Well this little idea just popped into my head (really did not plan to write something from Danielle's pov) while I was trying to warm up after I got home from work. It will be a two part story. Things that are not explained now will be in the next part. Hope you read and enjoy.
Beneath the Burning Tree
Danielle fingered the scrap of paper shoved deep into the pocket of her coat fighting the urge to look at it again just to make sure. Sometimes she still had to stop herself from being anxious when it came to something big, she might naturally be sensitive but she understood now that she had been blessed with enough stubbornness to compensate. She had slowly grown out of her lack of confidence; Ethan always told her that she was stronger than she will ever know. She might be able to believe him once this was over.
The address on the insignificant looking piece of paper was correct and even through the waves of sadness and apprehension her heart still leaped with something like excitement. The finality was something she needed and craved.
Golden brown leaves crunched under her feet as she entered the cemetery. Danielle wished her arrival could be quieter, more respectful, not that there was anyone around to disturbed, living anyway. She always had a deep seated awe at these kinds of places. She remembered a school trip to the local church one Christmas and how she had tried to imagine the lives of the people behind the cold information on the old tombstones.
The place was bigger than she expected and she felt momentarily lost. So many people have passed on and she knew nothing about them, but there was just one grave she wanted to visit, one person she should be able to remember. Their time together had been all too fleeting.
She headed away from the stones worn with time and covered in ivy noticing rows of newer looking graves, some marked only by a temporary wooded cross. The chill from the wind was bitter but expected for an early autumn afternoon. She wished she brought her scarf with her, but the fluffy purple scarf clashed with the deep red of her coat, one of the few things that was currently fitting her. She kept her chin down and let her hair blow across her eyes.
At first she did not see the other woman. Danielle stopped just far away enough that she would not be noticed. The other woman was also blonde; although her hair was so bright against the silver of her coat it could only be dyed. She was kneeling down on heels too high to be suitable for soft grass while simultaneously tending to some pretty flowers and keeping a hold on a small child.
Danielle approached the woman finding herself in the shade of a stark birch tree. Somehow this felt like the right place, she let her feet carry her before she could start to feel nervous.
The child noticed her first, a pretty little girl with sparkly blue eyes that could have been around the age of five, she pointed at Danielle and said something to her mother that was hard to understand from the short distance away.
The woman quickly turned, her animated face quickly shifted from sorrow to guarded hostility.
"Can I help you?" The woman asked standing and pulling the little girl into her arms. The child kicked her wellington clad feet and shoved her thumb into her mouth.
Danielle wanted to answer with yes and no in equal measure. She had a life far away from here; she had a mother and father, a brother and a new little family of her own. She was blessed. Yet this was something she had to do.
"I hope so." She offered the older woman a friendly, hopeful smile. She took in the other woman's eyes heavily lined with black, the way her expression now seemed more curious once she deemed that Danielle was not a threat. "Roxanne?" She guessed and watched the other woman's eyebrows rise in sceptical surprise.
It was a guess. She had never met the woman before having only reading her name before but it felt right. Intuitively she knew who she was talking to. A bold woman with an open face and dramatic clothes, Danielle felt like she always knew her.
"It's Roxy. Do I know you?"
The triumph Danielle felt was short lived. Roxy should know her well, she should be family. And oh god the child who was currently staring inquisitively at her was her cousin, it was like the little girl already knew.
"No…no, we have never met. It's just…" She trailed off and took the final few steps forward and looked on solemnly at the tasteful stone tombstone and colourful array of flowers. She touched the name carved in an elegant font. 'Veronica Mitchell'
"I think she was my mum." The whispered words softened the bluntness of the statement. She had not planned to just blurt it out but then she had not expected to meet her aunt.
She already had an aunt, she already had a mum. A mum who had raised her and made her feel safe and loved. Danielle had not told them what she was doing feeling like she was betraying them. If it was not for Ethan's encouragement she did not think she would ever make it this far.
For a long time Roxy openly stared at her before her eyes became glassy with tears.
"You're Amy. You're her Amy." The little girl wriggled in her mother's arms and sent Roxy a questioning look but Roxy was too busy staring at Danielle.