Eternal Journey Read Online Free Page A

what time it was in the States as the phone began to ring. A
     groggy voice finally said hello.
    “Beth, I’m in London, and I just opened your note. I’m so sorry it took all this time to find me. Are you awake? Are you okay?”
    “Is that you, Annie? It’s two o’clock in the morning here, and yes, I’m awake now. I’m so happy to hear from you,” Beth said
     sleepily. Both of them started to cry.
    Beth arrived at Gatwick two days later. Once her friend had settled into Anna’s suite at the hotel, they took off for Kensington’s
     slick cobblestone streets for an afternoon of shopping, during which Anna convinced Beth to help her find some bargains. Anna
     had purchased a collection of unique “finds” that day, including a Portmerion teapot, which she sent to Becky for her forty-fifth
     birthday. Becky kept the teapot here, at the cottage, on Martha’s Vineyard.
    It had been damp and bitter cold that weekend in London, right before Beth’s surgery. Just like today, Anna thought, as the
     whistling of the kettle startled her back to the present. The kitchen was totally dark now, except for the dial on the wall
     clock. Anna was surprised to see it was six o’clock.
    “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” she mumbled to herself as the clinician in her assessed her state of mind. “I seem to
     be getting less focused, not more. Where has today gone?” Suddenly she was very hungry and very tired.
    The light from the refrigerator filled the room as she scanned the shelves for something to eat. Settling on Brie and grapes,
     she used the microwave to heat the cheese, and searched the cabinets for some crackers. Her plate of food prepared, she debated
     whether she dared have some wine. “I can’t get any spacier than I already am,” she said aloud, and opened the chilled Chardonnay
     she saw hiding on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
    Anna sat staring at the dying fire and poured herself a second glass of wine. Her hunger satisfied, and finally feeling warm
     for the first time since she’d arrived, she loaded the CD player with discs, pulled the afghan around her, and curled up on
     the sofa to the sounds of classical music.

SATURDAY
    _____________________

     
    I t was the silence that awakened her. Disoriented and somewhat apprehensive, she searched the room for anything familiar, slowly
     remembering where she was, and thinking it must be close to dawn. Once she was fully awake, the luminated hands of her watch
     confirmed that it was five o’clock. She noted the still full glass of wine, pulled herself up from the sofa, and took the
     wine bottle into the kitchen to recork it.
    Anna was definitely not a morning person, so on the extremely rare occasions when she found herself actually awake before
     seven o’clock, she got moving. With a pot of coffee brewing, she took a long, very hot shower, marveling at how she was actually
     preparing for a Saturday at five-fifteen in the morning. With dawn an hour away, Anna headed out for a drive.
    Logically, one would go down-island to watch the sunrise. But Anna found herself driving in the direction of Gay Head, the
     extreme westernmost end of the island. It was a special place that Anna found mystical, even sacred in its remote beauty.
     A Thermos of coffee by her side and the Explorer starting to warm up, Anna almost smiled as she tackled the winding road up-island.
     It was misty and quite foggy, and before long Anna found herself encased in a cloud. She saw the cemetery on her right and
     pulled down the gravel road almost by instinct.
    Leaving the fog lights on, she got out of the car and walked up the slight incline. “I haven’t been to John Belushi’s grave
     in years,” she said to no one. But what a fitting place to wait for the fog to pass. Sitting on the slate bench facing his
     name, she looked down at the grave marker, smiling at the collection of beer and wine bottles flanking each side. As she poured
     herself a cup of coffee,