Halloween eve they both agreed, would be the evening just for them; Their little family.
Two years ago Jane Rizzoli a bad-ass detective in the Boston Police department and Maura Isles the Chief Medical Examiner of Commonwealth of Massachusetts decided after five years of marital bliss to adopt a child. As they saw Remy and Romy a five-year-old twin they fell in love instantly. They to adopt both of these wonderful children. And because money and influence make a lot happen were a normal guy or gal wouldn't succeed so they signed the off the adoption-papers three months later, thanks to Constance Maura's adoptive mother.
So, Halloween evening was a family gathering, means, Maura, Jane, and their lovely twins and the evening was wonderful and filled with spooky candy joy and laughter. At ten in the evening Maura decided it was story time and sitting by the cozy warmth of a fireplace. of the... Our little story began:
..
"Maman, please tell us a story... Please, Maman!" little Remy begged Maura. Remy was a little-redheaded boy, who was shy at first when he didn't know you but seemed to love you forever when you talked with him and he felt the warmth of your respect and love for him.
"Yes, Maman!" little dark-haired Romy chimed in and excitedly clapped her little hands. Romy was almost the spitting image of Jane. A bright mind, adventurous and brave. She seemed to copy almost everything Jane did inclusive the 'Really?' and Jane's famous eye-roll.
It was a matter of time, so Maura knew, and the little pink-hating girl would swagger along just like her detective mother. Maura braced herself thinking of a future of living with a younger version of Jane with broken bones and dirty clothes.
Maura woke up out of her thoughts as she heard their squirmy twins voice their request for a Halloween story with a clapping of their hands and chanting, "Story story, we want a story!"
Just at the moment as Maura opened her mouth to verbally reprimand their now wiggling and chanting twins Jane beat her to it.
"Well, I think for a good Halloween story you have to be quiet as a mouse and then maybe I will tell you mine! Hehehe, I bet you'll like my story better!" Jane looked with a mischievous glance at her wife who squinted one of her eyes at Jane.
Jane winked at her wife and did let out a bubbling laugh, the kind of laugh that only carefree would be heard in the presence of the one she trusted enough to let her guard down.
"I bet your Maman's story isn't so good as the one I would like to tell you and you all know I can't deny such a request from my two butternuts!" Jane ruffled the twins hair and of course Romy the wittiest of the twin came with a long drawn, " Ma-a-a-a-a!"
"So, curious already? Should I tell you the story of how I became me or do you two rascals want to listen to Maman's story of how she once took a pencil and forgot to bring it back and she had nightmares for a week?" Jane looked expectantly at her rascals.
Maura mouthed, 'Not funny' but Jane only grinned and threw a hand-kiss Maura's way. 'Oh, she knew would have to pay for this action but it would be so worth it.'
"Yeah, ma...tell tell the story!" Maura and Jane's twin yelled excitedly while clapping their hands in excitement.
"Story or no story, first I will make some hot blood-coco for us all!" Maura told them and all agreed happily.
So said - so done, after 10 minutes Maura came back with a tray with 4 mug of hot blood-coco and 4 slices of Vampire cake and after she handed out four fleece blankets.
After everyone sat snug and warm on the floor in front of the fireplace, Jane told her story...
**
I must have been 7 years old, Jane began her story, and it was a not so hot summer as my mama sent me to bed.
It was dark as I woke up, only the lights of the city outside lit up my room. I looked at the wallpaper, but I didn't recognize it. I closed my eyes...opened them again and looked at the wallpaper. The wallpaper was a different wallpaper than the previous one. I repeated this ritual a few times and when I opened my eyes I always saw a different wallpaper.
I wasn't the kind of kid to be scared easily, I was curious, adventurous and a girl was more of a like a boy than my parents would have liked me to be, so curiosity got the best of me and I sat down and this time I looked at the curtains.
The curtains in my bedroom had traffic printed on it: colorful roads that hurled around pieces of green and trees. On the road were scooters with people on it and the more I looked the scene on the curtain became darker and grimmer. The faces of the people printed on the curtain became macabre, dark and evil. It was as if they screamed without making a sound.
After a while I had enough and told myself that evil can do me no harm and lay down under the blankets again to sleep.
