Against The Odds (17 page)

~ ~ ~ ~

After
the dinner party Clayton was keen to get away, to be alone with
Rebecca. He wanted to make love to her, to talk to her, to share
with her. She had been a little quiet during the party, looking
exquisite in a long white dress, which contrasted so beautifully
with her eyes and hair. It clung to her curves and even Blake had
seemed excited at the sight of her.

Jackie, her blond hair swinging, was the belle of the ball.
She wore a short gold dress, which shimmered with her as she
walked. Jonathan was
feeling so proud of himself.
How did
I find such a beautiful woman?
He also wanted to leave, to
enjoy his wife’s bubbly enthusiasm and laughter. If only they could
have a child.
She would be a wonderful mother, the way she
accepts everyone gently, accepts their strange ways.
He
marveled at how she had accepted all this business with Clayton and
even seemed to enjoy it. He was a very lucky man. He looked at
Clayton and realized that the man had also accepted his
circumstances graciously. He was happily chatting to the men,
laughing with them. If he was scared of the future, he did not show
it. He had grown to love him like a brother and worried about him
all those years. Now, he worried more because his new challenges
were unknown, unarticulated.
Where will
it all end?

~ ~ ~
~

Rebecca
and Clayton awoke on the Sunday morning and stayed in bed, watching
the clouds play joyfully on the mountains. They had had a pleasant
evening and The Darkness had not arrived. They had left the dinner
party for their own private party in their cottage and Rebecca had
enjoyed Clayton’s sense of humour and funny anecdotes. They had
chatted and made love and Rebecca was grateful that Clayton had
made no reference to any of the issues they had to face. He seemed
relaxed and lazy.

But
Rebecca was a little apprehensive this morning.
They had agreed that they would call her parents and discuss
everything with them. For Rebecca, it was a reminder that their
relationship was not normal, something she desperately wanted to
deny. For her, this was a real threat to their
relationship.

For Clayton, it was an endorsement that their relationship
was not normal and he revelled in this knowledge. He loved
Rebecca,
and his
fascination with her was
fueled
by the fact that she was so different and
unpredictable
. It took a great deal of self-discipline for
him not to tease her about tigers and butterflies. He thought these
complications simply enriched their relationship. He was eager to
speak to her father, to establish an honest connection with a man
he felt
so bound
to.

*****

After breakfast Jonathan and Jackie came to their cottage.
They wanted to be there when Clayton spoke to Rebecca’s parents and
Rebecca was grateful for their presence. It made her feel like it
was to be a normal discussion. When Clayton finally
dialed
the number, she was tense and
agitated.

“
Clayton, my boy, how are you?”

“Fine, George. Listen. I am placing the phone on speaker.
Rebecca, Jono and Jackie are h
ere. We need to discuss the
matter of The Protector with you.”

“Okay, but Clayton, please move your hand
away from the button. It is
creating too much static. Try your other hand. Great, that’s
perfect. Which hand was on the phone?”

“My left hand. George, what are
you on
about?”

“
That is your powerful hand. It has too much untapped power
and was creating too much static on the phone. Now, hello Sweetpea,
Jono, Jackie.”

They all
shouted a greeting at him.

“Okay, I take it you have
finally
got the message that you a
re my baby’s
Protector?”

“
Yes, but we are not sure what it means, exactly. It happened
when I saw ...ur.. The Darkness thing.”

“
Good, if you can see it, you are the stronger one. What did
it do?”

“
It dashed off somewhere.”

“
Very good. It fears you.”

“George, we need to know, how can I
protect Rebecca?”

“It is called the power of love. You have one part of it
and Rebecca the other. Rebecca has the body of it, the vehicle of
the power and you have the key, you know, the source. The Protector
always has the source
. You two have to put them together.
There will be a white light and it will kill the thing. There is a
problem. When you create the white light, both of you have to be
ready. You have to be sure that you love each other enough to die.
The power is so strong and hurts so much, you might die. You both
have to be willing to take that risk. If not, the light will fade
and The Darkness gets stronger. The light has to completely destroy
it. It screams and shouts, then breaks up and it sounds like
shattered glass. You must hear that before you stop the light. If
not, it will be strong enough to kill both of you.”

Jonathan
was horrified. “If they do not succeed, they die?”

“Yes, it could be worse. One of them could die so that the
other one lives with the pa
in and grief.”

There
was a long silence.

“
Dad, we don’t understand what this means, but sometimes when
Clayton touches me, we get shocked, you know, like an electric
shock. What does it mean?”

The old
man chuckled.

“
Serves him right for touching my baby.”

Jonathan
and Jackie laughed, but Clayton just glared at them.

“
Dad, stop joking. Please.”

“
Oh Sweetpea, I am so happy you finally accept that Clayton is
the Protector. We were getting worried about you.”

“Dad. I am going to tell Mother to bind your tongue.
What
does it mean?”

“I
am not sure because everything is so different with you two. I
think Clayton has too much power and when it touches you, it goes a
bit crazy. It means he is touching you in the
‘wrong’ place.”

“Dad, please, this is
not
the
time for
fatherly protection.”

“
No, I mean he is not touching the right spot. Clayton, there
is something about your left hand. You need to work that out. Check
which hand causes the shock because that is the correct
hand.”

