Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
With all my energy, I ran my behind into the house, not pondering anything further.
Then, I called Mom.
She answered, after the first ring. “Hey, baby. How’s the bag working for you?”
“I’m hearing voices outside.”
“Like what?” That was always Mom. Nothing shocked her or appeared too impossible for her not to believe. “What are the voices saying?”
“Someone said Remy.”
“Oh. That’s a French name. I love Remy Martin cognac. Good stuff on a cold night. I might send Daniel down the street to get me a bottle. He’s such a nice boy, always checking in on me. He’s shoveling my driveway right now. Should I tell him to stop by and shovel your driveway?”
“Mom, I just said that I’m hearing voices.”
“Yes, and that they said a French name. Do you want me to send Daniel by?”
“You know I don’t want you to send him by. Stop trying to get us back together.”
“I always liked Daniel.”
“We were in high school at the time we dated. It’s kind of hard for a mother to not like any little high school boy.”
“Not true. Daniel was the only one I ever approved of.”
Sighing, I went to the cupboard and pulled out a tea cup. “Mom, would the bag make me hear things?”
“It makes dreams come true. What do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well you should think about that while you’re wearing it and you’ll get your wishes.”
“Mom, someone was talking to me outside. I was making my last snow creature today. Rose asked me what I would name him, and then the voice said Remy.”
“I wonder why the voice would pick a French name.”
“Could we focus on the crazy and less on the origin of names?”
“Nothing sounds crazy to me yet.”
Maybe, I should’ve called someone else.
I continued, “When the girls surprised attacked me with snow balls, the voice told me to watch out.”
“Interesting.”
“And then later, when Brett came by, the voice kept saying, ‘Go away.’”
“Personally, I’m liking this voice.”
I sighed. “But, Mom, do you think I’m going crazy?”
“No, baby, you’re just finally opening your ears and really listening to the world around you.”
“What?”
“The bag helps you wake up too.”
“Wake up? I thought it made your dreams come true?”
“It does, by waking you up from the nightmare.” Chatter came from her end. “Okay, baby, I have to go. Daniel just finished and I promised to fix him some hot chocolate and a nice slice of my special pie.”
My stomach turned at the mention of that pie. Mom thought she could cook. Everyone else avoided her food like it was a bill collector.
“Mom, you don’t think I’m going crazy?”
“Baby, you’ve always been a little crazy. I love you and will talk to you later.” She hung up the phone.
Chapter 3
Faith
N
ight came.
There were no more voices. Not in the house or when I walked outside. Just silence. A gloomy quiet swallowing the sun.
Soon my recollection of earlier today fogged into doubts. Maybe, I’d never heard anything at all. Perhaps, I’d been so stressed out that I’d made it all up in my head.
There was no voice.
That night, I sat on a pile of blankets and pillows sipping a glass of wine and verging on the edge of drunkenness. A hollow ache wormed through my core.
The once cold, blue sky had transformed into a jet-black ocean, engulfing the land in a canopy of shimmering stars to illuminate the dark, moonless night. Closer to my house, shadows glistened, mirroring the stars. Faint wind brushed and ruffled the stillness of the snow.
Everything is fine.
Earlier, I’d made the mistake of getting on Facebook to see what my family and friends were doing for the holidays. It wasn’t my imagined pick me up. I ended up getting into several online arguments.
It was so unlike me, commenting on posts that infuriated me as if I were some social media Yoda there to warn the world about the dark force. But this year wasn’t a twisted Star Wars plotline. And neither of the political parties represented the Jedi or the Sith. They were just greedy bastards and warmongers disguised as peacekeepers and guardians.
Either way, I shouldn’t have been fighting online like a crazy person.
Yoda, you are not. An asshole, you have been. Wasted hours of the day on Facebook, you have.
We were the generation of chaos.
This world was fucking crumbling. And instead of us uniting together to build a space ship and blast off to the starry unknown, we picked up the shattered pieces of earth and stuck them up each other’s asses.
Letting the negative news get to me, I am. Need to fast from social media, I should.
Remy, my snowman stood next to me, glittering like glass. I’d sat by the musical memorial guitar first, but it was uncomfortable over there. For some reason, the wind blew colder next to the dead artists’ faces. It wasn’t warm. Not like the space around my snowman. In the moonlight, he radiated a haunting glow. The ice breathed around him.