A Song About The Moon

Part 4

"You are my dearest friend, my deepest love. You are the very best of me."

- The Best of Me, in theaters October 17

Part 4

Life after Cathers, after the meadow, after Sam and Rosemary was good, if not a little lonesome at times. She supposed they had mutually yet silently agreed to find their own path in life. Elara Song spent a good part of her early twenties drifting through this post-Cathers buzz. Everything was new and fresh and scary. But it was the best kind of scary. It was like the first gust of summer air after a long and bitter winter. She did not see or hear from Sam or Rosemary since they had finished school.

All was well for a while. By the beginning of 1967, Elara Song had left her librarian position and was training to become a primary school teacher. The library was only meant to be a yearlong job but somehow it had turned into three years. By the middle of 1968, Elara was working as a fully qualified teacher at a local primary school in North London. By the end of 1968, Elara was able to afford her own home. She still shared with Nancy Shepard, a beautiful Scottish girl she had befriended at university. It was mainly because she did not like idea of living along and also because Nancy was the closest friend she had. Elara had finally gotten the hang of this little thing called life and for once she was truly happy. Of course that did not last long.

Wednesday, July 16th 1969. Two things happened on this date. The first was historical, Apollo 11 had successfully launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida in the first mission to land a man on the moon. The second was devastating, Elara Song’s world did not shift, it collapsed and collided into a past she thought she had left behind. On that Wednesday evening, Elara returned home from a day out in central London with Nancy to find a couple of letters addressed to her.

Walking into the kitchen, she set her keys on the counter and shuffled through them automatically.

Bill.

Bill.

A postcard from her parents and little sister who were currently holidaying in the south of France.

Junk mail.

Bank statement.

Bill.

She paused when she came across a purple envelope. It was a wedding invitation. Elara racked her mind trying to think of who might be getting married. She opened it up and her eyes widened.

The pleasure of your company is requested at the marriage uniting Rosemary Devereux and Samson Bishop.
Saturday, August 11th 1969 at 3:05 P.M.

St. Joan’s Cathedral

Cunliffe Road

Bellmoor, Hampshire

And her heart sank into her stomach.

Elara dropped the invitation and turned to the cupboard. She pulled out a bottle of wine and quickly unscrewed the cork. She did not bother to find a glass, she merely brought the bottle to her drips and gulped it down for a good five seconds before she gasped and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She glanced at the wedding invitation lying on the linoleum floor and took another gulp.

It took Elara Song exactly three days and forty-two minutes to come to grasps with the fact Sam and Rosemary were getting married.

Sam.

Her Sam was marrying Rosemary. She had not heard from either of them for nine bloody years and this was the first piece of news she received?

Elara spent the week leading up to the wedding nervous and panicky and by the time Saturday rolled around, she was ready to throw up. It was the August 11th. The day of the wedding. A wedding she had at the last minute decided not to attend but Nancy had nagged her enough to make her go. Elara put on her favourite dress, a slim creamy gown she bought last week in a frenzied haze to find an outfit for the wedding. Nancy transformed her straight black hair into bouncing ringlets that framed her face, she pushed the rest up into a bun so it sat elegantly atop her head. Nancy assured her she looked beautiful and before she left, she gave her an encouraging smile and told her she could do this.