Morna's Legacy 04 - Love Beyond Measure (3 page)

Eoghanan winced as the cloth touched his tender skin once more, his voice slightly unsteady as he answered, “Aye, ’tis fine.”

Morna smiled at him, squeezing his hand in sympathy before pressing the rag against him once more. “I’m only just to yer shoulder and, after I’ve cleansed ye, I still have to apply the salve. Best ye tell me about this lass ye have seen. Ye havena spoken of her until today.”

“Verra well.” He’d thought of nothing else but her for days, so despite Morna’s request, it seemed the only natural thing to speak of. Besides, he’d not yet been given the opportunity to write about her and all he’d seen, a practice he’d kept religiously since childhood. He very much didn’t want to forget her. Perhaps speaking of the lass would keep her fresh in his memory so that he would have the words ready when it came time to write. “I doona know her name, for each time the wee boy, her son I suppose, calls her ‘Mom.’ ’Tis no her real name. The lad is called, Cooper. An odd name to be sure, but it seems to fit the lad just fine.”

Once he started, the words left him freely, and he took his time describing every instant, recalling every word he’d heard between them. He no longer spoke directly to Morna, but more to himself. It stirred something inside him, to speak of the lass and her son, something that made him feel alive and whole, rather than the weak, wounded man he’d felt like for the past many moons.

The memories of his beloved strangers took him away. He no longer felt the witch’s work, not noticing that she’d finished until he heard Jerry’s voice in the doorway.

“Morna dear, when ye are finished with him, will ye join me? I need some help in the garden, if ye doona mind. There’s a wee beasty weed that is near strangling the life out of one of me plants. I’d like ye to use a bit of magic and kill the devil.”

Patting his hand in a motherly fashion, Morna stood from her place beside him, glancing over her shoulder to answer her husband. “I’m finished with him. I’ll leave him to rest a while, and we will try out another travel this afternoon.”

Eoghanan shifted his eyes from Jerry back to Morna as she addressed him before leaving.

“Are ye comfortable? Will ye be okay for a few hours?”

Eoghanan nodded confidently. “Aye, but I’d like to write in me book. Could ye hand it to me?”

Morna started in the direction of his journal but stopped midway, turning a mischevious smile at him. “No, I doona think so. Ye need to start building yer strength here as well, and walking across the room willna rip ye open from temple to toe. I’ll leave ye to get it for yerself.”

*

Jerry grasped at Morna’s arm as soon as she closed the bedroom door behind her. “Ye are much too good at making up lies, love. It unsettles me a bit.”

Morna looked at him incredulously. “I doona know what ye mean by that.”

He stopped and faced her, blocking her path down the hallway, staring at her with one wiry eyebrow raised, waiting to speak again until she smiled guiltily. “Ach, look there. See, ye do know perfectly what I mean. Ye told the lad that ye doona choose where he ends up. If that were true, I wouldna have had to speak to a Mr. Perdie in America about the money that we will give him to get the lass here, would I?”

“Have ye taken to spying on me, Jerry?”

“I’ve always spied on ye. Ye get yerself in far too much trouble without me supervision. But I doona believe I knew until today just how well ye could lie.”

His wife leaned in to kiss him reassuringly on the cheek. “Life isna worth it without some trouble now and then, but ye shouldna be surprised that I am a good liar. ’Tis a trait of women and the fault of men that we must be so. The folly of ye all has required it of us. I dare ye to find one woman that isna capable of it.”

Giving his cheek a quick pat, Morna pushed past him, moving down the hallway ahead of him, leaving Jerry rather stunned and open-mouthed.

LaGuardia Airport, New York City

Present Day

An hour spent in line at airport security, mixed with the general hectic chaos of the airport, was enough to damper the anticipation of even the most enthusiastic traveler. For all his excitement, Cooper had mellowed dramatically from the bouncy, ecstatic boy he’d been this morning by the time we finally sat down at our gate to await boarding.

“Are you nervous?” I nudged him lightly with my elbow, eliciting a trademark lift of an eyebrow as he squirmed in his seat to face me.

