Sanctity

Chapter 10

Despite my desire to, I didn't sleep well. It seemed like every time I dozed off I woke right back up. As the clock neared the morning hours, I thought about giving up on getting any rest. Kaley sensed I was awake. She waddled towards me from the foot of the bed and rested her head on my pillow. I stroked her ears for a minute and while I did, I thought about the little knife in my nightstand. In the darkness I rolled to the side and opened the drawer. I reached for the bundled pair of socks and fished around until I found the folded blade inside. I opened the blade and closed it again wonderingly. Kaley nuzzled me and lay down along the side of the bed. I held tightly to the blade with one hand and reached over and stroked Kaley with the other. Before long I fell sound asleep.

I dreamt of a little boy at his birthday party. I didn't recognize him or any of the other children. There was a woman there who looked just like Margaret though she seemed much younger. She gathered all the children to a large table set-up in what must have been a backyard somewhere. I felt oddly familiar with the scene as I took it all in.

The woman motioned the little boy to the seat at the head of the table while the disposable birthday linens covering the table shifted in a light breeze. There were about a dozen more place settings and in the chair to the birthday boy's right sat another, slightly younger, boy. He had the same hair, eyes and smile as the first boy, so I guessed they must be brothers and the woman was their mother. She tried to place the other children boy, girl, boy, girl around the table working away from the first boy. While she was busy, the second boy got up and wandered to a swing set just beyond the party table.

A small flower bed off to the left of the swings caught my attention and again I felt a wrench of familiarity about the scene. The daisies and other wild flowers in the bed contrasted with a row of what looked to be tiger lilies standing bright and tall behind them. I was sure I recognized this place and smiled in my sleep.

There was a little girl rocking back and forth on one of the swings. She had long, black hair and soft, olive skin that intensified the darkness of her hair. I noticed her eyes were a deep, dark, brown as she swung forward and the light from the sun caught them. She was perhaps the prettiest little girl I had ever seen.

"Hi, Michael," she said.

"Hi," the boy replied. "Lily, will you come and sit with me?" He looked down at his feet as he dug up a little tuft of grass with the tip of one of his shoes.

As the swing came forward, she leapt off and landed just a few inches away from the boy. She took his hand and he, very gentlemanly, walked her to the table. He smiled from ear to ear as they sat down together.

Once all the children were in place, the woman led them in a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday and as the chorus died down a man came into view. He carried a large, rectangular cake with flickering candles and the words Happy 10th Birthday Victor carefully scrolled across it. He was obviously the boy's father, an easy guess even though the boy decidedly took after his mother in looks.

After he placed the cake, the man walked toward the woman and stood behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. Everyone looked so happy with smiles all around and the light of love in their eyes.

The scene changed somewhat and though the children still sat around the table, a stack of presents lay in the place where the cake once stood. The birthday boy opened them one by one and at his mother's behest thanked each of his friends in turn. Once he opened all the presents, he stood and asked if anyone would like to play hide and seek.

"Oops, just a minute," the man came back and rummaged in his pocket for something. "I didn't have time to wrap it but..." he held out his hand and uncurled his fingers. A little red pocket knife lay in his palm.