BE BRAVE FOR ME by ELAINE JOHNS Free Novel EPILOGUE
BE BRAVE FOR ME by ELAINE JOHNS Free Novel EPILOGUE is an impressive creation that can be considered a part of the fiction genre of modernity, which has experienced an immense change and popularity in recent years. The contemporary fiction is distinguished by the emphasis on real life problems, complex relations, and psyche of a man. It breaks the line between imagination and reality, often making readers sink into the stories that do not only bring them entertainment, but also make them think and empathize. Peter being a modern fiction writer is able to drive modern themes and emotions in his writing and this makes him a powerful voice of modern and contemporary literary scene. The fact that he chose to write Gray in this genre is compliant with all his strengths, the skills of creating characters that touch the readers and exploring the experiences that reflect the intricacies of the contemporary life.
BE BRAVE FOR ME by ELAINE JOHNS Free Novel EPILOGUE
‘Never seen Arthur like it before,’ chuckled Gertie. ‘Normally, he ain’t
much of a singer. And wild horses couldn’t have dragged him up on a
stage.’
‘Powerful stuff is Spingo,’ said Maddie. ‘Put all but the strongest man
on his back.’ She remembered Lizzie Retallack’s words, an echo down the
years.
‘Well, that’s where the silly sod is now,’ said Gertie. ‘Flat on ’is back.
And when he does drag hisself out of that pit, he’ll have one hell of a
headache. Mind, he weren’t the only one knocking back the ale last night.
That young Rachel from the Forge – she reminded me of Sissy when she’d
had a few. And the way she was coming out of that dress…’
‘And falling into old Alf Bingham like that,’ said Maddie. ‘Made his
night, I reckon.’
‘Though can’t have done his accordion any good,’ laughed Gertie.
‘Anybody listening would think we’d had an orgy in there, instead of a
plain old barn dance,’ said Maddie. ‘But a brilliant night. One of the best.’
They’d all sung ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Some more tunefully than others,
Maddie had to admit, and then Gertie had led a bizarre and slightly wobbly
conga line around the barn and out into the yard. ‘And Rudi enjoyed
himself,’ she said. ‘But then everybody was so welcoming. Don’t think he
expected that.’
‘Why ever not?’ asked Gertie. ‘He’s a smashing bloke.’
‘Him being German… he was worried – some people have long
memories, won’t let the war go.’
‘Like who?’ said Gertie.
‘Rose Trevelyan for a start. She doesn’t like Germans and she’s not that
keen on the Japanese either. A hangover from the war. Her brother was
killed on D-Day.’
‘Well, she’s a bigot and an idiot then.’
‘But she shook Rudi’s hand,’ said Maddie, in amazement. ‘Maybe
there’s hope for us all.’
The kitchen door opened, and Rudi Fischer appeared. ‘Good morning,
lovely ladies,’ he said. ‘Can I interest anyone in a walk? The first day of a
brand-new year. And the sun is shining. A small miracle. Does that happen
often here?’
‘Miracles?’ said Maddie. ‘Every day in Pendurran is a miracle.’ She
laughed. ‘You must stay and find out.’
Gertie coughed discreetly. ‘You pair go for a walk. I’d best check on my
Arthur.’
‘He has a fine voice,’ said Rudi, generously. ‘I much enjoyed his song
about the elf.’
‘Sure.’ Gertie smiled. ‘Arthur has hidden depths. Go on, you pair. Clear
off!’ She shooed them away.
‘You know where I should especially like to walk?’ said Rudi, as they
walked across the yard. ‘The cove with the small church and our barn in it.’
‘Really? That’s where you want to go? It wouldn’t make you feel sad?’
‘Sad? No. I should feel very, very happy to visit there.’
It wasn’t far, and didn’t take as long as that first time Maddie had driven
from the POW camp at White Cross. She’d been there many times now, but
that day felt different. Throughout the short journey, she was in an odd
surreal bubble, as if she’d entered a time machine and wound the clock
back to 17 February 1941.
A lot had happened to her since, but even so, the sights and sounds and
smells of the ocean below them and the rugged landscape with its jagged
granite cliffs felt the same, unchanged by the hand of man.
All except the dunes in the distance: they were different.
She saw Rudi glance towards them. ‘It’s gone,’ he said, surprised.
‘It has,’ she said, knowing instinctively where his mind was. They
seemed to do that quite naturally, as if the pair of them could jump into each
other’s thoughts. ‘They took the barbed wire down years ago, after the army
bomb disposal chaps had cleared the minefield.’
‘Poor little lad, I never forget his face,’ said Rudi.
‘Harry. He was a proper character. I sometimes wonder what happened
to him,’ said Maddie.
‘Lucky lad,’ said Rudi. ‘Unlike the unfortunate rabbit.’
