Little Red Gem by D L Richardson Page B

normalcy in their afterlife, maybe so could
I? After I’d
found a way to communicate with Leo, of course.
    Outside on the patio,
William continued to pace back and forth. “What if your plan
succeeds, Ruby? What if you find a way to beat your curse? You’ll
leave and forget all about us.”
    “ Oh, William, we are just
having a little fun.” Anne said. “I haven’t danced in a long, long
time. And what is this talk of Ruby beating her curse and
forgetting about us? Ruby would never do that.”
    “ I’d never forget about
you,” I told her.
    The hollow words hung in
the air. Maybe they would have had the desired effect if I’d looked
her in the eye.
    “ Miss Parker,” William
chimed. “Will you join me for a stroll in the woods?”
    He was from an era where
chivalry and gallantry were commonplace. I was not. I couldn’t tell
if he was being genuine or condescending. He was definitely being
secretive.
    “ Fresh air does sound
good. Do you mind, Anne?”
    She dipped into a little
curtsey and slipped quietly into the other room.
    Strange how our footsteps
left no imprint or sound on the carpet of dried leaves and twigs.
Stranger still was when I stepped over a fallen log and William
walked right through it. I hoped I wasn’t sticking around long
enough to become too accustomed to being a ghost.
    After we’d walked twenty
feet, William stopped and reached inside his coat pocket. In his
palm sat a gold pocket watch. It had an intricately carved face,
but that was as much as I saw before he snapped shut the lid and
encased the watch with his fist.
    “ This watch was to be a
family heirloom. Do you know what this watch represents? Time,
Ruby. Or in my case the agony of having too much of it. I observed
my mother and father grow old and die. Then I watched my sister and
her children grow old and die, and then their children, and so on
until there was nobody left who remembered me.”
    Was it coincidence that
he’d stopped at the top of the embankment which I’d inadvertently
driven mom’s car into and totaled both it and me? I’d avoided this
place. It was my true gravesite, even though the cabin was where I
felt the strongest magnetic pull. I didn’t question why I felt
nothing for this spot, I was just grateful I didn’t have to spend
eternity trapped in the hollow.
    I removed the watch from
William’s hand to take a good look at it. The facing was
elaborately decorated. On the back was an inscription:
    ONE WISH AT A
TIME.
    I sighed. “If you really
believe I should give up clinging to the love I have for Leo, then
you should do likewise and get rid of this watch.”
    He snatched it from me and
slipped it back into his pocket. His voice was hard when he said,
“My curse compels me to hold on to this object.”
    “ And my curse compels me
to hold on to the love I have for Leo. My heart and soul belong to
him. If there is a way to go back, I’ll take it, no matter
what.”
    “ It is easy to ignore
consequence, yet once it seeks us out it is impossible to run from
it.” He turned his back to me and stared down the embankment. “What
if I knew a way for you to be with Leo?”
    “ Really? You know a way?
Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
    He continued to stare down
into the hollow. Was he reminiscing or doing this to avoid the
confrontation he must have seen in my eyes?
    “ It can be
dangerous”—”
    “ I don’t care. If I can be
with Leo, the risk is worth it. Tell me what to do.”
    At last he turned to face
me. “You did not let me finish. It is not dangerous for you .”
    Conveniently, I was able
to set aside any concern over hurting someone else in order to
achieve this small miracle, because I couldn’t end up trapped in
limbo watching Leo’s misery deepen until he, not I, became the
walking dead.
    “ Tell me what I have to
do.”
    William did. I hardly saw
what was so dangerous. Morally wrong, perhaps, but not
dangerous.
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     

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