Rated PG
Ok....let me tell you all straight off, there is no action or adventure in this short story....no demons or vampires or monsters of ANY sort. This is just an experiment of mine...a sappy tearjerker I've been working off and on for the last few weeks. I wanted to see if I could write something that didn't contain elements of horror.
I figure, if I can make at least ONE of you cry, then it's a success. Lol. 😛
I hope whoever reads this will enjoy it for what it is.
Any comments to be left....please be brutally honest. I insist.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giles slowly followed the trail of roses up the stairs.....picking each one up as he went, smiling. His excitement warmed him, almost rising into giddiness as he came closer to the top.
Entering his bedroom he almost had to keep his jaw from unfastening and clanging to the carpet.
Jenny was lying in his bed, smiling a small but beautific smile, her eyes sultry and dark, looking at him with base desire....her clearly naked body covered by the thin sheet.
The rest of that night seemed to flow into a single melting pot of images and emotions, his entire being feeling freed and truly at peace for the first time he could remember.
Yet despite it all there was one image that stayed with him that overrode all else. Jenny's face tilted to his, her head pillowed on his chest, whispering a simple message that thrilled him beyond measure.
“I love you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rain hammered down noisily on the fabric of the tent a few feet above Giles' head as he twisted in the sleeping bag, cursing the unseasonable weather as the chill air closed in on him.
Grumbling to himself, he had to admit that maybe camping out in the middle of November wasn't such a great idea after all.
Even the site's manager hadn't quite been able to believe it when he'd seen them drive up and ask for a pitch.
They had the entire field to themselves, assuming there'd still be a field left come the morning and they weren't swept out to sea.
The sound of a zipper being yanked open caught his attention and he glanced up, the dim outline of a female figure being all he needed for reassurance that they weren't being robbed.
Robbed, he thought with a scoffing smile, like any self-respecting thief would be out on a night like tonight.
From his spot on the floor of the tent he heard quiet cursing as the new arrival seemed to be inventing some new form of yoga to get out of her soaked waterproofs without getting the rest of her soaked in the process. As fascinating as the whole process was to watch, Giles could feel the night air nipping at his flesh once more and rolled over, pulling the sleeping bag a little closer around him and almost immediately starting to doze off, lulled by the warmth and a familiar scent on the fabric..........
...............only to be startled awake by someone yanking the zipper down on the sleeping bag, diving in while somehow closing the zip behind them and a pair of luscious, full lips finding his.
For a moment he surrendered to the kiss, caught unawares and lost in the pleasure of the moment.
A moment only though, as the lips pulled back and a voice whispered in his ear.
“Hi handsome, mind if I join you?”
“I'm sorry Miss....I think you must have the wrong tent.”
“Oh well, that's just too bad. You don't mind if I spend the night do you? It's raining cats and dogs out there.”
“I don't mind, my wife might though.”
“Oh come on, she wouldn't object too much to finding a naked girl in your arms would she?”
“Well.... not if she could join in the fun I suppose."
“You are such a pig!” Jenny laughed, kissing him again and moving closer to his body, her naked flesh chilly against
his skin.
“And here I thought I was woman enough for you.”
“Hey, you can't really blame me for wanting a menage a trois with you and your imaginary twin sister you know.” Giles
teased, lifting his hands to pull her close in his embrace.
“Oh no?” She replied, and he picked up on the note of challenge a half second too late. Suddenly ten fingers were
wriggling and writhing on his ribs and in a moment he was laughing without hope of control. He quickly got his own hands
into play to fend her off, driving her into squealing hysterics. They horsed around in this fashion for a while, finally falling
into each other in rough, animal passionate exploration, their faces twisted in delight......
...............Ever so slowly, she came back to him, staring up at him from half-lidded eyes, a shadow of a grin visible on her face as she snuggled against him. Her lips moved up to his ear, whispering in a voice still shot through with pleasure. “Ohhh, England....you're wife is going to be SO pissed she missed that.”
Even in his current state Giles couldn't help but chuckle at the joke, stroking her hair affectionately, aware as always his wife was that little bit faster on the draw than he.