“I
am not sure I fully understand what Clayton needs
to do, Mr.
Raymond. I understand what you say about his hand, but what must he
do?”

“I
don’t know, son. But I will tell you how we did it. Rowena has an
amethyst ring which has a missing part. Nana told us that the light
can only be invoked when the other
part is found. Long ago,
before I met her, I found this strange ring with an ill-shaped
amethyst on it. I kept it and when I met her, I saw that it was the
missing part. We put the rings together and when the part fitted,
the white light appeared. It near killed me. It is powerful and
hurts like hell. You feel as if someone is tearing your skin off
your whole body and ripping your heart out.”

Rebecca shivered and Jackie’s eyes
were wide. The men looked down, pretending not to be affected by
the old man’s vivid description.

“
We need to work it out. Can we call you later? We need to
deal with this stuff and will get back to you. Also, Rebecca is
looking green here and I think she has had enough.”

“Yes, there are other things we need to discuss. Rowena
ha
s been working on a spell to break the curse, but she
needs more time. Phone me when you have worked it out. Sweetpea,
your Protector is there. Don’t be afraid. You must trust him and
your own instincts. Also, let Double J help you. It is great to
have the extra help. Phone me if you need to talk, okay
baby?”

“
Okay, yes, I will speak to you later. Bye, Dad.”

All of
them sat silently for a while. There was so much to say, yet
nothing to say. Jonathan was the first to eventually
speak.

“
What happens if you do nothing about it? If you simply scare
it off every time?”

Clayton
was agitated.

“That is not an option. I don’t care what happens, but I do
know that Rebecca cannot, will not, spend the rest of her life
having that
thing
coming to
her and scaring her. That is not an option. I want it to stop,
now.”

Rebecca
spoke softly.

“It gets stronger every time it sees m
e. That is
part of its source of power. Once I have seen it, or it comes
close, I get tired and need to sleep. It just gets stronger and
stronger. Nobody has ever left it to find out what happens. I don’t
know what happens.”

“Rebecca, listen to me. That is not
an option. We
are not going to even consider that option.”

Clayton was starting to pace the room,
and his eyes were starting to get that icy blue.

“Clayton, please, calm down. We need to consider all the
possibilities. Also, stop trying to scare us. Sit d
own and
stop being a tiger. It is not helping, okay?”

Jonathan
adopted a firm tone and it seemed to register with
Clayton

“
Okay, sorry. I guess this is a bit difficult for
me.”

Jackie was not really listening to them, and was watching
the mountain, and then she
said,
“yes, Nana, yes. You are right.”

“
What did you say?” Rebecca was shocked.

“
Nana says you must stop arguing and focus on Clayton’s source
of power and to tell him that the power lies in the palm of his
hands.”

“
Jackie, how do you know Nana?”

“She is the woman
who told me not to cry when I
couldn’t fall pregnant. She told me that it would be okay. She has
short red hair and comes in my dreams. Who is she Rebecca? Do you
know her?”

“Yes, of course. She was my grandmother. She was the one
who got the butterfly done
on me. Jackie, she was
grandmother.”

Jonathan was looking white with shock. How could that woman
be Rebecca’s grandmother? Jackie always spoke about how soothing
the old lady had been in her dreams. At that stage, they had not
met Rebecca, because it had happened
about four years ago.
They had only met Rebecca the following year.

“Jono, don’t look so devastated. She knew who Clayton was
and I guess she wanted to protect him and those around him. She
sent my butterfly to Clayton during his need. That is the way
she
was when she was alive. She fed hungry children and did
magic to heal broken hearts. Relax. There is nothing weird about
it.”

“Yes, I know. I am just surprised how we are all linked. It
is a bit strange. But, we need to go to the original issue. The
source
of the power. The facts are...”

Clayton
interrupted.

“It is this birthmark. I have never really looked it
before, but it is the shape of an hourglass and that is the missing
link to Rebecca’s butterfly. I think that is the answer. Rebecca,
do you remember when
you asked me why I had ink of my hand
and you touched it? You got shocked?”

She
nodded. They all stared at his hand.

“
Rebecca, let us see the butterfly, see if it
fits.”

Rebecca
was staring at his hand.

“I
can’t believe I never realiz
ed that immediately.
I mean. I asked you about it,
because it bothered me so much. I feel so stupid. Okay, see if it
fits.”

Clayton gently placed his hand on his butterfly. A sharp
white
flash of light
appeared suddenly and flew to the ceiling. It clung there for a few
seconds and then disappeared. T
hey all stared at each
other.

“Fuck, this is way beyond real.
Clayton, you could kill someone. Gosh!”

Jonathan was hysterical. He was a logical, practical man.
He did not believe in anything he could not see. He saw the light,
so he had to believe.
It rattled his neat, worldly
brain.

Clayton
gently placed his right hand on her butterfly and it soothed her
skin. It felt cool and comforting.

“
Clayton, it soothes. The right hand soothes.”

She
started crying and he held her in his arms.

“Princes
s, it will be alright. You will
see.”

He
rubbed her back, with his right hand.
I hope this works
, he thought,
because she is falling apart. She is
not coping
.

Jackie
flung herself at her husband, crying.

“Oh Jono, this is too much. How can they cope
with
this? It is not fair. Jono, Nana came to me. I love her. Jono, I
love you.”