Page 102 of The Soul Never Forgets

“What in the world would I do with a little baby princess after having three rough-and-tumble boys?”

“It would be a big change, but we’ll figure it out and roll with it.”

“We’re good at figuring things out and rolling with it.” We always do.

“Have you had a good birthday?”

I kiss her bent knee. “Yes. This naughty little escapade made the night perfect. But putting a baby girl in your belly on my birthday would be the best present ever.”

“Happy birthday, Dawsey. I love you.”

“And I love you.”

“I think I’ve been on my back long enough. Let’s go inside, and I’ll give you more naughty escapades.”

“I can think of no better way to celebrate turning forty.”

Epilogue 2

Caroline Beaumont

New Orleans, Louisiana

Forty-two Years Later

There’s less rise in his chest with each breath that he struggles to take. Dawsey’s exit from this world is near. I feel it deep within my soul. You see, that’s the thing with soul mates. We feel every part of each other’s lives including death.

“We’ve had… a good life… together… this time… my love,” he says.

This time.

Dawsey and I have shared amazing lives together throughout the ages. It’s been amazing discovering our other past lives. Oh my, the adventures we’ve been on. The children we’ve made… and the fun we had making them. I’ve been mother and he’s been father to so many throughout history.

“Our lives as Frank and Augustina were good ones, no doubt about that. But practice makes perfect and after so many times together, I think we’ve perfected how to love each other. Our lives as Caroline and Dawsey have been our best ones yet. Even if we did get a late start.”

“We loved… harder to… make up… for those early years… we lost.”

“I love our life. This one. I want more time together.” I’m not ready to let go of him.

“We’ll have… more time together… my love. Just not in… this life.”

Cancer is robbing us of the final years we should have left together. Dawsey is eighty-two, but we could have had a little more time with each other if not for this despicable disease.

“I won’t be far behind you.” I won’t survive long without him. I never do. I’ll grieve myself into an early grave. It doesn’t matter how young or how healthy I am, I never last more than two years without him. I’ve learned that much about myself.

Died of a broken heart.That’s what they’ll say about me when I’m gone. And they’ll be right.

“You have… the kids… and grandkids.”

Xavier. York. Wylie. Daisy.

Fourteen grandchildren.

I love each of them with all of my heart, but Dawsey is the one I can’t live without. “Each of them carries a piece of you inside them. I suppose I’ll have to make do until we meet again, won’t I?”

“I always go… ahead of you… and prepare the way… for our new life. And then you’ll… come join me on …our next big adventure.”

I’m going to be an old woman with grown children and grandchildren when Dawsey returns to this world as a newborn. He’ll be a baby in his mother’s arms in some unknown place on this earth, and I’ll be shuffling around hoping to not fall and break a hip.

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