Freeing Zelda

The French woman, who'd been playing a computer game, obligingly went to the desktop of her computer that illustrated time zones on the map of the world.

This was only a visual check because Zelda already knew what she was going to find.

She counted back the time difference on the display and sighed: When it was 1:27 am in Los Angeles the time at the approximately latitude of the Isle of Dankamorgun was 11.27 the previous day. That meant at the time she lay near to death, Freddie's wife Zelda was possibly dying or already dead.

During the long flight home she asked Freddie to tell her what he could about Zelda and her time with him."

"I think you know pretty much all of it now – why this interest?"

"I'll tell you later, Freddie. "You go first."

She smiled when he spoke of her happiness on the morning of her death; it was not unusual for her to go swimming alone.

"Right, yawned Freddie. "Your turn."

"When I get back home I'm going to engage a scriptwriter to tell the story of Zelda, you and me and it's going to be called, with your permission of course, 'Freeing Zelda.'

"But why?" asked Freddie, bemused. "You never met her."

"Tighten your seat belt, Freddie. I'm going to tell you something that's going to blow you away."

When she'd finished Freddie looked at her, wide-eyed and said, "My God. And you really believe it?"

"Yes, all of us at times come across seemingly apparent coincidences that we'll shrug off. On other occasions the apparent coincidences may be so strong we may say, oh well, perhaps. And then there are ones like this, bringing us face to face with something we cannot disregard.

"I believe my mother saw what she saw, Freddie. Initially I found I could not believe what she told me about it; then on island I began to get the feeling that perhaps mom did witness some sort of spiritual happening, but then after taking into account the time zone differences, I became a complete believer.

"Tell me Freddie, why did you suddenly decide to visit the island?"

Freddie placed his head in his hands and said, "Oh God, Zelda, you do ask some very penetrating questions at times. On the night of the awards in the cab going home, you were on my shoulder virtually out on your feet.

"I put my head against yours and heard her calling to me – it was almost like the sound of the wind through trees.

"It's nothing spooky, Zelda, like her saying come home and say goodbye to release me.

"This voice said: 'Take your friend to the island and let her see it and allow me my final look at my homeland'."

Zelda stroked Freddie's face.

"You are confident you heard her say that?"

"Yes, absolutely"

"Well then, we'll be going back to the island to shoot film – you'll be technical director – and after that once a year we will take Zelda back to see her island home."

Freddie wiped his eyes with his fingers.

"You're not the hard-ass bitch that everyone appears to think, are you dear?"

"Not when I'm with you and Zelda, darling."