Beyond the end

Blanca

Los Angeles
Only Steve, Clare and Maddy had gone to the Beach that day. The cabin was all to them. Maybe Donna and David would have came later. Maybe not.
Andrea hadn't been here for a couple of days and he hadn't called her.
Steve didn't really know how to handle the whole situation.
"Maddy is a fantastic little girl," Clare said, rapping him from his thoughts.
"Yes, she is."
"Lovely, smart, she will have taken after her mother," the girl whispered, laughing.
"Thank you Clare" he laughed too.
"No, really she is amazing."
"You are amazing too."
Clare looked at him with a hint of shyness.
"Thank you," she replied.
"It's the truth and anyway it's me who has to thank you."
"For what?" She asked.
"For the years you've spent with me. For challenging and helping me all the time. Without you I wouldn't be what I am now."
"You can't know that."
"Yes, I know" Steve was quite resolute and that hit Clare's heart.
The man who was together with her, that Steve, still survived inside the light of his eyes, she could touch and recognize him.
"Then I thank you too," she added, "because you too were the first to challenge me, to love me."
"you haven't to thank me"
The two smiled timidly.
The years had passed but that thing that was between them, that complicity, pulsed.
"What happened to us Clare? "
She shrugged "I don't know, I guess we had to find our way and unfortunately our lives didn't coincide."
"And couldn't they coincide now?" Steve asked.
"It depends, would you move to London with me?"
Again the same crossroads, the same question, you or the rest of the world. But on this side of the world there was Maddy and he knew he would never leave his daughter. He wasn't like Dylan.
"No. I can't come."
"Some people are destined to cross our lives and change it but they don't necessarily have to stay. Their purpose is to take us where we were expected. Maybe you were and are this for me. That's not to say they're worth less than consummate loves" Clare approached his face and kissed him on the lips "you'll never have to doubt the value of what we had and that we have."
That kiss opened a chasm in his heart.
"Anyway, I still have a few days. I'm waiting for Brandon and Kelly to come back. We could get some of that world back if you want."
"Seriously?"
"If you want to."
"I want to."
She smiled.
"What about your boyfriend?"
"It's in Europe. Honestly it's not a relationship about WOW! It's for life!. He is too much like me. At least he doesn't mess up anything" she looked at him.
Steve laughed.
"And now tell me what's between you and Andrea?"
"What do you mean?" He asked while the drink was going sideways.
"There is a strange alchemy between you."
"We're just Clare friends. We like to spend time together. We have a lot in common. The divorces. Being single parents. Donna and David are married. Brandon and Kelly are as if they are. We are free souls."
"Free souls uh?" Clare asked.
"Yeah free souls"
At that moment Donna and David arrived at the beach.
Clare took little Ethan and David dropped Himself into the chair next to Steve.
"What's up big boy?" Steve asked him.
"As usual," he said, snorting in the heat, "work, son, house, wife, sea."
"And what do you want more?"
"yeah what do I want ," David replied, "sometimes I think I'd like to be like you Steve."
"Alone and desperate?"
They laughed together.
"No, don't Keep me wrong. I love Donna, Ethan and everything else. But I feel like I'm living in a cage."
"Sometimes when you have something you don't understand the value, you'll understand it when you lose that thing," Steve said looking at Clare.
David took a few moments for himself.
"Some times I'd like to tell her about Valerie and about what happened last year," David hissed.
Steve stared at him sternly "for what reason?"
"Because I think that part of me is quiet but alive. And I think Donna deserves the truth."
"If you tell her the truth, maybe you would have a lighter conscience but you will lose everything. Is it convenient for something didn't count?"
"I don't Know l.." David sighed
"we are not heroes David. We are men who make mistakes and make choices."
This answer softened David. Steve put his hand on his arm.
Then he stared at a plane that was flying over their heads.
"Will the others have arrived at their destination?"
"In Italy not in Ecuador it can be."
"They will have fun for sure."
"They deserve it," Steve said.
Ecuador
Sammy immediately befriended with the other children. He tried to communicate with them and the ability of the little ones to overcome shyness was extraordinary and just as extraordinary was the way the game became a vehicle for understanding and smiles.
One little girl in particular had tied up with Sammy. Her name was Blanca. She was six years old but a childhood of malnutrition had marked her body, leaving her small. A little warrior.
She had no father, she had no mother, but she had lived for a while with a group of Dutch missionaries. Blanca spoke English enough to communicate with Sammy.
