After the service

“Why on earth did I think that I would find what I need coming here? The way that they looked at me. They think I’m trash. Did you see the way the pastor hesitated before handing me the cup of communion? I told you there was no point coming here.”

“I don’t agree. The couple who greeted us at the door hugged us and they were so warm.”

“I guess so.”

“What about the choir?”

“Their voices were beautiful.”

“Yes, that was quite some magic.”

“See, it wasn’t so bad.”

“I thought that I would get some answers here. I thought that I would get some peace. There were so many old people looking at me like I was from the planet sin.”

“Old school people maybe just don’t understand your ink. Maybe they haven’t considered it may be art. I think you maybe could have thought about covering them up.”

“I decided a long time ago, I will not be doing that, for anyone.”

One of the female pastors who was on the alter with the rest of them rushes up just as they’re about to get into the car to leave.

“Wait a minute. I just wanted to ask you whether you got your tattoos done at the parlour on 7^th Street.”

“Yes I did, how do you know?”

“It’s my father’s place, I can spot his work a mile away.”

“Your father is Big Jay?”

“Yes he is.”

She lifts her robes, removes her collar, takes off her cardigan and starts rolling up her sleeves. Her arms look just like mine. Even the scars on her wrist. My husband and I are the co-pastors of this parish. I’m preaching next Sunday, please come again?”

“I just might.”

“See? I told you church is great.”

“We’ll see.”

Dear Jim

This letter is a true part of my life, a letter that I write to my friend Rose, who passed away from COVID19 more than a year ago. I hope she hears these words. This picture is of my most prized possession, the cover of this bible is a gift that she once had custom made for me. Jim was the nickname that I gave her and used, mine alone.

I miss you, every single day. I think about you all the time. So many memories. When I was with you, every single time, without fail, I would end up laughing from the core of my soul. I am so grateful that I met you and so grateful that you chose me to be your friend. When you died, I couldn’t take it. I was and sometimes still am shattered by the fact that you’re dead. I never thought that I would have to face the day that I won’t be able to hug you anymore. So many memories of our time together drenches my very existence. It’s because of you that I stand. You defended me against a bully once. You taught me effortlessly that there is another place in life. A place outside of where you have to meet the expectations of society, the people around you or even that you set for yourself. A place where you can be free. Free from everything. Where you can just be yourself. A place where there is no judgment. A place where money doesn’t mean anything. I remember everything. The songs that we sang together, once very loud, in public when we were already adults. I can’t remember if anyone was looking at us that day, there was only me and you and the music. You were and are everything to me. The times that we went to church together when we were still in school, when we sang together in the school choir. How beautiful you looked in your bridesmaid dress. I miss you. Underneath it all, I know that you are not gone. You came to see me, outside of the reality where you are gone. We got dressed together in my dream. Your energy was the same, I drank from it like I was dying of thirst. I asked you how are things on your side, like I always did and you said that things are ok, like you always did. Outside of everything, I stand with you. We go up an escalator and sing. I love you, beyond the confines of life and space and time. I try so hard to focus on so much good that you left me with. An entire happy world that you make me see, still. If I forget to focus on this and remember that you’re dead, I will stay shattered and that would be an insult to your memory. You changed me for the better, you made me strong and happy. Thank you, till we see each other again, I love you.

First day on the job

“That’s the job. You carry her from the moment she walks in through that door to the gates that side.”

“Can’t she just walk to the gate herself?”

“Most of the time no.”

“This job is a great honour, remember that. Enjoy your first day, here she comes.”

A grown woman crawls through the door, filthy. Huge backpack on her shoulders, filled with rocks. The second her feet pass the threshold, she collapses. There was a small box in her hands that fell to the floor. The Carriers open it. Millions of papers fly out. After the papers fly out, water stars gushing out, enough to reach their knees. They pick her up, as heavy as she is. Some of her dirt touches their clothes and hands. They carry her to the gate. They open the gate and the Boss is there, taking her in his arms with a smile and a song.

Severing the tether

“Just concentrate on it. Relax your mind. Remember, the goal is to see it as an actual rope. Touch it in your mind, smell it. Feel the texture of it in your hand. Now, tell me what it feels like, what it smells like, how thick it is. Imagine this as real. Don’t let anything else enter your mind except the sound of my voice and the reality of the tether. Focus. Breathe. Relax. How clear is it? “

“It smells like wood shavings, it’s really thick, like the kind of rope that you would use in a tug of war. It’s a bright red, because it’s really strong. “

“Now, how will you sever it?”

