The Great Goddess Tree Tale

XXVII - The great explosion

The great flash created itself on the high hill. The entire region in which they lived was capable to hear and see the great explosion. The neighbors came out of their houses in search of such an event. The smoke raised up to night sky lightened up by the ashamed Moon.

Kalima fell at the ground with Holver in her arms. Luckily, she held him with strength and he nothing suffered. The maid also was thrown away by the huge bang. At that moment the smell of burned wood was coming. They all were astonished and paralyzed by what just happened.

The maid, even with the fall, went straight to help Kalima get up. Holver was fine. The boy was calm, with the same peaceful little face as always, independently of the chaos that succeeded out there. Maybe his name's meaning revealed the truth about him.

The mom left him at the crib and both went outside the house to see the damage on the garden. The smell of burn was stronger now. They got on the scene, but there was no sign of the Tree, not even a single branch or leaf out of place; nothing. Just a huge hole, dark and smoking, had formed.

Obviously, that from Mat, any trace or part of his body was not found as well. Kalima and the maid couldn't believe what they see; it looks like someone did a huge bonfire at the place and then just cleaned up the place, leaving just the dark soil as the witness of the occurrence. Only that. In a magical way, the Tree had just blown up, or simply disappeared without leaving any trace behind to prove its existence. And our beloved Mat was taken with it.

Kalima, nervous and frightened, sat down nearby the dark earth and started to sob. She was a widow now, she understood. The maid hugs her, and both cried the loss of Dr. Salans, Mat Salans. The gorgeous boy that came to North's Great Isle over two years ago now disappeared from this world on a huge fire event. Destiny, or Karma, followed in that way, just like did with his parents, on the Great Fire on the Larder. The karmic wheel keeps spinning.

The neighbors started to arrive and little by little the house was filled with strangers offering help to the poor mom and her son. The firemen of the Village, or what we could call the brigades, came an hour after. On the dark hole, just the smell of burnt earth, was left.

People asked the two witness what happened, but both gave the same version of the story. The husband died on an accident when he exploded accidentally a homemade explosive by self-neglect.

After a while, that version was confirmed by the salesman of the hardware store. Kalima wouldn't have to pronounce what she saw on that fateful and tragical day. And the maid, by solidarity to the family, also confirmed that version of the story and until the ends of her days she didn't open her mouth to tell anyone about the vision of the great Tree.

After some days, Kalima realized a "virtual" tribute to Mat's death. She had laid a cross in front of the huge hole. On that day, Elise Marie, Satir, Johann Marcein and some acquaintances of the villages were present. With Holver on her arms, they prayed to Dr. Mat Salans' soul. Kalima hadn't tell Mat's aunt about his death. She only would tell it when being personally on the Continent, and his moving out already had a day to happen.

During the following month, Kalima prepared herself to leave the Isle once at all. She swore that she would never step on that land again in her life. What she experienced beautifully with Mat, her prosperous establishment by the road, Holver's homeland, it was all stained by the supernatural event that she experienced on that Full Moon night.

Her life wouldn't be the same after that fateful encounter. She couldn't live anymore on that insane land of improbable nature.

However, two weeks after, she had been with Elise and told her the whole episode. All the humanly unbelievable details, she reported to the surprise of Elise. That tale of the Great Goddess Tree seemed to be a truth, though, both agreed. None scientific explanation, but it happened. Kalima remembered all the times that Mat came home scratched and he told her that he had fallen down the cliff and attacked by boars. Maybe it was already the Tree, many times at the Inn, they thought.

The unbelievable and supernatural ending was the consequence of a relationship of a human being with a being of another dimension, beyond our understanding. Both tried not to digress over many theories trying to explain the occurrence; they simply accepted the supernatural and closed the matter. Buried it the same way that did with Mat.

Kalima said goodbye to the friend and she promised to visit Kalima soon on Continent, on her parents' house, where she would move on and raise the child. The grandparents would be irreplaceable and crucial on Holver's life now on.

To finalize her matters, Kalima luckily made to sell the prosperous Inn in a very short period. She also said goodbye to Satir with certain heartache.

That boy also was part of her life on the Isle, she remembered of the warmest and happiest days.

Finally, on her last day on the Isle, when she was already on the pier, with stuff packed and son in her arms, she looked to the Great Isle with the same pain and nostalgy of Mat when he first ran away. A mix of horror and candor settled down on the widow's heart. The great woman that came by herself and now was returning with a son on her arms. The beautiful brunette that conquered the heart of a physician coming from the Continent.