Dylan feared that the child's golden life would lead him to lock himself, and instead Sammy's personality emerged light and the rest was thanks to Blanca who mediated between him and the other kids.
"I think he has a crush on her," Brenda told Dylan.
"Do you think so?" Dylan raised his eyebrow and watched his son play in the yard with Blanca and the others.
"After all, she's a beautiful brunette girl and the McKays have a passion for brunettes," Brenda hissed looking at him suspiciously.
"Wasn't It the blondes?" Dylan joked and took a nudge from Brenda.
He kissed her.
"I'm happy to be here," Brenda said.
"Yes me too, I thought Sammy had more bouts of nostalgia, instead Kelly calls every night and he lives deeply every day here. They seem to be having a lot of fun in Italy," Dylan replied.
"Yeah, both are so light, I'm happy for my brother."
"Why?"
"You have no idea how much he missed her. I knew it. I saw it. Neither of us believed that come back would be possible. You two seemed so far away," she looked at him, "you seemed so far away."
He kissed her "and instead you will become Mrs. McKay."
Brenda touched her belly, it was a good time to tell Dylan about the pregnancy, but she would have liked to do it in a special way. Precious.
The days flowed between the fingers, light days stuck in the tropical light. Days of laughter. Of love between Dylan and Brenda. Every day they took the kids to the beach. They used a little bus. It was strange how all those children lived within walking distance of one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and never enjoyed it. It was as if it was a rich thing, which they could only look at, even though the sea belonged to everyone. And as Sammy had fun with them, his all-white skin had turned honey, he faced the challenges proposed, he spent time with Brenda too. She was trying to get to know him better and in his eyes he was no longer Dylan and Kelly's son but simply Sammy. A little boy. Lovely and with big blue eyes.
They sat on the beach with Blanca, while Children's noises and play were the soundtrack.
"Are you going to become my mom?" Sammy asked her one day.
"You already have a mom," Brenda replied, "the best of moms. I won't replace her but when you need me I'll always be there."
"Maddy said you're going to become my new mom."
"Maddy is young as you, and she doesn't know a lot of things, I'll be your special friend."
'Like?'
"Like you can spend time with us, whenever you want, with me and your father and I will do everything to make you happy. To play. But you have a mom Sammy and she will be forever."
"Is Brandon a special friend of mine too?"
"Yes, I would say ..yes."
Sammy was a sphinx, he didn't betray any feelings and Blanca watched him.
"My mom and dad won't get back together again. Is it true? Maddy told me and so did Hannah" Sammy looked at her with sad eyes, Brenda realized how much he missed his parents together.
"You're lucky Sammy," Blanca intervened.
"Why?"
"You have a lot of people who love you, a mom, a dad, two special friends, I don't have anyone."
Brenda looked at Blanca's mature features, her intelligent words, her unfortunate life that was now making her regain weight. She loved that little girl. He would have liked to hold her to herself every moment.
"I love you," Sammy said to Blanca, standing up.
They hugged.
"Sammy" Brenda told him "I know it's not easy for you but that doesn't mean it can't be nice. Brandon and I would be very happy to be part of your life if you want us."
"Of course I want you," Sammy replied, going back playing with the sand. Brenda had an expression worried by the little boy's words she thought of Brandon who had to deal with him every day. She thought it was a patient and difficult job and admired her brother because he dealt with him every day. They didn't live in Los Angeles but Brandon, Sammy and Kelly lived together.
"Something is wrong?" Dylan asked her coming back from the sea.
"No," Brenda replied, "nothing."
Maybe she should have talked to him about the doubts and questions Sammy had, certainly before she married Dylan.
"You look thoughtful," Dylan said, lying next to her.
"I think Sammy wants you and Kelly to come back together."
"Seriously? Who told you?" asked D.
"Sammy."
Dylan watched his son in silence. He didn't know he was brooding these feelings but what child wouldn't do it?
"I'll have to talk to Kelly about it and we'll deal with it," he said, kissing her on the shoulder, "don't worry, it's not the first child of separated parents who grows up happy. He would face it."
Brenda nodded with an half a smile. SHe thought Brandon should have known too. Especially now that he was going to live with them.
"I'm happy," Dylan whispered, lying in the sun. And those words of Dylan made her fall in love with him, as she fell in love with him every day.
"I love you"
Dylan looked at her "I love you too"
That night they made love in an unusual way, they came to exchange their souls.