“With my hands. I don’t have anything to cut it with, but I know that my hands will be enough.“

“Now sever it, but you have to concentrate and be sure that you do it completely. You have to believe and you have to actually see and feel it severed. How do you do it? Describe it to me in detail?”

“I wrap my hands around it. My hands are like red hot lava. I can see and feel the steam coming from my hands. Even though the rope is thick, I can see the smoke rising from the rope. Tendrils of it are starting to slowly burn. The red paint on it is gone where my hands are burning it, the fibres of the rope are really smoking now. It’s singeing and starting to get smaller. I squeeze it harder and small black specks of ash are starting to blow from it. It’s almost entirely gone.“

“Don’t lose your concentration, focus, until you can see that the rope is completely gone.”

“I’m doing it, it’s really thin now, most of it has been blown away in specks of ash. My hands are flaming hot. The heat that’s coming from them is even blue like a flame. The rope is completely incinerated. It’s gone.”

“How do you feel?”

“Fantastic. It was so easy. Why was it so easy?”

“It wasn’t, remember, we’ve been practicing for months. “

“Thank you so much. It worked right?”

“Of course it did. Don’t go looking for confirmation yourself, this is very important. When you do get your confirmation, please make your last payment. We’ll give you a month. Remember, if you don’t pay after a month, if we can teach you this imagine what we could do to you.“ She winks while she says this.

It actually worked. Pity there’s a one year waiting period to do it again. I’ll just have to wait it out to get the rest of them.

“Are you really going to see some crack pot who is going to teach you to kill someone with your mind?”

“Of course not. It’s not like I believe that the only thing keeping us all alive is some thin tether between life and death anyway. I’m taking your advice and seeking professional help. Someone to talk to. That’s what you wanted right?”

“Yes. Killing the people who took her isn’t going to bring her back, remember that.”

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/tether/

You can’t go back

“Are you sure you want to go ahead and take it?”

“Yes I am.”

“The only information that you have is that the people who took it are still alive. It’s a new thing, they don’t even know what the side effects are. You don’t even know to what extent it’s been tested.”

“I know that the people who took it had less time than I had and that they’re still alive and show no symptoms at all. I have a year if I don’t take it. Even if something goes wrong and I end up with a side effect that they just don’t know about yet, it’s still better then dying. The fact that you and my parents have made peace with my dying doesn’t mean that I have to go gently into the night and just accept it. Don’t get me wrong, my sessions with Pastor Frank have helped me to walk through this with faith, but it’s not good enough for me. I can’t just accept that dying is the only option that I have. Look at them. They’re healthy.“

He didn’t tell her about what Chris and Beth said after they took it. He didn’t even know whether he believed them anyway. He didn’t think that it would be that bad. The thing with Sail is that it’s a once off treatment. You drink one glass of it and that’s it, you can’t go back.

He took it.

As soon as he swallowed the last drop, he saw them. For a long time he was ok with that. They were just there. They didn’t speak to him or do anything. It was the same with Chris and Beth.

The day that one of them touched him things changed. Why can they touch him? He understood that seeing them everywhere was the price that he had to pay to stay alive. But when they touched him it felt like his blood curdled. What if they start touching him all the time. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken the Sail.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sail/

The Protected Ones

It started the day that the air was punctured.

No one really knows where the poison came from. We are the ones left. Our emotions stayed on.

At first they couldn’t determine what the results would cause. The economies of the world stabilized indefinitely and the money flowed like water, even in the most destitute countries. But that wasn’t enough to prevent the moral fiber from disintegrating.

Before all the children were eaten, they quarantined us and started calling us the protected ones. After Tommy tried to escape and a few of us saw what they did to him, no one ever tried to escape again.

The one theory was that we were busy dying out because we were below the new order. We were going extinct because emotions are considered weakness by everyone else.

The rest of them are so cold. In that cold lives the devil. What the others don’t realise even though we tried to tell them was that this is the end. The dark one switched their hearts off and now there’s only money. They don’t understand. The treaty is the only thing that’s keeping us alive. They’re trying to get it repealed because they believe that we don’t serve a purpose. I’m not scarred that they will succeed. I know that when they kill us, the angels will come for us and the devil will come and live here with them.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/puncture/

Instinct

It had taken years to shake it off. Finally, she had arrived, husband and new born in tow. The thing is, instinct that is honed for a life time can never really be forgotten.

