No Ordinary Love: The Year of Cat

By Bernadette Lindemer

Call it fate or destiny or maybe it’s both. No Ordinary Love is a sweet story about two ordinary people from opposite sides of the world who are brought together quite serendipitously. Each receives unusual messages in their dreams that, unbeknownst to either of them, contribute to making decisions that will change their lives forever. A story whose time has come. It speaks about lost love, growing older, loss through death, and fear of the unknown, while finding love again under the least likely of circumstances. It is a pure and simple love story with an unusual and interesting twist that will lift your spirits and open your hearts to all of the possibilities that love can bring to your lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662471469

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Restless Heart

At the end of January 2021, Cassandra Byrne, or Cat, which was the nickname her older sister, Julie, gave her when they were little, and which she went by with family and friends, retired from her job at the local library.

Working at the Cary Library was a full-time job that she held for twenty years as assistant librarian. The work kept her busy, and it was great for her since she was an avid reader. She often took advantage every chance she could to pull a great piece of literature off the shelf to read.

Cassandra lost her husband, Daniel, many years before, and she pretty much walled herself off from anything other than work, puppies, TV, books, music, and maybe occasional attempts at writing, and painting, but mostly solitude. She had a very supportive family and friends who understood her, but that wasn’t enough to keep her from wanting something more. Just what that something more was, she wasn’t sure, but as time passed and she became more restless, she felt she had to do something with her life other than get lost in a forest of books.

For the first couple of days, she was okay with padding around the house, staying in her pajamas, watching the news, and drinking coffee until noon.

She liked to listen to music, and this day she chose an Al Stewart album. The first song that came up was Year of the Cat. She never paid attention to the words before, but for some reason, today this song had a message that struck her.

The story behind the song as explained by Al Stewart is about our failure to make decisions. It’s about a businessman / company executive who is extremely busy and is flying to a destination in the Far East (on business) when his plane has an unscheduled stop. He leaves the plane along with other passengers. He succumbs to this beautiful woman. By the time he wakes up, he realizes the plane has gone and will not be back for some considerable time. His life has changed. That time coinciding with the astrological year of the cat. The significant lyric being, You have thrown away your choice and lost your ticket. It’s not a decision he would have planned, but it’s a good turn in his life events. It’s something he would never otherwise have done. Sometimes decisions have to be made for us. It’s therefore also about fate and coincidences. It evokes the fantasy of the perfect person (for that particular moment in your life) just coming up to you (she doesn’t give you time for questions as she locks up your arms in hers and you follow till your sense of which direction completely disappears) and taking control of your life and taking you to a place that your decision-making would never take you to. (Source: Lyricinterpretations.com)

Transitioning from working a full-time job to nothing all suddenly gave her a lot of time to think, and the words in the song hit a chord. Having come through a year that should never have been, at least by her estimation, starting with a paralyzing pandemic from COVID-19 and all the deaths, hospitals being overrun and nursing homes becoming death wards, and taking its toll on frontline medical workers, then the killing of George Floyd, and an unbelievable political hotbed that 2020 brought, she was ready to leave all the sadness and loss of 2020 behind her. She realized that there were decisions that she had to make.

She stopped watching the news, at least for a little while, and wanted to focus her thoughts on things that gave her hope. She thought about revisiting the idea of writing again. She figured it would be a good distraction for her and perhaps would help her figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. More than anything, she dreaded her fate. Ever since Dan’s death, she had professed a philosophy that yesterday was in the past, tomorrow hasn’t come yet, but she would live for today, taking each day one minute at a time. She harbored the fear of what her future might be, and she did a good job of hiding that fear from those closest to her.

She loved to write, and in the past, she made several attempts at writing. She even attended a couple of writing classes, only to stop going because of her work schedule. Now with this new opportunity, she thought it might be a good time to make one more attempt and considered signing up to an online course.

While she sat at her desk, thinking about it, she had a flashback moment to 2009, when she enrolled in a writing class at Wake Tech. It was a continuing education class so she could earn college credits. She loved to write. She loved reading books that were well-written and where the author’s intent was to allow the reader to get lost in the story. It made her feel like Alice in Wonderland, stepping through the looking glass to face a different world on the other side.

She had enjoyed the weekly classes; they helped her get through her feelings of isolation from living alone. At least it got her out of the house, in the evenings, once a week, and she met some interesting people too.

Then work got in the way, and she had to stop. The teacher was leaving, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue, so she put her ambitions on a back burner and turned her attention to her full-time library job.

She never gave much thought to what she might want to do next once she retired. She didn’t want to retire completely. Now she dreaded the thought of having nothing to do, so one day she went online to research some continuing education courses and found an online fiction-writing course. After reviewing the class offering, she decided right then and there to enroll.

