AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Yes. But she was more than I’d bargained for. Like a little hellcat, she made my life a misery. At first. She cut up my cash cards, threw my phone in a river, and burned my car to the ground.’
‘Good,’ Gladys said. ‘Sound’s like the lassie knows what’s right.’
‘Sparks flew, despite the rage, and we ended up giving in to temptation. Repeatedly. And somewhere in there, I lost more than just my bloody mind. I fell for her.’
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Gladys tutted as she resumed patting my hand with her cold, papery palm.
‘I thought about just staying on the road with her, disappearing with her. But when I let her know her younger sister would be next in line, she was resolute about going home.’
‘Has she married him yet?’
‘No. She has two days until the wedding.’
‘And you are going to stop it? Yes?’
‘How can I? You don’t just go against this man and survive. He’d kill me, and possibly her.’
‘It will kill you not to try, won’t it? If you think she feels the same way about you, it has to be worth a try. You need to hold on to love, however it presents itself.’
‘What about if you love her, let her go?’
‘Utter hogs-wash,’ Gladys said, making a sweeping motion with her hand. ‘Said by an utter coward who refused to stand up for the person they loved.’
‘I don’t think she’d come with me. What about her sister?’
‘Is she worth less than her sister? Should her life be derailed for another? No.’
My mind swirled with thoughts, regrets, and flashes of Esther. Her sweet, bratty smile, the way she laughed with abandon when she finally let go. The way she looked when totally relaxed in my arms, her chest raising as she slept. The way I felt when I was with her. Could I really let her go? I’d been fooling myself with the belief that I could.
‘If I don’t die, we’d need to disappear. For good.’
‘Choose somewhere warm,’ Gladys said, popping the lid back on her biscuit tin.
‘Why?’
‘It helps with my arthritis.’
‘What?’
‘If you are going on an adventure, I want to come. I can’t spend another ten years fading away in that old house while you are off living a grand adventure.’
‘Gladys,’ I said, ready to talk some sense into her.
‘Don’t you Gladys me. I’m old enough to decide, Sonny Jim. You are the closest person I have left, and I live for the moments when you’ll come around and bring some life into my house. Plus, you’d miss my biscuits too much.’
‘It would rip you away from everything.’
She let out a rich chortle. ‘Away from what? Sitting in there rotting and watching life pass me by? You think you are the only one looking outside and wishing? No, I’m right there with you. We are both alone, and I’m not accepting you up and leaving me here while you run off into the sunset. I’ll be right there with you.’
I gave up arguing. I had the impossibility of getting to Esther and getting us both away alive. Fuck it. If we made it, Gladys may as well join our band of runaways.
‘There is it, acceptance. Now, go save your girl. If you get yourself killed, I’ll be very disappointed. I’ll be packed and ready to go.’
What a crazy, but wonderful, old bird she was.
THIRTY-SEVEN
ESTHER
