Redeemed From the Ashes—Chapter 25—Caught in the Cookie Jar

in #book6 years ago

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It is one thing to show a man that he is in error; and
another to put him in possession of truth.

John Locke

An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690) bk.iv, ch.7, sec. 11

Chapter 25

Evelyn requested the following day off. She was told it was not possible because of the usual lower number of employees working on Sunday, but at the end of the day she had found someone who could take her place. Relief washed over her; for she was eager to be of some help to John’s friend. Perhaps all he needed was someone to entice him into the light.

She flitted to Gerald’s office and was met by one of his sweet kisses. “Gerald.”

“Evelyn, I’m so glad you came. I’ve been thinking about you all day.” 

“I’ve been doing the same.” She fondly nudged her nose against his.

He looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry I have put you in a difficult position, in a quandary.”

She thought back to two nights ago when she was accosted by her previous butler. “We’ll manage. We will pull through this together. Our love is strong; and I pray nothing will tear it apart.”

“Thank you for standing by my side, for understanding.”

“It is my greatest pleasure. I wanted to let you know I won’t be in tomorrow.”

“Oh, and why is that?”

“Well, John has a man in his keep who will not talk to anyone nor show his face. I thought that if I went to visit him and tell him I am there to listen, perhaps it would do him some good.”

“I think...that is very kind of you.” He encircled his arms around her pressing her to himself and kissed the tip of her left ear.

“I’ll bake some cookies for him, as well. Maybe whetting his appetite will incline him to come out of his shell.”

“When have you ever baked cookies for me?” He murmured, his breath warming her cheek.

Evelyn laid a hand on his chest and pushed against it to create a small distance. Her breath hitched. “Don’t you worry. I’ll bring some over to you before I leave tomorrow.”

“Where does John live?”

“Out of the city, in the country. It is really quite beautiful out there. Long lane ways, bushes of trees around farmhouses. The scenery is quite romantic.”

“You will be back tomorrow night?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then,” he let her go. “I’ll let you get on. I have a few medical papers to read.” 

“Goodbye.”

That night once she arrived home, she whipped up a large batch of whipped creamery cookies to bring to Gerald and the man she was going to see the next day. She placed each cookie neatly on a plate, covered it with a kitchen towel, and went to her room to sleep.

***

The sound of robins singing serenaded Evelyn from her state of dreamy sleep to a state of pleasant awareness. It was now morning. She was strangely excited to see this stranger. Perhaps she could learn his identity, learn his history. She always had a fascination with meeting new faces. The whole circumstance was a delicious mystery!

She dressed in a lavender day dress with long ivory sleeves. She draped across her arm a white woollen shawl and linked the basket of cookies in the other. She had woken up mid-morning. Betsie had already gone out to work; so she locked the door behind her. She strolled over to Gerald’s home. Although he was at work, he had left the door unlocked.

He was wanting my cookies badly.

She set his plate upon the kitchen table and left a note that said,

My dearest love,

Here are the cookies I promised to bring to you before I left. I only wish you were here to greet me, so that I could touch your handsome face. I love you. I will see you tonight. Think of me, my love, as I think of you in the deepest parts of my heart.

With a smile of satisfaction, she left her gift and headed out the door. The sun was shining bright. Months after the explosion, life had returned to its stream. Wounds had been healed and turned into visible scars, scars which would bring to remembrance the good that had come of a wrong.

I was wrong. Maybe God is not so distant after all. Perhaps He is closer than I realize, and has more of a hand in the affairs of men than I ever thought. I would like to hear what is said at Mr. Cox’s church.

She walked toward the tar-paper church, a little self-conscious of who would see her walk into its walls. Opening the door, she was embarrassed to have most of the parishioner’s eyes upon her now still form. The preacher became cognizant of her abashment; therefore he spared her from further strange scrutiny by clearing his throat and declaring, “Hear ye what the Lord has to say concerning His command!”

All eyes left her to focus their attention on their preacher. She scanned the crowd for an empty seat in the back. Once she spotted one, she sat upon it and listened intently to what the man of God had to say. All of a sudden, she felt a hand upon her shoulder. She turned her head to the right to see a young woman about her age wearing a bonnet with a bow; one of its strands framed her heart-shaped face prettily.

“Good morning, my name is Rebecca. What is yours?” she whispered. 

“Evelyn,” her reply a whisper.

“I just wanted to welcome you to our service. Are you new in town?” 

“No, I have lived here for many years.”

“Well, I am glad you finally stopped by.”

“Thank you.”

