One Day You'll Find Me

Chapter Twenty-Two

HELLOOOOO EVERYONE!!!!! I'm so so so SOOOOOOO sorry i haven't updated this story in forever! I kinda forgot about it as my life became a whirlwind of busy busy busy and it just got dumped at the bottom of the proverbial pile.... Still, I've fished it back out now, and will be updating the last few chapters over the next week (and hopefully i won't forget!!!) 

I hope you've been enjoying it anyway =) 

I have this story listed on Goodreads, so if you feel like rating it, leaving comments, reviews, or adding it to your libraries, that would be awesome!!!!!  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23877357-one-day-you-ll-find-me

Annnnnnd while you're here, please make my day and click that little star on your page, honestly, it's the best thing you could ever do ;)

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I was curled up in the armchair when I finally heard the unmistakeable whir of a helicopter. Slowly, hardly daring to believe it, I unfurled and stood up. From there, I squinted out the window.A few moments passed before I saw it coming. Then, screaming 'She's here!' I ran out the door and into the garden. 

Just as the craft was hovering above the ground, choosing where to land, everyone joined me. The wind from the blades made my eyes water and my hair fly everywhere. When it landed, we waited with bated breath until Klara stepped around the helicopter and into our view. We all sighed, and while I ran to her, throwing my arms round her, laughing from nerves, crying from emotion, and talking non-stop, Josefina hung back and burst into tears. 

My mum was shocked to find me and Rosina there, but she was delighted to see us. She pulled Ros into a hug, before she locked eyes with her mother and burst into tears as well. The rest of us stood back and watched as they hesitantly approached each other. I'd almost forgotten they hadn't seen each other for three years.

As they embraced, cried, talked, laughed, and cried some more, I thought back to when Mum would have come here last. It took me a bit to recall the first business trip she was sent on, to Brisbane, by her work. That would have been about three years ago. She must have come up here before she went back to New South Wales. 

I smiled, but it was a sad smile. 

How many times had Mum taken these secretive trips out to see her own mother? How could she never tell me? I couldn't imagine what that would have been like for her. I suffered enough, and she'd only been out of reach for less than a year! Let alone my whole lifetime. I shook my head. I don't think I could have coped with that as well as Mum did.

We followed the pair as they turned and made their way up to the house, totally engrossed in each other. They were already seated side by side on the couch when we got there, but I sat down next to them, leaving Ros to take up Josefina's usual chair. Lucien offered everyone refreshments, but we all declined, so he sank down into the well-worn folds of his own armchair.

Ros and I told Klara our stories, all about Venice and Paris, our new friends, brought her up to date on how we'd ended up here: but we'd skipped over the conversation about Josefina. We wanted her story first. As she started, we all leant forward slightly, unwilling to miss a single word.

"Well, as you know, I was in Venice for six months, taking photos of whatever I chose. Work just wanted a good idea of what they could expect from me if they gave me the freedom. I had a marvelous time there. It was everything I wanted, everything I could have dreamed of. I took hundreds of photos, and some of them are quite good, I must say," she chuckled. "As the sixth month of my stay began, I decided I would give myself this month before I left and went somewhere else. I organised it all myself, and it was to Russia I flew."