“Nah. Why would I be nervous? I’ve always wanted to fly. I was born to fly, Mama.”

I chuckled, glancing down at my watch to check the time. “Oh you were, huh? Well, you’ll get to shortly. Only an hour until take off now. I bet we start boarding within the next fifteen minutes or so.”

“Fifteen?” For a brief second his voice held a slight whine, but he checked it quickly, knowing it wouldn’t be tolerated. “I don’t think I can even last another five.” He held up four fingers, but silently counted as he looked over his hand and quickly extended his thumb so it displayed the correct number.

“Oh, I bet you can. Let’s do something to pass the time. Want to work on your
reading?” He loved for me to read to him and, no surprise, he was catching on quickly.

Enthused, he immediately reached to the floor to grab his backpack so that he could pick a reading choice.

“Can we read the book Dad gave me last night?”

“Sure.” I responded reflexively, but I watched him rummage through his bag apprehensively. Jeffrey was in no way much of a reader. I couldn’t, for the life of me, imagine Jeffrey going to a bookstore to find a book for Cooper. I anticipated him pulling a comic out of his backpack. That was fine. It just wouldn’t be the reading material I knew Cooper would want. He didn’t enjoy pop-up and sticker books; he wanted more words than pictures. Just another trait that made him anything but the typical child.

“This one.”

Surprising me, he extended
The Little Prince
by Antoine deSaint Exupery. So much more than a simplistic children’s story, this tale had just the sort of depth that Cooper would enjoy, although I would have to explain some of the meaning to him, he wouldn’t mind. He loved to learn.

“Dad gave this to you?” I couldn’t mask the doubt in my voice.

“Yeah, but Bebop helped. He said that since the two of you were getting so many gifts for the wedding, I needed something too. He said he didn’t know what to get me, but then Bebop helped.”

That made much more sense. It was Cooper’s Bebop, Jeffrey’s dad, who’d introduced me to the story when I’d been a little girl. A warm, funny, and caring man so different from my own father, I spent most of my childhood wishing I’d been born to him instead.

“Ah, well this is a very special gift, ya know? It’s one of my favorites.”

“Really?” I’d drawn him in now. Knowing that I loved the book, he’d sit contently and listen to me read it, even if he didn’t care for it, although I knew he would.

“Yes, really. Scoot in closer and I’ll start. I don’t think this is the best book for us to practice your own reading with though, it’s a bit long.”

He pulled his feet up into the seat and slid in tight, leaning toward me. “That’s fine. I’ll just listen.”

He smiled, leaning his head against my shoulder as my heart squeezed happily. I’d just opened the cover when we were interrupted by an attendant alerting all those at our gate that boarding would begin promptly.

“Ope!” I made the excited noise as I closed the spine and slid the book back into his backpack. “This is it, Coop. We’ll read it on the plane, okay?”

“Okay.”

His legs flew off the seat so fast, he just about fell down, but catching himself he threw his backpack on and smiled ecstatically, as happy as I’d ever seen him.

Thrilled as he was, he flatly refused to board with the group “travelers with small children.” While I would’ve enjoyed the benefit of getting on the plane first, I didn’t push the issue. I wouldn’t put a damper on anything that brought him this much joy.

So once all pre-boarders had entered, we lined up with the rest, squished firmly somewhere in between groups B and C. He held my hand tightly, leaning out past the line so that he could see something besides the backsides of those in front of us.

I watched him smiling, when suddenly he jerked away from me, spinning to face something catty-corner from the line where he waved a little shyly. Startled, I crouched down next to him, placing my hand on his shoulder so that I could steady myself while I looked in the same direction. I could see no one—no one that either of us knew at least.

“What are you waving at?” I lightly squeezed his shoulder to pull his attention away from who or whatever he looked at so intently.

“Over there.” He pointed to the side of an escalator, where a shadow spread deep over the tile around it. “Do you remember the man I told you about at the park? With the scars? He’s here again.”

