My Lighthouse

A warm Irish family

Sheila stared out of the window, watching the poring rain outside. She was home for two week now and Mark was back in Berlin with the lads, to make up for their cancelled tour. She had been in hospital for two weeks all together, when Dave allowed her to go home. Mark already started performing, as soon as Sheila had been feeling better again. She was disappointed at first, because he had promised her to stay by her side, as long as she was in pain, but she also knew romance wasn't aloud within music contracts.

When she arrived back in Sligo, Christie was the first one who stayed around for a few days to make her feel more at ease. Though having a responsible job at the hospital at day and sometimes nighttime, made it difficult for Christie to stay. She had arranged for Gillian to stay with Sheila after that, but as much as she loved her friend, after a week she told her it had been enough. She felt okay, now Ian was in prison. And although the trial still had to begin, the idea that she couldn't bump into him no more made her feel alright, so she thought.

Though standing here now on this dreadful weather day, made her realize she wasn't doing that great at all. It was dark outside and the storm was getting worse by the minute, when thunder smashed itself through the dark sky and lightning suddenly struck. Sheila realized the storm was exactly above Sligo and she prayed it wouldn't hit their home. She was so scared of lightning. In a strange way she was torturing herself by letting the lights out again. She didn't know why, but she kept on standing in front of the window when suddenly lightning flashed again and in the middle of the garden she saw Ian standing, staring at her. Sheila screamed out loud and while she tried to run away from the window she trembled and fell on the floor. Because she wasn't healed yet from all her injuries, she couldn't get up from the pain she felt in her legs.

Suddenly she heard someone at the door and being paralyzed by fear, she wasn't able to flee and pulled her legs close to her body, terribly afraid of what he was going to do next. When she felt a hand on her arm, she screamed out loud, cried and begged him not to kill her. "Sheila what are you doing sweetheart?" A friendly voice asked her and she slowly looked up while tears floated over her cheeks. "Oh sweetie, why did you tell Mark you were doing just fine?" "You're not fine at all." She looked straight into Oliver's, Mark's dad, friendly eyes, who sat on his knees next to her. "Oh dad," Sheila cried and crawled into his arms. Her body trembled of fear and sadness. He was right. She wasn't doing well at all.

Crying and stumbling over her words, she told Oliver what had happened. "But sweetie, Ian is in prison." "It's impossible you saw him standing in the garden" Oliver repeated again. But Sheila knew what she saw in that light flash and kept repeating her story, until Mark's dad called the police-station to ask if Ian was still in prison. To Sheila's surprise, he still was. "Let me take you home with me" Oliver asked softly when suddenly his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. "It's Mark. Do you want to talk to him?" Sheila shook her head. "You talk to him. I think that's better", she whispered.

Mark! Oliver said more happy than he felt inside. Sheila heard the answers Oliver gave him, which made it possible for her to guess what Mark was asking him. She heard Oliver lie about her mental health, because he didn't wanted to upset Mark more than he already was, but he had to tell his son that he took Sheila along to their home. Otherwise they would scare the hell out of him, when he kept on calling and she wouldn't pick up.

Mark heard his dad talk and knew he lied. If Sheila had been doing alright, she would have come to the phone herself. He was glad though, that his father was with her now and would take her home with him. Through Shane, who had spoken to Gillian that night, Mark heard there was a huge storm going on in Sligo and he knew how much Sheila hated thunder and lightning. So he called up his dad, to ask if he wanted to go to their house and see if Sheila was alright. His parents always had a key to the house, to take care of it when he was away. Now he had Sheila in his life it wasn't really necessary anymore, but today he was very glad, he never asked his key back.