Echoes of Tomorrow (17 page)

"Here, why don't we loosen your tie and get you more comfortable?" she murmured as she slid her fingers to the formal black bow. 

With agonizing slowness she found one of the ends and drew out the knot.  The silk dropped to his chest, and she freed the top onyx stud with a flick of her wrist.  The black, silk strip held the warmth from his body, exuding his special scent when Elise pulled it free from the confines of his collar and encircled her neck with it.

Heated longing coiled in her stomach when she watched Reed's Adam’s apple convulse with a forced swallow.

The war was over.  The conflagration had begun, and there was no controlling it.  Reed was the only one who could extinguish this fire now.

She leaned closer still and laid a warm hand on his thigh.  Another flick of the wrist freed a second stud.  She heard Reed's breathing catch, then stop for a moment.

Careful to stay out of his line of vision, she eased her lips onto his, using them to tease him with promises of better things to come.

She felt the car swerve onto their property and blaze a bumpy new trail to the river.

He pulled to a stop beneath an ancient live oak and his arms encircled her like steel bands.  His lips forced the promised kisses from hers and the moan building deep in his throat mingled with her own.

She was nearly in his lap now, her body draped across his, her hands cupping each side of his face.  Their kisses became more frantic, switching from deep, languid passion to heated, frenzied urgency.

Suddenly, Reed jerked the handle and kicked the door open.  Cradling her in his arms, he rose from the car and sought a grassy spot in which to lay her.

With exquisite gentleness he lowered her to a soft patch of grass, his lips still on hers, fanning the flames instead of extinguishing them.  His body pressed her back into the soft cushion of grass.  Her fingers flew down the studs of his shirt, yanking them apart when they proved too stubborn.

Her searching hands slid beneath his shirt, encircled his waist, kneaded the smooth, hard muscles of his back.  Her patience at an end, Elise grabbed the linen and drew it over his shoulders, turning the sleeves inside-out in her impatient endeavor.

Reed released her only long enough to free his arms, then reached again, this time to lower the straps of her beaded dress.

Elise stilled his hands.  She help up one finger in a gesture to wait.  She wasn't through giving him his birthday gift.

She backed away, never taking her eyes from his, and rose to her feet.  In slow motion she turned her back to him.  Reaching behind her, she found the zipper and drew it down one agonizing tooth at a time.  She took an eternity to reach the bottom.

Her head turned back to Reed first, then her body.  She teased him with a knowing, confident smile that barely curved the corners of her mouth.

She moved one shoulder in a tiny rotation.  A sparkling strap hovering at the edge of her shoulder fell to her arm.  Still holding Reed with her gaze she reached up and hooked the other strap with her thumb, sending it over her shoulder.  The form-fitting dress fell into a shimmering black pool at her feet.

Her eyes glowed bright with reflected moonlight.  A come-hither look invited him to finish what she'd started.

She narrowed her eyes and blinked, fear slamming into her chest.

"No!" she screamed.  "Oh my God! No!"

Reed jumped to his feet in alarm as Elise lunged at him.  His face was a mask of confusion, and though his mouth formed a question, he made no sound.

"Grab my hand!" she screamed.  "Hold my hand!"

Elise grabbed for Reed, desperate to hold a part of him.  To her horror, her hands reached for his and passed right through them, as his body became more and more translucent.  She clawed at the air in a mindless attempt to find something solid to grasp.

"I love you, Reed!  I love you!  Stay with me!" she sobbed, her spirit fading with him as she watched the outline of his body become more and more faint.

All she could see was his face, etched with indescribable pain and sorrow.  His pleading eyes seared her soul with a blue flame, he mouthed the words "I love you"...

And then he was gone.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The wailing shriek that rent the night air sounded like that of a wounded animal.  Elise dropped to her knees, screaming Reed's name into her hands, rocking back and forth, denying what had just happened.

Suddenly her head jerked up and she scrambled on her hands and knees, weeping, to the place where Reed had disappeared.  She hoped with all her heart to be caught up in the same force that had taken him.  But all she felt was a void spreading through her body, permeating her every cell.  The pain was almost too intense to bear.

With a gentle caress she smoothed the grass around her, still bent from the weight of Reed's body.  Wracked with sobs so violent they hurt her ribs, she inched her face to the grass and laid her cheek on the spot where Reed's head had lain.

After what seemed like hours her crying subsided and a numbness set in.  She lay there, her body covering the last place Reed had touched.  She never wanted to leave.

*******

The inky blackness of the heavens gave way to an opalescent pink dawn.  Elise's unblinking eyes continued to stare blindly, but her mind at last began to function.

A cold, fat raindrop on her cheek caused a slight stir within her numbness.  When a steady stream began to beat down on her, she forced herself to rise to her knees and crawl to where she had dropped her dress with such tantalizing joy only hours before.

With immense effort, she stood and slipped the dress over her rain-drenched teddy.  She lacked the will to bother zipping it up.

Pushing her dripping hair from her eyes, she staggered to the Jag.  Her eyes closed in dismay and a sob tore at her raw throat when she saw the car.  The driver's door stood wide open and not even a glimmer of an interior light shone.  She knew without checking that the headlights and radio had not been turned off either.

Sighing in tortured resignation, tears she thought had dried up hours ago burned the backs of her eyelids.  The pouring rain washed away any that may have spilled over onto her cheeks.  She dragged her purse from the floor of the Jag and turned in a lifeless walk toward her home.

It was no more than a quarter of a mile, but it may as well have been a marathon.  The effort she spent to put one foot in front of the next drained her of what little reserve of energy she had.  She wished she'd just die.

