saying goodbye

Saying goodbye this time was as hard as she could have imagined it. She hugged each of her brothers in turn and hugged and kissed Anne on the cheek. Anne smiled and wept openly for the first time in memory. Kevin and Tom kept looking at Quest suspiciously while she was saying her goodbyes.

            Her mother held her tightly and kept apologizing over and over again for not telling her about the adoption. She held onto her mother as tightly reassuring her that the apologies were unnecessary. Her mother held her at arm’s length for a time with the family looking on and shook her head.

“I feel like we are losing you Vanessa.”

“Mom.” Vanessa replied but could not find the words to go on.

“Can she come back?” Her father suddenly asked.

All eyes turned to Quest.

“Will she be able to come back, Mr. Quest?” He asked more directl

Quest nodded. There was a collective sigh.

“I still don’t understand why she cannot just pick up a cell phone and call then?” Her mother complained.

Vanessa considered this, her own mind understood that it was not possible, that where she was going was so far that it was beyond the reach of anything her world knew to communicate. She shot Quest a hopeful look. He walked across the room to the cleared dining room table and beckoned then to come over. Nervously, hesitantly they came to stand together opposite him across the table.

            Quest pointed to the candelabras and placemats and Kevin and Tom removed them.  Quest reached inside his shirt pocket and produced a vial of blue liquid. He held out the vial, ceremoniously uncorked the topper and slowly turned the vial until a single drop of the blue liquid dropped from the container. It dropped in slow motion towards the table top.

            “The distance between what you know to be here and what Vanessa will know to be there is vast like an ocean that separates to distant islands.”

            The drop of liquid hit the table top and splashed outward in a ring of blue liquid which spread quickly over the entire table. Her mind had trouble grasping that there was enough liquid in that drop to compensate for covering the table but she accepted it as real. Abstractly she wondered if anyone else had a problem with the physics of what was happening then she saw that Quest was looking directly at her. Without knowing she was doing anything she reached out and placed her left index finger in the liquid at her end of the table. Around where she touched a beautiful little version of the city sprang to life becoming a composite of an island and the city itself. It was improbable but her mind accepted it.

            Quest did the same at the opposite end of the table, and another island appeared.

            “The ocean that separates the two islands is vast and largely uncrossable by ordinary methods of travel. Communication as you know it on your island will not be able to navigate the distance but there are routes known to those who cross this ocean between these two Islands and so many many more beyond them.” Quest gestured out beyond the table and she got the impression that the ocean was more vast, more eternal than what she could see on the table top.

            “The crossings of this ocean are few and can only take place at certain times each decade or eon. We call this the Ways. Traveling the Ways is difficult and a crossing is never done casually. Vanessa will cross the Ways with me and a group of companions that came to fetch her. In time she will have the opportunity to return via the Ways or at least send a message to you. There is no instant communication like what you enjoy here through the ways known to any of us who have navigated them in my knowledge. This was the reason I brought Vanessa here to grow up. This was why her birth Mother requested the promise from me. Now I have to fulfill that promise not only to Allisandra but also to Vanessa as well.”

            Quest made a show of corking the vial and at once all of the display on the table faded away returning the wood to the table top and the room to normal light. Kevin reach forward and touched the table as if to prove to himself that it was just wood under his fingertips. He left his hand there as if to anchor it.

            Her father walked over to Quest and shook his hand.

            “Thank you, for bringing her to us.” Her father said. “She has meant so much to me, to raise her as my own. I doubt I can ever express what an honor and privilege it has been to have her as my own daughter.”

            Vanessa felt tears on her face as her father turned and pulled her into his embrace. She hugged him fiercely and held onto him not wanting to let him go. She soon realized her entire family had joined them in the embrace.