Soulmates (12 page)

“Okay. Wake me up in a few hours and I’ll take over. Presley can take the early morning shift,” Paulette delegated.

“Sounds good to me,” agreed Presley.

Gracie whisked Presley and Paulette up and interweaved her branches to form a large cocoon like shape. It took awhile for Presley to get comfortable.

“Paulette, do you believe in love at first sight?” asked Presley.

Paulette didn’t answer. Presley looked over Paulette and saw that she was already asleep. Presley rolled over and fell asleep too.

≈≈≈≈≈

Jesse kept watch for nearly six hours. When he woke Paulette to take over, they were careful not to wake Presley.

Jesse stayed with Paulette on the ground, in fear that the Manes and Fiend would return. He knew that Gracie held special powers, but was still unsure of her exact abilities. He nestled himself up against Gracie’s trunk and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Paulette sat by the fire and began to think about her mother. She thought about all of the years that had gone by, and how much time she had missed with her family. So much of her life was lost forever. She never had the chance to marry or have children. She was never an ordinary teenager. She had never experienced a first kiss or love. She had missed out on everything. But most of all she missed her mom.

The fire was low so Paulette grabbed a log and tossed it in. Embers flew through the air and the smoke made her cough. She sat back down and stared into the flames. She began to see a faint outline of an object appear in the fire. As she peered closer the entity slowly became clearer.

It was her mother. She was sick and in a hospital, crying for Paulette.

Paulette shook her head and thought,
Am I
hallucinating? Am I going crazy?
She shut and rubbed her eyes, and opened them again. The vision of her mother was still flickering in the fire. Paulette held her hands over her mouth and began to sob.

She inched closer and whispered, “I’m coming home Mom. I promise. I’m coming home."

The heat intensified and the flames grew higher. As the flames popped, Paulette jumped back as cinders leaped out at her.

Fiend emerged from the fire, enveloping the flames.

“Come with me, Paulette. I can help you go home. I’m the only one who can help you. You can’t make it back with the others,” he lured.

“What is happening with my mother? Is she sick?” she pleaded for an answer, as tears streamed down her face.

“Yes, she doesn’t have much time. If you wish to see her, then come with me now,” he said with a sinister tone.

“I don’t know,” Paulette said confused.

“This is your last chance. It’s now or never. Jesse will never be able to get you home. I’m the only one that can help you. Come with me.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Follow me,” he led Paulette away from the woods. She followed him in a hypnotic state.

Chapter Eight

Presley dreamed of the same young lady dressed in a tight white corset and a lovely dark red petticoat. The pretty lady was playing a lovely tune on a piano. Her hands flew over the keys while her eyes were shut, her body swaying with the music.

≈≈≈≈≈

“Paulette! Paulette!”

Presley was awakened by Jesse’s screams. She hurried down from Gracie’s limbs as he ran between the trees searching desperately for her.

“What’s going on?” Presley yelled anxiously, her heart pounding.

“She’s gone!” he panicked his breathing staggered.

Fiend—the Manes—they found us! They took her! I stayed here all night! I stayed close in case anything happened! Come on, we have to go now!”

He hastily picked up the bag and grabbed Presley by the arm, “Come on, we need to go
now
,” he repeated. His hands were shaking as sweat ran down his pale face.

“Stop,” Presley insisted quietly. “You have to calm down and pull yourself together. We’ll be of no help to Paulette if we act on impulse. Now, do you believe that Fiend is still here?” she asked him calmly.

“No, I don’t feel their presence. Do you? I mean, maybe it’s a trap. I think they want us to search for Paulette.”

“So, you think she’s alive, right?” she asked trying to stay composed.

“I don’t know. Remember when Fiend said that he was going to enjoy this? I think he’s playing a game. But whether he is or not, we have to find where they took her,” he said.

“Okay, let’s go.”

≈≈≈≈≈

They came to the forest’s edge and paused at an open field. The brilliant display of wildflowers covered the prairie like a blanket. The flower blossoms changed colors as they strolled by them.

“Look over there!” Presley exclaimed. It was an old abandoned mansion, the first sign of civilization they had seen since they had left the small town. She ran up to it, astonished at the sight. The house was in ruins, but she could tell that it once had been exquisite.

“This is the biggest house I have ever seen! In person anyway. It looks almost like a castle or something. Who lived here Jesse?” she asked.

“I have no idea. Whoever they were, I’d say they were well to do!”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” she agreed. Half of the house was in shambles, with the other half still remaining. Presley tried to imagine how the mansion would have looked if it was still standing. She peered into a window.

“Jesse, there is still furniture in this room! Look at those eccentric dishes! This is amazing!” she said excitedly.

For a moment she forgot the danger that they were in, and Jesse had to quickly remind her.

“Presley, we need to go,” he said looking over his shoulder. “I feel like someone is watching us.”

“Yeah, of course.” She walked towards Jesse with her head still facing the mansion. “I was just a little awestruck.”

They continued on and found several other mansions in ruin. “Who lived here?” she asked.

