She was a plain woman, entering her thirty-ninth year of life. An uninteresting woman upon first glance, but she had a special talent. She could coax spectacular fashions from simple pieces of cloth.
But most of all, she was a sorceress of unique abilities. Often were the times she dreamed of using her abilities to garner favor with the opposite sex. But she wanted true love, a man to accept her for what she was, not what he wanted her to be.
Her soon to be ex, Stanley, slip-sliding in and out of her life like a greased snake was once her greatest love. She felt desirable and special at first. Such a good-looking man was interested in her. He courted her obsessively. He wined and dined her, presenting her with small trinkets that caught her eye with its shiny coatings.
Folks said she was so lucky (at her age) to get such a catch. Knowing smiles of their own, hidden behind fluttering hands and whispered double meanings. They gave her the side-eye, smirking to themselves at what naughtiness she must be doing to keep a man such as Stanley complacent.
All the while he smiles at her with that killer smile. The one that made her heart flutter and her womanly parts melt in expectation. Wide sensual lips, spread over white even teeth. A full-frontal of gleaming pearly perfection. To be honest the smile was the best thing about Stanley.
He came and went as was his due. She thought to just get a little of his time was a great boon.
Her mother said, "Paula, I just don't know. Stanley reminds me of a used car seller. Always trying to gloss over the dents and cracks in his exterior. All the while ignoring the slow sputtering engine, the choking exhaust system and the many, many owners who abused it."
Paula ignored her mother's words and warnings. She knew she was lucky to get such a man. A man with a killer smile. No he didn't keep his word sometimes, but he was a busy business man. An entrepreneur who oversaw a lucrative import export business.
Her father with a worried frown voiced his unasked for opinion. "The man is just plain no good. He looks like a cheater and an abuser. You don't need someone like him in your life."
He minced no words when it came to his only daughter's welfare but Paula argued back in Stanley's defense.
"You don't know him as I do. Just try to get along for my sake, please daddy, please."
So her father tried to get along for his daughter's sake. All the while shaking his head, wishing Stanley would simply disappear out of his daughter's life. He was so distraught, he even thought to bribe him to leave.
Standing at the altar, him bending over to place the ring (she paid for) daintily upon her finger. Promising till untimely death do us part. Smiling ... all the while smiling that killer smile.
Well and not so well-wishers, slapping Stanley on the back. Snickering about the wedding night that way too many knew would be her first time.
Signs aplenty as she looked back.
Heated arguments about money. Always her money. Stanley of course didn't have any money. Paula found this out too late, long after vows read and wedding night consummation. Long after loving smiles turned to ugly frowns and lips that used to say, "yes my lovely darling," now uttered blasphemes.
Her final ultimatum. "Get out and never come back you scoundrel."
All that remained was that damned killer smile of his. He had painted upon the sole unblemished mannequin a red lipped smile. His calling card of sorts.
No one needed to tell her it was him. She knew his style by now. How he took what was joyous to her and corrupted it beyond repair. How he belittled her at every turn ... her ideas were stupid, her designs plain, and her shop too small and unimaginative. She herself was not what did it for him anymore, as if she ever had.
But, to destroy her shop was to destroy her, and he knew this was all she had left. She had been the fool for him for so long. No more! Paula gathered her last shreds of dignity around herself. Determined to take the last stand; she squared her shoulders and placed her own killer smile upon her face as if it were a mantle of protection. She made her way home to her silent house.
Paula opened the one drawer in her bedroom dresser that Stanley had never bothered with. It was her underwear drawer that held her womanly magic. Thinking back, she laughed to herself. For Stanley never realized her most prized possession lay among her plain white cotton panties.
She unwrapped the small coin that lay in a plain black box. It had symbols and etchings only she could read, plainly displayed on its surface.
Paula clutched the coin to her small breasts and pictured Stanley in her mind. She released the wraith that slumbered inside.
As she turned off the last light in her bedroom, she whispered, "Stanley, if you only knew. Wait till you see my killer smile."
Silken Threads
The Web of Man-Kind
Finer than the thinnest spider’s silk
Is the web of mankind’s time
Each line, each thread, uncountable
Holding ten million times ten million strands
And each thread could hold much more
Streaming from the ocean of sources
Each piece intertwined into silken yarn
Finer than the thinnest spider’s silk
The path, the strands, they twist
They turn, they circle, but ever straight
As if the line was drawn with a compass
Directly from the beginning to the end
Each strand gives us free will
To follow to the end or the beginning
To spiral from one to another
Intersecting, dissecting, blending, blurring
Once Chosen and it is a choice
Traveling it’s given length until
Becoming one, starting another
Finding love, leaving life, ending
Love at first sight
The True Meaning of Love
THE HOSPITAL CORRIDOR was silent as Kathy Packard hurriedly walked down the corridor to the maternity ward. She was expecting the frantic pace that television shows portrayed.
Her favorite TV show, Grey’s Anatomy, often had the doctors and nurses rushing around as if their asses were on fire. There were always orderlies dragging machinery around the hallways and pushing wheelchairs full of bandaged patients with IV’s hanging out of their arms.
