Chapter 45

The exit from the new four-lane blacktop I wanted appeared. My mind refocused from its twenty year journey down memory lane. The new highway had shaved better than an hour off the trip I remembered to the small town. I hadn't been this way since Tante Kit's funeral, but the small town hadn't changed much. Yes, there were some new industrial buildings on the outskirts, but the downtown looked largely the same. I found the new motel easily enough, and as Tante Pie had said, the new funeral home was directly across the street. I didn't know which came first, but whoever dreamed up the idea of a motel near a funeral home was brilliant. Out-of-town family members would be more likely to attend a funeral if they knew there was clean, affordable accommodation nearby. Funerals become better attended and the motel has a year-round income because people don't just die in tourist season.

I checked into the motel office and found Bob had been as good as his word. My room was already booked and prepaid. The concierge regretted to inform me the rest of my party was delayed by a late flight from Calgary. I was just as glad -- I didn't want to meet Carol and her father in the motel lobby. I wanted to see the aunts first and prepare myself a little for what could become a major confrontation. I got my room key and settled in. I'd lived out of very similar motels when I was with Northern, so I wasn't long hanging my suit in the closet and setting the air conditioner to the right temperature.

I called Diane and let her know I had arrived safely, over an hour ahead of schedule thanks to the new highway. Diane asked if I'd seen her yet and I told her the concierge had advised me their flight was delayed. That meant Dolly's casket would be delayed as well. I wouldn't see Carol until later at the funeral home. I asked Diane how she was doing. She said she and the kids were going over to Heather's for supper. Heather said to say 'Hi!' to her sister. Diane wanted to know what that was all about. I said I'd explain it when I got home.

I called the aunts. Tante Jo answered this time and gave me directions to their home. I recognized the location from the times I'd been to this town many years before. She told me Bob Sr. and Carol were delayed and I said I knew, the guy on the desk told me the rest of my party would be late. I said I'd be over in a little while, as soon as I freshened up from the drive. We hung up and I took a few minutes to wash the travel out of my eyes and changed into clothing more suitable for the occasion than my blue jeans and flannel shirt.

I walked in the late afternoon September sun to the aunts' house. It was, as Tante Pie had said, only about a block away. I was there in just a few minutes. They must have been watching for me, because the door opened as soon as I stepped onto the walk. I didn't think they'd recognize me; I was older, heavier, and sported a full beard, but the aunts called me by name and invited me into their home. They said they recognized my erect walk, a carry over from those happier times when cadets was the key to my future. We exchanged hugs and they sat me down at the kitchen table. I took the time to give them a good once over.

Now in their early sixties, the aunts still showed some of the beauty of their youth. I noticed care lines that weren't there twenty years before, and Pie seemed to have a deep sadness about her. I remembered her reaction to Kit's death, and thought I understood the sadness.

The aunts were always perfect hostesses, and offered me a drink. I refused the alcohol and opted for a coffee, saying I hadn't quit drinking completely, but now only took it in moderation. We were soon gabbing away as if the years had not passed at all. We started to reminisce about the times at the cottage, and that's when we got down to 'brass tacks' as they say. The memories of the cottage themselves were some of the happiest of my entire life, but they also recalled the worst. We caught up on more current events and I learned Oma and Opa had passed away within days of each other some ten years before. I think Bob may have told me, but I'm not sure.

They brought me up to date as best they could, a little more current than Bob's sketchy information. Riekie was doing very well, but was closing up the practice she shared with her husband Rick. Her twins were beautiful little girls that looked like her and showed no resemblance to him at all. Apparently they didn't call him Daddy, but by his name, Rick. It was unusual, but I knew of other children like that, too. My own cousin referred to his father as 'Art' from the time he could speak. The aunts showed me a picture from last Christmas of the most darling little girls imaginable. I'm a sucker for kids, and I was instantly smitten with Riekie's twins. They had their mother's hair and eyes, and looked into the camera with an intelligence that seemed beyond their years.

Tante Jo laughed and said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say they were your kids from the way they look and behave."

"Well, Tante Jo, they have a beautiful mother to get their looks from, and she is a good person to raise a family."

Iain was working in Silicon Valley, and doing extremely well, but was always busy. They showed me a recent picture of him. He looked like Art Garfunkel.

