Cradle Creek

Chapter 41, Hallelujah

It was mornings they spent exercising, sweating and encouraging one another side by side, the pre-dawn runs in the countryside when the sun had yet to crest the sky. It was the fact that he prayed. He prayed with her. He prayed for her. It was one hundred inconsequential things that made Alice Jane want to open up to him and bare the pieces of her shattered soul. Whatever was going on between Bitsy and Finn was unique to their relationship. Finn never questioned Alice Jane, never asked for more than she could give. Rather, he was a rock in moving water, a foundation of strength and was becoming a confidant.

Leaning back in her chair Alice Jane told Finn a similar story she had shared in a pond on the edge of town about a girl with a gilded life who loved a handsome young man. Only this time, the story had an ending instead of it being the beginning. Retelling it made it real, made it final.

At the end of the day when the sun became a distant memory, the English countryside whispered a different tune than the flat edges of Cradle Creek. Sleeping in her lavender scented bed, the placidity of that place between dreaming and almost awake, she could feel Blaise next to her. It was the oddest sensation. Her brain knew he was gone, but in this in-between, he was there with her and beside her.

It was one of those last nights, after weeks in England when she concluded her story. "We were in the middle of this great love story. The valiant prince, defying the evil king. The loving princess, sneaking off to have the illegitimate love child only to be reunited soon thereafter and live happily ever after, you know like Romeo and Juliet. Instead, it just stops. The end. Or rather, no ending. Close the book."

Finn took it all in and let the silence spill around him before he said, "Romeo and Juliet? Like the Montagues and the Capulets? Those kids?"

"Isn't that the greatest love story ever told?"

"Have you ever actually read the book?"

"High school," she quipped.

"Okay, just so we are clear: You are striving for a double suicide. Listen, just because you are halfway there does not mean you need to finish. You are comparing yourself to two people that never existed. Don't do that."

"What? NO! The love story..." she started.

He cut her off, "She pretended to die so he killed himself? That's the end. I believe that Romeo and Juliet is a much better example of the importance of effective communication. Love story? You are better off with The Scarlet Letter. At least those two were together. At least they lived and she protected the Dim Wit Dimmesdale.

"So? What? The literary world failed hopelessly in writing the greatest love story ever told?" They had stopped talking about her sad story of modern-day star crossed lovers and started debating the finer points of classic literature.

Finn turned from his chaise lounge, placed his feet on the stone ground and looked at her squarely and with full certainty.

"Yes. One hundred percent. Alice Jane, don't just listen to me. Hear my words."

She leveled her eyes on him and he took her hands, "My point is this: the greatest love story you will ever know is your own. Make it something you won't be afraid to tell."

"It's not supposed to be this way," she whispered.

"Of course it isn't. This," he waved to the abyss, "This isn't your love story. It's supposed to be better than this. Set the bar higher. Raise the stakes."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I know my own." He pulled her from her chair to his, resting her on his lap. Pulling her close, she rested her head against his chest, draping one arm around him. Quietly, he stroked her silky hair as the stars moved towards the dawn.