In Search of the Alter Dom (28 page)

‘Old age of course – what do you think – she was ninety eight!’ her mother answers.

‘What were her favourite flowers?’ Blodwyn asks. Her mother stops, and gives Blodwyn a look! ‘Wild wood peonies, she picked from the wood by the pool – that is why your father insisted you were called Blodwyn – white flower in honor to his mother. Now no more questions – I have a busy day ahead – I want you to take a leg of lamb to Sgt Thomas Thomas’s house. And early tomorrow morning you will find a nice fat bird hanging in the barn - leave it in the usual place. I don’t know how the Widow Owen is managing to cope.

‘Yes Mum,’ answers – then had a sudden thought. Blodwyn rushed up to her room and whipped the duvet off the bed – on the sheets was a single wilting white wood peony!

It was a bright sunny June morning outside, the wild flowers in the hay meadow gazed up at the warm sun who in turn smiled down on them. Was the young girl with the golden hair, her Grandmother? Had she really witnessed the terrible judgment of souls?

Was the giant indistinct being that watched the scene of judgment with such sadness – God: the Dom Maximus? Or was it just her vivid imagination playing tricks. After all, what would be the point of her faith if she knew for certain God existed? At the end, she still had no clear answers – only the white wood peony. All these thoughts raced through her mind as she walked across the wild meadow on that beautiful warm June morning on her way to Sgt Thomas’s house. Would the Galla Qualls come for her one day? Would she really want to travel back in time? She was looking forward to her seventeenth birthday. Blodwyn took a deep breath of scented morning air and looked up at the clear blue sky and wondered if she would ever return to outer space - but that is another story!

– END –

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Copyright © Brian Devereux, 2011

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ISBN: 978-1-908596-22-2 in epub format

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