EPILOGUE

“Tommy? ...where are you, Tommy?!” The voice of Jude could be heard in the whole moor, or at least that was what she needed.

The exasperation and concern in her eyes was pretty obvious. She kept walking until she made out a small shadow behind a tree. Her heart stop beating fast and smiled finally relieved. She hitched up her dress and ran as fast as she could until she finally saw a small figure and heard giggles. A little boy, pale and with a pair of brilliant blue eyes and blonde short hair looked at her amused and then ran away from her as fast as his little legs carried him. Jude shook her head, smiling, before she followed the little boy. They both laughed hysterically when she finally caught him and rounded him with her protective arms as she kissed his cheek.

“I have been looking for you the whole morning, Tommy!” She informed him, half laughing, half serious. The boy looked down but Jude simply laughed and kissed his head “It does not matter, son. I used to do the same when I was a kid like you”

The boy looked up at her, completely astonished. Jude nodded and smiled warmly at his five years old son. Jude took him in her arms and walked towards the big tree in front of them.

“I used to come here all the time...Do you see that tree?” Jude pointed at the old, big walnut tree, witness of her best memories and one of her best friends and looked at it with love. The little boy rolled his eyes and smiled.

“It is the walnut tree you and my father love, mother” He said, repeating what he had heard since he could remember.

Jude put him on the floor carefully and smiled warmly.

“I guess we have told you the story so many times”

The boy nodded and suddenly smiled and waved his little hand. Jude turned around and watched as Thomas Quincy, her husband, walked towards her, holding a little girl’s hand with one hand and holding a bundle covered by a pink blanket on the other. She stared at him and sighed, as she used to do since the day they had met. Tommy smiled back at her and the glitter in his eyes became brighter by every step he gave.

“My mother told me you had come here to look for our mischievous child” he looked at his son with love.

Jude walked towards him and kissed his lips in the tenderest way and then stared at his eyes.

“Is our little Sophia asleep?” She asked as she looked away from him to the bundle in his arms, removing the blanket a little to see her beautiful baby’s face. Her eyes were closed but watching them was one of the things Jude loved to do. Her little Sophia had inherited her father’s eyes.

“You do know how sweet she is, my loved wife. In the moment I took her in my arms she fell asleep as an angel”

Jude smiled at his husband and kissed her daughter’s forehead, barely touching her to not wake her up. Then she looked at the girl next to Tommy, who still held her father’s hand tightly.

“Minerva, my beautiful Minerva…” Jude looked at her three years old daughter and crouched down at the same time she extended her arms to receive her daughter. The girl immediately ran towards her and embraced her mother, kissing her cheek.

“You both are like two drops of water” Tommy said in amazement as he looked at his daughter and his wife.

In the exact moment Minerva saw the old swing hanging on the walnut tree she ran towards it with a big smile on her face. Jude and Tommy sat on the ground and watched as their children played around the walnut tree. Suddenly, a single tear rolled down of Jude’s face. Tommy did not even have the need to look at his wife to know what she was thinking.

“I am happy that you are just as blissful as I am” He confessed as he rounded Jude with his free arm. She rested her head on her husband’s shoulder and looked up at him.

“I love the way you look at me”

Tommy smiled as he kissed her forehead.

“And how do I look at you, Mrs. Big Eyes?” he asked in a whisper, not kissing her cheeks and nose.

“Like the first time you looked at me, Mr. Blue Eyes…in this same place, down the walnut tree”

Tommy laughed as he remembered the exact moment they had met

“If my memory works well, let me remind you, my loved Jude, that you called me a cow robber then”

Jude laughed too.

“Well, what I did not say was that you were the handsomest cow robber I’ve ever seen”

They looked into the other’s eyes with love.

“And you the most beautiful creature my eyes had ever the pleasure to bear witness” He kissed her red mouth with the same intensity he had kissed her since the first time. How could it be different? She was his Big Eyes, his Jude, his beautiful wife, the mother of his three children. “Sing for me” he pleaded, whispering against her lips.

If I was drowning in the sea
Would you dive right in and save me?
If I was falling like a star
Would you be right there to catch me?
If I was dreaming of your kiss
would you look right through me?

She already knew the answer. Tommy would be there for her forever, he would never leave her. Their love between then was too strong to tear them apart. She was too focused looking into Tommy’s eyes that did not notice when their children joined them, mesmerized by their mother’s voice.

Your eyes are holding up the sky
Your eyes make me weak I do not know why
Your eyes make me scared to tell the truth
I thought my heart was bullet-proof
Now I'm just dancing on the roof
And everybody knows I am into you

Tommy listened to every word and smiled when Jude finished, knowing that the song, just as every song she sang, was for him.

The beautiful scene was interrupted by a big rumble coming from the road. They all looked in that direction as Tommy stood up and motioned Jude to take the baby. Jude and Tommy sighed in relief when they saw Stuart Harrison, Jude’s father walking towards them. But the expression he had on his face made them to tense again.

“Father, what was that horrible noise?” Jude asked as the two kids ran towards their Grandfather.

He stroked their heads and smiled weakly before he looked at Tommy and Jude, with the same concerned expression on his face.

“I did want to be the first to tell you” He said, still serious “Sadie and Victoria escaped from the mental hospital”