Chapter IV
""Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments. Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds,/Or bends with the remover to remove…"" Una's low whisper filled the piece of air surrounding her with a small, handy book in her own hands. Moonlight shone on her face as well as on the page of Shakespeare's book of sonnets which she never truly understood and fell in love with before her teacher started to analyse those sonnets two weeks earlier. Una was immersed in the intensity of them, the passion and everything she ever longed for. All of this was almost encapsulated by the moonlight coming from her window onto the page of Sonnet 116. She thought then that it looked as if the paper was made of silver.
As Una's head was filled with a storm of thoughts and feelings, she laid on her back, on her bed, with the book on her chest. She started to cry, knowing no one would hear her as everyone in the Collwell Cottage was asleep already.
"Una? Why are you crying?"
Una's eyes opened swiftly and just as quickly she sat on her bed, staring at the figure of Joan closing the door of Una's bedroom behind her silently. "Joan!" she exclaimed quietly, her heart still pounding from the surprise of seeing her "I thought you'll be coming back in the morning like you always do." Una swiftly started wiping away her tears with her hand but Joan out-quicked her by pulling out her handkerchief and upon sitting next to her, started to dry off her tears gently, smiling tenderly at her with the moonlight shining on her pale face and blonde messy bob.
"Well, today I came back earlier." Joan said with a glare of pain flowing across her eyes for what seemed less than a second. Una noticed it nevertheless but decided on not saying anything about it. Instead, she smiled wistfully at Joan whilst small rivers still flowed down her cheeks "Please, dearest, tell me what made you so terribly unhappy?" she asked her while squeezing her hands in hers, reassuringly.
"I've been reading Shakespeare's sonnets," Una replied softly, wiping away another portion of her tears with Joan's handkerchief "-and they reminded me of… quite painfully, of Walter." she whispered his name as if afraid to break the very name, just like it was breaking her heart at that moment.
Una's face suddenly overflowed with uncontrollable tears and Joan quickly embraced her and rocked her for a few minutes, brushing her hair without a word, simply understanding. Una knew that she had to let those tears fall, however much she resisted them earlier and still was. However, those tears were holding her back from simply being alive and so she decided that she had to let them go. When she did, she felt as if a huge weight from her shoulders has been lifted and she couldn't be more joyful yet all the more sorrowful about it and the whisper of the promise she made to herself all those years earlier was still clinging on to her heart.
Joan knew that Walter was a brother of Jem and Shirley and that he died in the war. She was told of his poetic spirit which died with his owner. However, she didn't know that Una cared for him in this way at all. It was only on that night when Una told her, poured her heart out to that wonderful, out of the ordinary girl who willingly listened to this story of Una's sorrows. "Darling," she said to her quietly as she squeezed Una's trembling hand "-I can't say that I fully understand and know how you feel, but I know that Walter would never want you to have your heart closed because of him. It's quite literally making you ill." she looked at her worriedly, putting her hand on Una's forehead instinctively.
Una smiled at Joan as she put her hand away and wiped away her tears again "I'm glad that someone finally said this to me." she said tenderly, her voice breaking "It was usually the voice at the very back of my head telling me so but my heart wouldn't listen at all. Now, this back of my head is more willing to hear you, Joan."
Joan smiled gallantly at her "You have to re-open your heart, Una, to the possibilities of romance and love which can enter your life at any moment! You just have to let it be open." she looked more deeply into her eyes "You have to let yourself be free."
Una thought silently about those words for a few moments and then whispered breathlessly "It's just so hard to forget all of those dreams that are buried with him in France." her voice was so heartbreaking and painful that Joan, the most difficult person to break in any way, felt as if something was stuck in her own throat.
"I know, dear." she said finally "But you spent the last four years in agony and search after them. It's time to let the new ones replace them."
Una didn't quite like the idea of "replacing" her dreams about Walter but she couldn't bring herself to say it aloud for she knew that she did have to do something about them either ways. However, something in Joan's eyes made Una ask her something else instead "Joan," she said "-have you ever been in love?" she asked her.
