There was something about Emily that drew me—she had an ethereal quality about her that made her enchanting and irresistible.
It was on the edge of my awareness that she was different somehow and I should have perceived the other-worldly aura that surrounded her but I was deaf and blind when it came to matters metaphysical.
All I knew was there was something magical in the air whenever she was around.
My world was beginning to expand and new possibilities were open to me, but I was also feeling restricted by the agreement I entered into with Thomas Gunn, Mother's solicitor.
Mother’s will stipulated I couldn’t leave the property, and that made it difficult for me to find some way to ask Emily out on a date.
But then, I had an inspiration.
I recalled Emily's mentioning the property came with boat docking privileges.
So I got out my laptop,went on line and ordered a row boat from a local dealer and arranged to have it delivered to the estate. Then I phoned Grocery.com and had a picnic basket lunch sent to the house.
I had gotten to know Emily’s routines, so I took advantage of a lovely golden afternoon and waited until she took her break and then whisked her away with me, down the long winding path to the pond.
“Where are you taking me?” she giggled.
She left me breathless and I’d have gladly traded a thousand days for the surprised look on her face when I showed her the boat tied up in the shallows.
“I have no idea how to row, but if you’re willing to risk life and limb we can sail off to Key Largo.”
“Key Largo, huh?” Her eyes danced. “But there’s no outlet from the pond to Lake Ontario.”
“Well, it’ll just have to be a tour of the pond with a picnic later on the side of the hill.”
I pulled back a picnic blanket covering the wicker basket. “There’s a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon as well—if you’ve nothing against bubbly.”
“I’m not adverse to spirits,” she smiled.
We got in the boat and I used an oar to push off from the bank.
Within minutes we were in the middle of the water with a swirling sky of cumulus above, reflected in the glassy surface of the pond below.
She reached out and touched my arm. “Oh look, Jonas! How lovely the house looks from here.”
It was a moment so intimate and touching—the tender way she whispered my name.
I held onto her arm, pulled her close and pressed my mouth down on hers. Her lips were soft and full and I never wanted the kiss to end.
“I’m sorry, Em, you’re just so lovely.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Jonas. I think this was meant to be.”
After a while we rowed back to shore and spread out the blanket on one of the plateaus on the path leading down the hill.
It was a glorious June afternoon with a slight breeze—just enough to stir the trees and dapple her face with shadowy leaves.
“It’s so beautiful here—I don’t know why I never noticed it before,” I confessed.
“You were young and reckless—you didn’t notice me either.”
I put down the champagne flute. “You were here, back then, before I left?”
“I was,” she whispered.
I couldn’t believe I could be so blind.
"Did we ever speak?”
“No—you were unreachable then—like a dark smoldering fire beneath ashes. You were very fierce—you frightened me.”
“I’m sorry. I was headstrong and unruly.”
“Your mother and I would sit on the back verandah in the cool of those summer afternoons and she’d confide in me. She loved you, but couldn’t seem to find a way inside you.”
My heart broke then—all the tears I didn’t shed, or wouldn’t, I shed now. I felt Emily’s arms around me—and Mother’s as well, in the softness of a woman’s heart I had shut out.
We spent a long time on the hillside and shadows were deepening and the pond was dark when we finally made our way back up the path to the house.
I was shivering, so Emily built a fire, and we sat there staring through the windows at the setting sun lighting the western sky like a forest fire.
We sat spellbound as the sun lit up the room with its dying rays, and in the magic of its afterglow, Emily began talking in drowsy tones.
And gradually, I was transported to another time and place.
It happened naturally, or supernaturally, like stepping out of shadows into the sun, and I began to see Emily in a completely different light.
I began to see ours was not an ordinary romance, and in some strange way Mother had enticed me back here, so Emily and I could be fated to meet.