Chapter 7
"Mt. Bacon"
With all the excitement of the previous day Sam didn't awake until the morning was late. He jumped up and flung on his clothes. Rosie was gone and he could smell breakfast cooking.
"Today is the day," he thought and raced out of the room and to the Kitchen. He braced himself as he turned the corner but found the sight quite familiar. Rosie was frying bacon, Elanor was cracking eggs into a large metal bowl (however she was just squeezing the egg in her hand until it burst and most of the egg was running down her arm). Little Frodo was on the floor scooping up egg shells and tossing them into the waste basket, Little Rosie was screaming. Sam just stood there in the doorway for a moment, unable to move. His body felt paralyzed by disappointment. But Sam's constant good nature snapped him out of his paralysis quickly. He strode into the kitchen victoriously. He wasn't going to let anything darken his mood today. He kissed Rosie on the check.
"Good morning," he said and decided that whistling a tune would really prove to everybody that he wasn't the least bit sad- in fact he didnt even remember what he was waiting for. It didnt matter that Frodo hadn't come and perhaps never would at this rate. He patted Elanor and little Frodo on the head and cooed in the face of little Rosie. He sat down at the head of the breakfast table and started on the refrain of his song. He winced as no one seemed to be paying him any notice and the song didnt seem to be convincing himself either.
"Oh well," he muttered. He looked at the table bedecked with the wares of a well-to-do hobbit household. A yellow and orange checked table cloth shown like sunshine under Rosie's beautiful breakfast dishes. They were white fired clay with tiny strawberries painted on the bottom of each porridge bowl. Elanor and little Frodo would race to see who could eat their breakfast fast enough to find the strawberry buried under their porridge.
"Rose, why is there an extra plate?" Sam inquired. Legolas, Gimli and the other members of his house had left that evening leaving only Imbalech. Rosie didnt look up from her place over the frying pan(which had now yielded a mighty heap of bacon- a fact that hadn't been overlooked even by a depressed Sam).
"Imbalech's still with us, honey," she said plucking three more golden pieces of bacon out of the pan and onto "Mt. Bacon" as little Frodo and Elanor called it. Sam wrinkled his brow and recounted the place settings (on his fingers).
"Look, Frodo's gonna destroy the Ring in Mt. Bacon!" Elanor cried as her and little Frodo played out their morning ritual of walking half a sausage up the pile of bacon. The game always ended in little Frodo eating Sausage Frodo before the Ring could be destroyed.
"Im Gollum!" he growled showing Elanor a mouthful of sausage. This always got her very upset.
"Mama!" she whined and pulled on her apron. Sam had just finished his third count of the place settings.
"No Rose, there's still one extra- counting Imbalech..." Rose looked up from her burning bacon and two children fighting between her legs.
"That's for Mr. Frodo," she said plainly.
"Mr. Frodo!" Sam said jumping up in alarm.
"Just Frodo, if you please," a soft voice said from the doorway. The entire kitchen hushed and Rosie dropped the bacon on the floor. Elanor and little Frodo stopped fighting and stared. Sam couldn't bring himself to turn around. He just watched his families reaction as if through them he could slowly see what was behind him and save himself the shock. Frodo walked into Bag-End's kitchen and gently laid his head on Sam's shoulder.
"It's alright, old friend. You don't have to turn around, Im right here." tears flowed down Sam's face and still he didnt move a muscle. If he moved he was sure this would all vanish into the stuff dreams are made of. Then he felt Frodo's tears through his shirt- it was real and something inside of Sam burst. He grabbed Frodo with all his might. He hugged him as if he was trying to erase all distance between them. He couldn't get him close enough. Frodo hugged him back just as tight. Sam released Frodo when he had no more strength left and they looked at each other. Frodo's face was exactly as Sam. remembered it on that day in the Grey Havens, tears streaming down his cheeks. Blue eyes gently wavering as they held Sam in their gaze. The moment lasted forever.
