• Charlie thanked the gods she had the foresight to dress warmly as she trudged up the rocky mountain side of Macleod’s Tables. She glanced down at her stout boots thankful they were waterproof as rain continued to slice against her slender frame. “I heard weather in Scotland changes like the whims of a fickle woman but this is just ridiculous” she thought to herself. Charlie looked around as she neared the flat summit. The terrain was beautiful, lush and green, but freezing compared to her favored Floridian home back in the states. Charlie threw down her hiking pack and pulled out her canteen to take a long, much-needed, drink. She tried to roll the kinks out of her shoulders and sighed. “Geez Meg, I will never understand why you chose to move all the way to this freezing b***h of a land. It’s beautiful, and the legends certainly lend an appeal, but you could have pinned a picture of the tables by your bed in a condo next to mine” putting the cap back on the canteen, she sat down and continued. “Then I wouldn’t have to hike halfway around the world just to pay you a visit.” Charlie walked over to where her sister was already waiting for her and sat down to look out over the land. “It really is beautiful. I do see what appealed so much to you that you felt you had to live here. I guess it is selfish, but I wish you weren’t so far away. I worry about you.” Met with silence, Charlie sighed and hugged her knees.

    She didn’t know how to reach out to Meg. It wasn’t like this when they were younger. It was easier back then. They were inseparable, Charlie and Meg. From the time they were little they were always together, like a team Charlie thought. Because of the closeness in age, Charlie being older by a year and a half, they were best friends despite their differences. Charlie was outspoken and fiery right out of the womb whereas Meg was an observer with a permanent air of calm around her. Charlie was always getting into trouble and Meg was always there to calmly help her out of it. Charlie smiled as she thought about how innocent and carefree she and her sister were. Their mother always said that she didn’t need any more children because she already had a set. Her very own version of yin and yang in her two special girls. Looking back, Charlie didn’t have one memory without Meg in it. She was in every single one from something as simple as fishing expeditions to dating. Good times and bad. If Charlie was hurting then Meg was hurting and vise versa. If Meg was celebrating then Charlie was right next to her, cracking some joke and enjoying the festivities. But that was a long time ago and Charlie no longer knew how to reach Meg.

    Charlie looked at her sister and tried again. “Do you remember when Dad left?” Charlie paused, opened her canteen and took another drink. Putting the cap back on she sighed and continued, “No I guess you wouldn’t. I was seven so you were … around five I think…maybe closer to six at that time. We were all so sad, you, mom, and myself. I remember wondering what had we done to make daddy go away. I remember looking at Mom asking her if he was coming back. But you scrunched up your nose and threw out your chin, I remember because it was the first time I had seen true anger on your face. Anyways, before Mom could answer you stomped your foot and said he wouldn’t be allowed back. You said, sounding quite grown up, that he didn’t deserve us. And then you made us all laugh by saying that he would be sorry too, because we were going to go to Disneyland without him and Mickey Mouse could be our new daddy because our old one was mean and smelled like fish” Charlie chuckled and continued. “ I remember thinking right then that we would be alright. We were laughing, we loved each other, and that was all we needed. You were right. Not about Disney Land. But you were right about good old dad. A man who can walk away from his children without even explaining why doesn’t deserve the children in the first place. And I will never understand what stroke of luck had him married to a woman like our mom. God knows he didn’t deserve someone like her in the first place. Course I didn’t realize any of this until we were older, but at that moment, when we laughed together, I knew that is all we needed. As long as we had one another and we continued to laugh together, we would be all right.” Charlie paused, waiting to see if Meg would respond in some way, but there was only the sound of the wind and the rain. Somewhere off in the distance someone was playing the bagpipes, but Meg remained as silent as she had been since Charlie appeared at the top of the tables.

    Charlie, growing frustrated, jumped up and started pacing along the cliff. “What do you want from me?!” She yelled at Meg “What do I have to do to get you to respond? Is it so much to ask that you show me some sign that you’re even listening to me? You don’t have to talk, just simply acknowledge that I am here. If you were to do that one, tiny, little thing then maybe I would figure out what you need from me!” Charlie stomped back and forth, glaring at the ground. Suddenly she stopped, picked up a small pebble from the path and threw it as hard as she could off the cliff. She watched as the pebble grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared from her sight.

    Charlie whirled around and faced her sister with anguish expressed in every line of her face. “I’m sorry.” she said, “I am so sorry. Every day that goes by is one more day that I wish I had seen. If I had only questioned those little things that seemed so off. If I had just taken the time to push you, even a little, maybe I could have been what you needed.” Unable to face Meg, Charlie faced back toward the edge of the cliff and resumed pacing. “I wish you would have told me, would have come to me. I wish that I could kill that b*****d. I feel so… angry all the time at what he did to you.” Growing angry again, Charlie whirled back around and stepped over to Meg. “Why couldn’t you tell me?! I asked about the bruises. I begged you to confide in me. You let him distance us. You broke our plans for him time and time again. I WANTED TO HELP YOU!” Charlie screamed at Meg. “You were the most important person in my life. I knew…just KNEW something was wrong. But you refused to let me in.” Sobbing uncontrollably, Charlie fell to her knees in front of Meg. She heard a loud rumble and realized it was thunder and a part of her acknowledged, belatedly, that whereas it was gently raining when she arrived, it was now down pouring. The rain icy cold as it beat against her chilled body in punishing blows.

    Quieting down, Charlie looked at her sister with a mixture of guilt and grief on her ravaged face. “God Meg, I am sorry. More sorry then you will ever know.” Charlie climbed to her feet and retrieved her hiking pack. She reached inside and pulled out a glossy oak container, about the size of a small jewelry box. But She knew that what it contained would be far more precious than any bauble to her sister. On the top of the lid was a single word engraved in the oak. Her fingers traced over each letter, shaking as she stepped toward her sister. “In the end this is the only thing I could do for you. I want you to know that I stood at his trial. I testified on your behalf. Gave you a voice when you couldn’t speak for yourself” smiling sadly, Charlie looked at the box for a moment. “This box holds a packet of papers that detail the trial of your husband. Every last detail of what he did to you over the years, and that night, are in here. But along with that is the sentence he received. I had justice carved into the top because that is what happened. He has received a sentence that will take his life.” Kneeling down, Charlie placed the oak box in front of her sister. “I wish, more than anything, that I could change the outcome of that day. But, sadly, it just doesn’t appear to work like that. It’s not Disney Land, or Mickey Mouse, but hopefully you will find peace knowing that I brought him to justice for you.” Looking once again over the cliff’s edge Charlie thought about the summer cottage she bought at the bottom of MacLeod’s Tables and laughed.

    “I guess in a way you were right. You always told me that we would live together here. I should have believed you” Charlie smiled back at Meg, “Now I will be spending the summers here with you. I am way to much of a pansy to handle the winters…but the summer …the summer I can do.” Sighing wistfully, Charlie ran her hand along the smooth granite. “ I still wish you could find a way to acknowledge me… I miss you more every day. The world just isn’t as much fun without you here to make me laugh.” Charlie stood up and looked at her sister’s headstone one final time. “I’ll come back next year, I promise.” Charlie turned away from the headstone, picked up her pack and started along the path. As she walked away she could have sworn she felt the wind caress her cheek and she smiled as a tear rolled down her face. The wind smelt like her sister for one wonderful moment. “I love you too” she whispered softly as she walked carefully along the path.