by ML Gardner
“Aye. You'll never be happy if you let a ghost stand between you and Gordon.”
Claire nodded, tears threatening again. Maura smiled a mischievous grin as she moved to the door, patting Jac on the back.
“Did I tell you I ran into Gordon earlier this afternoon? While he was readying himself for the wedding, I mean.”
“No, you didn't,” Claire said, grateful to move off the topic of Aryl's ghost.
“Aye. He was in the bathroom, and being in a fluster and flurry such as I was, I burst right in.” She glanced back at Claire over her shoulder. “I think you'll be quite pleased, Miss Claire,” she said with a wry grin. Claire's mouth dropped open and hot blood flooded her cheeks in ruddy patches.
“Maura!”
Maura giggled as she stepped out of the room. She poked her head back in. “Quite pleased.”
Claire held her smile for several moments after Maura left. Turning back to the window, she watched the small crowd as they mingled and made last minute arrangements. Her eyes settled on Caleb, who for the first time looked happy as he greeted guests. She couldn’t help but think this was ending a painful chapter for him as well. Maybe now he could put down the guilt of surviving and move on with his life, with her and Jac cared for.
Arianna bustled around, fussing over details, playing the perfect overbearing party organizer. Claire smiled, watching her walk over to Savrene and Samuel, and hand them a cookie. In the chaos of the day, Caleb had driven a stake in the ground and tied the newly walking toddlers by a length of twine around the waist, so they had about twenty feet of freedom, but couldn’t get lost in the commotion. Arianna had thrown a fit, yelling at Caleb for tying her babies up like dogs, but she soon saw the wisdom in it after he silently released them, and she was overwhelmed trying to keep track of both of them, organize the wedding and reception details, all while largely pregnant with their third child.
Her eyes rested on her bridegroom, standing in a circle of the men giving congratulatory handshakes and backslaps. He was a good man and would make a good husband. She was sure that Aryl would approve of someone as kind and gentle as Gordon, raising their son in his absence.
And he is handsome, she thought with a grin. He was dashing in his borrowed tuxedo. She had always been grateful that he looked so opposite of Aryl.
She watched Arianna’s babies with a smile. Savrene pushed a wobbly Samuel over on his side and yanked his cookie from his chubby fist. Samuel came up screaming and swinging and took it back. Caleb skipped over to quell the fight. He bent over and picked up Savrene, moving her away from Samuel, who was nibbling his cookie with tear stained cheeks, scowling at his sister. Savrene howled in protest, and the whole crowd hushed suddenly.
It was an eerie silence, the toddlers piercing cry filled the side yard. Claire watched Caleb as he tried to soothe Savrene. He started to stand, and something caught his eye and demanded his attention. His face was that of shock, and he sat back down hard next to his daughter, staring.
Aunt Mildred, Claire thought as she closed her eyes.
Aunt Mildred was slightly touched in the head and always doing things that shocked and appalled. Like the time she wore her undergarments over her clothes. She also liked to make dyes out of berries to dye her blond hair colors God never intended to grace the tops of human heads. The last time Claire had seen her, it was as purple as a grape. As it was, she missed her train twice and Jonathan had been dispatched to fetch her from the train station at the last minute. She could see the corner of his old model T from the window.
They would be coming for her soon to begin. It was nearly sunset, the overbearing summer heat of the day was waning. Scanning the crowd, all faced toward Jonathan's truck, she saw Gordon take two steps back with a very unreadable expression. Maura crossed herself.
Gracious. Aunt Mildred must be quite the sight today. She thought with a shake of the head. She sat herself back down in front of the mirror to make last minute adjustments.
It won’t be as hard as I thought, she thought with gratitude, between Maura's distracting comment and Aunt Mildred's wild antics, I'll be through it in no time.
“Come in,” Claire called to the soft knock at the door. The door creaked open slowly and Jonathan stood in the doorway.
“Claire, I'm sorry.” His voice broke, and he cleared his throat.
