I have just met my newest charge, and I am excited to begin working with her. Is there anything more exciting than taking on a new challenge? Aside from finding a solution to that challenge, of course.
My newest charge’s name is Grace Newman, a young woman of twenty-eight who works as a police officer in a suburb of Boston called Jamaica Plain. She loves the area, having been assigned to it from the beginning of her career a few years back, and she has turned down a promotion twice so that she can stay and take care of its people.
What makes me both excited and nervous is that Grace already has a significant other. His name is Con Ramsburg, and they are already engaged. Con is a security guard at a Boston museum, so he understands the demands of Grace’s work and her schedule. They work very well together, and are planning a wedding in March.
The reason this makes me excited is because it is different from my usual approach, and therefore it will help me grow and understand new situations better. The reason this makes me nervous is that the last time I joined a charge who was already in a relationship—Pamela—that relationship did not end well, and I still have not brought her to a place where she can stand on her own, though I have been with her longer than I have with any other charge. I am uncertain as to my ability to do better for Grace.
Danit tells me that the problem is not with Grace necessarily, but with Con. He is afraid of commitment, she says, and so my task will be to try and find out why, and to mend the problem if I can.
“Do not forget,” she warned me, “that Grace is your concern. If you must separate the two of them to give her strength, that is what you must do.”
I hope that it will not come to that, and for right now that seems unlikely. Con loves Grace very much, I can see.
He was waiting up for her when she came in to her apartment late last night. When he looked up as she came through the door, I saw her through his eyes, feeling the fondness with which he noticed her hair falling out of her bun, the concern with which he saw her slumped shoulders. He put the television on mute and got up. “Hey, baby.”
She looked up, and her aura brightened into sparks. “Hey,” she said. “Leave me any dinner?”
“In the fridge,” he said, coming to kiss her. “You okay?”
“Yeah, nothing bad, just a long day,” she said, kissing him back. He is older than she is by six years, but no taller. “Have I ever told you how nice it is that I don’t have to stand on my toes to kiss you?”
“Is that a short joke?” he asked, teasing her, and she laughed. Then he let her go to put her meal in the microwave while she slipped off her shoes and started looking through the mail.
“Oh, the invitations came!” she said, her voice full of excitement.
Con’s spirits dropped, and I saw a shade of sick yellow color his aura before he swallowed it down and turned around. “Yeah, I saw that.”
“And you didn’t open them?” Grace would have shot him a surprised look, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from her package. “Oh, look, Con. They’re beautiful.”
Con was watching her, and I was watching him, and I could see the way his eyes softened. “Yeah,” he said, looking at how she suddenly looked young and fresh. “Beautiful.”
So it is not that he does not love her. The love between them is clear. Still…
Grace came over and kissed him, then spread the invitations out on the table. “I don’t go in until two tomorrow, so if I get up at nine I should have some time to send out a few.”
Another jolt to Con’s spirits. “Maybe you should wait until your next day off, babe.”
“No, I want to get them in the mail as soon as possible.” She was still tracing her fingers over the fine parchment and the colors of the imprinted flowers, smiling. Grace, it seems, is a woman who loves bright colors and beautiful things; she lets them into her spirit to warm and calm her.
“We already sent out save-the-dates, though. So a day or two won’t matter. I don’t want you wearing yourself out.”
“You’re sweet.” The microwave dinged, and Grace got up to get her food, kissing Con as she passed him. “But I’ll be all right. I might even get them done tomorrow, if you help me.”
“Ah, sorry, sweetheart, I can’t. Gotta run in for a staff meeting tomorrow morning.” The lie was spoken smoothly, but I could see the tremor in Con’s spirit.
“Wasn’t there a meeting a few days ago?” Grace asked, but the question was absent, incurious.
“They didn’t cover everything, had to schedule a new one.”
“Oh. Okay. Guess I’m on my own, then.” There was a trace of sadness in this, which told me that Grace has been on her own with much of the planning for this event that should bring them both joy. She brushed the feeling away, though, reasoning that it could not be helped. Pushing the invitations aside, she held out her hand to Con. “Keep me company while I eat?”
“I’d like nothing better,” Con said, and he meant it. He sat down with her, and they were in perfect harmony until she saw him out later that evening.
These, then, are my initial thoughts: that Grace is reserved, trusting Con completely and assigning any tension she detects between them to her own side. She is unaware, however, of most of the difficulties because Con has been keeping them from her. I think that his trouble is with fear, but I am not quite sure what it is that he fears. I can see, however, that they are well-suited to one another, but also that this fear of Con’s could very well tear them apart.
It is an interesting challenge, and it will require much of my attention in the next few days. I will tell you more when I know it.