This day was like all the others as she sat quietly sipping on her first cup. Her cats sitting close as if guarding her from anything that would come. They could see things their human couldn't. Those things that have passed from their physical bodies in this world but have still not really left. The cats can see them, can hear them, and they warn her when the others come around. Kind of like her own personal spirit alarms, perking up their ears and watching them, hissing and crying if they are near their human. This is their job and they take it very seriously.
Their human. She has known about the spirits all her life. She had been hearing them and seeing them since she was a child. As an adult her gift had grown, adding the ability to smell things not there. Smoke from a cigarette, garlic from the hands of an Italian cook, perfume from a loving grand mother, these were all signs that helped her determine who was around when they didn't wish to be seen. They all wanted to be heard. They all had a message they needed relayed. Not all their messages were easy to decipher or to know who they needed to go to. This was the challenge she faced every day because if she didn't get the message right or pass it to the right people, they would get angry. They were not nice when they were angry.
Some of the spirits liked to play games, to move and hide things. Others liked to put things in places where they would be seen. The problem was when they got angry, they could do things that could hurt her. Leaving small things to trip over at the top of the stair case or things that would roll to cause a fall. The spirits were not above causing pain, especially if they didn't get their way. Almost like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum. They could get mean when they wanted to and this she tried to avoid. The cost was too great. She had already experienced loss from their wrath.
It was a cold morning many years earlier, quite similar to this one actually. She had been focused on her child, getting her up and ready for school, tiding up behind her as she ran through life without a care in the world. Her job as a mother was to make sure her baby was able to be a child, run and play and enjoy the innocent years before the world took hold and force her to grow up. She focused so hard on this so her girl could have what she did not. And she did. She was a typical, healthy, happy, beautiful extension of her mother.
When the baby was born, she all her time and energy on her. She no longer had time to listen, to hear what the others were saying. It was as if she had turned down the volume or turned off her abilities. The baby was growing and requiring more and more of her time, causing her to neglect the others. But they had their messages. They had been trying to talk to her, trying to get her attention but she had been too busy. This had made them angry and they were going to get her attention, one way or another.
The little girl loved her dolls and had her favorites she played with, always toting them around yet on this morning one was missing. Over the years the others had started to play with her. It was not uncommon for them to hide her dolls so she began to hunt. Before when they played with her she would find them under the bed or in the closet. Looking high and low, she searched, finally finding one of the favorites laying just outside the upstairs window on the porch roof. Being a child she didn't see the danger. It seemed easy enough to just go out the window and grab it, so she thought. She quietly opened the window, crawled through onto the roof. Holding onto the window sill, her doll was just out of reach. She would have to take another step, she would have to let go. As she did, she stepped out from under the overhang where the roof was damp from the morning dew, her little feet slid out from under her. A scream, a crash, then silence.The mother rushed outside to where she had heard the noise. Her heart broke as she rushed over to her baby girl who was now laying motionless next to her doll on the front steps. A pool of blood beginning to circle her head like the halo of an angel. Her baby was gone. She knew it in her heart. She could also hear her, she was calling out, confused and scared.
The other's were speaking now, too, and now she would listen. They had finally gotten her attention again but the cost was too much. They had broken her. She would no longer love, pushing everyone away in fear that they too could be hurt by the others. She knew what had happened. They had done this, had taken away her reason for living. Yet she was not one to give up. She would be here for her remaining years listening and helping. She would do all she could and...she would be able to communicate with her baby girl. Not as a mother could. No more hugs. She would never grow up to be a beautiful young lady, graduating, getting married, having babies. This was stolen from her by them.
As the years passed, she became more and more angry. She stopped hearing her baby girl so she stopped listening to the others...stopped helping. She was ready to go, to be free of this world. The years had been hard but she pushed through. Now, as she layed in her bed struggling for each breath, she drempt of her baby girl, hoping that she would be there to greet her when she passed. One more breath. She felt a hand on hers. All at once she realized that it she had no more pain, no more struggles to breathe. She was free of her earthly body, and the hand now holding hers was the hand of her baby girl. They were once again united. Her heart was now whole again, and death was good.
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