Crystal Bella (8 page)

Ethan looked ahead and he felt pride. He felt like a little warrior.

“Thank you for the shelter,” he said, then a big smile broke out, “I’m off to see my mom.”

He glowed, he shi
ned and most of them hated it. Jane, the boy looking one looked more perplexed, like she couldn’t understand what love was or understand Ethan. The others were just jealous at him shining.

Ethan then left
. He walked off like a little film star, he had a swag in his walk, he felt proud. He felt like he was walking through the light. He knew God was with him, she always was, she was shining through him, and off he went to never see those haters again. He forgave them but his focus was now on his beautiful mom.

~~~~

Ethan was dropped off to the bus stop where he took his bus to San Francisco.

It was
amazing how he felt. He felt so happy and strong. Just knowing where he was going to be, made him loving and forgiving. He didn’t care about the Taylors as he had his life to live and that was his joy and focus.

He got off the bus
in San Francisco. He was helped with his bags and he looked for his mom. And there she was in the distance. Her dark hair was flowing in the wind, she was on crutches and when their eyes met her face broke out into the most beautiful smile Ethan had ever seen. He had to run to her. Tears rolled down his face and he ran into her and they hugged. Ethan sobbed uncontrollably. It was both joy and sadness from missing her so much. There was also a part of him that wanted to care for her too. He loved her so much that he would do anything for her, and when he looked up at her, he saw all her strength and love. He could tell in her eyes she had been through a tough time but there was love and depth and she told him how much she loved him.

“
I love you Ethan, I love you. I love you.”

Over
the next few days they both talked about their experiences. Ethan told her nothing else mattered now as his wish had been granted and she was back in his life.

Life slowly turned back to normal.
Elisabeth had a huge financial hit from what happened and was unable to work for a year, with another operation required to remove a plate from her leg.

They were broke
for a couple of years. But during that time they always had their needs met. The universe always provided, often just at the last moment. They had little money but Ethan’s innocents always helped. He used to say to Elisabeth when they had little or no money, “we live in a cool house, we have enough change to go for a walk and buy a drink and I have you, and you have me...that’s all I need! And we have pretty cool friends too.”

That always made Elisabeth determined to get ahead and she did.
She worked hard and it paid off and the rewards came later.

~ CHAPTER FIVE ~

ATTRACTIONS OF LAW

Ethan walked around his mother’s florist shop. It was situated on a slight hill. Perfect slope Ethan used to say, in that it gave the shop a lift but not too extreme. He always liked plodding around there helping out his mom. Today was Wednesday and the shop built itself towards the weekend when it was usually at its busiest.

The shop had beautiful wooden features with a large front
bay window and down the slope you could see the sea. Inside the store Elisabeth had kept it charming in disposition, with a perfect arrangement of flowers to go with the temperature of the whole place. She changed the format to her store every season to contour with the changing climate and it seemed right to always evolve and never be dormant. This gave her an edge in decoration, because when it was perfectly right with all the season’s colors, it would still flow on again with more variety in a different theme, so no matter what it would always evolve and her customers loved it. Elisabeth wanted the accurate details in everything when it came to her flowers and the shop decor. She always wanted to sense what was coming next in trends and to be ahead or have her own essence to apply with what was coming in. Like touching a flower as it blossomed and enhancing its path or decorating its own path.

It gave Elisabeth j
oy to have her own shop and to make it exquisite and beautiful. Having Ethan around doing odd jobs made her feel so at home and the sweetness of that joy and the love she felt made her highly content. She needed nothing more. Elisabeth was one of a few in this world who was truly content. The fact that she was single made it even more profound. She knew most people were never content, it was rare. She saw a card reader once. A medium that she knew was highly gifted, wise and talented. She had heard a lot about this woman and one day decided to go and see her. The psychic had a wonderful energy about her, a calming presence. She worked from a cozy little room above a cafe that was always humming below. When she met her, the encounter felt good but there was an unknown element that just seemed to add up, like a wall between them was building, at the same time there was sweetness in the feel with how they were interacting with each other. Elisabeth didn’t know what to do.

