Ander - Epilogue: Subchapter 1
Chapter 7
Epilogue
1
The sun beat down from a clear blue sky, glinting off the weatherworn gravestones as they stood in their neat little rows. Away in the distance, cicadas chirped their repetitive songs as though in complaint of the baking heat. And right here, beneath the softly swaying branches of a sycamore tree...
"Hello, Emily," James said. He thought it would have been hard, coming back to this place, but standing here, with the slight ache in his calves from the long climb up the hill, and the breeze flowing over his face, he felt at peace for the first time in many years. "I'm sorry it took me so long."
The sun shone through the leaves and fell upon her grave, playing across the chiselled words in shifting spots of light and shade.
Emily
Painter. Wife. Mother.
Your greatest works of art were the lives you touched.
We will always love you.
James let his hand trail over the curvature of the stone. It was warm and smooth to the touch. "I have so much to tell you, I don't even know where to begin..."
James wiped his eyes and took a moment to look out over the fence. Down below, where the grassy hills evened out into an endless field of wildflowers - a sea of reds, oranges and yellows - the laughter of children could be heard.
Valery was sitting in the middle of this explosion of colours, her cheerful summer dress ballooning around her knees. She had her hands covering her mouth and was trying her best to stifle her giggles (unsuccessfully, by the looks of it) while Renna tried to convince a rather ruffled-looking Hezzi to don the circlet of flowers they had woven for him. They boy seemed reluctant, to put it mildly, and was adamantly shaking his head.
James smiled, feeling so much love for his little girl it bordered on physical pain. He knew where to begin now. "The kids are doing well," he said. "Little Valery... she's made so many new friends. Good friends. Looking back, I think I understand how lonely she must have been out there, in the middle of nowhere, and how selfish I was for locking her away. But now she's so happy, Emily. She's smiling and laughing all the time. That Wolf girl down there? It's hard to believe, but she's only a few years older than Valery. It's the funniest thing in the world when they stand right next to each other, because you know Valery's always been a bit small for her age, and Renna is just so -"
James could almost see the smile spreading across Emily's face, just like back in the old days, back when they were still courting and every conversation always seemed to end up with him babbling himself into a corner. He'd trip all over his words and then stutter out an apology, feeling like a total idiot, but then he'd look up and see that smile. It was a smile that said, quite clearly: That's okay. I like to hear you babble. It was a smile that started at the corners of her mouth and spread to light up her whole face, but it didn't stop there. Hers was a smile that could light up a whole house. Hers was a smile that could light up a whole life.
"The boys and I have been really busy," he continued, grateful for the cool breeze blowing across his face. "The old place is still standing, even after all these years. But that's to be expected of the best carpenter in the 'Glen, right? Just need to fix a few leaks in the roof. Replace a broken window. Some shutters. Basic stuff, really. I am a little rusty, though..." James smiled and held up his hand, showing off the bandages around his thumb and middle finger. "This one I got when I bapped myself with a hammer. And this one is from when I nicked myself with a saw. It was just a tiny little thing, no more than a paper cut, really, but the way Bethany screamed at me you'd think I sawed right through the bone. Rufio and Ander have been a huge help, too. Although Ander sometimes spends more time trying to think of ways to improve my tools than actually using them, and Rufio's almost set the roof on fire at least twice with that broken pipe of his. Why he doesn't just get a new one is beyond me..." James chuckled, realising that Emily must be seeing right through him, 'complaining' about all these things that made him happier than he's been in ages. "Valery's taken it upon herself to do all the inside work. Dusting, cleaning. I told her to wait until we've fixed up the place, otherwise everything's just going to get covered in sawdust again, but you know her. She even weeded the lawn, front and back, wearing these big, ugly gloves and oversized straw hat that kept slipping down over her eyes. After that she tilled the soil and reseeded the garden. I have no idea what she's planted in there or where she got the seeds, but she waters the flowerbeds every day, and now there are these little green plants growing all along the fence and lining the path, and I'm sure that, when they finally bloom, we'll have the prettiest garden in the entire valley."
A gale of laughter suddenly broke through the calm of this scorching summer's day, and when James looked up, he saw that the girls had somehow convinced Hezzi to put on their stylish new brand of headwear. They had made the circlet a bit too small, though, so it hung lopsidedly over one of his ears, and the flowers kept bouncing back and forth as he looked around, frowning at the way Valery and Renna were rolling through the flowers, kicking their feet and clutching their stomachs, laughing so hard they could barely breathe. The fact that Hezzi was such a rough-looking customer, with a myriad of scars decorating his body (which he would show off whenever he got the chance, regaling anyone willing to listen with tales of how each one came to be, often going into stomach-churning detail), made the delicate little circlet of flowers around his head all the more striking, and James couldn't help but crack a smile himself.
"The boys have shown an interest in learning the craft, did you know?" James said, not without a hint of pride. "And not just helping with the busy-work, but actual carpentry. I've been teaching them the basics. Measure twice, cut once, that sort of thing. It's a bit overwhelming, actually, seeing them walking around with tools sticking out of their belts, arguing about which is the best side to saw a plank from. Sometimes the light hits them in just the right way, and suddenly it's like I'm looking at two full-grown Foxes. But maybe that's not so crazy. In four or five years they really will be all grown up, and that time goes by so fast, Emily. So fast."
James wiped another tear from his face, smiling apologetically. "Sorry about that. Allergies just go crazy this time of year, you know how it is."
He could see Emily nodding in perfect understanding, even though he had never shown any signs of allergies or even hay fever in all the time they had known each other. She was great like that.
"What else is there...?" he asked himself, casting his mind for something interesting to share, something she would like to hear about. And then it came to him, and his smile grew just a tiny bit wider. "I know... how would you like to hear about Kiana's wedding?"