Chapter 14 – Finding the perfect way to say… goodbye
‘Did I disappoint you or let you down? Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown? 'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun, Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won. So I took what's mine by eternal right. Took your soul out into the night. It may be over but it won't stop there, I am here for you if you'd only care. You touched my heart you touched my soul. You changed my life and all my goals.’
We slowly finished our drinks, and Dante finished his cake before looking up at me.
“Would you like to go now, or give it a little longer?” He asked softly.
“Give it a little longer please.” I replied as I looked over at him, he seemed to tell I was a wreck as he got up, and slipped onto the couch I was sat on, his arms wrapped around me and he held me close as he kissed my cheek.
“Sh… It’s OK baby… She would just have wanted you to be happy… Celebrate her life, rather than mourn her death!” He said in a gentle tone, and I nodded.
“I know… But I can’t help it… It was so sudden… And the last thing I said to her before the fight was for her to leave me alone… I was so angry at her… She didn’t support us… She was getting on my case when she was the one person I trusted, and she didn’t understand, I was so angry… I-I can’t forgive myself for that… I was a bitch to her and she didn’t do anything wrong.” I whispered as I buried my heard in his chest.
Dante kissed the top of my head and gently rocked me as he hummed a soothing tune in my ear.
After a little while I slowly started to relax, I was still upset… But I was calm and composed enough to go back there… Back to where she was buried.
“Let’s go and do it now.” I said in a quiet voice as I looked up at him, Dante nodded and kissed my cheek before he stood, holding out his hand for me which I took, and slipped out of the booth.
Dante motioned for the bill and paid, I looked at him.
“I was going to pay for my bit.” I said but he shook his head.
“My treat… You’re upset, I want to use it to cheer you up.” Dante replied as I smiled a little, I looked up at him and smiled slightly too.
“Thank you.” I said softly before I followed him back to Sally.
I looked at the small mound that was now there because we had disrupted the soil, and then at the tree. It looked like the perfect place to carve a little note.
“What about here?” I asked, as I motioned to the part of the tree I was thinking about carving, I was careful not to step on the mound of soil, I didn’t want to be disrespectful to Sally, so I walked around the outside of the mound.
I looked up to see what Dante thought, and he nodded so I pulled out the knife I had been using, it was a thick tree, so there was a lot of space to carve into.
‘Here lies Sally… Cut down in battle protecting me… I will always thing about you and miss you… Thank you, I know I didn’t say it often enough… But thank you… I hope you can see this Sally, I love you, see you soon I hope E x’
I wrote before looking up at Dante, he was smiling a little and nodded.
“Perfect.” He said softly before he gently took the knife off of, me and added.
‘R.I.P Sally Armstrong’ to the end of my message.
“There we go.” He smiled and I nodded.
“She would have liked something like this… She was never the sort of person who liked big fancy things.” I said in a quiet voice, and Dante nodded.
