Chapter 50 A Time to Weep
A TIME TO WEEP
For everything there is a season and a time.
A time to weep and a time to laugh.
A time to love and a time to hate.
It was done. Laura Jean Anderson was laid to rest. We stood in the cold cemetery.
Bright red leaves swirled around the headstones.
The wind whispered it was done. She was gone.
Noah was sobbing into Tristan’s chest. Callie had her arms wrapped around me, and Craig had his arm around Bailey.
I didn’t know how I would feel seeing her dropped into the earth. I hated that woman.
I hated her for not protecting Tristan. For not doing better by Noah. For choosing a man over her kids. But as they lowered the casket into the ground and Noah made a noise that you never wanted to hear, my heart hurt. Not for her. But for the damage she left in her wake.
Tristan didn’t shed a tear. He stood holding my hand so tight I thought he would float away if I let go.
James was on his knees, sobbing on the other side of the hole. His church had raised enough money to bury the woman who everyone said was a bright star. Everyone but the seven who stood here.
She was not a bright star. The world will be a better place without her.
At least Tristan and Noah would be better without her.
Now if Satan would reach up and take James.
God owed Noah and Bailey that much. He owed Tristan too.
We had dealt with James long enough on Earth.
It was time for him to meet his maker. I stared at James, willing it to happen.
But the old man was pulled to his feet and rounded up by his people.
“Are you ready?” Tristan came up behind me.
For everything there is a season and a time.
A time to get and a time to lose.
* * *
I watched him pack his bag. It had started to rain. Even the sky couldn’t hold itself together. I let myself believe the sand of time would stop like those in Tristan’s tattoo. But time kept marching on. Fate might have brought us together, but it did nothing to keep us together.
“So this is it.” I handed him a shirt. I could feel it starting again, the cracking of my ribs.
But this time I was prepared. I wouldn’t bleed him out.
I’d hold tight to all these memories. There would still be pain, but my heart wouldn’t break.
Because my frontal cortex was developed enough to know this was just a page in my story with Tristan.
And not the last page.
“Ev. Don’t cry.” Tristan sat down and caught my tears.
“I can’t help it.” They came out on their own. I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to. He took my hand and ran his thumb over my knuckles.
“I have something to ask you.” He didn’t look up.
“Yes,” I said before I knew the question.
Tristan looked up at me. “You don’t even know the question.”
“I keep hoping that someday it will be the right answer.”
“Will you wait for me? Will you wait a year?”
“Yes.” The word came out between a sob and breath.
I had already waited for so long; what was one more year?
I cupped his cheek and memorized everything I could about him.
I hadn’t done that with my father and now all I can remember is cancer.
So I took all of Tristan in. The fullness of his mouth, how green his eyes seemed.
The dark line of his tattoos that stopped just below the jaw.
The sound of his voice. Everything. I tucked it away in a safe place that I could easily visit. “I will wait forever.”
“Promise?”
The fear in his voice cut me to the quick. I slid closer and pressed my forehead to his. “Until the end of time and even after that, I will wait for you.”
“I love you, Evan. That will never change and when this is over we will go anywhere you want. And I will be whatever Tristan you need me to be.”
“I just need you to be okay.” I kissed him, memorizing the way his mouth felt on mine. “Can you do something for me?”
“Anything.” He breathed into my skin.
The Chinese legend says there is an invisible red thread tied to everyone’s little finger at birth. At the other end of that thread is their soulmate. The person they are destined to meet. To love.
And now the world could see mine.