Bess had been snuggled in the bed, breathing and pink-cheeked again, with a book and a snoozing Lady Macbeth curled up in her lap and always one of the souls, usually Violet, by her side. The young soul had seemed to find a friend in Bess. Jenson agreed she should stay in the magical house, with him upstairs with Ursula, while she recovered. The man was beyond a besotted uncle. He was a doting father to this young woman and the rush of warmth Eloise felt at that brought her back again to her own loss and what she needed to face.
"Hey, sugar. Need anything?"
"I could use a blackberry thumbprint cookie," she said with a small smile.
Honestly, she'd give the girl anything she wanted for the foreseeable future. They almost lost her. They had lost her. Cassidy's dark magic had wrapped around Bess's lungs, holding her breath hostage and though the doctors couldn't tell them much or how she got out of it, Eloise and Ursula had cried with relief. Maybe one of the lost souls saved her. Maybe Cassidy's magic gave out. They'd given an offering to the magic in the land at the graveyard that night in gratitude. Wreaths of juniper and fern on each grave. Snowdrops from Eloise.
Though they had their Bess back, something seemed to have changed in the young woman. She had an almost guarded, thoughtful look on her face and after the first few questions ensuring she was alright, and getting the standard aggravated teenage answer, they backed off giving her space and time.
"I'll get you a cookie and tea. Lady doing alright?"
The raccoon had also been fine. The vet, though a raccoon not her usual patient, had been diligent and kind. She'd made sure the babies were safe and told them to keep the raccoon restingwith plenty of food and water. They need not worry about that. Multiple times over the last week they'd found Bess feeding Lady muffins and french toast in between her raccoon meals.
"Yeah, she's good. I think she's going to have these babies soon," Bess ran a loving hand over the plump belly of grey and white hair.
Cassidy Parker may have left behind other demons, but they would exorcise them with moments like these.
She and Ursula were sitting in the garden, Ursula picking early strawberries that shouldn't be this bursting ripe yet, and Eloise reading while laying on a blanket.
A rumble of thunder sounded, a juxtaposing sensation as the sun was out and bright.
A storm was coming.
She looked up from her book, up into the sky and a sadness she hadn't yet talked to settled around her like a faithful friend.
Ursula watched her with careful eyes and a heavy heart.
"I think I need to go deal with this," Eloise said softly and a stone dropped in Ursula's belly as she froze and hoped. When Eloise saw her friend's face she smiled gently and assuaged her fear. "I don't mean that I need to go or run again. I mean that I need to deal with this so that I don't always have running in the back of my mind. I won't leave again," she added so softly that Ursula felt tears hit behind her eyes and she nodded without words for fear of them falling.
"Besides," Eloise added as she stood and wiped leaves off of her jeans. "You're dating a man who looks at you like he can't believe he gets to look at you." Her friend was no longer that ghost. And not just because a man is treating her well. But because she was treating herself well. And damn, if that isn't the most beautiful thing Eloise can imagine for her favorite person. She winked and Ursula smiled as the tears could be held back no more.
She watched Eloise walk through the trees, walking toward something that in the end would also help her treat herself well. She cried silently for no other reason than she was watching her dearest friend face a grief that had once taken her to her knees. That grief had been a shadow and silent, unacknowledged companion all these years that had waited patiently for Eloise to finally turn her head and say that she was ready.
The bitterness that Ursula had felt when Eloise left long ago was because she did not fully understand the weight that losing her dad had placed on her friend. It was easy to feel one's own pain and feed it without thought of offering food to someone else's. Her pain, at the time, a loveless relationship where she had all but disappeared as a person was more important to her than Eloise's. Though she knew better than anyone else that Eloise's dad had been a cornerstone in her life, she herself had a place in her heart for the dear man, she hadn't thought to consider that his dying would take such a large piece of Eloise that her friend would be left wondering who she was.
Eloise, in her grief, had become a ghost too.
She took for granted how strong Eloise was. And she forgot that even the strong ones need to fall to their knees sometimes.
Maybe even especially.
Ursula cried too as she worked the garden through the late morning into the afternoon. She harvested herbs for teas, making sure to plant more red clover, split a few hostas to fill in some beds where Cassidy Parker had burned plants with her dark magic, and wiped her eyes on her clean sleeve every once in a while as the tears fell.
Thunder had been rolling in for a couple of hours now, the sun having backed off and giving the sky over to this storm. The sky would break open soon so she hurried as she finished her gardening to-do's for the day.
When she came upon the peach tree, the very one that sprang up somewhere between opening up her heart to Jenson and Eloise showing up on The Lost Souls porch with hope, she let out a laugh as the tree held in its branches the most beautiful peaches ready to be picked. She laughed and shook her head at how the world could be so tumultuous with its grief and its joy.
There is a holiness in the depths of grief; it is what is left behind from great love.
Not getting into its trenches was Eloise's way of holding off saying another goodbye.
She turned when she heard footsteps and felt a quickening in her when she saw Detective Taylor White walking towards her. He was wearing a simple black shirt and jeans and he looked like he had one thing on his mind, namely a certain auburn-haired woman.
"Hey there, detective," she greeted.
"Isn't it a little early for peaches?" he asked.
"Shouldn't you be nursing your unloving cursed heart somewhere in the woods?"