“Jon, I'm used to it. Aunt Mildred is…special. It's okay.” She smiled.
“Not that,” he said. His eyes were brimming to the edge with tears and Claire tried to read his face, beginning to become concerned.
“I'm sorry it took me so long.”
“It's not even sunset.” She smiled. “It's fine.”
Jonathan shook his head and could no longer see her, only a blurred cream-colored image, the blonde hair piled on her head looked fuzzy, resembling a halo.
“I'm sorry it took me so long to find him,” he whispered again, and stepped aside. Aryl, shaggy, disheveled and desperately thin, stood at the threshold of her door.
Claire's face froze, instantly drained of blood. Then she gasped, and fainted dead away.
“Grab her!” Jonathan yelled as Aryl lunged forward. Catching her head just before it struck the floor; he sat down quickly, cradling it in his lap. He stayed silent for a long time, just staring.
“I can't imagine what a shock that must have been.” He pushed the hair off her forehead.
“She'll be okay.”
“I wasn't counting on this. I didn't think she'd faint.”
“You didn't exactly have a whole lot of time to think about it.”
Jonathan quickly wiped at his eyes.
“She's going to want to know where I've been.”
“We all do, Aryl. But there's time for that. You're home now.” He bent down and put a hand on his shoulder, nearly laughing at the touch. “You're skinny as hell but I can't tell you how glad I am to see you.”
Aryl looked up. “I'm glad to see you, too. Where's Caleb?”
“Right here,” Caleb whispered from the door. He stared for a long moment before he found his voice again. “You have no idea how confused everyone is down there. I came up to see if I was seeing things.” He walked closer. “But it's really you.”
Aryl nodded with a smile. “You look good, Caleb.”
He turned and leaned on the door jamb. “Jesus Christ,” he whispered. “Back from the dead. How in the hell...” He turned to Aryl again, who was concentrating on Claire's face.
“How, Aryl? One minute you were there and the next you were gone and now here you are! You drowned! We searched for days! What the hell is going on! Would someone please tell me that?!”
Jonathan stood up and steadied a wild-eyed Caleb.
“There's time for all that, Caleb. And it doesn't matter. He's back now!”
“The hell it doesn't matter!” He shoved Jonathan and stormed out.
Jonathan thought about going after him. Instead he sat down. “I'm sorry. People are going to react differently. You have to be prepared for that.”
“I know how Caleb is.” He smiled. “I'll talk to him later. Right now I'm only concerned with how she reacts.” He started picking the sprigs of baby's breath out of her hair. “Looks like she moved on. Ready to get married.” He swallowed hard. “Nice guy?”
“Obviously she's not getting married now, Aryl. She's going to be so happy.” He stopped and cleared his throat.
Aryl looked up at the window gleaming with the early rays of a brilliant sunset.
“But she would have. Talk about being just in the nick of time.”
“It wouldn't have mattered if you were five minutes late. You're her husband and you’re alive.”
With those words Jonathan sucked in a breath. “Oh, my God. Your parents. Someone has to go get your parents. Your mother's been labeled crazy you know.”
“Was it that hard on her?”
“No. I mean, yes, it was, but she never accepted it. She has been running around telling everyone you're alive for months
now.”
“How'd she know?”
“A fortune teller in town had her believing it. We all figured she was stringing her along for money. No one would have ever guessed it was true.”
Claire took a long breath in through her nose and stirred. Aryl turned to Jonathan. “Will you go get my folks?”
“Are you sure? We don't know how she's going to react.”
Aryl looked back down at Claire, excited and nervous. “I'm sure. I want to do this alone.”
Reluctantly, Jonathan closed the door softly behind him.
Claire opened her eyes. She didn't scream or weep or even scarcely breathe. She just stared. She'd seen him in dreams like this, where he didn't move and neither did she. When she did, he disappeared. But this time, he smiled. And stayed. Slowly she lifted her hand toward his face. She stopped.
