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It was December twenty-third. The last weeks had been so hectic.
First of all, I had to convince Noah to let Ayleen see Daniel. I explained the reasons and if we didn’t let him, it could have been worse. I was convinced he was capable of anything.
He agreed though he wasn’t happy with it. The first time I took Ayleen to see him at the Cheyenne Reserve where Daniel lived, he asked me to come to talk to Daniel alone. I got a little scared, thinking that they might get into a fight or something like that, but Noah promised not to. He just wanted to talk man to man.
From afar I saw them talking but couldn’t hear anything. I tried to guess what they were saying, without success of course. I thought Noah asked him not to confuse things between us and the girl, and to take care of her or else.
It all went good.
Ayleen was happy to see Daniel again and we could see she had missed him a lot. She talked about him all the time, her behavior got a lot better and she even stopped saying mean words.
I would drop her off and return immediately, I didn’t want to talk to him. I limited myself to greet him. I noticed in various occasions that Dan wanted to start a conversation talking to me about anything, but I wouldn’t follow. I knew his games and I didn’t want to take a part of it.
Ashley and Thomas were anxious to have Christopher home. The adoption process is long because there are a lot of things to go over; visits to the psychologist to see if they were mentally capable of taking care of a baby, psychological tests, routine stuff.
The social worker came to visit the mansion to see if everything was in order, she was excited to see the little guy’s room next to the future parents. Everything was more than ready from weeks before. Only a couple interviews were left which included talking to each member of the family alone.
We asked for a special request to take Christopher on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They were delighted and accepted the request.
Ann and Margaret were decorating, per say, the entire mansion. A huge decorated Christmas tree was at the family room. The environment was definitely happy at the Jefferson’s house.
When I finished working and went straight to the car and headed to the antique store. I wanted to get Noah something special for Christmas. I had a big smile across my face at the thought that there were actually two presents instead of one.
I parked the car and I got down adjusting my coat. I raised my head to see the cloudy sky. I was hoping it wouldn’t snow right now. I went into the shop and went straight to the counter. An old lady with white pulled back hair smiled at me nicely. I don’t know why I thought for a moment I’d to see an old Ann since it was the same shop where I found the pendant my father gave me. How foolish.
“Good afternoon. How can I help you?” The old lady asked.
“Hello, I was looking for something special to give someone really important to me.” I said excitedly.
“What sort of thing were you looking for?” She asked kindly.
I hesitated for a moment.
“I don’t know exactly, I’ll know it when I see it.”
The old lady showed me everything she had in her store, going through old coins to paintings, lamps, silver lighters, and antique jewelry hid behind the counter.
When the old lady saw what I was looking at, took the object out and allowed me to see closely. It was a silver keychain blackened overtime. By its oval and thick form, I figured it was hiding something and carefully I discovered it opened into three little containers to put pictures in.
“Perfect! This is what I want.” I said happily.
“Oh, good to hear you found what you’ve been looking for. Let me clean it up for you and it will be good as new. It will just me a moment, nothing more.” The old lady told me.
She took the keychain away, took out a crystal bottle from underneath the counter with an opaque liquid and started cleaning it with love.
I searched in my purse for my wallet and took a picture of Ayleen out, one of Noah and one of me. They were the perfect size. When the lady finished she gave me the key chain and I put the pictures inside leaving the third one free. The lady wrapped it I paid for it. Right after I went to the car to go home.
My cellphone rang somewhere in my purse, I found it and on the screen I saw it was Noah calling me. I smiled right away and I pressed it and replied aloud, the call connected through Bluetooth.
“Hello, love.”
“Alison, could you go to the reserve to pick Ayleen up?”
“Yeah, of course. Where are you?”
“I’m with Thomas and Jeffrey at the mall. I came with them to so some last minute Christmas shopping. For a moment I thought Thomas was going to buy the whole toy store, it costs us a lot of work to convince him not to. With all of this I lost track time.
“Don’t worry, I’m still downtown, it’s on my way anyway.”
“Still working at this hour?”
I laughed inside, if he only knew...
“No, last minute shopping.”
“Alison, we said no presents. Remember that absurd idea was yours.”
“Who says it’s for you?” I replied quickly.
“Touché.” He answered and I bit my lower lip nervously.
If he could see me right now, he would find out about my little lie, I was sure of it.
“Well love, I’ll see you at home. I love you.”
And before he could ask any more questions, I hung up.
I took the exit as soon as I could from the high way; there was a lot of traffic. It was normal for this season as everyone was rushing doing their Christmas shopping.
