“Rebecca
,” he
spoke to her floating up there, smiling. “Rebecca, please, don’t
g
o. Stay with me.”
She just smiled and he could see that
she could not hear him. The butterfly was flapping furiously at
him. He turned and looked at it. It was flapping on her body,
urgently and wildly.
“
What, what? What is happening to Rebecca?”
It
flapped
and flapped, moving up and down her body.
“
God, what the fuck does this mean? I don’t have time for
this. I want Rebecca. I want her to come down from there, back into
her body.”
“Rebecca! Rebecca! Come down
now
.”
Then he realized what the butterfly was trying to
say
to him.
Of course, he needed to focus on her
body.
Rebecca has told him that his right hand was soothing,
cooling.
Okay, this better work or somebody is going to
pay.
Clayton rushed to her cold, pale body and rubbed her
slowly. His back was still burning with pain, but he could
think of nothing but getting Rebecca down from there, floating,
alone in the air, smiling indulgently at him.
He was crying now.
“
Rebecca, Princess, please, don’t leave me. I need you,
please. Come to me, please. I promise you I will do anything you
want. Just come down from there.”
He turned her body around and touched
her butterfly. It was warm. He rubbed it a bit, but still nothing
happened. Should he complete the butterfly again? What if the light
came again? What if he invoked the creature again? But he had no
other choice and he placed his hand tentatively on the spot and
completed her butterfly. Nothing happened, but then he saw the
butterfly, moving in front of him, for the first time complete. Its
blue patch was not missing. He turned Rebecca around, laying his
right, healing hand on her heart.
Oh God, please, bring her back to me.
He looked up and she was no
longer floating. He looked down at her and she was still lifeless
and pale. Then she moved suddenly, as if choking. He looked at her
and her eyes were still closed.
“Rebecca
? Princess? Are you back?
Rebecca?”
He saw
the tears spilling out of the sides of her eyes and he knew she was
alive.
Clayton held her and cried, but Rebecca’s body was still.
The tears just rolled from her eyes. He rubbed her all over and
eventually, he
felt the tingling sensation of her energy
being restored. He sat for a long time, rubbing and rubbing, every
inch of her body, crying as he felt her slowly coming back to him.
It was getting light, the first rays of the sun peeking through
mountains.
“Clayton
, I am so tired. I want to
sleep.”
Clayton
shook her, excited and afraid of the sound of her voice.
“
No! Not now Princess. Later, okay? Come on, talk to me. Hold
me please.”
She
opened her eyes and looked at him.
“
Did you answer the phone? Who was it?”
He
laughed and held her.
“
Oh Rebecca, you are back. I love you, I love you!”
She
moved slowly and hugged him and he winced at the pain as she
touched his back.
“
Clayton, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
She was
wide awake now.
“It’s my back. It hurts like he
ll. But I am fine.
Rebecca, listen to me. I love you and you are never to leave me
again, understood?”
“
Yes, Clayton, I love you too. But what is wrong with your
back? Turn, let me see.”
He
turned round and she lifted his t-shirt. She gasped in shock at
what
she saw. He had long bright red welts that looked like
he had been whipped repeatedly.
“
Oh Clayton, baby. What has happened to you? Oh Gosh, Clayton,
are you okay?”
“Yes, I am okay. Really, it just hurts. Don’t cry, please.
We are okay. Do you realize that we are okay? Princess
, we
have survived.”
He was
smiling now, his azurite eyes beaming.
“Oh Clayton, I thought you were dead. You were lying there,
curled up and not moving. Yes, we are alive. Yes! Yes! Yes!
Clayton, smell the air, feel the breeze.
We are alive
.”
She got
out of the car, raising her arms up to the sky.
“
Thank you. Thank you, thank you!”
She
turned to Clayton.
“
Thank you for loving me so much! Thank you.”
Clayton
smiled, his beautiful princess was back. He silently thanked the
gods.
*****
They both stopped when they reali
zed his phone was ringing again. Clayton got up
and answered.
“
Jono, how are you?”
“
Clayton! Clayton, thank God! Man, don’t you know to answer
your phone? What the fuck do you mean, how am I? Clayton? Where is
Rebecca?”
“Oh Jono, we are both fine. We
did
it! Can you believe it? We did it. Wait, let
Rebecca say hello.”
“
Jono, we are fine. It is a beautiful, beautiful day! Tell
Jackie that we are fine.”
“
Where are you?”
“
We are at the top, where we had the picnic. We did not really
get much opportunity to move and do some sightseeing, you
know.”
Clayton
was starting to get his sense of humour back.
“Clayton, this is
not
the
time to be funny. Jackie and I are about fifteen minutes away. When
you did not answer the phone, we came up. The guard at the gate
gave us a hard time, said it was too early, but we insisted that we
left something behind before and did not want anyone to get there
first. He was sympathetic, especially when we asked if he would
want go up and fetch it for us. He was still sleepy and didn’t
fancy a trip up the mountain.”
“
Thank you, Jono, you are a real star. Also, sorry about not
answering before. I was a bit busy. I know you will forgive me when
I tell you about it.”
“
Okay, see you shortly.”
“
Princess, we are having company. Double J will be here
shortly. Are you okay? You look a bit worried.”
“
Yes, I am, but I guess we can talk later. Your back looks
terrible, Clayton. You look like you have been through
hell.”
He
thought,
I
have, especially when you tried to leave me.
