LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
The Present - A Month Later
A brisk wind blew the few remaining leaves off the old oak tree on the side of the house and each one floated absently down to the ground underneath.
“Hello,” Paige called out, waving.
Waving back, Mister Tompkins passed by on his tractor. A cart was attached to the back and was sucking up the remaining leaves lying on the ground.
Turning around, she headed back into the house and picked up the last box of her clay pieces to bring to town.
It was only the end of November, but she felt like she had been back from the past for a lot longer than a few weeks.
Once she got home, Paige was determined to go back to the past. She packed clothes, food, books and anything she could think of to bring that she could carry and then headed off to the mountain where the Highlands Games had been held. Not the one she first traveled to the past from, but the one in Virginia where she and Gavin had both travelled. However, when she got there all her hopes were dashed because the tent was gone and the gypsy was nowhere to be found.
Paige questioned the couple at the hotel but they did not know her whereabouts but strangely enough, they mentioned another Highlander that had come to stay with them.
Apparently, he had stayed there for three weeks and they told her he looked just like Gavin, although a darker version, as they put it. Of course, Paige knew immediately that they were talking about Clarion, or at least a high probability that he was there. However, she didn’t know how or why he was in the same hotel she and Gavin had stayed in. That seemed like a bit too much of a coincidence.
Shifting the box to her other arm, she shut the door and locked it. It was a chilly afternoon and she was glad she was wearing one of her heavier sweaters. In the mountains, even during the summer, it was always good to have a sweater or jacket handy because the weather was always unpredictable. An umbrella too. It rained often, but usually never lasted very long even though a lot of rain came down in a short period of time. At times like these, Paige was reminded of Scotland, which in turn reminded her of Gavin and she began getting depressed all over again.
After she got back from the past, she was a mess. Her depression nearly consumed her. But when she thought she couldn’t go on any longer, her Grans voice crept in, “Time heals all wounds,” which would have been great and all, but the wounds she had she didn’t think would ever heal. In the end, she was right. As the days passed, Paige started to feel better, not great, but better. Her art helped too and also the mapping out of Highland Games gave her something to do. Unfortunately, there would be no more games until the spring, so she made do with making plans for when she could hunt down that other gypsy again.
Getting inside the car, Paige shut the door and started the engine. Her little car rumbled to life, and she put the car in gear and headed out to town.
As usual, once she started driving anywhere, she would immediately think of Gavin and his death grip on her dash, which always brought a smile to her face with the remembrance and then bring tears to her eyes.
It was a constant and vicious, never ending cycle.
To add insult to injury, every so often, her mind would stray to Clarion and she would revisit their time together. It usually happened at night, while she was sleeping but when she woke, she had a hard time vanquishing the heated memories from her brain of those few hours they spent in each other’s arms.
Then she would feel guilty and another vicious cycle of regret and guilt would begin again.
Ominous clouds hung low in the sky as Paige pulled into the parking lot. Hoping to make it home before the rain came; she put her car in park and killed the engine.
A few people ran past with shopping bags, making haste before the storm hit. This time of year, there were never as many people here. They would come back in the spring, after the thaw, when the Highland Games returned.
The only good thing that has come from being home is that her business has really been taking off and she has had to fill a lot of orders— mind you, she cried her eyes out pretty much the entire time because each piece reminded her of Gavin. Some even resembled him, but she kept those. However, there was apparently a big market for Highlander Sculptures. These looked a lot like the rest of the Highlanders she had met while she was in the past.
Paige did many likenesses of each and even one of Clarion. I kept his sculpture too. Not because she loved him like Gavin, but rather, more of a fond memory of their time together.
Keeping them close by made Paige feel less alone and gave her inspiration for another series of statues/figures, which consisted of various gypsies, some young, some old, and she even made a Serpent/Loch Monster fountain. That was one of her largest pieces and one of her best sellers as well. Each had a few semi-precious stones and old coins set in the bottom of the basin where the water flowed which represented the ever-elusive treasure of Loch Morar.
Getting out of the car, she rounded the back and opened the trunk. Leaning in, she grabbed a box.
A dog barked.
“Elvis,” she said automatically. Even though she knew it couldn’t be him, her heart started beating really fast. Letting go of the box, she turned around.
With his tail wagging, a dog came bounding towards Paige.
She stumbled backward, not from fear, but shock. “Elvis,” she repeated thinking she must be losing her mind.
The dog jumped on Paige, his big paws leaving spots of mud on her sweater, but she didn’t care.
“Oh MY GOD! Elvis, it’s really you!” Tears welled in her eyes as she held onto the big dog for as long as she could.
His tongue rolled out and licked her face.
Laughing, she hugged him tighter.
Elvis wasn’t having any of that though, and he dropped down and went bounding away before she got her balance back.
“Wait…where are you going?” Paige ran around the side of her car and froze.
Right in front of her with Elvis at his side, stood the man she had been thinking and dreaming about every day since she had been back.
“Gavin…”