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A Dance to Remember by Elle Marlow
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Not rated by the Author.
Every Hallow's Eve, a couple in love reunite and keep a promise to dance under the chiming of the bell.
The autumn mist covered the ground and wrapped itself around the graves like long ghostly fingers. Its pristine translucency revealed only in secret places by the large oak trees who stood sentinel over the dead buried beneath their roots. It was there, that Kaulia knelt before a granite tombstone, scarcely alive but breathing.
Dampened by the mist, her hair fell forward and shrouded her view of the world around her. It had been so long since she’d experienced lucidity and felt the weight of her own body, that the shock of it threatened her fragile existence. Inhaling, she blinked several times to gain focus on stone before the beautiful engraving spelling out her husband’s name, appeared before her.
Richard J. Montague.
Unspeakable sadness materialized in the form of a rose within her hand. Then, like a feather, the flower slipped from her fingers and drifted down to the soft moss that blanketed the earth and covered her beloved from the living.
On this day, like on every Hallow’s Eve before, would mark their date to the Governor’s Ball. Richard’s piano echoed through the trees and his delight in performing his haunting piano scores for an appreciative crowd, replayed in her mind. She’d only need patience. Richard would always stop the music right before the grand clock chimed ten times, knowing it would be his only chance of the evening to dance with her.
“Sixty strikes of the bell,” he’d tease, as he’d whisk her around the marble floor while the people cheered for the love that shone so brightly, it was visible to all who withheld it. Then, he’d finish the dance with steep bow before her. “To my lovely wife,” he’d whisper, “I will always dance with you under the chiming of the bells.” The chiming would end, and Richard would return to the piano to play.
Feeling stronger, Kaulia lifted a finger to trace his name and marvel at the coolness of the headstone against her finger, the memory awakening sleeping emotions. She sighed, releasing the burden as the memory carried her forward.
The evening was spent, the champagne and the music had faded, and the guest all but gone. Before they’d leave for home, out in the pouring rain, and alone on the balcony of the mansion, she told him a daughter would be born in the spring. Overjoyed at the news, Richard tried to hurry them home, crashing their carriage into the river.
She folded her hands on her lap and rested them against the silk fabric of her gown. She cared little that the wet moss stained the fabric. Closing her eyes, she waited.
“It is nearly ten. Sophia is waiting.” The voice of her husband whispered like a breeze behind her. Kaulia stood to face him, her heart beating wildly inside her chest. She placed her hand over its pounding, marveling at the feeling of it’s resurrection. Fifteen years, and Richard never broke his promise.
This time, this place was their chance to dance.
He took her hand into his. At the moment of contact, the chiming of the bells began. Under the oak trees and through the mist they danced for the daughter who stood on the edge of the mist. She never knew life, only the shared joy of love that comes alive one night a year and only while the bell tolls for thee.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
The autumn mist covered the ground and wrapped itself around the graves like long ghostly fingers. Its pristine translucency revealed only in secret places by the large oak trees who stood sentinel over the dead buried beneath their roots. It was there, that Kaulia knelt before a granite tombstone, scarcely alive but breathing.
