Subj: Remember Chapter Seven
Date: 2/3/00 12:38:25 PM Central Standard Time
From: Melissa
Remember
Chapter Seven
Will pulled up to the retirement home. He checked the address once more before getting out of the car.
Gerard Stiles was brought out to him, he was in his mid-eighties, they went around the gardens.
“I appreciate you letting me talk to you. I’d haven’t had any luck finding any of Charles and Daphne’s friends.
“Most of them are dead, I’m afraid,” Gerard replied.
“How long did you know Charles and Daphne?”
“Since Charles opened his practice.”
“Did either of them have any unfinished business?” Will asked.
“Well of course. Daphne was taken away from Charles so early. I don’t think he ever recovered,” Gerard said.
“Wait a minute, when did Daphne die?”
“It was since 1945.”
“How did she die?” Will managed to ask.
“Oh I thought you knew. She died in childbirth,” Gerard said.
*******
When the phone rang Maggie ran to it hoping it would be Quentin. “Hello?”
“Maggie, it’s me. I’m at the lab.”
“Quentin, I was go worried. I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too. I was wondering if you could come and get me. I’m ready to come home.”
“Sure,” Maggie said, “I’m on my way.”
“I love you Maggie.”
Maggie flew from the house, tears of relief poured down her face, whatever had gone wrong was over.
*******
Back in the lab Daphne turned off the phone and the voice synthesizer. Quentin lay sleeping, Daphne in her late seventies watched over him protectively.
She knelt down and said, “Quentin, it’s time to get up.”
Quentin woke not remembering that he fell asleep. Quentin was surprised to see how old she was, but he could still see the mischievous smile of that funny ten year old, and that sparkle was still in her eyes.
“Quentin it’s time for me to go,” she said.
“You can’t,” Quentin protested.
“I’m afraid I must. I’ve done what I came for.”
“What? Why were you here?”
Daphne laughed, “I was here for you.”
“I don’t understand, won’t you please stay?”
“My time is up, I’m sorry.”
“You can’t go,” Quentin snapped.
“I have no choice Quentin,” she said.
“I can’t lose you again,” he yelled.
“Like you lost me before?”
“Yes, like before. . . ” he stopped realizing what he was saying. “No this isn’t happening,” he said.
“Oh my darling. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you.”
“This isn’t possible.”
“But it is, your grief has lived on into your next life,” she said.
“I don’t remember,” he said.
“But you remembered to be afraid. Quentin your afraid to lose love again.”
“You’ve known along?”
“No, only after I lost the baby,” she said, “I was remembering my death.”
Quentin closed his eyes, he didn’t remember, but he knew.
“You have a life to go back to, don’t let it slip away,” Daphne said gently. “I love you Charles,” Daphne said.
Quentin watched as she disappeared, “Goodbye Daphne. A poem came to Quentin it seemed to fit with what had happened.
I was by Christina Rossetti, and was called Remember:
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Quentin was brought back to the present by a knock on the lab door, he turned and saw Maggie standing in the doorway. She smiled when he met her eyes, he stood up and she ran into his arms.
Maggie never wanted to leave his arms, she saw a change in Quentin and she hoped all the bad things that happened would be behind them now.
Suddenly the ball that Quentin made for Daphne when he first met her appeared, and fell out of the hologram rolling to their feet. Maggie looked at Quentin with a puzzled look, “I’ll tell you about it later,” Quentin said.
The End
(Savage Garden’s song Truly Madly Deeply is the theme song for the last
chapter of this story.)
Truly Madly Deeply
I’ll be your dream
I’ll be your wish I’ll be your fantasy
I’ll be your hope I’ll be your love
Be everything that you need
I’ll love you more with every breath
Truly, madly, deeply do
I will be strong I will be faithful ’cause I’m counting on
A new beginning
A reason for living
A deeper meaning
I want to stand with you on a mountain
I want to bathe with you in the sea
I want to lay like this forever
Until the sky falls down on me
And when The stars are shining brightly in the velvet sky
I’ll make a wish to send it to heaven
Then make you want to cry
The tears of joy for all the pleasure in the certainty
That we’re surrounded by the comfort and protection of
The highest powers
In lonely hours
The tears devour you
I want to stand with you on a mountain
I want to bathe with you in the sea
I want to lay like this forever
Until the sky falls down on me
Oh can you see it baby?
You don’t have to close your eyes
’Cause it’s standing right here before you
All that you need will surely come
I’ll be your dream I’ll be your wish I’ll be your fantasy
I’ll be your hope I’ll be your love
Be everything that you need
I’ll love you more with every breath
Truly, madly, deeply do
I want to stand with you on a mountain
I want to bathe with you in the sea
I want to lay like this forever
Until the sky falls down on me