If I'm not allowed to return with Louise, then the last thing I could do was see her off. "How the hell are we going to haul two caskets all the way to our troops," inquires Barry.
"Don't worry boys." Beatrice looks between the three of us. "I've already got that covered." The woman nods with a stern expression. An uncomfortable draft settles among us as I silently twiddle my thumbs waiting for Bea to explain.
"Well, we're waiting..." Barry spits out with an impatient tone. "What's your plan ma'am?" I can't help but feel as impatient as my arch enemy.What's her plan? "Do you trust me as much as the others do?" Beatrice grimaces up at Barry. "Do I have a choice?"
"You're seriously making me regret trusting you," scowls Barry looking over at the two empty coffins that lay side by side in a wooden cart. Beatrice gives him an angry mother look. "Respectfully, ma'am." Barry bows down his head.
Two of the most striking raven horses that I've ever laid eyes on stand restlessly waiting to pull us.
"My friend has already punctured tiny holes into the side of the coffins so we are ready to go." I circle the coffins, carefully surveying the wooden death cages.
"I don't know about this, Mrs. Beatrice." Of course I'm hesitant. I mean this is one of my worst nightmares brought to life.
"Are you claustrophobic Joseph?" Beatrice eyes me concerningly. I am in fact very claustrophobic.
"No, I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'm good," I stutter nervously.
"Good, because you don't have another option. Face sketches of you and Louise have already been hung up everywhere in this proximity." With tingling apprehension, I comply.
"Let's get this on the road?" Hartley, who's been holding an unconscious Louise, hurries through the back alley of Beatrice's apartment. With my help, we lifted her into the coffin.
Beatrice lifts herself up on the large ledge of the cart looking down at Louise. It almost feels like she's already dead. I can barely look at her right now with her pending condition.
"You're going to be alright Lou Lou! I'll see you soon, I promise," cries Beatrice, squeezing her hand. "Take care of her boy's," But Beatrice's eyes remain on mine. I nod at her slowly knowing she was talking to me alone.
Before I can step up onto the back of the cart, Hartley's arms fly around my neck. I'm taken back by his extreme intimacy.
"Good luck Joseph. Everything will turn up fine. Just watch over yourself for me." His arms are around me a bit longer than I feel comfortable with. "I know, thanks pal. I'll see you soon. Just hang on," I say, awkwardly patting his back. Before Hartley settles himself in front of the reins he says goodbye to Beatrice.
"I guess that confirmed my suspicions." Barry closes the casket door to Louise's. I have to look away to avoid hurling.
"What suspicions?" I gag out. I don't feel good. Maybe we should've thought of a better plan. I mean what if Louise accidentally suffocates or dies from whatever sickness she's caught? I step into the casket. At least there's some cushion for my body.
"My suspicions are that Louise's romantic feelings for you are almost as passionate as the one's her cousin has for you." Then without a chance to respond, the casket closes, locking me in almost complete darkness.
I try to peek through the holes a few times to see where we are but the back of the cart where Louise and I are blocked from view. It's a nice warm spring afternoon but the breeze can hardly be felt in the musky coffin. Is it April still or is it May now? I've been traveling for so long it's like time doesn't exist anymore.
Dried blood covered the bottom of each of my white sleeves. I had used them to try and stop the blood from pouring out of Louise's ears. Not wanting to have any memory on my clothes from this morning , I attempted to scrape it off with the thin fabric of my suspenders. After failing to barely get any of it off, I give up.
My time with Louise is almost over and I can't help but think that if she does wake up, what's the last thing I should say to her? I love you? No, I can't. It'd be even worse if I told her when there's a chance I might not even see her again.
I hadn't thought about it before but how was I going to make it back to my family on my own? Italy was now a forign place to me. War and destruction corrupted it's land.
Home wasn't home unless I was with the people I cared about most in the world.
Glancing to the left, I squint to see inside Louise's casket. Our prison boxes were pushed almost against each other. There she layed, almost looking lifeless.
I decide to settle back listening to the hoofs of the horses stomp. I had no idea how far we'd go to meet up with the army that Hartley and Barry had contacted. I suspected since Milan is the closest thing to France, we'd go where we first started our journey.
We do get stopped a few times on the way but Hartley's Italian practice has paid off.
"Joseph," a voice squeaks out not a second later. "Louise?" My voice cracks from the lack of speaking. "Joseph, you need to stay quiet!" Barry shushes me. Maybe I'm just hearing things.
Looking through the hole that overlooks Louise, I see that she's indeed awake. Her eyes blink quickly with confusion as they take in her coffin. Her breathing is erratic as she tries to push up on the coffin. "Louise, it's alright, don't panic," I whisper calmly to her through the tiny hole.
"Joseph? What's happening," Louise observed, poking an eye through the hole. "Louise?" I hear Barry's voice. The cart halts and Barry opens Louise's casket door. Hartley opens mine and when our eyes connect, I awkwardly look away.