“Oh, but what's this....” Jenny said, mock surprise in her voice as her fingers traced Giles' arousal.
“Does someone need a little more attention?” she giggled playfully.
It was all Giles could do to grunt as he was overwhelmed by the sensations Jenny was causing with the barest touch.
“I love you”, she whispered as she arched her back up and freed his hands, rolling with him once again into a ball of
fingers, tongues, hair and anything else that came to hand to tantalize the senses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giles woke with a start, finding himself lying on the couch.
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, he rose and lumbered into the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water before heading upstairs.
Glancing down the corridor towards the master bedroom he, set his glass down on a small table in the hall and walked in the opposite direction. Stepping through the open door he smiled as he saw Jenny staring down into the crib, the look on her face an angelic air that seemed to make her timeless and perfect.
A quiet snuffling from Giles' right told him where Ripper...their Rottweiler...was lying, and he reached down to pat the bullet head as he passed, rewarded with a quick lick against his wrist as the dog shifted slightly, permitting Giles' intrusion into the general vicinity of what Giles would swear Ripper thought of as his own offspring.
Giles walked over and slipped his arms around Jenny, still marveling six months later at just how much his wife had changed while carrying Rebecca, still remembering holding her like this back then, and how different, how right it had seemed to feel his daughter growing in the woman he loved.
Jenny sighed and slipped into his embrace, reaching back and running her fingers over the side of his stubbled face, utterly at peace in his arms.
How long they stayed like that neither of them could say but neither were in any rush to break the moment.
At that time, in that place, Giles knew he had everything he could want in his life and he felt tears prick his eyes as he gazed at his infant daughter slumbering peacefully in her crib. A single tear landed on the curve of Jenny's neck and she glanced up at the man she'd fallen in love with so many years ago in a school on a now-sealed Hellmouth hundreds of miles away.
Time may have altered the details but she saw clearly the face she'd known, from the first moment she'd seen it, would be with her forever. Smiling she turned in his arms, reached up and kissed him, her hands sliding over his cheeks and wiping away the wet track that remained. Breaking the kiss she walked softly to the door, turned and whispered to him: “Don't take too long, love.”
Giles took one last look at his daughter, reached out and smoothed the blanket covering the tiny form, shaking his head in wonder. As he moved to the door he heard Ripper pad over to the crib and, with a slight clink from his collar, stand up on his hind paws to look in. Giles smiled at that. Ripper was so protective of Rebecca, it was surprising the girl wasn't part Rottweiler.
Still, he thought, glancing back and seeing Ripper lying down in front of the crib, his head towards the door alert as always, if anyone ever wanted to harm Rebecca, they'd better be willing to take on 120 pounds of pissed-off Rottweiler before hand.
Entering the bedroom he almost tripped over his own tongue.
Jenny was lying in bed, her clearly naked body covered by the thin sheet.
"I love you", was all that Giles needed to say as he moved towards their bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All around Giles there was frantic activity but he simply ignored it as he stared at the plain white wall in front of him.
The sharp smell of disinfectant pulled at his nostrils, a perfect match for the sense of dread that had settled over him like a cloud.
“Mr. Giles?”
The voice belonged to a tall man clad in a white lab coat.
“Yes.” Giles said, standing and facing the doctor.
“I'm sorry, there's nothing more we can do. She's fought it as far as she can but.......”
“How long?”
“A few days, maybe a week, but no more than that, I'm afraid. I'm so sorry, I wish there was something else we.......”
Giles cut him off. “Sorry? For what doctor? It's not your fault....you didn't cause this after all. No, thank you for everything you've done for us. It's meant more than you could know.”
All the usual phrases, thought Giles, disgusted with himself even as he said the words. They were right, and true, but of no comfort to either man now.
“You can see her if you wish, she's stable for now. If....if it's any consolation, she will feel very little pain before.....”
Giles nodded silently, not trusting himself to speak. Turning away he took a single deep breath and walked into the room. To his surprise there seemed at first glance to be very little wrong with the woman in the bed, a single sensor connected to a pulse monitor and an IV drip were the only obvious things that set the scene apart from an evening at home.
“Hey.” Jenny said, her smile seeming to lift years from her face as he walked over. “How are you love?”
