Wrecked

by Harmon, AJ

  Bess spent a few minutes in the bathroom freshening up before they went down to the restaurant and ordered dinner. She felt conspicuous, like everyone knew what had just happened in their room upstairs. She fiddled with her hair and with the utensils on the table and after a few minutes, Ethan placed his hand over hers and grinned.

  “Breathe,” he said.

  The next morning, after a delightful thirty-minute shower together, Bess and Ethan were ready to start their day. They checked out of the hotel and found a small café next to the river to grab coffee and a pastry for breakfast. Then it was time to find Andie.

  The drive took about thirty minutes with the insane Sunday morning traffic and Bess had road rage the entire trip, getting angrier and angrier with each delay. But when they finally parked at the cemetery across the street from an old stone church, she hesitated when Ethan opened the door for her.

  “What is it?” he asked, concern in his eyes as he crouched down next to her.

  “This suddenly feels very different, Ethan. On Friday, this was all about Andrew and helping find the closure he needs to move on from this world to wherever it is he needs to go. But now, well, it’s so much more than that.”

  “This is finding where you came from… finding your family.”

  She nodded. “Family was never important to me, for obvious reasons,” she sneered. “And now I feel like… like I really belong to… to you and to Andrew.”

  Ethan stood, pulled Bess from the car and into his embrace. After all this time, she had what she so desperately wanted – a family – roots – a future. She was going to get a happily ever after. He would make sure of it.

  They walked slowly, glancing at the grave markers and head stones. This was an old cemetery with death dates going back much further than Andie’s. There was so much history in the little plot of land that Bess was near tears by the time they came across the burial plots of Andrea and James Simons.

  Reverently, Bess knelt on the grass and placed the flowers that they’d bought earlier at a little flower stand by the café where they’d had breakfast, at the base of the headstone. Tears fell freely as she accepted her place in Andrew’s family. Ethan stoically stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders as she wept silently. Everything that had been bottled up inside her… everything she had refused to feel… every dream that she had been denied… every fear for her future came pouring out of her in tears and hushed sobs.

  For several minutes Ethan gave her the time to purge herself of the emotions that had eaten away at her for so long, and then he knelt beside her and pulled her into the safety of his loving arms as she cried some more. But these tears were not of things lost… not of hurt and pain, but of hope, acceptance, family and love. These were the happy tears of a future filled with all things good.

  The two of them spent almost an hour sitting by Andie’s grave. They talked about their future and how they both wanted to remain in Port Lincoln. It would be the ideal location to raise a family and when Ethan noted that the children he wanted to have with her would be raised in the same house that Andie had been born in, the tears flowed again.

  “There is nothing… nothing in the world that would make me happier than marrying you and making beautiful babies together.”

  “And if I can’t have babies?” Bess whispered, knowing it would be harder to conceive with only one ovary.

  “Then we will adopt beautiful babies together,” he smiled. “The point being that we will do it together. You and me, Bess. Always.”

  Later that afternoon, just before getting to the turnoff for their house, Ethan pulled off on a gravel road, following the directions of the GPS to the small cemetery where Lizzie was buried. They realized as they parked the car, that it was literally just across the highway from their house and they could have walked.

  They found her grave quickly – it was a small cemetery and Lizzie’s headstone was the largest, signifying the importance of her family in the community at the time. But as they started to read the inscription, the realization of what they’d found was not lost. It wasn’t just Lizzie buried there, but Andrew too. They had been placed next to each other as husband and wife.

  Bess placed her hand over her mouth as she knelt down on the grass. It was impossible to articulate to Ethan what she was feeling. But as he knelt beside her, she gazed into his eyes and knew that they didn’t have to say a thing – they both were experiencing the same emotions.

  They stayed there for a while, not speaking, but sensitive to the reverence that marked the moment. To be there with Andrew and Lizzie at their final resting place was surreal but also tinged with melancholy of what might have been… of a love that was cut short and a life that might have been.

  Just as they done at Andie’s grave, Ethan pulled out his phone and took some photographs, not only for them, but for Andrew. They knew he would need to see where his daughter was buried.

  After a short time, they drove across the street and pulled into the driveway of Bess’s house. It was time to tell Andrew all they had discovered.

  *****

  Andrew met them at the door.

  “Well?” he asked anxiously. “How was your trip to Boston? Did you get to do all the things you wanted to do?”

  Ethan looked at Bess and grinned. “We did,” he answered Andrew.

  “It was a wonderful trip,” agreed Bess. “But way too short.”

  “Tell me all about it?” Andrew insisted.

  “Can I put the bags down first?” Ethan laughed as he walked in the house following Bess.

  “We have some exciting stuff to show you,” Bess smiled brightly.

  “Really? Like what?” inquired Andrew.

  “Oh,” Bess relied coyly. “Just some things we found out… about Andrea.”

  “Andrea?” he exclaimed. “My Andie?”

  “Your Andie,” Ethan nodded.

  “Well, come, man! Tell me!” Andrew demanded

  “My goodness! You’d think you’d been waiting around couple of hundred years or something,” Bess teased.

  “Let’s go in the dining room and sit around the table,” Ethan suggested.

