Free What if I Fly? by Jayne Conway Page A

Romeo. Follow your heart my angel. It’s not every day you meet someone who feeds your soul.”
    If only it were that simple! Julia rested her head on the hospital bed, her grandmother gently stroking her hair.
    “I love you my little angel.”
    “I love you too, Gram.”
    A little after nine, her grandmother sound asleep, Julia fixes her blanket and kisses her on the forehead before making the journey home.
     
    It took Julia hours to fall asleep once she left the hospital, her grandmother’s words echoing in her head. Only two people matter…me and Will . Those are the last words she remembers before drifting off.
    “Follow your heart…” her grandmother says, floating above her. Confused, Julia tries to hold her, pull her down onto her bed, but Gram’s just out of her reach. “Goodbye my Julietta,” she whispers, then kisses her cheek and disappears.
    Julia wakes with a start, her heart racing, her nightgown clinging to her, damp with sweat. Gram! It’s still dark outside, the middle of the night and she grabs the clock off of her nightstand. Three forty-five. She sits back against her pillows. I had a dream. At least, she thinks it was a dream…but it felt so real. It couldn’t be real, could it?
    She’s gone. I feel it. Tears fall down her face. No! Gram! Don’t leave me! Her grandmother has been the one constant adult presence in her life and now she’s gone.
    Julia sobs into her pillow until there aren’t any tears left, then stares at her bedroom ceiling, waiting for the phone call she knows is coming. At six o’clock the phone finally rings and she reaches for it on her nightstand, her arms leaden.
    “Hi Dad.”
    “Julia, she’s gone. Gram died about two hours ago.”
    “I know,” she whispers and places the handset on the receiver.
     
    ***
     
    The Fourth of July is just two weeks away and the whole town is gearing up for the celebration. Normally Will enjoys the festivities, but this year he’s not in the mood. He has a lot on his mind as he mows his parents’ sizeable lawn. They have a gardener for the flowerbeds and to prune the trees and shrubs, but he and his siblings have always had household responsibilities and pitch in where needed. Mowing the lawn is his job and he doesn’t mind doing it.
    He loves his parents’ property, its proximity to the water and the view of town across the harbor. Will’s family has strong roots in Bristol. His mother, Ruth, was brought up on Poppasquash Neck and is the descendant of one of the town’s first families.
    Her family is old money, civic-minded philanthropists. Will never asked how the family came into their money, though he suspects it had something to do with the ‘Triangular Trade’ Julia told him about. He and his siblings have sizeable trust funds, but he can’t touch the money until he’s twenty-five. He doesn’t want to, would prefer to make his own way in the world and save the money for his own children.
    Will’s father, Mitchell, comes from a very different background. He was raised in South Boston and has worked hard for his success. His grandparents emigrated from Ireland and didn’t have ‘two nickels to rub together’ but they made sure his father was educated.
    His father is a brilliant man with an analytical mind, a respected leader in the business community, and Will admires him tremendously. He attended Boston Latin, and worked his way through Harvard, winning the heart of Ruth Ellery in the process.
    His mother attended Wellesley College and met his father there at a dance. Her family wasn’t thrilled that she married outside of her faith and converted to Catholicism, but they grew to respect his father for his values, work ethic and determination.
    It’s warm out today and the sun is beating down on Will as he contemplates his next moves. He has an interview in Washington, DC next week and for once he’s interested in the position. It’s an entry-level government job with the Treasury Department.
    Since