“I've been better Jenny. I.....I presume they.....”
“Yes, they told me. Rupert, this isn't a surprise to either of us, we've known this was coming for a long time now......”
“That doesn't make it any easier!”
“No....no it doesn't love. But it does give you time to think....lying in here I mean....and I think I've realized something I
might not have ever told you.”
“What?”
“I can't imagine now, looking back, ever living a life without you. You've made the years worth living, Rupert, every day....worth fighting for.”
“You've told me that before Jenny”. Giles smiled at her, reaching out to her hand, slipping it into his.
“I... I have? When?”
“Every time you smiled. Every time I heard you laugh and every time I woke up with your head nestled on my shoulder. Every single time I was with you Jenny, you told me.”
A pause filled the room, and to Giles' surprise he saw not tears in her eyes but a compassion and caring so deep it stunned him.
“I love you.....you know that as well.....right?” Jenny asked.
Giles didn't reply but leaned over and kissed her, gently, carefully, feeling her spirit, as strong now as it ever was, pulsing through him for those few brief moments before he pulled back.
“Did... did you bring it?” Jenny asked, her voice catching in her throat.
“Yeah, but I was wondering if you'd mind... if you'd mind if I read it to you.” Giles replied, his own throat feeling as if there was a tennis ball lodged there.
“God....of course not....please.” Jenny said, settling back slightly against the pillow and half closing her eyes.
Giles pulled a single sheet of paper out of his pocket and, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the other patients in the ward, started to read.
"It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle–
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me–
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The wind died, Giles' coat fluttering around his body as he stood before the simple marble headstone on the hillside.
Slowly he crouched down before it, his fingers brushing the engraving, cleaning away the water that had collected there from a previous rain.
“Jenny Calendar-Giles. In Loving Memory”
As he looked at the inscription, Giles felt a sense of peace wash over him, the grief and pain lessening for the first time in months as finally he realized what he had come here to say.
“I miss you.....I love you”.
End
Ok....let me tell you all straight off, there is no action or adventure in this short story....no demons or vampires or monsters of ANY sort. This is just an experiment of mine...a sappy tearjerker I've been working off and on for the last few weeks. I wanted to see if I could write something that didn't contain elements of horror.
I figure, if I can make at least ONE of you cry, then it's a success. Lol. 😛
I hope whoever reads this will enjoy it for what it is.
Any comments to be left....please be brutally honest. I insist.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giles slowly followed the trail of roses up the stairs.....picking each one up as he went, smiling. His excitement warmed him, almost rising into giddiness as he came closer to the top.
Entering his bedroom he almost had to keep his jaw from unfastening and clanging to the carpet.
Jenny was lying in his bed, smiling a small but beautific smile, her eyes sultry and dark, looking at him with base desire....her clearly naked body covered by the thin sheet.
The rest of that night seemed to flow into a single melting pot of images and emotions, his entire being feeling freed and truly at peace for the first time he could remember.
Yet despite it all there was one image that stayed with him that overrode all else. Jenny's face tilted to his, her head pillowed on his chest, whispering a simple message that thrilled him beyond measure.
“I love you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rain hammered down noisily on the fabric of the tent a few feet above Giles' head as he twisted in the sleeping bag, cursing the unseasonable weather as the chill air closed in on him.
Grumbling to himself, he had to admit that maybe camping out in the middle of November wasn't such a great idea after all.
Even the site's manager hadn't quite been able to believe it when he'd seen them drive up and ask for a pitch.
They had the entire field to themselves, assuming there'd still be a field left come the morning and they weren't swept out to sea.
The sound of a zipper being yanked open caught his attention and he glanced up, the dim outline of a female figure being all he needed for reassurance that they weren't being robbed.
Robbed, he thought with a scoffing smile, like any self-respecting thief would be out on a night like tonight.
From his spot on the floor of the tent he heard quiet cursing as the new arrival seemed to be inventing some new form of yoga to get out of her soaked waterproofs without getting the rest of her soaked in the process. As fascinating as the whole process was to watch, Giles could feel the night air nipping at his flesh once more and rolled over, pulling the sleeping bag a little closer around him and almost immediately starting to doze off, lulled by the warmth and a familiar scent on the fabric..........