The medium
pulled out her cards but was vague with her descriptions. Elisabeth just sat there unsure how to respond, she didn’t really know what was happening. Then the medium had a slight teary eye, the water ever so slight came to her eyes, then it seemed to disappear, a quick breath and she looked suddenly alert again. It was all quite rapid and gave Elisabeth a moment of wondering was she okay. Then she broke the ice.

“I get it now
,” she said. “I couldn’t read you in the way I usually can. You are sweet, beautiful and open and I felt comfortable in your presence but there was a block, and then it just came to me.”

She looked at Elisabeth with he
r beautiful, blue eyes and said, “You are content. You don’t want for anything and that is so rare. My guides just went quiet on me, but they are talking now.” She laughed. “They wanted me to see this and show me something different and new. I can’t really read for you as you are already fulfilled and achieving all you desire. You are content.”

It was true Elisabeth was content. Most humans would say t
hey were, but they were not really being true to themselves, most longed for something different. Even with being single Elisabeth was content as she loved herself deeply and that took away any longing or need for another. She knew she would find a loving man, though the only desire she had was for it to be her soul mate.                                      

Elisabeth moved
some flowers and a Parisian looking table to a different part of the shop. It flooded more light in and that was exactly how it was meant to be.

“What do you think
, Ethan?”

“Love it
, mom blossoming perfect. It does bring more light in too”

She walked
up to Ethan, her shoes making a noise on the wooden floors. The mixture with this shop on the slope, flowers everywhere, the dark wooden floors in this 80’s chic store with this woman all quite captivating, gliding over to her son made anyone looking in well aware something was unique here. The two customers in the shop could feel it, the electricity of them both. When she glided over to Ethan, she did just that, she flowed like an immortal, and when Ethan looked at her in this moment of serene purity he looked immortal, or a teenage version of this vampire like woman who glowed with this edge appeal. One of the customers could not quite figure out what it was, but something was different and even though he was a happily married man he could almost smell her potent power and the delivery of her beauty, but it was not human, somehow it spell bounded from somewhere else and he couldn’t quite figure out why he felt the way he did. He bought some flowers and left and for a moment he felt incredibly intimidated by Ethan and Elisabeth, until he said goodbye. Elisabeth looked at him and when he looked into her soulful eyes, they were warm and loving and he knew he was safe and okay.

Another man walked
into the shop, his name was Leroy. He also has a slight glide to his walk. Shoulders were upright with a walk that was subtly dramatic. Not extreme but just enough to know this man was gay. Handsome with a very clean, cut look. He wore his clothes detailed with their designs and everything seemed to be new and shiny. He looked around the shop clearly enjoying the ambience and the style of the place. He saw the flowers he liked that were already bundled together. It was like the flowers were already waiting for him. He grabbed them and with anticipation of seeing Elisabeth headed towards her.

“Lovely shop you have
here, so femine and divine,” he said to Elisabeth.

“Thank you
and I love your choice,” she replied.

“Yes I know, they
are so beautiful, it was like they chose me...I was wondering though, what about a gold ribbon instead?”

The flowers had
an arrangement with lots of color’s, the flowers were bright with a background of semi color with some touches of 80’s hip themes intermixed.

“You could go g
old without losing any effect with the arrangement. It would just make it a little more, hmm, shiny perhaps? It would add to the color and glam of it all. I had the light purple on to just play it down a little.”

“My man likes gold,
” he said with a glow.

“I thought so.”

“But in a refined way, never ostentatious.”

“I know.” Elisabeth smiled
at the same time adding the gold ribbon that changed the package with another shade that fitted the purpose and need. Leroy paid and gave Elisabeth a lovely smile and even though he is gay he couldn’t help but notice her appearance and her effortless charm and sexiness. He walked past Ethan who was on a small step ladder, three steps up adjusting a few things in the store. Ethan turned towards him and smiled and Leroy gave a smile back. As he walked towards the door trying to figure out the connection between the boy on the ladder, the sexy woman and the feeling they both gave him, he was stopped by another customer who walked into him just as he was about to go through the front door.

The man who bumped
into him was Henry. 60’s, conservative and homophobic. With all the people that could collide into each other, these two would be better off left apart.

