A Card In Time…
A Ghost and Mrs Muir Story
By TunnelsOfTheSouth
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"A soulmate will never leave you. They will always be a part of your life until one day the chance is given for them to become your life. It is then you will become one…"
Faye Hall
Jonathan sat on the front porch of Gull Cottage, aimlessly kicking his shoes against his school bag. He appeared to be mulling over some deep and thorny problem.
After watching him for some time, Captain Daniel Gregg materialized beside him. He sat down next to the boy. "That's a very long face, lad. What is it that troubles you so, this early in the morning?"
"Girls." Jonathan sighed gustily.
"Ah, I see…" Captain Gregg mused. "The perennial, discombobulating issue."
Jonathan slanted him a confused look. "Disco... what?"
"Confusion, my boy, blasted confusion." Daniel shook his head. "Females were put on this earth for the sole purpose of distracting, bewildering and baffling all red-blooded, right-thinking men. You'll find out, soon enough."
"Yeah, you got that right." Jonathan propped his chin on his upraised hand. "Well, I'm discoed then, for sure."
"Surely, it can't be that bad," Daniel sympathised. "Care to share what has brought you to this unfortunate impasse? I believe the saying is, a problem shared is a problem halved."
"Well, I bet you've never had problems with girls," Jonathan complained candidly.
"Then, you would be very much mistaken in that far-reaching statement." Daniel shook his head. "Let us say, I would rather have faced a full-force hurricane at sea, than such deep and troubling waters. Learning to navigate the fairer sex takes more skill and aptitude than it ever did to learn to captain any ship. I have had more than my fair share of such issues, in my salad days."
His gaze became distant. As if he were looking back to a memory he'd misplaced until this moment. He cleared his throat. "But, in the end, the sea has always been my one, true mistress. She could be counted upon to always be there for you, in fair weather, or foul. You learn to respect the sea, in all her moods."
"Okay, yeah, I get that. But, you like girls," Jonathan accused. "You like talking to my mom. And she likes having you around. You make her laugh. I've seen you two talking, lots."
"True enough." Daniel brought his attention back to the present. "And yet, your mother also confounds and perplexes me with alarming regularity. There is no reasoning with a woman's logic, and no easy answer as to how to get along with them. As you grow up, you will come to understand that girls are the most annoying creatures. Their only good point is they eventually grow into women. Some fine, some not so much. It's all a matter of discernment."
"Well, they're all the same to me." Jonathan shrugged. "They're always annoying me. One even told me the other day that she likes the colour of my eyes." The boy shuddered, rolling those same eyes. "Made me feel all funny inside. Like I wanted to throw up, or something."
"Belay that, lad. You're far too young to try and understand such bewildering matters of the heart. But, surely you think that your mother, or your sister have some merit, in your eyes. And you are very fond of Martha."
Jonathan sat up, looking shocked. "Yeah, but they're family. I don't count my family as girls. Well, maybe Candy, when she annoys me. And they can go all mushy on you. Kissing you, and stuff."
"A unique perspective," Daniel marvelled. "So, if I may ask, why are you sitting out here looking so forlorn, pondering an issue that has flummoxed the deepest of thinkers?"
Jonathan raised his shoulders. "Can you keep a secret, Captain? I mean, really keep a secret?"
"Of course, my boy." Daniel nodded. "You must know I would never betray a confidence."
"Good, 'cause if Candy found out, she'd want to know everything. And I can't tell Mom. She's too old to understand my… my disco problem."
Daniel's lips twitched at the boy's confession, but he managed to maintain a hold on his mirth. "This sounds very serious, lad. You have my undivided attention."
"It's this…" Jonathan pushed a hand into his school bag, and dragged out a badly folded card. "I got this at school, yesterday. Someone put it there when I was at lunch. I had to hide it quick, before someone saw it."
He checked over his shoulder, frowning at the closed front door, before handing it over. "Don't let anyone see it. They won't understand. And the school bus'll be here, soon."
"I won't." Daniel unfolded it to discover it was as he had suspected, a Valentine's Day card. "Ah, I can see your issue. You have a secret Valentine. If I remember rightly, it is the 14th tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's right. And Candy used to get those sort of cards, when we lived in the city. Boys like her. Don't know why." Jonathan shook his head. "She's been nagging me for days. Asking, where's mine? Did I get one? Like I wanted one."