Why did he leave me?  Our love should have been strong enough to keep him here.  If that damned car would start I could drive it over the levy and into the river, then this pain would be gone.  That's stupid.  What would that solve?  This numbness must be what a wife feels when she loses her husband.  He's dead now.  Even if he went back to his own time, he'd be dead now.  Oh, God.  I can't think this way.

Her disjointed thoughts continued until she let herself in the back door of the home they'd shared.  She’d just begun to gather a modicum of control when her gaze fell on a pair of men's Reeboks by the door.  Tears welled up and hovered on her lower lashes, and her chin quivered in suppressed pain.  Her insides began to crumple again.  She slammed the door with a ferocious kick.  Biting the inside of her jaw and staring at the ceiling to keep the tears at bay, Elise shoved her wet, matted hair out of her eyes and ran up the stairs.

Her room felt cold and empty now, even though she'd never shared it with Reed.  Their one afternoon as a married couple had been spent in his room.  She looked around, expecting to see something changed or missing to account for the emptiness.  Everything was exactly as she'd left it the night before.

A mounting rage welled up inside her chest.  The unfairness nearly overwhelmed her.  In one swift move, she yanked the heavy beaded dress up and over her head.  She tried to rip it down the middle.  When the wet fabric refused to give, she wadded the dress up and hurled it against the wall.  It hit with a sharp
clack
before thudding to the polished wood floor.  A wet stain darkened the ivory moiré wall and a puddle formed on the floor around the sodden dress.

"Damn you!  Damn you, damn you, damn you!"

Elise dropped to the chaise and dragged her fingers through tangled hair, then pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes.  She wasn't sure who she was damning - herself for falling in love, or Reed for leaving her.  She thought she might be sick.

Pulling herself to her feet, she walked the few steps to her bed, dragged back the covers, and fell limply onto the sheets.  She curled into the fetal position, yanked the quilt up to her chin and remained motionless until a deep, dreamless sleep overtook her.

*******

Elise fought to pry her swollen, puffy lids open to mere slits.  Without moving her head, she searched for the red beacon of her digital clock.  Ten twenty-seven p.m.

"Ohhhhhh."  Pain throbbed against her temples like a sledge hammer on bass drums.  She reached a shaky hand into the darkness and turned on a bedside lamp, then rolled off the bed and stood.  The only lucid thought in her mind was to make it into the bathroom and down a bottle of aspirin.  As she passed by the vanity mirror on her way to the medicine cabinet, she almost didn't recognize herself.  Stringy, matted hair clung to her head, the swollen skin around her eyes was so red she looked like an accident victim.

She watched her eyes glisten with tears as the memories flooded her mind.  A hairbrush lay on the counter, and she felt her fingers wrap around the smooth wooden handle just before she flung it into the reflection of her face. 

As she watched her image distort into five jagged sections she gave a feeble nod of satisfaction and wearily moved on.

"Now...I look like I feel."

*******

The following morning Elise sat at her kitchen table, a pitiful, solitary figure.  The silence of the room was worse than a tomb.   There was no companionable
clink
of silver against china, no scooting chair drawing nearer, no teasing witticisms tossed in her direction.  Only silence.

Even the smells were different.  The very air seemed to be heavy with the absence of shaving cream and soap.

Two empty cups sat at her elbow.  In a ridiculous attempt to outfox fate, she had decided to set the table for Reed.  He would have to come downstairs then, to eat the breakfast she would prepare, wouldn't he?  Common sense took over before she had gotten far with her plan, and she sank to the chair in misery.  She had no desire for coffee or breakfast.  She wondered with distraction if she would ever want to eat again.

Her head slowly lowered to the table until she felt the coolness of the wood on her forehead.  Fresh tears clung to her lashes before dropping, creating tiny puddles so close to her face they were just shiny blurs.

She had tried to keep her mind blank, and had managed for the most part.  But now images raced across her mind's eye; split seconds of time being revisited, until she found herself watching Reed smiling at her while she spoke to him in the guest bedroom.

"
Do you know what I think?  I think we were meant to be together.  I feel like you held the missing piece to the puzzle of my life...We will be together, darlin'."

Her
own words whirled through her brain, sweeping out the self-pity, inspiring her to get off her butt and do something. Anything.

Elise jumped from her chair, knocking it backward into a cabinet.  Why had she wasted so much time?  Grieving would get her nowhere.

"I told you we were meant to be together, darlin'," she said aloud.  "All I have to do is find a way."

First things first.  Her mind flew across the possibilities.  She knew it was useless to look for official records.  They'd found that out when they'd attempted to track Reed's life immediately after he'd arrived.

Unofficial records, then. 
I'll tear this place inside out until I find something.

Elise stampeded up the stairs and pulled on the first clothes she could find - purple sweat pants and a blue tee shirt.  She grabbed a rubber band and gathered the mass of golden brown curls into a haphazard ponytail.  She ignored the disastrous condition of her room and left it at a run, hitting the stairs to the third floor two at a time.

Breathing hard with excitement and exertion, she finished the third flight of stairs and found herself in the middle of the sweltering, humid attic.  She had explored the area when she moved into the house, and later when some furniture had been stored.  She'd thought everything had been thoroughly investigated, but now she realized numerous possibilities had been overlooked.

The original family had left quite a few boxes and trunks.  Elise had assumed they weren't worth taking.  Now she intended to go through every inch of the attic, trunks and all.

The first box was filled with school books and papers from the 1950's.  Another box held stacks of magazines from the ‘70's and ‘80's.  She gave up on boxes for the moment and tried a trunk.