“I will.”
She pulled back slightly and looked up into my face. Her jade green eyes were already glistening with dampness, and the corners of her mouth were turned slightly downward. I brushed a spiral of wayward hairs from her cheek then pulled her close once again.
“You call me when you arrive,” she mumbled.
“I promise,” I told her. “And that’s one I can keep.”
The pendulum clock in our dining room softly thunked, and then a muted whirr sounded as the spring began to wind out. A half second later a dull bong echoed through the room, followed by four more to announce the top of the hour.
“I’m loving you,” Felicity said.
“I’m loving you too,” I replied.
As if on cue, the doorbell chimed through the house, setting the dogs off as usual. Felicity began shushing them as I released my grip on her and turned to answer it.
“You ready?” Ben asked as soon as I had opened the door.
He was holding the outer storm door with one hand and cupping a travel mug in the other.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Give me just a second.”
He glanced at his watch. “All good, we got a few minutes.” Nodding toward the floor just inside the doorway, he asked, “That your bag?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll put it in the van and wait for ya’,” he said, holding the storm door with his leg as he reached in and grabbed the handle of the small suitcase. “Heya, Firehair,” he said, nodding at Felicity as he straightened up.
“Ben,” she replied.
The metal door slowly swung shut with a slight creak and hiss of the closure piston as he backed out with my luggage then turned and started down the front steps.
I bent over and scratched the dogs behind their ears while saying, “You two take care of your mother while I’m gone.”
They snuffled and whimpered as if they knew something was amiss. We never could fool them.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said to Felicity, straightening from my stooped position. “It will all be over soon.”
“I know,” she said with a nod. “That still doesn’t make it any easier.”
Taking a deep breath, she wiped her eyes then slipped her arms around me again. Turning her face up, she pressed her lips against mine in a deep, longing kiss that was tainted slightly by the sense of sadness it also carried.
When we finally parted, I pulled back and looked at her before saying, “I’m missing you already.”
“Me too.”
I lingered for a moment, though I knew prolonging the inevitable was just making this harder. I took in my own deep breath then slowly let it out as I nodded. I turned to leave, but as I stepped through the door I paused again then looked back at her and said, “Why don’t you see about booking that vacation while I’m gone?”
“For when?”
“For when I get back,” I replied. “You pick the dates. Just leave me enough time to pack and get someone to cover any emergency support calls that might come in.”
She nodded. “I will. Do you think we can go for two weeks?”
I smiled. “We can go for as long as you like.”
With that, I headed down the stairs into the cold, dark morning and climbed into the back of Ben’s van.
“All good?” he asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror as I buckled myself in.
“Yeah. As good as it can be, I guess,” I replied.
“She’ll be okay,” Constance told me, turning to look back from the passenger seat.
“Yeah, white man. I’ll keep an eye on ‘er,” Ben added.
“I know,” I replied. “It’s not really her I’m worried about.”
“You’ll be fine too,” Constance reassured me.
“Yeah… Let’s hope you’re right,” I muttered as I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket. “Ben, I need you to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?” he asked, now twisting in his seat and looking over his shoulder.
I pulled the glass bottle containing the salt bound jewelry from my pocket and shook it before looking at it carefully. Even in the dark interior of the van, I could still make out the shape of the necklace peaking up from beneath the snowy crystals. After a thick pause I held it forward to him.
“Hang onto this for me until I get back, and whatever you do, don’t open it, and keep it the hell away from Felicity.”
“What is it?” he asked as he reached back and took it.
There was no mistaking that I was deadly serious when I replied, “Evil incarnate.”