  Bess grabbed the manila folder from her bag and walked quickly to the dining room. Ethan pulled the chair out for her and she sat, with him right next to her. Andrew stood behind her looking over her shoulder. Bess just smiled.

  “She lived a long a happy life,” she told Andrew as she showed him the photos of Andie that Grace had given her. “She married a respected and wealthy man and had beautiful children.”

  “She was beautiful,” Andrew whispered as he looked at the photo of her later in life with her grandchildren seated and standing around her.

  “She was,” Bess agreed.

  “Andie moved to Boston after her mother died,” Ethan explained. “She lived with her grandfather and was well cared for.”

  “I am glad to hear that. I hope she was happy.”

  “I think she was as happy as she could be,” Bess replied. “She’d lost her mother, never knew her father, and was raised by an old man. But he loved her and she was able to have a family of her own. I’m sure because of her own childhood, she loved her children even more and made sure that they knew how much they were loved and wanted.”

  “You and Lizzie began a long line of Wentworth-Simons,” Ethan added. “From that one child you created together, you have literally thousands of descendants.” He looked right at Bess. “Would you like to see your pedigree chart?”

  “I don’t know what that is,” Andrew frowned.

  Bess pulled the folded up piece of paper from the folder and handed it to Ethan, allowing him to take charge of the conversation. He unfolded it, spreading it out on the large wooden table.

  “See here?” He pointed at the top of the page where Elizabeth’s name was and next to it was Andrew’s.

  “Yes,” Andrew nodded.

  “Right here, below you and Lizzie, is Andrea’s name. This is your child.”

  “
Yes,” Andrew nodded again.

  “And here is Andie’s husband, Simon, and here are all their children.”

  Andrew followed Ethan’s finger and nodded along as he grew to understand what he was looking at.

  “So here are all your grandchildren, and the ones that got married have their spouses’ names next to them and under that is their children. And then their children got married and have spouses and then underneath is their children, and we go all the way down to present day. All the way down here,” Ethan pointed.

  “I see,” Andrew marveled. “This is magnificent.”

  “Yes, it is,” Ethan agreed.

  “Now, if we use this pedigree chart,” Ethan said as he reached for the other chart in the folder, “we can see it go the other way, from present day all the way back to you and Lizzie.”

  “Really?” Andrew questioned. “How did you do that?”

  “Grace did it for us,” Ethan explained. “This is what she does for her job. But see here? This is what’s so amazing.” His finger ran down the paper until it stopped right under Bess’s name.

  “Hmmm,” Andrew nodded, looking at all the names on the chart.

  “Here.” Ethan encouraged Andrew to look to where he was pointing.

  “Ah. I see you Elizabeth. That’s you, correct?”

  “Yes, that’s me,” she smiled.

  “And here is her father, and his mother, and her mother and we go all that way up to here, going back many generations, and look who that is!” Ethan gasped.

  “What?” Andrew uttered in confusion. “That’s Andie and her husband… uh, what’s his name? James?”

  “Right,” Ethan acknowledged. “Bess’s great, great, great, great, double and triple great grandparents are Andie and James, by their son, William, and his wife, Rebecca.”

  “You are my daughter’s granddaughter?” Andrew whispered.

  Bess nodded meekly.

  “But that would make you…”

  “Your granddaughter,” Bess smiled, a happy tear rolling slowly down her cheek. “You are my family.”

  “You are my family,” Andrew repeated.

  “I was not one to believe in fate… or destiny… or ghosts,” Ethan chuckled. “But there is no denying that the two of you were meant to be here in this house at the same time.”

  “I knew you were special,” Andrew smiled. “I knew there was something about you.”

  “And I know why I wasn’t ever scared of you,” Bess laughed. “I mean, I should have packed my bags and run, but somehow I knew I was… safe with you.”

  “This is just wonderful!” Andrew exclaimed. “You have set me free of wondering about my little girl and given me so much more.” And then he added, “Where are the pearls?”

  “Um… on the mantle over the fireplace,” Bess recalled.

  Ethan ran through to find them, returning in just a matter of seconds with the velvet pouch in his hand. He placed them on the table.

  “They are yours now,” Andrew smiled.

  Another tear fell and then another as Bess lifted the pouch and held it lovingly in her hands. “They were your mothers.”

  “They were. And now they are yours.”

  “Andrew.”

  Bess and Ethan looked at each other, the hairs on their arms raised in awareness.

  “Andrew.”

  The voice came again and cold air cut through the room like a knife.

  “Andrew. Come.”

  His eyes were closed as he listened to his name being called. “Lizzie,” he whispered in hope.

  Appearing before them all stood a beautiful woman – young with glorious blond hair that fell in ringlets down her back. She looked remarkably like Bess.

  “It’s time for you to come with me now,” she said and took Andrew’s hand.

  He opened his eyes and looked at his love… his beautiful Lizzie. “My love,” he whispered and brought her hand to his lips. “Have you come for me?”

  “I have,” she smiled and took his other hand in hers. “You are finished here. It’s time for you to be with me now.”