Chapter 2

Past and Present

Cassandra’s husband, Daniel, died in 1996. She moved to North Carolina in 1998 to be closer to her sister Julie, who had moved away from their home state of Pennsylvania in 1996 after George, her husband, retired from his job with the IRS. But that wasn’t the only reason they moved; they also wanted to be closer to their eldest daughter, Elise, who attended NC State and met her husband, Dennis, there. They married in 1990 and thought about moving north to Pennsylvania but decided to stay in North Carolina. Julie and George had three other children, Lilly, Catherine, and George Jr. All had relocated to North Carolina over time but were scattered in different parts of the state. Elise was the only one who lived in the same town.

Before COVID disrupted everything, Cassandra and her sister would get together for dinner at least once a week and rotate between houses. It gave a little break to the monotony of the week. There were special occasions where Elise would invite the other family members to her home for dinner, and Cassandra was always invited to join.

It was Julie and George who convinced Cassandra to move to North Carolina, and truthfully, she never regretted making the move.

Cassandra, a woman in her early seventies, was considered by some a pretty woman, but she never thought of herself that way. Her hair, which she stopped dying during the pandemic, reverted to the towhead blond, a color she hadn’t had since she was five. She chose not to continue coloring her hair because of all the restrictions, not being able to see her regular hairdresser, and doing it herself was not an option. Besides, she wasn’t really trying to impress anybody. As much as she tried to keep up with the fashion and makeup trends, things were different now, and with not being able to socialize normally, she figured, Why bother? There’s nobody I am going to impress, she thought to herself.

Cassandra thought she had put the past behind her, but at times, thoughts and events from the past would come creeping back. It probably wasn’t the best thing for her to do, but she was at a time in her life when reflection was about the only thing that helped her cope, and sometimes she found herself crying for no reason.

Thinking back to a time long past, she worked in a closed-circuit TV studio for a prominent insurance company in Philadelphia. Her boss thought she would be the perfect representative for the Convention and Tourist Bureau’s Welcome to Philadelphia summer events. It was a fun time for her and the only claim to fame she would ever have. She loved the excitement and met some great people. Why she was thinking about this now, she didn’t know, but for some reason all the memories of that time came rushing back. She even found pictures and newspaper articles and spent some time looking at them again.

Now retired and looking back over her life, she realized how much she and Dan did live until his death and how much she hid herself away from life after his death. She couldn’t blame anyone but herself for the last twenty-five years, but now with her retirement becoming a reality, she thought her life was over.

Then one night, she had an unexplainable experience. She had just settled herself into her easy chair to watch one of her romance stories. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but suddenly she felt a thump to her chest, almost like a doctor applying those heart paddles to restart your heart. She knew she felt it, but she wasn’t sure who or what to attribute the thump to. But whatever it was, she knew that she had just received a wake-up call and she had to do something about it.

Of course, before the COVID outbreak, Cassandra didn’t completely give up the outside world. She sometimes got together with two neighbors who were, like her, single and living alone. Arianna and Lynn lived in the same neighborhood, and over time they became close friends. Especially after Arianna’s husband died. Lynn and her husband, after sixteen years, finally decided to get a divorce. As all three got to know one another better, even though the two were younger than Cassandra, they realized that they had a lot in common.

They shared the same values and, interestingly, the same political views. All had very diverse backgrounds professionally, and all worked full-time.

Lynn was first to retire from her full-time job, then Arianna followed suit, retiring from her job a couple of years before her husband became ill. Even with their life-changing experiences, each seemed content with their lives and chosen career paths. Cassandra had a great admiration for them. They really became best friends.

Before the pandemic, they would get together for dinner at least once a month, rotating the location, with the hostess providing the entrée and the others providing the sides or wine. It was a great arrangement. Cassandra loved it because it gave her something to look forward to, and it allowed her to keep up with her cooking skills. It was nice to be able to get together for some great conversation and good food.

Then the pandemic hit and that was all put on hold. Almost a full year passed, and then when the vaccines became available, each set up their appointments to get their shots. Now with things abating somewhat, they met on Arianna’s back deck and celebrated with a champagne toast.

It was during that get-together that Cassandra was asked if she had any plans. She still had concerns about being retired and said she couldn’t see herself being fully retired. Ever. She said that she had returned to her writing and her artwork. She told them about a short story that she submitted to be published. With the publisher accepting the manuscript, the production of the little story was underway. She took encouragement from this, and she was glad that she decided to enroll in the writing course.

Arianna asked her if she liked it. She told them that she really hadn’t yet begun the classes but would let them know once she started.

