Promise from the heart

Chapter 42

Later during the trip, Ariel and Agatha had been in the lake swimming and having fun with their friends when the teacher had called for them. They had sighed and joked with their friends and reluctantly gone to see their teacher. But once saw the sheer horror on her face, they were smiling no longer.

The teacher had driven them straight to the hospital, but it had been too late. Their father's boss from the construction site was there to meet them. He was Scottish, and the girls knew him from their father's many stories about him and the rest of his co-workers. They always made fun of each other, but it was all in good fun, and out of love. They were as close as brothers.

Jade hadn't told the girls that he'd been picking up extra shifts here and there, nor that he'd been working almost day and night during their school trip.

"He wanted to send you both off to college," Josh, the boss had explained. "He took on any and every shift we could offer him. I told him to slow down, we all did, but he said he was fine."

"Today he was more tired than ever when he came to work. The lads came to me, concerned about him drinking so much coffee and looking so out of it. So I was on my way to tell your father to stay inside and work by the computer today instead. Then I saw him up on the fourth floor. He hadn't heard the other lads up there call out to him, warn him, and he lost his footing. They tried to grab him, but no one made it in time.

He might have made it if he had just fallen on the ground... but beneath that scaffold," he sniffled, "there lied pipes, windows and..." he trailed off.

He took a deep breath and looked mournfully at Ariel and Agatha. "We called an ambulance and they rushed him here, but when he hit the surface, his neck broke. There was nothing they could do."

Ariel was speechless, but her sister spoke for them both. "Was he in pain?"

Josh rushed forward and enveloped both of them in a slightly awkward but very warm hug.

"Before he was rolled into the ambulance, he was still awake. He wasn't in pain, and he almost looked peaceful. The lads and I knew that couldn't be a good sign, but none of us had the heart to say it. He wanted us to tell you girls something, and of course we all agreed. He didn't have much voice left, but we managed to make out what he was saying, or singing rather. I wrote it down." he sniffled and fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper.

He sniffled again and then began to read, and his warm Scottish voice was oddly comforting to them both.

"I said I love you and that's forever

And this I promise from the heart

I could not love you any better

I love you just the way you are"

***

Charlie finished off the cord and then gently placed the guitar by his bedside. Once he starts playing or singing, he gets so absorbed in it that he loses time and space for a while. He turned to his aunt to look at her and he was shocked to find her sobbing, her small hands clutching the pillow so hard the knuckles were white.

"Auntie. I'm sorry, auntie. I didn't mean to upset you. Please talk to me. I'm sorry." He fretted and gently brushed her tears away before he hugged her to him.

"You saw him?" she sobbed.

He nodded, but realised she couldn't see him. "I did." he said in a faraway voice.

"You liked him then." she sniffled.

"I wish I could have had time with him. It was just a vision but... he made me feel so seen, so safe and so loved. I've never met a person like that before. When he asked me to do something for you, to play you this, I couldn't refuse. I didn't want to."

Ariel giggled and held him tighter. "He had that effect on people. People couldn't help but love him. He always made you feel like the only person in the room, like you were special. And he was always so very warm. Not just literally, but his soul, his spirit. He made you feel safe."

Charlie swallowed loudly as he rested his chin on his aunt's shoulder. "The song." he said carefully. "What did it mean?"

He listened to his aunt tell him about the way they danced and sang together and what he had said that day.

"I think I love him." he mumbled.

"I can relate."

"I know he's not alive but... what happened to him?"

He could feel his aunt's warm tears drizzle down on shoulder. And as she told him how Jade had died, it wasn't before long that his own tears fell as well. It started out with a few tears and by the time her story ended, he was sobbing in her arms. He knew his grandfather was dead, but for those moments in the vision, and as he sang that song, he had felt so alive to Charlie, and he had felt so connected to him. To hear what happened to him, to know that he wasn't there anymore and that he lost out on a childhood with Jade there as his grandfather, it was too much. It felt like Jade had died then and there, and Charlie mourned him deeply.

His injuries hurt, but his heart hurt far more, so he clung to her and he cried. They clung to each other and they mourned the person they loved and lost, the person who had made them both feel so very special.

Then Charlie wiped his tears and turned to his phone.

"Really?" his aunt said with a droll stare and raised a perfect eyebrow.

"Just wait." he said as he found the right song on YouTube.

When it started playing, he saw her eyes glistening.

"I'm not much of a dancer with my injuries right now, but... can I have this dance?"

She sniffled and nodded. Carefully they swayed back and forth together, as they sang the song to each other, and to Jade. Somewhere in the middle, they could feel Agatha's energy join in.

As much as his heart was breaking in that moment, Charlie felt blessed. He finally felt like he belonged with them, and like he was one of them. Even though he knew his mother and aunt loved him, he always felt like he didn't belong there, like he didn't deserve them. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't meant to be a part of a family. But meeting Jade, that somehow made it clear that this was his family, and it was okay for him to be there with them. No one was going to make him leave. No matter where they lived, in them he had a home.