THE CAVERN OF DEEP HARMONY

PART FIFTY-FOUR:

Ryan had reached Connie just as Eden screamed and crumpled. Both he and Connie were absolutely shocked.

"Eden!" Connie called frantically, scrabbling forward despite the pain in her ankle.

Ryan looked from Eden to Marshall, his heart sinking. "Oh, God, no!" he moaned, practically flinging himself in Marshall's direction.

Connie was patting Eden's unresponsive face when she thought she heard Ryan say something impossible about Marshall.

"What?" she croaked. "What did you say?"

"He's dead, Con. His heart's not beating."

Connie looked down at Eden. Not twice. Eden couldn't handle this twice. "DO SOMETHING!" she shrieked at Ryan.

Ryan was kneeling beside Marshall, his mind racing. Do what? Desperately he raised his right arm high and brought his fist down as hard as he could on Marshall's chest. It was all he could think to do.

The double impact of his body on the road and then Eden landing atop him, both with such force and coming from opposite directions, had thrown Marshall's heart into severe arrhythmia and after a few wild, irregular beats, it had simply stopped. He felt a sudden jerking loose of himself from himself, a sense of detachment from even the fact of that, and then an awareness of rising.
With no idea of what was happening or where he was, he knew only that he was moving, though making no effort to move. Everything was very quiet and he flowed into the quiet, letting it take him. There seemed to be no real choice in the matter. He was still in his usual, familiar space a sighted person would call blackness. Something had happened, had changed, but it was too much trouble somehow to try and think what it might be.

Then in his upward float, he became aware of movement other than his own. There were things around him that were also in motion. He didn't know how he knew without touching them or hearing them, but there were things around him that were not part of him and he knew they were there. They were large boughs of evergreens, draped with snow, blown by a light wind, only he did not recognize them as that. They had form, somehow they had form, but the form

was not known to him for what it was. He passed by them, through them, not knowing what they were, quietly amazed that he knew they were there.  Everything was very strange, utterly different. He looked up and his usual space was punctured by something, somethings, even more unutterably beyond all imagining. Many, many little punctures dotted his space. He'd never been aware of such things and had no names, no labels for pure unrecognizability. He was, though, strangely undisturbed by it all.

Then that stopped. Everything stopped, the rising, the quiet, the awareness of the other things, and he felt himself being yanked down much more rapidly than he'd been going up. He slammed back into himself with a huge gasping, grating moan.

Ryan, on his knees, fell back over on his rear, his eyes wide, his mouth dropping open. Connie gave another little shriek then began to laugh and cry at the same time. Marshall clamped both hands to his chest, making a series of loud gasping sounds. Ryan scrambled back onto his knees, trying to push Marshall's hands away. "Did I break something? Did I break something?" he muttered over and over, feeling Marshall's ribcage.

"You...you hit me?" Marshall moaned.

"As hard as I could," Ryan nodded.

"W...why?"

"Your heart stopped, Marsh. I had to do something...anything."

"St...stopped?"

"Yup. Not beating at all. Guess the fall outta the sleigh did it somehow."

"Sleigh?"  Then Marshall remembered. "Eden?! Where's Eden?" He tried to sit up, gasped again with the pain of it, and sat up anyway. "Where? Eden?!!"

"She's here, Marshall," Connie said. "She fainted. You were dead in the snow. It was...too much."  She brushed some strands of hair back from Eden's face.

Clenching his teeth, Marshall managed to get up on his knees and crawl toward the nearby sound of Connie's voice. "Where?" he asked again, feeling around with one hand.

Connie took his hand, guiding it to Eden's head.

"Oooh," he moaned, his fingertips finding Eden's closed eyes. "Eden? It's all right, darling. Wake up. Please wake up now." He sat back, pulling her into his arms, rocking slightly with her.

Ryan was on his cell phone. "Mike?" he said. "I wrecked the sleigh. About a mile your side of the inn. Marshall's heart stopped but he's ok now, I guess. Eden collapsed when she saw what happened to him. No, she hasn't roused yet. No, she doesn't seem to be hurt. Connie's got a bad ankle, though. Can you get out here with some help? Yeah. We're on the little road by the lake. Not far from where the old snag fell into the water. Yeah. Right there. Ok. Soon as you can. Right. Thanks, pal."

Luke awakened to the sound of loud, excited adults, catching something about Marshall having died. He grabbed at Martha's skirt as she passed by the couch. "Did he this time, Granny? Did he really?" Tears were dripping down his little face.

"Seems he did, Luke," Martha explained. "I don't know just how, but Ryan saved him. Looks like he's going to be ok, so don't you worry. You didn't lose him. You got that? You didn't lose him."  She closed her eyes briefly. None of us lost him, thank God.

Luke was aware most of the adults were shrugging on coats, getting ready to pile into various cars. "I've got to see him, Granny. I've GOT to!"