I took the exit towards the Cheyenne Reserve; I could see the wooden rooftops from where I was, in almost all of them there was smoke coming out from the chimneys. I stopped the car by the house and knocked on the door.
I knocked twice.
“Come in, it’s open!” I heard Aka’wi yell.
I went in and felt the warmth right away. Daniel’s father smiled kindly at me.
“Hello, Alison.”
“Hello, Aka’wi. Where’s everybody?”
“They’re at Teo and Emily’s place having dinner and I’m sure they’ll be here any moment now. Please sit down and have some coffee, it’s freshly ground and hot.
I did it without hesitating. I took my coat off, left in on the chair and headed to the kitchen. I noticed how Aka’wi wouldn’t take his eyes off me, it didn’t bother me. His eyes widened and he smiled nodding thoughtfully. How strange.
I sat on the rocking chair closed to the chimney, the heat coming out of with felt great with this weather. Daniel’s father came to me.
“The spirits told me that they have blessed you again, Alison.” He murmured happily.
I leaped at his words. No one knew about it, I had just found out this morning. My pulse accelerated; I looked at him cautiously.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I replied quickly.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m happy for you and your...future husband.”
The coffee mug slipped falling on the floor and breaking into tiny pieces. I stood quickly feeling scared since the wedding was supposed to be a secret. No one should know about it, especially Daniel.
“You can calm down. Your secret is safe with me.”
I saw in his eyes he was being sincere.
“But, how did you know?”
“Because I, just like my father before me, can hear the tribe’s spirits when they talk, something my son stopped doing years ago.”
“You’ve been talking to Red Cloud, you father?” I asked.
I never saw him again.
“Yes.” He said. “Not just with him, with a lot of them. We’ve been doing this forever. A sorcerer is born in every generation. Though is strange for you, the dead still communicate with us this way. They tell us about dangers, they let us see things that haven’t happen yet, or things that happened already to help whoever needs it.”
“Nothing is strange anymore.”
“I know. You have lived things far from logic and I think you deserve to be happy. My son, even if he doesn’t want to, will soon be invited to talk with our ancestors; he was supposed to enter the circle years ago.”
“Why hasn’t he?” I asked.
“Because his spirit is not in peace, he rebelled against me, against his town, his roots; because he can’t accept that you are not his soulmate. If he stopped for a moment to see, he could see his soulmate is...”
He couldn’t finish telling me because the door opened letting Daniel and Ayleen in. She came running to give me a hug.
Dan shook my head, but didn’t say anything.
“Mommy! Did you now Dani already gave me my Christmas present?” She said happily and excitedly.
“And what is it?”
“Look.”
She went running to him who gave him a little bag and ran towards me again. She took it out and gave it to me so I could see it better.
It was a necklace with fine leather, braided strips and at the end, it had a silver moon.
“It’s really pretty.” I said softly, she smiled big and her eyes were filled with excitement.
She turned around and went to Daniel who picked her up and gave her a hug. I watched them, I knew he would take care of her with his life, but it hurt a little to see how close they were.
“Sweetie, it’s late, we have to go home. Say bye and wish them happy holidays.”
She did it without complaining. I said goodbye to Aka’wi and we exchanged agreeing looks. Daniel took us to the car and he helped my daughter with her seat belt. As soon as my daughter was set, she yawned and fell right to sleep.
I looked at the sky and it was getting darker, a sign that it was really late.
I stared as he gave my daughter a kiss on the forehead, then he closed the door and went around the car to get to me.
Our eyes met and I felt uncomfortable.
“Alison, now that we’re alone, I just wanted to thank you.”
“What for?”
“For letting me see Ayleen again.”
“Did you give me a choice?” I said bitterly.
“I guess not.” He replied quickly.
“Look, Daniel, with the holidays so close, I really don’t feel like arguing with you.”
“I don’t either. I know I have behaved horribly in the past and I swear I’ll do anything to change. I want us to be friends like we used to. I...miss you.”
He caught me off guard.
“I miss you too. I miss my friend, my brother, and all the things we used to do together.”
I looked down.
“Like when we’d ride out bikes? We could do that sometime if you want!” He said hopeful.
I looked at him again, hi black eyes with a spark of happiness. I rolled my eyes like I did so many times before and I slapped his arm.
“No, silly! I will not risk myself on a bike, remember that more than once I would fall horribly eating dirt and the truth is, I’m not up for it.”
We looked at each other and burst out laughing, remembering those times. Without warning he put an arm on my neck and pulled me closer to him. I could swear he was smelling my hair.
“I missed your laugh.” He murmured.
He let go and I gave him a peck on the cheek.