Sandy had indeed followed his early calling to the North, and was living in Tuktayuktuk, NWT (Now Nunavut.). He was working with some arctic research company, but spent most of his time working with the Inuit and helping them develop their plan toward eventual self government for the Territories. Apparently he spoke their language as if born to it. Inu is an extremely difficult language to learn, with many words for the same thing. I heard once they had over a hundred separate words for one common substance — snow.

The aunts told me a bit about Carol and her husband, Ben. I knew he was in the construction business and from an old conversation with Bob, understood they were doing quite well. Apparently that was then and this was now. Ben's partner had been skimming off funds and the business was going through a tough period financially, causing them some personal financial problems as well. Ben's health, never very good to start with, apparently, had started to deteriorate. If they knew what his problem actually was, they didn't say. To add insult to injury, Ben was unable to father children, which I knew would be a tough blow for Carol, as I knew she wanted children desperately. It was a constant theme while we were together. I had hoped to be the one to give her those children, but it wasn't to be.

We were recalling the meeting Opa had called when the three of us announced our multiple marriage. I recalled Pie's hint at a lost love of her own. I teased her some, saying.

"Isn't it about time I learned the whole story?"

Pie got serious, and a faraway look in her eyes.

"Yes, I guess we can tell our story now. The one most likely to be hurt by it coming out cannot be hurt any more."

She paused to wipe a tear and Jo pulled in close to give her support. I'd always suspected there was more to these women than met the eye. She began. I didn't interrupt her once until near the end. The story she told would break your heart.

"Many years ago, when Jo and I were somewhat younger than you were when we met you, we fell in love with a wonderful young man. You always reminded us of him. Even today as a grown man, you have certain of those qualities still.

"I fell in love with the boy first, then Jo. Like Riekie was to you and Carol Anne, she was our constant companion and we learned to love her as well. My young man and I were deeply in love, and like Carol Anne later, I decided to give him the ultimate gift, but not as a birthday present. We all knew the ancient rite of the knot. Oma was a priestess of the Goddess and had taught us all the Old Ways, but had not taken one of us as her apprentice."

Confirmation of old suspicions and even belief, I just raised an eyebrow slightly. This was no bombshell to me.

"My young man and I tied the knot and then consummated our marriage. Unlike Carol, I got pregnant on our first night, but I didn't realize it right away. As I said, Jo had fallen in love with both of us, but was slower in coming forth about it than Riekie was. By the time she declared her love, I knew I was with child, and was terrified. Yes, we were married under the Old Ways, but still, I was frightened of what the local people would say.

"My young man was as in love with Jo as he was with me, but I was selfish and wouldn't share our bed, even though we did all the same things as you, and had married her too. My young man didn't know I was pregnant with his child. He wanted to take Jo to our bed, but I wouldn't hear of it because I was already pregnant, and didn't want Jo to be, too. I was young, but she was younger still. I was also jealous of my man, even though I knew his love for me was as strong as ever despite his love for Joanna. It seemed like a demon got into me and in a fit of rage, I drove him from us. He became totally distraught, and left our home. We never heard from him again except a post card from Canada saying he had emigrated.

"I had alienated Jo too, but as my baby grew and my belly with it, we became close again, and stayed together, reaffirming our love for each other and our lost lover. Our parents took my child and raised her as their own. You see, David, Kit was my daughter, not my sister. She became the new third leg to our tripod and we were able to stay together."

No wonder she had been so distraught at the funeral.

"Oma and Opa raised her as their own and she showed great promise as a witch. Oma taught her all the Old Ways. We never told her she was my daughter, but she knew she was very special to me and my sister-wife, Joanna. Yes, my sister-wife. As I said, before our man left us, we were all three married as you three were and Jo and I kept our part of it going. Jo and I re-affirmed our knot and we're still married.

"We never told Kit I was her real mother, but some how she must have deduced it on her own. Kit wasn't killed instantly in the crash and was taken to hospital. Jo and I were with her at the end, holding her in our arms. The night she died, just before she passed away, she opened her eyes and said, 'I love you Mama.'

"Jo was there, weren't you Dear? And heard it too."

Both women wept as she told me the tale, and Jo nodded. I was a little choked up myself.

"Now, it is just the two of us left of a once great love. With Kit gone, our tripod cannot stand much longer. Jo and I have but one wish: before we die, we would like to see and hold our young man once more and tell him about the daughter he never knew. He would have loved her. If I hadn't driven him away, she might be alive now. But we have no idea where to look for him, and we are getting older now. We heard once he lived not far from your town, but that was a rumour over twenty years ago."

