Canon in D began to filter through Oheka Chapel.
From the window I could almost make out the cemetery just beyond the footbridge, where Grandma Lucie was buried.
At my request the DeLune and Morrati family gad gathered in the bride’s room as the premiere DeLune Academy Orchestra started to play in the
next room. It was a specialized arrangement just for me--on my wedding day.
Peter held my hand firmly and stood with me like I knew he always would.
“Why are you doing this Clara ? You look so beautiful in your grandmother’s jewels and your wedding gown”, mother said in Italian s as she smoothed my large white dress, “And that Morrati Heirloom”
She pointed to the jewels that adorned my head.
“I know, Mother”
“Clara, I know what this is about”, started Clarice
“No you don’t”, I started to cry
“Clara”, My father said, “Today is your wedding day, stop with this nonsense. I know you’re upset because Grandmother isn’t here to share it with us—“
“I’m sorry, I just can’ get married." I turned towards Peter, “I’m sorry Peter”
“It’s fine, Go”, he said
We embraced quickly and before anyone could stop me, for the first time I ran away.
+2+
I opened the door to the church and kicking off my dreadful heels I ran, I ran along the soft earth across the foot bridge, the hideous crystal studded roses in my bouquet fell in petals along the bridge.
I kept running t
oward the cemetery. Grandma Lucie’s grave
was the largest it was white marble and
just as lovely as she was. I put the remaining flowers on it. She would like
them
“Pretty little things”, I said
I could never look at my family the same again. Everything we had was because of the awful secret my grandparents kept.
He's waited 50 years for her. I loved Peter. But Peter was all I knew. There was so much I hadn't experinced. I couldn't settle down. Not yet. Not until I was sure I hadn't missed the person I'd wait 50 years for.
The sky around me darken and I looked up to see I was shaded by an umbrella, next to me stood a pair of shiny black shoes. I looked past dark slacks, white shirt and dark vest.
“Oh, God”
His pallid complextion frightened me in the eerie setting.
“I’m seeing things.”
I got up from my knees and touched him, it was too real.
“You look different”, I said
“As do you”
"Are you a Specrtre ?"
"No."
I pondered this for a while, his skin was a white and clear as I remembered and even against my own hand there was something strange and different that I had not gotten used to.
“You’re alive”, I said, “We’re alive.”
He nodded
“I am sure Sovereign Prince Peter Morrati of Genoa is waiting for
you.”
“No”, I protested
“Believe me, I have read enough book s to now the princess always married the prince, Ms.—Princess.”
“Yes, well you’re forgetting I’m not princess” I took off the tiara.
He turns toward his beloved Lucie’s grave, and places a bouquet of familiar Juliet roses on her grave and reaches for the marble, but doesn’t touch it.
“Here is the deepest secret no one knows. Here is the root of the root... and the bud of the bud... and the sky of the sky of a tree called life... which grows higher than the soul can hope... or mind can hide. It is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart. I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart.”
“She does not deserve you.” I said, “You heard me at the door didn’t you ? And you didn’t open. You really will love her to the very end.”
I turned away when he held my hand and unbuttoned two buttons on his shirt and pressed my hand flat against his bare skin.
He held my hand firmly.
“I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart, Ms. DeLune”
I stepped on my toes, and touched my nose against his.
A wave of unwanted fear crept over me as an unsettling wind blew through my dress.
“Ms. DeLune. . .”
“Yes, Mr. Fierro”, I looked away from the grave.
“Kiss me”
“Yes, Sir”
