Love, Lies, & Crime: Anthology

by Kimberly Blalock

  “Lucy, there you are. I thought I saw you head down this way. Is everything alright?”

  He comes to a stop in front of me with his hands buried inside his pockets as he stares down at me with a look of concern etched across his face.

  Smiling up at him, I reach my hand up to him silently asking for him to pull me to my feet. Standing, I drop my clutch onto the sand beside my feet with my shoes, before wrapping my hands around his neck and brushing my body against his.

  “I’m fine. Just tired is all. I needed to get away from the party and get some air. Sorry if I worried you.”

  Leaning down, he brushes his lips softly against mine before pulling his head away from mine and cupping my face in his hands. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, Luce. I can’t wait to bring you to Chicago so we can start this new chapter in our lives together.”

  I feel my heart hammer in my chest and my hands begin to shake as I watch Ethan who is very intoxicated, and it seems to be bringing out the romantic in him, suddenly drops down onto one knee before me in the sand.

  “Oh my, God. Ethan, what are you doing?” I shriek as I watch him sway slightly as he reaches into his right pocket and pulls out something that catches the moonlight and sparkles in his hand.

  For a surprising, drunk proposal he is awfully prepared.

  Pinching the ring between his fingers, he holds it up at me as he takes my left hand into his hand. A big, boyish grin spreads across his face as he stares up at me, and my eyes zero in on the very large diamond as it twinkles between us.

  “Lucy, I know this is random and crazy—and we’re both pretty drunk,” he laughs causing the butterflies in my stomach to flutter even faster as the reality of what is happening hits me like a semi-truck. “But, I want you to know that I had this proposal all planned out…it was going to be this big grand gesture tonight during dinner…but then I got scared and chickened out. I even got your father’s permission and everything before buying the ring. I wanted to do this right. I didn’t feel right asking you to come live with me and move your whole life to Chicago without showing you that you are it for me.” He drops his head toward the sand and swallows hard before letting out a deep breath. He’s as nervous as I am which helps me relax slightly.

  I have no idea what I want. Ten hours ago, I was questioning if I loved this man enough to uproot my entire life and move to Chicago with him. Now I find myself hours later with him on one knee asking me to make the ultimate commitment to him.

  I love Ethan. There’s no doubting that. But with Ethan it isn’t fireworks and angels singing when we’re together. A small part of me feels as if I’m in love more with the idea of being in love with him rather than actually being in love with him. We’ve been together for so many years and we were each other’s first and only loves. My friends over four years in college have gone through a handful of men, telling me that they were too young to settle down and commit to only one man. They thought I was wasting my college years staying in a committed long-distance relationship. So many times I found myself wondering if they were right. Would I end up ten years down the road being one of those bitter housewives, miserable and married to a man they aren’t in love with? All the while feeling trapped because by that point they have a house full of kids and an obligation to make it work.

  My head spins as my thoughts swirl around inside of my head, and I feel the cold metal press at the tip of my ring finger. “I love you, Lucy, with all of my heart. I want to spend forever loving you. I’m kneeling here now under the eyes of God and asking you four simple words, and I really hope your answer will be yes…” His voice is barely above a whisper as he asks me the one question I’m not sure I’m ready to answer. “Will you marry me?”

  There’s no way I can break his heart, not after I’ve already agreed to start a life with him. Just because we’re engaged doesn’t mean we should rush into marriage. Maybe wearing the engagement ring will pacify him long enough to let me move to Chicago, see how I feel about living my life there with him before we take that next step.

  Nodding my head slowly up and down, I force the words out, “Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  I feel the ring slip onto my finger, and the fear and uncertainty settle hard in my chest making it difficult to breathe. My lungs burn as I watch Ethan jump to his feet, swaying slightly and letting out another deep chuckle before scooping me up into his arms for a hug and pressing a kiss to my lips. His kiss starts out slow and loving, but as my feet hit the sand once again and I feel his body slowly directing mine back down to the sand, his kiss grows more intense. His hand cups my butt through my dress as he moans lightly into my mouth, and I feel his erection pressing against my stomach.

  My chest is rising and falling as I try to breathe and push the panic of what I just agreed to do away. I run my fingers into his hair hoping that maybe letting myself become distracted by his body will help mine relax. But as I hear the jazz music playing in the distance behind us, I find myself tensing up beneath him. I can’t do this right now. Not here where my family can stumble upon us at any moment.

  Pushing at his chest, I turn my head away from his mouth breaking our kiss. Breathlessly I plead, “We need to stop, Ethan. I can’t do this here.”

  He freezes above me gazing down at me with glazed eyes burning with desire. Running his fingers through his hair, he pulls away from me before climbing to his feet. “I’m sorry, Luce. I got caught up in the moment.”

  “It’s alright. I did too. But thankfully for us both I’m not as drunk as you, and I came to my senses before my father came strolling down and stumbled upon your naked ass in the air.” I giggle trying to help ease the tension in the air.