It shouldn't feel weird but it does. I never caught on to Hartley's feelings for me. Not the romantic ones. It's very rare to hear of it but it's not what first came to my mind. No matter what, we're still friends. That's not going to change. He has been by my side since we first met.
Louise's body remains glued to the cushion of the casket. "Are you okay?" I peer over Louise. "What's happening? Why are we in caskets?"
"Beatrice had to get us out of Milan without being spotted. We're wanted now." I helped her out of the coffin. She's weak but a lot stronger than before. Hartley hands Louise some water and she chugs all of it down in one gulp.
"So, we're Bonnie and Clyde now?" I chuckle at her analogy. "I'm afraid so."
"Minus the killing and all of the stealing," We all laugh. I even get a genuine smile out of Barry.
"I must be dead. At least I thought so back there." Louise takes a look at our surroundings. The fields, mountains, trees and the fluorescent sunlight cracking through, would be my best guess of what heaven looks like.
"I'm glad you're not," Is all I say.
"What about Beatrice?" Louise looks over to me with sadness. "Is she meeting us somewhere?" The others look down in silence. Louise is smart enough to know the answer but I still answer, "Beatrice had to stay behind but she said that she'll see you soon." Louise holds my gaze for a few seconds as if she's trying to interrupt if what Beatrice said is true.
Since we're close to France's borders, Hartley announces that he thinks it's fine to sit out on the back of the cart. As we stroll on, I hand Louise nonno's bag.
"Why are you giving me this?" She sets the bag on her lap. "For you." Louise's eyes study me. "The diamond is in there of course." We sit side by side on the cart. "Don't you need everything in here?" Louise opens up the grey bag. "There's a gun in here for heaven's sake," she whispers, shutting the bag. "And food," I chime in.
"You don't need it for the ride back?" I shake my head. I would rather she have it for herself then me. Who knows what will happen after we depart. She's the sole reason why I'm alive and why I haven't given up yet.
"Mr. Clyde Barrow, I do not indeed need a gun for my trip home," smirks Louise. Her face is still very pale and weak looking.
"But I will take some of this food," Louise snatches up a few figs that nonna packed.
"You know in the bible figs symbolize good health and new life," I tell her as she sinks her teeth into the fruit. "So these suckers are going to heal my hearing?"
"No promises there," I shrug. Louise sets the bag between us. "A new life is something to be hopeful in." Suddenly I feel Louie's head fall to my shoulder. "I- how can you be hopeful in a new life when you don't have your family in it? Even if not all of them treat you the way you deserve to be treated," I ask solemnly.
How will pa react when Louise goes to tell them that I faked my death to survive and keep him and the rest of my family safe? He'll probably just say I'm saving my own skin. It's very pa of him to say that. He doesn't matter to me anymore. George and ma are all that I care about. I did this for them and I won't let anything I've achieved be wasted.
"Lately, I've been thinking about this one meaningful story about Beatrice and her own parents," Louise pauses. "They never got along and never approved of this painter that she had fallen in love with." I smile to myself thinking about the story she'd told me about her husband when we were on the train.
"Beatrice's parents yelled at her because she wouldn't marry a wealthy man they had arranged for her." She didn't tell me that part of the story.
"What happened next?" "Well, in the end she married him and had six children with him. Her parents barely talked to her after that because they lived the rest of their lives in poverty. That's why she moved to America so she could work and have a better life for her and her family." Beatrice is so much more complicated than I realized. She's a fascinating woman with mysteries laced in her eyes.
"Wouldn't she miss her parents if she moved?" I answer with hope she mended her relationship with her parents.
"She told me that not everyone in your family is going to love you the way that you want them to. Bea told me that you're only truly happy when you surround yourself with people who treat you how you deserve. Blood or not. They'd do anything for you. The people who really care about you would go From Dusk Till Dawn for you." Those last words catch my attention.
"From dusk till dawn?" I quickly look down at her. Sun beams at Louise almost blinding her. Yet she stares straight ahead with a bright grin. Her head still remains on my shoulder. She's truly a work of art.
"Yeah, I always thought of it as more of a metaphor than some random story. Like how one would stick around, regardless of the troubling conditions. The two people were both in darkness, dusk and then the two people helped each other overcome it together until they both made it out to dawn."
"Into the light," I hear myself say. This conversation with Louise makes me reflect on mine with Elenora. How she was talking about how I wasn't the only one sinking through the darkness alone.
Finally letting my head fall against Louise's I close my eyes accepting my new lit candle in my vanishing darkness.
~ ~ ~
Chapter posted: 9/12/2021
Finally dropped the book title name and it's meaning. What'd yall think about the meaning? From Dusk Till dawn only has a few chapters remaining and I'm already going through withdrawals. I've been writing these characters for almost three years now and I'm kinda attached to them lol. It's going to be hard to move on and write something new but I'm excited because I have a lot of ideas.
Until next time. . .