In the Company of Angels – Epilogue (Episode 16) Jef Murray 7/3/2015
When Evie Jonsson next planned to have Jill’s aunt, uncle, and cousins over for supper, she also suggested that Jill might like to invite Sam to join them. Jill was only too happy to ask, and although Sam remained hesitant, given that Kate would be there, he was secretly very pleased to have been included.
“Yes, I’ll come,” Sam told her. “But — you’ve got to run blocker for me with Kate. Deal?”
“Deal!” said Jill.
Her aunt and uncle drove up that evening with Kate and Rusty in the back seat of their minivan. Sam arrived soon thereafter, entering through the front door this time instead of through a painting or a mirror. The meal conversation was lively, and everyone appeared to be in a merry mood. After polishing off platters of salad, roast beef, garlic bread, and pasta with asparagus, the younger folk retired to the library to await dessert.
Jill settled Rusty and Sam into overstuffed chairs and retrieved some of her latest storybooks from the shelves to share with Kate on the sofa. Rusty, who had insisted on sitting with Sam at supper, didn’t remain long in his chair, however, but instead went off into a corner of the room by himself, much to Jill’s surprise. Kate confided that Rusty hadn’t been quite himself since their last visit, but that the change had definitely been for the better. Sam, somewhat restless after the meal, stood up and began examining all of the posters and framed paintings that Jill had hanging in the room. These had been squeezed into every nook and cranny not already occupied by bookshelves.
Jill kept an eye on Sam while she and Kate were chatting, and, occasionally, she noticed him fidget with something around his neck. She smiled when it occurred to her that he was likely examining the worlds he could see beyond the frames of the paintings, but she tried to focus most of her attention on Kate. This became more and more difficult, she soon realized, as Kate’s mind was almost constantly on Sam. At first it was amusing, but after a while, Jill realized that the thoughts she was “hearing” from her cousin were likely the very sort of thing that Father Hildebrandt had warned her about.
“I suppose I still have a lot to learn about being a proper Empath,” Jill thought to herself.
Sam, after he had examined all of the pictures in the library, quickly realized that he would either have to join the girls on the sofa or find something else to focus on. So, he wandered over to the corner occupied by Rusty and noticed that the fellow was sprawled out on the floor drawing a picture. Sam was intrigued; he squatted down to take a look. Rusty looked up at him and smiled.
Underneath Rusty’s hands, Sam saw a landscape like none he had ever seen before. Strange, organic-looking cliffs rose beside a meadow and a stream. The execution was pretty simple, but there was a lifelike quality to it that surprised Sam. He quietly reached underneath his collar and grasped his framerunning sapphire. Rusty’s sketch glowed brightly, and was tinged with blue around its edges.
“Wow! That’s quite the sketch, Rusty!” Sam said.
Rusty smiled. “You think so? I decided that, since magic is real, I really ought to draw a magical place I’d like to visit some day. And this is it! I’ve done a couple of other pictures of it back at our house. I call it ‘Tamarinth’. I don’t know if that means anything; I just like the sound of the name….”
“Tamarinth,” Sam repeated. “I like it, Rusty! Maybe you and I can travel there together someday.”
Rusty beamed.
Jill, from across the room, “heard’ the thought pass through Sam’s mind: “I’ve really got to tell Mr. Luke about his little guy….”. And she smiled, realizing that yet another adventure was likely in the making….
— The End —
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If you have now finished reading this first book in The Framerunners series, thank you and congratulations! This book will remain online for a few weeks, after which it will be taken down. Book two in the series, entitled The Door to Eternity, will begin posting online this September. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy and restful summer!
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