...............only to be startled awake by someone yanking the zipper down on the sleeping bag, diving in while somehow closing the zip behind them and a pair of luscious, full lips finding his.
For a moment he surrendered to the kiss, caught unawares and lost in the pleasure of the moment.
A moment only though, as the lips pulled back and a voice whispered in his ear.
“Hi handsome, mind if I join you?”
“I'm sorry Miss....I think you must have the wrong tent.”
“Oh well, that's just too bad. You don't mind if I spend the night do you? It's raining cats and dogs out there.”
“I don't mind, my wife might though.”
“Oh come on, she wouldn't object too much to finding a naked girl in your arms would she?”
“Well.... not if she could join in the fun I suppose."
“You are such a pig!” Jenny laughed, kissing him again and moving closer to his body, her naked flesh chilly against
his skin.
“And here I thought I was woman enough for you.”
“Hey, you can't really blame me for wanting a menage a trois with you and your imaginary twin sister you know.” Giles
teased, lifting his hands to pull her close in his embrace.
“Oh no?” She replied, and he picked up on the note of challenge a half second too late. Suddenly ten fingers were
wriggling and writhing on his ribs and in a moment he was laughing without hope of control. He quickly got his own hands
into play to fend her off, driving her into squealing hysterics. They horsed around in this fashion for a while, finally falling
into each other in rough, animal passionate exploration, their faces twisted in delight......
...............Ever so slowly, she came back to him, staring up at him from half-lidded eyes, a shadow of a grin visible on her face as she snuggled against him. Her lips moved up to his ear, whispering in a voice still shot through with pleasure. “Ohhh, England....you're wife is going to be SO pissed she missed that.”
Even in his current state Giles couldn't help but chuckle at the joke, stroking her hair affectionately, aware as always his wife was that little bit faster on the draw than he.
“Oh, but what's this....” Jenny said, mock surprise in her voice as her fingers traced Giles' arousal.
“Does someone need a little more attention?” she giggled playfully.
It was all Giles could do to grunt as he was overwhelmed by the sensations Jenny was causing with the barest touch.
“I love you”, she whispered as she arched her back up and freed his hands, rolling with him once again into a ball of
fingers, tongues, hair and anything else that came to hand to tantalize the senses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giles woke with a start, finding himself lying on the couch.
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, he rose and lumbered into the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water before heading upstairs.
Glancing down the corridor towards the master bedroom he, set his glass down on a small table in the hall and walked in the opposite direction. Stepping through the open door he smiled as he saw Jenny staring down into the crib, the look on her face an angelic air that seemed to make her timeless and perfect.
A quiet snuffling from Giles' right told him where Ripper...their Rottweiler...was lying, and he reached down to pat the bullet head as he passed, rewarded with a quick lick against his wrist as the dog shifted slightly, permitting Giles' intrusion into the general vicinity of what Giles would swear Ripper thought of as his own offspring.
Giles walked over and slipped his arms around Jenny, still marveling six months later at just how much his wife had changed while carrying Rebecca, still remembering holding her like this back then, and how different, how right it had seemed to feel his daughter growing in the woman he loved.
Jenny sighed and slipped into his embrace, reaching back and running her fingers over the side of his stubbled face, utterly at peace in his arms.
How long they stayed like that neither of them could say but neither were in any rush to break the moment.
At that time, in that place, Giles knew he had everything he could want in his life and he felt tears prick his eyes as he gazed at his infant daughter slumbering peacefully in her crib. A single tear landed on the curve of Jenny's neck and she glanced up at the man she'd fallen in love with so many years ago in a school on a now-sealed Hellmouth hundreds of miles away.
Time may have altered the details but she saw clearly the face she'd known, from the first moment she'd seen it, would be with her forever. Smiling she turned in his arms, reached up and kissed him, her hands sliding over his cheeks and wiping away the wet track that remained. Breaking the kiss she walked softly to the door, turned and whispered to him: “Don't take too long, love.”