She knew he meant it and as she felt the same way, helped him on with his coat, slid her arms quickly into her own coat sleeves, and took him out the front door with her. "We're coming, too," she announced. Harold took one look at the set of her face and quietly opened a car door.

Ryan stood up, waving as several sets of headlights came rushing down the small road. Mike hopped out of his truck before it had even fully stopped, pounding through the snow to where Marshall still sat, rocking Eden.  "She won't wake up," Marshall said as Mike knelt in front of them, announcing his presence as his hands reached out to take Eden's pulse.

"What happened to her?" Mike asked.

Connie spoke up. "She was kneeling beside Marshall, Mike. His heart had stopped and she just let out this cry and toppled over."

"You ok?" Mike looked with quick appraisal at Marshall.

"Feel like an elephant stepped on me," he replied, "but I think I'm all right."

Eden, draped, enveloped in a horror beyond imagining, had curled her consciousness into a tight little ball as deeply within herself as she could go. Vaguely aware of being moved, being touched, she nonetheless refused to let it uncurl. She simply could not face the fact of Marshall's death, would not face it. Perhaps, then, it would not be so. She hugged oblivion with tightly-clasping fingers.

Mike lifted one of her lids, shining a small light into her eye. "She didn't hit her head, did she?"

"I don't think so, Mike. I had my hand there."

Mike paused, looking at Marshall. So, he'd put himself at risk again to protect her. This time it had killed him. He looked back at Eden. And what had it done to her? "I think it'd be best if we got all of you into the hospital, ok? Everybody needs some checking out from what I can see."

Sliding his arms under Eden, he continued, "Let me carry her, Marshall. We'll just put her in Harold's car and you guys can ride in that." He stood, Eden in his arms, turning to Ryan. "Can you drive my truck? Take Connie to the hospital? We'll meet you there."

Ryan put a hand on Mike's arm. "Be careful, Mike. She's not yours to tend. Don't forget that."

Mike set his jaw and carried Eden to the car.

Luke ran up to the still-sitting Marshall. "Marshy! Marshy!" he called, flinging his arms around Marshall's neck. "Did you die this time, really die?"

"I think so," he said, trying not to grimace at the pain even Luke's little hug caused his torso. "I haven't had time really to think about it. It all happened very fast. I guess it did. I don't know."

Stuart and Harold helped him stand. Just straightening his body hurt. "I think I've gone and made some brand new bruises," he commented wryly.

Martha was there now in front of him, wanting to hug him with all her might but not doing so because she knew it would only hurt him. Tears were tracking down both her cheeks. "Oh, Marshall," she whispered. "I'm so glad you didn't leave us."

Marshall got in the back seat of Harold's car and Mike reluctantly let Eden's head and shoulders slide over onto his lap. Knowing that Marshall couldn't see him, he kept Eden's hands between his own. He didn't like how long she was staying unconscious. She'd told him, though, about Miles and he knew what it must have meant to her to see Marshall like that in the snow.

Marshall's lips were pressed tightly together as he dealt with the pain in his chest where Ryan had hit him and the pain across his back from where he'd landed on the road. His greatest pain, though, was that he'd let Eden down. After he'd spent so many hours on Cooper's Ridge vowing he would not do that to her, would not die in the snow, he'd gone and done that very thing. He knew he had a lot to think about concerning that, but it could wait. All that mattered right now was that Eden wake up. He stroked her cheek and spoke softly to her all the way to the hospital, but she didn't stir at all.

Stuart had alerted the hospital and Dr. Hersholtz was waiting for them in the ER. "You got a yoyo string on you, Marshall?" he asked as he caught sight of him walking in, bent a bit forward.

"Seems like, doesn't it? But don't worry about me right now, doctor. It's Eden I'm concerned about."

Connie had been seated in a wheelchair and was about to be taken off for x-rays. Ryan kissed her hand as a nurse wheeled her away and then began to explain what he had witnessed of the accident and what he'd done to try and get Marshall's heart started again. Hersholtz was examining Eden as he listened. "Doesn't appear she's injured at all," he announced. "Seems to be severe psychological trauma, though. The unconsciousness is how she's dealing with it. She needs to realize you're not dead, Marshall, but she's not ready to let anything in, not even good news. She's afraid such things don't exist."

"What can I do?"

"Just let her rest a bit while I check you out, ok? You're the one who died tonight."

"I'm fine," he protested, keeping his hand on Eden's shoulder.

"I know," Hersholtz said patiently, "but you're still going to have a couple of x-rays just to prove it to me."

"I don't want to leave her."

"It'll just take a minute. You'll stay with her, won't you, Mike?"

"Don't leave her, Mike," Marshall said urgently. "I don't want her to be alone."

"She won't be," he replied quietly, avoiding Ryan's piercing look.

Connie was wheeled back, her foot raised and packed in ice packs. "Sprain," she said. "Not broken."