They had a great relationship, which was good for Cassandra; it gave her a sense of belonging and security too. With their need to rely on their own devices to get things done, especially around the house, being challenging enough, they also relied on one another when an illness or medical emergency arose. They were there for one another.

They all loved the neighborhood and didn’t want to move, because the security of having a dependable neighbor close by was very reassuring. When Cassandra retired, they were there for her. Even gave her a virtual celebration with a little cake and champagne to mark the occasion. It was Arianna’s idea. She bought the cake, sliced and boxed it up along with a small split of champagne for each. She delivered the goodies to each doorstep, and the three joined to celebrate on the Houseparty app.

Julie wanted to treat her sister to dinner for her retirement but knew that wasn’t going to be possible, since COVID was still rearing its ugly head. She called her sister to wish her luck on her last day. Cassandra thanked her and said that she missed their weekly get-togethers and was hoping that sometime soon they could resume. During their conversation, Julie asked her if she was going to do anything after she retired. Cassandra told her she was hoping to work part-time and not be tied down to a permanent, full-time job anymore.

I wish you didn’t have to work at all, Cat, Julie told her.

I wish that too, but you know, Julie, I can never be fully retired. That isn’t me. I need to keep busy, keep myself going. Otherwise, I’d turn into a couch potato, and I don’t want that. I signed up in an online writing class, so I am looking forward to that. I’m not sure what else I can do, but I know I will think of something. Who knows, maybe when things settle down, I’ll sign up to take ballroom dance lessons.

You would do that? Julie asked her.

Cassandra replied, Yes, I would. Then she asked, If it gets me out of the house for a little while, why not?

Julie said, I suppose you’re right. Just make sure you can afford it.

Cassandra was hit with a pang of nostalgia and said, I really miss our dinners, Julie. I hope we can get them going again. I wish this COVID stuff would just dry up and go away.

I know what you mean, Cat, Julie replied. Well, Cat, it’s getting late and I’m tired, Julie continued. I think I’m going to go to bed. Good night, Cat. I love you.

Cassandra said, I love you too, Julie. Have a good night.

Cassandra’s last day on the job was January 31, 2021, one that was bittersweet. Although COVID restrictions were still in place, Mary Taylor, her boss, wanted to give her a little retirement party. She thought about how this could be done without violating the COVID restrictions, so she kept it very small.

The group consisted of Mary, Jennifer, Cassandra’s replacement, and Cassandra. Mary told her that she could leave early if she wanted to, but Cassandra said no, that she would rather work the full day. Mary agreed, then asked Cassandra if she had made any plans. Cassandra knew what she meant and answered bluntly. Not sure. I might.

Full-time? Mary asked her.

No, no, Cassandra answered. I’ll either volunteer or find something part-time, and I’ve even enrolled in an online writing class.

Sounds like you’ll keep yourself busy after all, Mary said.

I sure do hope so, Cassandra replied.

Mary and Cassandra had become good friends over the years. Mary hadn’t been Cassandra’s boss for the entire twenty years. Actually, Cassandra’s first boss was there for the first fifteen years, and Mary came in when he retired, so they had worked five years together. They enjoyed lots of happy times, and sad times too. Mary, who was married once, had one son, Michael. He was eighteen and living with his dad, but Mary still worried about him. She made sure that Nate and he had the talk.

Now that Michael was considered an adult, there would be times when he would have to be careful, especially when traveling with his friends. Mary herself tried to talk to Michael, but he thought she was making too much out of nothing, and that was when she insisted Nate give him the talk. Mary told Michael that if anything ever happened where he needed her help, he should never be afraid to reach out to her. Michael, who knew she loved him and had his best interest at heart, promised her he would call her first.

She and Nate stayed married until Michael was grown, then they finally decided it was time for them to talk about their relationship. They were best friends in high school but married way too soon. She had suffered a series of miscarriages before, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go through the same agony again, but her husband, Nate, convinced her. Mary got pregnant one more time at the age of thirty, and her son, Michael, was born. Now with Cassandra’s departure, she, too, was eyeing an early retirement if she could swing it. The only drawback was that she would be alone. She and Nate split the year before her forty-eighth birthday.

During their time working together, Cassandra and Mary had formed a close friendship. They didn’t have to get together much after work—Lord knows they were together eight hours a day, six days a week—but they built up a sort of ESP with each other. Cassandra would miss that. They promised each other that they would stay in touch.

