Shimmering Pool of Tears

Every now and then, I like to revisit old friends. Not the flesh and blood real life compadres, but characters I formed a close relationship with while giving birth to their world. While revisiting my novel, By Chance, I discovered the word shimmer was used many times. Hmmm . . . I guess it was a perfect word to describe the magical world of four clairvoyant ladies. 🙂  

Have a shimmering, splendid Sunday everyone! 

Excerpt from By Chance

Laura catches sight of the vexing gift under the tree. Eager to dispel the mystery she asks, “Are we ready to open gifts?” Before she has a chance to question the mysterious gift, Callie reaches for a large square-shaped box wrapped in exquisite abstract artwork with gold ribbons running from corner-to-corner.

“Merry Christmas, Mom,” Callie exclaimed, placing the gift on her lap.

“Thanks, sweetie . . . Wow! Look at this wrapping. It’s too gorgeous to destroy,” she said while kissing Callie on the cheek.

Callie watches her mother’s careful effort to preserve the wrappings as she always does. Taking her time, Laura cuts the tape and pulls the ribbons free with careful hands. Callie wonders if she saves the wrappings for some other occasion. Tonight, she won’t rush her, but patiently waits as she unwraps her gift.

“Honey, where did you get this?”

Once again, seeing the painting for the third time rouses Callie’s emotions. She notices the bluish-green pool in Laura’s eyes.  “A year ago, I found an old picture of you and dad in the big trunk in the attic. An artist friend agreed to replicate the photo into a painting. I had it framed in your favorite teak wood.”

Laura’s silence is telling. Her emotional state exposed with her inability to mouth her words. The painting suffuses her with images of that day—memories with Daniel sitting by the pond in the backyard. She was twenty-nine, and Callie was four-years-old when the picture was taken. “I remember this day so clearly. You were playing with Daniel’s camera and accidentally snapped this photo. Do you remember?”

Of course, she did. Callie recalls the day in the attic a year ago and how the memory entered her mind at the precise time she lifted the photo out of the old trunk. Sensations of being four again and running around the backyard as Laura and Daniel watched her appeared so real she held onto the picture for a long time. She memorized every vivid detail of her father’s features. “I remember dad laughing at me because the camera was too big for my hands.”

Laura’s eyes shimmer; a watery pool ready to spill. With her mother’s tears, Callie realizes she made the right choice.

Copyright 2014 by E. Denise Billups

Eye Image: Courtesy of Pinterest