The Day the Flowers Died (34 page)

She screamed onto deaf ears.  She ran back to the booth and
threw her hands over the table.  “Don’t do this! Please, don’t
do this,” she begged in angered sincerity.

The sound of Eli’s voice broke the frenzy inside her mind, “I
love you, Rebecca! Never forget that.  Everything I did, I did
so you could have a future; so our child could have a future.” He
kept shouting as they dragged him towards the ship.

“I’m sorry, madam, but his documents are fraudulent,” the
officer reasoned.

“No…no…no.” Rebecca’s voice began to fade and all she could
muster to say was no.  Watching Eli being pulled further away
in the firm grip of immigration patrol, she saw his dark brown
eyes, wide and pleading, focused on her, his cheeks wet with
tears.  The sound of his feet scrapping against the hard
floors in defiance echoed in her shattering mind.

“God in heaven, I’m begging you!” She fell to her knees in front
of the officer, who remained steadfast and immovable. Her body
crumbled, wracked with sobs, gut wrenching and heartbreaking.

“Rebecca?  Rebecca, please.” Aaron had to help her back to
her feet.  Aaron’s mother held her while Aaron shouted to Eli
over the immigration booth, a table dividing freedom and the
persecution of Germany.

“Where will you stay?”

“With Robert,” Eli yelled, jerking his head around.  “You
knew this could happen, but we had to try.  Take care of
Rebecca for me.”

“I promise,” Aaron declared and then like a cloud that fades,
Eli disappeared.

Aaron helped escort Rebecca out of the immigration area and onto
American soil.  She lay fragile in his hands, limp.  The
breathlessness she had gone to the hospital for in July
returned.  She placed her shaky feet on the soil and sobbed on
Aaron’s shoulder.  Her Grandma Adel and Aunt Martha waited for
her there, but she hardly recognized them in her state. When she
finally broke her face away from Aaron’s shoulder and glanced up,
she saw Eli’s family approaching through the crowd.

She couldn’t speak to them. She couldn’t tell them they had lost
their only son.  Her lips became heavy, unable to open. Her
face lost its alabaster color and became pale. She fainted, almost
hitting the ground if it had not been for Aaron’s catch.

Rebecca awoke lying across an elegant sofa most certainly in her
Grandma Adel’s house.  The Levin family was not seen nor
heard.  Aaron was also absent.  Her Aunt Martha sat in a
chair across from her, kitting a sweater and when Rebecca’s eyes
opened, Martha rushed to her side.  She wiped a wet washrag
over Rebecca’s face and then sat her up to drink a cup of ginger
tea.

“How are you feeling?” Martha asked.

“Where’s Aaron? Where’s Ezekiel?” Rebecca asked, concerned their
presence had been all a dream.

“They’ve taken residence up some blocks away at a house for
rent.  I know the owner and drove them there.”

“Where’s Eli?” Rebecca asked, knowing the answer, but needing
the answer to be different.

“I imagine he’s on his way back to Germany.” Martha’s tender
blue eyes and warm smile tried to comfort Rebecca.

“I’m cold.” Rebecca shivered under a thick quilt and Martha
brought her another blanket.

Placing a hand on her forehead, she drew back.  “You’ve got
a fever.  We’re putting you to bed.” They moved her to a
bedroom upstairs, where she tossed and turned in her sleep,
tormented at the notion of never seeing Eli again or worse, Eli’s
death.

After seven days of ill health, she managed to pull herself out
of bed and join her aunt and grandmother downstairs. Aaron sat at
the breakfast table, eating with Martha when Rebecca walked into
the dining room. She raced to Aaron’s side and pulled him close as
if it would somehow make Eli closer to her.

Aaron handed her a note.  “Eli wanted me to give you this
in case he didn’t make it.” He slipped the note into Rebecca’s
fragile hands and she brought it to her nose to smell Eli’s scent
before opening it.  Packaged underneath the letter Rebecca
felt a photograph and lifted it to the forefront to view. A black
and white shot of Eli stretching backward over her banister
reminded her of the time he brought his new camera home and they
played with it while taking photos of themselves.

She remembered taking this photograph of him. His brown scarf
danced in the wind and his smile was crooked. His soft eyes and
laughter transcended the picture and Rebecca found her fingers
caressing his image, needing him to be there with her. A tear
rolled down her left cheek into the pink hues of her skin and she
lifted his letter to read.

My Dearest Rebecca, 

I know you are in the gravest of states with my departure, and I
am sorry I could not divulge the truth to you in Munich, but I knew
you would never leave without the reassurance that I would be able
to join you in America.  I love you too much to make that kind
of sacrifice for me.  I love our baby too much.  It is
enough for me to know you and our unborn child will be safe and
happy.  I can endure any suffering my fatherland has to offer
me, knowing the two people I love more than my own life are finally
free.

I will stay with Robert while in Munich, until I find another
way to you.  Don’t fret for me, but spend your time taking
care of yourself and our baby. Please do not be angry with me or
waste time in idle depression. When things have changed and it is
safe to travel, I will come to you, my love, and begin the family
we promised, you, me, and our little one.

Love, 

Eli 

* * *

Rebecca spent the next five years waiting for the man she loved,
for the man who would never return to her. But as the slow years
progressed, the pain lessened and, as she watched her son whom she
named Eli grow from a baby to a toddler and then to a child about
to enter Kindergarten, she could see in his expressions a hint of
his father in the nose, the lips, the eyes, and one day she finally
let Eli go.  She let him return to Germany without her.
Everything about her son reminded her of the man she loved, the
only man she could ever love like this, and though Eli was no
longer there, he was her forever, and in her son she knew he would
always be with her.

THE END

Ami Blackwelder is a teacher and a writer. She has written three
religious books and two anthologies and a few children stories.

She is currently involved in finishing her Guardians of the Gate
saga and promoting her first historical fiction:
The Day the
Flowers Died.

Order this book on Kindle, Nook, iPad, or order from your local
bookstore. You may also order prints online. Find out more at her
website. 

  All her work is available at her website :

     
http://amiblackwelder.blogspot.com

                 
     
http://historicalromancereaders.blogspot.com

Author’s note:

Thank you to all my supporters, family, friends and fans for
keeping me encouraged and look for my new SciFi Paranormal Romance
saga: Shifter Evolutions.