Epilogue
Under the cool glow of starlight, Mirabelle and Joseph climbed up the forest trail. They were up this very early morning to reach a lookout point high up on a mountain. As they came out of the pines, the two found themselves on a high, rocky bluff. Joseph carefully headed for some large boulders and sat down. Mirabelle followed.
"I've never seen so many stars in my life," Mirabelle uttered to Joseph as she sat beside him. The celestial splendor above held her captivated.
Joseph pointed to the sky before them. Mirabelle followed his finger to see a shooting star streak across the night.
"Maybe you should make a wish," Joseph suggested.
Mirabelle closed her eyes and searched her heart for one. Finally finding a good one, she opened her eyes and spoke out:
"I wish that we get to see a beautiful sunrise. A very wonderful one," she said to him then again closed her eyes, happily imagining what it would be like.
"That's a good wish, Mirabelle," Joseph told her. "It'll make the long hike up here worth it," he joked.
Done conversing, they looked at the distant horizon. Above the far-off mountains that lay across the valley below them, the dark blue skies of twilight were starting to lighten and the stars were begining to fade away.
"Joseph," Mirabelle said to him.
"Yes," he answered, looking at her.
"What happened in the homesteader's shack; why weren't you afraid of me?" she asked him as their eyes held each other, lovingly, in one another's gaze.
Joseph turned from Mirabelle to look at the far distant skies which were in the midst of changing from sapphire blue to the colour of purple amethysts. He said to her, "When I saw what you did I remembered an incident that happened to me when I was in France." He closed his eyes for a moment to remember then continued, "On my way back to the States I passed through a small village in Brittany."
Mirabelle expectantly waited for his story.
"Outside one of the houses, I spotted a young girl crying, so I walked up to her to see if I could help," he said.
As he talked, the skies proceeded to brighten even more, turning from a regal purple to a resplendent crimson. Mirabelle waited for Joseph to go on.
"She was sitting there looking at something. I couldn't see what," he reminisced while staring off into the distance.
The heavens around them, transforming from night to day, were now a blazing, fiery orange.
"Just before I reached her," Joseph went on, "I was stopped by an old woman."
"What happened?" Mirabelle asked, curious.
"She said not to disturb the girl. That she wasn't crying because she was sad. That she wasn't crying because she was hurt," Joseph said to Mirabelle.
"Why then?" questioned Mirabelle.
"I asked her that and she said that the girl was a seer and was perceiving the truth," he answered. "'Only the pure of heart can see the truth,' she said to me," added Joseph, his eyes now embracing hers.
The sky, meanwhile, had shed its brilliant orange mantle and was now a luminous canvas of golden delight. The sun would soon be making its appearance known.
Joseph continued as Mirabelle looked at him, "The old woman said to me that when a person comes upon the truth, the real nature of things, they can't help themselves but cry at the beauty of it all." "That's what I thought of when I saw what you did. That's why I wasn't afraid," he told Mirabelle, looking at her as the sun's rays fell across her face.
Mirabelle turned her head towards the horizon as the first rays of sunlight graced her. The sun had peeked up from behind the mountains and the whole world for Mirabelle was lit up in dazzling glory. It was so beautiful... she had to cry.
