Elusive Memories

Chapter 21

The house was very beautiful with a breathtaking view around it. It was a very long drive and Amelia and Adrian started early in the morning and reached their grandfather’s home by eleven in the morning. Their grandfather had to go to his office to deal with an emergency and told Adrian to wait for him at his house. He had no idea who was waiting for him when he returned. Amelia decided to take a look around the house and she even spent a few minutes out in the beach.

After getting back ,the housekeeper, a middle aged lady asked her what she needed and she asked for some tea. It was her soothing drink; she always had a love for the beverage and preferred it to coffee. With a cup of steaming tea in her hand she returned to the living room to find her brother sitting there with the T V in mute doing some office work in his laptop. She glanced at what he was watching and wrinkled  her nose when she saw that it was tuned to a sports channel. She decided to leave him alone for the moment and started looking around the room. It was beautifully decorated with lots of photos framing the wall.

She glanced through the pictures of beautiful boats and yachts which her grandfather and his crew designed and built throughout the years. They were beautiful and she wondered whether she will find herself on board one anytime soon. She liked to spent her time in beach and found it soothing but never bothered to swim or go out into deep waters even if it was on a boat. She turned her face to the other framed photographs of the family. Her grandmother was a very beautiful lady and she now understood the source of all the beautiful genes which ran in her family including her. She touched the photo with a sad longing, wishing that Bethany Connor was still alive so that she could get her love as well but wishing was one thing while reality was another.

She turned her attention to other pictures. There were a lot of their childhood photos and most of it had Ruben also in them. She smiled at what Adrian told her about Ruben’s greatest wish. A small laugh escaped her while she looked at one particular photo in which Ruben was kissing her cheek while she looked annoyed. Even as a kid she was a serious one with no sense of humor at all or maybe it was the Ruben effect as Adrian calls them. She turned her attention to those of her parents, both of them looked happy and very much in love in almost all the pictures and she felt the longing once again in her chest. She was so lost in trying to etch their images in her memory that she didn’t heard the door opening or the footsteps of the person who entered the room.

Maxwell Connor was an old man in his seventies who had slight difficulty in walking because of the arthritis which limited his movements a lot recently. He was surprised to find his grandson sitting on the sofa with his laptop, looking relaxed and happy. He looked up when he saw his grandfather entering the room and got up. They hugged and Adrian tried to guide him towards the sofa so that he could sit down and get the strain off his knees. But before he could do that he saw his grandfather’s attention going towards where Amelia was standing with her back towards them looking at the photos on the wall. He turned his face towards his grandfather and saw him looking at him and Amelia with a puzzled expression and before he could say anything his grandfather’s voice boomed out.

“You brought a guest here and didn’t even bother mentioning about it to me when you called.”

“It’s a surprise….”

Before he could complete his sentence, Amelia turned around and he heard his grandfather gasping. The old man sagged heavily on his walking stick and Adrian feared that he will lose his balance. He put his arm around his grandfather and supported him to stand while he took in the miracle which was standing in front of him.

“Oh God! For a moment I thought that I was looking at my Meredith.” He then turned his face to Adrian’s, “I am not dreaming right? This, I mean she is really standing there right? Jesus! You could have warned me boy.” Adrian smiled and nodded his head.