Star Woman in Love (43 page)

They were in their forties when they had finally met. The one thing that they had in common was their separate decisions that enough was enough. They both resolved that they wanted to live; they wanted to love and they wanted to be loved. It had taken them both over four decades to realise that they were deserving of being healthy human beings. No need to run away with their minds anymore. No need to struggle to become something that they shouldn’t be.

In rehab, Oscar had accepted that he was never going to be a world-famous artist. His work was never going to change the lives of those who admired it; it could hardly change his own life after all. So he had resolved to turn his skill into a practical job, as an interior decorator, in order to finally afford paying alimony to Charlotte, his ex wife, and their child Morwana. He was ready to face up to reality: he was not going to run away to the hazy lands of cocaine and whiskey this time. He had been abused when he was a child, that’s true, but he had learned to accept his past and move on from it. 

Cassandra had different issues to handle. She had always been a perfectionist who had pushed herself too hard. She had to prove to the world what she was capable of, like many adults who had been fostered as children. She had always felt different, perhaps slightly superior. She was beautiful and she had learned to use her charms on men for superficial advantage. She had married Gordon Stewart when she was twenty-five. Her marriage to him would guarantee her financial security for the rest of her life, despite the fact that they had never had any children.

But being married to a superstar came with lots of pressure, too. She had to remain as attractive and as young looking as she was when she had first spun her web around him. Bulimia and anorexia had punctuated her thirties, and her all-pervading fear of being abandoned again.

Gordon had never been faithful to her and had had many lovers. Two years earlier, however, she had discovered that he had another entire family, which he maintained alongside his marriage to her. And he had a son. When Cassandra found out, her whole life became devoid of meaning. That’s when she had taken an overdose of the barbiturates that had helped her to sleep over the years: she was tired and wanted the world to know. It was January 2010. The press had been on her case since. Gordon Stewart’s gorgeous wife was showing the cracks in her once-perfect life.

Cassandra and Oscar’s new life together would start that afternoon, in each other’s arms, lost in the orgasms they had dreamed of for over a year. They would become two anonymous people blending into an ordinary world made of movies, dinners cooked together, walks in the country side, and long, sensual love-making. The future looked bright in its normality.

“Your face, Cassandra... I’ve always known it... when my eyes first caught a glimpse of you among the other patients... I knew you were the reason why I had ended up there...”

She put her index finger on his lips, to shush him, and then she winked.

“No more artistic nonsense, darling,” she said”, I’ve not come here to hear poetry: I want your body now. Your soul can wait.”

Their first intercourse, the offspring of a year of longing, took their bodies into long awaited rapture under the Fairy Tree on the Hill of Tara. Their moans mingled with the moos of cows in the surrounding pastures and the sound of distant church bells. They laughed like the children they had become again, and would always be. When you are hurt at a young age, your heart freezes in time, and doesn’t let your soul decay quickly. They knew it and respected each other’s emotional wounds each time they touched them. Their vulnerability would become their shield against the rest of the world.

“I love you, Cassandra.”

She shook her head and silenced him with a long kiss.

“Words aren’t necessary, artist, when actions speak louder...”

Cassandra pulled her skirt down and buttoned up her blouse, looking every inch a happy woman. Oscar grabbed her buttocks and smiled from ear to ear. A blue and red butterfly landed on the tree trunk that had witnessed their first physical merge. The two lovers didn’t pay it any heed, and the butterfly flew away, perhaps searching for someone else to accompany on a soul journey. These two were quite happy in this world of physicality. Heaven had at last stopped whispering in their ears. It had nothing else to add to their story, and now the Earth herself could finally exert her gentle rule in Cassandra and Oscar’s lives.

THE END
?

Dear Friend, thank you for reading my story. I hope it was fuel for your imagination.

The finale you have just read is
simply
one of many possible scenarios.

I’d like you to IMAGINE how things could be if you were me. Would you take Oscar back? Would you
like to
change things at some other stage in the plot?
Or w
ould you come up with a very different outcome?

Perhaps you might like to jot down your imaginary ending on my webpage,
www.cassandramorgante.com
,
in the specific section. O
r you may prefer to keep
it
to yourself in your beautiful Star Heart.

What I wanted to say
here is
that there is really no end; there are
just many different new beginnings.
And
I wanted you to know.

Love,

Cassie

PS: if you enjoyed reading my story, please leave a review of the book at:

http://pierasarasini.wix.com/pierasarasini#!your-feedback
– I would greatly appreciate it!

Piera Sarasini was born in Brescia, Italy and moved to the UK in 1987. She has lived in London, Edinburgh and Belfast. Educated at the Chartered Institute of Linguists, London, and the Queen's University, Belfast, Piera holds a
Degree and Post Graduate Studies in Linguistics, Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology. She moved to Ireland in 2000 and currently lives in Dublin.
For the past 20 years she has been working as a Chartered linguist, in-company Italian language instruc
tor, professional literary and medical translator and Goddess Sessions Facilitator. She has lectured in anthropology, ethnomusicology and visual studies at Queen's University, Belfast, and NUI Maynooth and DBS in Dublin.
She is currently writing her seco
nd novel (working title: The Earth Dreams).

The Author’s Website:

http://pierasarasini.wix.com/pieraauthor

Connect with Cassandra:

http://cassandrainthemirror.blogspot.ie/

http://www.cassandramorgante.com

https://www.facebook.com/cassandramorgantemagicwoman

Footnotes

[1] Lyrics by Jim Morrison, song by The Doors.

[2] ‘Black is the Colour (Of My True Love’s Hair)’ is a traditional folk song.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Is_the_Colour_(Of_My_True_Love's_Hair).