When Isabella finally reached the tree she was tired and although she wanted to call out for Raven and tell him about the pond she was happy to sit down and listen the branches rustling in the wind. The tree did not have a cocoon like feeling in the winter when the branches were bare, but the branches that made up her platform felt even more like a hand without the foliage and so her feeling of being firmly held was more acute. She felt for Aunt May’s crystal and found it cold and damp in its hiding hole. She felt a little guilty that she had left it there for so long and held it firmly to her chest to warm it up. At first the crystal felt hard and unyielding in her hand but as the warmth of her body filled it she felt its edges soften and a trickle of warmth move up her arm and into her heart.
She imagined a conversation with Raven about the pond and Bubble and Squeak and it felt as if he was sitting right next to her. She imagined the two of them sitting side by side and looking out over the familiar bare landscape and the picture was so real that she did not dare turn her head for fear of shattering the illusion. In the winter she could see much further because the leaves did not obscure her view and as she searched the surroundings for signs of life she caught a flicker of movement behind a blue screen and she realised she was looking at the blue mist behind the iron gates. For some reason she could not see the gates, she could just sense the movement and the blue mist, so she went to investigate.
As she approached she found the iron gates open and she paused to look for Icarayus, but the outer circle was empty and barren in the winter light. She walked halfway round, but returned having not found, or heard anyone. No person that is, for the Spectas who were being their usual noisy selves.
As she walked she noticed the damage that she had done earlier, the broken branches now sprouting new growth and she felt her shame rising to her cheeks. How could she have destroyed such beauty? She had learned about these trees in school, they were called Espalier and Icarayus must have spent years training the branches to caress the walls. So, having seen enough of the fruits of her tantrum, she was relieved to return to the gates.
All around her was total stillness, a sense of expectation filled the air and seized her stomach. She knew that she needed to enter the blue mist but fear, placed an icy hand on her shoulder and held her back as she turned to go home.
At that moment a large bird flew past her and into the blue mist and she read that as a sign. She thought of Raven, his unpredictability, his bright laugh and adventurous attitude and felt she owed it to him to investigate. He would never have turned back so easily.
She moved tentatively forward towards the shimmering wall of mist and noticed how rich the colours were, some of the folds were a deep indigo which prevented her from looking any further, other folds were the palest diamond blue that sparkled and reflected back both the house, the outer circle and even her own face. It appeared to her as if the whole universe was somehow reflected in this scene, from the night sky, to the oceans, from sunrise to sunset. All the blues were present and woven into a mist that could have been millimetres thin, or centimetres thick, she found it impossible to judge.
What was clear was that there was constant movement behind the screen which, even when she peered through the most translucent parts, had no visible cause. She could see no person, but knew she was not alone. She could see no instrument, but heard a melodic hum, She felt very safe and at the same time completely exposed as if she was standing on the edge of a cliff and facing into the unrestricted flow of sea air from continents far away.
Isabella walked around the circle three times, stopping to peer into the translucent parts from time to time, but the more she peered the more the house seemed to change. “It is just the angle of the sunlight shifting,” she thought to herself, “the reflections change.” It was then she realised that there was warm sunlight surrounding the house, which was in stark contrast to the cool winter’s light surrounding her.
She came to a fold that she had not noticed before, it seemed to be more of a hidden gap than a fold and she went to push her way through, but that cold hand seized her shoulder again and she stepped back. She turned on her heels to head back to the gate, but as she did so another large bird flew overhead, looked down at her, and then flew straight into the blue mist.
That seemed to lift the cold hand of fear from her shoulder and she pushed her way through the blue mist and stood blinking in the warm sunlight. She felt silly and hot in her coat and scarf but was too afraid to move in case the dog appeared, so she stood still, sweating slightly and waited for movement. There was no sign of the dog, thank goodness and no sign of Icarayus, which was not so good. Very carefully she removed her scarf and coat, rolled it up and placed it under one of the thicker blue folds that enveloped it and made it invisible.
Suddenly she felt very self conscious and scuttled quickly round to the back of the house where she found cover within the orchard that was beautifully kept. She could hear the pigeons on the other side of the mist and felt separate from them, so she went close to their boxes in the hope they could fly though the mist too. She found a gap in the indigo which meant she could see them huddled together to keep warm, but as she held out her hand to touch them the mist yielded, but did not give way. She tried to push her hand through it and although the mist expanded to accommodate her reach it then contracted back to its original form. That was scary and she felt trapped, so she started to move back towards the iron gates. At first she moved slowly, but then she started to run, almost as if she had been warned that the portal that she had found was about to close.
She could not find the portal, the blue mist was so sheer and yet so intricate that she could not find her own starting point, or see the place where her clothes were hidden and she felt her tears rise. At that moment she caught sight of the gazebo and felt the presence of Raven. As she walked the long distance towards the gazebo, having forgotten for a moment her desire to leave, she found herself having a conversation with Raven all about the new fish pond and the plants they had planted in his memory. She was reassuring him that the fish were happy and had more freedom in their new, much larger, home and she found herself thinking, “Just like you I suppose.”
That thought, as it left her mind and entered into the atmosphere around her surprised her. “Did she really think that Raven was in a place that was larger than his life? Did she really think that Raven was in a place at all? Yes”, now she thought about it, “yes, she did”. So, Raven is in this new land, not far from me and he is not alone, is that actually what I think?
“When did this happen?” she asked herself.
“When you saw him in the gazebo.” Came the reply.
“Did I answer that, or someone else?” she asked herself.
No reply came and she remained uncertain of who she was speaking to, was it herself? At this point she had reached the empty gazebo and sat herself down with no anxiety at all about being seen, or confronted.
Isabella lost her sense of time as she sat in the gazebo and absorbed the deep peace that surrounded her. So, when some soft footsteps were walking across gravel it woke her, as if from a dream, and she looked round to see who was approaching, or entering the house. No one was approaching her but they did seem to be heading for the house and out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the blue and green dress worn by the woman she had seen in the gazebo.