She wasn’t scarred to be a mother, she revelled in it. It was their first day out without David. He had already called her three times to make sure that she was ok to go to the paediatrician on her own. She was more than ready. She rambled her checklist back to him with. He promised he wouldn’t call again until she was home.

They made it out of the doctor’s office. This alone made her think she could pull off a run to the shops and surprise David with a special meal. She parked, it was quite empty.

She noticed the car with the two men pull up immediately after her and park beside her, even though there was more than enough other parking spots to choose from. She waited before she got out. They thought that she wasn’t paying attention to them. That she hadn’t see them coming out of the doctor’s office. They thought that she would be an easy target because she had Jaime with her. They thought that the baby bag and the stroller would distract her and leave her unguarded. She waited for them to get out. They didn’t. They were waiting for her to get Jaime out of her car seat on the other side of the car. She climbed out of her side and moved towards Jaime. She opened the door and didn’t unfasten the car seat latches. She only looked at Jaime, smiled and started singing. The signing might make them think that she doesn’t realise what’s happening. The only problem would be the cameras in front of the Shopping Center that were pointed right at her. They would be see her license plate.

Both of them walked right up to her. They had on hoodies and took care to not point their faces at the cameras. They had done this before. That was enough for them to believe that they would be able to pull it off. That confidence was enough to make her know that their plan was weak.

She kept the door open and kept singing. Jaime started crying as soon as they came close. She tossed her handbag as far away as she could. One of them went for it but the other one was still on her. She  pulled the knife from the inside of her jacket and stabbed him in the eye. The other one charged at her. She took the gun from her back pocket and shot him in the knee. Unfazed, she lifted Jaime from her car seat, locked the doors, walked towards the Supermarket and picked up her bag as she passed it. As soon as she entered she told the security guard at the entrance that two men had tried to hurt her and her baby and that they were lying there and needed medical attention.

Living is what I chose

I long for the day when you will be gone.

Gone in your entirety.

No lingering smell.

No memories of possibilities not chosen.

Death wouldn’t be enough.

Perhaps, if I knew God better than I do now, I would long for better things.

I would long to reconcile my heart and place myself in your shoes and understand your reasons.

I would long for the ability to forgive.

I would long for scars to heal without a seam.

I would long for the blood boiling fury of your claim on me to hold no power, only peace.

I would long for acceptance.

Instead of attempts at trying to erase the trace of you, suffocating me, I chose to live instead.

Living is what I chose.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/trace/

Ashed

It took a year for the day to come. A full year for all his parent’s efforts for him to keep control and not show anyone, to unravel.

They had been training him for years, the same way their parents had trained them. They believed that they had pulled it off and had assimilated into normal society and that no one would ever know what they could do. His size helped their disguise. He was so small that everyone in his class, even the girls, were bigger than him. His charisma helped even more. As much as a nine year old could ever be considered suave, that was Steve. His parent’s believed that all the training and love had resulted in the most socially well-adjusted nine year old on the planet. It just wasn’t enough to quell it. They had pushed him too long. He was like their own private science project. They salivated at the day he would finally crack. They expected tears, that he would try and fight them.

It had been escalating to new heights. On the day it ended, Martin, the ring leader had managed to rip out one of Steve’s fingernails. They all already knew he’d grow it back immediately, that he couldn’t even bruise.

Steve just stood there starring at Martin with a blank look on his face, while they all looked at the bloody fingernail. Steve said nothing and walked right up to him. Martin leaned in his face, just close enough for Steve to lightly brush his cheek. In a fraction of a second, from the moment Steve brushed his cheek, what used to be Martin, backpack and all, lay on the ground, a pile of ash that the wind started to blow away.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/detonate/

Love Story

When you asked me how we ended up together, as I had hoped you would before you were even born, I was so happy that you were old enough to understand how I would explain it.

Look around, do you hear all the noise, he is quiet.

Do you feel how cold everything is, he is warmth.

Do you feel the lack oozing off of people who don’t understand life, he is abundance.

Do you see God in the stars, in the flowers? Do you hear God in the music?

You father radiates God’s love to us so much more than any of these things.

That’s how we ended up together.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/radiate/