“Happy Holidays, Daniel. I have to go, it’s getting late.”
“Of course, Happy Holidays to you too.”
While I was driving towards the mansion, I remembered Aka’wi’s words. Who would Dan’s soulmate be? I wanted to know. Like he said, if Daniel would stop to see how things really are, he would find his soulmate and he’d finally be happy. That would be great. More than that, we could all live in peace.
I daydreamed that one day we could go to the reserve and spend a sunny day with Daniel’s family. How would his kids look like? I could almost imagine them with their reddish skin and dark hair, just like their father.
I sighed. I realized I was arriving at the mansion, I slowed down to pull into the driveway and I pared beside Thomas’ jeep. They were home.
I had barely turned off the engine when Noah was coming towards me with long steps. He looked really sexy and my heart began pounding and the butterflies in my stomach were all over the place.
God...after all these years he could still astonish me this way.
I took my seat belt off and got out of the car. He stood in front of me and I looked at him straight into his eyes. I hadn’t seen much of him these past days, work had been crazy and I was exhausted at nights.
He gave a twisted smile, my favorite and I smiled back. I could swear my heart went flying somewhere.
He took my face into his arms and he pressed his lips against mine softly with a sigh at first, and then more passionately. A kiss full of love and enthusiasm. He made me lose my head and I pressed my body against his. I put my arms around his neck and returned the kiss with the same intensity.
“Get a room!” Ann’s voice said from behind followed by a giggle.
I had to lean my head back to get some air, I was almost out of breath just like he was. We decided to ignore her.
“What a great way to greet me.” I murmured.
“I’ve missed you so much these past couple of days, love.”
“Just like I’ve missed you.”
I turned my head towards the car.
“Ayleen fell asleep as soon as she got into the car.”
“I should get her into bed, she’ll be more comfortable there.” He said tenderly.
We put out daughter to bed and kissed her goodnight. I watched as Noah took her shoes off and tucked her in. I turned the night light on and we went down to the kitchen.
“Are you hungry?” He asked.
I hadn’t realized I was starving.
“Yes, very.”
I was heading towards the fridge to make myself something to eat when Noah interfered.
“Go sit down, make yourself comfortable. I already made dinner.”
I looked at him surprised.
“You haven’t eaten dinner?”
“No.”
But, why? It’s so late, you should’ve eaten something.”
“Because I wanted to have dinner with you.” He explained patiently running his finger down my chin, he raised my head and gave me a kiss on the nose.
He took me to the dinner table and made me sit. I led him guide me thankful for the gesture.
Dinner was delicious. We talked about anything.
After cleaning the table, we went to the couch in front of the chimney. I snuggled with Noah who took me into his arms, finally a moment alone.
I looked at the Christmas stocking with all of our names, this year there was an extra with green letters that read Christopher, I let out a giggle at the thought that there would be yet another one next year.
“What’s so funny? Tell me.” He asked.
“Nothing, just silliness. I was wondering if the wedding could be sooner”
“Why would you want to do that?”
I couldn’t tell him that in June I’d have a huge belly.”
“Because I’m dying to be your wife again.” I replied quickly, it was partially true.
“I think it’s an excellent idea, I agree with you, my love.” He said with his wonderful voice. He gave me a kiss on the forehead.
“Now we have to tell Ann, I think she’ll have a heart attack.” I said loudly.
“Me? A heart attack? Why?” She asked suddenly and came to sit by the sofa to look at me waiting for an answer.
“Well, I...we decided to move the wedding closer.”
Ann’s reaction was quick; she jumped out of the sofa and yelled.
“What?! Are you crazy? Is that a joke? I believed in for a split second...”
Her screams alarmed her husband. He put his hands on her shoulders a little worried.
“Ann, why are you screaming like that? You’ve scared me.”
“Jeffrey, Alison made a bad joke.” She complained. “She said they want to move the wedding forward...that’s not funny, is it? With everything that there’s left to do.”
“It wasn’t a joke, Ann.” I interrupted in a low voice.
She jumped again and came closer, she fell on her knees in front of me. She made a puppy face, her eyes full of tears and her chin trembling.
“You don’t love me anymore? Not even a little bit?” She asked trying to convince me not to.
I knew her perfectly and the way she tried to convince people to do whatever she wanted them to do.
“You know I do.”
“So then? Only six months left, nothing will happen if you wait just a little longer.” She begged.
“Ann, I don’t want to wait and I don’t want a big wedding. If it’s just us, I’m more than happy.”
“Can’t you imagine yourself in a big, beautiful white dress? Bridesmaids, flowers, and candles everywhere? With an orchestra playing as you enter and your first dance?”
