The Chosen One

by Marla Meyers

  After a tearful first day of school, for both Marissa and Tara, Marissa began pouring herself into work. She would work all day, while Tara was in school, then spend the rest of the day watching TV or playing outside with Tara. Her entire life revolved around work and Tara. She talked very little to anyone. She very seldom left the house.

  Chapter 29

  “Happy holidays!” Marissa heard a familiar voice say, as she picked up the phone.

  “Becka!” she squealed. “Happy Holidays!”

  Marissa hadn’t talked to Becka in over a month. They had stopped meeting on the first Thursday of every month, also.

  “Hey, would you guys like some company for Christmas?” Becka asked, a little hesitant.

  “Becka, are you okay?” Marissa asked.

  “Oh, yeah…” Becka said. “I’m leaving Pete.”

  “Oh, Becka,” Marissa said sadly, since she had thought her and Pete were working things out.

  “It’s okay. Really. I’m okay. I’m comin’ home, though! Kissing Grove Hill good-bye!” Becka said, confidently.

  “Stay with us!” Marissa said, excited at the thought of Becka spending Christmas with them.

  “Maybe for a while, if that’s okay. Just until I can find a place.”

  “Of course it’s okay! When are you coming?” Marissa asked her.

  “In a couple of days. I’ll call you.”

  When they hung up, Marissa felt like dancing around the house. It had been quiet. And, she liked it quiet, most of the time. But, Becka would definitely brighten the holidays. It would be great and Tara would love it, Marissa thought to herself. Paul and Kelly had invited them to spend Christmas with them, but Marissa had declined. She just wanted to be home, with Tara.

  “Guess who’s coming to see us?” Marissa asked Tara, excitedly, reaching down to tickle her.

  “Who, Mommy?” Tara asked, her eyes big, “Santa Claus?”

  Marissa laughed aloud. “Yes, Sweetie him, too! But, Aunt Becka is going to come and spend Christmas with us!”

  “Yea!” Tara screamed. “She’ll bring presents!”

  “Do you think?” Marissa asked her, grinning.

  That evening, Tara helped Marissa get the extra bedroom ready for Becka. As Tara walked around to the other side of the bed and was helping Marissa tuck in the sheets, she asked her, very serious now, “Does Becka know about our secret?”

  Marissa sat down on the bed and pulled Tara close to her, then said, “No, Sweetie. She doesn’t. Maybe we will tell her. Kind of as a Christmas present. What do you think?”

  “She would be surprised, huh?” Tara asked, smiling warmly.

  “Oh, yes…Precious. She would definitely be surprised!” Marissa smiled back at her, wondering how Becka would indeed react to what Marissa knew were some very special gifts that her child possessed.

  “Remember, though, ” Marissa went on to tell Tara, “it has to be our secret. Remember, we don’t tell anyone! Not Daddy or anyone at school, right?”

  “Right, Mommy,” Tara obediently replied.

  Marissa knew that Brycen would have Tara at a shrink so fast her head would spin. Kids at school would make fun of her, or her teachers would think she needed to see someone. She told Tara that it was very important that they have their own very special secrets. She wanted Tara to have a wonderful, normal childhood. Although, Marissa knew things were far from normal. She and Tara had the same dreams often. Not always nightmares, but often the same dreams. Tara never had a scratch on her. She never even so much as scraped her legs. She had never had a cold, never ran fever nothing. No, things were not normal, but they were good.

  Marissa tried not to question it too much, just to accept it for what it was. To accept that her birth had been a miracle, and that she was a happy, beautiful child with some very exceptional qualities.

  When Becka arrived a couple of days later, Marissa and Tara were ready. They had gone out and bought a Christmas tree and had put it in the stand in front of the window in the living room. They decided to wait until Becka got there to decorate it. Marissa had wine chilling in the refrigerator. It would be a great reunion, she knew.

  Tara ran and met Becka out in the driveway, jumping into her arms.

  “Hello, baby girl,” she heard Becka say, scooping her into her arms. “You are getting too big for me to do this anymore!” she said, putting her down gently.