Ryan knelt beside her chair, taking her hand in his. "I'm so sorry, Con. I just didn't see the rock."

"Not your fault," she smiled. "I made you laugh, remember."

When Marshall came back, Eden was still lying quietly. "No change," Mike said, laying her hand back beside her as Marshall came close.

"Oh, Eden," Marshall whispered. "Please be all right, darling."

"Well, Marshall," Hersholtz said, coming up with x-rays in his hands. "Doesn't look like you've got any broken bones, though I have no idea why you don't. You're going to have a rather big batch of deep bruising again, though, mostly across your shoulders and in the center of your
chest."  Then from what Ryan, Connie, and Marshall himself had told him, he explained what had most likely caused Marshall's heart to stop. "So that blow from Ryan did the trick," he ended. "And I'll tell you again. You do need to rest. Your body needs to take it easy for a good
while yet. I can tell just by looking at you that you've been overdoing."

Edith was hovering by Connie's chair. "Oh, Mom," Connie was saying, "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. Marshall was lying there so still and then Eden just folded over. I think her heart just literally broke in half."

"I know, darling, I know. It was Miles all over again, only worse."

"I've never seen anyone more in love, Mom, than she is with Marshall. Losing him was...."

"She'll be all right, Connie. He'll see to that."

All through the wee hours of the night Marshall sat beside her bed, holding her hand, talking to her. Mike hovered in the doorway, not able to leave until Eden woke up and he could see she was really ok."

About 5 in the morning, Marshall lay his head on the bed and went to sleep, utterly exhausted. It was then Mike remembered what Eden had asked of him when it was Marshall lying in the ICU. Quietly, he left the hospital, found his truck and drove to the inn. Harold was asleep on the couch, but Martha had been in the kitchen, baking, unable to sleep, and let him in. Within moments he had what he wanted and was on his way back to the hospital.

Marshall stirred when Mike lay his hand on his shoulder and then explained why he'd brought the CD player and the Tuscany music. "She thought it would work for you," he said, "maybe it'll work for her, too?"

"It's worth a try, Mike," Marshall said tiredly, rubbing a hand hard across his face.

Mike plugged the player in and Marshall, who knew the CD intimately, brought up the 12th track. As the music started, he leaned close to her pillow, his fingers stroking her hair and sang the words to Vá Pensiero to her in Italian. Mike stepped just out into the hall. There was something so personal about how Marshall was doing it that he felt like an intruder even to watch.

During the pauses in lyrics, Marshall said things like, "Come on, darling. I'm here. I'm really here. You can wake up now." Then he'd continue with the music.

From a great distance, the music penetrated into her balled self. It was so...him. It carried for her all the essence of him. Her being peeped out of isolation like a little child showing a single eyeball from under a blanket. She was frightened, scared to death. She could come out and his singing could be a dream, nothing more. She'd seen his face, touched the lifelessness of his body. It was not a world she cared to inhabit. She would not inhabit it.

He started the song over, his urgings stronger, firmer. "Mmmmmm," she murmured, turning her head slightly.

"That's it!" he affirmed. "Come on, darling! Wake up! Wake up for me."

He sang some more, pausing between words to rain kisses on her face and neck.

How real his presence felt to her. It couldn't be, though. Like Miles, the snow had taken him.

He nuzzled his nose into the hollow of her neck. "Eden...please."

"Ma...Marshall?"

"Yes, darling. I'm here. It's our song. Remember our song?"

"Marshall?"

He kissed all over her face. She blinked her eyes open. My God! He was there! He was there! Huge gasping sobs took her, doubling her up, wrenching through her gut. He put his arms around her, holding on as she rocked back and forth, gulping and sobbing, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

Mike gave a quick peek in the door. She would be all right now. Marshall would be there for her. He hadn't heard Ryan come up behind him, didn't know he was there until a firm hand gripped his upper arm. He turned, meeting Ryan's eyes. "That's where she belongs. I know that. I've just got to get used to it." He smiled wanly at his friend. "How's Connie doing?"

"Pretty bad sprain, but she'll be ok. I should go let her and Edith know Eden's awake."

"Give them a moment more, ok?" Mike said, looking briefly back toward the door. "They've earned it."

Marshall sat on the side of the bed so he could hold Eden better in his arms. She couldn't seem to stop the gut-wrenching sobs. They went on and on and on until she was so worn out she couldn't physically manage them any more and then she just clung to him, her whole body shaking, as he smoothed her hair and whispered in her ear. Finally, she quieted and went to sleep in his arms. He lay her back and then stretched out beside her, and arms circled close about her, fell into a deep slumber himself.

Hersholtz had come by when a nurse told him Eden was crying. He stood now in the doorway a moment, smiling at the sleeping couple.

"Merry Christmas," he whispered. "After all."

ON TO PART 55

BACK TO LIBRISCROWE

BACK TO PART 53

BACK TO INDEX