Quiet Enlightenment

Bonus, Finale - Forever Young

Sunday, July 3, 2089

In a quiet seaside town in Oregon, seventy-five years had passed since a group of young teenagers came together in the name of friendship.

In those seventy-five years, the world had seen many changes leaving everything almost unrecognizable to those who were alive at the turn of the millennium. However, one thing stayed the same: the respect that future generations had for their ancestors.

In a small graveyard, two people were slowly making their way through towards a gravestone. One of them as was an elderly man who was still fit for the ripe age of sixty-seven, but still found himself moving at a leisurely pace to not disturb the eighty-eight-year-old lady he was pushing in a wheelchair.

"It should be right ahead, Eli."

"Yes, I know, mother. We do this every year."

"Not every year. You wouldn't let me."

The man sighed as they approached a smaller marker off to the side.

"This is it. Right? Wheel me up and then leave me be, dear."

Eli scowled a bit at his mother's request. But with another sigh he knew that he didn't want to argue with her under the abnormally warm sunny weather. He followed her request, pushing her up to the marker. He bent down and brushed off some debris that had accumulated on it to check the name.

HERE LIES:
ELIAS A. CONNOR
AUGUST 1, 2000 – JULY 3, 2014

"Well, here he is. Give me a holler when you're done."

"Thank you, dear."

Eli nodded and walked away. The old lady, Mia Elder, looked down at the marker as a wave of emotions started to come over her.

"Hey, you. How long has it been? Ten years? Ah, yes. It was ten years ago I was here last. With Cameron, right? Did he make it there okay? God sent him your way... I guess it would be two years in September. I would hope that he would get there by now. Knowing him, he stopped for a smoke or two along the way."

Mia chuckled lightly as she wiped away a few drops of sweat.

"Is it wrong that I've been looking forward to coming here and talking to you alone? No, I didn't kill my husband, so don't think like that. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the thought hasn't crossed my mind. I'm totally kidding!"

Anyone who would be able to hear her would not be able to believe that this woman of nearly ninety years of age was babbling like she was thirteen again.

"Kenton called me the other day, by the way. He's wanting to move back to Oregon, but he doesn't think that it's going to happen. His boy, Andre, is a preacher now and Kenton and Talisha, both make it a point to go to his services every Sunday."

Mia looked down at the necklace with a cross on it that was draped around her neck. Andre sent it to her when the Hayes found out that she was going into care for this last time.

"Olivia sends her love, by the way. She's living in England, but she still makes the trip every Christmas to see the grandkiddos. At least her cousin's still over here in the states to help take care of them. I wonder how Orson and Calvin are holding up... you never got to meet them, but up there if you see an old man calling another old man 'pup' then know that it's them and tell them I'm thinking of them."

As she took a breath to call out for her son, she remembered something. She reached into her purse, pulled out a flower, and placed it on the marker.

"This is from Lucas. I talked to him on the phone last night, and he thinks that you don't want him up there. Back in the 20s, he caught COVID twice, and then had a stroke in the 60s and a heart attack in the 70s. He's the toughest sweetie I've ever met. I hope you're proud of him, because I sure am."

She sighed as she looked at the marker one more time with a sense of finality.

"Well, this is it. I don't think I'm going to be coming back here. I'm hoping that the next time we meet it will be face-to-face again. My great-granddaughter asked me the other day if I was scared, and I told her that I wasn't because I'm going to be seeing you... and probably Cameron... and everyone else we've lost along the way. I love you, Elias. And even if I'm just talking into nothing, and nothing awaits us, I always will. Goodbye."

With a holler, Eli came back to pick up his mother and take her back home. He offered to put her in bed, but she vehemently refused. Instead, she gave the old man a task to complete, which was find a specific movie to put on for her for the night. Luckily, it was available on an old classics channel. She sighed as the name of the movie came up on the screen: Babes Riding Dragons.

She sat through that movie with the same twinkle in her eye that she had at the age of thirteen, and she knew almost every word that the heroines uttered by heart even though she had not seen the movie in fifty years. When the credits started to roll, she sighed with a sense of satisfaction at being able to go back to her childhood one more time.

She lied back in her warm and cozy chair and felt herself getting sleepy. As she prepared to take that last step towards joining her loved ones, the last thought going through Mia Elder's mind was about what her life would have been like if the world had taken a different path, and people had made different choices.

What if things had gone differently, and Elias were still with her?

NEW NOVEL ANNOUNCEMENT: Quiet Enlightenment ALTERNATE coming in 2023.