"And now you have this one, and you don't know what to do about it. May I open it?"
"Okay." His small companion shrugged. "I figure half the school's already laughing at me. Someone must've seen what girl put it there."
Daniel opened the card and scrutinised the hand-writing inside. "At least they have taken the time to write a very nice, personal message. And they appear to be well-read. This poem is a very good choice." He read the note again. "She has used one of Shakespeare's best sonnets, I do believe. I deem that to be an excellent choice for a card such as this."
"Well, I don't wanna read such mushy stuff," Jonathan huffed. "I think the whole thing's just plain silly. And what does a man want with a stupid card?"
"I would be remiss if I did not point out that you are not quite yet, a man."
"You know what I mean." Jonathan shrugged. "I don't need some girl mooning over me, making cow eyes at me every time I turn around. It ain't right."
"A decidedly knotty dilemma."
"I knew you'd understand." Jonathan stood up. "Us men gotta stick together."
"You may think that now, lad." Daniel turned to look at him. "But, in a few more years, you will come to understand that a card such as this is simply a door to greater, and more precious things. You should also talk to your mother. She may be just a girl, but she would understand."
"Maybe. But, I don't think that day'll ever come," Jonathan assured him firmly. "Girls are funny, and they wanna do stuff I don't. They don't wanna build sandcastles, and they surely don't wanna climb trees."
"Yes, two very unfortunate oversights on the part of all females." Daniel stood. "However, in ten years' time, I'm sure I will be reminding you of your rash statement."
"Doubt it." Jonathan frowned. "So, okay, you think I should tell Mom? About the card, I mean."
"Up to you, lad. If you do so, I think you'll find she will understand. She may have her own advice to offer."
"Okay, I'll think about it." Jonathan cocked his head, listening intently. "Quick! Hide the card! Candy's calling me. She can't see it."
He crossed the porch to grasp the door handle. Before he opened the door, he looked back over his shoulder. "And please don't talk about it. Not to anyone."
Daniel promptly pocketed the card. "Consider it hidden. I think I have just the place for it. And my lips are forever sealed." He nodded, before dematerialising.
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The following afternoon, Carolyn entered her bedroom, and hurried to her desk. An excellent idea for a new article had been nagging at her all day, but only now did she have the time to commit it to paper.
As soon as she was seated she saw that the carriage of her typewriter was already occupied with a sheet of paper. She wound it up to read the note.
'Captain Daniel Gregg requests the delightful pleasure of Mrs Carolyn Muir's excellent company in the Wheelhouse at four for a leisurely glass of Madeira.'
"And four means four." Carolyn smiled, glancing at her bedside clock. "Or, maybe, a few minutes after…"
It had become a regular, weekly habit for herself and the Captain to partake of a glass of Madeira, at the end of the day. After their first, failed attempt, where everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong, and had made it impossible for Carolyn to keep the assignation.
They'd managed to do things better the next time Daniel had issued the same invitation. Now their Wheelhouse assignations had fallen into an easy routine, and were deemed ship-shape, and very enjoyable.
Carolyn knew Martha would be occupied with cooking dinner, and the children engaged with their school homework, at the kitchen table. These tasks left a small window of time for the enjoyment of good conversation.
"It would be my pleasure, Captain," Carolyn said, to the empty room.
She knew exactly what she was going to wear. Smiling, she rolled a fresh piece of paper into the typewriter and began to compose her article.
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Daniel stood in the Wheelhouse, beside a table with an open wooden box on it. It was a small, carved trinket box set with ivory - dust-covered and cobwebbed.
He had placed Jonathan's card inside it, for safe-keeping. Now he was scrutinising an old card he'd taken from the box. It was a Valentine's Day card from his long-ago youth, beautifully crafted with antique lace and red velvet ribbons.
He ran one fingertip across the faded words written in blue ink. He began to read them slowly. "'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. Oh no, it is an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests, and is never shaken. It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken...'" He shook his head, deep in memory.
"That was beautiful," Carolyn said, from the open attic door. "William Shakespeare, if I'm not mistaken. I read him first, when I was at school. I've always loved this particular sonnet…"
"Yes… The Bard did have a wonderful way with words." Daniel looked up and smiled with real pleasure. Carolyn was again dressed in a lovely, flowing gown and her grandmother's long, elegant earrings. She was a vision of feminine loveliness.
