FOLLOW YOUR HEART

Chapter 25 - The Same Page

There are things that happen in your life that stick with you forever. Camila remembered the day Papa arrived from Mexico, getting her karaoke machine for her birthday, her first time on stage with an applauding audience, standing in the rain in Paris, the first time Shawn kissed her......and she would never forget this. They stood on the hill. The stones were gleaming in the light of the full moon, only three of them still stood, the rest were half submerged in the hill itself, covered with moss and plants. The moon was so big it seemed to hang just over the top of the hill, she felt she could reach up and touch it. She wouldn't have been surprised if a witch on a broomstick flew across the face of it. Everyone sitting around the outer perimeter of the circle were eerily still and quiet as the ladies walked out wearing long white gowns, holding lit torches. It wasn't a ceremony, Pam had told them, it was a performance that they practiced for this audience, but it was so beautiful as the women wove and dipped and spun around the stones in the silence. Was this what it had been like at Stonehenge when it was built? When life revolved around the earth and her seasons, the moon and her tides, the stars and constellations, the sun and the the warmth he provided to help everything grow and provide to earth's inhabitants.

Shawn held her hand tightly as she watched in awe. When it finished, there was no applause, the crowd just melted into the fog that had drifted in, and she and Shawn went with it. The fog got denser as they walked lower into the little valley, and it was so creepy, with the sun making it glow white and then even orange in some places, and all they could hear were the crunching of footsteps and the murmur of voices. They could be right beside them but it was so dark they would never know. It was the most perfect end to Halloween. They were cold and almost damp by the time they got to the village where the market had been. Trevor was running a booze bus, to drop the inebriated home so there were no drunk drivers on the road, and they joined in, the Hall turning out to be first on the route. As they drove, they sat silently, with her head on Shawn's shoulder. The girl in front of them turned around.

"I hope you don't mind, but I'm a big fan of both of you," she whispered.

"Thank you," Shawn said in his soft Canadian drawl. Camila could see the girl almost physically swoon and she hid a smile. She had watched him work that magic since he was sixteen years old.

"Did you have a good time?" the girl asked. "Isn't the dance at the stones amazing?"

"I loved it," Camila whispered back. "It was so beautiful."

"My big sister is one of the dancers, they are so proud of doing it. People come from all the surrounding villages to see it."

"Oh really? Did you have a good time too?"

"Oh yes, I spent all my money at the markets, they were fab!"

"What's your name honey?" Shawn asked. Cue swoon.

"Lily," the girl answered. "And this is my boyfriend, Theo."

"Nice to meet you," Shawn offered his hand to the guy and he took it, and despite his size the guy's hand looked small and very dark in Shawn's big white hand. "You don't mind if we don't do selfies tonight do you? We can give you an autograph though."

"No, we're not here for that, that's an invasion of privacy. We just wanted to say Hi! We all know you two have been staying at the Hall since Sir Garry died, like about once a month, and we make sure we don't tell a single soul outside the village. We send them off with the impression you're not here at all."

Camila's eyebrows raised. "Really? Well thank you!"

"You're one of us now," Lily said simply. She squeezed Shawn's hand and he looked down at her.