“If I'm dreaming, I don't want to wake up,” she whispered.
He put his hand over hers and pressed it to his face.
“You're not dreaming.”
Her eyes filled with tears, her face contorted with emotion and she reached for him. Hugging him close, she sobbed. So did he.
∞∞∞
Jonathan was swarmed as soon as he stepped outside. Maura stepped up demanding the first question.
“It's him?”
“It is.” He smiled.
“How?”
Jonathan waved over a man who had ridden in behind them. He sat in Vincent’s car, smoking a cigarette.
“This is detective Sloan. He was the one who really tracked Aryl down.”
A firestorm of questions assaulted the detective as he walked up. He was tall and thin with squinty eyes. He stubbed out his cigarette and smiled, ignoring them all. Then he reached for Jonathan's hand.
“I'm glad this was a happy ending for you,” he said. “They aren't always.”
“Thank you. But we were hoping you could fill us in on how all this came about? How did you know to look for Aryl when the rest of us thought he was dead? Where did you find him? How did you find him?”
The detective fished in his breast pocket and pulled out a small notebook. “While we were sailing from Paris, I recounted the whole crazy thing. I'd love to stay, but see, I've decided to retire. I'm ending my career on a good note. And I'm gonna take my wife on a vacation. I'd really like to get home and tell her.”
Jonathan took the notebook. “This explains it?”
“It explains everything.” He smiled. “You folks take care.” He tipped his hat and slipped through the crowd back to the car.
Suddenly everyone surged on Jonathan.
“Whoa! Hold on!” He held the booklet high in the air. “Look, I think we need to hear it from Aryl first. Let's give him a chance to talk, okay? Then we'll read this. There are more important things to deal with. Now, where's Gordon?”
“He's gone,” Maura said. “He took one look at Aryl and left.” She looked around and nodded, volunteering herself. “I'll go to him.”
“Thank you, Maura,” Jonathan said.
“Can I go with you, Auntie?” Tarin asked anxiously.
“Yes, you can. Arianna, will you take Jac?”
She had Samuel on one hip, Savrene hugging her leg and took the baby in her left arm. Her stomach bulged in the middle.
“Some women wear jewelry. I wear babies,” she huffed.
“I need to go get Aryl's parents,” Jonathan said. “Has anyone seen Caleb?” Everyone looked around. No one had. “He was upstairs with me a minute ago. Arianna, have you seen him?”
“No. Last I saw he was headed inside to see if it really was Aryl.” She glanced at the house and a shadow crossed her face. “Check the barn.”
∞∞∞
When Claire's sobs died down to a whimper she pulled back and pressed her forehead to his.
“I've had dreams that were almost this real,” she said, gasping. “I'm so scared if I open my eyes you'll disappear.”
“I won't. I promise.”
Slowly she opened them and studied his face.
“I'm sure you have a lot of questions,” he said, holding her close.
“Not right now. Not yet,” she said and kissed him.
∞∞∞
Jonathan walked into the barn and pushed open the door to a stall. “Caleb, what the hell are you doing?”
He had already begun to work his way down a bottle in a short amount of time.
“Leave me alone.”
“I need you to go with me to get Aryl's parents.”
“And I need you to go to hell!”
Jonathan stared at him for a moment.
“Caleb.”
“Shut up, Jon. Just shut up.”
“Why the hell are you mad at me? Why are you mad at all? Aryl's back! Aryl's alive and—”
“And nothing else matters, right?”
“Right.”
Caleb yelled and hurled the bottle at Jonathan, narrowly missing his head. It exploded on the wall behind him.
“Hey!”
“Nothing else matters! You don't know what I went through! You don't know how badly I wanted to die after he died! I was alone out there, Jonathan. You weren't there. I was all alone in that ocean thinking my best friend just died right in front of me and I wasn't strong enough to save him! I nearly drank myself to death trying to forget that! And then I get it together and sober up. Start being the family man and going through the motions. And everyone's happy. And I even start to think I might be able to be happy again, one day. Then he shows up. He shows up alive! No, Jonathan, it does matter where he's been. He owes me that! He disappeared right before my eyes, and then shows up and he needs to explain to me how that happened!” He turned away and reached for another bottle.