Evelyn continued to listen to the sermon with much interest. The preacher spoke upon the power of prayer, how prayer was an essential part of worship, that it brought one closer to God. Yet, throughout the entire sermon, she was touched the most by Rebecca’s kind and sincere gesture. The sermon ended and the preacher prayed to end the service.

God, I do not truly know who you are. I do not know if could ever fully know you, but I want to. I need someone to lean on other than myself. I fail so many times; I cannot pick myself up most of the time. Teach me to depend on you.

“Evelyn, would you like to come to my family’s home for lunch? My parents always enjoy meeting new people who visit.” Rebecca pointed down the row to her family who were rising from their seats to talk to the other churchgoers.

“I would love to, but I already have an important previous engagement. However, I would love to come back another time so that I could accept your offer.”

“Wonderful, perhaps next week?”

“Next week, I must get going. Thank you.”

She exited the quaint church with a little difficulty; for many of the attendees blocked her way as they were conversing with one another. Before she walked out, she looked once more at the scene. Surely there was a sense of unity and love amongst the people. This was a place where she could be, where she could give.

***

She hailed a cab and asked to be driven to the outskirts of town. She planned to walk the rest of the distance, which was forty-five minutes to John’s home. Once she was dropped off, she hiked up her skirt a little bit to avoid brushing it against the spots of drying mud on the country road. As she walked, she bid good morning to a few other travellers who crossed her way. She soaked in the sun’s rays and slowly breathed in the smells of farmland. 

At times, she pictured Carl and her walking hand in hand around a bend admiring the view of the sky; and at other times, she pictured Gerald and her whispering love sayings into each other’s ears, heads bent down together. What a different life she would be leading if the explosion had never happened. Back and forth her mind swayed between two different ideas, not being able to make up her mind which she liked best.

She finally arrived at the seaman’s home. She placed her hand above her eyes to shield them from the hot sun, trying to see if any person was on the property although she had no need to do such a gesture for her wide-brimmed straw sun hat provided enough shelter for her eyes already. There sitting upon a bench which was situated under a maple tree was a man. He was bent over, folded hands over his head. She strode toward him. Even though she neared him enough for him to be aware of her presence, he moved not but sat still as a carving. His eyes never gazed upward to see who was approaching. She sat upon the bench next to him, breathing in and out and wondering how to approach a man whose soul’s life seemed to evade him. What would be the best thing to do? She picked up her basket and uncovered the plate of cookies she had brought.“I brought you some cookies. Did you like the ones...” 

She was interrupted by a quick movement of his hand grasping hers in an iron grip. Was this man mad? He was strong to be sure, his grip almost too tight it could hurt.

“Speak.” She heard him barely whisper the one word.

“What would you like me to say?”

For the first time, he brought himself up to a full sitting position. Something about this man was...familiar. She had no time to think what made him so; for his next word pinned her to her seat and knocked all breath out of her.

“Evelyn.” He turned his face toward the sunlight.

“Carl?” She thought she would never see his face again. For so long she had searched for him and nothing had turned up. For so long she had thought of him waking, sleeping. Living? She could not believe it; yet there he was, his sunken eyes staring into hers. The planes of his face, although bristly with unkempt hair, were before her. She could not deny it. A hint of a smile played upon his lips. Oh, the anguish and joy of seeing him before her eyes.

“Carl,” she said his name again thinking that saying his name over and over again would wake her from this dream. No, this was reality.

“Evelyn.”

His speaking her name melted her heart. Her head fell into his lap and stayed in its resting place. He was here...with her. How could this be? All this time...he was right under her nose. How could she have not seen it?

He draped his arm over her limp form and slid his hand up and down her back in a rhythmic soothing manner. 

She did not want to leave this place. She had finally found...home. “Carl?”

“Mmm.”

“I have so many questions to ask you.”

“Then ask them one by one.”

Her flutterings ceased. He had calmed the storm inside her with only a few of his words. She realized he had no more crutches. “What happened to your leg?” 

“After a month of living here with John, he paid the doctor to give me a prosthetic leg. I have no more need of crutches.”

“Oh, that is wonderful. How long did it take you to walk with your new leg?”

“I would say I had to practice a week before I was fully accustomed to walking with it.”

“I...I do not know what to say. Oh, forgive me for crying in front of...” 

“I missed your tears.”

She could not control the flow anymore. She let open the floodgates which had been kept shut for so long. Her body, racked with pain, ache, and macabre joy, moulded into his. “I tried to find you. For months I searched, and I could not find you. You were here all along. I thought I had lost you. Why had you never come to find me?”

“I am sorry, my love. I...There is so much to tell.”

