Part One
Bills were piling up like towering waves threatening a seawall. Although the seawall could withstand the crashing of the persistent waves against it for now, the cement holding the barricade together was starting to crumble. Stefan knew he had to find a way to settle his debts before he drowned in the deluge.
“I only have one option left,” he explained in a resigned tone to Cat. “I have to ask your dad for help.” He strung up the last of the fairy lights, purposely not looking at his wife.
Cat placed the final few ornaments on the tree before she turned to her husband, dismay clearly written across her freckled face. Her green eyes met Stefan’s blue ones before she said, “Have you forgotten how he humiliated you the last time you appealed to him for help? Stefan, sell my bridal chest! You know what you can get for it will more than cover what we owe the debtors.”
“Cat, my love, that’s the last thing that still connects you to your mom. I would rather beg your dad for a loan than sell that chest. It’s priceless because she gifted it to you when we got married, in spite of your father’s vehement objection to it. I don’t care if your dad shames me yet again in front of the family, or if he calls me a loser. As long as his loan covers our bills for the next two months, I’m prepared to take any abuse he hurls at me,” Stefan declared.
Walking over to where Stefan was leaning against the ladder he had used to string up the lights, Cat put her arms around him, marveling at the love she felt for this man, at the fact that as the years had passed, their love had only intensified rather than faded. Even after having been married to him for five years, Stefan still made her feel like a newly-wed bride.
Stefan sighed as he breathed deeply of Cat’s unique scent, a natural perfume that was reminiscent of a balmy evening redolent of a night-blooming jasmine tree. He could never get enough of this woman, and the love he carried within his heart for her blossomed anew with each day he spent with her.
“You may be accepting of his merciless treatment of you, but to me it is an abomination. He pretends to be a pious man, but he has the heart of a hypocrite. It is precisely that hypocrisy of his that wore my mom down so much that she passed away far earlier than she should have. Please, don’t ask him to help us out, Stefan. We can think of something else,” Cat insisted.
“Like what? We’ve tried nearly everything to keep our heads above water, but our printing studio is losing more than it’s making. Production costs have soared with the poor economy we’re experiencing, our workers have demanded a wage increase, and the increased bank rates on our loans have really hit us hard, Cat,” Stefan said.
“But we’ve been at this point before, my love,” Cat reminded Stefan, “and we survived without having to resort to my dad to bail us out.”
“Cat, this time it’s different. We’re deeply, deeply in the red with no way out, except by some miracle. And we know that miracles don’t exist anymore,” Stefan stated with finality. With hunched shoulders, he left the kitchen to go to their bedroom, leaving a forlorn Cat staring at the retreating back of her husband.
“Miracles do still occur, my love. We just need to have faith,” Cat said softly.
Part Two
Cat’s eyes snapped open, the dream she had just had of her mother still sharp and crystal clear. Cat instinctively knew the dream was a message; she felt the conviction of it with the certainty of an artist knowing she had created a masterpiece.
“Mom,” Cat whispered before silently slipping out from under the covers, hoping that she wouldn’t wake Stefan. The bedroom was dimly lit by a few rays of the dawning sun sneaking into the room through a slight chink between the drapes, but even without this helpful illumination, Cat would have found her way unerringly to where her bridal chest stood.
It was an exquisitely crafted piece made of walnut and sandalwood. Consequently, it always emitted a subtle fragrance that was both inviting and elusive. The sides of the bridal chest had been carved to resemble recessed squares. In the middle of the larger square formed by the smaller ones had been placed a bronze medallion. The lid was latched by a simple catch.
Cat recalled her dream as she kneeled in front of the chest and released the latch on the lid. She stared into the chest which she was using as storage for her bedding and linens, but she was blind to its contents. Instead, she saw again her mom speaking to her in her dream.
“Honey,” her mother said, “this bridal chest holds your wedding trousseau. I’ve been gathering these bridal goods for you from the time you turned ten. I wanted to give you more than my blessing, and I knew this could give you and your husband a head start on your new life.”
“Mom, these are exquisite!” Cat exclaimed in delight upon seeing the various items. There were bed covers, quilts, a jewelry box containing silver bracelets and a gold necklace, two dainty watches, and numerous rings of simple metal bands or bands inset with precious stones. Cat threw her arms around her mother, fiercely hugging her at the same time as she burst into tears, overcome by her love for her mother.
Then the dream had turned fuzzy around the edges until Cat once again saw her mother in the second dream. Cat’s mother was lying in a hospital bed, breathing her last. Speaking slowly, breathlessly, her mother said, “Look upon your bridal chest with clear eyes, my child. See the legacy I’ve left for you buried in its heart. Let your touch serve as your sight.”
As the last recollection of these two dreams finally faded forever, Stefan touched Cat lightly on her shoulder.
“Love, what are you doing? Why are you unpacking the chest at three in the morning?”
Cat quickly relayed her dreams to him. Then she added, “The thing is, I remember the first dream very well because that really happened. I can clearly recollect the first time my mother had shown me the bridal chest and its contents, to which she kept adding until I married you. But, Stefan, the second dream… that never happened,” Cat explained, gripping his arm tightly.
“Didn’t your mom pass away in hospital, love?” Stefan asked gently.
