Destiny of my Heart!
By Sharon Holtz
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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And so Catherine and Vincent stepped up, and joined in the
lively conversation with Devin, Pascal, and Rebecca, and after
they were welcomed into the fold, Vincent filled their goblets with
the cider. As he handed Catherine her cup, he glanced toward his
brother to offer him a refill, and he noticed an introspective look
settle upon Devin’s face. He continued to watch as Devin scanned
the hall, and in wondering what his brother could be thinking,
Vincent asked him, “Is this how you remembered it to be?”
Because Devin was deep in thought, remembering times gone
by, he needed to ask Vincent to repeat his question, and so he
asked, “What was that?”
With a splay of his hand, Vincent looked about the hall, and
asked again, “I wondered if the Christmas Eve celebration tonight
is how you remembered it to be.”
With a nod, Devin smiled and said, “Oh yeah, and so much more.
All the outlying dwellers are here, and helpers from above…gees
there’s a lot of them, and they have all chosen to spend Christmas
Eve here…with us, instead of above…Amazing.
Incredulously, Devin then added, “You know I never gave our
helpers that much thought when we were kids, I mean I just
thought they were an extended part of us…which they are, but
tonight…I don’t know, I am suddenly aware of the double life
they must lead, and all the sacrifice involved in aiding this world.”
In agreement, Rebecca said, “Yes…its pretty astounding what
some of our helpers do for us.
Pascal added, “Just keeping our secret, has got to be a
challenge, I mean not to tell anyone about our world…that must
get tough sometimes.”
To which Catherine joined in saying, “Yes it must…Poor
Peter…when we didn’t hear from him for a span of time, we
would worry, and Dad and I would question where he had been, or
why he was so scarce at times…and he never once hinted to your
world’s existence. Just to think all those times we were missing
him…he was here.”
In validating Catherine’s view point, Rebecca said, “Yes…for
as far back as I can remember, Peter has been here for us…”
Rebecca then smiled as she continued speaking of good ole’
doctor Peter, and then shared, “I don’t know what made me think
of this, but do you remember the year he gave us those chemistry
sets? Oh Father was so mad at him!”
Devin looked at Vincent and began to laugh as he told her,
“Oh yeah Becca…we remember, we were just talking about that!”
Pascal laughed too, as he recalled, “Remember when Winslow
mixed up some concoction, and it blew up and singed all of his
eyebrows off? That marked the end of the experiments! Father
made us turn all the chemistry sets in!”
Rebecca gave the three boys a stern look, and reminded them,
“Yeah but not until a day or so had passed!”
Rebecca then turned to Catherine and relayed to her the whole
story. With much aplomb, she said, “You see, Winslow plus these
three here, knew once Father heard about the explosive mishap,
he would take our chemistry sets away, so they used some of
Elizabeth’s black paint, and painted fake eyebrows on Winslow to
fool Father so he wouldn’t find out…”
Rebecca then stopped to question, “I forget…which one of you
painted on the brows?”
To which Devin offered, “Pascal did…and if I may compliment
you again my friend…you did a fine job.”
Pascal took a gallant bow, and in a mock sophistication, he
replied, “You may Devin, and once again…I thank you!”
They all laughed at the two, and though Catherine was still
laughing at the thought of painted on eyebrows, she just had to
ask, “And it worked? No one noticed?”
It was Vincent who informatively continued, “Well yes…in
fact it did work, and perhaps we could’ve been successful keeping
the incident under wraps until Winslow’s eyebrows grew back,
however unfortunately for us, it happened to be time for Lou’s
scheduled haircuts! Well needless to say the moment Winslow sat
down, and due to Lou’s close proximity to him, he spotted those
faux brows instantly!”
Everyone broke out laughing, and Devin finished the story by
saying, “Yeah, and the rest of us were in line waiting for our turns,
just holding our breath, waiting to see if Lou was gonna notice or
not…and of course…he did…and he ratted us out!”
Pascal nodded, and said, “Yeah, he sure did, we had to do dishes
for 2 months straight for that one!”
Rebecca devilishly added, “Yes you sure did…and it was
great!”
After all the laughter died away, she then hugged Devin’s arm,
and said, “It’s so great having you with us again. We haven’t
reminisced like this for ages.”
Devin warmly patted her arm in turn, and sat thoughtful for just
a moment before he shared, “You know what I have missed most
about this place?”
They all leaned in a little tighter to listen to what Devin wanted
to reveal to them…and after a moment he said, “….this…just
listen…”
He then tipped his head, and as everyone also sharpened their
hearing to detect what Devin was referring to, they were confused
and unsure what they were listening for.
And so Rebecca finally said, “All I hear are people talking and
laughing and some singing…”
To which Pascal added, “Me too…”
With a warm smile Devin said, “That’s right….what you all
hear is the sound of people in harmony…people getting along.
Everyone here cares about one another…and wants to be
together…it’s rare to find this accord in the world above…where
there’s so much anger and hatred… at times it’s hard to bare…”
It was truly a poignant moment, when he then added, “The
longer I was away, the better I understood why Father developed
this world. We are all so lucky to have this place for refuge, and
for his vision.”
