“You didn’t even remember how to talk when I first met you,” said Ethan, trying to sound soothing. “I think it’s very understandable that it would take time for other memories to come back.”
Chloe leaned forward supportively, looking like she would rest her hand on his shoulder if she could. “You’ve been through a lot, Curtis. Please don’t be hard on yourself. I’m sure they’d understand.”
Curtis drew in a shaky breath – or the ghost equivalent – and then nodded slowly, still touching the photo. He appeared to calm a little.~They will be waiting for me, and I’ll see them again soon, I’m sure of it.~He gave a little smile.~Though they certainly don’t look like this anymore! Our children were all grown up when they passed.~
He said it so matter-of-factly that it startled Ethan… but then, he supposed, it made sense. Curtis was getting to spend eternity with them – apart from this current adventure – which would make the pain of contemplating their passing much less than would be usual for a living person, he was sure.
Especially if the afterlife really was as Curtis had described it, and all they had to do was wish for nice things and they appeared!
“This one here’s my great-grandma, Rose,” said Eula, pointing to the serious-faced little girl who stood second from left. “She passed the picture down to my grandpa, and he passed it to my mom, and it’s been sitting on this mantelpiece for as long as I can remember.”
Ethan blinked at the fondness in Eula’s voice as she spoke of her family. Of course he respected his ancestors – it was the pegasus way, after all. But usually he thought of them in terms of having to live up to their expectations, knowing that he’d be letting them down if he was ever anything less than utterly disciplined and perfectly successful.
It had been something his father had brought up time and time again –A pegasus always lives up to his duty, no matter what. There’s no time for frivolity.
“Great-Grandma Rose died when I was just a little girl,” Eula continued after a moment. “But I have such good memories of her. She’s the one who taught me how to make my first recipe – just helping her knead some bread, but it made me realize how important food is, to the body and the soul. She was why I eventually decided to open the diner – she loved cooking and feeding people!”
Eula laughed a little ruefully, and shook her head.
“You see this locket my great-great grandmother, Alice, is wearing?” Her finger tapped at the photo. Ethan squinted – what had looked like a dark smudge against the white dress of the woman standing next to Curtis, he now realized actually was a large, heavy, silver locket on a long chain around her neck. “It was supposed to be a family heirloom. Alice gave it to Rose, and Rose left it to me, but –”
She was cut off suddenly by a ghostly gasp from Curtis.
~I gave that locket to my Alice,~he whispered.~I made it for her when I was wooing her.~
“You made that?” said Chloe, sounding impressed.
Curtis nodded, still looking at the picture.~I was a blacksmith in life. Mostly I made useful things like horseshoes and tools, but I liked to tinker with jewelry sometimes for my own amusement.~He smiled in a surprisingly self-deprecating fashion.~I was never much good at it, but Alice was kind enough to compliment that necklace and wear it in public, bless her.~
“Not much good?!” said Eula, bewildered. “That locket wasstunning. I was obsessed with it when I was a little girl.” Her face fell. “Which is why I couldn’t forgive myself when I lost it.”
Curtis’s eyes widened.
“Lost it?” Henry asked. He’d been mostly silent up until now, but Ethan could tell that he’d become just as invested in Curtis’s story as everyone else here.
Eula nodded. “I was young and stupid. I went out camping in the woods with my boyfriend at the time, and I thought I was invincible and that taking precautions was for people who were no fun, as young people do.”
She sighed, looking incredibly annoyed at herself. “So I made the unwise decision to wear my family heirloom locket while camping in the forest out behind Girdwood Springs, and there was a storm that we were completely unprepared for, and, well, long story short, the necklace got lost somewhere along the way.”
Staring at the photo, she continued, “I went back out there to look for it every chance I got, even though it was a difficult hike, but it must’ve gotten washed away somewhere. The rains that night were horrendous – they ended up causing a landslide. If we’d woken up one minute later…”
Ethan knew that it was a silly thought to have, given that they’d only just met, but he didn’t think that Eula had ever looked soglumas she looked now. She seemed like the kind of person who was always the life of the party, who always had something positive to say to cheer everyone up – seeing her so down on herself was unsettling.
~Please don’t be bothered by it, Miss Eula,~said Curtis, and indeed he didn’t sound upset.~I never expected that trinket to have meaning to anybody other than my Alice – the fact that it lasted that long is more than I ever would have expected. I’m glad that you were able to enjoy it for many years.~
Eula sniffled, and Henry and Sylvie glanced at each other, clearly not quite sure what had just been said.
Chloe gave a quick summary, and Sylvie nodded, passing Eula a cup of tea. “Curtis is right. As sad as it must be, it’s not something you should get down on yourself about, especially all these years later.” She smiled. “If I decided to beat myself up for every stupid thing I did when I was younger, I’d never get anything else done!”
Eula smiled thinly, wrapping her hands around the teacup. “Thanks, darlin’. I appreciate it, I really do. But I think I’ll be beating myself up over this for a while yet. That necklace was my favorite thing in the whole world. And to know how much it meant to Great-Great-Grandma Alice…”
Sylvie continued to try to comfort Eula, and Ethan leaned back in his chair, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. This trip to Eula’s house had certainly been enlightening in a number of respects, though they were still no closer to working out why Curtis had been called back to the living world.
He turned to Chloe. “What are your thoughts on all of this?”
Chloe took a big bite out of a rosewater custard donut and chewed thoughtfully, leaving a liberal dusting of cinnamon sugar on the tip of her nose, and it was all he could do not to reachover and brush it off. She really did have a habit of getting food on her face, and while normally he would find that kind of thing maddening, with Chloe, it was just plain endearing.
“I’m not sure, really,” Chloe said. “I mean, part of me wants to go and find this locket, but it feels like a bit of a fool’s errand… and anyway, we should really be focusing on getting Curtis back to where he’s supposed to be. The locket feels more like a long-term project.”
