Sunlit Shadow Dance (34 page)

She turned the pages forward a little way
and started reading. She was reading the story of E or Elfin,
become the Elfin Queen. This man had loved her too, fully and
completely. It did not take from what Susan knew was his love for
her and hers for him. As she read of how E had died and he buried
her in the boat he had made, somewhere out in the desert by a
river, she felt tears streaming down her face. He was desolate,
heartbroken. She shared in his heartbreak.

She read on, various odd stories were
interspersed, one about a metal bird and a man named Vic, she
realized with a shock this was her Vic, he was this man’s friend.
They had shared much together.

There were more stories about
him and
other characters over the pages that followed, along with
other stories she realized were set in the Australian Outback,
musters, cattle, horses, more helicopters, shooting and fishing,
and crocodiles, lots of places with crocodile stories and images.
There were some references to other girls too, but they seemed to
pass like ships in the night, lighting pages only for brief spaces,
then their lights were gone.

Then a second significant person came
along, B, or Belle, or as time went by “my beautiful B”. It began
as a lovely story of friendship, meetings and re-meetings. Then it
told of a road journey together, to a faraway place in part of
Australia called the Kimberly, from Broome heading north. It was a
trip of joy and wonders, friendship morphing into deep love. It was
clearly a two way thing; she read it in Mark’s words and read it
also in the elegant cursive script of Belle, some parts French,
some English. Belle told of her delight in her new found lover, her
plans to bring him home, to meet the family, to make babies with
him. It was utterly gorgeous.

Then she turned another page. She was
devastated. Belle had fallen into a pool full of crocodiles, huge
crocodiles, beasts that had torn her body apart. Mark, using the
only weapon to hand, had finished it before she could suffer, a
single shot into the head he loved so. Belle felt nothing. The
crocodiles got only a body, the soul departed.

But he had killed the thing he
loved
. Rage
and grief tore apart his soul, leaving something else in its place,
a dark and malevolent crocodile spirit, hunter and destroyer. She
could bear to read no further. She had no tears now, just a soul
full of devastation as she shared his pain. She did not want to
read on, nothing good could come past here.

So she lay in her bed, light
off, and dream
t awful crocodile dreams. This time they were not of her
children but of a girl, dark haired, one who looked somehow like
her, her body torn apart as monsters feasted, limb torn from limb
as blood darkened water, while the man watched in anguish. Then it
was his body they tore at. She first thought he had thrown himself
in the pool with Belle, consumed by grief. But as she watched she
saw these were other crocodiles, in a different place and time. The
eyes that watched were hers.

In the morning she woke up with
the book on her lap and only vague remembrances of her
dreams
and
the man. They felt to belong to another place and time. Yet a
portent of unresolved doom, with tearing crocodiles at its centre,
remained.

She pushed it from her mind,
determined not to let it spoil
this, her homecoming day. She felt
mounting excitement to be on her way back to her husband, she loved
the sound of that word and she loved the thought of his intense
smiling face.

She was upbeat now; she wanted to share
this discovery with him. Then she thought of how good her parents
had been to her. They deserved for her to be more forthcoming with
them too.

She knew what she would do, she was not
ready to let them read the contents of the diary, after all Vic had
the first right to see that. Instead, she would open the contents
of the pouch with them. After all it was only a bit of old jewelry,
maybe some semi-precious stones, going on what the lady at the
storage place said. Perhaps they were worth a few thousand pounds,
enough to ensure their bill was paid.

She put the dairy in her
suitcase, under her clothes, in the place which had
before held her
Kashmiri book. Then she took the pouch in her hand and went out to
see the others in the kitchen.

Her Gran had stopped over and
the chi
ldren
were up, eating breakfast. The kitchen was a babble of noise. She
walked in, unnoticed. As they realized her presence they looked
up.

She said. “I thought, before I go home
today, we should open this pouch of supposedly old jewels to see
what it contains.”

She handed it to her
mother.
“Perhaps, as you were there with me when I collected it,
you should do the honor of opening it.”

He mother nodded, looking
thoughtful and a bit tense. She untied the strings and tipped the
contents gently onto the table. As
the stones rolled out she let out a gasp,
which was mirrored by her Gran and her father.

There were about fifty stones, with only
two made into settings. These two were a gorgeous milky pale blue
stone set into a ring and another stone, almost identical, made
into a pendant. She saw their blue clearly.

Susan felt her eyes riveted to just these
two objects. Without knowing where they came from her words came
tumbling out, “He said he chose them to match the color of my
eyes.”

She shook her head, “I don’t
know why I said that, I don’t even know who he
is
, but I
know he gave them to me.”

The others seemed
t
o have
barely noticed her words. They were gazing, as if awestruck, at the
rest of the pouch’s contents, big stones in many different sizes,
shapes and hues. Susan knew they were many colors though she could
not make these out; just the two blue pieces had color.

Her father was shaking his head, saying,
“Unless I am seriously mistaken, this is a lot more than some bits
of old jewelry and semi-precious stones. See all the colors, red,
blue, orange, green, milky, clear and sparkling. I think this is
the real stuff, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, nothing but
the best.

“
I would not begin to be able to
guess what these are worth. It must be a huge amount. If each is
worth ten thousand pounds, and many are worth much more than that,
we are looking at half a million pounds on the table.”

Susan looked at her Dad as if he was
crazy, “Dad, you are joking. Why would someone put such things in a
locked box and forget about them?”