"It has been more than a century since I opened this box. And now it's been twice within two days." Daniel shook his head. "That sonnet always spoke to me, as a seaman who has always navigated by the winds and the stars. It could have been written for men like myself."
"Yes, you read the words so beautifully." Carolyn walked slowly toward him.
She looked down at the card in his hands. "May I?"
"It's simply a memory from another time and place," Daniel told her softly, allowing her to take the card. "Sometimes, one's memory can play the most curious tricks…"
"A Valentine card..." Carolyn frowned. "Of course. I've been so busy, I'd forgotten the date." She shook her head. "It has been too long. My late husband used to..."
She stopped and sighed. "As you said, another memory from a different place and time..." She turned the card over, running the faded red ribbons through her fingers.
"You may open it, if you wish." Daniel watched her beautiful face.
"Leonora..." Carolyn read the name written on the inside of the card. "Was she a lady from your past?" she asked softly.
"A brief infatuation, nothing more." Daniel inclined his head. "A summer's fleeting fancy. Though, at the time, I thought she would be everything to me. I was fourteen, and a ship's boy. She was seventeen, with a wealthy tea merchant for a father. He knew I would never be for his daughter, long before I did."
"The lady certainly knew how to get to the heart of the matter." Carolyn studied the last lines of the sonnet, before she began to read, slowly, "'Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved…'"
"Leonora was far more perceptive, than the starry-eyed boy I was back then." Daniel reached to take the card back. "She knew I was already married to the sea. That I could never be tied to the land."
He returned it to the box, placing it on top of the one Jonathan had asked him to hide. "She gave me the card the last time we saw each other. As a keepsake, she said. To remember her by. She knew the words held a deeper meaning for a man like me."
"What happened to her?" Carolyn asked gently, watching his expression.
"I went to sea, a week later, and did not return home for three years. Leonora married another." Daniel turned away to pour two glasses of Madeira.
He handed one to Carolyn. "I'd forgotten I had the card, until I was reminded yesterday."
"I'm so sorry." Carolyn wanted to take his hand, but knew that was impossible.
"Ancient history." Daniel shook his head. "Very ancient." He grimaced. "It took a child to remind me of that brief time in my life, when I was so sure my heart had been broken in twain by unrequited love." He shrugged. "Which, of course, it had not."
"Who reminded you?" Carolyn sat in the chair Daniel indicated.
"I promised him I would not tell." Daniel took the chair opposite hers. "But I can say your son is struggling with the confusing pains of growing up."
"Ah, I see..." Carolyn nodded. "I did notice Jonathan has not been himself, lately. He did come to me last night, to tell me he'd been talking to you. He said you helped him settle some tricky problem he'd been struggling with. Eventually he admitted he'd been given a secret Valentine card by a girl at school." She smiled. "'Girls, he said, can be so annoying.'"
"I'm glad he decided to confess. I was simply there, at the right time." Daniel smiled over the rim of his glass. "I'm afraid he was rather discoed about it all."
"Discoed?" Carolyn frowned. "I don't understand."
Daniel chuckled. "A small matter of too big a word used in error. Just know that he wanted to come to you, but he didn't think you would understand his dilemma."
"But, I'm his mother…" Carolyn shook her head.
Daniel laughed gently. "Ah yes, but you see, you are also a woman. Jonathan didn't seek out my advice, but I gave him what little knowledge I have gained, about your sex. I think I left him in a more settled frame of mind."
"Dealing with a secret Valentine, can be very confusing at his age. He asked me not to tell anyone." Carolyn raised her glass. "Thank you, Captain."
"I enjoyed our talk. We discussed such wide-ranging topics as sand castle building, and tree climbing. He assured me these are not things he could discuss with a girl. I sincerely hope that the next time, he will come to you again."
"I hope so, too. I shall keep a closer eye on him."
Daniel raised a glass in toast to her loveliness. "May we say, next week at four?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world..."
Daniel looked from her soft beauty, to the dusty box on the table, then toward the window, where the sunset was colouring the sky. He reached to refill both their glasses, before raising his in salute. "To all the Valentines we have known..."
"Yes, here's to all of them." Carolyn nodded, as she followed his example, before sipping her Madeira. Then they sat in companionable silence, enjoying the peace and quiet of an hour together, out of time...
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"The power of love is that it sees all people…"
DaShanne Stokes
