Chapter 5. The silver sea

"Is that the Farm ?" Vie asked.

''You can see most of it from up here." Innis said.

He was glad for Vie's company and it was chance for her

to know him better. Nain Joan had been too busy to come

and Charlotte had her land army duties.

Using his walking stick Innis walked arm in arm with Vie

until they reached the top of the hill.

"I used to come up here when I was a boy."

They sat on a low stone wall and waited for Innis to catch

his breath "It might be old age, but I don't remember this hill

being so steep."

Vie had noticed in the last months a steady decline in his

health.

"What do see out there?" Innis asked.

"I see a wide green valley." Vie said, "and empty fields and

lakes that go back into the ranges."

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"Do you see the chalk horse cut into the hill?"

Vie nodded..

"Some mornings when the mist lies flat across this valley,

that horse looks like it's galloping along a seashore."

"I hope I see that one day." Vie said.

"I hope you do too." Innis said.

"Did you grow up around here?"

Innis nodded.

"Down by that lake there once was a country house. It was

part of a large estate that was prosperous enough to have it's

own chapel. My Father was employed there as a Pastor and

our family lived in a manse on the property. The three of us,

my Mother, Father and me."

Vie couldn't see any of what Innis had described.

"Where has it all gone?"

Innis looked at his hands. His Mother said he had his

Father's hands. Now they were just old and tired.

"My Father was the worst kind of self righteous hypocrite.

I think he honestly believed he was destined for a position

in the high Anglican church. But it wasn't to be, so he took

his frustrations out on Mother and me, and I got more

beatings than I can remember."

Vie shook her head.

"I was young then, I didn't understand how trapped my

Mother was with my Father and I'm ashamed to say I thought

she was weak. One night when my Father hit her, I took a kitchen

knife and stabbed him. I don't know who yelled at me the loudest.

I didn't wait around to find out, I ran away from home."

"You came back though." Vie said.

''Eventually." Innis said. "When I came back I found out the

estate had changed hands a number of times over the years

and it was in a bad way. The chapel had lost it's roof and the

manse that we'd lived in was being used to store hay."

"Where were your parents?" Vie asked.

"I asked about them when I bought the property. The owners at

that time had no idea. I had it all razed to the ground and cleared

away - the chapel, the manse, the manor house, everything.

I let the local towns people come and take whatever they wanted.

Then one day some workmen clearing the overgrown gardens

near where the chapel was found some unmarked headstones."

"You parents?" Vie asked.

"Maybe." Innis said. "I had them removed and broken up."

Vie took a closer look at the stones that made up the low wall they

were sitting on.

"You're a perceptive young woman." Innis said. "What I did was

a complete waste of time - but it did help me to understand that

the only place my past actually exists, is in my mind."

Vie thought about that for a moment.

"All I see is a beautiful valley." she said.

"Yes it is." Innis smiled.

*