"I thought you were gone..." Sam whispered "from my life- yet here you are... in my kitchen." Frodo smiled and his eyes illuminated with joy.
"How many times did fate try to separate us to no avail? Not the seas nor the edicts of Valinor would keep me forever." Sam heaved a sigh of emotion. He felt such a release- a release of things he didn't even know he'd been holding inside him all this time.
" Come Sam, introduce me," Frodo gestured to the children. Sam tried to regain his mental footing. Taking Frodo by the hand he motioned to the children to come closer.
"This is Elanor, you saw her when she was just a babe," He said putting a hand on her tiny shoulder.
"Please to meet you, Mr. Frodo," Elanor said wiping her hand on her thigh and then offering it to Frodo the way she had seen her dad greet hobbits of great import and then after a little push from her mother she curtsied. Frodo laughed and took her hand.
"Im never going to get a first name basis am I?" Then looking into her smiling face he added "you look like a little golden elf!" he said quietly and turned to Sam "Are you sure this is the same hobbit I saw or did you find her in your garden?" Elanor laughed.
"No! No! Im a hobbit!" she said pulling on Frodo's sleeve. He leaned down and looked at her very intently as if he was making sure. Just then she got her first look into his large blue eyes. Then she understood what it was she had seen in the elves eyes for his were like theirs- deep like the surface of a great body of water, but she saw something different in his eyes too- a light.
"Well, Im not convinced," he said matter-of-factly. "Those could easily be elf ears," he said touching her ear. She giggled.
"I'll have to keep my eye on this one," he said and she latched on his hand. He tried to turn to little Frodo but found that the hobbit lass was firmly attached to his hand and wasn't intending on releasing it- Frodo consented.
"This is little Frodo- he's four, and this is baby Rose," Sam. finished the introductions.
"What a beautiful family," Frodo exclaimed. In his mind he could see that yet another face was soon to be added "Merry," he thought. Then at the door an elf appeared.
"Imbalech!" Frodo exclaimed. Imbalech bowed before Frodo. Sam. looked baffled.
"Get up Imbalech! You've known my much to long for that nonsense!" They embraced. Once again Sam. just stood by utterly confused. Frodo turned to him.
"Imbalech and I have known each other long before the Shadow came," he said. " When I was just a lad she ventured into the Shire late one evening to see Bilbo. I'd never seen an elf before- I'd only read about them and when I saw her coming up through the back gate from the woods I was afraid for Bilbo so I jumped out of my hiding spot and tackled her." Sam's eyes widened in amazement.
"You can imagine that a hobbit lad flying through the air at elf is really not threat- she caught me (saving me from a nasty fall). She told me I was the only hobbit to ever catch an elf, and being caught she had, according to her people's law to become my guardian for as long as I lived." He smiled at Imbalech who was snickering.
"You can imagine how much this delighted me- being only a child and all. She's stopped in to check on her 'charge' several times since that first meeting. I even gave her a set of keys to Bag-End. I don't know if she still has them-"
"She does," Sam put in- happy to know that she hadn't magically appeared in his study that night. Imbalech pulled back her tunic to reveal a chain about her neck with three hobbit sized keys. Sam recognized the first as the key to the front door and the last as the key to the back door- but the middle key was completely unfamiliar to him.
"I see you've kept your promise," Frodo smiled at Imbalech.
"Yes, all has run smoothly," she answered. "Though now that you've returned, I believe my original duty should be reinstated?"
"What's all this?!" Sam. interrupted. Frodo turned to him.
"When I left, I asked Imbalech to look after you and your family since she could no longer look after me."
"You mean you've been spyn' on us?" Sam burst out without thinking.
"Not spying- guarding," Imbalech answered most displeased.
"Yes," Frodo agreed, "since she couldn't look after me-"
"Bu I can now, you've returned," Imbalech pushed. Frodo looked away.
"We'll see."
"Sam," Rosie whispered.
"Oh, right, right, are we ready for breakfast?" Sam said thinking this was way to much excitement to be had on an empty stomach.
