The Lighthouse - 6

        When I had initially discovered the machine, I messaged, Sadier. I grew curious why so many days had gone by without a response. Finally, a response came.

        “Dear Cepheril,

        “I’m messaging you regarding your friend, Sadier. I’m sorry to tell you that he was in an accident last week and has passed into the next life. Something he mentioned to me as he was dying was that he wanted me to follow up with you and tell you not to give up on your project. I’m very sorry for the news.

        “May angels protect you. Blessings.

        “Sincerely, Priscilla”

I swallowed and closed my computer, wishing he could have just known that I had found the cellar. Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, I wondered if he knew.

        Several months went by as I absorbed everything I could from the notepad. Late one night, I came home from the store with flowers in my hand. I looked for my wife in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, but couldn’t find her. I set the flowers on the kitchen countertop and doubled back, looking in every room and closet, but I couldn’t find a trace of her.

        Then I found her FIN machine on our bedside table and my heart began racing with fear. She occasionally experiences a very rare and bizarre type of seizure. She had to keep her FIN on her at all times which would control them. She often went for a run through the park when the weather was nice, but she should have been back by now.

        I quickly glanced at my phone to ensure that I hadn’t missed a message from her. Then I snatched her FIN and the flowers I had bought her and ran out the door. I sped for the access point to the trail that was just a block away. Unsure of how far down the trail she could have fallen, I had difficulty determining a running pace.

How was I so sure she was in trouble? For years, I had a growing sense that this day was coming. I didn’t know how it would happen or what it would look like but I had a constant prophetic sense that there would come a day when something would threaten her life.

        Only ¾ of a mile down the trail, in the blue light of dusk I began to make out a slumped figure on the ground ahead. I accelerated to a full sprint. It was her. I crashed to the ground next to her and strapped the FIN to her wrist. The seizures had already passed but she was not looking well. She stirred and woke at my coming and faintly reached out her hand toward me. I took it in mine.

If only this trail was more used, perhaps someone would have found her. Her cell phone had fallen out of arm’s reach. The seizures must have struck over an hour ago, I guessed.

        She looked at me with frightened eyes and asked, “Am I going to die?”

I hesitated. I knew when I first saw her on the trail that there was no saving her even if paramedics were here. I was honest with her.

        “I think you are, sweetheart,” I said. She clutched my hand tighter and stared into my eyes.

        “What is going to happen?” she asked me. So many nights she had humored my theories and thoughts about the afterlife. There wasn’t anything I could say that she hadn’t heard but she just wanted to hear me say something because she was scared.

        “It will be amazing,” I said.

        She closed her eyes and squeezed my hand again, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. I stroked her head slowly.

        Ten minutes passed. I pressed my hand to her wrist, monitoring her fading pulse. She suddenly breathed in sharply and did not breathe out. I watched her closely and held my breath with her, but she did not resume breathing. I waited and waited. But her pulse was gone. Her breathing was gone. She was gone.

        I closed my eyes and hung my head. I wept, reaching for the flowers. I imagined how she would have reacted to them. I placed them on her chest. I bent down and kissed her lips softly.

        Then I rose abruptly and ran. I ran back down the trail as fast as my body was able. Then back down the street, I ran heading for the lighthouse.

        When inside, I went straight for the cabinet. I raced down the ladder to the machine room, blinded by tears and emotion. I paused at the machine, my hands shaking a little. But then I did what I had been waiting to do for months. I dropped to the ground and pulled the five levers one, at a time closing the clamps and connecting the machine to the cables. Now at last, when the machine started, the cables would move.

        I stood and stared at the machine with wide eyes, my breath short and fast. It was 8:39pm. I had about 6 hours to wait and I knew I wouldn’t sleep a second of it. I journeyed up all the stairs to the lantern room, then out to the pier to gaze out over the dark ocean, then back down through the cabinet to the machine room again. I paced and paced, more anxious than I had ever been in my life. The hours passed slowly.