The Shriving of Miss Esme Stamp…

Episode 64 …Rebecca’s Spell….

‘An adventure?’ Charles echoed the thoughts of the others. ‘That really sounds grand. I think we all can do with a sense, now of purpose.’ They grinned enthusiastically and Rebecca beamed, as if with a fortified new energy and life.

‘I shall take you into an adventure, such as you have never known’, she said. That will be my gift to you all, each and everyone sat around this table. It will be your alternative path that you may wish to tread in order to reach your dreams. I will give you those thoughts of your past and I will give you a sense of your futures. We will embark on our voyage in the morning. Today, I want to hear all about you. Your lives, your loves, and above all… Your dreams.’

The remaining day was spent first in idle chatter, then of personality, of likes and dislikes, and as the day wore-on to mid afternoon, talk became more honest and more serried.

Charles… And Rebecca’s Spell

It became light and slowly Charles opened his eyes to a brightening dawn. He could hear the call of hungry birds some distant away, then the sound of low voices. The wheels of some sort of vehicle would sound to his ear, reflected through that thin shielding glass of his bedroom window. Now and then, a distant honking horn could be heard.  He was not quite sure where he was. It were as if he was in some strange dreamlike state. The familiar sounds associated with his life in Bayswater were not there. He tried to focus his hearing and then his eyes. Nothing seemed to make sense. The bed upon which he lay and the room he was in became strange to him. He would have recognized the clatter of milk bottles on the front step or the snap shut of the letter flap downstairs. But there was none. Nothing to tell him where he was. The bed was small, he could feel its sides easily, just room for his body. Things were the same and yet they were not. There was no Esme beside him… He felt completely alone.

He stretched out tired limbs beneath the bed covering, then at once, threw them back and staggered himself to the beckoning window. He looked out.. Nothing became familiar to him. What lay before him was a huge grassland park of people walking, and resting  sometimes in pairs, smiling beneath a glorious sunshine. In the distance he could make out some sort of track, perhaps the roadway that he thought he heard, but there was no sign of any sort of transportation along its path. It simply wound away into a blue distance.

‘This is my world Charles. My world beyond the darkness. I have created those images from within your own deep thoughts and your feelings.’ Her voice he knew. It was familiar to him. He turned from the window. Rebecca stood before him. A creature of exquisite beauty, of loving eyes and warming lips.

In that moment, he felt he wanted to kiss her. Somehow, any burden he felt he had carried, lifted from him. Energy seemed to soar through his veins and into every sinew of his soul. “This is her spell” he told himself. “This is my dream.”

Her body was warm and soft to his touch. Their kiss was long and took him down a path of delicious enticement. His small bed seemed to grow much larger now and their bodies clung together for such of an eternity that awoke them both to a new dawning.

They lay together. Rebecca’s head resting gently on his chest. ‘Charles.’ She asked at last. Her voice was soft and thoughtful. ‘I know that you miss your parents so dreadfully. That you were an only child. Both your parents died from illness, and yet, with all those years gone… You still grieve and suffer inside?’

A watery tear began to well in Charles. ‘Yes,’ he murmured. ‘The consumption took them both.’ He sat up and looked at Rebecca. A question arose .’You know all this?’

‘Would you like to say goodbye to them for the very last time. To say, what you really feel about their departure from you. Do you want the reassurance that they are both truly happy and above all, that they miss you and love you. I can arrange those images for you Charles. It will be real to you, and real to your loved ones. This would be my thanks to you.’

‘You can do this for me?’ His eyes were full of her beauty. He tried to look deep into her soul and was pleased.

‘Yes I can.. she replied, ‘Take my hand and close your eyes. Let your thoughts here and now simply fade into nothingness. There will be darkness for a few moments and then you will awake to a warming and compelling world.’