Chapter 6: Kismet...Rings of Truth

Heart’s Realization

The strength of fear can leave a person breathless. Faceless was her emotions, wild the feelings as panic rooted her in one spot. Leo reaches her and sees the terror on her face. When he reaches for her hands they were ice cold.

“Sammy?” he shakes her body hard. Life springs back into her eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice quivered. He helps her back into a chair to sit down kneeling in front of her brushing warmth into her hands.

“Who did you see?”

“A shadow,” she whispers. “I should leave,”

“Where will you go?”

“Home,”

“I will take you,”

Leo stands and reaches for the phone. When he looks back to her she is gone.

“Sammy,” her name echoes throughout the house.

Sammy stands in front of the office of a traveling agency mesmerize with the brochure on display about the Namaqualand. The pictures are intriguing calling her back home.

“Home,” the thought fill her with warmth. At the same time it feels as though she is missing something essential. She looks at her reflection in the window seeing a tableau playing in front of her eyes. She found herself fascinated with the memory. Her heart long to see his face, hear his voice, feel his touch.

His profile stay in the shadows but the intent with his eyes on her was clear pulling on her heartstrings. There is something so powerful about him captivating her, seducing her, making her ache for him. The picture takes on another form pulling her closer still, she watches mesmerized as he run his fingers through her auburn strands of hair his touch so gentle, intimate as he slips the shirt from her shoulders revealing the texture of her skin warm to his touch.

She caught and held her breath while she watches with enjoyment the twinkle in his eyes. He blinks making her see his wandering touch exploring her intimately. She is fascinated by the image of his strong fingers touching her so lovingly. Shyly she looks deeply into the dark intensity of his eyes. It is so clear the desire he feels for her. His fingers reach out to explore the contours of her face, feather soft his touch wanders over her eyes, sliding over her cheekbones to rest on her parted full lips.

Sammy found her startled back into the present when Leo touch her gently but firm on the shoulder.

“Why did you run away beautiful,”

“It made sense,” she says abstracted. She looks back at the window wanting to find the image again but it was lost.

“Will you come back to the house with me?” he asks softly.

“I need to search for the answer,” her voice sounds far away and forlorn.

“Do you know what the question is?”

Confusion is back on her face. Leo gently entwines her fingers with his. He is careful.

Sammy looks one last time at the window when she feels a gentle tug, following Leo who helps into the car.

“I need to find the answer,” she repeats not really aware of her surroundings.

Leo decides to drive through the city. The movement of the car lulls her into sleep.

Sammy opens her eyes finding her body wrap warmly into a blanket. She keeps her body motionless but allows her eyes to wander around in the bedroom that clearly is feminine.

Leo stirs in the chair making her aware of his presence. His long frame is draped across the arms of a chair. He is asleep it seems.

Quietly she watches him. He is acting like an over protective father around her. She likes that. Does she have a father? The question pops into her mind. Instead of finding an answer warm tears stream down her cheeks. No sounds escape her lips though. Instinctively though she feels she must keep her pain private.

Why, she wonders. She is shaken out of her reverie by a female voice echoing through the house.

“Daddy, where are you?”

Sammy stays in bed half concealing her while she listens as doors open and slamming close again. The movement downstairs sounds like a woman on a mission as the loud search continues clearly from room to room.

“Father,”

The voice holds annoyance now. The stomping of feet could be heard coming up the flight of stairs. The next moment a very beautiful woman appears in the open door her clothes shred to ribbons and she looks angry as hell.

“There you are,” the next moment she leaps through the air and land on the bed pummeling the body she assumes is her father hiding. “Those beasts you call dogs attack me again,” she shriek.

“Good for them. It’s your own fault dressing like a scare crow,” says the booming voice from the corner of the bedroom. “Get of my guest,”

Leo bodily grabs his daughter and put her onto the floor.

Sammy found her body hurting from the pummeling but she was also raked with laughter that she barely keeps silence from beneath the bedding. She watches an annoyed Leo and his daughter who wears a look of suspicion and curiosity.

“TheoFista, what are you doing here?”