Mary was going to miss her. Mary felt that Cassandra’s going, although good for her, was just as bittersweet for herself as it was for Cassandra. Mary wouldn’t have anyone close in age that she could talk to anymore. The new assistant librarian, Jennifer Kingston, who was to take Cassandra’s place, was much younger and so full of energy that she actually made Mary nervous. Mary’s concern was about how Jennifer would interact with the library members. Most of the people who came to the library anymore were much older, mostly retired or who were into their second careers and needed to use the library to do their research.

Jennifer was a very sweet young lady. Newly graduated from college, she decided to seek employment right away rather than take the summer off, so it wasn’t unusual that she had virtually no competition when she submitted her résumé. Her CV was perfect; it was like she was predestined for the job. She wouldn’t need a lot of training, which made the transition much easier for Mary. At least she wouldn’t have to keep Cassandra on by asking her to train Jennifer. It seemed like all the stars were aligned and things were just falling into place. Like it was meant to be.

Cassandra spent the latter part of her life living in her little cocoon, which probably had something to do with why she never met anyone and remarried. Her life, although not happy the way it was when Dan was alive, was a content one. But she still felt a nagging frustration that something was missing, but she couldn’t, or maybe she was just afraid to try to, find out what it was.

She had a love for the arts; it was her passion. She loved to paint. Although not the greatest at it, she had created some pretty pieces, which she quickly gave away to family members. She knew that this was only a hobby for her and not an income opportunity, because she only painted when the mood suited her.

She loved to sing and took lessons at a local music school for a while, hoping to sing in the church choir, but then made the mistake of listening to herself on tape, when she suddenly realized that it was important to keep her day job.

As for reading and theater-going? Well, those were specialty pastimes, especially going to the theater. The $500 needed to buy season theater tickets was not in her budget. More importantly, she didn’t really have anyone to go with. So rather than go to the theater alone, she reconciled herself to watching her favorite plays and concerts on the local TV stations, and of course, there were PBS, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. So she took advantage every chance she got to settle in for an evening of movie watching and maybe some popcorn eating.

From a very young age, she liked to dance. When she got older, she was invited by a coworker and good friend to enroll in ballet classes with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet. She loved the experience but didn’t pursue it once classes were finished. Now, as she looked back, it was a decision she sometimes regretted.

She loved dancing with her friends. She would go to the local clubs to try to keep up with the ever-changing dances. She just liked the energy dancing gave her; it was both liberating and exhilarating. Dance moves and times changed quickly during the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Then along came the millennial generation, and let’s just say that dancing was now totally different.

The only opportunities for dancing were through friends of her niece Lilly, who introduced her to a group of ladies from her church. They all shared the same passion for dancing, and she usually met them at the Pittsboro General Store, where seventies music was played and dancing was allowed.

It was a short-lived experience but fun, anyway. With male dance partners being scarce, her dance partners were the ladies in the group. Their arrangement didn’t last long because, as time went on, the ladies drifted off to other things and then their get-togethers stopped.

Her only outlet after that was dancing at home. As she perused the music available to her on her Spotify app, she found all these great Motown albums. Now, sometimes, in the mornings, rather than doing a cardio workout, she was dancing as well. She flipped through the albums and rediscovered all the artists whose music she used to dance to. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, and the Supremes. She found herself dancing through the first floor like she had a conga line behind her. It was invigorating. She had several options from records to radio to CDs to listen to, and quite a bit of the time she spent dancing with a broom, mop, or vacuum cleaner while doing housework. For a time, it was good; she got in some much-needed exercise and, in the end, managed to keep the house clean too. Sometimes, the dogs wanted to participate, but most times they just went off to get out of her way.

Now being home full-time without any place to go where she was needed, Cassandra had a new worry. Knowing this new life of hers was going to be totally alien to her and almost frightening, she wondered, What would she do with her time? Surely, there would be things that needed to be done around the house, but she never really gave it much thought before. She normally made time to have repairs done on weekends or took a day or two off here and there from work. Now with the house being her only full-time job, would she settle for that?

Obviously not. Cassandra wasn’t going to let that happen; that was why she enrolled in the writing course.

Now, with her newfound freedom, the opportunity to try again piqued her interest, and after giving it some serious thought, she was ready to learn more about writing.

The first week of class was pretty easy, and discussion centered on learning the aspects of writing a novel. She liked the teacher; he was very precise in making known what he was looking for from the students, and she found that she enjoyed the Zoom classes very much.

The first day of her online class couldn’t come soon enough. She began the day with her regular exercise routine, dressed, fed her little fur babies, and when that was finished, she took herself to her office in the loft. She fired up her laptop and, with a great deal of enthusiasm, opened the Word app and sat staring at the blank page and throbbing cursor for quite some time, waiting for her class to begin.