  Then, in a startling surprise, Lizzie turned and said, “Thank you, Bess. Thank you for loving him and helping my love. He refused to leave our child until he was sure she was safe and you have given him the answers and the closure he needed so that he can come and join me.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Bess sputtered between tears.

  “And Andrew, thank you for loving Bess and helping her realize how important she is. She needed to learn to love herself and allow Ethan close to her so that they can find the happiness together that they deserve. Your work here is finished. They are going to be just fine.”

  Ethan reached for Bess’s hand and they held each other tightly.

  “I love you, Elizabeth,” the Captain smiled at Bess.

  “I love you, Andrew,” she replied with all the love in her heart she had for her grandfather.

  “Be happy,” Lizzie said as she looked at Ethan and then at Bess. “Love each other and treasure every moment you have together, for you never know when it will be your last.”

  And then, they were gone. Andrew and Lizzie, still clutching one another, disappeared into thin air.

  27.

  It had been two weeks since Andrew had disappeared with Lizzie. Ethan had moved back into his old home, the home he now shared with Bess. When discussing living arrangements, Ethan wanting desperately to spend every spare moment he had with Bess, she had said she felt the same but couldn’t ever imagine not living in the house where she’d met Andrew and discovered her ancestry. The house meant more to her than she could put into words. Ethan understood completely. She’d said it was where she wanted to live for the rest of her life. Ethan had smiled and happily agreed. It left his grandparents’ house empty, but it meant that Evan could come and go as he pleased. Ethan secretly hoped that when his womanizing brother finally settled down he’d end up living in the house, making the brothers next door neighbors.

  When Friday evening came, and Ethan and Bess had arrived home from work, Ethan had brought Chinese food with him, after stopping and picking up takeout on his way home, they ate on the back porch, sitting on the swing and listening to the waves crash against the rocks. The seagulls joined them, hoping for a scrap thrown in their direction.

  “This is where I first met Andrew,” Bess remembered.

  “Outside? Here?” Ethan replied.

  “Mmm, although I didn’t see him, just heard him.”

  “What did he say?” asked Ethan between mouthfuls of chow mein.

  “Stop,” Bess said quietly. “He told me to stop.”

  “Stop what?”

  “It was a bad day,” she noted sadly.

  Ethan put the box of chow mein down next to him, his chopsticks sticking straight up out of the box and turned to face Bess. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the story, but he sensed that Bess needed to tell him. “What happened?” he asked.

  “I felt so different then… so different than I do now. Now I have you,” she smiled at Ethan and he leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I belong. I have purpose and hope now. I can allow myself to dream of a future. The day Andrew spoke to me for the first time I had none of that. All I had was… well, nothing. I had nothing to look forward to. I had nothing to hope for. All I had was a past that I couldn’t rid myself of.”

  “What did you do?” Ethan hesitantly asked quietly.

  “I was walking towards the edge of the cliff. I figured it would be easy to just take one too many steps and it’d all be over,” she shrugged.

  “Oh, Bess.” Ethan was horrified.

  “But I heard him yell stop. It was as clear as if he was standing right beside me.”

  “Maybe he was,” Ethan choked, still in turmoil over hearing that Bess had considered ending her life.

  “Maybe,” she smiled. “He saved me that day.”

  “I wish I could say thank you,” Ethan murmured.

  “He knows.”

&n
bsp; “Yeah, he probably does,” he agreed. “You don’t feel like that anymore though, right?” He hoped that she would answer truthfully.

  “No,” she smiled at Ethan. “I am the complete opposite of that day. You have brought me back to… well, that’s not true. This is a new feeling for me. It’s all new. You have given me what I’ve never had. I love you.”

  “I love you, Elizabeth Marie Williams.” Ethan slid from the swing onto his knee and pulled a velvet box from his pocket. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife?” He opened the box to reveal a stunning diamond engagement ring. “This is the official proposal,” he grinned.

  “Yes!” Bess cried out. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  They both stood and clung to one another, deliriously happy in the present moment, and looking forward to a long and happy life together.

  *****

  Bess wore the pearls on her wedding day. She was the most beautiful bride the congregation gathered in the small church had ever seen. She literally glowed with love and happiness. With Regina at her side, and Evan at Ethan’s, Bess vowed to love, honor and cherish her husband. Ethan returned the vow as he gazed at the woman who had taken his breath away all those months before as she laid in a hospital bed. How far they’d come. They’d both arrived in Port Lincoln unsure of their future. But there had been a bigger picture that neither of them could see, and now they were part of it, with their eyes open and excitement for what would come next.

  The ceremony was simple and once they were pronounced husband and wife, Ethan kissed his wife with a kiss that made her knees buckle and her toes curl inside her white satin pumps. As they turned to walk back down the aisle as a married couple, they both abruptly stopped, cemented in place as they stared in awe at the back of the church. There stood the Captain, looking elegant and handsome in his full Navy uniform, a beautiful golden-haired Lizzie at his side. Their arms were intertwined and the smile on their faces needed no explanation. Next to Lizzie stood a woman that Bess knew without a doubt was Andie. She stood next to her husband, who gazed back at her with adoration, and they were surrounded by more people that instinctively Ethan and Bess knew were Andie’s and James children and grandchildren, her great, great, great, great grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.