Today it looked like all the staff had taken a holiday and were at a sunny beach somewhere. After all it was March 20th, the first day of spring and she too wanted to be somewhere else. But love brought her here.
Kathy had gotten the call last night from her mother. Her baby sister, Janice had gone into premature labor and Jake, her husband, had taken her to the hospital. The baby girl wasn’t due for another twelve weeks.
She had never had a baby herself, and definitely never wanted one, but she knew the baby coming this soon was not a good thing. She didn’t know what to expect and dread filled her heart for what awaited her.
It had been so difficult getting a flight out of San Francisco. Kathy was a junior executive for an advertising agency. It was one of the largest firms there. But even with this pull, it had been time consuming and expensive getting a flight to Dallas at the last minute.
Kathy had had to wait three hours at the airport just to get a standby. It had been worth it for now here she was at the Dallas hospital. She checked her Rolex watch and saw that it was 7:00am. She had been going non-stop since last night. Of course she was worn out, she had put in a twelve hour day at the ad agency, but her family was too important to her not to be here.
Long before the call came, she had been nervous. All day her mind was consumed with thoughts of her sister and the baby. The night before she had one of her premonitions. Most folks, like her mother called them just dreams. But Kathy knew they were much more than that.
Her mom, Delores was so skeptical about the whole premonition thing. Kathy kept quiet after her mother tongue lashed her the one time she told her about one of the dreams.
“You know that’s just a lot of stupid superstitions that simple m
inded people use to rationalize the world.” She had shook her head at Kathy and gave her one of those ‘mother looks’ that said she should know better.
But Kathy knew her dreams meant so much more. So much that she risked her high paying job on it. She loved her sister Janice, and no one or nothing was going to keep her from being by her side.
Kathy’s cell started chiming a lively tune. She rushed to quiet it. The noise just somehow didn’t seem appropriate in the near silent hallway.
“Hello mom. Yes, I am on the floor now. Which room are you guys in? Yeah, I’m right around the corner, see you in a sec. Love yah.” Apprehension threatened to overwhelm her, but she tugged on her big girl panties and walked swiftly down the hall.
Kathy’s heels were clicking on the vinyl tiled floors. She increased her pace and had just turned the corner when she saw Jake coming out of a room. He looked tired and unconsciously ran a hand through his hair.
Janice and Jake had been high school sweethearts. Janice often laughed and said she knew it was love at first sight when she had first seen Jake in the school cafeteria. Anytime you fell for a guy with ketchup running down his blue shirt and food hanging out of his mouth, you knew it must be the real thing.
Jake had handed Janice a single red rose the first time he came to take her out. That single red rose had grown to be the symbol of love between the two. You just didn’t see that kind of love anymore. Kathy knew for certain she had never experienced it and now at thirty-two she probably never would.
Kathy was terrible at the dating game. No, she admitted to herself, she royally sucked at dating. She tried. Honest to God, she did. But the men or as she called them, boys, emitted bad juju. She didn’t have to rely on her premonitions to realize most of the ‘boys’ that asked her out were only after what money they thought she had. She didn’t believe in true love.
“Jake, how are you doing?” She nervously asked him, as she brought her mind back to the present. Jake turned at her voice. Up close he looked even worst, but that was understandable. She knew that his nerves must have given out hours ago and sleep seemed to still be a long way off.
“Oh Kathy, I’m glad you made it in. Janice is sleeping and your mom is there with her. I just couldn’t sleep on that little cot the nurse brought up and ....” Jake rambled on clearly distracted.
“I understand what you mean. I tried to catch a few winks on the plane but I was just too keyed up to even nap. Did you go ahead with the name you two picked out or change to something else? I know Janice was going back and forth between Marisa and Martha and then switching to something weird like Satra, yeah it was Satra wasn’t it?”
She knew she was rambling too, but the real questions she wanted to ask were just too difficult to put into words. Her fear for her sister and baby niece was too great, too new, too much to handle.
“I thought I heard voices out here,” Delores, Kathy’s and Janice’s mom said as she came out of the room closing the door behind her. “Kathy you look so tired. I shouldn’t have called you but I didn’t want you to not be here in case . . .”
She let the statement trail off. Both Kathy and Jake knew where she was going with the statement and didn’t need her to finish for them to understand just how stressed everyone was.
“Mom, how’s everything?” Kathy didn’t say more. There wasn’t much more to say. Deep inside she was a mess. She prayed her premonition held true. She would probably die herself if anything happen to her baby sister.
Hell, Janice was only 22. What must mom and dad been thinking when they let that 10 year gap be created? She had never asked that question of her and now with dad gone these past 5 years, Janice was all mom had. Besides Kathy was busy with her career and it didn’t seem as if she was needed anymore. She had let herself be pushed out of their lives.
“Let’s go to the nursery and see little baby girl Dickerson,” Delores said with the first lift in her voice since coming out of the room.
“No mom, I need to see Janice first. I want to see for myself if, if everything is ok.” Kathy rubbed her arms as if a chill had come over her. Please God she prayed, let my dream come true. Let Janice and the baby be safe and healthy. Please I love her so much.
