Book 4: Love in the Caribbean

Chapter 17: Poetry and tears of love

It was there leaning against the tree staring out into the dark Canyon that Lunaria told Aurora how her love story with Solaris first began right to the day he said goodbye, the day both their hearts shattered. Aurora hung onto every word her mother said memorizing every word within her brain. She was determined to find a way to end their grief. Like any four year old she asked a lot of personal questions, like, when did she know she liked daddy, or why she blushes whenever she talks about him, and other things, before asking the one question every young parent dreads.

"Mommy, where do babies come from?"

Lunaria's ivory face paled to a cloud white. "Um..." Her mind was racing at a hundred miles per hour trying to think of a way out of answering her question. "I'll tell you when you're older dearie..."

Her mind became lost in thought.... 'I'll tell her when she's older, wait just how old? How long is a hundred years...? How long is a hundred thousand...hmmm...? I'll have Solaris tell her. I'd love to see the look on his face when she asks him, but that would be mean....maybe I'll have one of the others tell her when she's twenty.'

Suddenly she felt Aurora curl up in her lap fast asleep sucking her thumb in her mother's arms. Lunaria laughed quietly as she kissed her daughter on the forehead, "Goodnight my little Aurora." before leaning back against the tree holding the sun orchid in her hand wondering as the where Solaris might be.

'He's probably at the temple leaning on the topmost branch of our olive tree eating an apple by now watching the clouds pass by...'

She smiled at the thought of Solaris lounging in their olive tree then frowned wondering, 'Does he miss me at all...?'

She stared at the flower then placed it in her hair before picking up and carrying her little girl to a small hidden cave below the tree where Solaris had made a secret hideaway with a bed in case he came there during the day after a long hike to rest. She walked into the cave placing the roots of the tree over the entrance for privacy like Solaris had shown her when he brought her there, once at dawn, but that was a long time ago...

She walked over to the bed and laid her adorable little girl on the bed before tucking her in with a kiss on the forehead. Lunaria sat at the foot of the bed and smiled at her daughter as she slept. Sometimes Aurora would be so tried after a playdate with dad that she would fall fast asleep in her arms but Lunaria didn't mind she liked watching her little girl as she slept. When Aurora would finally sleep Lunaria's favorite thing to do was to watch her little baby sleeping peacefully in her crib it was the one of the many joys of parenthood.

Lunaria smiled a sad smile as she heard Aurora mumble in her sleep, "Night mommy... Morning daddy..." as she rolled over on the bed to sleep.

With a heavy sigh, Lunaria smiled as she placed a piece of Aurora's golden hair back behind her ear before she started to walk around the cave. Nothing had changed since the last time she was there 2,655 BC at dawn a few months before...the eclipse. Solaris's golden medieval sword and shield were still against the same wall as they always were, his French musketeer hat and sword hung on the wall; he had inspired the musketeer wardrobe long before the musketeers were even created.
His beautiful Roman style desk and chair were beside the bed with a few candles.

She remembered everything, every stone, every crack; there were many happy memories spent in this cave. Lunaria blushed as she remembered a few of the more private memories she spent with him in the cave and of the dusk they shared after she found out, she was pregnant. Her mind was lost in memories of Solaris and the cave that was until she walked past a golden trunk she had never seen before and stopped dead in her tracks. She knew it belonged to Solaris, he was the only one besides her, Atlanta, and Aurora who knew about this cave; not even Endor who could see into the earth knew about this cave and that was just how she liked it hidden from the world. A private time capsule of memories, that was how much the cave truly meant to her.