Sam tried to get Frodo to sit at the head of the table as he used to but he wouldn't hear of it. They passed plates full of the finest breakfast staples this side of the Brandywine. The conversation was light and breezy, mostly about all Sam had done to Bag-End and the grounds since Frodo had been away.
"And what about as Mayor Gamgee?" Frodo asked. Sam seemed to blush.
"I've been busy," he said.
"I can imagine you have," Frodo laughed "hobbits and their love of formalities! But I do demand you give me a tour of the gardens after breakfast," Frodo said. Sam. conceded eagerly. Long had he toiled on what still felt like his Master's fields without anyone to receive his labor.
The dishes were cleared away, Frodo helped Rosie as was his custom.
"I used to do this for Bilbo," he mused as he scrubbed the bacon fat off of the frying pan. Rosie stared at him. She hadn't been able to bring her self to say a word to him since he had returned. This was all too much for her. She marveled at how very different he seemed yet not wholly changed. She found herself saying he was "unchanged". He was so much more joyful then she had seem him in years- like a child. In fact he was almost as he was when they used to play together- before his concern for Bilbo's growing oddities drove him into seclusion himself.
"Rosie, could you hand me that stack of plates?" Frodo said without looking away from his washing. She walked up to him and kissed his check. Frodo stopped scrubbing and turned to her- his hand touching the spot of the kiss.
"Rosie?"and then the tears came. Rosie couldn't contain them any longer.
"You were my first kiss, Mr. Baggins. Do you remember? Under the Party Tree on- I guess it was your 14th birthday. I kissed you just like that. And now I've kissed you again." Frodo took her hand.
"I remember." he said. Sam walked into the kitchen. Rosie dried her eyes.
"You ready for that tour Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked.
"I'll finish- you two run along," Rosie said. As they went out the back door Frodo flashed her a sweet smile.
When Frodo stepped outside the view took his breath away. The gardens of Bag-End had never been so full and lovely, bursting with colors matched only by the loud melodic humming of countless honey bees as they danced from petal to petal. The Rose hedge was a wild sea of pink and white battling with the large center bush for dominancy as the center piece of the garden. But the bush had no rivals. It craned up and arched over the stone path like a percipience of purple and green. The leaves were like little flowers themselves and the blooms were first purple and then faded to blue, giving the bush a beautiful array of all the colors in between. The daylilies caught Frodo's attention next as they were like a swaying field of gold all facing the east as if trying to sun their freckled faces. It seemed that everywhere Frodo looked was filled to the edge with flowers: snapdragons, and inpatients, petunia's and marigolds all dotted the beds like jewels in a mine. Then it seemed that when Sam had run out of soil he had just began planting pots and rows of hanging baskets begriming with flowers and reaching vines.
"Sam. it's so beautiful..." Sam. smiled to himself. Never did he think that Frodo would get to see what he had done. They walked up and down each of the paths slowly so Frodo could stop and smell each variety. Sam. would remark on the habits of the particular plant and to why he had decided that was it's proper place. Frodo would nod and listen carefully, even as he watched a fleet of blue and silver and periwinkle butterflies dance around him. Sam noticed that they seemed to be more attracted to Frodo then even all the tempting nectar around them. They began to land on Frodo and sit, slowly flapping they wings back and forth as if they had found the perfect petal to pass their life on. Frodo just laughed and continued to listen to Sam as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. Sam's lecture became broken and confused.
"And what's this over here?" Frodo said as he pointed to a beautiful white peony. Just then an enormous white butterfly landed on Frodo's outstretched finger it. It must've had a wingspan of at least six inches. Sam cried out.
"Don't worry Sam. They're not bothering me."
"They're bothering me. are you hot? Cause the sun out here is awful- let's get some lemonade." Frodo didn't argue. Right as they neared the back door he said something softly and the great swarm of butterflies took off like a fleet of ships with purple sails caught in the wind.