  “Come see our tree!” Tara said, excitedly, dragging Becka into the house, as Marissa met them at the door.

  “Merry Christmas!” Marissa said, hugging Becka.

  “Merry Christmas, Mel.”

  Becka had cut off her long red curls, but she looked radiant, Marissa thought. Surprisingly, she didn’t look like she was in recovery or anything, from her breakup with Pete. She looked great!

  Marissa and Tara helped her unpack her car.

  “Presents! I told you, Mommy. I told you Aunt Becka would bring presents!” Tara squealed, delighted, as she helped tote the packages into the house.

  “Let’s decorate our tree!” Tara said, becoming more excited.

  “Okay, okay. First let’s let Aunt Becka at least sit down!” Marissa said, carrying Becka’s suitcase to the extra bedroom.

  After convincing Tara to wait a little while, Tara went out in the yard to play. Marissa watched her from the kitchen window, where she and Becka sat talking. They talked until almost dark, when Tara peeked her head in the backdoor, saying, “Now, Mommy? Can we decorate the tree now? Please!”

  “Okay, I promise…soon!” Marissa answered her, watching her frown because they weren’t going to do it right then. “Let’s quickly, I mean, really fast…eat some dinner first, okay?” Marissa asked, grinning.

  “Mother!” Tara whined, disappointed and excited to get the tree all trimmed.

  “Let’s fix a salad to go with our chicken. We’ll eat real fast and then I promise we are going to make that the most beautiful Christmas tree we have ever had!” Marissa assured her.

  “Okay,” Tara answered, still sounding disappointed, but walking around the corner to watch TV.

  “She is a little you!” Becka teased, then added, “here, I’ll cut the tomatoes.” She retrieved the tomatoes from Marissa, while Marissa got out the cucumbers, celery and lettuce from the refrigerator.

  They began chopping up the veggies, when Becka let out a loud, “Ow! Man, look what I did! Shit!”

  Blood was gushing out of her first finger, as she ran to the kitchen sink.

  “Oh, Becka! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you use that knife! It’s kind of dull!”

  Sarcastically, but good humored, Becka replied, rolling her eyes, “Well…trust me it’s not that dull!” She continued to watch blood dribble down into the sink.

  Hearing all the commotion, Tara came running into the kitchen. “Mommy, what happened?” she asked, alarmed.

  “Aunt Becka cut her finger,” Marissa said, holding Becka’s finger under the cold water, as Becka squinted her eyes, signifying that it was stinging more than just a little. It was a fairly deep gash.

  Tara ran over to the sink, almost instinctively, as she had done before, for Marissa. But, she stopped. She stood there looking up at Marissa, waiting. with pain in her eyes, pleading. Marissa looked down at her and shook her head “yes’. Tara reached into the sink to touch Becka’s finger.

  Still squinting, Becka said, “Oh, no…Baby don’t touch it.”

  Tara touched it anyway, turned around and quickly ran off.

  “Does she like the sight of blood, or what?” Becka asked, grinning, as she turned to watch Tara run off.

  Then she looked down at her finger. It had stopped bleeding.

  “Don’t freak out,” Marissa said, calmly, as Becka stood in disbelief, as she watched the gash on her finger close before her eyes. She stood there for a few seconds, with her back to Marissa, who had walked over to sit down at the kitchen table. Then she spun around. “Marissa…Jesus Christ! Did you see that? It went away. It’s gone,”
Becka said, rubbing her first finger and turning it all around, as if trying to find the gash that she had seen only seconds before.

  Tara peeked her head around the corner before Marissa could answer Becka. She was grinning ear to ear!

  “Surprise, Aunt Becka!” she said, loudly and giggling, then she ran back into the living room.

  Becka, now looking like she might pass out, looked at Marissa and managed a half smile.

  “Sit down, Becka,” Marissa said, smiling. “We have lots to talk about.”

  Marissa talked. Becka listened. Then together they all decorated the tree and it was the most beautiful tree they had ever had!

