Walking in the Shadows (42 page)

The room was left in complete
silence
,
and I felt I had spoken to
o
quickly and had said too much. I found Tad again in the crowd because he was beginning to stand, as was the rest of the room
,
and then the clapping began in a deafening roar.

Principal Gifford shook both my hands
.
“For not having a speech at all, you sure as hell nailed it.”

“T
hank you,
” I stuttered
over the noise of the crowd
,
and I meant it for more reasons than one.

I let my hands follow the intricacies of the hardened wings until I came to face it. I pressed my forehead to the cool stone, and as the
wind swept
my hair around my face I caught a familiar scent. It was clean soap and laundry that reminded me of my father.

He had never been partial to cologne, but he had always smelled so good, like home.  There was a stirring of warmth to my right, and it felt as though he was there beside me. I closed my eyes at the thought before taking a deep breath and glancing over my shoulder to see that Tad had joined me. It was at that moment that I recalled what I had been thinking the day I met him as I pretended to read Chaucer. I had been wondering how I could survive in the world without the two people I loved the most. I hadn’t understood or seen it then, but they had given me my answer. They had never left and never would. The love between a parent and a child transcends time, age and even the strongest separation of all, death. It never ceases to end. I wasn’t lost—I was found. I smiled at Tad and looked back over at the angel’s face.  This time I let my fingers trace the details of the face I knew so well. The details were different now, hardened with rock, etched with lichen, but it was still her sweet likeness, forever glowing. In place of the unseeing marble orbs I imagined her perfect chocolate eyes, and I felt at peace.  I sighed as Tad’s hand reached over to cover mine as I cupped her cheek in my palm.

“The only imperfection is time
,
” I finally said.

“She looks like you
,
” Tad replied as he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head in the crook of my shoulder.

“That’s because she’s my mother.”

“Hi, Mom,” Tad’s voice drifted over the wind as it stirred my hair again, and my father’s scent washed over me once more.  Tears pricked at my eyes, for Tad had said exactly what I needed to hear.

“I think my dad is here too.”

“Of course he is. He never left
,
” Tad’s whisper tickled my neck.

I closed my eyes and drank in the love I had been missing, but had never left.

Cassandra Giovanni is an avid writer of young adult novels and can't wait to share her work with you. The genres of her novels include dystopian, paranormal, mystery and romance all aimed at appealing to adults and young adults alike. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character's stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. She began writing at a very young age, in fact from the moment she could draw she was telling stories that way. At age seven she won a contest in American Girl Doll to have a chapter she had written published. She stopped writing in high school and started writing again after seeing the movie creation of a book. It inspired her to start writing again and since then
it
has
been something she just can't let go.

Other Novels by Cassandra Giovanni:

In Between Seasons

Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Romance