Vincent knew this was true…for without the tunnels, what
would have happened to all these people? Where could he have
gone? And though he realized Jacob couldn’t have known there
would be a unique person, such as himself, who would need a
place to shield him from the world above, well…Vincent believed
that somehow...deep down, his Father did.
Looking over at Catherine, he could see tears in her eyes, for
she too was wondering what would have happened to him if not
for this wonderful place called the tunnels…and so with a smile in
his eyes, he tipped his head to privately acknowledge her concern,
and then in agreement with Devin, he said, “Yes we are all so very
fortunate for Father’s vision.”
They all stood thoughtful for a moment longer, all grateful to
Father in their own way, and for their own reasons…and it was
then Rebecca broke the mood by noting, “Oh my look! Jessica just
walked in! She looks sooo beautiful! I wonder if Mary has seen
her yet.”
None of them needed to wonder too long, because just then
Mary was approaching Jessica, and it looked as if she was offering
to take her wrap. But then they saw Jessica shake her head no,
and as the the two ladies smiled and began talking, the bunch were
surprised to see them dive straight into deep conversation.
The observers all began to speculate what these two women
could be talking about. They then watched as Jacob approached,
and as he joined in the discussion with them, Rebecca
subconsciously said aloud, “UH oh…here comes father...poor
Mary!”
Vincent questioned Rebecca’s reaction by asking, “What
makes you say that Rebecca? Mary is smiling…she doesn’t seem
uncomfortable in any way.”
Defensibly Rebecca replied, “I don’t know…I guess I said it
because I know how self conscious Jessica makes Mary feel. I
mean look at her! She is so worldly…her hair, and makeup; she
always wears the finest clothes.”
To which Catherine offered, “Clothes aren’t everything…and
as far as makeup, Mary is a natural beauty…she doesn’t need
any.”
In reply, Rebecca whole-heartedly agreed, saying, “Everything
you say is true Catherine, I know it, and you know it, and I even
think Mary knows it, but still sometimes even though it isn’t
right…we compare ourselves to others. And this is what Mary
does. She has always compared herself to Jessica.”
As Vincent listened, he knew Rebecca was right about how
Mary had felt about Jessica in the past, but then he noted, “It
would appear she has moved beyond those feelings Rebecca.
Look at Mary, right now she seems quite confident in who she is.”
They all concurred with both Rebecca and Vincent, and
summed up the whole theory by blaming or accrediting self
consciousness as a major flaw in our human nature, and it is
definitely a force we must constantly work at overcoming…and
perhaps…Mary had!
It was then Pascal noted, “Hey now Jessica is hugging
Father…and now Mary too. They do seem to be pals …”
To which Vincent suggested, “Perhaps Jessica and Mary have
found their common ground…”
To which Rebecca curtly inserted, “Yes and I believe its
Father!”
Catherine giggled at Rebecca's response, and watched with
great interest too, and as she needed clarification as to what
exactly was the relationship between Father and Mary, she asked.
Everyone standing there agreed they were not a couple
exactly, and their relationship most likely would not progress
further than what it was…but what it was…no one could really
say. They all settled on calling their relationship a fond friendship
between two people who have a real respect for one another.
Just then they noticed Jessica turned to leave the hall, and
Jacob and Mary spoke a moment before he escorted her to the
buffet table!
Vincent was not one for gossip, but even he had to wonder,
“Hmm what do you make of that? I wonder why Jessica left.”
Rebecca looked up at Vincent and urged, “Go find out
Vincent! Father won’t mind your asking. If I ask, he will just think
I am being nosey.”
After everyone else chimed in urging Vincent to go and ask, it
was then Jacob and Mary, began to approach them! And so as the
little circle of speculating spectators hurriedly looked away, and
tried to act as if they were talking of other things, Jacob waited
until he and Mary got closer, before he humorously commented to
her, “What a bunch of bad actors uh Mary?”
To which she had to agree, and said, “Not an Oscar contender
in the bunch.”
They all let down their guard, as they realized they were being
obvious in their attempt to cover up their curiosity! And so finally,
Rebecca cut to the chase, and openly asked “What did Jessica
want?”
To which Jacob answered, “She merely wanted to wish us a
Merry Christmas, and to say goodbye. She is leaving for New
Zealand in the morning. She will be photographing the devastation
left from the earth quakes there.”
To which Devin commented, "New Zeland is such a beautiful
island...I hate to imagine what the earthquakes did to it."
Surprised to hear Devin had been there, Jacob asked, "You
have been there son?"
A bit humble, Devin answered, "Yes...my time as a merchant
marine took me there...geez its a long trip."
Mary looked to Jacob, and noted, “She didn't seem to mind that
aspect of it, in fact she seemed very excited about going...didn’t
you think so Father?”
To which he agreeably answered, “I thought so as well…she
always loved to travel you know…it about broke her spirit to have
to stay in one place too long.”
Suddenly realizing he was revealing the straw which broke the
camels back, and why they couldn’t make a go of it, he chuckled a
bit as he added, “To each his own uh? I myself like having my feet
planted firmly on the ground.”
In wanting to change the subject, he then cleared his throat,
turned to Catherine and with a warm smile, he asked, “Tell
me…are you enjoying yourself Catherine?”
Joyfully, she replied, “Very much Jacob!”
To be continued
Chapter Twenty-Nine
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