"The Color Blue"

The Color Blue

The Color Blue

She sipped her tea, with her rosary and a book in her lap. Her white linen dress pooled around her feet and onto the rug in front of her. I was deeply affected by her beauty; her black hair styled in a chignon was breathtaking.

Was I intruding? I couldn't pull myself away and I watched as she removed the ivory combs from her hair. I had seen her sitting there this same way when I had held the rosary a few days ago.

I said, "Rosalinda," hoping for a response.

She added a bit of what looked like honey to her cup and held the saucer in her left hand as she drank from the cup with her right.

"I wish you could hear me, I wish I could know you." I said.

As her head fell to the right, she dropped the cup and saucer, spilling tea on one rosette at the hem of her dress, as the saucer hit the cup, it chipped.

"Rosalinda, are you alright?' I asked.

Ted's voice came from years away…

***

"Laura, are you alright?"

"Just a weird dream … I think."

I tried to go back to sleep, but my thoughts were not about to let me. What purpose would Luanna have to keep Emma in a wheelchair? Keys to a bench, rosaries in walls. whispers, blue haze, obituaries, wills, ghosts, blue crayons, visions, and dreams. Why was I grieving for a woman I had never known, one who had died over a hundred years before?

Because I do know her! I know how she ran this house and her business. I know she loved her children and was fun. I know Minerva and Carl loved her. She was full of grace. I knew her mother-in-law was awful, yet she did not seek revenge. I grieved for her because I cared about her children and her house.

Teaser from my next book expected by Christmas.