  Chapter 30

  Eight more holiday seasons came and went. Becka had spent most of them with Marissa and Tara, if there wasn’t a man in her life at the time. She had managed to squeeze in two more very brief marriages.

  Marissa had dated occasionally, here and there, at Tara and Becka’s urging, but she never let herself get too involved.

  Marissa and Tara saw very little of Brycen. He had remarried and they had a child of their own.

  As Tara’s fourteenth birthday approached, her “gifts’, as Marissa still called them, had become stronger. If someone was to cut their finger now, all Tara would have to do is look in their direction. It was as if she could just wish it away. Marissa was still adamant that Tara tell no one. Of course, Becka knew. It had become just a way of life for all of them. Needlessly to say, the three of them stayed quite healthy and well, as did those around them.

  For Tara, it was just as normal as brushing your teeth in the morning. It was just “something she could do’. If she saw someone hurting or ill, she would glance their way and no one was any the wiser. She had lots of friends and did the usual things that teenagers do. Marissa knew that someday things would change. She felt it in her heart. But, until that day came, she was going to do her best to make sure that Tara had as normal a childhood as possible.

  Marissa and Tara still shared the same dreams. Some good…some bad, but identical. They would talk about them the next morning. Again, it was just part of their day. just part of their routine. They often dreamed of Joshua. And, sometimes they dreamed about the ‘man with the black face’. Those were tough ones, though. They were always running, running through the fields, trying to get away from the ‘man with the black face’, the man with no eyes or expression. On those nights, Tara would run into her Mother’s room and climb in bed with her. They would talk about the dream they both had just had, then eventually drift back to sleep. Again it had just become part of life.

  Then things did, indeed, begin to change.

  “Mom, I need to go to the Mall,” Tara snapped early one Saturday morning, as Marissa was mopping the kitchen floor.

  “Okay. Let me finish. What’s the urgency?” Marissa asked her, continuing to push the mop back and forth across the tile floor.

  “Karen’s party is tonight, Mom. I NEED something to wear.”

  “Tara, you’re kidding. You have a closet full of clothes. Can’t you find something in there?” Marissa asked her daughter in a firm tone.

  “No, Mom! Jeff will be at this party. PLEASE!” she pleaded with her Mother, as she grabbed her head, as if she was in agony. Then she slung her long, wavy brown hair behind her shoulders and put her hand on her hip, desperately waiting for Marissa to agree.

  Marissa stopped mopping for a second, also put her hand on her hip and slung her not so long brown hair behind her shoulder and stared at her daughter for a minute, trying to remember how it felt to be fourteen and to have a crush on a boy at school.

  Tara smiled, as she knew her Mother was mocking her. “Mom,” she said, in a pitiful voice. “Please, sweet Mom.” Now she was really trying to pour on the charm.

  “Okay, Tara, okay,” Marissa gave in. “After I get through.”

  Tara skipped off, yelling behind her, “Thanks, Mom!”

  When they got to the Mall, Tara picked out a small boutique to go in. The mannequins in the windows were sporting “hip’ little outfits and Tara knew she must have one.

  “Look, Mom!” she squealed, dragging Marissa into the boutique to look around.

  They looked around for a few minutes. Marissa even spotted a blouse that she was considering buying for herself, when she felt Tara squeeze her arm. She looked over at her daughter, who was staring out of the boutique and into the Mall area. The blood was quickly racing out of Tara’s face, her big brown eyes wide, as she squeezed Marissa’s arm even tighter.

  “Tara?” Marissa asked alarmed, “what is it?”

  “He’s here,” Tara answered, her voice now shaking.

  “Who’s here?” Marissa asked, knowing this was too much of a reaction to have only seen Jeff or one of the boys from school.

  “Him…Mom the man with the black face,” Tara stated, never taking her eyes from the Mall area.

  Marissa got cold chills up and down her arms just thinking about the man they had come to know as the “man with the black face’.

  “Where?” Marissa asked her, straining to scan the Mall area outside the boutique.