“Who is hiding beneath the covers?” she asks ignoring his question.

“My new wife, leave her alone and go pour me a drink. And change, you mere sight frightens me.”

“When did you get married?” still ignoring him but asking her question.

Leo tries taking hold of her arm wanting to pull her from her own bedroom but his daughter is stubborn. Slipping from his grip she near the bed intent on seeing who is hiding beneath the covers. She grabs hold of the blanket ripping it from the body beneath. She catches sight of a slender sexy young woman younger than her.

Sammy found laughter bubbling from her lips as she rose from the bed wrapping her arms tightly around the woman looking wide-eye and open mouth at her.

“Hello my darling daughter,” she kisses her smack on both cheeks before stepping away linking her arm through Leo’s.

Very please with themselves they left the bedroom going downstairs. TheoFista stand rooted in one spot just gaping at their retreating backs.

“Father!” she found her voice. “You wait a minute,”

TheoFista look at the rumpled bed frowning since she just recalls her father was in the chair by all account. She decides there and there is something fishy going on.

Sammy is in the garden with both dogs at her side while Leo is making arrangements for refreshments watching his daughter coming towards them bee lining straight for his guest.

“Who are you?” her very expression one of open curiosity noticing her bare feet and the dogs beside her.

“Sammy,”

“I am TheoFista, his only daughter. He has been married six times. The only marriage that lasted was the one with my mother until her death. You certainly are the youngest of the lot. How did you manage to catch this old goat?”

“I open my eyes and there he was,”

Sammy smiles knowing she is annoying the woman she found to her liking.

“Here you go darling. You really need this.”

Leo handed them both a glass of ice tea sitting across from them viewing them both.

Sammy allows her to be studied with intensity that she founds amusing.

“Where is the ring?”

Sammy stop smiling looking slowly at her hand suddenly missing the weight of a ring she realizes must’ve been there. She feels the ghost of his weight. The words come softly from afar echoing in her heart.

“Kiss me once and touch me twice. You have a captive smile that’s my heart’s delight,” the timbre and strength of his voice fills her heart before tears starts to flow.

“Sammy?”

Leo kneels in front of her taking hold of her hands.

“I should go home,” she brushes the worry looks from between his eyes.

He brushes her tears away.

“What’s going on here?”

TheoFista watches her father noticing his concern was that of her father when she was hurt.

“I am lost and your father is being kind.”

Sammy stands moving away from them.

Sammy listens to his voice while he briefly explains to his daughter. Her own story sounding rather strange even to her own ears while nothing seems to makes sense.

A big piece of her life is missing. Everything that was essential. She remembered where she comes from but no memory having a family though.

Sadness fills her.

“Leo I must go home.”

“I’ll take you but don’t you think you should stay here a little while longer, you might remember more.”

“I have to go home. I must understand.”

“What?” Leo carefully queries.

“I don’t know but maybe the question is there. I just feel I must go there and soon.”

“Where is this place?” asks TheoFista.

“I live in Steinkopf. The countryside is vast, harsh but with a beauty uniquely to that region. I remember the winter colds creeping into my bones. The autumn winds want to make me cry with a loneliness I don’t understand. Come springtime it’s the time for passion and loving. Summer burns hot and furious. The seasons have a power that sneaks into my soul. Namaqualand is a beautiful place to love. I was born there.”

Sammy speaks with an unmistaken passion clear and filled with admiration.

“Listening to your voice ringing with such conviction maybe you are right about going home and found which you have lost. Whatever happens please find your way back here again,” Leo asks

“Daddy will you make the arrangements?”

TheoFista moves to hug Sammy who returns the embrace before sitting down. Her mind starts to wonder about what comes so easily from her lips.

“Do you want me to travel with you? My father and brother would be very relieved to see the back of me for a couple of days. I made it my duty to drive them crazy. I loves them both but their choices in women drives me crazy. They compete to see who could manage to catch the most air-headed woman.”

“But it’s clear you love them both.”

“Sammy, I found that the human heart was a wonder. I also learned seduce the mind and you have the body...the soul theirs forever.”