Journey From the Summit Read Online Free PDF Page B

I stood there staring into the distance trying to work out what to do about it, I felt warm arms slip around my waist.
    “Flossie!” Saul breathed into my ear, “What you doing out here all alone?”
    I told him about Cathy’s dressing-down, and looked at him with tears glistening in my eyes.
    “I feel so rotten Saul. Adam must hate me, and he would have every right to!” I exclaimed.
    “Flossie, don’t be ridiculous! This is Cathy’s opinion; I bet Adam hasn’t even thought about it! Cathy is upset because you didn’t include her and Adam in this, and maybe she is justified in that, but trust me – I know Adam – he’s in there getting hammered with everyone, having a blast – he will not be brooding about whose party it is!”
    I guess I didn’t really know Adam well enough to know if Saul was just trying to make me feel better or not, so I had to trust him at his word.
    “Come on, let’s go back inside and see everyone! They have come here to party with us, not wonder where we have sneaked off to!” he said pulling me back inside.
    When we got back in, I looked around for Adam. He was at the very centre of a group of friends, who were all holding their sides laughing at something he was telling them. He caught Saul’s eye and raised his glass to him as he grinned his charming grin – that showed not a trace of anything but good-hearted humour.
    The rest of the evening passed by without incident. Steve stood up and made an amusing speech about the antics that the boys were likely to get up to on their travels, that was every bit as much about Adam as it was Saul.
     
    Finally came the dreaded day that they were due to leave. The pain I had feared our parting would involve was nothing to the reality of actually saying goodbye. I had tried so hard to save myself from this, but here I was having to go through it. I knew Cathy was feeling it too, and in a moment that passed between us, I knew that she had forgiven me for the party. The heartache we shared acted like a bond between us, drawing us together in mutual understanding at a time when no one else could really appreciate how hard it was to say good-bye.
    At the airport, Saul and I clung to each other, both proclaiming our love through our tears. I could feel the knot of grief in my chest clawing at my heart. I could feel the sun going out of my life.
    Then, as he turned to leave me, he tenderly lifted a strand of my hair and whispered, “Flossie, come with me. Go home, save up, and come out. I don’t want to go without you, but if I know you are coming, I will meet you, and we can travel together.”
    I raised my tear-filled eyes to his. Did he mean it? Were they just words of redemption? What about his plans with Adam?
    But I knew he did. His eyes were as full of pain as my heart. I knew he meant every word.
    With trembling fingers I reached behind my neck and unfastened my coin necklace that Saul had bought me.
    “Look after this for me Saul,” I said reaching up to do the clasp around his neck.
    He touched the coin as it lay on his collarbone, understanding that I was giving him my heart until we could be together again. “I will Flossie,” he promised me earnestly.
     
    I hated being away from him more than anything. My friends tried to console me, but the wound left by his absence ached excruciatingly. The only comfort I could gain any strength from were his parting words, which I clung to, to give me a focus. I could see a light at the end of the darkness. I would follow him anywhere. To be with him was all I wanted. I knew it would be a hard road, but I could think of nothing else. I had something to dilute the pain of being separated from him: the need to be re-united with him – I needed to earn as much money as I could and go and join him.
    Fortunately, a couple of weeks after Saul left, the retail company I worked for began advertising for a supervisor in their Oxford Street branch. I knew that if I could get the job it would pay me