Joan's eyes almost twitched and her face was thoughtless which it never was. Una was half-surprised, half-expecting this reaction but she possibly did not expect the shadow of a pain flushing before Joan's eyes for a moment so easily to be unseen. "Una," she said in a low voice "-I know it will be difficult for you but you must be ready for love to enter your life. And I think, in your case, it might be very unexpected indeed." she winked at her mischievously and Una smiled at her with a sound of a chuckle appearing in her mouth.
But Una went to sleep that night having two burdens on her mind: her mission to divorce her dreams of Walter, and her acknowledgement of the fact that Joan did not answer her question.
April came through the grey clouds like the rays of sunshine and the beginning of spring was marked by its air. It was a day after Una's return to Kingsport after Easter break at her home, when she had all her lectures cancelled and she had the full day to herself. Cara was to come back the next day and the others had their lectures per usual. After revising the Brownings for the entire morning, Una, therefore, decided to go for a refreshing, spectacular walk yet she still wasn't aware of just how spectacular it would actually turn out to be.
She listened to the magical birdsong and she delighted her senses with feeling the sunshine bathing her pale face and her raven-black hair which was put into a messy braid. Suddenly she heard a hellish, masculine laughter coming from the other side of the road. She swiftly opened her eyes, her heart pounding furiously as she heard their violent moves towards someone groaning in pain. She stopped immediately and looked: four young men in the Redmond College uniforms were delighting themselves into beating up a man who was lying on the ground and trying in every way to avoid their punches, yet quite hopelessly. Una's heart froze at the sight so cruel and violent like she's never seen before and suddenly, a car approached the scene and the men quickly jumped inside it, shouting to the poor man on the ground: "Go back to where you've come from!" which made something in Una's mind click.
She flew across the road in the full force of her spirit of help and she knelt beside the man whom she quickly discovered to be just as young as herself. "Are you alright, sir? Can you sit up?" she asked him breathlessly and carefully.
The man turned around and painfully started to sit up with Una's help who was still kneeling beside him. He then turned to her finally and smiled with such an enormous amount of gratitude that Una's heart melted instantly. Only then she saw how he really looked like and she was certain that it was indeed Mr Singh. He was clearly a man of Asian heritage with his skin caramel-like and his bushy hair even blacker than Una's own. He had a very handsome face, more handsome than Una ever imagined he would have with a light touch of a black beard on his chin and on the side of his cheeks, as well as the kindest brown eyes Una has ever seen. She didn't expect him to wear clothes as normal and casual as the ones her brothers always wore yet he did, and he still had a suitcase lying beside him; he must have just arrived, poor soul, Una thought to herself.
"I think I'm bruised a little, Miss." he replied in a soft and deep voice "But thank you for asking." he spoke English very well with a sweet touch of accent Una only heard about from Faith's nursing experience.
Una smiled tenderly at him "I'll help you get up, Sir." she said and put her hands on his arms to steady him as they both stood up. She was almost terrified at the surprise of how tall he was, taller than any man she ever saw.
"Thank you… Miss." he said gracefully with a smile of pain as he reached for his suitcase "I feel very grateful for meeting such a kind soul at last."
Una smiled up at him again yet her heart ached "I'm so terribly sorry and ashamed of how those men treated you." she said to him "I do hope that I can help you to get to your destination?"
He replied with a smile "I would be most honoured." he outstretched his hand to her "I'm Dalvir Singh, the new Mathematics student." he introduced himself.
Una shook his hand happily "Una Meredith, an English Language and Literature student." she said with a tender smile which Mr Singh reciprocated at once. She looked down at his hand and gasped suddenly "Mr Singh! You're bleeding!" she exclaimed as she put both of her hand instinctively on his red sleeve. Mr Singh, as if just noticed, looked at his hand and chuckled very lightly.
"That's why I must feel so weak all of a sudden." he said and Una enveloped his arm with hers strongly as they started to walk.
"I'm taking you to Collwell Cottage, it's a place where I live. I will take care of your wounds, Mr Singh, before I will let you go to your destination." she said decidedly, surprising herself of her stubbornness.
He looked down at her with another gentle smile "I really doubt that I was ever so much taken care of in my life." he said as they walked arm-in-arm "And do call me Dalvir."