‘No, we shouldn’t forget the rabbit,’ she said. ‘It’s what brought us
together.’
‘You think so?’ He pulled her towards him and held her tightly. ‘I
thought that was my natural charm.’
‘You trying to steal my staff car, you mean! Poor old Harriet, you broke
her boot.’
‘What? I fixed her boot, if you recall.’
‘I recall every bit of it,’ said Maddie, her voice husky, her eyes moist.
‘Happy?’ asked Rudi.
‘Very,’ she said.
He walked her over to the barn. Their barn. ‘Can’t believe it hasn’t
fallen down yet.’
‘New people in the farm now,’ said Maddie. ‘I think they must be fixing
the old place up. Going to rebuild the barn, turn it into a place for
holidaymakers, I hear.’
‘No! They can’t do that,’ said Rudi. ‘That’s our special place.’
‘Well, then,’ she said, a challenge in her voice, ‘let’s go in there one last
time.’
‘What – break in?’
‘Sure, what can they do to us?’ said Maddie. ‘It’s only a rickety old
barn. And it’s not like we’re stealing anything.’
The bench had collapsed and the hole in the roof had got bigger, but the
walls were still there, thumbing their nose at the passage of time.
‘I’m glad we’ve come back,’ said Rudi. ‘This is the place where I first
knew I loved you. That I could not possibly in my lifetime love anyone else
in the same way. So, I wanted to ask you something important. I have no
wish to shame you, but…’ He stumbled over his words, searching for the
perfect ones that would reflect the seriousness of the moment. Of the
intensity of his feelings.
‘What, Rudi, what?’
‘My face,’ he said, and touched the scar with his fingers. ‘It does not
upset you? You are not ashamed of it?’
‘Your face,’ said Maddie, ‘is that so important to you? It’s what’s
underneath that counts. But it just so happens that I love your face – your
eyes, your nose, your lips, your cheeks, but especially your beautiful eyes.’
She caressed his face as she took inventory of each separate piece of it.
‘You do?’ he asked, surprised. ‘And is this a face you could look on
every day?’
‘Every day,’ she said, emphatically.
‘So, this Madeline Brady, a woman of fine beauty and extreme
intelligence, would she be happy to take this’ – he fumbled in his pocket
and brought out the ring he had purchased in Helston – ‘and marry a man
with such a face? A man who would love her above all else – above
himself.’
It was all that she’d hoped for. Everything she wanted. But still, it took
her by surprise. And she paused, allowed the silence to settle before she
replied.
She wanted to scream at the top of her voice, shout yes a hundred times,
but she only said it once and in a quiet voice.
Still, it was enough, for Rudi smiled, seemed happy and relieved. He
put the ring on her finger. ‘I’ll look after you,’ he said. His voice was
earnest, his expression solemn, as if this was a promise he’d thought
seriously about. Needed her to know that.
‘We’ll look after each other,’ said Maddie. ‘And where shall we live?’
she asked.
‘Anywhere you are will be my home,’ said Rudi.
‘Pendurran? Could you live at the farm?’
‘I like the farm and the countryside and the ocean. I will miss my
mountains and my Alpine lakes, but maybe we could go there sometimes.’
‘Heimat,’ she said. ‘Homeland.’
‘You remembered.’
‘I remember everything you told me. And of course, we’ll go there,’
said Maddie. ‘We must. We’ll see your mother and our son and walk around
the lake. We can work it out,’ she said. ‘And now, do you mind if we go
down to the ocean?’
They walked hand in hand along the path Maddie had trodden so many
times before. Back to where their lives together had begun. To the beach at
Church Cove. And every so often, small ripples of pleasure and excitement
made their way through her, as she thought about the ring on her finger, felt
its presence, told herself that it was real and not some romantic fiction she
had conjured up.
‘The ring,’ said Maddie. ‘It’s beautiful. And the dolphins…’
‘Not too sweet, too sappy?’ he asked.
‘Just right. And the band, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before,’
said Maddie.
‘Just in Cornwall, that’s what the jeweller told me. And I know how
much you love this land. They mix tin and gold together to make a special
ring. I hoped you would understand,’ he said. ‘The two different metals.
Like us.’
‘So, which one are you?’ she asked.
‘Tin – obviously.’
‘Really?’
‘Tin is good,’ he said. ‘Tin protects lots of other metals. It’s important.’
‘So, that makes me gold.’
‘And very precious.’
‘Well, I don’t know if I can live up to that,’ said Maddie. ‘But I’ll try.’
She studied his face as he gathered small pebbles from the beach,
skimmed them along the wave tops. Watched his look of concentration turn
to joy at the achievement. Maddie smiled. Such simple things: they were
always the stuff of life, of happiness, the things you remembered. The
longer she lived, the stronger that belief became.
‘Did you see?’ he asked her. ‘That was a triple,’ he said. ‘Definitely a
triple.’