Sam and Frodo sat on the back porch looking out towards the Brandywine sipping Rosie's famous lemonade.
"You grow fine plants, even finer children- and your wife can cook? Has the fates seen something special in you Sam?" Frodo joked. Sam just shrugged.
"Im going far better than once deserves," he said.
"No on could give you what you deserve," Frodo said comfortingly. But that wasn't what Sam had meant. He had been thinking back to what Frodo had said at their parting at the Gray Havens "You are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you..." Frodo was supposed to have a family and happiness and Bag-End- how could things have gone so wrong. Sam looked up to protest, to yell until the fates set things right, until Frodo took it all back- but he saw that Frodo's eyes were closed and he had a very peaceful expression on his face. Once more Sam was swept away into a memory. He was in the fair woods of Ithilien and there in Frodo's sleeping face he glimpsed a light- though faint. But now he understood what it was he saw that day on the other side of Middle Earth. For he remember that moment to be surreal- almost like the feeling he got when he looked into the Mirror of Galadrial- into the future. Now looking at the peaceful face of his Master, years later, he saw not a faint gleam as remote as a dying ember- all he saw was light.
"Are you healed, Frodo?" Sam. blurted out astounding himself for his outspokenness. Frodo opened his eyes slowly and blinked for a moment as if he was trying to step out of a dream.
"What do you mean by healed?"he asked.
"Well I thought that's what you went away for." Sam said becoming anxious.
"Yes, then if that's what you mean, then I am healed." Sam was on a roll with asking the right questions and getting them answered so he tried again.
"What else could it mean?" Frodo looked at Sam, his soft blue eyes becoming penetrating as if he was looking into Sam to see if he could deal with the answer.
"Some think to be healed means to go back- to the way things used to be-,"
"You're not the way you used to be," Sam said half as a statement and half as a question.
"No."
"And that's good?"Sam asked fearfully.
"The things that happen to us don't matter, what we become through them does," Frodo smiled at Sam and shut his eyes again.
"Mt. Bacon"
With all the excitement of the previous day Sam didn't awake until the morning was late. He jumped up and flung on his clothes. Rosie was gone and he could smell breakfast cooking.
"Today is the day," he thought and raced out of the room and to the Kitchen. He braced himself as he turned the corner but found the sight quite familiar. Rosie was frying bacon, Elanor was cracking eggs into a large metal bowl (however she was just squeezing the egg in her hand until it burst and most of the egg was running down her arm). Little Frodo was on the floor scooping up egg shells and tossing them into the waste basket, Little Rosie was screaming. Sam just stood there in the doorway for a moment, unable to move. His body felt paralyzed by disappointment. But Sam's constant good nature snapped him out of his paralysis quickly. He strode into the kitchen victoriously. He wasn't going to let anything darken his mood today. He kissed Rosie on the check.
"Good morning," he said and decided that whistling a tune would really prove to everybody that he wasn't the least bit sad- in fact he didnt even remember what he was waiting for. It didnt matter that Frodo hadn't come and perhaps never would at this rate. He patted Elanor and little Frodo on the head and cooed in the face of little Rosie. He sat down at the head of the breakfast table and started on the refrain of his song. He winced as no one seemed to be paying him any notice and the song didnt seem to be convincing himself either.
"Oh well," he muttered. He looked at the table bedecked with the wares of a well-to-do hobbit household. A yellow and orange checked table cloth shown like sunshine under Rosie's beautiful breakfast dishes. They were white fired clay with tiny strawberries painted on the bottom of each porridge bowl. Elanor and little Frodo would race to see who could eat their breakfast fast enough to find the strawberry buried under their porridge.
"Rose, why is there an extra plate?" Sam inquired. Legolas, Gimli and the other members of his house had left that evening leaving only Imbalech. Rosie didnt look up from her place over the frying pan(which had now yielded a mighty heap of bacon- a fact that hadn't been overlooked even by a depressed Sam).
