Healing Comes in the Everyday Moments
Winnie stayed at the hospital for two days and that was about all she could bear. She went home to Apartment 7 in the company of Liley and Moppet. And Spike, well Spike was back at work.
The forensic scientists were still shifting through the rabble at the house in the suburb; where neighbours were unaware that the man who used to live there butchered women, his wives, he called them. The Chief Coroner said it would take weeks before they finished collecting the bone fragments and months before DNA comparisons could be matched to records of missing women.
Sargent Donna Sabine received hundreds of thank you cards and letters from mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, fiancés of the disappeared. Many said they didn't know if any of the deceased were their relatives but that at least some families could sleep better tonight, please accept our thanks. Donna passed on the thank yous to T1, who collected them and passed them on to Spike, who passed them on to Winnie to read.
The pretty despatcher had a week off work so she spent the time learning new recipes. She was trawling the internet one day for new ones to learn when she came across a website called A Jock's Guide. She viewed it and enjoyed the funny way cooking was taught. Winnie noticed the camera wasn't blinking and it made her feel even better.
Anyway, she tried the old fashion fudge first, had a little wine and a bit of dancing to go with the cooking process because Kate suggested that was how cooking should be done. Winnie laughed at herself. Even Liley and Moppet were into the dancing bit, so that couldn't be bad, right?
Spike came home one day to the aroma of burning banana bread. She totally forgot about it while she soaked in the bath. Liley and Moppet were out for a walk with Dean Parker, their sweet, sacrificing dog-walker; although no doubt the smoke alarm would have alerted her before the apartment ignited in flames. "What would you have done if I didn't get home in time, woman? Must I always save you?" Winnie laughed and pulled him into the bath fully clothed.
In many ways, Winnie was healing quicker than Spike who continued to check her laptop and practically look under the bed, too. Laughing hadn't come as easily to him as in times past but she knew deep down it was only a matter of time. He was a good-natured person, it's gonna be ok.
They were walking their dogs to the park for a run when Spike asked her how she was doing, "I'm good. I can't let him win so I will live my life as if he didn't happen." Spike was struck at the wisdom of that, live your life as if he didn't happen, he repeated to himself. I will try to remember that, too.
"You? How are you?" He pulled her in for a hug. He exhaled, "Getting there," he said. As he watched Winnie and the dogs play, he recalled a conversation he had with a little Nun a year ago, "Love cost," she said. Yes, it does.
On the way home, Spike asked her to go to a cottage at Lake Simcoe for the week-end. That would be lovely, she said.
The place held a special place in their hearts because it was here that their love was in one sense cemented. They walked on the beach one morning. Spike led them under a tree. He climbed up, and he reached down to pull her up to him. It had a thick branch, robust and healthy. Spike leaned against the trunk; she sat with her back against his chest. Their left leg rested on the branch, their right swung back and forth in tandem.
From up there, they had the view of the water. It lapped against the shore and took with it grit and sand. It dawned on her that the sea has done this since time immemorial. It cleansed the earth. The sun came up overhead, the leaves shielded them offering succour. He knew, healing won't come quickly but it does come; just by living the everyday moments.