Sophie Love - For You, Forever

Panting from exertion, the two girls began exploring the island, poking through the piles of antiques, pretending it was a volcano.

“Look in here,” Charlotte cried to Emily. “Down in the volcano!”

Emily peered behind the hat stand that Charlotte was pointing at. “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed, playing along.

Charlotte’s eyes were wide. “It’s the rest of the unicorns,” she said. Then she spoke hurriedly to Sparkles. Her face dropped. “Sparkles wants to go down the volcano to be with them,” she said to Emily.

“Oh,” Emily said, a little sad. “Even though that means leaving us?”

Charlotte looked at her dear unicorn friend and nodded. “She says this is her home island. She misses it a lot, and all her friends. She wants to live here. But we’re allowed to come and visit.”

“That’s okay then,” Emily said.

They tied their cardigan sleeves together to make a sling for Sparkles. Then they lowered the unicorn down the back of the furniture and left her there.

“Are you sad to say goodbye?” Emily asked Charlotte as they climbed back into their makeshift boat.

Charlotte shook her head. “No. Because I know I’ll see her again.”

Emily suddenly snapped back into the present day. She was holding Sparkles tightly against her chest, and the toy’s head was wet with her tears. On one hand she felt desperately sad, because she knew Charlotte had never had the chance to see Sparkles again. But the other part of her felt buoyant with joy. The toy was a sign from Charlotte, Emily was certain. Sparkles had been left on that island, down the back of the furniture, completely forgotten about until this moment, perhaps even specifically for this moment.

She hugged Sparkles tightly, then placed her, poignantly, on the shelf overlooking Baby Charlotte’s crib. She felt the circle of life continuing, and smiled knowing that once Charlotte arrived she would have a guardian angel watching over her as she slept.

Emily snuggled up into bed beside Daniel. It had been a long and tiring day, and she found herself quickly drifting off to sleep.

“I can’t believe we own an island,” she murmured into the darkness as she began to fall asleep. “My future is looking nothing like I thought it would once.”

Daniel let out a sleepy laugh. “How so?”

“Well, I never thought I’d be married and pregnant. I never thought I’d have Chantelle, or this inn.” She stroked Daniel’s chest as it rose and fell slowly.

“I never thought I’d have Chantelle or the inn either,” he replied.

“But you’re happy you do?”

“Of course.”

“Are you happy we’re having another girl?”

He kissed her forehead. “I’m very happy,” he assured her.

“And that our daughter is going back to school tomorrow where she’s doing fabulously?”

Daniel laughed again. “Yes. I am glad that Chantelle is doing well at school.”

Emily smiled, contented. Sleep seemed ready to take her.

“I’m only sad about one thing,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“That my dad won’t be around to enjoy it all with us.”

Daniel fell quiet then. She felt his arms tighten around her.

“I know,” he said. “I’m sad about that too. But let’s just make the most of the time we have with him now. Let’s make sure every day is as good as it can be. Let’s make each day count.”

Emily nodded with affirmation. “I think we made today count,” she said, yawning. “We bought an island, after all. It’s not every day that happens.”

She felt Daniel’s chest shudder with his laugher. She squeezed herself even more tightly against him, overjoyed and welling with love. Wrapped in one another’s arms, their heartbeats synchronized. They fell asleep in unison, in perfect harmony, two people united by love.

Emily took a final sip of her decaf coffee and put the mug down on the kitchen table. She’d slept deeply but had awoken feeling groggy – partly because of the alarm clock being set a whole hour earlier than she’d gotten accustomed to over the summer – and she really could have benefited from some actual caffeine. It was probably the thing she was most looking forward to once Baby Charlotte arrived, the thing she missed the most and yearned for the most. She watched Daniel enviously as he drank his across the table from her.

“Right, darling,” Emily said at last, looking at Chantelle. “It’s time to head to school.”

Chantelle was sitting with her head bowed over a pile of clock pieces, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth in concentration. Her empty bowl of cereal was beside her, discarded haphazardly so she could pursue her task.

“Can’t I have five more minutes?” she asked, so absorbed in her task she didn’t even look up. “I just need to work out where to put this cog.”

Since their return from England, Chantelle had been determined to make a clock like Papa Roy. Emily thought it was very sweet that Chantelle was so inspired by her grandfather, but it also broke her heart at the same time. She and Daniel had not yet told Chantelle the news of Papa Roy’s illness; the girl would be utterly crushed when she lost him. They all would.

Daniel took command then. “Nope, sorry, sweetie. You need to get in on time to meet your new teacher and new classmates.”

Chantelle put her screwdriver down with a reluctant sigh. “Fine.”

Emily wished she could convince Chantelle to do her mucky, oily work somewhere more appropriate – the garage, or shed, or just about anywhere that wasn’t the kitchen table, really. But Chantelle wouldn’t hear of it. Papa Roy did his clock fixing at the breakfast table so Chantelle had to as well!

They all headed out to the truck together, Daniel taking the driving seat since Emily was finding it too uncomfortable to fit her growing belly behind the steering wheel. Chantelle hopped in the back into her car seat.

“I can’t wait until Baby Charlotte comes on the ride with us to school,” she said, glancing across at the baby seat they’d recently installed (at Amy’s instance, of course, because you never know when the baby might decide to come and the last thing you’d want to be doing is fiddling with a complicated seat while in the painful grips of contractions).

“Me too,” Emily said, resting her hands against her tight belly. It seemed to be becoming more uncomfortable with each day that passed.

“First she’ll just be coming along for the ride, but it won’t be long before she’ll be walking through those doors with you,” Daniel said with a chuckle. “She’ll be in kindergarten before we even know it.”

Emily felt wistful at the thought. She knew what Daniel meant, that time went by quickly, that they should appreciate every moment because it would disappear from them like sand sifting through a timer. But the future Daniel was alluding to was also one in which her father had long passed. He would not be there when Charlotte started kindergarten. He’d never see the numerous photos that Emily would take of the two girls heading into school together, hand in hand. That future, though she couldn’t wait to be living it on the one hand, would also be fraught with grief on the other. She’d be a different person, changed irreparably by losing Roy.

They drove along the familiar Sunset Harbor roads and turned into the parking lot at the school. It was already very busy with parents eager to deposit their children after the long summer break.

“It’s Bailey!” Chantelle cried, pointing to where her best friend played on the grass. Bailey’s normally unruly auburn hair had been styled into two long plaits. Emily had never seen her look quite so presentable. “But who is she with?” Chantelle added.