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The Valentine Wish ~*~ February 14, 1971 The late winter winds howled along the cliffs and then swirled around the lone figure standing on darkening edge of Widow's Hill, stinging the ivory skin of her chin and cheek with its reddening slap and tearing at her long dress and short auburn curls with its fingers of ice and snow, but Julia didn’t seem to feel the cold as she stood facing the turbulent sea, collar up around her ears and her ungloved hands sheltered in the deep pockets of her heavy coat. Valentine’s Day had come to Collinwood, bringing with it the usual thoughts of romance and tokens of friendship and love, and something else that had become usual in these last few years, an overwhelming sense of loneliness. She fingered the Valentine in her pocket; a silly thing of red paper and white lace shaped like a heart and covered with her best handwriting in white ink, and sighed. Even if Barnabas changed his mind and came to the party, she wouldn’t dare to give it to him. She took it from her pocket and as it pulled she was tempted to let the wind steal it from her fingers, but couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to give up hope. As it became darker, she looked up at the sky where the nearly full moon was a pale glow behind the clumps of snow-filled clouds and saw among them one star peeking out, not the brightest star she had ever seen, and too late to be the first that normally would have shown its countenance had the night been clearer, but the first and only star tonight. Remembering all the times as a child she had wished on stars brighter and earlier than this, fruitless, frivolous wishes that never came true, she smiled and said the magic words aloud. "Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. I wish…I wish…" She stopped short. Her smile faded. Her eyes looked past the crashing waves that were barely visible in the sweeping light from the lighthouse, past the starless sky and into her heart. She knew what she would wish for if there were only words enough to wish it … and was silent. ~*~ Barnabas sat at his desk in the Old House drawing room, his long legs tucked under the chair as he leaned forward over his work. His brow was wrinkled in thought under the spiky bangs, his dark brown hair still worn in the style at the time of his first death, in 1795. The room was quiet, or at least as quiet as an old house could be with the creaking of floors that could be settling, or even a restless ghost, but if the spirits walked tonight, they didn’t come to him, for he was alone except for his memories. Once memories were enough, as real as the fire that burned bright in the fireplace and had kept him just as warm, but now they were only visions of a past that he hoped he had put behind him. Before him on the desk was a pink heart, as painstakingly made with lace and ribbon as the ones that he had made for sweethearts when he was young, but try as he would to put thoughts of friendship and gratitude to word, his pen remained idle, and the heart blank. Finally giving up, he pushed back his chair and looked at the clock. Julia wasn’t expecting him to come to the party, and perhaps it was just as well. He got up and crossed to the fire, to poke it, and to sit before it as he did every evening, leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs toward the fire. He stared into the flames, finding no pattern in them, and with their warmth and the ticking of the clock on the mantle, his troubled brown eyes drooped, and then closed, and he drifted off to sleep. A knock on the door startled him and he crossed and opened it, surprised to see a young boy only about five or six years old standing on his doorstep. He looked familiar, something about the way he held his head, or the look in his green eyes, and Barnabas wondered if he should know him, perhaps an employee’s child that had wandered from the party at Collinwood and had somehow found his way here. “Can I help you?” Barnabas looked past the boy and seeing he was alone, opened the door wider. “You must be cold, come in. Are you lost?” The boy walked past Barnabas and looked around the foyer. “I’ve come to bring you to the party.” Barnabas frowned and looked again into the shadows of the woods. Surely no one at Collinwood would have sent a child on such an errand. “Are you alone?” The boy shook his head and then looked at up at Barnabas with an air of impatience. “Someone’s waiting for me outside. We don’t have much time. Are you coming?” Barnabas shook his head. “No. I’m not.” The boy shrugged and walked past him and into the drawing room. “Why not?” Barnabas seldom at a loss for words found he had no reason he could tell the child. The boy didn’t seem to expect an answer and looked at the heart on the desk. “So that’s why you’re late. You’re not done yet. Better hurry.” Barnabas shook his head. “I changed my mind.” He looked out the window wondering where the child’s companion was, but saw no one. “Are you sure you didn’t come here alone? Maybe I should walk you back to Collinwood.” The boy nodded his head his smile turning to a grin showing where he had lost a tooth. “But you have to finish your Valentine. You have to give it to her.” Barnabas smiled at the child, and asked softly. “Give whom a Valentine?” “You know who. The one you love. I’m going to get lots of Valentines when I’m grown up.” He handed Barnabas the pen. “You’re supposed to tell her you love her. What you feel in your heart.” Barnabas smiled at the boy. No doubt he would get lots of Valentines. He’d finish the Valentine and then take him to meet Julia, picturing how he would make her smile. As Barnabas touched the pen he realized why he couldn’t write the Valentine before. He should have been writing what was in his heart. The child crossed to Barnabas and reached out and took his hand, causing him to look down at him. “You know now, don’t you?” Barnabas nodded his head. “You’re a pretty smart boy. I’d like you to meet her.” The boy smiled. “I think she knows me pretty good already. Anyway, I’ve got to go now. Have fun at the party.” The child crossed to the door and threw it open. Barnabas quickly followed him. “You can’t go out there alone.” Then Barnabas saw a girl waiting for the boy at the edge of the woods. Sarah, his sister, stood there in the dress she had been buried in more than a century and a half ago. Her long brown hair topped with a mobcap blew softly from her face and she seemed to shine even though there was no moonlight. “Sarah!” “We can’t stay now Barnabas. I’ve got to take Jonathan back.” She held out her hand and the boy took it. “Please Sarah, can’t you stay?” As the children turned to go, and began to disappear, he called after them. “At least tell me, who is Jonathan?” The boy’s laughter filled the gap between the woods and the house with joy. “I’m a wish, Papa!” They disappeared and Barnabas woke up. ~*~ Barnabas got out of his chair and ran to the door, throwing it open and calling out “Jonathan” and “Sarah”, but no one answered. He shook his head and came back in. It was only a dream, or as Julia would probably tell him just his subconscious at work. At least he knew what he wanted to do now. He glanced at the clock. He had to hurry. Picking up his pen the words that refused to come earlier flowed.
Your love warmed me, when fire itself could not
warm, Somehow I’ve come to need your love, humbled that I
am unworthy. Take my heart,
Barnabas grabbed the heart and his coat and hurried out the door. As he took the path to Collinwood, he thought he heard an echo of the laugher he had heard in his dreams and followed it to Widows’ Hill. He saw the shadow of a woman and knew that it could only be Julia. He came up beside her and put an arm around her, looking out to the sky with her. Only one star shone. “It
will come true,” he whispered into her ear. “Your wish. I think I met him tonight. Jonathan.” Julia frowned and looking into Barnabas face soft and smiling, she shook her head slightly. “I…I don’t know a Jonathan.” Barnabas smiled and pulled her to him. As he lowered his lips to touch hers, he whispered again, “You will.” And then wishes and dreams and reality all became one. ~*~ February 14, 1972 Barnabas sat at his desk finishing the last of the hearts that sat there. It was Julia’s idea, and he smiled thinking she was right to make the announcement this way, for in a way, it all started with a Valentine. Julia and Barnabas are pleased to announce the birth of their son, Jonathan Barnabas Collins….
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