The Lady and the Hound- Divination

by A M Nixon

  Mary returned from her trip exhausted. As she settled in to bed, remembering her visions of the cottage, and the flash of light behind it, and the remote camp in the woods, her heart began to race. She didn’t remember seeing her babies in the dreams.

  Mary paced back and forth, the wood floor creaked with each turn, waiting for her mother to answer. She needed to tell someone her news and she was fresh out of friends.

  “Hi” her mom said, after answering on the seventh ring.

  “I was just about to hang up. I have good news,” Mary said. Before her mother could ask what the news was, she continued. “My lawyer called Dickie and got my babies back, isn’t that great?” Mary said.

  “That’s wonderful, are they coming to you?” Her mother said.

  “No, I’m going to them tomorrow. I don’t want him and his new wife to see the cottage or step foot where I live.”

  Mary’s mother sounded apprehensive, “Maybe I should be with you when you pick them up?”

  “No, I’ve got this. I’m much stronger than I was before. Now I have the cottage, thanks to you and Uncle Walter, so I can bring Flea, Chance and kit here. They can run and play, and I don’t have to worry about them getting hit by a car.” Mary drank the last of her coffee and stood up to get motivated. “Mom, I love you, but I’ve got to go, I still have to pack.”

  Mary hung up and checked her phone for messages from Margie or Dickie. No calls; good. No one has canceled or rescheduled so far. Getting her babies back would be all she’d have to show for nearly 20 years with Dickie. Mary was going back to Maryland, and the memories of walking out of the hospital spitting out random bits of charcoal after her suicide attempt. She was free of the thoughts, for now, but this trip would test her resolve. Fearing what her reaction might be as she was about to face what drove her to it.

  Mary decided she’d do some reading; the excitement of the upcoming trip was too much, and she needed sleep. Old literary books always put her right out. This time she skipped to the story about the Priestess. In handwriting it said:

  According to legend, the Priestess Isadore, one of the first immortal souls created, wanted to escape her life in the Otherworld. The Divine One’s told her in order to do so, she would have to incarnate into human form and suffer a human death. Afterward her bones would need to be kept hidden so the Dark Spirit couldn’t find them and hold her in his world.

  Mary was curious how much of the story was true and what was fantasy. She read on:

  The Priestess Isadore can incarnate one human soul and relive as many lives as she wished. Isadore chose to incarnate into the soul of a woman in the MacFhearguis clan. Her name was Elena. Elena married a ruthless Marquis of Aztec and Spanish nobility. The Marquis Juan Diaz, with his Aztec roots, wanted many children to carry on the blood line.

  It was strange to Mary that someone of Scottish decent would marry into Spanish nobility. Curious to find answers to her many questions, she read on:

  “He was not a kind man, often cold and cruel. When Elena could not produce an heir, he insulted her with his bitter words.”

  When Mary read the passage, she was taken back to her relationship with Dickie. He was a lot like the Marquis, cutting her down every chance he got with his own set of sharp vile words. It made her self-esteem plummet with each passing year they were together. Not liking where this story was going, but with her interest piqued, she had to keep reading:

  Considering her baron and worthless to his cause, he had her taken by his guards to the stables. There, she was mortally wounded and left for dead. Elena’s guardian angel, keeping the covenant Isadore had with the Divine One’s, brought her body to the clan MacFhearguis. The clan set her body out to be eaten by birds and animals until all the flesh was gone from her bones. A sky burial, a tradition. Once her bones were clean, the clan placed them in a simple pine box, with a crystal which came from a star that housed the angels.

  On the next page Mary could see the drawing of the pendulum her uncle referenced. When she found the chest and the crystal, she would have noticed human bones. She continued reading:

  “Isadore has had many incarnate lives since Elena. But she was the first and had the most tragic of deaths. Because Elena was killed for not producing a child for the Marquis, Isadore chose not to have children in each reincarnated life since. All that is known is she resides at the castle, which is covered in vines, named Zropu.”

  The rest of the passage Mary remembered reading when she did the divination game but didn’t have time to read further.

  “She is free to live her immortal life and inhabit her human soul at the same time. Zropu can be seen only by those in the spirit or angelic world.”

  Mary pulled the crystal pendulum from her purse. She held it in her hands, examining it closer for something she may have missed the first time. It didn’t vibrate as if it held magical powers. If it was supposed to be protecting Priestess Isadore’s bones, why didn’t she find them in the chest with it? Her spirit might be nearby if the legend in the book was true. Could Isadore be the one sending the premonitions, or the spirit opening the closet door? Where they trying to get her attention to find the chest? She wanted to know the answers to her questions, but she needed sleep for the trip. She wanted to be fresh and looking as good as she could when she arrived at her old home. Mary vowed to investigate more when she returned with her babies.

  Mary focused her attention on packing as her heart began to race again. She hesitated but knew she would have to call her old house, to make sure someone would be there when she arrived. The line rang with no answer. She wasn’t worried; she had a six-hour drive ahead of her and plenty of time to get in contact with him. She tried one last time and nothing, not even the answering machine. She carried blankets to the back of her SUV and loaded dog and cat treats and water for the pit stops. She couldn’t wait to see them. It was less than a year since she’d left her old home, but time passes much slower when you’re alone.