Grateful that I’d steadied myself with his shoulder, I spun him toward me, doing my best to keep my voice calm despite the shiver that shook me all over. “I remember you mentioning the man, but I never saw him. Are you sure he’s here now?”

I released my grip so that he could turn and look again and I tried to do the same. Again, I saw no one. Cooper refaced me, clearly frustrated. “He’s not there anymore, but he was, I know it.”

Cooper didn’t lie. Even when he tried to, he could only last a few seconds before his face would give way with guilt and he would fess up. If he believed he saw someone, he meant it, but why had I not noticed him?

Sure, I had a lot on my mind lately—my almost wedding and new job—not to mention that, like every mother, half of my mind always rested on Cooper. Still, it seemed that every time I made to look at the man Cooper mentioned, the stranger vanished into thin air. I couldn’t help but wonder if Cooper saw someone who wasn’t really there. An imaginary friend, perhaps? As the line started to move, I decided to direct my questioning to that effect.

“So, what’s your new friend’s name?”

He looked up at me with a face that plainly meant he thought I’d lost my mind. “I don’t know him, Mom. I don’t know his name.”

He shook his head at me, apparently astonished at my stupidity.

“Well, then why did you wave at him?”

He shrugged, lifting my hand a little. “He looked sad and he looked right at me, just like at the park.”

The thought made me uneasy. “You said he has bad scars? Does he scare you?”

“No.” He seemed surprised by my suggestion. “He’s not a bad guy just because he has scars, Mom.”

“Of course not,” I muttered quickly. Instantly regretting the implication of my question. “I just meant,”
what did I mean?
“He’s a stranger. How do you know he’s not scary?”

He shrugged his little shoulders and we stepped forward a step in the line. “Bebop says even if somebody is smiling, you can see meanness in their eyes.” He paused a moment and I said nothing, knowing by his held breath that he wasn’t finished speaking. “And I think he’s right. Just look at Grandfather. He smiles at people all the time, but he’s not very nice.”

I looked down at him, unsure of what to say. It seemed wrong to let him speak poorly of my father, but I could hardly disagree with him. Instead, I chose to direct the conversation back to the stranger. “So this man’s eyes weren’t mean, huh?”

“Nope. I think he likes us, Mom.”

We neared the gate and I extended Cooper’s boarding pass toward him so that he could hand it to the attendant to scan. “Well, why wouldn’t he like us? Here—do you want to hand it to her?”

“Yes!” He snatched it from me excitedly and leaned to the side to see how close we were to the front. “We’re almost there, we’re almost there. You can let go of my hand now too if you want, Mom.”

I released his hand, stepping behind him so that he could have his ticket checked first. After both our tickets were scanned, I stayed a half-step behind him, allowing him to lead us into the makeshift hallway leading toward the plane. He all but bounced up and down with the excitement that radiated off him.

His happiness did me good and, for a moment, I forgot all about Cooper’s mysterious stranger until a quick glance down at my bag made me realize I’d left my jacket draped over the chair where Cooper and I had been sitting.

Calling to him to stop, I waved him toward me. “Hey, I want you to wait right here. I left my coat, I’m just going to go ask the attendant if she’ll grab it for me.”

He nodded, trying to hide his disappointment that we would move back a few places in the line to get on the plane.

Squeezing his hand, I stepped away and hurried back up the ramp, pushing my way against the flow of people until I stood next to the gate entry, being sure not to step back outside of it. “Miss…” I reached out to tap the girl on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry, I believe I left my jacket on that chair over there.” I pointed in the direction of the chair, but couldn’t see it due to the line. “Would you mind grabbing it for me?”

To my surprise, she extended the light cotton jacket in my direction. “Is it this one?”

“Why, yes.” I reached out for it, surprised it had been noticed amongst the crowd of people. “Did a passenger pick it up?”

She shook her head and jerked it to the side, “Not a passenger on this plane. He must have been waiting at another gate. He just laid it over the counter here and turned to walk away before I could speak to him.”