Chapter FIFTEEN

Honey got the parcel from the postal station the day that Il Divo left for Tokyo. Jonas left it on the kitchen counter and when she returned from her walk she found it, ripped it open and inserted the CD’s in her player before doing anything else.

It was wonderful, pure Urs, singing solo with back up tapes, singing with the band on some new tracks and for a while she just sat in the big old rocker from the antique shop and listened with her eyes closed, picturing him in her mind.

The wrapping paper and bubble wrap was still in her lap and she bunched it up to throw out, caught sight of the letters and looked at the writing on them.

A blue envelope with Carol’s handwriting and ….a cream colored one with the scrawl she knew had to be Urs. She went to the table, pulled a chair out and leaned the cream envelope against the vase of flowers in the center, staring at it, wanting to rip it open but afraid.

As a compromise she opened Carol’s letter.

It started off chatty, telling her all the news she had missed: Seb and Anna’s delayed wedding because his Maman had taken ill, the great Christmas they had enjoyed back in Canada, the success of the changer they had worked on before she left.

“We all would really like to see you or at least talk to you online, a two way conversation, not this spy stuff. We haven’t figured out where you are because we are respecting your wishes….I don’t think it would be all that difficult if we tried. Urs is gone to Tokyo now so it would be very safe to IM me and I would so love it.

Miles says to tell you that the Canadian Forces sent a query asking if you could assist them with the translator, some kind of problem they’re having.
I think you should have the contact number in your address book.

We love you Honey. Please call or IM us.

Carol and Miles.”

She set the letter to one side and took Urs letter in her hand, stared at it for a moment then carefully opened it.

“My dearest Little One:
I’m going to try very hard to tell you logically and rationally why I want you back but it isn’t going to be easy…my emotions are all over the place, my heart is beating way too fast and my arms ache because they are empty.

I didn’t call you because I was trying to corner Nicole and break it off with her. It took days, she knew something was up and kept staying at friends, getting drunk and avoiding me, but finally I did it. Leaving after our final argument I felt clean and free, able to come to you and tell you that I love you, hoping that you would take a chance on me and that our love would help us work out the problem of constantly being separated….but when I tried to get Carol, the only number you had left me, she was in Canada and you were gone.

For the past month I’ve been surviving from one e.mail that Carol shared with me to the next, always waiting for the next one when I could hear that you and the babies were all right.

I’m so happy about our twins…our sons…. and I love the names…nearly as much as I love you. Please come back to me. I need you and the boys in my life. If you are worried about the absences, I’ll quit the band. And the press…they mean nothing to me…I’m not ashamed of loving you, only of being so stupid that I drove you away.

Please, Liebe, come back to me and make me complete again. I love you.

Your Ekinamadi, Urs.”

She was still sitting re-reading his letter when Katja came into the kitchen stomping her boots on the mat to get the snow off. The Swiss woman looked at Honey and knew instantly that there had been upsetting news.

“Liebe, are you alright?” she asked with concern but Honey turned her tear streaked face to the concerned woman and smiled.

“He loves me, Katja. He loves me and wants me back.”

“Well of course he does. He’s Swiss, it’s only logical to love such a nice woman ….but he’s a man and sometimes it takes them a while to see that one beautiful tree in a forest of scrub pines.” She came over and hugged Honey.

“Now go wash your face and we’ll have some schokolade or maybe some Ovomaltine, Ja?”

“And then I have to send him an e.mail… I still have his address in my contact list. Oh Katja, I’m so happy.”

The older woman looked a bit sad for a moment then asked: “Does this mean you will leave Switzerland?”

Honey stopped on her way up the stairs and turned to look back.

“This is my home now, the place I want our sons to be born. I know Urs will want to keep our home here, even if we have to travel some.”

She went up to wash her face, out of habit puttered around tidying the bathroom, singing as she did and as she came back down the stairs.

As soon as the hot drinks were finished she booted up her computer and looked in the address book. Yes, she still had the address for Urs ‘puter, the new one he had changed to just before he left Ireland. First things first….she took the Spector program off her ‘puter.

She went to new mail and keyed in his address, typed in ‘I LOVE YOU’ in the line for subject and then was stumped with how to start the letter.

From: Nimrodel@comet.net

Gruezi: I can think of a million things I want to say to you and not one that I can type, my mind is so full of the words and emotion in your letter.

I love you and I always will, Urs. We will wait here for your return after the tour. I bought us a nice chalet and 10 acres with lovely trees at Kussnacht am Riggi, appropriately named der Musik Hof, though my Swiss German isn’t good enough yet to ask about the name. I think you know why I came here…I wanted our son, sons now, to be born in their father’s homeland.

I need to send this NOW so I can start waiting for a reply. You can’t know how happy you have made me, my darling.

Your Honey, and the boys.

She hit send and tried to mentally figure out the time in Tokyo but couldn’t. It was probably the middle of the night, she thought, and went on with the chores she had lined up for the day, trying to put in time until she received an answer.
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