  “I definitely don’t want that. That’s not exactly how I want him to find out you said yes.” He glances back toward the house before bringing his eyes back to focus on me still sitting in the sand. “I’m going to rejoin everyone up at the party. Are you coming or do you want a few more minutes down here?” he asks, giving me a loving smile. It makes my nerves ease slightly that he isn’t asking me to head straight up there now and announce the engagement. Ethan is a good man and one my father approves of. I know we’re going to be happy together, there’s just so much change in my life happening all at once that I find myself becoming overwhelmed by it all.

  I need a moment alone to let everything sink in. That is one thing I know for certain.

  “You can head back up to the party; I’ll be up shortly because I am pretty tired.”

  Crouching down, he runs his fingers affectionately along the side of my face before pressing a chaste kiss to my lips and then disappearing back down the beach as he retreats up to the house.

  As soon as he’s out of sight, I reach beside me grabbing my clutch and popping it open. I pull out my phone and the letter and quickly get to work tearing it open. With shaky fingers, I slide the letter out and turn on the flashlight that is on my phone. The sound of a metal chain echoes around me as I tip the envelope pouring the contents inside of it out. A small necklace rolls out and into the lap of my dress. Pointing the light onto it, I grip the letter securely with my last three fingers and grab the chain with my index finger and my thumb dangling it out in front of me.

  It’s a long silver chain with a Celtic knot shaped like a stretched out figure out with a small circle knotted in the center, and a small opal gem resting inside the bottom knot looking almost as if it is balancing weightlessly in the air inside the pendant. It’s beautiful—I can’t help but feel a memory tugging at my subconscious as I try to place the necklace.

  Giving up for now, I drop the necklace back into my lap and turn my attention back to the letter. I unfold it with my free hand and feel tears sting my eyes as soon as I see my grandmother’s words written beautifully across her favorite stationery. It’s smooth, cream colored paper with a small Celtic knotted heart in the center at the top with Hazel McAllister printed beneath it in script font.

  I run my fingertips over the paper feeling
the indent of the words caused by the pen as I begin reading the letter.

  My dearest Lucy,

  If you’re reading this letter, then it means I’ve joined your grandfather in heaven. I know you’re probably sad and heartbroken over losing me, but I want you to know, child, I am always with you. My spirit lives on inside your heart. You are far more special than you’ll ever know. I’ve kept things from you for your own protection because I could see from a young age you were going to be things in this life.

  Normally O’ Ryan women get the pendant on the day of another O’Ryan woman’s passing. But with you I’ve done things differently. I see how happy you are with that young man, Ethan. He’s a good man and loves you dearly. I didn’t want to come between you and a future you are working so hard toward.

  I don’t know how long I have been gone when you finally read this letter…if you ever read it that is. But if you are then it means the fates have decided or your mother has that it is time for you to learn of the O’Ryan family secret.

  For the last 400 years, the women in my family have been blessed/cursed depending on how you choose to view it, with the ability to travel through time, and some are born with the gift of sight. The only thing is our bodies cannot jump times without one of the Celtic pendants like the one I have given you. There are only six in our family that are passed down to the next kin after the death of a O’ Ryan who has ownership of one. I know you’re thinking it and the answer is yes, your mother owns a pendant. It belonged to my mother. But your mother never chose to use hers because she met your father and fell in love and soon became pregnant with you. So, she felt no need to travel with it because she was content with her life as it was.

  As you probably understand this kind of power is not something that can be taken lightly. Therefore, you must follow the rules I’ve listed below. It’s extremely important that you listen to these rules and take my warnings seriously.

  You must be wearing the pendant around your neck when you travel. It’s more so for the pendant’s safety rather than anything else. You don’t want to fall through time and have the pendant get lost wherever you end up because without it you will be forever trapped wherever you end up.

  You cannot dictate where you go. Your spirit will pull you into a time where it feels you’re meant to go. You do not know what time-period you’ll end up in, but the one thing you will know is that you’ll arrive in the same place you left from, just in a different time-period either in the past or the future.

  You should never take a person from their time. It can cause a ripple effect in history altering the outcome of historical events as we know it. The same goes for objects from the past or future. It can be done but is frowned upon due to the unforeseen ramifications from the decision to do so.

  Which brings me to my last rule. You cannot try to change historical events. No matter how tragic they are. They were destined to happen and set into motion events that occurred thereafter. If you do try to change it, the event will still occur because it was fated to long before you arrived in that time.

  To make the pendant work you’ll need only to softly speak these words: A ghrá mo chroí…which is pronounced as, a graw muh kree. It’s Gaelic for love of my heart. The legend of how our powers originated is that our ancestor in Ireland lost her love during the Italian war in 1522. She believed his spirit lived on being reincarnated into another man. She claimed she could feel her soul mate still out there waiting for her and claimed her power of sight showed him to her. So, she put a spell on a large opal gem and sealed it into silver so she could hang it around her neck. It had the power when those words were spoken to take her to her soul mate.

