An ending

I was holding his body, feeling the life slip out of him. I knew he was finally at peace. ‘Can you hear them Lara? They are calling me. They are…,’ David’s face was twisted in a broken smile. He reached out with a trembling hand, somewhere towards the horizons as if caressing a beloved face.

‘I can see them, Lara. Oh, they are so beautiful. Sheila, my beautiful Sheila…’

Tears were running down my cheeks, staining his face. But he didn’t feel them. He was already far, far from me. I wanted to tell him to hang on, but I knew his time had come. He had stuck around enough to see his children’s murderers behind bars. For a while I tricked myself into believing that maybe, just maybe, life would come back into his steel-grey eyes.

For all these months spent besides him, I had come to know David well and cherish his presence like a child cherishes the memory of his first snow. His tragedy helped me face my own demons, my own painful past. Unlike my own, his family’s murderers had been found and brought to trial. But being part of David’s journey to salvation brought back my inner peace.

Looking down at his face, my stomach churned at the thought of losing him. Now he was looking into my eyes smiling. The first smile I’d ever seen on his face. He touched my cheek and wiped away my tears. ‘Don’t cry baby girl. Go on, be happy. I’ll be watching over you from up there, just like you’ve been doing all this time for me.’

I felt his body stiffen. He breathed in one more time and whispered ,‘You are beautiful’.

I grasped for air to block the tears from choking me. I smiled and held him closer. Lying there, on the cold ground, I whispered words of comfort and witnessed the night end. Overhead, without any fuss stars were going out.