It’s another glorious August day and the sun rides high in a cloudless sky. Porthleven bustles with tourists and the restaurants are packed. Carol loves days like this and she should be full of joy, but her thoughts weigh heavily upon her. She must choose her words very carefully. The door to The Art Shack is open and she sees Cara at the till talking to a young couple. As she enters the gallery, Carol smiles at her daughter and waits for the couple to leave before shutting the door and turning the sign to ‘closed’.
‘Mum, what are you doing?’ asks Cara.
‘I want to have a quiet word with you, my darling girl,’ Carol says. With hammering heart, she approaches her daughter.
Cara frowns.
‘Would you like coffee?’ Carol asks, stalling for time. She walks round to the back of the counter.
‘Mum, stop procrastinating. Whatever ‘quiet word’ you are planning to have you might as well start now.’
Carol pulls up a stool and takes Cara’s hands in hers. Where on earth does she start?
‘Mum, what’s wrong? You’re worrying me. Is it Dad?’
‘No, it’s not your father.’ Carol takes a deep breath. ‘It’s you, Cara. We are worried about you.’
Cara laughs, the tension releasing. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’m just fine.’
Carol scrutinises her daughter. It’s true, she looks positively blooming. That’s the problem.
‘Cara, please listen to your mother for a moment. You know your father and I want only the very best for you. We want to see you happy again.’
‘I am,’ Cara says.
‘I know, darling.’ Carol hesitates. ‘But it’s the source of your happiness that worries us.’ She watches myriad emotions sweep across her daughter’s face.
Swiftly, Cara extracts her hands and climbs off the stool. Walking away, she gathers her thoughts before turning to face her mother. ‘Oliver means the world to me.’
Carol nods. ‘I can understand that but, darling, he’s not available.’
Cara studies her mother. Is this going to be a lecture on right and wrong? No one can dictate to her on that! The day Christo died, right and wrong died too. She knows from bitter experience that life is fleeting and if anything wonderful, exquisite and out of the ordinary comes along it should be grabbed with both hands. There’s no grand prize for being good or strong, or loyal or loving. Life is just what it is.
‘Mum, please don’t think badly of me. It’s not as simple as that. It’s not that black and white.’
‘Oh, Cara, I’m not judging you. You are an adult and can make up your own mind. You’ve faced more heartbreak than most and I know you won’t take things on lightly. I’m just concerned you run the risk of having your heart broken again.’
Cara considers her mother’s words. Yes, she has fallen for Oliver big time, but he’s fallen for her too – hook, line and sinker. Neither of them knows what the future may hold but, for this moment in time, they are happy. Besides, to live in the moment is how she survives.
Cara walks over to her mother and hugs her. ‘When Christo died, something died in me too,’ she says softly. ‘I didn’t ever believe I’d find it again.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘But life continued, though it was a poorer version of the life that went before. I seemed to be forever waiting for that something to return. Only it didn’t.’
Carol bites her lip. Cara has always seemed so resilient and has never expressed her thoughts since that fateful day. She seems so far away… With heart fit to breaking, Carol waits patiently for her daughter to continue.
Cara glances around the gallery. It’s her space filled with her style and yet, many times over the past two years, she’s been merely the understudy standing in for the real Cara Penhaligon, currently unavailable. She turns back to Carol.
‘When I first met Oliver I had no expectations, but he kept coming back. As we spent time together we discovered our keys fitted each other’s locks and, at last, I feel safe enough to let my truest self step forward.’ Cara wonders if her mother will think she has lost the plot, but the look on Carol’s face encourages her to continue. ‘I can be completely and honestly who I am with Oliver and we love each other for who we are, not for who we pretend to be. I truly believe that each of us unveils the best part of the other.’
‘Cara,’ Carol whispers, ‘you are describing soul mates!’
Cara nods. ‘I believe I am. But I also know how cruel life can be and, so, I will not hold him to anything. I will let life take its own course and allow the connection be what it is. It may only last five weeks, five months or five years… or it may last a lifetime. Who knows? But I will let it manifest itself the way it is meant to. I know that our meeting is no chance encounter. This relationship has a destiny. If it stays or if it leaves, I am thankful for having been loved by him. And, anyway, life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living.’
Carol blinks back tears. Her daughter never fails to amaze her with insights and understanding that go far beyond her own. It’s obvious she’s in love with Oliver, and Carol has always seen the way he is with Cara, but still she can’t shake off that vision of Deanna and her all-encompassing strength. How will they cope with that?
Cara smiles at her mother. Gently, she squeezes her hand. ‘I believe that Oliver’s soul has come into my life for reasons I do not yet fully understand, but I am prepared to simply let it be who and what it is meant to be.’