Italy
The exit from the airport was a punch in the face. A Scirocco wind had been blowing over Palermo for a few hours and welcoming Brandon and Kelly without too many ceremonies. The sky was covered, the orange heat clouds announced the sand that that same wind had carried from the deep south. From beyond the sea. From very distant and fascinating places.
A Saharian scenario left Kelly out of breath. There she felt the vibration, the fatigue of the of history that had forged those lands, the wonder of the perfumes. It was much more than she thought.
Who knows what little Sammy was doing at that very moment.
"Kelly, shall we go?" Brandon had put their bags into a taxi and waited for the girl to reach him abandoning the thoughts in which she had been sucted.
"Palazzo Sitano please," the taxi driver moved and Brandon took out the guide that had been snooping for weeks to trace their itinerary in Sicily. Kelly had never thought she could visit an island she didn't know at all; she had barely heard of it for things that were not exactly "touristy". Things far away. Ancient.
"You'll see Kelly, you'll like Sicily."
"You told me you've never been there," Kelly asked him suspiciously.
"Actually the editorial staff asked me, a few years ago, to visit Palermo during the commemorations of a killed judge" Brandon took a break, other realities that nothing to do with that travel but that belonged to those lands "but I briefly saw Palermo, I arrived in the morning and left in the early evening, I saw nothing. But I breathed a vibrant atmosphere that fascinated and intrigued me. This is a land of fire and wheat, of oranges, of history, Kel. Something you've never seen and that no one else will show you. I wanted to know more. But My job and various commitments never allowed me to come back here; then, with me back to the States, I never thought about it again. Until a few weeks ago," Brandon smiled and alternated one look at Kel and one driving. Kelly looked at him and the she was looking out the window. The sea ran along the highway, flocks of seagulls twirled over a small island that almost touched the mainland. Every color seemed more intense to her. It all seemed wonderful to her and for a moment she had forgotten her son on the other side of the world and had attention only for her Walsh.
It started to rain " la Sicilia terra del sole, non era così?" (Sicily land of the sun, wasn't It ) Brandon said to the driver, in an Italian a little rusty but extremely sexy to Kelly's ears.
"I love when you speak Italian" she whispered in his ear.
"Ah well, I'll do it more often then," Brandon laughed mischievously.
"He will dirty the cars, camurria; but you will see that tomorrow the sun will come back; while the heat will still stay months," the driver replied. And so it was. The next day, the couple in shorts and panama on the head, left the hotel overlooking Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the main street of the Sicilian capital. The sky was clear, the sun at that time was still lenient and the two decided to go down the main street to visit the beauties. They saw the four Cantoni of City, the Arab-Norman Cathedral, the Royal Palace and its Palatine Chapel. At each monument Brandon opened the guide and read for his Kelly, who listened to him ecstatic. She felt happy as it hasn't happened to her in a long time. And perhaps because of the emotion, perhaps because of the perfumes, perhaps because of the inviting aspect of certain treats, never seen in her life, an atavic hunger had opened up to her that in Palermo could find a wide outburst. From fried foods to street food, to sweets, the walk had turned into a gastronomic tour "Brandon, we'll leave with several kilos on the burden."
" we are happy nothing else matter," he told her.
"You're my happiness," she replied, snapping a kiss on his lips. They rented a car and drove to Monreale, where there was another Arab-Norman cathedral, with a magnificent effigy of the Pantocrator Christ, which welcomed them in all its splendor.
"Babe, these are architectural building were built in the year one thousand by the Normans, French who had defeated the previous rulers, of Saracen origin, but in a very intelligent way rather than hunting them, they involved them into their own community valuing their skills and abilities. Because compromises are always preferable to clashes," Kelly read a reference to the diatribe with her sister, but she was so happy and in love that she did not want to grasp or distract herself and continued to listen to him "The architecture is called Arab-Norman and involves Palermo, Monreale and Cefalù; tomorrow I'll take you there."
"I can't wait" she clinged to him, moved the guide who separated them and kissed him in the square in front of the cathedral. In the evening they had a candlelight dinner; but perhaps because of the tiredness, maybe because of the too much food they had eaten throughout the day, they collapsed on the bed before dusk came.
