“We’ve been researching the family tree,” I said, thinking on the spot. “We found out we had some distant family who lived in this village. The records pointed us here, to a woman named Mair Griffiths.”
“Aye, that was my great-grandmother,” the woman said, and my face beamed with excitement. “So how are you related exactly?”
I kept staring at her, grinning like a fool as she waited for her reply. She was older than I’d ever known Mair to be, maybe forty or so, but she looked like her. The same wild eyes and unmanageable looking red hair, the same impatient look as she waited for an explanation. It was uncanny.
“A cousin of her parents, I think,” Lee stepped in, covering my silence. “But we’re going to be on our way now. Lots to see. It was nice to meet you.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down the lane. I turned and flashed the woman a smile, wishing I had asked her name, then fell back into step with my brother.
“What did you do that for?”
“She probably thinks we were casing the joint,” he said.
“But did you hear her? Mair is her grandmother. That proves what I’m saying, no?”
“Not exactly,” he said, “but I’ll admit I’m curious how you know so much.”
“It’s because I was here, I’m telling you. Why won’t you just listen?”
He stopped in front of the church and leaned against the wall. He was looking at me as though he thought I was mad and that hurt my feelings more than him not believing me.
“Tom. Please, I don’t want to argue with you, but you don’t seem to be seeing it from my point of view here.”
“What happened to you?” I asked, pushing through the gate of the church. He followed behind me and we walked slowly down the path that circled around the building. Just 48 hours ago, in 1890, I walked to this church for the wedding of Nellie and Gethin. Now, two days later in 1999 it looked exactly as it did then. The only evidence that any time had passed was the addition of a notice board near the door filled with modern printed leaflets. Even the broken wall at the back of the graveyard had never been repaired, with sheep from the field beyond still wandering in to graze.
“What do you mean?” Lee asked as we circled off to the left of the main building.
“This. Being so sceptical. Looking so smart. Your house looked like you’ve hired a cleaner and you’re dressed like, well, like me.”
“Now you wanna ask about me?” he said, and I felt an immediate pang of guilt.
I put a hand on his shoulder and apologised. He’d filled the last half a day with questions about what I’d been doing. He’d listened to my stories and brought me across the country and I’d paid nearly no mind to him or what he’d been through since I left.
“I’ve been completely sober for four months. Someone had to step in. You were gone, Dad was gone, Mum was in bits and the business needed someone. I stepped up.”
“I’m really proud of you,” I said, and I meant it. “I couldn’t help not being there, Lee, but I hope you know how sorry I am that you and Mum had to go through that. I’ve missed you so much.”
He pulled me into a hug and for the first time since I’d been back it felt like we fully reconnected, and I knew he felt it too.
“But now you’re back,” he said, pulling away but keeping his hands on my shoulders. “We can do it together, like we were always supposed to.”
I let his comment linger, not wanting to answer. The truth was that I had no intention of picking up where I’d left off. Too much had changed.
I brought us to a stop near the back of the church. In amongst some weeds, where a small slate plaque once sat, stood at a large headstone shaped like a Celtic cross. At the bottom, chiselled into the granite and partly covered with moss, it read;
Sophia Ann Hopkin
1879 - 1890
“Excuse me. Hello. Boys?” A voice from the gate caught our attention and we turned from the gravestone to see the woman from the lane making her way towards us. “Can you come here for a minute?”
“I knew she’d think we were robbing the place,” Lee whispered through a gritted smile as we walked to meet her halfway down the path.
“I’m glad I didn’t miss you. I knew you looked familiar,” she said, taking a sheet of paper from her pocket and handing it to us. “I had to run and dig that out. Thought you’d like to see it.”
Lee took the paper and unfolded it, then looked at me, back to the paper and then at me again.
“What is it?” I asked. He held it out to me and when I took it from his grasp, he began to rub his temples.