Eternity of Love

Chapter 1

24th December, 2001

9:15 pm

Silvia sat down on the sofa and put up her swollen feet on the center table. She glanced at the clock and saw that there was a lot of time before midnight. It was Christmas Eve and she was not sure if she had the courage to attend the mass without Greg. She had not done it in years, not since Greg arrived in her life. Sometimes she felt she had died with him and had not been able to cross over because god was playing a cruel joke on her.

The past two and a half months had just flown by and Silvia only had a fuzzy recollection of events that she often played in her head at night as she tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.

Greg’s body was discovered from the rubble on the 5th day after the attacks on the World Trade Center. She had received a call at about 5:00 am in the morning on 15th September by officer Roy who had simply asked her to come to the hospital.

She remembered arriving at the hospital, where officer Roy took her to the morgue to identify Greg. As she had removed the sheet of cloth to look at the face of the body, her heart had silently prayed to let it be someone else. But her prayers had not been answered. The body had nearly been torn, but it was Greg, cold and dead.

Tears had rolled down her face in a steady flow and she had been blinded by raging grief, slipping in and out of conscious for some days that followed. The funeral itself had been an extremely emotional journey with friends and family flying in from all nooks and corners of the country to pay their last respects to Greg.

When Meralda had arrived for her son’s funeral she had made it clear to Silvia that it was her fault Greg was gone. Meralda blamed Silvia for not stopping Greg from going to the office earlier as they both worked in the same building. In Meralda’s eyes, Silvia was a criminal because she was alive while Greg was dead. She had left right after the burial and not called back once.

Silvia had no memory of the memorial service except that the church was completely full and a lot of tears were spilled that day. Her father-in-law had been gentle to her and Tom had told her to call her if she ever needed his help. He had also kept in touch with her calling her every week to inquire about her well being.

The first time Silvia realized Greg was really gone was when thanksgiving arrived. She had woken up bubbling with energy and she had plunged into the kitchen, planning to prepare a great feast for the day.

“Greg….Greggg…I am making mashed potato and chicken dumplings for you, do you want something else for yourself…..” and it had hit her. Her man was gone, never to come back.

She had cried all day long. She had not taken calls, not gone out and nearly killed herself by hitting the car into the tree. Halloween was no better.  Slowly, it had dawned on her that she was alone and she had started coming to terms with that.

This had taken a toll at her life. She no longer laughed, shopped, gossiped, went on dinners. She simply engaged herself in her office work from dawn till dusk. She worked so much that when she came home, she went straight to bed. She lived on Chinese take outs and pizzas ordered in the office apart from coffee.

She had lost a lot of weight and although she had become more beautiful, her eyes had become very sad and soul-less.

Only two weeks back, she had discovered that she was three months pregnant. In months, the first smile had cracked on her face but it did not completely reach her eyes. She had collected her reports and gone straight to her apartment. She had lain on the bed and cried all day for Greg.

He had loved children and would have been elated on hearing about his first child, but, it was not to be. She had cried herself to sleep. However, when she woke up the next morning, she had taken two days off from work to sort out her plans for the future and her baby, their first baby.

She knew Greg was gone, but she would never let any harm come to her baby.   

Gloom and silence filled the apartment as Silvia pondered over attending the mass. In the end she decided to go for her child. She got up to get dressed. She would grab dinner before going to the church. She was combing her hair when the phone rang.

“Hello” she picked it up on the third ring.

“Silvia, hi it’s Jennifer here” the happy voice carried through the ear piece. “I was wondering if you are going to the mass?”

“Yes, I will go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral right after I have had dinner, infact I was just leaving to go out.”

“Lovely Sil, I’ll meet you at the church then, be there by 11:30”

“OK”

“Bye, see you there.” And the line was disconnected.

Jennifer was Silvia’s only friend from office. She had helped Silvia come back to life bit by bit and she was the only source of happiness in Silvia’s life at the moment.

Silvia got her purse and turned off the lights before closing the door shut.