by Freer, Echo;
Kameran? I could hardly believe my ears. I mean Kameran was great - I really liked him as a friend but... Uh oh! Hadn’t he just told me that he’d fancied someone who only thought of him as a friend?
‘Aye,’ Quill replied, as though reading my mind. ‘There’s none so blind as them as dun’t want to see. He thinks t’world o’you, tha knows.’
‘Hey! Quill! How you doing, mate? I thought it’d turned a bit nippy.’ It was Kameran, back from his call of nature.
I turned round to face him and felt myself blushing. Whoa! This was bizarre. In the two months that I’d known him, I’d always assumed that Kameran fancied Milly. I’d never even looked at him in romantic terms, but actually, now Quill came to mention it, he was rather gorgeous.
‘So, what’s happening?’ he went on. ‘You’re not going to whisk Mimosa away again are you?’
‘Nay. ‘Tis time for me to cross over. I’ve done what needed doing.’
‘Before you go, there’s one thing that’s been baffling me,’ Kameran queried. ‘If it was your mother who put the curse on the Chapman family, why wasn’t the vendetta between the Newtons and the Chapmans? Mimosa’s explained that Josiah Proudfoot was the Riding Officer who caught you, but he didn’t put the hex on Isaac’s family, did he?’
Wow - gorgeous and a genius! Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Quill looked uncomfortable. ‘’Tis not summat I’m proud of, but Josiah Proudfoot wor my step father.’
‘Whoa! You kept that quiet,’ I said.
‘Aye, my mam married him not long after my dad died when I wor a lad. So it made it like a double betrayal when he turned on us. Not that it was intentional - he’d led t’dragoons there to arrest t’others what were going to land t’lugger at Upgang. ‘Twas only cos Dusty Miller had got drunk and fallen asleep that me, Isaac and Robert were there at all. And my mam couldn’t bear to think that her own husband could have a hand in her son’s death, so she put t’blame on Isaac.’
‘Man, that’s heavy.’ Kameran shook his head.
‘What happened to Robert?’ I asked.
‘He worked as a slave on a tobacco plantation in the Virginias for ten year and then earned his freedom. ‘E met a lass who wor a slave on t’same plantation and they started their own farm. Robert had two bairns, both lasses and died of an abscess on his tooth when ‘e wor fifty one.’
I nodded. ‘Well, at least he had some sort of life. But what about the others? What happened to Elizabeth and the baby?’
Quill smiled. ‘Elizabeth died of consumption in t’poor house but Isaac’s lad, Ruben, wor taken on as a houseboy when he wor ten. He married a flighty little kitchen maid who did the dirty on him, leaving him with their baby son to bring up on his own.’
I gasped. ‘But, presumably he died before the child could grow up, so what happened to the baby?’
Quill shook his head and grinned. ‘Nay - Ruben lived to see his grandchildren grow big and strong.’
I was confused again. ‘But what about the curse?’
Quill shrugged. ‘Like I told you - folk see what they want to see.’
‘So, are you saying there wasn’t a curse?’ Kameran asked.
Again Quill shrugged. ‘Tragedy happens to all folks, it all depends what you focus on. Joel’s family have passed down t’belief that they’re unlucky through generations. But t’truth is, they’ve had as much luck as most. Aye, ‘tis true, several menfolk have died early but there’s many as hasn’t.’
‘So, are you telling me that all that zooming about was completely pointless?’ And it wasn’t just the zooming about either - it was all the worry and stress that went with it.
‘Nay - nowt’s ever pointless - there’s learnings in everything as happens to us. A curse is in the mind of the believer and it wor necessary for you to make Joel see the truth of his life. Like I said, Joel’s future wor uncertain. He believed he wor going to die young and he probably would’ve done.’
‘You mean like a self fulfilling prophecy?’ Kameran asked.
‘Mebbe - who knows? All I know now is that Joel’s future looks rosy. And, ‘tis time for me to go.’
Just as, that night at sea, Joel’s spirit had become a shapeless vapour before it poured back into his body, so Quill’s features now began to blur and lose their definition.
‘Wait, wait!’ I called. ‘What about Jenna?’ And, amazingly enough, I didn’t feel the least bit jealous as I said her name.
I just caught the merest hint of a smile on Quill’s fading lips. ‘She’s been waiting for me, these past two hundred and fifty year. Mek sure tha dun’t wait that long to find happiness thissen.’
With that his spirit became a fine white vapour which began to spiral upwards. At that moment, a bright light appeared above us and Quill was drawn into the light. Kameran and I watched until there was no longer any trace of Quill and the light faded again.
‘Are you OK?’ Kameran asked.
I nodded. ‘Actually, I am. I thought I’d be sad to see him go, but I’m fine.’
‘You know what he said about there being learnings in everything?’ he asked, gazing out to sea. ‘What do you think your lesson has been in all this?’
I thought for a moment. Wow - there were so many! ‘Well, I’ve learned not to try and fix things for other people - big time!’ I laughed. ‘And I suppose I’ve learned that I’ve got a gift and I should use it wisely. What about you?’
Kameran took a deep breath. ‘I’ve learned to grab happiness while I can.’ He slipped his hand in mine. ‘Because even with a crystal ball, we never know what’s round the corner.’
I felt a tingle of excitement in my tummy.
‘Cool,’ I smiled, leaving my hand where it was and giving Kameran’s a little squeeze.
So there you have it! That’s why I don’t want to call this a happy ending - because I don’t know whether the ending will be happy or not. All I know is that right now, this is a very happy beginning!
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