  “He’s gone, Mom.” Tara whispered, realizing people were watching them now. “But, he was here. In the Mall. I saw him.”

  “Honey, are you sure?” Marissa asked, still scanning the Mall area.

  “Mom. He was here,” Tara said, still shaking and looking into her Mother’s eyes for comfort.

  “Let’s go,” Marissa said, hanging up the blouse she had just picked out.

  Tara seemed to have forgotten all about the party and Jeff, as she quickly began walking out of the little boutique that she had been so excited to go in, only minutes before.

  They walked quickly through the Mall, both of them looking all around.

  “Tara, are you sure?” Marissa asked her again.

  “Mom, yes. It was him. I know it was. He had on the black pants and that baggy jacket. Mom ” she said, her voice cracking. “He didn’t have any eyes.” Then Tara began walking so fast Marissa could barely keep up.

  Marissa struggled to stay beside Tara, as she pictured the man in their dream. The man with the black face and hollow eye sockets. The man with the ugly teeth, as Tara would say. They walked faster.

  “Mom, he’s behind us!” Tara said, almost hysterical, but whispering.

  Marissa bent her head around to look, never slowing down her stride. “Tara, I don’t see anything!” she said, turning back to see Tara staring straight ahead, with a dreadfully fearful look on her face.

  “Mom, run!” Tara said loudly, as she grabbed her

  Mother’s hand and sprinted towards the Mall exit.

  Oblivious to the people watching them, they ran faster. and they kept running and running until they were out of the Mall and in the parking lot, when Marissa pulled on Tara’s hand to slow down. “Tara, Stop!” Marissa told her. “Stop!”

  Tara’s face was still full of fear, as she slowed down, still holding her Mother’s hand.

  When they got in the car, Tara was still shaking, saying over and over, “Mom? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”

  Marissa quickly started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, wondering what Tara had seen. She had learned years ago to believe just about anything Tara said, no matter how bizarre it might seem.

  “I don’t know, Sweetie,” Marissa said, driving faster.

  “Why did we see him, Mom?” Tara asked, needing an answer, for which Marissa had none.

  “Baby…I don’t know! Are you sure?” Marissa couldn’t help but ask her again.

  Tara just looked at her, disgusted, saying again, “Yes, Mom!”

  “Okay, okay,” Marissa said, then they sat quietly for a few minutes.

  Then there was an explosive, blood curdling scream escape from Tara’s small body. Marissa herself could barely breathe, as she slammed on the brakes, looking straight ahead at the man with the black face standing directly in front of their car. The brakes were locked
up, as they skidded to where he was standing. Marissa and Tara could not hear the other brakes behind them locking up also. They only stared ahead, as the man with the black face looked at them and smiled. He did, indeed, have eyes but, they were coal black evil eyes. His teeth were dark brown and crooked, as he opened his mouth wider, laughing harder.

  Tara threw her head down in her Mother’s lap, not wanting to have to look any more. “Drive, Mom!!” Tara screamed. “Just GO!!”

  Marissa hit the gas and tried to swerve around him, barely missing another car in the process. She looked in her rearview mirror after she had passed him, her arms shaking so much she could barely keep her hands on the wheel. He was gone. Tara still had her head in Marissa’s lap, as Marissa reached down and touched her head.

  “Tara, he’s gone,” she told her daughter soothingly.

  Tara sat up and looked around, seemingly unsure if he was or not. Then she looked over at her Mother, who had one hand on the wheel now and the other one up against her chest, as if somehow trying to slow her heartbeat down.

  “Mom, he’s going to get me now, isn’t he?” Tara asked her Mom softly, but as if she already knew the answer to her question.

  “No-one will get you!” Marissa told her firmly. “No-one.”

  Chapter 31

  Tara did not go to Karen’s party that night. She and her Mother sat on the couch, nervously watching TV, fighting the need to sleep. Eventually, Tara did fall asleep on the couch next to Marissa. Marissa, however, remained awake…all night, and was thankful that it was the weekend and that she didn’t have to worry about Tara going to school.