"Imbalech's still with us, honey," she said plucking three more golden pieces of bacon out of the pan and onto "Mt. Bacon" as little Frodo and Elanor called it. Sam wrinkled his brow and recounted the place settings (on his fingers).
"Look, Frodo's gonna destroy the Ring in Mt. Bacon!" Elanor cried as her and little Frodo played out their morning ritual of walking half a sausage up the pile of bacon. The game always ended in little Frodo eating Sausage Frodo before the Ring could be destroyed.
"Im Gollum!" he growled showing Elanor a mouthful of sausage. This always got her very upset.
"Mama!" she whined and pulled on her apron. Sam had just finished his third count of the place settings.
"No Rose, there's still one extra- counting Imbalech..." Rose looked up from her burning bacon and two children fighting between her legs.
"That's for Mr. Frodo," she said plainly.
"Mr. Frodo!" Sam said jumping up in alarm.
"Just Frodo, if you please," a soft voice said from the doorway. The entire kitchen hushed and Rosie dropped the bacon on the floor. Elanor and little Frodo stopped fighting and stared. Sam couldn't bring himself to turn around. He just watched his families reaction as if through them he could slowly see what was behind him and save himself the shock. Frodo walked into Bag-End's kitchen and gently laid his head on Sam's shoulder.
"It's alright, old friend. You don't have to turn around, Im right here." tears flowed down Sam's face and still he didnt move a muscle. If he moved he was sure this would all vanish into the stuff dreams are made of. Then he felt Frodo's tears through his shirt- it was real and something inside of Sam burst. He grabbed Frodo with all his might. He hugged him as if he was trying to erase all distance between them. He couldn't get him close enough. Frodo hugged him back just as tight. Sam released Frodo when he had no more strength left and they looked at each other. Frodo's face was exactly as Sam. remembered it on that day in the Grey Havens, tears streaming down his cheeks. Blue eyes gently wavering as they held Sam in their gaze. The moment lasted forever.
"I thought you were gone..." Sam whispered "from my life- yet here you are... in my kitchen." Frodo smiled and his eyes illuminated with joy.
"How many times did fate try to separate us to no avail? Not the seas nor the edicts of Valinor would keep me forever." Sam heaved a sigh of emotion. He felt such a release- a release of things he didn't even know he'd been holding inside him all this time.
" Come Sam, introduce me," Frodo gestured to the children. Sam tried to regain his mental footing. Taking Frodo by the hand he motioned to the children to come closer.
"This is Elanor, you saw her when she was just a babe," He said putting a hand on her tiny shoulder.
"Please to meet you, Mr. Frodo," Elanor said wiping her hand on her thigh and then offering it to Frodo the way she had seen her dad greet hobbits of great import and then after a little push from her mother she curtsied. Frodo laughed and took her hand.
"Im never going to get a first name basis am I?" Then looking into her smiling face he added "you look like a little golden elf!" he said quietly and turned to Sam "Are you sure this is the same hobbit I saw or did you find her in your garden?" Elanor laughed.
"No! No! Im a hobbit!" she said pulling on Frodo's sleeve. He leaned down and looked at her very intently as if he was making sure. Just then she got her first look into his large blue eyes. Then she understood what it was she had seen in the elves eyes for his were like theirs- deep like the surface of a great body of water, but she saw something different in his eyes too- a light.
"Well, Im not convinced," he said matter-of-factly. "Those could easily be elf ears," he said touching her ear. She giggled.
"I'll have to keep my eye on this one," he said and she latched on his hand. He tried to turn to little Frodo but found that the hobbit lass was firmly attached to his hand and wasn't intending on releasing it- Frodo consented.
"This is little Frodo- he's four, and this is baby Rose," Sam. finished the introductions.
"What a beautiful family," Frodo exclaimed. In his mind he could see that yet another face was soon to be added "Merry," he thought. Then at the door an elf appeared.
"Imbalech!" Frodo exclaimed. Imbalech bowed before Frodo. Sam. looked baffled.