“Well, there are many pages in The Book of Codes that illustrates living beings. I’ve always assumed they were drawings of human beings. Maybe the drawings were of beings from this world,” he rationalized.

“Obviously some sort of living being resided here. “And they would have been intelligent beings to build structures this amazing." They walked by the mansions, which were all destroyed.

“According to the book, we’ll come upon a tunnel that will lead us to a castle.”

“What? A castle? Through a tunnel?” she repeated.

“You look at the book and tell me what you think,” he said as he handed it over.

Looks right to me. We have to keep going,” she said exhausted. “I’m getting tired. Talk to me about something— anything. How about your life before you came here?”

“My life, huh?” he said. “I don’t know. What do you want to know?”

“Hey, I told you about my family, or lack of one. And now you are going to be secretive?” she asked. Presley really wasn’t sure if she wanted to know about Emily. Once again, curiosity got the best of her and before she knew it the words just came out.

“Tell me about anything, your family— or
Emily
.”

“Okay, Emily,” he said smiling. Presley’s heart sank.

“Well, my pa was a farmer and my ma, kept house. I had one younger brother, John, an older brother, Jack, and two younger sisters, Jenny and Fanny. John was two years younger than me, Jack two years older, and we helped Pa around the farm. I was up every morning before the sun came up and stopped for the day when the sun went down. I was really close to my family. We all worked together. I had a really good life,” Jesse looked down and Presley saw the sadness in his eyes.

“And Emily? How did you meet her?” It was as if she couldn’t resist.

Jesse grinned, “I met Emily when I was fourteen and she was thirteen. Her family had just moved to town, and Pa and my brothers and I helped build their house. Emily and her ma would come out and bring us lunch and drinks every day,” Jesse reflected.

“I watched her for a few weeks, too shy to speak. When I finally got up enough nerve, I went up to her and held out my hand and said hello. She shook my hand and we were inseparable from then on. She was my best friend and I knew, from the first moment that I saw her, that I would marry her someday. Our parents lived a quarter mile apart and our dads farmed together. Our families went to church every Sunday and ate dinner together afterward.”

Presley was trying to listen, but she couldn’t help feeling envious of Emily. She knew by the twinkle in his eyes when he spoke of her name that he loved her very much.

Jesse’s words flowed freely. “When she was seventeen and I had just turned eighteen, I went to her pa and asked him for her hand in marriage. I remember being nervous, shaking and sweating profusely, I showed him the ring that I was going to give her. It was my great-grandmothers ring. He shook my hand and gave me his blessing. He told me that Emily had gone to town with her mother to buy some supplies. I was so happy that I couldn’t wait any longer to propose, so I jumped on my horse and rode into town to find her. I ran into the General Store and asked her to come with me. She rode on the back of my horse and I took her to our favorite spot on my pa’s farm.

Jesse gazed into the distance, “We named this land Tranquility Hill because of all of the old trees. It was our secret place. Nobody else knew that we named the land, and we never told anybody about our dreams. Emily had one special tree, a big oak tree that she named
Sacred
. She loved to take picnic dinners there, and she would oftentimes read books to me under the tree or write poetry on nice days. Emily and I used to spend hours riding our horses through the land, naming all of the surrounding trees.

If you stare at a tree long enough you can envision a certain character each possesses.
The Kissing Trees
looked like lovers embracing with a kiss. We had named practically every tree on that farm, but our tree,
Sacred
, was my favorite also." He took a deep breath and then cleared his throat. “I haven’t thought about that in a long time.”

“You named trees?” Presley said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah,” he snapped back.

“Okay,” she said wide eyed.

“Anyway, I took Emily to Tranquility Hill, to our tree, when I proposed. I helped her off the horse and I remember she said, ‘What a beautiful day. I believe this to be the most beautiful place in the world. I could stay here forever with you, and never leave, and be the happiest girl in the world.’”

“I said, ‘Emily, I thought I’d be nervous, but I’m not. I have never felt so calm and nothing has ever felt so right.’ I walked her over next to
Sacred
, and I got down on one knee and she began to cry before she ever even saw the ring. I said, ‘You are my best friend. I love you so much. I have loved you from the first time I saw you when I was fourteen years old and we carved our initials into this tree. I want you to be my wife.’”

Presley was getting more jealous by each word that he spoke. But he was so engrossed with the story that he didn’t realize that Presley was getting upset.

I was giving her my grandma’s wedding band. I had always planned on one day giving her ring to my wife. My brothers use to tease me about it, but I didn’t care. I’ve always been a romantic. When I met Emily I knew she was the girl who someday would be wearing that ring. I had a key engraved on the inside of the band.”

“An engraved key?” she snickered, trying to hide her jealousy.

“Yeah. She was the key to my heart.” He continued, “So I took the ring out of my pocket and asked her if she would marry me. She said ‘
yes’
before I could even finish the sentence. We spent that afternoon envisioning our lives together, dreaming. We dreamed of building our house right there, right next to our tree,
Sacred
."

Presley interrupted, “Wow, that’s quite a story. How were you
so
sure that she was
the
one? I mean, you didn’t ever date around? How did you know that at fourteen?”