After Forever Ends

“Thank you,” I told her as she thrust it into my hand, “I don’t know what to say!”

She gri

“She’s an angel,” Oliver gri

“You really do fancy her, don’t you?” I asked him seriously. He didn’t respond, but kept looking at the school. I slit open the envelope with my finger and opened it, drawing out the card, “Oh my!”

“What is it?”

“Remember when she said that what she doesn’t see herself someone always tells her?”

“Yep.”

“It’s a certificate for lumber from a yard from the staff, like she said. Wow, a lot of them signed the card! And there’s a business card with a note. Oh, my goodness!”

“What?”

“Professor Walker’s son’s a bloody plumber and he’ll do the house at a discount!” I gri

“Yeah, he’s sweet on you. Lots of blokes are, even the Profs. Dirty minded old buzzard he is, if you ask me. You probably didn’t even need to take an exam in his class to pass, yeah?” Oliver turned to me, and then looked back at the school with a deep, longing sigh, “I understand that completely, believe me. You bring that out in a man. But I do know now what I would have done if you hadn’t come to Be

“No,” I put my arm through his, “Because I’d have had an urge to come to Wales first and I’d have beamed you in the back of a head with a rubber ball. You’d have had no choice but to abandon your feelings for her and run away with me.”

“You know what? You’re right.”

“I’m always right.”

Oliver laughed and pulled me to his side, “That’s why I married you!”

CHAPTER TEN

The train is coming to a stop. I am suddenly snapped back into the moment and glance away from the window. I had not been aware I had been staring out of it at all. Kitty has one hand on her chin, leaning forward with her elbow on the table, and the other wrapped around a can of cola.

“She was the one you called my mother after, wasn’t she? Your headmistress?”

I nod. “She was a kind lady. She was one of those people who come into your life for a short time, but leave a profound effect on your soul.”

“She was a romantic, no doubt.”

“It was your granddad she shined on more than me. If she were thirty years younger, I’d have had some competition because he was right stuck on her. But she looked after Alexander, too. She was firm with him, but she protected him. Madame Pe

“That’s very sad,” Kitty says sincerely.

“Losing a child is the worst thing you can imagine, Kitty. It’s a nightmare you live with every day for the rest of your life. Even if the child dies before you got the chance to bond with it, every once in a while you’ll wake up thinking of it in the night.” I stop speaking and press my fingers against my temples. I don’t want the conversation to go where it’s heading and so I make sure I return to the former subject, “When I found out Madame Pe

Kitty watches a few people pass by heading for the exit doors.

“Are we getting off here?” I ask. I’m confused for a second and then embarrassed when I realize we’re not stopped at Welshpool Station. I’ve been to Welshpool Station a million times. I hope Kitty doesn’t think anything of it.

It’s obvious she doesn’t realize I’ve just had a lost moment. “No, Gran. Not yet.”

“Am I talking too much? I’m losing track of what I’m saying,” I rub my forehead. I have a slight headache, “I’m getting old. I think I just blabber on. I don’t know what I’ve told you. I hope I haven’t embarrassed you.”

“No,” She answers in the same voice, “I love that you’re telling me. It makes me feel special that you’d share it with me.”

“Sometimes I think parents consider their children’s history to be part of theirs…like a continuation. And they think of their grandchildren as perpetual infants. I think we forget that when it comes down to it we are all a shadow of those who follow. You should know you shadow. How old are you now, Dear?”

“I’ll be thirty-three in September.”

“You don’t look a day over twenty.”

She laughs, “I wish!” Then she smiles at a vendor and helps a little girl pass between chairs. “Do you want to tell me more?”

“I think I can go on,” I absently fiddle with my wedding ring. I have never taken it off in all the years I’ve had it longer than to wash a dish or have a bath. “Where was I?”

“You left Be

“OK, OK. We left Be

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It had been four years since we’d left Be