‘It’ll be on its way, surely - and he has got all his stuff.’
‘Yes, but he can’t move in; he hasn’t paid for the house.’
So he had to go and sit with his friends in their van. They were still sitting there two hours later, when my solicitor phoned to say it was most unlikely to happen.
‘I don’t think the house wants me to leave,’ I told Joanna. ‘Maybe I’ve made the wrong decision. Maybe I shouldn’t be moving at all.’
‘No, I’m sure it is the right decision,’ she replied. ‘And it will happen, don’t worry. But maybe not today.’
‘I suppose we could sleep here another night, could we? Or go over to Dan’s? Oh, but then we’d have to come back.’
‘Hmm, how about we go for a walk and have a bit of think? I wouldn’t mind a trip to the churchyard.’
‘The churchyard? We could do, I suppose.’
‘Shall we take Bill?’
‘No, I don’t think so, Jo. It’s too wet.’
‘It’s only drizzle. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Dorothy’s grave.’
‘Didn’t I take you there before?’
‘Yes, but that was ages ago. Come on. We can get something to eat on our way back.’
As I reached for my coat, she reached for the jar, labelled, ‘BILL.’
‘Oh, I’m really not sure,’ I said as she opened her bag.
‘Why not see how you feel when you get there? You don’t have to. Why not play it by ear and see how you feel?’
When I got there, I felt dreadful. I knew Dorothy wasn’t there anymore. She was long gone. Promoted, probably. What was the point of leaving Bill on an empty grave? Anyway, I couldn’t unscrew the lid.
‘He’s staying put,’ I said firmly; but no sooner had I said this than a light went on in my head: ‘Oh. Jo. He was: man-who-does-not-put-his-foot-forward-in-a-hurry.’
She nodded, ‘I think that suits him very well.’
‘He never went very far afield, did he? Apart from the annual trip to Scotland with his students. He wasn’t much of a traveller, was he?’
‘Not really.’
‘Mind you, we did have a trip to Whitby once. That was when he poisoned me with his cooking!’
‘Yes, I remember that.’
‘I nearly died.’
‘You were certainly very ill.’
‘Oh, but we did have a week in France. We stayed in a Presbytery. But could I get him out of doors? Not likely. Except to a café. Oh, but then one night, I can see it now. He brought me out into the garden and took my hand. Look, he said, and pointed skyward. And there it was, the Milky Way. We saw it together, the Milky Way. Yes, we did.’
‘Time to let him go now, Gwen,’ she said after a while.
This time the lid came off easily. Kneeling down, I made a little dent in the earth, and patted him in. As I stepped off the grave, my mobile rang: the money had arrived. I would be able to move after all.
‘I should think that was probably Dorothy’s doing,’ said Jo, slipping her arm inside mine as we wandered off. And for the first time in quite a while, I actually felt like smiling. ‘Yes,’ I said, glancing over my shoulder at the headstone. ‘Yes, I should think it was.’
That evening, in my brother’s cottage, I sat before the log-burning stove, and cast a final horoscope. Sagittarius rises and Mercury culminates. A Philosopher takes flight and a story sees the light of day.
*************
ASTROLOGICAL DATA
All charts calculated for Oxford, UK.
Further information www.ToYoutheStars.co.uk
Neptune: 24/7/1999. 9.01 p.m.
Pluto: 22/9/1999. 5.37 p.m.
Saturn: 28/9 1999. 3.30 p.m.
The Sun: 29/9/1999. 5.07 p.m.
The Moon: Phonecall: 31/10 1999. 7.48 p.m.
Venus Phosphorus: 8/7/2000. 7.58 p.m.
Mars: 6/8/2000. 12.30 p.m.
Mercury: Horary Chart: 10/9/2000. 3.30 a.m.
Uranus: 19/9/ 2000. 4.50 p.m.
Urania: August 6th, 1900 (Time unknown but I had a hunch for about 9.15 a.m.)
Jupiter: Phonecall: 11/10/2000. 4.16. p.m.
Chiron: Drama Lesson: 11/7/2001. 3.01 p.m.
Venus Hesperus: 28/10/ 2001. 4.15 a.m.
Epilogue: 3/10/ 2013. 2.25 p.m.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To You the Stars is a semi-autobiographical novel based on my research into the life of Dorothy Browning, so I should start by thanking Dorothy for inspiring me while giving equal thanks to my lifelong friend, the writer, Jan Page, without whose encouragement and editorial skills this book would never have seen the light of day.
I would also like to thank Birte Milne and Brenda Page for proof-reading; Emma Jackson Erhard for marketing; Glynis Price, David Kendall, Abigail Hopkins and Hester Ruoff for their contributions to the promotional video, and especially my daughter, Eleanor, for her support and help with research, reading various drafts and filming.
Finally I would like to thank the Pleasant Ladies' Astrology Group for their input and friendship; and last but definitely not least, my 'sparring partner,' the late Bob Hargrave of Balliol College, who gave me the all-important advice that I must let the astrology drive the plot, and the very great gift of understanding.
Wendy Cartwright, 2015.
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To You The Stars Page 17