Secrets of the Heart: Tales of Fate and Fantasy from a Far Country

By William Elihu Palmer

Thank you for sharing your story, Secrets of the Heart, with us. It is a real gem! The emotional interaction between the mother and daughter was beautifully crafted and sensitive.

I could visualize the mothers summer romance as your words brought to life the young couples mutual attraction. You captured the poignancy of young love, which is blind to any practical considerations. Knowing that Emily would have to make a similar choice regarding Todd, the mothers advice to Emily is mature and sensitive. I liked the ending.

Our granddaughter, Sarah, (going on 12) loved it too.

V. M.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503554580

William Elihu Palmer

William Elihu Palmer grew up on a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during the Great Depression. He enlisted in the Army at the age of 17 and served n Occupied Japan and fought in the Korean War. He married Angeles Palmer in Madrid, Spain in 1960. They have four children. He spent his career as an educator, teaching at universities in the USA and abroad, including Ohio University, the University of Salamanca, Spain, and at Salisbury University in Maryland. He and Angeles moved to Coronado, California in 2017.

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Copyright © 2015 by William Elihu Palmer.

ISBN:       Softcover         978-1-5035-5459-7

                 eBook              978-1-5035-5458-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/21/2015

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Table of Contents

Part I

Ancient Lore

Prologue: Secrets of the Heart

A Hard Choice

Zacharia’s Daughter

The Cup of Life

The Wedding Feast

The Oracle of Delphi

The Helpmate

A Gift of the Gods

The Birthmark

The Dove

The Silent Music

A Marriage Made in Heaven

The Twins

The Leader

The Rebel

A Change of Season

The Invention

The Fountain of Youth

A Place Like home

The Homecoming

The Blush of the Rose

Part II

The Hardest Lesson of Life

The Hardest Lesson of Life

Part III

From a Far Country

The Store of Days

The young Girl and the Willow Tree

On Being Poor

The Laughter of the Poor

My Dad

Places From the Past

On Retirement

A Curtain Call for Bob Wesley

Part IV

Random Verses

Thanksgiving

To a Spider

To a Butterfly

King Yucca

The Cat’s Tale

The Anatomy of Poetry

To a Historian

And Silence O’er the Yard Doth Reign

A New Day Aborning

Music of Life

Dirge of Winter

A World Without End

An Old, Cold Verity

A Name in Stone

On Nugacity

Until Your Heart Were Won

Chronicles of the Indian Kings

The King of Guanahani

Chronicles of the Indian Kings

King of Marien

Chronicles of the Indian Kings

Montezuma, King of Mexico

Dedicated to my grandchildren: Miguel Angel, Matthew, Wyatt, Gavin, and Talia. May they cherish clear thinking and cold truth and bring sunlight to dark places.

With special thanks to that Master, the philosopher Schopenhauer, who upon reflecting on the wisdom of life writes:

Our life is like a journey on which ... Instead of finding, as we expected, pleasure, happiness, joy, we get experience, insight, knowledge - a real and permanent blessing, instead of a fleeting and illusory one.

Part I

Ancient Lore

Fate Rules The Day

Fantasy, Under The Moon, Makes Play

Prologue

Secrets of the Heart

Mystery is a part of every girl’s nature, but the mystery of some is greater. Some girls have open lines between the head and the heart. Others have a more complex circuitry. But whether pretty or plain, young or old, they all bear mysteries of desires unspoken and stories untold. Lillian Marshall once told the story of her youth to her daughter Emily, for Emily had begun to feel desires unspoken.

Lillian Marshall was married with three children: two strong sons and her daughter Emily who had long yellow hair and was as fair as the lilies on the riverbank. Lillian’s husband tom owned vast vineyards and farm lands. Lillian was well content with her family and with life on the farm. Often she went with Emily to gather berries and wild flowers that grew along the riverbank. One summer day when Lillian and Emily were walking along the riverbank, Emily began to sob and wipe tears from her eyes. Her mother, upset by her daughter’s sadness, embraced Emily and walked with her arm-in-arm.

Why are you so sad, Emily? asked her mother.

You wouldn’t understand, Emily replied. I know I’m going to be homesick at the university and away from home for the first time. And I’ll be away from Todd. He wants to get engaged, you know. He even wants to give me a ring.

Oh, Emily, you’re so young! But believe me, I do understand. Oh, how I understand! You see, when I was your age I too was in love. Oh, how I was in love with love!

Were you in love with Daddy? asked Emily.

No, Dear, it was long before I met your father, her mother replied.

Who was it then?

Well, if I tell you, my dear, it must be a secret between us for as you grow older, you too will find that the heart has many secrets.

Oh, trust me, Mother, I won’t tell, said Emily, not even my brothers!

When I was still in high school, began her mother, I spent the summers on the farm of my grandparents. On sunny days I took a wide basket and went across the meadow and through the woods and down to the river to gather berries and marigold and wild rose and myrtle. One day when I reached the riverbank, I saw a young man standing in the sun in the river. He had straight black hair parted in the middle and a fine gold chain around his neck. He was fishing. When he saw me, he called to me and said, ‘Where are the fish that swim in the river?’ I knew there were fish because the water was very clear, and I had seen silver fish darting about in a cool shady cove hidden by a mighty oak tree covered with thick vines. I pointed to the cove, and the young man pulled up his fishing lines and waded over to the shady cove.

Here Lillian sat down with Emily on the trunk of a tree that had fallen across the path. You can imagine how curious and excited I was, she said to Emily.

Oh, I know, Mother, said Emily, but what happened next?

Well, the next day I hurried across the meadow and through the woods and down to the riverbank. When I got there I saw the young man fishing in the shady cove. He saw me through the thick vines. ‘Come,’ he called, ‘Come and see the fish I’ve caught!’ I pushed my way through the thick vines and saw a basket of fine fish under the oak tree.

‘My name’s Jason,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’

"I told him my name and that I was visiting my grandparents on the farm through the woods. He told me he was a student at a university in the city and he was spending his vacation with his aunt who was a widow and living alone.

The next day I put a ribbon in my hair and wore a yellow dress with a black cord belt. When I reached the river I saw Jason standing in the sun on the riverbank and the gold chain around his neck was gleaming in the sunlight. He called to me and we sat under the mighty oak tree hidden by the thick vines. We sat through the long summer day and talked about the flowing water and the hot sun, and we said sweet words that make sense only when you are young. Then as each day passed we sat closer and closer together with our empty baskets beside us.

At that point Emily cut in and asked if her mother was in love with Jason. I was young then, Emily, even younger than you are now. I was charmed by the attentions of that young stranger and my heart was filled with romance.

‘Go on, Mother,’ said Emily, ‘I want to hear the rest.’

"One day near the end of summer, Jason held me close to him. He took the fine gold chain from his neck and kissed me full on the lips. ‘Lillian,’ he said, ‘I must go back to the city tomorrow. Take this gold chain and it will be a bond between us.’ I took the gold chain from Jason and held tightly to him. Then I took the ribbon from my hair and kissed him full on the lips. ‘Jason,’ I said, ‘I must stay here until my father comes to take me home. Take this ribbon from my hair and it will be a bond between us. On that day we parted.

"When summer ended I left the farm of my grandparents and went back home. When school started I wore