"Get up Imbalech! You've known my much to long for that nonsense!" They embraced. Once again Sam. just stood by utterly confused. Frodo turned to him.
"Imbalech and I have known each other long before the Shadow came," he said. " When I was just a lad she ventured into the Shire late one evening to see Bilbo. I'd never seen an elf before- I'd only read about them and when I saw her coming up through the back gate from the woods I was afraid for Bilbo so I jumped out of my hiding spot and tackled her." Sam's eyes widened in amazement.
"You can imagine that a hobbit lad flying through the air at elf is really not threat- she caught me (saving me from a nasty fall). She told me I was the only hobbit to ever catch an elf, and being caught she had, according to her people's law to become my guardian for as long as I lived." He smiled at Imbalech who was snickering.
"You can imagine how much this delighted me- being only a child and all. She's stopped in to check on her 'charge' several times since that first meeting. I even gave her a set of keys to Bag-End. I don't know if she still has them-"
"She does," Sam put in- happy to know that she hadn't magically appeared in his study that night. Imbalech pulled back her tunic to reveal a chain about her neck with three hobbit sized keys. Sam recognized the first as the key to the front door and the last as the key to the back door- but the middle key was completely unfamiliar to him.
"I see you've kept your promise," Frodo smiled at Imbalech.
"Yes, all has run smoothly," she answered. "Though now that you've returned, I believe my original duty should be reinstated?"
"What's all this?!" Sam. interrupted. Frodo turned to him.
"When I left, I asked Imbalech to look after you and your family since she could no longer look after me."
"You mean you've been spyn' on us?" Sam burst out without thinking.
"Not spying- guarding," Imbalech answered most displeased.
"Yes," Frodo agreed, "since she couldn't look after me-"
"Bu I can now, you've returned," Imbalech pushed. Frodo looked away.
"We'll see."
"Sam," Rosie whispered.
"Oh, right, right, are we ready for breakfast?" Sam said thinking this was way to much excitement to be had on an empty stomach.
Sam tried to get Frodo to sit at the head of the table as he used to but he wouldn't hear of it. They passed plates full of the finest breakfast staples this side of the Brandywine. The conversation was light and breezy, mostly about all Sam had done to Bag-End and the grounds since Frodo had been away.
"And what about as Mayor Gamgee?" Frodo asked. Sam seemed to blush.
"I've been busy," he said.
"I can imagine you have," Frodo laughed "hobbits and their love of formalities! But I do demand you give me a tour of the gardens after breakfast," Frodo said. Sam. conceded eagerly. Long had he toiled on what still felt like his Master's fields without anyone to receive his labor.
The dishes were cleared away, Frodo helped Rosie as was his custom.
"I used to do this for Bilbo," he mused as he scrubbed the bacon fat off of the frying pan. Rosie stared at him. She hadn't been able to bring her self to say a word to him since he had returned. This was all too much for her. She marveled at how very different he seemed yet not wholly changed. She found herself saying he was "unchanged". He was so much more joyful then she had seem him in years- like a child. In fact he was almost as he was when they used to play together- before his concern for Bilbo's growing oddities drove him into seclusion himself.
"Rosie, could you hand me that stack of plates?" Frodo said without looking away from his washing. She walked up to him and kissed his check. Frodo stopped scrubbing and turned to her- his hand touching the spot of the kiss.
"Rosie?"and then the tears came. Rosie couldn't contain them any longer.
"You were my first kiss, Mr. Baggins. Do you remember? Under the Party Tree on- I guess it was your 14th birthday. I kissed you just like that. And now I've kissed you again." Frodo took her hand.
"I remember." he said. Sam walked into the kitchen. Rosie dried her eyes.
"You ready for that tour Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked.
"I'll finish- you two run along," Rosie said. As they went out the back door Frodo flashed her a sweet smile.
