Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

sorry I don’t seem as excited as I should. Everything just seems to be happening so fast.”
    “Tell me about it. My head’s spinning.”
    “Just drive safely, Ethan.”
    He kissed me again and got into his car. After hestarted the engine, he rolled down the window and blew me a kiss. I watched him drive away until his car was out the front gate and gone.
    “How much of all that do you believe, Semantha?” Cassie asked.
    I didn’t reply. I turned and went back inside to eat my breakfast. Daddy called later to tell me he and Lucille had forgotten they were attending a charity event in Lexington. I waited for him to tell me about his hiring Ethan, but he didn’t. He just apologized for having to be away another night and day and my having to eat alone. I told him I was fine, and then he was drawn to deal with another important phone call and had to hang up. I wondered if he had ever had a phone call that wasn’t important.
    The house was so quiet now that Ethan was gone. He had truly come in like a wonderful ray of sunshine, sweeping me up in the warmth. Doris had already gone into the guest bedroom and begun redoing it. It wasn’t long before it looked as if no one had been in it.
    Later, after I had some lunch, I wandered out to the pool to read. The monotonous sounds of the landscaping machinery droned me into a daze, and I dozed off and on until some heavy dark clouds moved in from the northwest and the breeze grew stronger. I could feel myself sinking into a depression and, like someone falling into a dark, deep well, struggled to grasp and claw at anything that might keep me in the light.
    Apparently, some sparrows had built a nest in the eaves of the cabana. Maybe because the breeze wascoming from that direction or maybe because they were finally old enough, I heard the pleas of baby birds crying for something to eat. I watched as their mother made frequent trips to and from the nest to feed them. She was tireless, and they were seemingly insatiable. It captured my attention for a while, and then out of it was born a thought I had never dared think.
    Instantly, I rose and hurried back to the house to change. Mrs. Dobson heard me going up the stairs and called up to tell me her plans for dinner.
    “Oh, don’t bother tonight, Mrs. Dobson,” I said. “I’m going out.”
    “Oh? By yourself?”
    I smiled. “Yes, Mrs. Dobson, but don’t worry.”
    She nodded, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t. I smiled to myself and hurried on to dress. Twenty minutes later, I was down and out to my car. I sat there for a moment hesitating, my fingers trembling before starting the engine. Would I regret doing this? Would Daddy be enraged?
    “Do it,” Cassie said. She was sitting beside me. “Stop worrying about what everyone else will think. Damn it, Semantha,” she continued when I still hesitated. “Haven’t I instilled any Heaven-stone courage in you at all?”
    I looked at her and then started the car.
    “Satisfied?”
    “We’ll see,” she replied, folded her arms across her breasts, and sat back.
    I drove away from the house, down the driveway, and out the gate slowly—too slowly for her, I was sure—but as I continued to the highway, I sped up.
    “I have no idea what I’m going to do when I get there,” I muttered.
    “You’ll figure it out,” she told me. “With my help, of course.”
    Close to an hour later, I turned off the highway and followed a road I had driven many times before in my dreams. It was quite a beautiful rural area, with elaborate farmhouses and corrals. Behind the fenced-in landscapes enclosing lush rolling hills, I saw mares and foals grazing. Some lifted their heads and looked at me cruising by. The spindly-legged colts that scampered at their mothers’ sides looked so fresh and new I imagined they weren’t more than weeks or months old. Their curiosity about me brought a smile to my otherwise nervous face. It was as if nature was working to bring babies and infants of every kind to mind.
    My mind now centered on only one.
    I slowed down as I approached my mother’s cousin’s property. Royce and Shane also had a farm where they raised thoroughbreds. I had never been there, but I had always known exactly where it was. I slowed down and pulled over to a wide, clear area off the road just across from the driveway. I shut off the engine and sat, unsure of what I would do next or why I had even come.
    Over the last few years, I had read a number of stories about this