  It has been told for generations many women in our families found their husbands this way in the ancient times after her pendant was broken into six small stones and given to her six daughters before she passed away. But over the centuries, many began to believe it to be wrong for our kind to travel in time and be with a man not from our own century. So, it then evolved into the idea of the necklaces bringing us to a time where our souls felt a pull to where we were needed to do what? We did not know but would discover once there.

  Even though I tell you rule number three, I feel the need to disclose to you a fact that only your mother and father know and no one else. Your grandfather was not born in this time and immigrated to America at the age of nineteen. I met your grandfather in Dublin, Ireland on May 24th 1832, when I was sent from my time of 1952 back to his time. I was born in this house in Osterville, all that I told got growing up of my life is true, but I had traveled abroad to visit family the spring I turned eighteen. While there I had decided to use the pendant I had recently received from my grandmother and take my first adventure.

  I want you to know I love you, child, to the moon and back. Your mother is well educated in the pendants and can help you with any questions you may have. Just know that jumping time comes with consequences in the present and wherever you go. So be safe, my sweet Lucy.

  Love, Grandma Hazel

  I blink through the tears and feel my body go numb from shock of what I just read. Picking up the necklace I fasten it behind my neck and reread the letter one more time as I try to let what I read a moment ago sink in.

  My ancestors were witches?

  Closing my eyes, I bring my forehead to rest on my knees trying to calm the spinning in my head. As I sit there, the same dark, stormy eyes appear in my subconscious at the same moment that thunder cracks across the sky.

  I snap my eyes open and glance out over the ocean as a bolt of lightning dances across the water.

  I flinch again as another boom of thunder explodes throughout the sky. Reaching for the pendant that rests against my chest, I clench it in a fist and feel the metal heat inside of my hand as I watch bolts of lightning continue to dance across the moonlit water. I look down at the letter resting on my lap before glancing back at the house where Ethan waits for me. Moving quickly, I grab the letter along with my phone shoving them into my purse before slipping my heels back on. I hug my purse to my chest with my forearm as I squeeze my shawl closed tightly around me and do what I feel in the deepest part of my soul that the universe is trying to tell me I need to do.

  “A ghrá mo chroí…” I whisper up at the sky and say a silent prayer that I haven’t completely lost my mind with what I’m about to do.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The sound of high-pitched buzzing fills my ears as everything around me becomes black as a moonless night. The sudden sensation of being stuck on a rollercoaster that is on an infinite decline makes my stomach rise to my throat, and my heart begins to race frantically against my chest. Then without warning, as quickly as my freefall began it ends abruptly as I feel cold, damp grass picking at my skin and the sound of waves lapping against the shore replacing the deafening buzzing sound.

  Blinking my eyes, my vision slowly comes back into focus, as a dark gray night sky comes into view. I continue to blink as try to remember how to use my body that feels completely numb from head to toe. It takes every ounce of strength in me to lift my body off the ground. Finally, I get myself into an upright position, but the second I do I become lightheaded as I feel everything around me start to spin all over again.

  I rest my pounding head in the palm of my hand willing it to stop spinning. After a few deep breaths, the spinning stops and I start to feel okay enough to try and figure out where I am. I’m lying almost in the same exact spot I was a few minutes ago, but my surroundings even though they look familiar…at the same time everything is so different.

  The first being the boat dock that just a few moments ago was maybe ten feet away from me with my father’s sailboat parked alongside it. Now it’s nothing but open water.

  Voices carry across the beach startling me as I hear what sounds like a group of men talking—one with a thick Irish accent and then two more with Boston accents. Rolling onto my knees, I begin crawling over the wet grass toward a small hill of tall grass to hide behind
while I get a closer look. Ducking behind the grass, I part it with shaky hands and peer through it toward the far end of the beach where the voices are coming from.

  A small ship filled with crates is ported at a dock about twenty feet away, and the men I heard I can now see clearly in the reflection of the oil lanterns they’re dangling in front of their bodies. Two more men appear, and I watch as they carry the crates one by one down a wooden ramp onto the dock before setting them down in the back of a truck parked on the lawn a few feet away from the beach.

  Who the hell are these people?

  Better question is what the heck are they doing on my family’s property?

  Then it hits me…

  What if my family doesn’t own this beach anymore? As far as I know it’s been in our family since the 1700’s. Judging by the ship and the men on and around it, and the truck they’re loading those crates into, there’s no possible way that I’ve been sent to the future. If I had to guess, I’d say this necklace has taken me somewhere between the early 1920’s to late 1930’s. If I’m correct and I am, in fact, in the past and in the time-period of the roaring twenties or 1930’s, I can only hope that the American history I learned in high school and the course in college will help me survive here while I try to figure out why my necklace brought me here.

  I glance toward the direction of the house as I hear a door shut and a new voice appears. A familiar face appears, and I cover my mouth to silent my soft gasp. I’ve seen his face every single time I entered my grandparents’ sprawling Great Gatsby style home. Hanging above the mantel, over the massive stone fireplace in the family room, is a painting of my great grandfather, Dayton McAllister and my great grandmother Amelia O’Reily-McAllister, who married in the summer of 1922.