Till Dark

Once outside the gates and away from Andy's spellbinding gaze, Jordan headed left toward her hotel. She knew exactly where she was going because earlier that week she had seen the stone wall of Andy's estate on a morning walk down the beach. Andy had watched her with the same penetrating gaze as he had every time he saw her during her brief stay. Despite the hour, Jordan noticed that the beach seemed fairly empty; most of the crowd there seemed to be lounging around soaking up the warm rays of the afternoon sun. Two boys with water guns ran toward Jordan, circling around her laughing and spraying each other and her in the process. She smiled as they disappeared down the beach toward their mother and kept walking till she came to her hotel. Taking the small stairs two at a time, she walked down the corridor to the elevator. The hotel was a fairly large one with 10 floors with at least 200 rooms on each floor and was in excellent condition for an older hotel. The elevator doors opened and Jordan walked along the plain hallway till she reached her suite. She searched her purse for the room key and unlocked the door; dropping her beach bag as she entered. Relief flooded through her as she walked in and stretched across the bed on her stomach to rest. The weariness seemed to melt away as she floated softly to sleep thinking of Andy's smile. For the first time since her husband's untimely death Jordan rested calmly, that is, before the nightmare of memories returned once again to haunt her dreams. She relived that awful day over and over again in her dreams and every time she closed her eyes. Her heart pounded as she saw the Officer at her front door; a scream caught deep in her throat choking out all conscious thought, escaped her lips for the thousandth time. The shrill ringing of the telephone brought her from unconsciousness and the nightmare. Bolting up into a sitting position Jordan could not remember for a moment where she was, still horrified at the memories. The piercing ring of the phone next to the bed brought her back swiftly as she darted across the bed to catch the phone before it stopped ringing. Catching it just in time she slowly and lazily pronounced "Hello." "Jordan? This is Alexia. How are you?" "I'm fine" she answered still half asleep. "How is Cody doing?" "He's just wonderful and a big help. Would you like to talk to him?" Sitting up in bed cross-legged she smiled. "Of course! Put him on!" She exclaimed excitedly now fully awake. "Hi sweetheart." She said her voice changing to a soft motherly tone. "Hi, mommy!" Cody shrilled excitedly into the phone. "What are you doing? Are you being good for Aunt Alex?" Jordan listened to Cody jabber about what he had been doing and then he asked her when she would be home. Her heart ached when she said it would be a long time. Jordan longed to pack her bags and rush home to him but she knew that it would do her no good, because she needed this time away from him to get her life together. It had been a year since Cody's father had died and for Cody's sake she had been very strong but now she knew that the only way for her to get on with her life was to deal with his death. Jordan felt like she was abandoning him but the truth was she was letting the wounds, that had been brushed aside for the past year, heal. After a few more minutes of Cody's chitchat they said their good-byes and hung up.