Chapter 5

"I am calling out to you Bingy-White. I need you. I do not want to go. Not yet. I know my time is nigh but I do not want to go, not when they are so young." Her outburst was so sudden you could think that she was talking to herself in a soliloquy or maybe to some invisible person. But in response to her, a form appeared at the far side of the wooden shelf on its top left mirror door, a reflection formed.

"There you are. I thought you were never going to come." Terese gazed up at the image with adoration shining in her eyes.

It was a man old in age but the lines around his mouth revealed an ever-smiling man and not necessarily wrinkles. Fitted in the frame were his face, shoulders midway to his stomach. He had a stroke of pink hair above his right brow. He lifted his left brow and smirked at her.

"Oh Terese! You have not changed a bit." His eyes skimming over Terese's form.

"Bingy, I miss you."

"You are coming to me today, no need to worry about that anymore." At the mention of that she looked away into the cackling flame.

"I know," she said with a wavering voice.

"What's the matter, my Tee?" She smiled at the use of his pet name for her. The smile fell almost immediately as she resumed. The hesitance in her voice told him all he needed to know. She was having second thoughts about their initial agreement. He did not worry however of her changing her mind. He was aware that she would make the right decision no matter the cost.

"The girls, Bingy, they are still so young," she added as if to justify her reason for having second thoughts.

"I know my dear. But we have pushed so far. If we push anymore, we will put their lives in danger."

"I understand. Is not there any other way of doing this?" she managed to pull her sad eyes away from the little furnace into his eyes. Her gaze pleading with him silently for what she knew he had no power over. He felt her pain. He had sacrificed his time on earth so that she remained behind for their son and grandchildren.

"This is as far as you go. Pink-White must take on now. Immortality for them comes at a price that we must pay."

"They are so young Bingy, how will our son handle them? He is only but a man." A stubborn tear found its way down her right cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

"Pink-White is stronger than you know. He will make it. It is sad that his wife had to die before seeing the girls grow."

"They will need a mother Bingy. Can I stay? Evalene is not here anymore, it is not fair that they are left with no mother. They need a mother-figure in their--" her intonation was rising with each sentence. She knew she sounded desperate and maybe it had actually come to that. She was desperate, desperate for what would become of her granddaughters without her in their lives.

"They will be fine," he cut in to stop her down spiral of self-reasoning and admonishing. He could sense her inner turmoil.

"I sometimes wish the future did not have to cost us so much," she lamented.

"For them it is worth it. Now go ahead and say your last goodbyes to our son. At least you will not come this side to no one like I did. You will have me waiting for you on the other side. You will have me for eternity," he winked and disappeared with a pop.

It was nothing that Terese had not seen before. Over the years, she had called Bingy-White, her husband for talks as this one when she was having second-thoughts. She missed him terribly for his love, counsel and charm. He had been a caring husband who considered her needs before his own.

She had badly wanted to see her granddaughters grow at least to teen age before she died. It had been Bingy's idea to sacrifice over ten years of his life to add them to hers in order to grant her heart's desire, that was how much he loved her. She missed him ever since and even now when her love for him burned with a fervency so great it could not be quenched. His gift to her had served its time now she had to give it up.

Walking with tardy steps, Terese reached over to her son's door and halted her movement. Stretching her hand out to the door knob, she thought against it instead and spoke to him through the door. It would come back to him as a dream. She could not bare seeing his face while she said goodbye.

"You will do well Pink. Your father believes in you. I believe in you. You will do well. I cannot stay. My life here is done but I will be with you. I love you," was all she said before she vanished before his eyes. This is all because of that nonsensical curse. If it were not for it, maybe, just maybe, things would be di-- she halted her thoughts and vanished into thin air.

Let it be known then that it had been the custom of the Greens to give up years of their existence to the Green Lake--because of the Gipus Curse--in exchange for immortality for their children. Bingy-White gave his ten years to his wife Terese-White for she had wanted to stay around and help her widowed son raise her grandchildren.

The next day, Pink-White woke with a start getting up from his bed. What a weird dream that had been! But his knowledge of the Green Kingdom about how things worked made him think otherwise of dismissing the dream as any other dream. It had to mean something. As if to answer his thought, Pink-White was welcomed by a sloppy footman when he stepped out of his room. He had tears in his eyes, his voice trembled with fear as he announced to the king.

"Her Majesty, the Queen Mother, Terese-White is gone. She cannot be found anywhere in the palace," he said this on bended knee, face down.