“Oh, Ethan, I told you I played a part in it. I wasn’t Saint Catherine. I was more like…grudge-holding Catherine. I stirred the pot, and when he cheated on me, I let the world make him the bad guy. Then, I got sick.”
Ethan was curious.
“If you had better doctors, would you have lived?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“No, baby. I wouldn’t have. We all have a time when we’re meant to stop existing. That was my date. I was meant to die of breast cancer. Your father will die from lung cancer. Timothy died from heart disease.”
He was curious.
“How will I die?”
She paused.
Then, she spoke.
“You’ll die and have regrets if you don’t stop holding a grudge. You came back here to be the Shaman. Did you ever see Timothy hold a grudge?”
He shook his head.
“Because they destroy you,” Catherine said. “You deserve better, Ethan. I raised you better than that. I raised you to be good, kind, and honest. I raised you to love with all you have. You married good people. Stop wasting the last days you have with him because you’re angry.”
He said nothing.
At first.
“I wish you’d lived, Mom. If you had, I know I would have been different.”
She hopped off the stone, and moved toward him.
“Ethan, you’re exactly who you were meant to be. You think you’re flawed, but you’re not. We’re all here to learn life lessons, and have an experience. This is your life lesson, EJ. When God, the great spirit, Gaia, Zeus, Hekate, or whatever name they go by, calls you home, there is no surprise. Your life is mapped out for you, and hopefully, by that end date, you’ve learned all you needed to learn. I learned not to hold a grudge.”
He let her talk.
“You were meant to lose me young. I was meant to give you life for higher purpose. You were meant to have Charlie and CJ. You were meant to adopt Willa. Fate lays the groundwork. Gene was meant to leave so you could marry Elizabeth. Your children have very important roles in the grand scheme of it all—as does your wife.”
He was curious.
“Care to elaborate?”
She laughed.
“I can’t. If we give too much information, we can no longer connect with the people we’ve left behind. The powers that be have limits to their magnanimous behavior.”
He got it.
“Do you watch over me?” he asked.
She sat beside him, and he put his head on her lap.
“Always. You’re my only child. Do you plan on not watching over Charlie, CJ, and Willa when it’s your time?”
No, he planned on doing just that.
Like Timothy, he planned on lurking. Would there be windchimes?
Maybe.