Una looked into his eyes and she smiled at him merrily "Alright. I'm very happy to make your acquaintance, Dalvir." she said, enjoying the sound of his name "Now, you must call me Una."
He smiled down at her with joy which Una thought must have been a relief as well "I'm quite literally enchanted to meet you, Una."
She blushed a little and then chuckled softly with him as they were passing the Park on the corner and the white Collwell Cottage was already in their sight. Una nodded in its direction "There, we're almost here." she said to her new acquaintance.
Dalvir looked in that direction and all of a sudden his eyes sparkled with excitement and delight as if he was looking at something very exotic "I really feel as if I was in a magical land, somewhere far away, it looks so different and yet still beautiful, this country of Canada." he said in a soft, mesmerised voice.
Una smiled at his reaction as she reached for her keys and started to open the door. She nearly tripped over the step and Dalvir caught her just in time. They looked at each other for a second out of surprise and then burst out laughing just as the smell of warmth and spring surrounded them from the ancient walls of the Collwell Cottage. Their laughter seemed to add something to the air around them and Una, in that very moment, felt as if her gloomy thoughts could vanish if she'd put her mind to that specific mission because in that very moment they did. Una found Dalvir's laughter reminding her of something, something familiar yet she couldn't place it anywhere and just like that she felt, without knowing anything about him yet, that they were kindred spirits.
When they calmed down, they smiled at each other and Una felt how her cheeks were crimson from laughter and stuffy air inside the Cottage so she hurried to take her coat and hat off, and helped Dalvir to do the same. "You have a lovely place, Una. It smells of home and kindness already." he said to her as she sat him down on the chair in the living room and hurried to the kitchen to get some emergency bandages she always had in the top cupboard as well as some water and a sponge.
"Thank you, Dalvir." she replied gently when she came back, ready with her hands prepared and her sleeves rolled up nicely "But you must know that I don't live here by myself, three other girls live here with me. They all go to Redmond too and one of them, Joan, will be in your Maths class." she said as she started to practice the art of nursing on the not so horrible yet still quite visible and painful wounds of Dalvir's arm. She was now doing exactly what her sister always loved so much and Una felt as if Faith was with her in spirit just in that very moment.
Dalvir smiled wider "Really? That is so very exciting to meet new people. I can hardly remember all the names of the people living in my village back in India, it's too many of them! So I must say that it will be a joy to know only a handful here and actually remember their names." he said and Una chuckled as she looked up at him curiously with a smile.
"What part of India are you from, Dalvir?" she asked him.
"Punjab, but I lived in a very small village there, you wouldn't even find it on the map." he replied gently, a black curl falling graciously on his nose "I can assure you that it is incomparably different to this country." he smiled whilst looking around the room with wonder in his shining eyes.
Una looked up at him again, trying to imagine Dalvir wearing his traditional colourful clothing and being surrounded by hundreds of people from his village. She grinned wider at the thought and patted his hand very gently with a sponge "I can't say that I can exactly imagine India then." she said "If it's so very different to Canada, I'm not sure my imagination can transport me there vividly enough."
He grinned back at her "The best way to imagine it is to think of all the bright colours you can think of, then the nature, the heat, and the smell of every possible seasoning you can think of."
Una closed her eyes for a moment longer to capture that image which was as exploding, exotic and exciting as her new friend sitting in front of her was. "I really hope I will go there one day." she said wonderingly.
"I have a feeling you will." he replied softly and then looked down at his arm as Una started to roll his sleeve down, finishing her nursing moment. Una looked up at him again, her heart overcome by a warm, tender feeling and she smiled back at him. "Thank you very much, Una." he said to her and then squeezed her hand as if to show her he meant it "I think that we have already… how would you say it?… a connection of friendship. Don't you think?" his eyes and voice spoke of the 'I can't wait to hear and know everything about you.' kind of feeling and all the excitement surrounding a developing friendship. Una saw and heard it in his voice and expression of his chocolate-like eyes and she reciprocated with a pat of her hand on his.
"Most definitely, Mr Dalvir Singh." she replied so cheerfully, she surprised herself.