The next day they continued their vacation to Cefalù, which was only 1 hour away by train. Kelly wasn't anxious about Sammy. That holiday was really relaxing her. Brandon had clearly perceived it and was pleased with that idea that had taken them to a place so different from the ones they had grown up in. Sicily was conquering them: every street exuded a history that the US did not have, the natural beauties were breathtaking, the people very friendly and welcoming and the food was a permanent and irresistible temptation. Cefalù did not betray Walsh's expectations; a small jewel nestled in the shade of a mountain that guarded, at the base, another Arab-Norman Cathedral; also this one with a Pantocrator Christ almost identical to those found in the royal palace of Palermo and in the cathedral of Monreale.
"It is the fil rouge that unites the masterpieces located in different areas, which peoples who lived a thousand years ago wanted to mark." Kelly was increasingly fascinated by the culture that Brandon was Explaining her step by step, learning himself. On the other hand, the passion for that trip, the study of the route, the attention to detail was something packaged for her and to overcome the cheap economic tourism of the big destinations. No one else in the world could ever take her to Sicily like him and that's what they needed.
The third day was dedicated to Segesta and Erice.
"Today we take a journey through time, back and forth in the history of the Sicilian man.
"And where are you taking me, my handsome?"
"Let's live Greece," Kelly moved away and looked at him with suspicion " Greece?", Brandon smiled "Have faith."
With a rental car they reached the temple of Segesta, an architecture of Greek origin left intact by time.
"Really gorgeous," Kelly said as she biting some almond treats she had bought the day before from the nuns of the convent of St. Caterina, a few hundred meters from the hotel.
"Are you talking about the Temple or the treats?"
"The two of them," Kel muttered with her mouth full, my God," she said looking at the temple breathlessly. They sat right there. In the valley, in the middle of the olive trees. Only the two of them in the world.
"Look, the next stop is the home of almond treats."
"God I'd love - the girl looked at him - let's go"; they both laughed.
Kelly went up the millenary steps of the temple "my God" she said.
The valley was a riot of almond tree and scents of olive tree.There were ancient temples of magna Greece and vines.
They sat together. There were once the Greeks, and then the ancient Romans, then the Normans, then the Arabs, and now Just the two of them.
"Dr. Taylor, I have a question for you."
"Tell me Dr Walsh."
"Can occasional happiness become permanent happiness?"
"Yes," she smiled, "can. Love can heal everything."
They kissed deeply.
They arrived in Erice at lunchtime and on the main course they tasted the cous cous of fish, a dish of clear Arabic matrix.
"The contamination never ends," Brandon said as he sprayed the dish with the fish broth.
"What a beautiful land," Kelly replied, she was truly bewitched by the colors, the scents, everything the senses were filling with. The stones paved streets of the medieval village did not hit them like the beauties they had seen until then. For heaven's sake, all very suggestive. But to match the wonder of an intact Greek temple is not an easy thing. They went back to the hotel and Kelly called Sammy; she told him what she was doing, she wanted to know if everything was going well; she was reassured by Dylan too; and she went to take a shower. The evening did not get them as tired as the previous day, despite the hike. They went to the nearby Vucciria neighborhood and had dinner with street food. They tasted everything, wrapped in the smoke that from the open-air grids filled the spaces and impregnated the clothes, until they touched the soul. They were happy and if they said it several times without hesitation.
The fourth day was divided equally between the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento, among the ruins of ancient Greece and the visit to the city of Sciacca, with its corals, its ceramics and its cobalt-colored sea, which filled the eyes and heart of the couple. In the evening they were in Menfi, a small village on the way to Castelvetrano, pushed towards Trapani. The next day they moved to San Vito Lo Capo, one of the most beautiful beaches in Sicily, to spend a couple of days relaxing by the sea. However, not before having visited Mazara del Vallo, a contemporary testimony of integration between the Sicilians and the Maghrebi, complete with Kasbah with the classic lair of narrow streets, and the largest fishing fleet in the Mediterranean.
In San Vito the time spent between baths, and raids in the numerous restaurants of the place, nights spent awake to make love and to caress each other
After those full days they came back to the airport, destination Rome, and then on their way home.
"Thank you Bran, for this wonderful vacation, I don't think I've ever been happier in my life. "
"Thank you for making Sicily more beautiful with your presence."
"Yeah – the woman smiled, clinging to him
"It's the truth... I love you Kel."
"I love you too Brandon."
They would have liked that time to stop. That it didn't go any further. That remained stuck over time. They took the last photograph inside the fiery red of an Italian sunset. Kel in her light white dress and Brandon with a wonderful smile and a linen shirt. They were happy without really knowing it. From the porthole of the plane the boys greeted for the last time what was renamed their place in the world, promising to return, sooner or later.