  In that time, Dickie married a woman half her age and had a child. Mary didn’t want to know anything more. Not only had she lost her ex but his family too, and she envisioned them fussing over his child. The one she couldn’t have; not that she wanted children. She never had the maternal urges while everyone around her did. She was content not having the responsibility, never wanting to grow up. Dickie had always agreed with her decision, until… but for older men it was a lot easier, since they didn’t have to be around for the daily responsibility, they could start a family anytime. Mary was past her prime. It was too late for second thoughts.

  On her way back inside, the ground shook as she heard several loud booms. She ran to the back of the cottage in time to catch the glow of the light. It was brighter than the sunlight and fanned out a across the sky with a white hue, as lightening does. Since she was on the top of the mountain, the bright light was hundreds of miles away. Yet she could hear the booms and noticed the bright saucer shaped lights, the same one’s that appeared in her dream. Trying to think back to everything she envisioned, she couldn’t remember what came after the lights. She ran into the cottage and turned on the TV. There wasn’t anything but white noise. She turned on the radio to hear only static. She moved the dials, but it didn’t help. Frantic, she tried to call Margie, the only one she knew in Old Gap, but her phone didn’t have any bars. Even on a bad day she had at least two.

  She jumped into her SUV and raced down to the market. What few people were out and about, were looking at the white objects in the sky. No one had cell service and were as uninformed as Mary was. She went over to Margie’s office, but she wasn’t there. Without being able to call someone and with everyone oblivious, she was afraid there had been a nuclear attack. The only item that made her question her assumption were the white saucer shaped lights. They weren’t part of any nuclear bomb she’d ever seen on tv. One bystander told her the Sheriff would post news at the gas station as it became available.

  She raced back home and tried to get on the internet, th
inking the satellites still worked if nothing else. Hoping the tv service and the internet had their own satellites. She opened her laptop and tried to get online but it kept bouncing back saying no service. None of the satellites were working. No way to know for sure what was happening and even if the Sheriff posted anything new, it would mean having to drive back into town. She wasn’t sure how much gas she would need but would make one more trip to fill up her tank and the containers she had for the generator just in case. Never before had Mary felt such isolation, not even when she was about to take her life. It was one thing to be sad and lonely, but to be this close to her best possible life, and have it taken by a cataclysmic event, was too much.

  After waiting for a few hours, Mary drove the 40 minutes back to town. Most of the smaller businesses were closed but the gas station and Krullers were still open. She walked into the gas station and talked to the kid working behind the counter. “Have you heard anything yet, did the Sheriff post anything?”

  He looked at her wide-eyed. “Meteorites, hundreds of them, striking all over the world. Leveling everything for up to 500 miles each, some of them were even larger. I think one hit D.C., course you know the Prez is probably 200 feet underground by now,” he said.

  When the attendant said DC, Mary tensed, but if one strike leveled up to 500 miles, the gas station they were standing in would have been leveled too. It was only 300 miles to DC, and under 400 from where her babies were in Maryland. It must have been over water, a few hundred miles out, or a smaller one or something. Aside from a few fires, you couldn’t tell anything had happened in Old Gap. She asked him if he knew anything about Maryland. He shook his head no and Mary went out to fill her tank and two containers for the generator.

  She bought as much water as she could and as many Heath bars and dark chocolate Peanut Chews she could grab for her nerves. The station was only taking cash since the network was down. Mary had never kept more than a twenty in cash, reserved for her lottery tickets. Luckily, she was going to move some funds to a local account and hadn’t gotten a chance to open the account and deposit anything yet.

  Back at the cottage, Mary was stuck in the waiting. Without communication she had no way to reach anyone and she couldn’t afford to waste gas going back to town and not learning any more than she already knew. She worried about her babies and her mom, dad, sisters and the rest of her family spread from California to Ohio. She kept the TV on in case the government tried to air a message and left the radio on as loud as she could stand hearing the buzz of nothing on air. She knew someone would get to a radio station that hadn’t been leveled or at least set one up so everyone could know what was happening. She looked at her phone, still no bars. She made a pot of coffee and listened to the static.

  It had been a few days since she went to get the gas and had gotten any information. During that time, she read some of the family book. There wasn’t anything more to learn about the Priestess Isadore. The rest was written in a foreign language. She considered exploring the cavern, but without the use of a phone to call for help, she couldn’t take the chance. Mary stayed glued to the tv and radio, waiting for communication from the outside. There were a few signals through the radio, a series of beeps like Morse code, but she didn’t know the significance of it or who was sending it. She figured it was time to go back to town, she was out of gas for the generator and was conserving the wood stash for when she could no longer buy gas.

  When she arrived in town there had been a stampede on Krullers store, barely open, with nothing of any value left. The only thing she could find that she needed was a box of sugar packets since all the other sugar was gone. She might starve but she was going to drink her coffee. Surprisingly, there was a can of off-brand left on the shelf. She paid and asked the clerk who was also the owner, if he had any news. He told her the Sheriff had updated his previous post at the gas station. Mr. Kruller was concerned about looting and whether the stores would get inventory. No one knew what was to come next. He told her after she leaves he would close and board what he could, while he could.

