COMPASSION

Chapter 2

The Reunion

The white snow fell softly and silently in the forest. The darkness was starting to lift as Catherine sat motionless in her chair. The silence was broken as she gasped for air and yelled out, "Help! Help! Where am I?" 

As life slowly returned to Catherine’s soul, she looked around to survey her location. She felt threatened and in danger but did not know why. Her appearance was that of a mature woman again and no longer a young beautiful version of herself. "Am I dreaming? Is this real? Where am I?" Catherine shouted again.

She rose from her chair and started walking through the forest until she came to a wooden fence on a hill. It was getting lighter out and Catherine could see a dirt road past the fence. She climbed the fence and continued walking down the road. There was an Inner Compass directing her through this unknown land. She looked down at her hands and feet and ignored the blue color.

A thousand questions went through her mind, “Where am I? Where am I going? Is this a dream or is it real?” Catherine looked down the road and could see someone in the distance. A lone figure was walking toward her. As the two got closer, Catherine could see the figure approaching her was that of a man in a Brown Suit. A smile came to her face as she recognized the man in the suit as her husband Tom.

The last time she saw Tom in the suit was the day of his funeral. "Tom! Tom! Is that you?" Catherine shouted.  She has secretly prayed to herself to one day reunite with the Love of her Life and finish the fight they started the night Tom fell ill from a stomach aneurysm and was rushed to the hospital.

Tom Havard, a very fit man in his mid-thirties with reddish brown hair, was now standing in front of his wife with a half-smile half perplexed look on his face. Tom has been waiting thirty-three years to ask his wife the question that has been eating at him since his funeral, "Why did you bury me in this brown suit? You know I like my navy blue suit! You know I was a sailor in the Navy. Army guys wear brown...Navy guys wear navy blue!" Tom waited for an answer.

"Tom I am sorry. I wanted to save your blue suit for one of the boys. I didn't think it would matter to you!"

"Well, it does...I don't like this suit and never will." Tom replied.

"It's been thirty-three years since I have last seen you. Is this all you have to say to me?" Catherine looked dumbfounded.

Tom looked down at his wife's feet and saw she was shoeless and her feet were blue.  "Here take my shoes," Tom offered his wife.

"No, I cannot take your shoes," Catherine replied quietly.

Tom ripped the sleeve from his suit coat and knelt down and made a snowshoe for Catherine. He then ripped the other sleeve and wrapped her other foot." Tom stood up out of the snow and embraced his wife and kissed her.

Catherine pushed Tom away, "Tom...you have to tell me before I go crazy; Where am I? Are you really here?”

"We have to talk and not in the middle of the road," Tom tells Catherine.

"My back is killing me. I have to sit down. Take me back to my chair." Catherine pushed her brown-gray streaked hair off her face and turned to walk back up the road with her husband by her side.  

As the couple walks through the deep snow Tom removes his suit coat and covers her shoulders. Finally, the pair arrives at Catherine’s chair and she collapses into it totally exhausted. Tom removes a radio from his shirt pocket and turns the dial to the couple’s favorite song: Till The End of Time by Perry Como. 

The couple is transported to a happier time. It’s June 1950 in New York City. The two lovers have just arrived in The Big Apple to spend their honeymoon. Tom unlocks the Roosevelt Hotel room door and picks up his bride and carries her into the room. He places her on the bed and turns around to close the door. 

"I have never been so happy in all my life," Catherine announces.

Tom turns on the radio and the music starts to play their favorite song.

Tom asks, “Mrs. Havard would you like to dance?”

Catherine smiling replies, “Yes Mr. Havard.”

The couple will cherish this moment for eternity as they dance to their song. Slowly snowflakes drift down and land on the beaming bride's face and they are again sent back to the reality of Lilith’s Garden.

A weeping Catherine cries out, “Tom what is going on? Why am I not waking up from this dream?”

Tom looks at his hysterical wife and tells her, "Calm down...You have to relax...take some deep breaths and I will explain everything." 

Catherine shouted, “I am calm!”

As you know I am a licensed Mortician and a Graduate of Eckley School of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia. In my professional opinion, I can confidentially say you are dead. From the looks of your body, I would say you have been filling up with fluid and the extra water put pressure on your heart and you died from congestive heart failure.”

Catherine is stunned to hear her diagnosis and cries out, “I can’t be dead! I am not ready to die. This has to be a nightmare. I have so many things I have to do yet. I haven’t given Michael his inheritance money yet. Tom and Joe still live at home and are not married. I was going to find them both nice girls.”

Tom looks at the snow on the ground and replies, “None of us get to choose when we are going to die.”

“Joe is going to wake up soon. He will find me in my chair. Ouch! Now my tooth is killing me. My back feels like someone is stabbing me with a knife. If I am dead how come I am feeling this pain?” Catherine demanded to know.

“Your soul is still connected to your body. After a couple of days, you will lose those feelings. Your soul is in denial about your passing. How bad is your tooth?” Tom asks.

I was going to see Joe’s Dentist but the poor man passed away in December. His name was Dr. Parmo.

"Tom...I didn't want to die. I haven't finished ...I mean there are so many things I have to do. I haven't given Michael his inheritance money. I was going to give him his share of my money then all I would have to worry about was Tom and Joe at home. I can't be dead, this is the worst  thing that could happen!"

Tom thinks for a second, " Yes I know him....He just opened up a new office. I will take you

to see him now."  

"But Tom what are we going to do about the boys. They will soon wake up and find me in my

chair."

"Listen... you are my number one priority. The boys are in their mid-thirties. They are not little children. They are grown, men. Why they are still living at home hanging onto their Mother is beyond me. They are trying to take the easy way out in life by using your brain to make every decision for them. At least Mike and our Daughter-In-Law Donna have given us two wonderful grandchildren Jennifer and Michael Jr. They are normal adults. I am not too sure of Tommy and Joe."   

"What time is it?" Catherine asks.

Tom looks at his watch, "ten minutes to seven," 

"Joe will get up at seven. We have to do something...We have to tell him I am with you and I

am all right!"  

"All right...if you insist. I will go to the house to check up on the boys. I want you to just start walking down the road again until you come to a Yellow Light. When you see it walk toward the light and you will come to Doctor Parmo's Dental office. After I check up on the boys I will meet you there."

Tom leaves and heads for the Havard house. Catherine fitted with her new suit coat sleeve snow boots starts walking in the deep snow in the morning mist headed for the Yellow Light.