Page 13 of Lovestruck at Sundown
“Put Aaron on the phone.”
Nice talking to you too.
Shaking my head, I leaned in and passed my phone to Aaron. He said, “Yes, Mr. Murphy,” a few times and ended the call. I took my phone back and put it in my bag.
My dad won’t know what hit him.
Aaron guided us around the large cemetery toward Caleb’s burial plot. All of the graves were simple and made of stone but still surrounded by beautiful greenery. Most of them had pebbles and rocks stacked on top of them forming small piles, some larger than others. I wondered what those meant. The cemetery felt peaceful and was almost empty, save for a few scattered people around the place.
Aaron stopped walking without notice and said, “That’s the one,” as he pointed toward a grave in the near distance with a weak flick of his finger. A young brunette woman was kneeling at the base of it, weeding the perimeter with focused intent, not noticing our arrival.
She was beautiful.
I turned to Aaron to ask if it was okay for me to approach the grave, but he spoke before I could. “Let me introduce you to Noa.”
When we got closer to her, she said something in Hebrew without looking our way. Aaron chuckled. “She says we don’t do flowers.”
Noa slowly crawled around the grave as she kept weeding it like her life depended on it.
“Shalom, Aaron,” she said without turning around.
“Shalom, Noa.” Aaron continued to say something in Hebrew that made Noa stop what she was doing. She bit her lower lip as she kept nodding with understanding at his words and helped herself up from the ground. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and tugged the single gardening glove off the other. “Noa, this is Miss Murphy and Mr. Sjöberg. They’re here for a visitation.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said with a rough accent and not a hint of a smile, offering her hand to us. Her big brown eyes looked glassy, and she seemed annoyed about the interruption. I wondered who she was to Caleb. “You are Billie?”
“Ah, yes.” I shot a twitchy smile her way.
“Mm.” She considered me in silence for a few tense seconds. “I know who you are.” She turned around, got on her knees again, and placed the gardening glove back in her hand. “If you don’t mind.” She tilted her head toward the grave. “I promised Caleb’s mother I would keep it clean. When I’m done, I’ll leaveyou alone with him.”
We didn’t have to wait long for Noa to be done weeding Caleb’s grave, but we did it in silence, giving her enough space to do it in peace. Before we knew it, she was giving the burial plot one last look as she pulled a small stone out of her small crossbody canvas bag. She carefully placed it over the grave and pressed her palm against it with her eyes closed, mumbling something in Hebrew. I wondered how many of those stones had been placed by her.
“He’s all yours,” Noa said, adjusting the strap on her shoulder. “Nice seeing you, Aaron.” Her lips went into a tight line, and she nodded once as she started to walk away.
“Noa?” I said, stopping her, but she didn’t turn around. “I’m sorry.” The guilt overcame me once again, realizing Caleb had left an entire life behind him here. I didn’t know what they were to each other, but something told me she loved and cared about him enough to visit his grave and take on the responsibility of keeping it tidy.
“I do wonder,” she said softly, turning around to face me. “If he’d still be alive, had he chosen to stay.”
I’d toyed around with the idea, and the first thing that came to my mind every single time was: yes. A parallel timeline existed where Caleb never left and was still living his life in Tel Aviv.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I felt my breathing getting heavier. I was here as an act of respect and penance, even if everyone insisted Caleb’s fate wasn’t on me. It felt right to have these conversations with the loved ones he’d left behind—terrifying, but right.
I remained silent, sensing Noa wasn’t done talking.
“He was dead before he left.” Noa glanced at Aaron before flicking her gaze back to me. “I understand now that leaving was his only choice at the time because he never turned back. And weonly talked once after he left. It was brief—the night before he died. After five years without speaking, I finally got my head out of my ass and called him to wish him a happy birthday. Asked him if he was happy. If he missed home. The food. The beach. If he could see himself living a different life because when he left …” Noa trailed off and took a deep breath. She smiled, but I could see the tears pooling in the corner of her round chocolate eyes. “As I said, he was dead before he left. And that day that I was lucky enough to talk to him, he seemed happier and more alive than I’d ever—” She wiped a few tears off her cheeks. “He mentioned you. And I teased him about it and playfully warned him about not shitting where he eats, but he laughed and said you were his best friend and that you’d saved him.” She smiled, but her eyes closed for a few long seconds, more tears cascading down her lovely face as she hugged herself.
My face was drenched with tears, and my eyes were swollen, spent from the day’s intense emotional occurrences.
“You brought him back to life.” She nodded a few times and worked her lower lip. “Lord knows I tried but wasn’t able to do it.”
That last line made me think there had been romantic ties between them. He must’ve left when they were still somewhat involved. But I quickly came to terms with the fact that I would never know. I knew I could ask Aaron about Noa and everything he knew. But it didn’t feel right to dig into Caleb’s past. It was his past. And if he chose not to mention her to me, then I had to respect his reasons.
It didn’t make it any less difficult to process that the job Caleb was offered in Paris was what probably ripped him away from her.
“I need to head back home.” Noa pulled her phone out of her bag, which wouldn’t stop chiming with incoming notifications. “Can’t leave the husband alone with the baby for more than forty minutes.” She shook her head and let out a sad chuckle, and I joined in as I wiped the tears with the back of my hand.
William stood behind me, ran his arms around my shoulders, kissed my hair, and set his chin on the top of my head. Always letting me know he was there with me.
“It was nice meeting you, Noa.”