I immediately fell into a dreamless sleep and as I woke up in the morning I had peed in my bed again. Sadly I did that every day as a kid. So I went under the shower and had breakfast.
We lived five minutes walk from school so I went together with Frankie to school while my ma stayed at home with your uncle Tommy.
I really must have been in a state of half-awake/half-asleep because it was on my way to school that I realized that it wasn't summer anymore it was autumn. Late autumn!
I had missed lessons in school, a different teacher and so on and I didn't recognize the things around me that had changed, so I observed and learned. I realized that I was older now and somehow different than I was before, but the strangest part of the whole situation was that I was still me.
What had I missed and did I gain something from all of the things that happened to me?
One year and almost two months had passed since I went to bed and the strangest things happened to me. One year and almost two months and now I wasn't myself anymore but still me...somehow.
Now I'm almost 42 years old and I'll live a life and I've lost a life. Things were never as they were before for me after all the strange things that had happened but I've gained the ability to see dead people and animals and I can't control it.
This is my life and I'll live it to the fullest, but sometimes at night, when all is dark and quiet, I wonder if my life is a lie or just a dream and that I will wake up one day..in my bedroom, 7 years old and it is summer...
**
"So, did you like my story? I know, I know it may be not that gruesome," Jane pointed a thumb at her wife Maura, "but your Maman told me beforehand I was forbidden to tell you eventually bloody and gruesome stories, so thank your Maman on this one!" Jane grinned brightly as she saw that Maura rolling her eyes. Jane mouthed teasingly to her wife: 'Spoilsport!'
"I liked your story ma ,but now I never got to know if you saw any dead people?" little Romy tilted her head and her lips formed a pout as her eyes switched between her ma and Maman. Mischievously she asked, "Can you tell us one real ghost story before bedtime, ma?"
Jane looked at her wife for permission. Maura softly nicked that it was okay not liking the idea of being a spoilsport at all, "And Jane," she looked her wife intensely in the eyes, "no gruesome details, alright? I do have special plans tonight and you don't want to be the spoilsport in this one. Ri-i-i-ght?" she looked meaningful at Jane a gleam of things to come made her eyes glimmer in mischievousness. Jane did understand in an instant that whatever Maura had in mind there would be panting and sweating involved.
"Well, I'm not in the mood to be interrupted in our sleep by frightened children, so I will choose my words with great care, baby." Jane told her wife.
True to her words Jane began her little story with caution and she chose her words wisely. A night of passionate lovemaking swam like a promise of an erogenous Nirwana before her inner eyes...
**
It was a 3 weeks before I joined the academy and my godmother aunt Ata had spoiled me to a fourteen-day vacation to Sicily.
You both know I'm from Italian descent, my family from both sides come from a little village near Messina and my godmother aunt Ata arranged for me to stay with her and uncle Umberto.
I received a warm welcome in Italy and the first days were filled with family gatherings and spaghetti, in fact a lot of spaghetti.
Although family gatherings aren't normally my thing I enjoyed the warm welcome and love that I received immensely.
The fifth day I went for a walk, there was a soft breeze and the smell of the salty Mediterranean Sea and as I walked there on the quiet beach I saw in the distant a figure dressed in a light pink old-fashioned dress, so I assumed of course that it was a young girl who just like me enjoyed the quietness of the sea before she had to go back to her noisy family.
As I approached the girl I discovered that the girl was in fact an older lady and in her hand she held a chrysanthemum.
You know the kind of flower you call the star-flower, Romy.
I couldn't and still can't put a finger on it why but I had to talk to her so I closed the distant that was between us and as I came closer the older lady, and she was a lady although her feet were bare and her honey blonde hair was loose and wild and fell like a waterfall over her back on the split of her a..uh bottom.
- 'Isn't it beautiful when the sea kisses the shore and all is quiet so you can hear the love that has passed through the age of time?' the lady asked.
I was a bit thrown off by that. I didn't know her at all but she talked to me as if she knew me and somehow it felt like it to me too! Before I could answer her or ask her any questions, she turned towards me and looked into my eyes. Her hazel eyes were friendly and Sarcastic Me couldn't pinpoint why so I just smiled at her. Her eyes lit up and a lopsided smile graced her beautiful face, and beautiful she was despite her age, or because of her age, who knows.
