Kitty and Ada- Short Stories.

1. The Unfinished Melody

'Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot...'

They shouldn't be and no doubt they wouldn't for as long as I knew and admired Ada Eltree. We sang those words every year on New Year's Eve with little thought to their meaning or consequence, but somehow the turn of 1899 to 1900 was different- not only a new century but the first year without my father Edward, and Ada's husband Robert. The words of the song felt more poignant than ever and as my tongue twisted around them as I sung, I realised how so very important the small things were.

It was a cosy and intimate New Year's gathering that night. Present were Ada and I, my brother Alec and his wife Cynthia, and Ada's son Robbie. We all held hands to ring in the new year- a year we hoped would banish away the misery of 1899 and replace it with a joyful and happier one.

Change would undoubtedly take place in the new century and thus so to our lives along with it. In the last year I'd witnessed considerable change of a personal nature and all I had known became vastly different. I never dreamed when I saw the last new year come to be that both my father and Robert would be gone by the next one. Father left us first, so suddenly in the cold of February 1899 and then it was Robert's turn in July, taken so cruelly in South Africa in the grips of a bloody war like so many men before him.

My father had been a business partner of Robert Eltree and together they were held in high regard in their roles as solicitors of a joint practice in town. My brother Alec was an employee of theirs but after the sudden deaths of both its founders, Alec was thrown headfirst into prime position as head of the company, and a cousin of Ada's was swiftly bought in and announced as his new business partner. Where father and Robert sat every day became two empty seats, and then those two seats filled by two new faces. Alec became our father in that sense, not only in his new role in the business but as my protector and only family in the world.

When I'd decided to live with Ada in the autumn of the year- when the red and orange leaves had begun to fall and the new season was upon us- I gained a new family but Alec was sceptical of the living arrangement. He wished me to reside with him and his wife, but I wanted to keep Ada company, wishing to help her move past her grief. If I could do that for Ada then I felt some worth and maybe she in return could help me. Alec wasn't convinced and I suspect it was difficult for him to admit that he didn't want to lose someone else close to him.

You see, Alec and Robert had been together through war and only Alec had returned to the humdrum of life with an injury to forever remind him of it. Though Ada and I were so very far away from being witnesses of the conflict ourselves, we were nevertheless very much victims of it too in the changes it brought to us and the grief which followed.

...

I remember Robert's funeral particularly as though it were yesterday. Young peoples funerals were always hard to bear and war brought them along with more frequency. I recall Ada on that day, all in black, a solitary tear upon her cheek, hands clinging to her son's shoulder, trying to be strong for him. She smiled lightly when she saw me approach and when Ada smiled it was the most beautiful thing in all the world as I knew it.

"Kitty, I'm so glad you're here," she had said as she squeezed my hand tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Robert was a wonderful man, where else would I be but at your side?"

"He was quite the best," she said. "If only I could speak to him again, Kitty, even just one final time. If only we could really talk to those we've lost."

...

And so it was the final minute of 1899 where the clock ticked toward midnight and it was as though time froze in those final few seconds as we all clutched hands and counted down. The last moment of 1899 passed us by and it was no more; replaced by the ticking of the brand new 20th century. We began singing Auld Lang Syne and kissed each other's' cheeks in jubilation. I embraced Ada but when I leaned over to kiss her, her cheek felt like ice- almost as if she'd been frozen in time herself. I looked at her and she was staring blankly, her eyes vacant. She still wore her mourning dress so her face seemed even more pale against the harsh black of her outfit. I looked intensely at her and could see she was listening to something- not the rowdy version of the song we were singing but something else, something behind it, something deeper.