Emma's Story. Part 2. Chapter 2.

The first major mission before me next morning was to visit my headquarters and arrange to transfer money to hometown. I had on my hand the time of a week or so before starting on my voyage back.

I might see Emma on her way to school if I managed to plan my schedule accordingly. But I trembled at the thought. It was destined to be my last encounter with Emma and Charles. I wasn't sure how she would take it. She was mature and level-headed. But I was not sure of myself. And most of all I felt concerned for Charles. He had just learnt to calm down after he had begun to trust me in his innocent but proud way. It would be another rather cruel stroke of destiny to be deprived of someone who had begun to figure as a father and a friend. .

That night I was left with no appetite. The night came without a sound. I prayed, solely for Emma, and Charles desolately..

That night I dreamed a dream of Emma, or rather a dream that she would have dreamed. It .was a large dining table in a cool dark dining hall with an overhanging lampshade, a kind of Victorian type of house. Emma's family had gathered around the table as if it was a long awaited reunion; Emma, and Charles, a grown up happy young man, and they were all sharing some tough thoughts and soft prayers. I wasn't anywhere in that dream, and yet the dream was a part of me.

That was a short but good sleep and I got up feeling hopeful and peaceful, not for me so much as vicariously for Emma.