Kathy pushed open the door and quietly entered the room. She didn’t want to wake Janice if she was sleeping, but she also didn’t want to intrude. The thought was almost absurd. This was her only sister who she dearly loved. She wouldn’t be intruding but for some reason those were the thoughts that were running through her head.
Janice turned her head towards the door as Kathy came in. “Hi yah Kat. What you doing here?” Janice was still groggy and in need of much needed sleep.
“Hi Jay, I heard you were up all night and having this party without me. You know I couldn’t miss this show.” They had always shared jokes between them since Kathy at 10 had first laid eyes on little newborn Janice. Even when the baby couldn’t possibly understand, Kathy had regaled her with her knock knock jokes.
“Kat, come here and help me get up. I want to show off your new niece.” Janice was struggling to get up and Kathy had no choice but to help her.
“Jay, maybe you should hold off and get some more rest before getting up. Jake and mom can show me to my new niece.” Kathy reluctantly tried to get Janice back into bed. They both turned their heads toward the door as Jake and Delores came into the room.
“Jay, I got something for you,” said Jake as he came to Janice’s bed side. He handed her a single red rose. Tears overflowed from Janice, Kathy, and Delores’s eyes as they stared at the perfect red rose that Jake had somehow managed to find at that early hour in the morning.
“Come on you guys, let’s go see baby Dickerson,” said Delores. They all helped Janice up and she proudly led the way down the hall to the neonatal unit.
“She looks so fragile, but my gosh, that is one beautiful baby,” said Kathy. “What did you two decide to name her?”
With smiles on their faces and arms interlinked, both Jake and Janice answered in unison, “Rose.” What else could it be, but Rose.
The Gift of Sight
We Are Led by Faith, Not by Sight
IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 1976, and I was almost 18 years old.
When I was small, Mama told us, "If you sleep on your stomach a witch will ride your back." Just that simple statement of fact left me feeling scared, queasy, and uneasy. I never fully understood what it meant or exactly how it was supposed to happen, but I was deathly afraid of it happening. I loved nothing better than sleeping on my stomach.
I don't recall how the whole thing came up. I remember my younger sister complaining about the space she was limited to in the bed we shared. It was probably mama's attempt to appease her youngest child, by suggesting something to make me assume a more compact position like the fetal one.
I tried to visualize what the witch would look like, even with my fertile imagination, I had difficulty. But that didn’t stop me from trying.
In the wee dark hours of night as I sprawled across the bed on my stomach; probably snoring lightly, a black clad, wild haired, pointy nosed and hunched-back hag would saddle me up like a horse and run me around the room. She would be poking me with a sharp wand. In some ways the thought was sort of funny, but still definitely unsettling.
Where did the witch come from? How did she know I was sleeping on my stomach, and what did she care? But if mama said it, then it must be something to it. But what difference did it matter if I slept on my stomach, back or side. What was so wrong with sleeping on your stomach?
Did it mean you would have horrifying nightmares with no end? Sleep is supposed to bring you rest and restore your body with energy, I ended up more tense, and weary, thinking of all these terrible possibilities than if I had gotten no sleep at all.
I knew a lot of the stuff was just old Negro folk-tales, something to tell children to scare them into doing what's right, but then again, maybe there was some truth to it.
Mama and daddy both were just ful
l of sayings and quotes they delivered to us with regularity. Daddy's favorite always started off with "a disobedient child" and ended up with "spare not the rod."
I knew mama and daddy were quoting the Bible with most of these bits and pieces of guidance and wisdom, but some were just stuff folks made up when they didn't have any other reason for telling you to stop doing something they didn't want you to do.
Mama told us kids a lot of things, as mothers do. She was very superstitious. She once told us if you took a hand mirror and looked over your shoulder into the wardrobe mirror at midnight on Halloween, you would see your future husband.
Halloween’s eeriness, future husbands, midnight spookiness, all too gothic and scary, something out of a bad movie, right. But I was curious, so this was just too much of a temptation to pass up.
When I was fifteen, I was determined to put mama's words to the test. I had everything already set up before everyone went to bed that night. All I had to do was stay awake long enough to find everything in the dark.
I struggled to stay awake by purposely turning from my back to my side, to my stomach to my side, to my back. Finally, it was 11:55 pm and time to put my plan into motion.
There I was on the most ghostly, scariest night of the year sneaking around in the bedroom I shared with my sisters, trying not to wake anyone else up.
I slid as quietly as I could out of bed and patted the covers back around my little sister. There were two beds in the room, and I moved cautiously between the beds. "Ouch" stumped my toe! I grunted sharply, but luckily caught myself before any further noise could escape my lips.
There were four of us girls still at home. We all shared the old walnut wardrobe in the bedroom. It was the kind that had a mirrored door on the right side that opened and five drawers on the left-hand side. It was taller than I was, five times as wide and took up way too much of the small floor space.
Out of the Mind Of . . . A Fantasy and Paranormal Anthology Page 4