  Mary walked over to Margie’s office, hoping she would be there, wanting information too. There was no answer at the door, and she didn’t see her car out front. She never thought to ask her where she lived. If Mary stayed in town she would ask the post office for her address. Who knows, maybe she hi-tailed it out to the south or the west, no one knew for sure what direction would be the best. The Sheriff stated in his post at the front of the gas station that most of the storage areas for the oil refineries were destroyed. Those who had solar were better off, if they were in a clear zone. Otherwise many areas had fires from the heat of the meteorites after they exploded. They didn’t cause craters, but they did enough damage to shut down communication all over the world. All Mary could think about was getting to Maryland to see if her babies were still alive. She wasn’t going to be cheated out of the one thing that went her way in the relationship.

  There was a small line for gas and some pumps had bags over them. People were leaving town. Or passing through, either way her town would be out of gas soon and she didn’t know if she had enough wood, candles and gas to stay warm enough in the bitter cold. It was January and still in the single digits at night. She would have to tarp up an area, probably the library, and use the fireplace or the living room and live around the wood stove. She looked for some firewood stacks that were usually for sale around the gas station, and those were gone. She would have to find the ax if she was going to stay warm when the gas ran out. She filled up the two containers again and her tank in the SUV and went back to the cottage, maybe for the last time.

  It was one thing to be without civilization but another to be all alone in it. She could read all those books in the library, but only if they didn’t contain all the exaggerated prose writers from the past were fond of using. Mary had no patience to read a full page explaining how the steam rose from a sewer grate on a street in New York city. She was much too ADHD for that. But, she might have to suffer through it, and revert to how it was in the old days when reading was all anyone had. She knew with the station running out of gas, if she wanted to make it to Maryland she would have to leave soon. That required gathering all her blankets and food and be on the road before she had to worry about chopping firewood or running out of gas for the generator again.

  Mary hid everything she could find of value and put it in the cavern’s stairwell. She carefully slid the wood panel back in place and nailed the boards back up, placing all the boxes back in the way she found them. No one should think to look in the back of the closet. She had placed the crystal pendulum in the stairwell too, fearing it might get stolen if she should get stranded on the road. She grabbed the knife she found in the cupboard and made sure it was sharp. It will do if she had to use it. Once she got everything loaded up, she once again headed back into town. This time, and it had only been hours since she was last there, she couldn’t see anything for the smoke. It was everywhere and she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

  Krullers was boarded, as he promised, and the gas station put up a sign that it was out of gas. She was hoping for one last fill up. Mary was glad she hadn’t waited any longer to leave. If only it were summer, she could have roughed it in the cottage a few more months, limiting her generator use, but she would still end up making this trip, her babies were waiting for her to find them, she could feel it. She made sure to grab her divination cards, and she always had her pendulum in her pocket. She may need their guidance for the next several hours on the road, if there were no obstructions or car thieves up in the mountains.

  Mary drove as fast as she could, not being able to see too far out in front of her with the smoke. She turned on the radio to find a station; she hoped the closer she got to DC; she might get more news on where the safe zones were. The odometer told her she had traveled 35 miles when there was a flicker on the radio—someone’s voice, but she could barely hear him. She kept driving slowly waiting for the signal to get stron
ger, finally it did. She was at 39 miles when she found a clear signal. She couldn’t tell exactly where she was but knew she was still surrounded by woods. She pulled over so she could hear what was coming from the radio. The announcer, a young sounding man,

  “I was traveling near the station and broke in because it was one of the few buildings standing. I’m at a station out of Scranton, Pa. They have a generator, that’s why I’m able to broadcast right now. I was traveling from New York when my car died. I looked for shelter and found this station. I have nothing more to report for now, but I suggest everyone listening get to their nearest military base, if they didn’t get leveled, someone there should be able to help.” The young man said.

  She looked at the map, thankful she picked it up at the welcome center. It listed bases and she found one close to her location. There was no way to know how much longer she could drive given the lack of visibility. The only thing in front of her headlights was smoke, or what looked like smoke.

  She made it another eight miles when her SUV died. She checked her gas gauge, and it was showing half a tank. She knew she couldn’t fix her car without tools, so she took all the blankets she had for the dogs and cat and layered them over her. She had to wait until dawn. Trying to sleep, she realized she could use her auxiliary to listen to the radio. The young man wasn’t on the air anymore but there was the same beeping as before. She listened for a random pattern. As far as she could tell, it was beep, beep, beep, and silence, and four more beeps. She turned it off and tried to sleep. She woke before dawn, to hear what sounded like tanks coming towards her. She turned on her headlights so they could see her. She couldn’t tell what direction the noise was coming from, so she grabbed her backpack and her flashlight and headed out towards the sound. She had been walking for a few minutes when there were headlights though the smoke; they were coming right towards her and afraid the vehicle would run her over, she jumped onto the side of the road and landed at the top of a steep hill.