He replied, “Sweetie, I don’t know, I did
not put them there. But look for yourself. Then tell me if I am
wrong.”

So she
looked
.
While she could not see the colors except for the blue of her
amazing opals, she realized it must be true.

He said, “T
his stuff needs to go into a
bank vault somewhere until we can make arrangements to have it
properly assessed and valued. Whoever’s it is it is far too
valuable to just leave lying around.”

Susan felt disappointed, she
had been looking forward to taking these home to Vic and admiring
them together, “Oh, Dad, I don’t know. Can’t I just take them with
me
, home on
the train and show them to Vic. I can’t wait to see his eyes open
wide when he sees them. I want to surprise him.”

Her father shook his head in disbelief,
“Susan, what a crazy idea. What if happens if something happens to
them, what if they get lost or stolen? They are far too valuable to
be careless.”

Now she felt annoyed. “Dad, they have been
sitting, forgotten in a box for three or four years. Before that
God only knows where they were and for how long. Yesterday I
carried them home in that little bag in the car without anybody
thinking anything of it. Then last night they sat in my bedroom
without any lock and key. We are the only people who even know
about them. Why would something suddenly happen to them now. Not to
mention that if I had not remembered that code yesterday they could
have sat in that storage place forever.”

She could see her mother and
Gran nodding with her in agreement
. Reluctantly her father gave way. “Well,
I suppose that is true. It is like you were meant to discover them.
But you must let one of us come with you on the train, I am sure
your Gran would be glad to come with you.”

Her Gran nodded,
“Of course, pet, I
am free and would love to come. I have barely been introduced to
your children. A day with them on the train would be wonderful. And
who is safer than an old lady with a walking stick.”

Now they all laughed and it was
agreed. Today she and her Gran would go on the train
to Scotland.
Tonight they would show them to Vic. Tomorrow they would be taken
and stored in a bank vault in Edinburgh or Glasgow until they were
valued and assessed.

The trip home was
uneventful.
Vic was there to meet them all, encasing everyone, Gran
included, in a group hug. Susan felt her news bursting on the tip
of her tongue but she held it in. She would save it for after
supper when it was just the two of them. Then she would show him
both the diary and the stones together. In doing this she knew she
must ask him to tell her about this Mark, his friend. She could run
away from that knowledge no longer.

As they were sitting over supper, chatting
around the table with the whole family, telling of the trip and the
book from Kashmir, the phone rang. Her aunt got up to answer it. In
a minute she had a puzzled look on her face.

Finally she said, “Just a minute,” and
turned to address Susan, “There is a girl, Cathy, on the phone. She
says she had a letter of introduction from your friend Anne. She
has just arrived from Australia. She asks if she could come over
here now and give this letter to you. She is staying nearby and
could come straight away if it is alright.”

Susan was looking forward to the rest of
her night alone with Vic, but could think of no polite way to say
no to someone who wanted to meet her at Anne’s request. So she
shrugged her assent.

Soon there was the sound of
ca
r tires
crunching on the gravel drive. Then came a knock on the door. Susan
went to the door and opened it herself.

Standing before her was a
girl
of
somewhere around her own age, with darkish hair cut short. She
could also see a dark skinned man still sitting in the car parked
some distance away. The girl held out her hand and said, “Hello, I
am Cathy. I was just talking to your aunt on the phone.”

Susan invited her in, but the
girl replied,
“Thanks, but no thanks, at least not tonight. I just wanted
you to have this letter sooner rather than later.

“
I am hoping to have the chance
to meet you and talk about what it says in the next couple days.
Tonight we are both jetlagged and need to sleep,” she said,
pointing to the man in the car. “I want you to have chance to think
about what we are asking and say no, if you want, before we go
further.”

So Susa
n took the letter she proffered,
thanked Cathy and watched her walk back to the car and drive away
before she came back inside.

The others
all looked at her with
interest. She briefly explained what had happened, saying, “If Anne
wanted to give me a message it is funny that she did not ring me
and tell me directly. It must be something complicated that I need
to think about for her to have written to me instead.”

Vic yawned. It made no sense to him too and
he was tired after a long day of flying and driving.

Her aunt took the initiative,
“Actually I think we all need to head off to bed now, it is getting
late and you
both look tired after your trips. Maybe, you should leave
reading the letter until you wake in the morning with a fresh mind.
I will pop your kids in the bath and put them into bed. Susan, you
should go a have a rest with Vic and your baby now.”

Susan felt happy to oblige, since coming
to live here David and Anne seemed always happy to go off with
others and, in truth, after her bad night of sleep last night, she
was suddenly very tired.

She took Vic’s hand. They went
to their bedroom, happy to be
together with their baby, knowing talking would
wait. As she lay beside him she said, “I have much news but I need
to rest before I tell you.”

He tucked their baby between
them
, put
his arms around her and they fell asleep.

She dreamt of meeting Vic for
the first time
. He was standing next to a helicopter. She was travelling
with another man whose face she could not see. But she was happy.
Everything around her in this dream was bright with full colors,
green trees, blue sky, golden sun, red dirt, and Vic’s berry brown
skin. The colors were unbelievably beautiful. She did not want to
wake from her dream. It was a warm and happy place which she did
not want to leave.

She wok
e to find Vic staring intently at
her. She told of the dream and he stroked her and held her close,
telling her that she had remembered the first day they had met.
Still in this happy place she returned to sleep.