Ethan observed
from the distance. Briefly thinking why these two would run into each other. He knew sometimes a situation had nothing to do with another individual. It could be the other person’s dynamics and their own contract.

I
t was trusting the feeling and being intuitive, not been dragged into anyone else’s drama and remaining detached. Other souls also could see the light in another and naturally gravitate to be close to that warmth.

“Sorry about that,
” Henry said observing who he had bumped into.

“It’s ok
ay,” Leroy said.

“Flowers for the
Mrs.?”

“Something like that.”

Leroy could have kept walking, but his path was slightly blocked by Henry and Henry jumped in with another question.

“She likes those
colors?”

“Yes very much so.”

“They are very bright and different,” Henry said, in a slow way trying to figure out what was not quite right to him. Then he continued and snapped out, “some things don’t quite add up here.”

“
I have to go I have a beautiful man waiting for these.”

And with that s
tatement Leroy left in a walk more assertive and more gay than normal.

“I knew it,
” Henry muttered under his breath.

Elisabeth wanting to tone down the atmosphere gently asked Henry if he needed any assistance with choosing the flowers. Henry was polite and asked for a bunch of flowers, and suggested nothing outrageous and something suitable for his wife who was not feeling well.

Elisabeth
quietly picked some flowers and got a match that would suit his wife. Pretty, plain within the context of flowers with some warmth in the arrangement to give some hope and spark. As she quickly put them together Henry started talking.

“I have a good hunch for those odd types. I knew straight away he was
a bit different and I was right. He’s about to give those flowers to another man.”

Elisabeth wa
s unsure whether to laugh or be serious. She was somewhere crossed in between. She would like to take the piss, but knew she had to be nice to her customers also.

“Yeah he’
s probably going to give those flowers to him, then follow it up with a good bang.”

This seems to stop Henry as he wa
s uncertain with what a bang meant and he didn’t really want to know. Elisabeth was like a machine today and finished in no time. Henry paid and then noticed Ethan standing around and decided to chat to him.

“
You look like a cool dude, surely you find that kind of thing odd.”

“
I didn’t really notice anything,” Ethan replied nonchalantly.

“Oh
I think you did.”

E
than said nothing more so Henry pushed further.

“Too afraid to call a spade a spade?

“No.”        

“Then say what you mean.”

Etha
n didn’t really want to say anything more but as he had kept pressing, he decided to say something.

“
Life can be multi-faceted with the people that walk here.”

“
And...”

“
Well, one man is happy, romantic and true to himself.”

“
And...”

“One isn’t.”

“And...”

“
Can you stop saying and? The other perplexed guy walks in with a fear, a judgment.”

“
And...which man has the judgment and fear?”

“
You know.”

“
Huh?”

“
The gay guy was the happy, truthful one. That leaves you as the perplexed.”

“
Come to think of it you are a bit odd too.”

“
It’s cool,” Ethan said taking another step closer to Henry looking directly into his eyes. “I do know this, what you give in life, life gives it back to you. You give judgment, judgment comes back, takes a while sometimes. My prediction is you will come back as a gay man in your next life, which is perfectly fine, could be beautiful. But you will get to see what it feels like…to be judged.”

“
Is that so?”

“
Yeah, that would be pretty fucken funny. Hopefully you come back like the guy who just walked out, pretty and handsome.”

At that Henry walked
off, he had heard enough. He left the store and headed towards the water. As he arrived at the waterfront he saw Leroy and his partner cuddling up on a seat across from the water. Henry muttered some bigotry’s to himself and was forced to look away and headed into another direction. He was agitated, his wife was not well and he seemed to be bumping into all sorts of weirdo’s today and getting no support from anyone.
What is wrong with this world?
He thought to himself.
Men cuddling in public, bright flowers for another man and maybe the young chap in the flower store was gay also.
All these thoughts went through Henrys head and they attract. Like a negative vault of electricity finding its match, it did just that and connected to the same frequency to some youths on bikes who are feeling angst as well. As Henry crossed the road the two kids nearly run him over. They swerved and only just miss him, and yell out, “watch where you are walking you moron!”

“Yeah you old fuck,
” the second kid said.