I did interrupt at this point.

"What is this man's name? Maybe I can help you find him."

"Paul... Paul Koorstis. My young lover and our husband was our brother Paul."

Oh the tangled webs we weave! I thought I'd be totally shocked, but I wasn't. I realized I had suspected this all along from the little hints they had given over the years. Dad before me had suspected as much on even less evidence than I had. I realized that I had also somewhere along the line learned his almost mystical ability to infer the correct conclusion from seemingly disjointed bits of information — the mysteriously missing brother; the unusual closeness of Pie and Jo, sisters but more than sisters; the special bond between Pie and Kit, and a host of other bits and pieces.

"Pie, if I may drop the 'Tante', I swear to you and before the Goddess, if at all possible, I will help you find your young man and return him to you."

"David, why would you do this almost impossible thing for us?"

"Because you had and have faith in me to do the right thing. Because you helped me twenty years ago. It's no fault of yours that marriage, too ended in discord and acrimony. You and your family did your best to help us, now it's my turn to return the favour.

"Now I must ask another difficult question. What is the problem between your family and Bob Sr.?"

The women examined their fingers very closely. Jo started to speak then looked to Pie, who nodded.

"The issue with that man is related to what Pie just told you about Kit and Paul. That man (never by his name) was

dating Dolly while the Canadian troops were still in Holland. He cut a dashing figure in his uniform, so tall and handsome! But he was, is, a cad at heart. He found out that Kit was daughter to one of us, and tricked us into revealing which, by having us believe he could find Paul for us. To us at the time, if a Canadian told a Dutch person he could turn water into wine, we would have believed him. Canadians had died in their thousands to free our country from the Nazi monster.

"Paul was gone. I had never been with a man. That man gave me hope I could finally be with Paul, but after appearing to be so kind and caring and wanting to help us find Paul, that man used the information he got against us and forced me to have sex with him to keep him quiet. This was before we came to Canada. We were sure if Kit's true parents were known we would not have been allowed in. We know now that probably would not have happened, but he used it to force me. He used me not once, but many times. How I didn't get pregnant with his bastard, I'll never know. The worst he did was to take that which rightfully belonged to Paul, my wedding gift.

"Dolly heard he might be seeing another girl in our village, but as far as I know never learned it was me. She confronted him about his infidelity and he denied it. Because of Dolly's suspicions, he stopped raping me before Dolly learned the truth, but not before he damaged my soul. He seems to take delight in hurting people emotionally. I was a very long time recovering, but Pie and our parents were there for me and we had Kit. When Your Girls were born, they became us, and we tried to undo the past through them. We almost did it, but I think that man was busy again. Carol Anne carries too great a wound to have ever been caused by you."

So! My enemy had destroyed another innocent life, or tried to, but her family had proved stronger and saved her soul if not her physical body. I began to look forward to our meeting, but I would need an opening. To just go and pick a fight was not the way. It could backfire hugely. I would have to be alert for any opening I could exploit. Exposing and destroying this evil had now become a personal jihad.

After they shared their stories, the aunts were very quiet, but being the resilient people they were, we were soon talking about other things. I regaled them with stories of the kids and how we'd just found out about Diane's past. I didn't give them the gory details, but they got the idea, and especially that she was now on the road to recovery from her tormented past. I let it slip that Mom thought I'd found another one of Hers. Pie jumped on that.

"David, earlier, you never batted an eye when I mentioned Oma was a priestess of the Goddess as if it was something you not only knew, but heard every day; then you swore an oath to us by the Goddess, and now you say your mother says your wife is 'another of Hers'. Who is your mother, and who are these others of hers you have found? How is it that you know so much about the Old Ways, when that summer we gave you and Your Girls only enough to wed?"

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew. I thought Riekie at least would have told you something when she came to live with you.

"My mother is a priestess of the Goddess now, but when My Girls and I were first married, she would best be described as an acolyte. When we came home from the cottage that summer, I made a remark to my dad that made him think and it became obvious that we had to tell them about us. We needed a support base closer to home than your family could offer, so we took the chance. I knew nothing of Mom's Wiccan past; we were just counting on them being naturally open and understanding people, who if they didn't actually approve, would be supportive nonetheless.