The second week, the teacher gave the students an assignment to write a story based on true love. He didn’t go into a lot of detail; he just said he wanted each student to write a story on what they thought true love was. He gave the students the option of picking their premise.

She was going through a rough time and thought, if she could put some of her pent-up energy and frustration into thinking about something other than herself, it might help her get past the empty feeling that had come over her.

By the end of the second week, the teacher told them that the writing assignment would be due by the end of the semester, which was in December. This seemed perfect to her because in addition to the writing class, she wanted to explore other outside interests.

Cassandra had a spiritual side that she looked to often, especially on days when things weren’t going so well. She looked for signs to guide her. Eager to get started and knowing that a strong title is part of a good story, she was drawing a total blank.

She loved to listen to music while she worked. Two of her favorite female vocalists were Anita Baker and Sade. More often than not, she would select their albums and listen to their music, sometimes more than once.

She immediately began sifting through songs that she thought might inspire her and would help her with the title. So she decided to listen to some of her favorite artists in hopes of finding inspiration.

While sipping her coffee one morning, she decided to do a search on her music. Not sure what it was she was hoping to hear, she heard a song come up on her playlist that she hadn’t heard for a long time. It was a throwback to 1979, the same year she and Dan had married. It was Love Is the Answer. The song was recorded by England Dan and John Ford Coley.

She had never listened to the words before. She liked to dance, so she was more interested in the beat, not the words. This time she listened, and what she heard from the past were words that resonated with her, especially in the present day. It made her cry.

She listened again, and she felt like she was right back in 1979 all over again, and now she knew exactly what her story was going to be about.

Name your price

A ticket to paradise

I can’t stay here anymore

And I’ve looked high and low

I’ve been from shore to shore to shore

If there’s a shortcut, I’d have found it

But there is no easy way around it

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is the answer

Who knows why

Someday, we all must die

We’re all homeless boys and girls

And we are never heard

It’s such a lonely, lonely, lonely world

People turn their heads and walk on by

Tell me, is it worth just another try

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer (let it shine)

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is the answer

Tell me, are we alive

Or just a dying planet

(What are the chances)

Ask the man in your heart

For the answer

And when you feel afraid

(Love one another)

When you’ve lost your way

(Love one another)

And when you’re all alone

(Love one another)

And when you’re far from home

(Love one another)

And when you’re down and out

(Love one another)

And when your hopes run out

(Love one another)

And when you need a friend

(Love one another)

And when you’re near the end

(Love, we got to love, we got to love one another)

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is the answer

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer

(Shine, shine, shine)

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is the answer

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is the answer

Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer

Cassandra was overcome with emotion because she was hearing words that had great significance she had tucked away in her memory. Words from her past that resonated with the events of today and the message bearing truth in a time when the world was seeing nothing but sickness, death, sadness, and loss from the spread of COVID-19, as well as the out-of-control drug overdoses not just from the illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin but from, ironically, legitimately prescribed opioids as well.

Remembering what she had learned in her earlier classes, she knew that to tell a good story, whether fiction or not, the writer had to give a story life. Make it real. She wasn’t sure that bringing up the past would be relatable to everyone, but the words, the words in the song brought the past and the present together, and from this discovery her story began.

The words made her think. In one way, she felt fortunate to be alive; in another, she wondered why she was spared and others weren’t. The song, by her interpretation, tells a story of looking for the good in humanity and mankind and begs each one of us to not despair. That life, although hard, can be fulfilling and rewarding and that we don’t need mind-altering drugs to get us through. We just need to learn to care for one another and to help and love one another. Suddenly, she had so many thoughts running through her head she didn’t know which to write down first.

She spent almost the whole day writing and rewriting because her goal was to write a story that was all-inclusive and one she was determined to finish. Her hope was, if it was good enough, she might want to get it published. Maybe that would be her legacy. To leave a story of hope, love, and forgiveness that would resonate with the reader.

Her writing style was traditional, reflecting her unbelief in writing detailed descriptions of hot sex or blood and gore; her desire was to allow the reader to interpret the story in their own way, seeing it through their own eyes and using their own imagination.

And so the title she chose for this love story became Love Is the Answer, just like the song. The premise behind the story was based on two brothers both gifted with musical talent but in different ways. The younger brother, who was a free spirit and wanted to be a musician, struggled with drugs and alcohol addiction, and the other, who was older and pragmatic, wanted to be a teacher and an artist, and the story was about how much the older brother tried to protect the younger one from destroying himself. A story about unconditional love.

While writing, she turned to her music to keep her entertained as well. She found some groups that she had totally forgotten about. The Alan Parsons Project, for instance. Their music resonated from songs of years ago as if they were written for present day. She also