- 'You don't live here, don't you?' She asked me and I just shock My head. 'Let me guess...America. Am I right?'
I was flabbergasted, 'How do you know?'
- 'Your impossible style of clothing and the hair. Do you still have no decent coiffeurs in wide wild America?' she teased.
I laughed, 'Coiffeurs?'
The lady started a whole bunch of Wikipedia stuff about haircutting and so on and I couldn't think but wonder, you know. She was beautiful, like a fairy to me and I realized that was drawn to her like like the wind to the sea, like fries to a Hamburgers hehehe. That is really strange I'm not the trusting kind of person if I don't know someone.
But anyway, after she told me the whole hairstuff we began strolling down the deserted beach and although I was curious I didn't ask her name. I let her do most of the talking, and let me tell you, talking she did: about her life in Paris, in Rome and the school she intended. When I finally had the courage to ask her what she was doing here, alone on the beach, she became melancholic and quiet. Just as I was about to apologize she told me her heartfelt story:
- 'It was on this beach that I said farewell to my only true love. Her eyes were always so kind and warm and she protected me from any harm...
At the time I didn't feel well so my father sent me to an acquaintance in Messina and there is where I met her, long, tall muscular with dark-brown hair, almost black, and her eyes, they were always so soft when she looked at me.
She saved me from the advances from her brother Guillo and we went for a stroll on the beach. From this day on we did this every morning and then we talked or just walked and strolled hand in hand on the deserted beach. And then we fell in love, so deep, so full so honest and true... My Graziella.
We made love on the beach, our body full of sand in all places possible and it was so good, so filled with love and laughter our time together until one day...
The older lady stood still and watched the Mediterranean Sea as it celebrated her endless life filled with unfulfilled love-stories. Tears flowed over the lady's cheeks now and she tried to wash them away with one of the sleeves of her light pink dress.
I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and gave it to her, she wiped away the last remains of her tears and continued her story...
- 'We lay on a blanket in the sand and the sun coming up and we were doing that people in love do; We kissed and promised and vowed and dreamed of our Happily Ever After so we didn't see, or hear, these boys coming from behind us.
They attacked us. My Graziella fought with all three of them, meanwhile shouting at me to run away and go for help.
I did...but it was too late and I never saw her again. The sea is not forgiven to a bruised and beaten young girl...
All of the sudden the sky became dark and it started to pour. As I looked to the sky just for a split of a second the older honey blonde lady was gone, as if she never was there in the first place, so I walked, now wet as a drowned poodle, back to my Aunt's place.
..
Later that evening after the whole family had gone home and my aunt went to sleep I was alone with uncle Umberto and I told him about the lady I had met. He became very quiet and took a picture out of a drawer and showed me the picture. It was photo a dark-haired young girl and my uncle told me that this was Graziella and that one fateful day three boys beat Graziella up while the lady friend could escape. The three boys did unspeakable things to Graziella after her lady friend escaped. Afterward they stole a boat rowed far from the coast and dumped her into the sea. They found Graziella a week later.
Graziella's friend became very ill, they never found the cause of her illness but people said she died of a broken heart.
The boys were never arrested but they had to be dead because they found their hearts each strung on a stick on the same beach they had killed poor Graziella. Side by side the sticks stood there like a memorial, no other remains were ever been found.
That was a week after Graziella's lady friends dead, I don' t remember her name but she was young beautiful and had very talkative, but when she died her face looked like she was an old woman.
**
As the story ended all were very quiet...until Romy, always the one with thousand questions opened her mouth, "Ma, can I asked you..."
"Oh no, it's quite late," Maura interjected, "time for little Halloween-monsters to take a few hours eye-shut!"
"But Maman, I have so many questions!" Romy whined as she looked with her biggest puppy eyes between her Maman and ma.
"Ma will answer them all in the morning, but first brush your teeth...and yes I can see your eyes roll...and then you go to bed both of you!" Maura told their twins in a way that meant business.
..
Epilogue...
And as the Halloween evening came to an end a salty smell of the sea filled the air. The faint waves of the Mediterranean Sea could be heard through the house like a whisper of praise. A promise to protect whom she loved filled the house on Beacon Hill. Where love lives evil can't be found..right?
Evil laugh...
#.#.# Finito#.#.#