ECHOES IN ETERNITY

THE EQUINOX Part 4

Alexander Aurelius Pella 

"Mr. Pella?" Anthony slowly approaches placating as if not to disturb a wild animal. He stands ten feet away from me accompanied by Henry. He oddly looks out of place even though he's in his running gear, his shirt off and his large muscles bulging like a well-oiled machine. Henry on the other hand is in his cowboy boots, black jeans, and pale blue shirt, his wide brim hat in place and yet he looks at home in the middle of a California beach.

"What?" I ask sharply, still looking at the pathway where Elissa disappeared running.

"Is it her, sir?" he asks in a gentle tone.

My eyes are still fixed on the pathway as if she'll come back any second, but of course, she doesn't. "Yes, it's Elissa," I respond, reticently.

Ever since my dreams of Elissa started two weeks ago to date, I've been searching like a mad man to find her. But then, I've always looked for her every place I went, in every person I've met, in many, many women, and hadn't, of course found her. The task wasn't just like looking for a needle in a haystack; but it was as if I was looking for a needle in mountains of needles. It's been exhausting, excruciating, soul shredding to the point of losing it. I've scaled the globe, went to so many countries, searched through millions of faces I've met day after day and not having found her, not feeling her presence in the here and now, and having to start all over again, and coming up empty handed for such a long time, the task would have destroyed a lesser man...

Then again, I'm only half man. Half my resilience comes from the angel who fathered me, and the other half is lent through the angel who bound me to him for eternity with a task I willingly took, protecting the only woman I ever loved in my very long existence, Elissa. I knew she was going to look different, and even have a different personality. But our souls always called to one another. I felt the familiar pull, as the earth would call to her moon. Helplessly, inescapable...Since the first night my dreams of our past started, everything else became secondary. After I felt her presence two weeks ago and finally knowing she existed in the here and now, any other woman I ever fucked, any of my businesses though I make billions, or any endeavor I ever desired to accomplish or ever accomplished, ceased to mean anything. My sun finally rose after having left me in the dark for two-hundred and fifteen years! This is my second chance, my equinox! I feel alive!

"Are you quite sure Alexander?" asks Henry pulling me out of my reveries.

"Do you think I wouldn't recognize my own wife?" I roar at Henry turning on my heels, my gaze stormy, ablaze with anger, piercing him with my glare. If it was anyone other than these two men who dedicated their lives to me for centuries, they wouldn't be able to question my judgment without being the recipients of my wrath.

"Your wife in a different time, Alexander!" Henry reminds me urgently, as if this would make any difference to me. Nothing would stop me from reacquainting myself with her. "And, no, I don't doubt your judgment, sir. But, I have an oath as well to protect her, and there's something different about her this time. Everything depends on her remembering, and she seems to..." he says pausing, "...not want to remember. Or maybe it's simply not Miss Ellie. You have to consider the possibility," urges Henry.

It is Elissa! When I saw her running down the driftwood plank stairs to the beach, I felt tremendous pull, an ineludible desire to be near her. It was unmistakable; everything ceased to exist. Like a magnet pulling mindlessly and I'm blinded to anything else, but to answer her call. I know that she felt the same, because when I closed into her vicinity she doubled over. That was what I would have done if I had not learned to control my body and reactions, perfected over hundreds of years.