A God-sent
The clock in Ingleside struck twelve with a loud and mournful gong. Diana Blythe woke up with a start, and then realized it was just the grandfather clock down stairs. She sank back down into her pillow and tried to go back to dreamland, but to no avail. She listened to her twin's steady and rhythmic breathing as she tried again to close her eyes without thinking or dreaming of her dear boy-brother; the brother with those intense gray, starry eyes; the brother who writes poetry and speak it like a second language; the brother, that handsome, caring and passionate brother, her dearest of dearest brother, who left her on that fateful day in France. Di just could not banish that image of him from her mind.
Diana felt the aching in her heart spread throughout her body once again, all the way to the very tip of her little finger. She felt her eyes well up with yet another round of tears for Walter. She rolled on to her side, stuffed her head into her pillow to snuffle the sound of her crying and weeping, as not wanting to wake her twin up.
Walter! Her mind cried out to him. Oh,Walter! She pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to subdue the pain in her heart that was getting uncontrollable, while wetting her pillow with endless tears. She wept until there seemed that no more tears can be shed, yet she cried even harder, feeling the unbearable pain in her heart spread.
Then, she felt a hand on her shoulder, gently nudging her to get up. Maybe Nan had heard her silent weeping this whole time, and finally realized that her twin needed a shoulder to cry on, and went over to Di's side to embrace her while she shed a new batch of tears. Di wiped the tears that recently took up residence on her cheeks- though there was not a need to- and turned to face-
To face-
"Walter!" She gasped, out loud this time. "Shhhh…" He said, gently laying a finger upon her lips, hushing her for the moment, "We don't want to wake Nan up, do we?" He asked, a smile playing on his lips. Walter sank down beside Di, and gave her a tight hug, the hug that Di has wanted to recall for such a long time, and the remembrance of it suddenly surfaced in her memory, and she never wanted the memory of it to ever end.
She finally pulled back after what seemed like hours, and took a good look at the brother she missed every second of her life when he was at the front, and still missed him till this day. Diana looked at his handsome face, and found that his expression he showed was not that of a raging and stormy sea that she had so often witnessed during the times of war, and even before that, but of a calm, serene look, like he's at peace with himself once again. Di noted that there weren't any scars or scratches on him either, including the ones that had appeared during the time of his childhood. She held his wrist up to eye level, so that his white hands could bask in the moon's ever shining light, and turned it over. She felt for the scar on his right palm, caused by a fall while playing in Rainbow Valley, but could not feel for it under her already trembling fingers. Di looked up at him again, and was met by the alluring, dreamy eyes of Walter.
He then proceeded to lay his hand upon the pale cheek of Di's, and gently, soothingly caressed it. She gasped again. He was real! She was not dreaming him, imagining him, like she so often did, nor was she hallucinating. He was real, he was here, right before her eyes, seating next to her on her bed! That means, that means….
"Walter," She breathed the name out of her mouth, and felt the familiar spark lit up her very soul whenever her brother came close, "You're…. you're…. you're alive!" She took a few seconds for the words to stumble out of her cold trembling lips.
"No, no, my dearest of Di's, I'm not alive." He said slowly, as if trying to explain a very complex matter to a child of six years.
"But you have to be Walt," She exclaimed, "Look at you Walter, I can feel you! See you with my very eyes! You're as human as any human being can ever be. Or are you telling me I've gone wrong in my upper story? Because as far as I'm concern, I-"
"Diana," Walter said gently again, but firmly this time, "Listen to me. You are not imagining me, nor have you gone wrong in your upper story." He undid the clasp that held Diana's hair in a firm pleat and her red curls tumbled to her sides. He played with her hair for a moment, and then sighed. "I actually came here for a purpose, dearest of Di's. And I'll soon explain my reason why."
Di could not help but stare at him with quizzical eyes. "What are you talking about, Walt? The reason that you're here is because you're home! You've come back to us after we heard that you're…. you're…… you've…." She could not trust herself to say those dreadful words again.
"Passed away, somewhere in France." He finished for her. She nodded, and then looked him in the eyes, "But you're here, and that does not really matter anymore. Come; let's wake the family up and celebr-"
But she stopped in mid-sentence when she realized that her brother's striking gray eyes were sympathetic, even sorrowful, and to her utmost horror, she saw tears welling up in those beautiful eyes of his. "Oh, Walter," She cried, "Whatever is the matter?"
He bowed his head and his tears splattered on to Di's lap. But he was ignorant to that as he picked up Di's limp hand and clasped it tightly against his own. "I've seen how much you've suffered, how much pain and sorrow you went through, you went through…… without me, being by your side. I felt the pain that you felt, and finally, He saw the need for me to come here, the urgency in it. "
Di wanted to ask so many questions, but she kept her questions from purging out, allowing Walter to continue.
"So, He gave me permission to come here, to Ingleside, so that I can say a proper farewell to you, and the rest. He allowed me to stay down here for at least five hours, but when my five hours with you has ended, I'll have to go back up and join my heavenly brothers and sisters once again, forever singing praises to God."
Diana finally gave up on keeping her mouth firmly shut and said "But Walter, you don't have to go back. You could remain here, with us. You…. You have your own family here, expecting your return one day, no matter how impossible, but it isn't impossible anymore, because you're here! Please, Walt, stay." She said pleadingly with her gray-green eyes.
