“There’s no stopping along the highway, son. Every soul survives the dread of death, they tell me. In reality, the transition between the two phases of existence is brief. At the gate they told me that she had passed through, but they refused so much as a hint at the direction she had taken. I’ve covered the border fields thoroughly since I came. Had concluded she must have found you and gone on.”
His concern lowered like a shadow to Jack’s face. “It don’t seem like ’Lores to forget me. I’d never give up trying to find her.”
“She may not have known that I was on the way.” John appeared to be advising himself. “But she did seem so close to me that morning above the sea. Her voice sounded so clear—so near. I was sure she had called me. If I could hear her with ears of clay, it seems as though she—— I tried to answer her. I wonder——”
Neither father nor son had noticed two small clouds which had appeared on the horizon line above the nether world. Mere fluttering specks at first, they had developed color and form in a rapid approach. They settled upon the sward and hurried forward. He in advance was of up-standing form, his face beautiful and ardent, despite its lines of care. By one hand, he led a fair girl spirit whose head hung as if from shame and whose eyes, on close approach, showed to brim with tears. Boldly enough the youth lined up before the two Cabots.
“I am Amor and this is Innocentia. You know us well, although on Earth you could not see us. In a way we belong to you as well as to our dear Dolores.”
“Dolores?” John snatched at the name. “You can tell us where she is?”
“Let me prepare you”—in pity, Amor. “I owe my life to you, John Cabot. I was, in fact, born of your heart beats that day you first saw her in Seff’s shop. Not consciously—of course mortals realize only the half of what they do—you sent me to her side to guide her. I have done what I could. But earthlings have no care for love. They never think to spare it until after it is dead.”
The shy girl spirit was moved by her comrade’s self-depreciation to speak. “Amor has been splendid. He was close beside her when she heard the news that you had been sent to the Fields. He proposed our search for you. And he held me up with sheer strength when I felt that I must swoon from exhaustion. Always he has tried to protect me even as—as you.”
“As I?” John asked.
“Don’t you recognize me yet?” She brushed the moisture from her eyes and lifted them to his, twin blue anemones. “I am what you loved best in your love. Although you could not see me as now, you knew that I was there. You held me dearer than her beauty, than her youth—yes, even than her passion for you.”