A Tale Of Two Cities: Sydney's Second Chance 5

"Have you eaten dinner yet, Simon?" she continued, stepping back from the doorway so that he could enter. "If not, you're welcome to join us."

"Oh, no. I couldn't impose..."

"Nonsense! There's plenty!" she insisted.

Just then Little Lucie emerged from the hallway, smiling. Her eyes met his, and her smile evaporated for just a second, only to return with even more brilliance right afterward. "Mr. Collins! How have you been?"

"I've been very well, my dear." Dare he? Yes, he dared. He reached to very lightly embrace her, and to his great joy, she accepted the embrace.

"Simon is joining us for dinner." Lucie smiled triumphantly at him. "Now you have to stay."

"It seems I do." He laughed happily. "Well, come along, then."

The conversation flowed much more easily than it had the first time they'd all had dinner together. Simon regaled them with stories of his court cases, and Lucie spoke of fond memories of Charles. As she reached further and further back in her memory, mention of Sydney came up from time to time, causing Simon to lower his eyes so that Lucie and her daughter couldn't look into them.

"Remember how strict Ms. Pross was?" Little Lucie recalled. "I remember how, one time, I stole a biscuit and ate it before tea time, and Sydney took the blame for it to keep me from getting into trouble."

"He was such a dear man." Lucie put her fork down and covered her face with her hands. "I'm afraid that I never appreciated him nearly as much as he deserved while he was still alive."

She felt the gentle touch of a hand on her arm and gazed up into Simon's eyes, which were brimming over with love and compassion, bathing her in comfort.

Little Lucie watched her mother and Simon closely and, in her mind, something clicked.

Suddenly a loud burst of thunder clapped, and outside, the rain began to fall in torrents, thick sheets of it drumming against the side of the house.

"You'd better stay until this storm eases up a bit," Lucie told Simon.

He chuckled. "It looks like I don't have a choice."

After dinner they played cards and charades. The rain continued until well past sundown, and Simon reluctantly concluded that he would be unable to return home for the night and prepared to sleep on the sofa.

He hadn't quite drifted off to sleep when he felt a soft hand on his arm. "How'd you do it, Sydney?" asked Little Lucie's voice.

"My name is Simon," he told her.

"I know who you really are." Little Lucie sat on the floor beside the sofa, looking up at her old friend. "How'd you do it? How'd you come back? I always thought death was the end...I mean except for heaven, of course."

"There's a lot about heaven you don't know," Simon replied.

"What do you mean? I thought it was clouds and angels with halos playing harps."

Simon chuckled. "I never saw a single harp-playing angel there."

"What's it really like, then?" Little Lucie's eyes were round with curiosity.

"It's a beautiful place, much more lovely than anywhere on earth. It's impossible to describe how wonderful it is. Words just aren't sufficient."

"So why didn't you just stay there, then? Why'd you come back? Did someone make you?"

He looked into her eyes, which were so very like her mother's that they pierced his soul. "It wasn't exactly like that," he told her. "You see, sweetheart, sometimes when someone dies leaving unfinished business on earth, they are granted the opportunity to return to earth and complete that unfinished business."

"And you had unfinished business to complete?"

"I was not yet forty when I died, Lucie. I had a lot of unfinished business to complete." Somehow it didn't seem right to call her 'Little Lucie' anymore, not at the age she was now.

"Did any of it involve my family?"

It all involved your family, he wanted to tell her, but didn't.