Giles took one last look at his daughter, reached out and smoothed the blanket covering the tiny form, shaking his head in wonder. As he moved to the door he heard Ripper pad over to the crib and, with a slight clink from his collar, stand up on his hind paws to look in. Giles smiled at that. Ripper was so protective of Rebecca, it was surprising the girl wasn't part Rottweiler.
Still, he thought, glancing back and seeing Ripper lying down in front of the crib, his head towards the door alert as always, if anyone ever wanted to harm Rebecca, they'd better be willing to take on 120 pounds of pissed-off Rottweiler before hand.
Entering the bedroom he almost tripped over his own tongue.
Jenny was lying in bed, her clearly naked body covered by the thin sheet.
"I love you", was all that Giles needed to say as he moved towards their bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All around Giles there was frantic activity but he simply ignored it as he stared at the plain white wall in front of him.
The sharp smell of disinfectant pulled at his nostrils, a perfect match for the sense of dread that had settled over him like a cloud.
“Mr. Giles?”
The voice belonged to a tall man clad in a white lab coat.
“Yes.” Giles said, standing and facing the doctor.
“I'm sorry, there's nothing more we can do. She's fought it as far as she can but.......”
“How long?”
“A few days, maybe a week, but no more than that, I'm afraid. I'm so sorry, I wish there was something else we.......”
Giles cut him off. “Sorry? For what doctor? It's not your fault....you didn't cause this after all. No, thank you for everything you've done for us. It's meant more than you could know.”
All the usual phrases, thought Giles, disgusted with himself even as he said the words. They were right, and true, but of no comfort to either man now.
“You can see her if you wish, she's stable for now. If....if it's any consolation, she will feel very little pain before.....”
Giles nodded silently, not trusting himself to speak. Turning away he took a single deep breath and walked into the room. To his surprise there seemed at first glance to be very little wrong with the woman in the bed, a single sensor connected to a pulse monitor and an IV drip were the only obvious things that set the scene apart from an evening at home.
“Hey.” Jenny said, her smile seeming to lift years from her face as he walked over. “How are you love?”
“I've been better Jenny. I.....I presume they.....”
“Yes, they told me. Rupert, this isn't a surprise to either of us, we've known this was coming for a long time now......”
“That doesn't make it any easier!”
“No....no it doesn't love. But it does give you time to think....lying in here I mean....and I think I've realized something I
might not have ever told you.”
“What?”
“I can't imagine now, looking back, ever living a life without you. You've made the years worth living, Rupert, every day....worth fighting for.”
“You've told me that before Jenny”. Giles smiled at her, reaching out to her hand, slipping it into his.
“I... I have? When?”
“Every time you smiled. Every time I heard you laugh and every time I woke up with your head nestled on my shoulder. Every single time I was with you Jenny, you told me.”
A pause filled the room, and to Giles' surprise he saw not tears in her eyes but a compassion and caring so deep it stunned him.
“I love you.....you know that as well.....right?” Jenny asked.
Giles didn't reply but leaned over and kissed her, gently, carefully, feeling her spirit, as strong now as it ever was, pulsing through him for those few brief moments before he pulled back.
“Did... did you bring it?” Jenny asked, her voice catching in her throat.
“Yeah, but I was wondering if you'd mind... if you'd mind if I read it to you.” Giles replied, his own throat feeling as if there was a tennis ball lodged there.
“God....of course not....please.” Jenny said, settling back slightly against the pillow and half closing her eyes.
Giles pulled a single sheet of paper out of his pocket and, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the other patients in the ward, started to read.
"It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle–
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me–
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FORWARD.................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The wind died, Giles' coat fluttering around his body as he stood before the simple marble headstone on the hillside.
Slowly he crouched down before it, his fingers brushing the engraving, cleaning away the water that had collected there from a previous rain.
“Jenny Calendar-Giles. In Loving Memory”
As he looked at the inscription, Giles felt a sense of peace wash over him, the grief and pain lessening for the first time in months as finally he realized what he had come here to say.
“I miss you.....I love you”.
End
Last edited:
Nix
nice work dude
S
SlayerOfVampyrs
Awww, I loved this! Their rottweiler was a nice touch :D Very well done
