In the name of saint

Welcome

The gravel on a road from the mansion creaks under my shoes. Walking, I see the grass and wheat lightly moving in the breeze. I can smell the morning air, new day's here. I'm heading closer to the centre of Greyford, the count of houses in my sight is increasing by every few steps. 

I'm near my mother's pond when I digress to the northwest of the village. I pass a few houses, stone ones, some are even from bricks and other whitewashed. 

From now I can also hear the sound of horses, Julietta's horses. I don't even remember the time Julietta's parents didn't have some. I can also smell the manure from far away, the smell isn't the most enjoyable, but now it feel like a memory, which floated to the surface of memory by a coincidence.

Now I start to doubt my decision: What if Julietta would change and offers me just a cold welcome? What if she completely forgot about me? All these thoughts were racing in my mind, sending anxiety chills down my spine. Whatever, life goes on, I had to remind myself. 

By every move of my legs I get closer to the door that I want to knock on. I inhale, getting myself ready to the possible futures. Only God knows what will happen next... 

I knock once, twice, thrice... and no one is answearing me. Oh, I guess they aren't home. Probably. 

I calm myself just to hear an excited shout from behind. "Lucienne! What in the world are you doing here?! And how... and why?" Julietta is definetly surprised, or atleast she sounds like it. Then her arms wrap around me, hugging me gracefuly. I somehow turn in her grasp and hug her too. 

"Oh, you can't even imagine how much I missed you" I say, moved. "Living in the city with Viktor is amazing, but you know, Greyford is Greyford..." I lightly smile, glad that nothing I've been worried about actually happened. Well, we'll still see. I unwrap from her hug. 

 "Can you answear me Lucienne, like I'm on my way back from the stables (as usual) and then you just appear here, standing in that white dress like an angel in front of my door." She looks still surprised, but smiling.

I continue: "Well, you know, my mother's health isn't the best as it was before. Atleast it is not that visible, she still walks and is able to speak, but due to her age, her body and health is weakened. And a month ago she started coughting, and shat frightens me is, that it isn't getting any better now." 

Juliette looks a bit concerned, and I understand that. I don't like my mother that much, but after all, I do not wish death to her. But I rather shall not speak of the illnes near her. "So that's the reason I came here, I've already written it down in the letter" 

"But how could I know that I'll find you standing in front of my house? I thought that you'd be probably more with your mother... than as in our younger years." She grinns. 

"Here am I, and no, even when my mother's ill, I won't just spend time with her when there's you, Matylda. And Christian maybe..." 

When I mention Christians name, Juliette looks more attentive. Or maybe I just imagined that. 

"Yes, I hope you're going to enjoy the time here as much as you can!" She looks grateful, and I have to smile warmly. It's her, my good old friend. 

"So, what are we going to do now?" I ask her curiously. "I'm free for the whole fornoon and midday!" I add and her face lights. 

"I guess we should invite our one and special guest... Matylda!" We shout in unisono and then laugh. When we were younger, Matylda was firstly so shy and quiet, that we always had to invite her to come and play with us, that's the reason she's now our Special guest. 

I felt a sudden urge to be open with Julietta. "You know Juli, for first I was so afraid of you completely changing, but now I see that almost nothing changed." 

She seems amused, saying: "You silly, we've seen eachother just a few months ago." 

"True true" I agree with her as we head to Matylda's bakery. Juliette has normally been meeting with Matylda, but now with me here, I think we'll be together more than they two had been before. We talk about basic thing in our lives as we get closer to the centre of Greyford, nothing really important. 

It is understandabe, we'll talk more with Matylda. I can once again see the pond, cows and meadows and some farmhouses. Horizon is being framed by the forest. I eye the school, suddenly remembering our school year and I tell Juli. We both mark this theme as one drom thise we'll probably talk about. What I find quite surprising is no awkward silence between us. 

The smell of fresh bread and other pastry hits our noses. Ah, so fresh. 

Juli says: "I hope Matylda will give us some, the smell really torments me." I have to laugh and agree, I also hope for some. 

In a short moment, we stand in the front of the bakery. Juli just casually knocks with her slender arm. 

Juliette had been the tallest from us three, but in the last years of adolescence I've overgrown her by circa one inch. I'd say that I'm pretty tall, I'm 5,8 foot tall. Matylda is still the smallest, she's like 5,5 foot tall. 

The door swung open and a smily round face showed, but before I said anything, Matylda shouted: "Luci! Ah, what a pleasant surprise!" 

I hugged her and she was immediately asking tons of questions. 

"What have happened and what brings you here? And how's your life going? And Viktor, you have to tell me everything about him! And also is that thing with your mam true?! If yes, then I'm sorry... But in that case-" 

Juliette saved me from thise endless questions by saying: "Girls, let's talk somwhere inside, I think that not everyone in this village wants to hear us." 

"I think some of them would love to listen to our gossip" I muffled under my breath, laughting. 

As expexted, Matylda invited us inside the bakery, I can't wait to break down everything, that happened here in Greyford within my absence.