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‘Ah, sorry.’ Clearing my throat, I smile. And while slightly forced due to circumstances, I’m genuinely happy to see my friend. I knew I missed her but hadn’t realized how much I needed her. Especially now.
‘Do you know what—’ I gesture behind me to the window ‘—this is?’
‘Maybe.’ From her smile I know instantly that she not only knows but was involved.
‘What do you mean, “maybe”?’
Ignoring me, Bell leans down to Mary, her hands resting on her thighs. ‘And you must be Mary.’
‘Yep.’ Mary curtseys. ‘Did Aunt Alice call you Bell? Like the princess?’
‘Yes, she did.’ She curtseys in return. ‘I’m your Aunt Bell.’
Mary’s eyes go wide. ‘Really?’
While surprised at Bell calling herself Mary’s aunt, I don’t argue. I mean, technically I’m not Mary’s aunt either so if Bell wants to…
‘Shall we see the rest of the display?’ Bell straightens and reaches out a hand to Mary who grabs it.
‘Oh, I don’t know...’ Glancing back at the display I just saw, I’m apprehensive about what lies on the other side.
Thomas’s apology. The groceries I’m pretty sure he had delivered. The photo album. And whatever this… I look back to the display I’ve just seen, then ahead to the one I haven’t… whatever this is.
If I simply enter Moore’s now, if I turn in my equipment and leave without seeing what’s beyond this point, I could go back to the life I planned.
‘Come on, Aunt Alice.’ Mary grabs Bell’s hand and tugs on mine. ‘I want to see what happens next.’
And since I do too, I let Mary guide me past the entrance to the window on the other side, holding her hand a little tighter than before.
Just around the corner of the entrance alcove, three butterfly lights hang from the ceiling of the display. Underneath them, three mannequins stand next to a stop sign. The man and woman mannequin, each dressed in suits, stand on either side of a child mannequin – a girl based on its purple dress, glitter high-tops and sequined backpack. Like they’re waiting for a school bus.
‘That’s not us, is it?’ Mary tilts her head, her brow pinched.
I frown with her, unsure of the answer.
This time Bell leads us along.
At the next scene, three mannequins are at the beach. A male mannequin in swim trunks holds a girl mannequin on his hip, pointing out beyond the glass, as if to the ocean. Slightly behind them to the left a female mannequin lounges in a beach chair –reading.
I can just make out Demon’s Lust on the front cover of the paperback. The same book I was reading on the plane to Vegas. The one Thomas quoted while kissing me.
While the memory brings tears to my eyes, it’s the last tableau that makes my breath catch.
It’s a Christmas scene. The man, woman and child from the other scenes are sitting around the tree. But there are others too. More adults. More children. I give a watery laugh at not one, but two cats. It’s the mannequins’ family.
‘It’s the epilogue,’ I whisper, understanding dawning.
‘What’s a-pee-log?’ Mary asks.
‘It’s what happens after the story ends.’ I dab at my cheeks with my coat sleeve. ‘But even if I’m right, it doesn’t make sense. It’s missing the whole part where—’
‘Thomas!’ Mary lets go of Bell’s and my hands, dodging between the crowd to get to Thomas, noticeable by his height and his general aura of self-confidence. He catches her as she launches herself at him, hiking her on his hip just like in the beach scene.
Two hands on my back, Bell gives me a push to get me going. My path made easy as the people gathered to look at the display pull back, as if subconsciously aware that something is about to happen.
With each step, my previous understanding turns to uncertainty, then aggravation, then fear. Finally, anger emerges. Anger at the man who has once more made me afraid. Afraid to hope. To take a chance.
And then I’m a foot away, staring up into Thomas’s dark eyes. His hair perfectly styled, his bespoke three-piece suit under a camel cashmere blend topcoat.
