Chapter Sixteen
Last Wish
Three months later.
Chantry smiled into the warm rays of the morning sun beating down on him, as Maria pushed him through the flower gardens. He opened his eyes and had to blink for a moment to focus his eyes against the brightness of the sun. He pointed at one of his favorite flowers and Maria needed no other indication of interest.
Maria stopped and she stepped forward past Chantry and up into the landscape planting bed to pick the particular flower that she knew Chantry was partial to. She snapped it off cleanly, while admiring the beauty of the flower for herself before returning to Chantry.
Chantry was smiling, only his eyes were closed and Maria knew her master had left her.
She’d told herself that she was ready for this moment, but she wasn’t. Tears slipped down her face in abandon, as she knelt down before the man, who had given to her so generously and had been a friend to her, a place of calm surety in the storm that was her strange life.
He’d given her purpose or better put something meaningful to do to pass what seemed like the endless time of her bitter life. He’d helped her not to be so bitter and it had been good to have someone to please, who had responded with kind praise and adoration that befitted that of a loving grandfather.
Maria was still no closer to a solution as to what she was to do now. Looking up into the bright morning sky she sobbed, “Oh God please help me!”
It was the first time she’d called out to God in a very long time.
She had nothing. Nothing but a life of aimlessly drifting through and around people without being seen or being of much use to anyone.
Her eyes focused on the flower in her hands. Chantry had given her a priceless gift. He’d given her a home and a family. She’d grown so used to it that she’d forgotten how it was to be alone, but it was coming back to her in bitter waves that felt like they were choking her.
She raised the flower up that was covered in her tears to Chantry’s lap to place it there beside his hand. Her eyes focused on something that already lay there. In Chantry’s one hand a piece of paper was clutched as if he’d been handing it to someone. Maria’s eyes rose to Chantry’s face, he had known when he’d sent her for the flower that it had been going to be his last moment.
Maria tenderly pulled the paper free and gave a sob when she saw it was addressed to her, “Darling Maria please stop crying, because I know you are. There is nothing sad about this moment for either me or you. I have gone on to a better place and I have been given it to know that your future is secure. So please do not mourn anymore. The future before you is exciting and I press upon you to live it to the fullest! I have one last assignment for you to fulfill. At my gravesite burial, after everyone else has left I want you to remain! This is very important! Do not leave, for any reason, as then I cannot guarantee the path of your future will yet be a secure one. You may be old enough in terms of time to have been my grandmother, but over these past few years you’ve been like the daughter to me that I never had. Thank you! Over and out, Chantry.”
Maria had never stopped crying and she didn’t now. She folded the wet paper up and then laid her head down on Chantry’s lap, “Your final wish is my command master.”
As ceremonies go for those who have departed the realm of mortality Chantry’s was different. Different in a way that ever great man’s should be, but so rarely are.
There were over 5000 people in attendance, within the small confines of the cemetery.
The crowd consisted of a diverse makeup. Forty heads of state from nations around the world were present. A who’s who of those involved in the dealings of world politics, not to mention several underworld connections helped fill out the rest of the mixed multitude. And then there were just the ordinary people that Chantry had impacted the fruit of his many philanthropic endeavors.
Of a truth 5000 people was far too few in attendance, as the entire populations of countries and the world at large owed Chantry a debt of gratitude for his many efforts in the pursuit of justice and freedom.
More significant than the group that was gathered was the aura that filled the outdoor setting in which all those in attendance keenly felt. This man they honored hadn’t been an ordinary man in the traditional sense, because he through his effort of will and strength of faith had far outlived the experiences and endeavors of just an ordinary man.
Chantry’s life and what it had stood for was an ideal for those who had viewed it unfold to try harder themselves to press into the straight and narrow path of life and faith that Chantry had poured his existence into accomplishing in the time given him. This man had been blessed by and kept of God and there was no denying the heavenly presence in the atmosphere that was accompanied by an air of peace beyond comprehension, which made the whole parting ceremony more one of joy than of mourning, because here was a man who’d gotten it right in life and entered the next with his best foot forward.