“If I didn’t do all of that the first time, I don’t care if I don’t have it the second time around. Remember that’s the way we did it the first time in Las Vegas, just family and with a guy dressed as Elvis Presley. It was fun.”
My sister-in-law had tears in her eyes. I bit my lip not knowing what to do. I knew she was planning my wedding, but she had to respect my decision.”
“Please, don’t do this to me, don’t cry. I have my reasons.” I mumbled.
He studied my face carefully. Suddenly her expression changed and pointed at me.
“You’re hiding something from me!” She was demanded to know.
“No.” I replied harshly.
I looked at her feeling annoyed, it was unbearable. There was not one day that I could find out things about me for myself without her telling me first. I thought it was fine if she warned us about dangers and those sorts of stud, but this was beyond her limits.
Probably my hormones were talking for me right now, but her attitude of a little girl upset me.
“What’s going on here?” Ashley asked as she came into the room with Thomas behind her. “Ann, we could hear your screams from the first floor, you’re going to wake Ayleen up.” She stared at her.
I got up from the couch feeling upset, the only thing I wanted was to spend some time with Noah.
“Ashley, I told Ann I wanted the wedding to be sooner and she wouldn’t let me.” I asked nervously.
“Woah, girl fight...” Thomas said excitedly.
He went to sit beside Noah and rubbed his hand together. “This should be more fun that watching Oprah.”
“Thomas, you better shut up and stay out of it.” Noah warned him.
Jeffrey got away from us and went behind the couch. Smart move, clever boy.
“Ann, let Alison chose the date of her wedding. It is her wedding, not yours. She can do whatever she wants to, understand? End of discussion.”
Ann crossed her arms, but by her expression I knew she wouldn’t give up.
“A wedding takes time to organize and you can’t change the date just like that. I demand to know why I have to move everything around.”
“Because I want it that way.” I said feeling annoyed by the situation. “And if you keep going I’ll ask Noah to take me to Las Vegas again. There will be nothing to organize, no party, no dress, no bridesmaids. Nothing at all.”
“But you can’t do this to me...to me! Not again, last time you eloped to run away from getting married in a church like normal people do and I understood, but not this time.”
I was really annoyed now and felt in pain.
“There is nothing to understand, Ann.”
I started to feel sick, my knees were trembling and my head seemed to weight a hundred pounds. I was exhausted and this was even more.
“But, what’s going to happen that made you change your mind all of the sudden?” She asked
I raised my head and she had the look...the look where she searched for the future. With her eyes a little closed and a finger on her temple, she concentrated. I went to her quickly and took her by the hand to lower it from her face, she looked at me puzzled.
“Do not look into my future!” I yelled irritated.
“What?! But why not? I always have.”
“Ann, the fact that you can see into the future is great. But sometimes it’s not good to tell everything you see. Sometimes we’d like to find out by ourselves what the future holds for us.” Ashley explained.”
“You liked it when I saw the little one.” She complained.
“Yes, of course and thanks to you I embarrassed myself in the auction while you were enjoying the show. Now thanks to you I have to wait more time since the social worker heard I was emotionally unstable and violent. Thanks a lot, Ann.”
They looked at each other; the tension was obvious in the room. Now everything was silent and we couldn’t even hear anyone breathing. Ann kicked the floor like a little girl that she didn’t get what she wanted and left the room quickly.
“Thanks for supporting me, Ashley.” I murmured.
“It was nothing. I think my little sister has been needing this for a while now, someone to put her in her place. She doesn’t understand that she could be annoying, she doesn’t understand logic.”
“You made Ann kick like a little girl. That was fun.” Thomas was laughing.
We could hear the engine of a car and the tires squeaking loudly from accelerating fast. Everyone froze in panic. Jeffery left the room running panicking.
We got to the hall, the front door was opened and Jeffrey standing there looking how a car was driving away speeding fast.
“Ann left.” He said worriedly. “Why didn’t she wait for me?”
“Don’t worry, she’ll be back soon, you’ll see. She needs to be alone to clear her thoughts and to think what just happened. Her ego is hurt.” I told him.
Noah put his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder.
“Impressive. You’re the first person that could defeat Ann in a discussion.”
I did it and now I regretted it. Suddenly, it was more than I could handle. I felt exhausted from these days and I thought I was going to faint right there.
I stumbled and was fighting to keep my eyes open.
“Alison?” Noah murmured worriedly.
Before my legs gave out, Noah caught me and took me into his arms and I rested my head on his chest. I closed my eyes, and I submitted to unconsciousness so rapidly that I was disoriented. Everything was spinning.