“Yes, she did, but we never had that conversation. She had slipped into a coma as soon as she had been hospitalized, and she never woke from it,” Cat said.
“So you’re unpacking the chest because?” Stefan asked, leaving the rest of his sentence for Cat to complete.
“What if the dream wasn’t just a dream? What if it was a true message from my mother? I should at least try to find whatever it is she said I would find through touch,” Cat added.
“Cat, you know how our minds can play tricks on us!” Stefan said, nearly shouting. “Especially in the early hours of the morning when we are still only half awake,” he continued. “It was just a dream, nothing more. If there had been anything in the chest for you to find, wouldn’t you have found it a long time ago, honey?”
“No, not necessarily. No,” Cat adamantly disagreed. “I’ve never really examined the chest because I’ve never had any reason to. But now, now I feel there’s something in here that we missed, and which we need to find.”
Stefan knew Cat like he knew his own heart, and he acknowledged that in all the years he had known her, she had never been known to give in to flights of fancy. Therefore, he stopped objecting and instead said, “Then let’s do this! Let’s find whatever it is your mom might have left for you.”
Part Three
The bedroom was by now fully lit by the beams of bright sunlight shining into it. Cat and Stefan had packed out the entire contents of the chest in order to examine properly the inside of the box. Time had tick-tocked on to four, but their search had revealed nothing. Astro, their two-year-old Jack Russell puppy, bounced into the bedroom, his curiosity aroused by the early morning activity of his humans. He was a very well-behaved puppy who knew not to touch anything that was off limits, like the linen and bedding spread haphazardly all over the room. Consequently, he went sniffing at the bridal chest.
Astro had always been somewhat fascinated by the box, as it often excited his olfactory senses. The puppy received a miasma of marvelous odours from the chest, quite literally sending him into a frenzy of sensual overload. Today, two scents were most dominant, pleasantly tickling Astro’s nose, making the puppy grin widely. There was the familiar scent of sandalwood layered with jasmine, or was it frangipani? The puppy’s nose often mistook the one for the other, but it was no big deal. He loved both fragrances.
“Astro, get!” Stefan ordered the puppy, pushing him away from the chest. But Astro once again returned to sniff vigorously at the bridal chest.
Cat looked up from exploring the inside of the box and said, “Leave him, Stefan. He’s not causing any trouble.”
Astro’s keen nose suddenly caught a new fragrance coming from the chest, one he hadn’t smelled before. It was spicy but not unpleasant, earthy with hints of pine and citrus. Then he knew what it was: frankincense! And it was coming most potently from the little medallion set in the middle of the squares. Uncharacteristically, Astro started to paw at the medallion, whining in frustration.
“Astro!” Stefan shouted at the puppy in an attempt to stop him from scratching at the medallion. “Naughty boy!” he chided the puppy and firmly shoved him away from the chest. However, Astro’s frantic scraping at the medallion caused Cat to have a closer look at it.
“Don’t bother,” Stefan said, as if he could read her mind. “I’ve already pressed that decoration in the hopes that maybe some secret drawer would pop out.”
“But, Stefan,” Cat said in wonder, “look. Around the edges… don’t those markings look like tiny arrows?”
Stefan hurried over to have a closer look at the medallion. To his disbelief, he realized that Cat was right. What they had always perceived to be an embellished border around the medallion’s edges were in actual fact tiny arrows all pointing to the right.
“Do you think it could mean that we should turn and not press the medallion? Maybe turn it clockwise?” Cat asked breathlessly, hardly daring to believe that they might have stumbled upon what they had been in search of for nearly an hour. “And an innocently inquisitive puppy led us to this find,” she added, lovingly kissing the frolicking Astro.
“Go ahead! Turn it, Cat,” Stefan encouraged her. Carefully, her nerves a-tingle and her heart aflutter, Cat gripped the medallion and turned it clockwise. After half a revolution, there was a distinct and loud click before the middle recessed square suddenly slid forward. It was a cleverly hidden panel. What it was filled with bereft Cat and Stefan of breath. Time stopped for husband and wife as they gazed incredulously upon the contents of the drawer.
The slot was filled to the brim with brilliantly sparkling precious stones, pure white diamonds appearing to be in the majority. The bead-sized diamonds vied for attention with blood red rubies, iridescent green sapphires, and emeralds the size of peas. The warm rays of sunshine bathed the stones in glory.
“Dear God!” gasped Cat.
“No way!” breathed Stefan.
Astro gave a few happy yips before he jumped into Cat’s lap to lick the tears streaming unheeded from her eyes.
“Oh, mom! So this is why you lived so frugally all your life, to give me this,” Cat whispered between her sobs. “Had I known, I would have told you not to make such a sacrifice,” she added as Stefan embraced her.
“Catherine, that’s a small fortune in gems!” Stefan exclaimed, using his wife’s full name in shock. “Are you saying your mom denied herself what could have been a life of ease… for you? For us?”
“Stefan, my love, there’s your miracle,” Cat replied, smiling through her tears.
As if on cue, church bells rang out in crystalline echoes across the city to joyously proclaim the dawn of the holiest of holy days.
Image: Freestocks (www.unsplash.com)
Lovely story. Maintains my interest. Evocative. Fluent. Feel good. All in all, a great read.
Thank you very much for your positive, supportive feedback. It means the world to me, Gail!