“Tell me.”

“That morning when I went to work, I was thinking about you, about the love we had finally rekindled. My body was burning to be back home with you, but I had duties to perform at the job. So I went. I think I was...no, no, no that’s not right. I believe I was putting a file into the cabinet. I looked up and saw...it. I never knew what consequences it would play in my future. Then I saw it happen, the explosion. I saw the factory’s windows shatter in an instant before I ducked down to protect myself from the glass that I knew in less than a second would fly my way. I was too late. A few pieces of glass cut my right eye. My left eye was saved. The pain was excruciating. I could barely hold on to a thread of reason and logic. The pain screamed louder and louder in my ears. I held my hand to my eye; and when I pulled it away, I could see the blood seeping onto it, colouring it. My sudden instinct was to go to the hospital. No sooner had I escaped the wreckage of the office that I saw some people screaming and crying on the streets. The ringing grew louder in my ears. I tried to find my way to a hospital, but nothing looked the same. I thought I would never find my way through that hell, but by following a medical team, I finally reached the hospital. I sat on a chair and stared at the chaos before me.”

The doctor had told the truth. He had seen Carl.

“I sat there in my own world, as if I were separated from this one on the other side of a sheet of glass. I looked around with the one good eye I had. I saw that there were so many more ahead of me who were in desperate need of medical attention. Guts were spilling out, others had serious burns—my injuries were nothing compared to the masses of others who were dying. My eyesight, I knew, had already...died. So I decided to leave to find you at our home.”

That explains why he left.

“I stumbled through the streets, the images surrounding me being imprinted upon my mind. I found our home or what I think was our home...in shambles. No one was around; Death stung in the air. I fell to my knees, hardly being able to breathe; for I thought...I had lost you, that you had died in the rubble. I wanted to forget what I saw so I left Richmond in the distance, behind my back. I walked and walked; the pain in my eyes was almost nothing compared to the pain that throbbed in my soul. Your loss was all that was on my mind. The next days were...a blur. I do not remember much. All I remember is darkness, loneliness, silence. Even though the whole world around me teemed with activity, I heard nothing, saw nothing. John found me somehow. I cannot even remember how he found me, but he did. He asked the town doctor to patch my eye and overlook its healing. Thank God, I can still see with my left eye to see your beautiful face. Oh, that face that I have wanted to touch over and over again, to hold. These past few months, I have been in solitude, in slumber not wanting to be approached by another human being except John. My nightmares have become my companions. My mind has been continually plagued with scenes from the war, the explosion. They are my constant demons. It has almost become unbearable until now. 

"Just now when I heard your voice, your intonation, I thought to myself how ludicrous it was, that my mind was playing tricks; but it wasn’t. You are real, you are here. You have brought me into the light again. I am never letting you go.”

All the wonderings, all the mysteries concerning Carl had come together, piecing themselves in Evelyn’s mind. Everything made sense! How she had been foolish! He had been here all along. He was here now.

“Let me take a good look at you,” he said, moving her face directly in front of his. He wiped away her tears with his smooth thumb, gently kissing her upon her forehead, nose, cheeks, and finally her mouth. “We have each other again.”

“Yes, we do.” The sense of joy that now welled up in her chest was overpowering, the sense of guilt overbearing. What was she to do? She was now married and betrothed to two very different men. She loved them both in unique ways. One moment her thoughts settled upon Carl and the next upon Gerald. She was torn. Carl knew nothing about Gerald. What was she to tell him? That she had given up trying to find him and found comfort in the arms of another man?! Not now, did she want to taint one of the happiest moments of her life with a scandal such as this. She would tell him...soon. It would be the hardest thing she would ever have to do, break his heart; but she needed to tell him the truth. He had to trust her. Her heart was his. He would trust or so she hoped.

“Carl?”

“Yes?”

“I...I am so happy to have you again in my arms after so long.”

He smiled, its warmth as hot as the sun. “Do you think I may have a cookie? I loved the ones you baked before.”

“Of course. Wait! John never mentioned who baked them.”

“No, he only said it came from a good friend of his who had a heart of gold. He was right.”

She reached into the basket and pulled out a cookie. She inched the cookie closer and closer to his lips until he could not stand the distance any longer. Piece by piece she fed him. Once he had chewed the last piece, he drew her head to his and swooped down to give a kiss which grew in intensity and passion. This kiss was not one she was afraid of. No, she was hungry for more. This kiss was the one in which she felt free. There were no boundaries to bar her from happiness.

“I love you, Evelyn.” 

“Yes, I know you do.”

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