebony rolled on top of him, and her warm, soft body brought him to readiness. They joined as one and stared into each other’s eyes.
“Now the reunion is complete,” she said weakly. “Heart, mind, body, and soul.”
Ethan held her trembling body.
“Please don’t let me die, God,” Ebony whispered.
Chapter Eleven
The rays of the early morning sun streamed into the cabin. The storm had passed and given way to a beautiful sunny day. Birds chirped outside, and squirrels scurried along the ground. Outside, everything was coming alive, but inside, there hung an undisturbed silence. Ethan stirred the coals and laid a couple small pieces of wood on them. Soon they were crackling, and flames licked across their lengths. He dressed in his stove-dried clothes and turned to Ebony. A single ray of clear light, as if from the heavens, shone on her tranquil, motionless face.
Ethan walked outside and sat on a rock near the river. He stared at the rushing water and, lost in thought, saw the passage of time. His life unfolded before his eyes: an eager boy playing baseball in the schoolyard, athletic accomplishments, a descent into alcohol and recklessness, his love for Ebony, his betrayal, the return, the insane events, the reunion.
“My angel,” he said quietly, looking at the cabin.
Steam rose from the verdant green of the lush forest floor, enveloping the world in a surreal and soft mist. The clean, pure, pristine air, the sounds of unspoiled nature, the reflection of the trees and sky on the Stillwater, it all inspired in Ethan a feeling of peace and harmony he had never before known. He would not, under any circumstances, change a single thing about it.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a soft voice said behind him.
He snapped from his reverie and turned to Ebony, also dressed in crinkled, stove-dried clothes. “I was hoping you’d sleep a little longer. I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No.” She limped, and he helped her reach the rock he had occupied. “I feel fine now, except for my ankle.”
“Your fever broke just before dawn. For awhile I was very worried.”
“I brought something,” she said, taking the stained glass picture from her jacket pocket and unwrapping it.
As she moved the cotton, they saw the picture was again broken, a long, thin slice cleanly snapped in the middle, on an angle. Ebony frowned at the unhappy discovery, but Ethan picked up the two halves, leaving the broken piece behind. He held them together, and they fit perfectly, in an uncanny way. Now the man in his boat and the woman onshore seemed to overlap, as if they were no longer two individuals, but a single person, half male, half female. They looked at each other with amazement.
“Sometimes I think life itself is stained glass,” Ethan said, gazing from the picture to the pristine backwoods lake. “Our lives are pieces of glass—fragile, pure, transparent. But great pains come to each of us in our turn. The death of loved ones, personal failures, abandoned hopes. The glass of our perfect lives is stained with these sorrows and this suffering. But it is this suffering that gives us depth, an understanding of truth, a soul. The stained glass is what makes us human. It makes us real. And in that there is an inherent beauty.”
“In some ways,” she said, touching his hand, “you and I share the same stained glass.”
“True.”
“You know, I could be in Africa right now.”
“I have an idea about that,” he said. “There’s this program where you help out less fortunate people in other countries.”
Ebony eagerly nodded. “Are you thinking of sponsoring a child and paying for his basic needs?”
“Not a child,” Ethan said, “a whole village. We send a regular monthly contribution that helps an entire village develop agriculture, fresh drinking water, schools, medical facilities.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“I’d like to start right away,” Ethan told her. “We could visit someday.”
Ebony hugged him. “I love you, Ethan.”
“I love you,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Will you marry me, Ebony?”
She smiled and cried at the same time. “Yes!”
Suddenly they heard voices and saw Bern Baxter emerge from the trees. Ron, Bill, and McKenzie walked behind them. All but Bern hurried up to them, asking about their condition. They were soaked from the forest, but obviously very pleased to find Ebony and Ethan unharmed.
“They tried to search last night,” Ron said to Ethan, “but the weather was impossible. Bern was the only one who didn’t stop. He came in and found you, you know.”
“Really?” Ethan said, surprised. He looked at Bern. “That took a lot of determination.”
“He walked right up to the window and saw the two of you asleep side by side. He came out and called me and Rebecca. We called Jenny, then Search and Rescue. Bern led us right to you this morning.”
Ethan walked up to Bern and extended his hand. “Thank you, Bern.”
Bern nodded and shook Ethan’s hand. “I can see Ebony hurt her ankle,” he said. “There’s an aluminum boat up at Twidling Runs I use for fishing. I can go get it if you want, and you can row her right back to Shad Bay on the river. It’s high now, and you’ll only have to stop shy of the Pyramid. They can get a truck close to that spot.”
“That would be much appreciated,” Ethan said, deeply touched.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Bern told everyone.
McKenzie walked up to Ethan and also shook his hand. “You’re all right for a white collar, Harrington.”
“I’m trying.”
McKenzie proceeded up the river with Bern, while Ron and Bill walked into the cabin to look around.
Gazing upon the water, Ethan and Ebony were enveloped by an inner spiritual peace. The two lovers, long separated by destiny and tormented by the trials of their love, felt that this day, for them, was the dawning of a new and wonderful beginning. The storm was over, the barricades overcome, the reunion complete. The man and woman who had been split in half before the beginning of the ages, were now one, forevermore, for time without end.
The End
About the Author
Summer Newman is a Canadian writer who has been published by over 60 magazines and newspapers, including by the Smithsonian Institution. Summer has published many dozens of romance stories with magazines in New York and has published numerous literary pieces. Summer has written non-fiction on everything from music to personality profiles, has published numerous articles in some of North America’s top outdoors magazines, and considers all publishing immensely satisfying, including political Op-Eds in a prominent newspaper. Summer studied Honors English at Saint Mary’s University, Russian Literature at Dalhousie University, and once hitchhiked solo from Halifax to Vancouver, a distance of 3,800 miles. Summer now specializes in romance novels, publishing five in 2013, with plans for many more.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapte
r Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
About the Author
The Reunion Page 18