“I know you suffered, Caleb. I can't imagine what it was like that night. And I can't imagine what you've had to go through every single day. I know Aryl will explain where he's been. But you've got to give him time to reunite with Claire. He has a son he's never even seen. Give him time to adjust. I promise, he'll sit down with us and tell us everything we need to know.”
Caleb stared at the bottle in his hand, debate raging inside him. Finally, he nodded reluctantly with a clenched jaw.
∞∞∞
Claire broke suddenly from a desperate, greedy kiss. She wanted more—much more—but now that she knew he was real, had felt and tasted him, she had to know.
“Where’ve you been?” she whispered. “All this time, where’ve you been?”
“I’ve been lost.”
“Lost? Lost where? Why didn’t you try to come home?”
“I did. When I remembered where home was.”
“Are you saying you forgot where home was?”
Aryl moved away just enough to sit up. He crossed his legs and leaned his elbows on them, taking a deep breath before speaking.
“Worse than that. I forgot who I was. I remember it all now, but I didn’t then. Not until recently. The explosion on the boat. Caleb bobbing around, screaming my name…and then a wave hit me. Knocked me under and I remember feeling something slam against my head. Debris from the boat, most likely.” He looked away and squinted. “It’s all really a blur. When I could finally think clearly, I was on a ship and then wandering the streets.”
“And you didn’t know who you were?”
“I didn’t know anything but pain. I was so cut up and bruised and my head felt like it’d been split open. I didn’t care about anything; who I was, where I belonged, or how I ended up on a dirty trading ship, I just wanted the pain to stop.”
Claire’s brow furrowed. “I hate to think of you in pain.” She reached out and touched his face.
“They had medicine and gave me quite a bit of it. I slept most of the journey.”
“Journey where?”
There was a knock at the door. Claire debated calling whoever it was in. She wanted this to last forever, this time with him so close.
“It’s Arianna. I’ve got Jac.”
Claire’s
eyes lit up and she grabbed Aryl’s hands. “Do you remember the last trip we took to the lighthouse?”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“Do you remember what I told you that you already knew because of your nosy mother?”
“That you were going to have a baby.”
“He’s right out there. Do you want to meet your son?”
“Son?” he whispered. “Yes, I do.”
Claire called Arianna in. She was all smiles as she knelt down beside them and carefully handed Jac to Claire.
“He looks just like you, Aryl.”
His eyes followed the baby, staring with wonder. “How old is he?”
“Three months.”
“He’s so small.” He reached out and stroked one finger along his downy head.
“His name is Jack?”
“Jac. There’s no K. I named him after Jonathan, you and Caleb. Since you didn’t have any friends whose names started with K, it just stayed Jac.”
“I never would have thought to do that,” he said.
“Do you like it?”
He smiled. “I do.”
“Jonathan and Caleb helped deliver him, you know.”
His eyebrows went up. “They did?”
“There was a fierce storm and no one could get to the midwife and even if they had, there were four babies born that night. She was very busy. So, Maura was there, Tarin managed to get Jonathan and Caleb, thinking they could get to the midwife. They couldn’t and so, we had to make do with what we had. I thought it was only right to name him after all of you.”
“You did good,” he said, looking over the baby. “Can I hold him?”
“Of course.” She placed him in his arms and adjusted the blanket to cover his little feet.
“He’s so beautiful.”
“Wait till he wakes up. His eyes are so much like yours. It was hard to look at them sometimes.” She choked up a little and cleared her throat, smiling through misty eyes.
∞∞∞
It was well past dark when Aryl came down the stairs holding Jac, Claire clinging to his side. He also still held his bag, keeping it very close. The whole room went silent. No one breathed.