When Frodo stepped outside the view took his breath away. The gardens of Bag-End had never been so full and lovely, bursting with colors matched only by the loud melodic humming of countless honey bees as they danced from petal to petal. The Rose hedge was a wild sea of pink and white battling with the large center bush for dominancy as the center piece of the garden. But the bush had no rivals. It craned up and arched over the stone path like a percipience of purple and green. The leaves were like little flowers themselves and the blooms were first purple and then faded to blue, giving the bush a beautiful array of all the colors in between. The daylilies caught Frodo's attention next as they were like a swaying field of gold all facing the east as if trying to sun their freckled faces. It seemed that everywhere Frodo looked was filled to the edge with flowers: snapdragons, and inpatients, petunia's and marigolds all dotted the beds like jewels in a mine. Then it seemed that when Sam had run out of soil he had just began planting pots and rows of hanging baskets begriming with flowers and reaching vines.
"Sam. it's so beautiful..." Sam. smiled to himself. Never did he think that Frodo would get to see what he had done. They walked up and down each of the paths slowly so Frodo could stop and smell each variety. Sam. would remark on the habits of the particular plant and to why he had decided that was it's proper place. Frodo would nod and listen carefully, even as he watched a fleet of blue and silver and periwinkle butterflies dance around him. Sam noticed that they seemed to be more attracted to Frodo then even all the tempting nectar around them. They began to land on Frodo and sit, slowly flapping they wings back and forth as if they had found the perfect petal to pass their life on. Frodo just laughed and continued to listen to Sam as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. Sam's lecture became broken and confused.
"And what's this over here?" Frodo said as he pointed to a beautiful white peony. Just then an enormous white butterfly landed on Frodo's outstretched finger it. It must've had a wingspan of at least six inches. Sam cried out.
"Don't worry Sam. They're not bothering me."
"They're bothering me. are you hot? Cause the sun out here is awful- let's get some lemonade." Frodo didn't argue. Right as they neared the back door he said something softly and the great swarm of butterflies took off like a fleet of ships with purple sails caught in the wind.
Sam and Frodo sat on the back porch looking out towards the Brandywine sipping Rosie's famous lemonade.
"You grow fine plants, even finer children- and your wife can cook? Has the fates seen something special in you Sam?" Frodo joked. Sam just shrugged.
"Im going far better than once deserves," he said.
"No on could give you what you deserve," Frodo said comfortingly. But that wasn't what Sam had meant. He had been thinking back to what Frodo had said at their parting at the Gray Havens "You are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you..." Frodo was supposed to have a family and happiness and Bag-End- how could things have gone so wrong. Sam looked up to protest, to yell until the fates set things right, until Frodo took it all back- but he saw that Frodo's eyes were closed and he had a very peaceful expression on his face. Once more Sam was swept away into a memory. He was in the fair woods of Ithilien and there in Frodo's sleeping face he glimpsed a light- though faint. But now he understood what it was he saw that day on the other side of Middle Earth. For he remember that moment to be surreal- almost like the feeling he got when he looked into the Mirror of Galadrial- into the future. Now looking at the peaceful face of his Master, years later, he saw not a faint gleam as remote as a dying ember- all he saw was light.
"Are you healed, Frodo?" Sam. blurted out astounding himself for his outspokenness. Frodo opened his eyes slowly and blinked for a moment as if he was trying to step out of a dream.
"What do you mean by healed?"he asked.
"Well I thought that's what you went away for." Sam said becoming anxious.
"Yes, then if that's what you mean, then I am healed." Sam was on a roll with asking the right questions and getting them answered so he tried again.
"What else could it mean?" Frodo looked at Sam, his soft blue eyes becoming penetrating as if he was looking into Sam to see if he could deal with the answer.
"Some think to be healed means to go back- to the way things used to be-,"
"You're not the way you used to be," Sam said half as a statement and half as a question.
"No."
"And that's good?"Sam asked fearfully.
"The things that happen to us don't matter, what we become through them does," Frodo smiled at Sam and shut his eyes again.