Strings Of Time

XIV: Part Two

Carlisle sat beside Elise and was just staring at her, "Why do you look so sad on this joyous occasion?"

The young lady noticed that he was holding up two lanterns that looked like it was handmade. She then looked down and her smile faded away, "At times like this, I miss my family... I wish they were here."

Mr. Carlisle thought long and hard and was curious. From the start, Christopher Carlisle was curious about the young lady. How could he not when the girl named Ely showed up in his life and she looked like the girl whom he loved from the past. The old man saw that Ely was in tears, he immediately gave her a handkerchief, "Here... take this."

Surely the young lady took the hanky and forced herself to smile at the old man, "Thank you, Mr. Carlisle." She wiped her tears away and just stared at the happy people.

"Where is your family?" asked the curious old man.

Elise suddenly was halted with the thought of answering the old man's question, "U-um..." she looked away as she nervously rubbed her knee, "Th-they're... not here at the moment. They're living at another state and I won't be seeing them for a while..." she then swallowed a lump in her throat as she turned her head to look at the old man.

The puzzled old man just nodded and forced himself to believe what the young lady was telling him, "I see... but... I'm sensing you're still looking for someone else. I'm not sure if it's just me or your eyes keeps scanning the faces of each person here."

Again, the young lady smiled bitterly as she looked down at the hanky that she was still holding, "There is someone..."

"Oh? Who?"

Elise chuckled and looked at the old man, "You'll be surprised if I tell you who it is."

"Let me guess, is it that pain in the ass that lives in that mansion up there?" the old man pointed at Hadleigh Hall peeking through the roofs of the buildings. The mansion looked high and mighty because of the lights surrounding the estate. It was built to show off its beautiful nobility.

The young lady grinned as she looked over at the mansion and said, "She's still a pain in the ass..."

The old man looked at his watch and said, "Oh, look, it's almost time for the festival to start." The old man stood up and handed Elise one of his homemade lanterns, "Here, take this. I made this. Some years ago, a young man flew this into the sky with a wish, he had hoped that God or someone he loved would read it. I'm still waiting for an answer." He looked at the night sky and smiled, "I hope you get your wish... or at least your questions answered." He then tipped his hat at the young lady and left.

****

The young master was still holding on at the piece of paper where Elise wrote her secret letter for her. However, it was past 7:30 pm. The festival had already started.

The young master could hear faint music of the orchestra and she could only imagine what the festival looked like. She then laid half of her body on her bed when she heard a crumple. She then reached for that thing that was on her bed and found out that it was pieces of papers that was stapled together. She crossed her browsed and wondered where it came from. Of course, the curious young master was still not able to fully see what's in front of her and so she used her hand to scan the whole page.

"Braille..." she said to herself and scanned it some more.

"So that's what she's working on..."

The young master got startled, "For God's sake, will you please knock first before you enter? Geez..." commanded the young master to the Russian housekeeper.