Enlightenment

Part 36

  

              The rest of the morning passed without incident. We left the graveyard after deciding there was nothing left to discover there, and went to visit the library. After a little persuasion from me the librarian let us in to see the town records, but they didn’t provide any information that we didn’t already know.

              Around two o’clock we found ourselves walking back into the village center. There were only a handful of tiny shops scattered around. One that caught my eye was a small arts and crafts shop set discreetly on a street corner. I hadn’t brought any art equipment with me, thinking that I wouldn’t need it, but an idea began to form in my mind; if I had seen Beatrice that moment in the bar, then it was likely that someone else had too. I didn’t have a photograph of her, but I knew I could paint a picture that was almost as good.

              I explained my thoughts to Jamie as I led him into the shop, but he looked doubtful;

“Can you really remember her that well after all this time?”

I nodded, “Yes, like it was yesterday… perfect memory, remember?”

              The shop was covered in Christmas decorations from the instant we walked in the door; reminding me again that it was Christmas Eve. To my slight disappointment the shop seemed to be more into selling the actual arts and crafts, than providing the materials to create them. My eyes lingered on some silver jewelry near the window for a moment, causing Jamie to notice my attention. He smiled,

“See something you like?”

I shook my head, stroking the air next to a bracelet with red stones set in the center, “not anything that I could actually wear,” I lowered my voice after my eyes flicked to the curious woman at the counter, “silver.”

Realization flickered into his eyes before he grinned, “Is it strange that I completely forgot about that?”

I sighed, “no… but you would do well not to forget that I am not… normal in the future. You should always remember that I am dangerous.”

              He appeared to be about to protest when his expression brightened, leading me over to another stand he picked up a delicate bracelet composed of rows of  metallic beads and red stones.

“Do you like it?”

I shrugged non committedly, “Yeah, it’s beautiful… but I didn’t come here to buy jewelry.”

He frowned at me, “well I did”

“What?”

“I can see it in your eyes, you love it! So I am going to buy it for you” his tone left no room for argument but I protested anyway;

“It doesn’t matter; I couldn’t let you do that! You don’t have enough money to waste on such frivolous things!”

              He ignored me and took it to the counter. The woman greeted us warmly as I followed him over. She looked at us in amusement, but when Jamie assured her that he wanted to buy it and pulled out his wallet she rang it up for him. He refused a bag and instead picked it up and fastened it onto my wrist.

              I was unable to resist holding it up to watch the light glisten off the stones. The woman smiled;

“That there is hematite and the red stones are garnets,” I looked at her curiously so she continued; “The hematite gets its name from the Greek word haem which means blood, because you can get bits with a reddish color in them.” I heard Jamie disguise a laugh with a cough behind me and was unable to resist a smile; it was kind of ironic after all. Misreading my expression she reassured me, “don’t worry, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with blood! Some people believe that it helps the wearer to inspire inner life and helps to keep inward peace.”