Page 122 of Aaron's Patience

“Explain.”

I sat up, facing her. “Her name’s Emma,” I began. And as soon as I did, a smiling Emma appeared at the corner of the room. I told her all about how my first memory Emma occurred when I was just a baby, and yes I remembered that far back. I shared with her secrets I’d never told anyone. Like, how my father found me in my room talking to Emma when I was barely four years old and beat me so badly I had bruises for days afterwards. I told her how he beat me because he said I wasn’t going to turn into a freak like my mother. When she asked who this Emma was, I told her the truth on that as well. Emma was a distant ancestor of mine. My grandmother’s great-grandmother, on my mother’s side. Many in my mother’s family had these supernatural visions. They could be traced back as some of the original victims of the witch-hunts in North America.

“How did she help you find me?” Patience asked, intrigued.

She didn’t look at me as if I was completely out of my mind.

“She helped me broaden my perspective,” I answered, looking toward a smiling Emma. I glanced back at Patience. “She showed me parts of the past. Sam had been following you for years. Your relationship with me set him off, then and now. This sounds crazy as hell,” I grunted, running my hand through my hair. I knew Patience had to be thinking I was insane to be admitting to seeing ghosts or spirits, or whatever the hell Emma claimed she was.

“Yeah,” Patience stated, nodding, half of her mouth turned upwards. “But…it kind of makes sense. I mean, you have this larger than life energy about you. Even when you scare the hell out of people, they still gravitate to you.”

I paused, reflecting on her words for a while.

“This type of gift runs in your family?” she asked.

I gave a one shoulder shrug. “Apparently. On my mother’s side.”

“Kyle,” she stated.

“What?”

She lifted her head. “Kyle, he’s so intuitive. Sometimes he sees and knows things no one’s ever mentioned to him. Like, your birthday. He said a woman told him the date. Is he … like you?”

I looked toward Emma who nodded.

“Is she here now?” Patience asked, turning to glance over her shoulder.

“She is.”

“Tell her I said thank you.”

“She says you don’t owe her any thanks,” I repeated Emma’s words.

“And Kyle? Has she visited Kyle.”

“On occasion,” I answer, again repeating Emma’s response.

“I guess it’s why kids and animals are so drawn to me. They can see things others can’t.”

“They see your goodness,” Patience and Emma say at the same time.

“It’s not fairies, as the children like to call them,” Emma continued. “The light they see is the inner soul. The one you believed you didn’t have. Your father tried to tamp out your light. Even you, yourself were afraid of it. But no matter how hard you tried, it’s still there, visible to those whose eyes are open to it. Like children, and your wife.”

I swallowed and turned back to Patience who was staring at me.

Her hand cupped my face. “You’re a good man, Aaron.”

The woman who I didn’t think could bury herself in my heart any further just found six more feet to dig herself in my soul. I wasn’t convinced she was one hundred percent accurate on my being a good man, but I didn’t give a shit either. I was hers and she was mine. I spent the rest of the night telling her all about the night of my accident, and how the bitterness I gained that night, impeded my trust of others afterwards. And how Emma showed my dismissal and distrust of others could also blind me to what was really going on around me, including having possibly seen Sam’s obsession before it ever got to this point.

“You can’t blame yourself for his craziness,” Patience consoled.

I refrained from blurting out that she was wrong. I could and did blame myself for not protecting my family. Instead, I kissed the palm of her hand that stroked my cheek and made a promise.

“He will get what he deserves,” I vowed.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Three weeks later …