HIS SAVING GRACE

George visits to The Willow became frequent. He would helped Benjamin harvested vegetables and fruits from his glass house and picked lily for his wife. He would helped Nora cooking and be taught by Benjamin how to tinkered around the house.

One day Benjamin took out an old gramophone and asked George to help him fixed it. When he was finished fixing it, he would played it and asked Nora to dance with him. At the end of the day he gave it to George as a token of appreciation for helping him fixed the old gramophone.

They spent a lot of time together in the glass house, farming together, explored Ben's big mansion for old things that still could be fixed. When it rained outside they would spent time in the library, reading. And to think that before he started to hang out with Ben, George hated reading.

One day Benjamin told George to suit up - he gave George a beautiful tailored suit that his tailor made especially for the young man - he took him to the country club. He taught George to socialized with other people; nice, educated people. He showed him the women, the respectable women that he should have for a wife if he cleaned up his act and got it together.

"I didn't say that rich woman who hangs out at the country club is the only wife material there is. What I'm trying to say is, if you don't clean up your mess you would never find a good woman worthy for you. This is what you'll miss if you keep being in a wrong path. A decent society where you could exchange ideas like a civilized person," Benjamin stretched his hand, gesturing the whole room, the women, the gentleman, and the lovers – especially the lovers.

And from that moment on, George started to cleaned up his mess. He stayed out of excess alcohol, he quitted smoking, he quitted playing hooker, he quitted hanging around his drunken friend and he started his new life. That was around time when his father got sick and Veronica got home after having finished school.

When his father was absent from the shop, it was clear to George that this whole time it was Veronica who really was going to make father rich. But unfortunately his father didn't live to see it. Shortly after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, his father passed away and Veronica took over the shop.

She did even better than her father when in a year she opened 3 shops in 3 different towns near Ipswich; Woodbridge, Needham Market and Stowmarket. After that she started exploring a new line of business and keep hitting gold. That was around time when George finally realized that his true passion was to be a farmer.

George met an old lighthouse keeper one day at a local bar. The lighthouse keeper named John and he was in need of an assistant but the job paid so little and it was located quite far from Ipswich, it was in Bidston Hill, Merseyside and it was also very secluded andq lonely. But George loved it! He loved what he heard from the old guy and said he would love to take the job.

Benjamin was very happy to hear that, he was relieved to know that George has a passion after all, even though the passion took him far away. Veronica on the other hand was ferocious! She was raging mad when George broke the news, she wanted George to stay and work with her in his father shop now turned into medium size enterprise thanks to the fierce businesswoman, herself. However, George kept his ground and that night after dinner he packed his clothes, the old pot that Ben gave him – now has a healthy green grass like plants living in it - went to the train station and caught the midnight train with John, far away from his hometown onto a new, serene place called Bidston Hill.

He soon found himself felt more like at home in the lighthouse more than he had ever felt in his own home. He wrote regularly to Ben and Nora and sometimes to Elda – they became quite close when he was working with Benjamin – and reluctantly to Veronica whose replies mostly contained her disaproval to George's decision and endless questions about when George would finally came home to wich the answer was always, never.

A year after his departure to the Bidston Hill, Veronica called and told him that she was engaged to be married to a Sinclair, an old rich family; a well-known family. Her fiancé was the only son in the Sinclair's house, Albert Sinclair. At this point Veronica's business had grown so rapidly that she was now has became a wealthy woman. She spoiled her mother rotten.

George went back home to attend the wedding. At the reception Veronica once again asked George to stay with her and build the business with her.

"Father would want you to, this is your birth right, George." said Veronica when they were standing in the foyer, quite far from the wedding party.

"What birth right, Veronica?" George snorted. "This is not father's anymore! What father had was an old shop in a farmer's market selling log. This is yours, Veronica not father's and certainly not mine. You made all this, this is your doing and you're great at it," He held his sister's hand fondly.

"But I want you to stay, Georgie. I miss you. You're my little brother and it kills me to be apart so far away from you."

"I do too, but I love my job, Veronica like you love yours. Would you leave your job if I ask you to?"

Veronica stood silently not long after she slowly walked towards the party where her loveable husband waiting to dance with her. George left the party and once again caught the midnight train.

He went back home one last time when his mother passed away 5 years after the wedding. He didn't stay long though and by midnight he found himself standing in the train station, waiting for the midnight train to take him back to his lighthouse. He had never coming back again until now.

Bette smiled to George, looking at him with much adoration. She adored his life journey and she felt joy and honored to be told this story from the man himself. George returned her smile. It was a relieved to finally being able to told the story of his life to somebody that truly wanted to listen. 50 years on this earth and never ever having the intimate talk like this with anybody else.

"Well, you clean up good, George." Bette smiled "So, have you found the woman worthy for you?" she could not believe she could ever found the bravery to asked such question to George, but she did and felt quite a surprise that the words didn't stumble about in his mouth.

"I hooked up with quite many woman in my years. But I got bored when I hit 40, they are all the same those woman and.." he laughed before finishing his sentence," and I just couldn't find even one woman that I ever feel comfortable with. People have been saying that I'm too fickle to settle. But I digress. I personally think that I haven't found someone that could really reach out to me"

"You just haven't found the one," Bette said agreeing with George.

"Although, I'm fifty years old, Bette, not exactly young." He smiled, "But I still hope for her, you know,"

"That's the spirit!" they both laughed. "So, how are you doing now in Bidston Hill?"

"John passed away years ago, I couldn't even remember when but he left me his home and I make most of it. I have quite a large farm and I have been selling my vegetables and livestocks in the farmers market there for quite some time and I'm very happy with it. I still look after the lighthouse although nobody uses it anymore. It's just something I like to do on the weekend."

"Quite a life, George. That's sound terrific."

"You are the first person to think my life is terrific! Other people just called it plain and lonely."

"Lonely would be like mine, yours the adventurous one."

George looked deeply in Bette's eyes and he could see sadness in her eyes. Behind those beautiful green eyes and cheerful attitude George found a lonely soul longing for something that for 40 years she obviously never found.

Bette blushed when she realized George had been looking at her for some time but George found her blushing very cute and he leaned over to her, closer to her lips intended to kiss those strawberry lips but then his stomach growl and killed the mood.

They both laughed,

"That's totally a mood killer," said George, now he was blushing.

"You're having an early morning starvation," said Bette laughing. "It's always happens to me when I'm not sleeping or staying up way later than I used to."

"Look," George pointed to the horizon and there was a beautiful orange sunrise.

"That's beautiful," Bette looked at the sunrise and silently saying a prayer to Ben and thanked him for the chance to talk to this beautiful man beside her.

Bette rose up, "Well, what about those stomach growl? Shall we do something about it?"

They both walked down the hill to the graveyard entrance, found Bette's car then she took George to the Sunny Side to make him a luscious breakfast.

Butter milk pancake.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***