"I do not have a purpose here if I stayed. I'll just be a new addition to the wandering souls here, forever seeking, searching, loitering around, and finding nothing. No, Di, I'll have to go back to Father, for I promised him that I'll be back."
"And that brings me to my purpose for this special trip here to Ingleside, dearest Di." He smiled warmly, with his dreamy eyes looking down upon her. He clasped her small white hand in an even firmer grip, with eyes still staring into hers, and said "I've been gone for a long time now, Di, and you know that. The others have already started to move on with their lives, making a whole new world and a much better place to live in. People that survived the tragedies of war, that means you too Di, should move on. You have a bright future ahead of you, and you should not, by any means, destroy it because you just cannot seem to let go of the past. I'm not asking you to forget me dearest Di, but all I'm asking of you is to go ahead into the future, do not be afraid of what it'll bring, instead, embrace it, like when you're embracing a long lost friend.
"Yes, remember the past, as a reminder to all of you, to make a better future, better generation, dwell in the present, let the joys of today lit up a whole new future ahead of you, welcome it with open arms. But always remember to keep a little corner in your heart for me, for I know I already kept a space especially for you, right here." Walter patted his chest with his free hand.
Walter gently laid Diana's head again his lean chest, for she was sobbing uncontrollably once more. He soothed her with pats on her back, like what a mother would do to a child. She wrapped her arms around Walter's neck and continued sobbing into his shoulder. Oh, she would never, never forget the sweet, smelling scent on him, or the feel of his arms wrapped around her, oh, she would never want to let go of this precious moment. Walter's eyes were sorrowful all this time, and he did not try to hide it, letting his emotions take over him wave after wave, with tears of sorrow yet with relief flow down from his eyes, letting it seep into Di's red curls, giving it a glistening, diamond like appearance.
Moments pass before all her wailing subsided into sobs; then sobs into hiccups. Walter wiped the stray tears away from her cheeks with his thumb, and then cupped her face in between his palms. He stared into those alluring pools of gray-green eyes a little while more. Then he sighed, and reluctantly pulled his hands away from Di.
"Come now, little sister, It's time for bed." Walter whispered into her ears, making her tingle all over.
She smiled at the familiar words she had heard so often in her childhood days, when Walter would have the pleasure of tucking in his little sister into bed. He would then take out one of her favorite story book and read it to her, until she falls asleep. Di wondered whether he would do the same thing he had done to her when she was just a wee little toddler.
She obediently lay herself down on her bed, allowing Walter to tuck the comforter around her, making sure she was as comfortable as possible. Her question was then answered when a book, seemingly coming from nowhere, as if materializing from thin air, appeared in Walter's opened palm. She read the big bold letters on the front cover "Cinderella" She mouthed the words.
But before he could start reading aloud about Cinderella's tragic yet romantic life story, she grasp his open wrist, then said quietly, yet full of hope "You would not be leaving us this time, will you?" She could hear the pleading in her voice.
Walter looked into the eyes filled with hope, expectation, but he knew that he could not give those eyes the answer it wanted. "I could not promise you that, dearest Di."
She allowed her hand to fall limply to her side, but Walter gently picked it up with his free one, "Do not let this discourage you. Remember, I'll be watching over you, I'll be like your guardian angel, protecting you from all harm." Then he added, in a happier tone, "Now, let's take a peek into Cinderella's fascinating life story."
"Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, lived a little girl named Cinderella…….."
Diana could feel her eyelids closing ever so slowly. She tried to keep it open, intent on watching Walter's mouth forming word after word, intent on listening to his velvety voice, intent on watching the smile play on his lips. But all to no avail when finally her eyelids slid shut, without her acknowledgement.
"….Cinderella and the Prince lived happily ever after. The End." Walter shut the book, silently got up from the spot where he was sitting and planted a kiss on Di's pale forehead. He touched her curls again, then straighten up and went over to where Nan was fast asleep, dreaming of a certain knight in shining armor coming to save her. She too, got a kiss planted on her forehead, but she was too absorbed in dreamland that she hardly noticed, and gave a little sigh in return to the kiss.
Walter visited everyone in Ingleside, including Dog Monday, and they all had a kiss on their forehead. He lingered a little while more in Ingleside, gently touching everything, from paintings to pictures, jars to Chinas. He left behind a part of him to all things that are familiar and precious in Ingleside, hoping that it will serve it's purpose.
Walter looked back at the dear house that he had grew up in, that had shared his triumphs, his sorrows, that has served as a sanctuary, a haven to him at all times, and no one, nothing, could ever replace the corner that he kept in his heart for this precious house of his, not even the place where he is going back to now, could take it away, no matter how grander, mightier or more magnificent, could replace this house that is full of hopes and dreams, laughter, weeping, tears of joy and sorrow. No, not even heaven could step into the little place he reserved especially for dear little Ingleside.
He gently closed the front door behind him. Then, he was gone.
Meanwhile, up in the twins room, slept Diana, dreaming of the last time she saw Walter. He was smiling down upon her, with that charming smile of his, the forever dreamy eyes, and if she had not imagined it, a halo hovered above his glossy, black head with two magnificent wings sprouting behind his back.
He would be her guardian angel, he said, and would protect her from all harm.