But he said nothing. Rebecca did not seem
to be aware of what had happened. Maybe later, they would discuss
it. For now, he wanted to hold her, know that she was real and
alive. They sat huddled together, on the grass, watching the sun
rise. There was nothing to say.
That is
how they were when Jonathan and Jackie found them. The two of them
were holding onto each other, watching the sun gliding into the
sky. They looked like a couple having a quiet, romantic
picnic.
“
Jono, Jackie!”
Rebecca
was on her feet. She hugged them as if she was seeing them for the
first time. They hugged her tightly, as if they had lost her for a
long time. They tried to hug Clayton, but he backed away and showed
them his back. Jackie screamed and Jonathan’s eyes filled with
tears. What had these two been through? She looked as pale as a
ghost, and he, well, had been beaten to nothing. But, they looked
happy.
“
Thank you so much for coming. It is the most precious thing
you could do for us. It was completely weird, Jackie. It was so
weird.”
Rebecca
was crying.
“
If nothing else, I felt his love. It kept me going when I was
tired and drained. He kept me going. Oh Jackie, it was so
intense.”
Clayton
smiled.
“
Intense? It was the most painful experience of my life. But
it is true, what your father said. It is the love that keeps you
going. I could feel you, even though you did not talk to me. I
could feel your thoughts and your doubts. I will definitely deal
with those doubts later.”
Rebecca
laughed.
“
Oh Clayton, it is so good to hear you fight with
me.”
They
told Jonathan and Jackie everything that happened and not once,
until they had finished, did Jonathan ask a single logical
question. Jackie just cried the whole time. They sat there, for a
long time in silence, before Jonathan got his wits back.
“
That is the most awful thing I have ever heard. I don’t
understand one thing, Rebecca. Why were you floating in the air,
why were there two of you?”
“I don’t
know. I didn’t really realize it was happening. I just found myself
in another place and then the butterfly took me to Clayton. I saw
my body, but I didn’t register. It was the cell phone ringing that
seemed to bring me back, slowly.”
“The cell phone, well that’s another thing. You see, we
were up all night, waiting for you to call. Nothing happened and at
about four, Jackie got the hysterics. She kept shouting, ‘we have
to phone
now
, this
minute.’ She was getting completely out of control. I did not know
what to do. We had phoned your parents, Rebecca and they said we
must not phone because it might break the power of the light. I
didn’t know what to do, but Jackie went berserk, so we
phoned.”
“
Yes, it was the butterfly. It was bringing me back to
Clayton. I thought he was dead and then I saw him move. I couldn’t
find my way back down the passage to him and then it came and
guided me. It was really odd, though, because it was the first time
I saw the full colour. The patch was not missing. It was so
comforting. Then, I felt this soothing feeling as I was gliding
along. I felt safe and tingly, and then I saw Clayton, looking at
me. I just don’t know how all that happened. It was vague and
dark.”
They
were reluctant to leave the mountain and sat there for a long time.
They phoned Rebecca’s parents and Rebecca cried all over again as
they told her parents what had happened. Her father, however,
laughed at them, at their foolishness of going up the mountain, not
waiting for their help.
“
Clayton my boy, I would have told you not to think angry
thoughts, or have any negative feelings. It always turns your anger
against you. Remember that it was created to work on your negative
feelings, as a way to kill the love. We would have told you to
affirm your love to each other, loudly, right at the beginning. It
would have saved you all that pain. It hurts like hell, doesn’t
it?”
He was
laughing at Clayton and could hear his wife shouting at him to
behave. He ignored her, because he was so relieved that his
daughter and her somewhat rash Protector had survived the ordeal.
He was too happy to be concerned about his wife’s angry
tone.
“
The bad news, my boy, is that the electric shocks have
stopped. But, I will teach you how to summon that power when you
are better. But don’t tell Rebecca I told you that, because she
will kill me.”
Clayton
laughed.
“Thank
you. I don’t think I will need that for a while. It hurt like hell
and I don’t want to remember.”
Rebecca’s mother cried and spoke for a long time to her
daughter. She told Rebecca about her guilt and how she had not
wanted her child to go through this. She spoke about her doubts and
fears and the pain of watching her beautiful daughter, walking
around the world ‘dazed in pain’ and cried for her daughter’s lost
years.
When
they eventually left the mountain, it was two in the afternoon.
Clayton and Rebecca were tired and starving, but so happy to be
alive and together. Rebecca drove Clayton’s car, because the pain
was starting to sting his back and drove slowly to avoid the bumpy
road which might hurt him. Jonathan drove behind them, while Jackie
phoned around, re-scheduling all their appointments. It was Tuesday
afternoon and they all should have been back at work. They had
decided to stay for one more night to recover from the
ordeal.
When they got to the gate some 3 hours later, the guard was
shocked and horrified when he saw what Double J had ‘forgotten’ on
the mountain the day before.
T
hese tourists are crazy. They forgot their friends? Why
didn’t they just come down on their own? It is so strange how these
people thought.
He
looked at the couple and saw how tired they were.
Small wonder,
spending a night up there. It was freezing cold, dark and a little
spooky.
Just last night
he thought he heard some wild animal screaming up in the
mountains.
It must have scared them half to death. Served them right
for thinking they could spend a night up there. These tourists. No
sense at all.
He shook
his head and let them go.
He had seen those two yesterday. All loving to each other.
Now, they looked like they could sleep for a
week.