A Rose in Shadow

Chapter 53

Samantha stretched her arms over her head reaching toward the sunshine and closed her eyes with a smile. It was a great day. The early summer sun was warming her face, she was meeting her best friend for lunch, finally being able to sit outside at the picnic tables in the park, and she woke this morning covered, literally, by Adam.

She could smell popcorn from the vendor across the park and could hear the squeaking of bicycle tires as people rode by.

"You're causing a riot" her friend's teasing voice broke through her daze as she lowered her head and squinted against the sun toward Emma Kate's approaching shape.

Laughing and jumping up to catch Emma Kate in a hug she held on extra tight. "Oh I've really missed you" she stepped back but still held on "how's G-May?"

May Turner was a force all on her own and Emma Kate was definitely made to tow the line when she was growing up but G-May was also a force of love too and Emma Kate didn't once have to question whether her grandmother loved her as she was told every single day and night without fail.

For a child like Emma Kate, who had tragically lost both parents in a car accident involving a drunk driver, the discipline, routine and constancy were something that she thrived on during those years. It was a hard adjustment at first for Emma Kate, being an only child whose closest relative was a grandmother living in another province who she had seen, at most, three or four times a year on holidays up until that point of her life. But, her grandmother had arrived at the hospital within hours of being notified of the accident and scooped Emma Kate up without question and moved her to her home in Shadow Valley to live with her. May grieved for her son and daughter-in-law but the fact that Emma Kate was still alive and needing her gave her a reason to wake up each morning and turn her focus from her own sadness to her granddaughter, who, thank the Lord, had survived the same crash with only a broken wrist and some minor cuts and scrapes.

When May arrived at the hospital she was still reeling from the news that her only child, her beautiful loving son, and daughter-in-law were dead and she couldn't recall one minute of the five hour drive that she had just taken, but, she entered the hospital and, like a robot, made her way to the nurses' station to announce herself. She was waiting for the nurse to bring up the information on her computer when she saw Emma Kate out of the corner of her eye watching her from the doorway of a patient room. Wherever her mind had been for the last six hours, it had taken her almost an hour to organize and call her friends and neighbours, was now forgotten and all that she saw was Emma Kate. Bruises circled both of her granddaughter's eyes and she had her little wrist in a cast but she was alive and she had never looked more perfect to May than she did at that moment. Without hesitation she rushed to Emma Kate and held her steady while the tears came, for both of them.

May was a big believer in fate and of the fact that things happen in your life for a reason so she never once took for granted the fact that Emma Kate had been spared and was now her responsibility and she took that very seriously.

By the time that she and Emma Kate had left the hospital and made the long drive back to May's house, her group of friends, whom Emma Kate lovingly called The Coven, had already been in, dragging dressers, lamps and a single bed from G-May's attic and extra blankets and décor from their own homes and had a bedroom set up for Emma Kate. Child-friendly groceries, including lots of fresh fruit and cereal, burst from the refrigerator and cupboards in the kitchen and a call had already been put through to the local public school to set up a meeting for enrollment for Emma Kate for the following week. May had also made a call to a real estate agent and made arrangements for her son and daughter-in-law's house to be emptied and put up for sale. Emma Kate's items were being sent directly to her house and the rest of the contents were cleared out and put into storage until she had the strength to go through them.