‘Two bounces,’ she teased him. ‘I only saw two bounces. You’ll need to
practise. But then we’ll have time.’
‘Yes,’ Rudi agreed. ‘We will.’
She wound her arm around his waist. ‘Can I ask you something, a very
special favour?’
Rudi pulled her closer. ‘A favour for a favour,’ he said, and kissed her
firmly on the mouth, his tongue probing, sending small frissons of
excitement through her.
Maddie shuddered. His lips were moist in the cold air, and an invitation.
Reluctantly, she pulled away, for she wanted to hold nothing back from
him. Wanted them to be honest with each other from the start, an equal
partnership.
‘You can say no,’ said Maddie. ‘And maybe you’ll think it’s a strange
thing to ask so I’ll understand if you don’t feel comfortable with it.’
‘Now I’m intrigued,’ said Rudi, ‘and a little nervous.’
Maddie stroked his face gently. ‘Nothing serious, I promise. And you
might think it’s frivolous, but you know that Gertie is my best friend? I love
her. Not the way I love you, of course. It’s a different kind of love.’
‘I know,’ said Rudi. ‘And I understand. A comradeship. Hans and I had
much the same. You’ve been through a lot together. Friends like that are
special. And I would never come between the two of you. So…?’
‘Would you think it really silly if I wanted to have a double wedding?’
She put her fingers to his lips to stop his sudden reply. ‘At heart, you see,
I’m a romantic. A sucker for a happy ending. And in my head, I saw my
wedding like the end of Pride and Prejudice when Jane gets to marry Mr
Bingley and Elizabeth finally gets her Darcy. You, my love, are my
wonderful Mr Darcy, only better than him. Much better. Braver, more
handsome, the love of my life.’ She took her hand away from his lips. Her
breath was coming in short bursts now, and Maddie couldn’t believe she’d
told him all that. How ridiculous would he think her now?
‘You believe in happy endings. I remember that. It’s part of who you
are. And why would I want to change one tiny part of you, Maddie Brady?
Apart from that name, of course. Will you be happy as Maddie Fischer, do
you think?’
‘Very, very happy. I’d be proud to have your name. You’ve brought
nothing but honour to it. And the wedding…?’
‘Let’s see what we can do. Maybe the vicar would give us all a
discount,’ he said.
A joke. She smiled, relieved. Gertie had joked about it too.
Maddie released a contented sigh and looked out once more at the
ocean. Today was one of those tranquil days in the cove, the rhythm of the
waves soothing as they glided peacefully to shore, leaving behind tiny
traces of pure white foam. She had always thought of the ocean as timeless.
And neutral. It held no grudges, knew nothing of man’s idiocy or his wars.
Every day it was there without fail, sweeping everything clean. Asking
nothing in return, except respect for its power. And its beauty.
She glanced at the man beside her, the man who would be part of her
life. He picked up another smooth, round pebble, weighed it in his hand.
‘This is what triples are made of,’ he said, smiling. ‘You just watch.’
The stone skimmed the water and Rudi Fischer jumped up and down on
the sand, his face crinkled in delight. He might have been eight years old
instead of thirty years older. ‘See,’ he said, ‘your man has skills! That
bounced three times.’
Maddie smiled right along with him. ‘A four,’ she said. ‘Easily a four.’
She pondered once more on the joys, the frustrations and the sadness
that life sometimes threw at you. And she knew that she was right. Simple
things held the greatest joy. They were the vital DNA of life, the most
important stuff that built memories.
One thing she was certain of: she and Rudi Fischer would build lots of
memories.
They joined hands and turned their backs on the beach, walking slowly
up the hill to the car. Back to Pendurran and the start of a new life
BE BRAVE FOR ME by ELAINE JOHNS Free Novel EPILOGUE
In evaluating the essential aspects of the modern fiction as well as the narrative flair, which Peter demonstrates through his unique writing skills, the novel Gray becomes more than a novel, but a total journey into the intricacies of life. The book explores the gray of morality, the uncertainty of decision making and the contradictions that humans go through in their pursuit of a world that changes at a very fast rate. The novel by Peter does not provide clear answers that are challenges that the readers need to challenge their faith and emotions as they go through the novel. It is a brilliant combination of the literary technique and the heartfelt narration of the story that results in what makes the interplay of sharp character development and the realistic situations so perfect in Gray. As Peter uncovers the adventures of the main characters, he welcomes the audience to their miseries, their wins, and their weaknesses. The reader gets a peep into the mind of characters that are not good nor bad, but rather live in the gray area of morality and emotion hence the name of the novel. In the end, it can be stated that Gray is an ideal example of a modern literature, showing the best aspects of its genre and the originality of the author, Peter. It is not only strong in terms of its captive storyline, but in giving one the desire to think and reflect even after reading the last page.