He’d poured out his life for others in the pursuit to please his Savior and he’d been given more than was ordinary to receive in return because of it. To those with faith in God it is given to know that what joy was felt over one man’s life in the surrounding assembly paled in comparison to the joy already being expressed in heaven over the life of one righteous man, who’d fought hell and his own weaknesses to keep the faith entrusted to him and run the race well that had been set out before him before time had ever even begun.
Through it all Maria stood at the forefront of the gathering in attendance with those closest to Chantry, his agents for good. The assembly broke up after the two-hour event in which many expressed how they had known the man and had been touched by his life. Many lingered around talking and reminiscing for several more hours, but as the evening shadows grew darker they too left, until all that remained were Maria and Tyre at the gravesite.
Tyre had already sent his family back to the hotel earlier and he would have been there with them now, if he hadn’t felt so burdened to help Maria cope with Chantry’s passing. She’d spoken to no one, but she’d quietly stood there as still as a statue for hours on end.
When everyone else had finally gone she’d left her spot by the headstone to go over and kneel beside the fresh dirt of the grave strewn with flowers. It was autumn and the chill of the evening was upon the land.
“Maria?” Tyre asked.
She looked up at him and he said, “Maria it’s time to go.”
She shook her head no and went back to gazing at the grave before her.
He wanted to say more, but he felt a nudge in his soul not to so he kept his words inside. He slipped off his coat and settled it down onto her shoulders and then he spread his vest across her lap.
“Thank you Tyre.” Maria said softly.
Tyre nodded and left the graveyard, inwardly very unhappy to let his actions to help her stop at just loaning her his coat, but that was all the compelling nudge from within seemed to want him to accomplish. So he bit his lip and walked away.
Maria looked up and watched Tyre go. She was so grateful for Tyre’s coat and vest. They helped, but she was already chilled.
Shivering she clutched Tyre’s coat tight about her, but it wasn’t enough. It was going to be a long night.
Tyre lay awake in bed staring at the ceiling. Anna stirred and lifted her head up from her husband’s chest, “Can’t you sleep honey?” She asked sleepily.
He shook his head no.
Anna sat up some, “You’re worried about Maria?”
He nodded.
“You don’t think she’s still out there do you?”
He nodded.
Anna glanced out the dark window and shivered involuntarily at the cold dark look of it. Tyre glanced at the clock; it was a little past 3 AM.
“I can’t take it any longer!” Tyre said slipping out of the bed and quickly throwing some clothes on.
Before he left the room he turned to Anna and said, “I’ll be back.”
Anna nodded, as she proudly watched the love of her life from the bed. Her husband was a good man.
Tyre went to the door and started to open it, but it wouldn’t move. He checked to see if the locks were off, they were, but the door still wouldn’t move. Not so much as to even budge.
Anna came up behind Tyre her voice full of concern, “Is it stuck? Should I call the front desk?”
Tyre’s forehead rested against the door in defeat, “No, it will open in the morning, when it’s time. Go back to bed. I’ll be there in a moment.”
The door did unlock at 6 AM just as the sun was coming up. Tyre, who’d been sitting in a chair in front of it was through the door and down the hall within moments of it unlocking.
Maria wasn’t sure it was real at first, but the warmth didn’t lie. The styrofoam cup of coffee in her hands was real. It tasted real and it helped restore her sluggish senses somewhat.
“Maria why are you doing this?”
Maria glanced to the side, as she put the gift of the warm coffee and Tyre together.
“Chantry told me to.” She managed to stutter out.
She was so cold!
“Chantry told you to wait by his grave! Why would he do that?” Tyre exclaimed.
“I don’t know, but don’t you dare try to stop me!”
“No that point has already been made clear to me. Do you need anything?” Tyre asked with evident concern.
She needed a lot of things like more warmth, but she let it go unsaid and shook her head no.
“Thank you Tyre you’ve been a real friend, but you should go be with your family now.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”
Maria shook her head and reluctantly Tyre left.
Thankfully the sun was coming up. Maybe it would warm her like it had so very long ago, when she had been alone in the desert after having just lost everything.
Bitter tears welled up in her eyes, as she was forced to remember her past once more and still the overlying thought that came through it all was that all this suffering and her reason for still being alive was her father’s fault. Why had God had to listen to him? Why?
She could have been peacefully dead if it weren’t for her father’s dying wish!