When they got to Sunshine Camp, they started looking for the turn off from the Sonora Pass Highway. The directions Kay gave them were pretty good. They found the little shop quickly tucked in a second row off the main road. If you didn’t know what you were looking for you never would have seen it. It appeared the shopkeeper had a little apartment above the store in a second story. The whole building looked like it had been there about a hundred years: very cutesy western motif with a big porch with turned posts holding up the roof over the porch. The windows in the upstairs window had ball-fringe curtains. There were crystal sun catchers hanging in the place where the curtain parted. You could see prism rainbows shining on the outward side of the curtains.
Allen smirked a slight frown as he got out of the car. Clearly this was not his kind of haunt.
“Ohhhh! This will be interesting!” Marie said taking in the whole view of the store front. Allen’s blond eyebrows shot up as he looked at her. They closed their car doors and started toward the steps to the porch. Allen opened the door for Marie and held it open as she walked into the shop. The rich musky scent of sandalwood stung his nose. It was overwhelming to him. He considered holding his breath the whole time, but quickly realized this would not be a quick experience. Despite the tears forming in the corners of his eyes to go along with the stinging, he took a breath. Maybe in a few minutes he would become acclimated to the aromatic ambrosia. He could only hope. He followed Marie to the counter.
“Good day, friends!” came a mellow voice of a sage woman sitting on a stool behind the counter. She was crocheting an intricate pattern that looked like it was going to end up as a hat. She had a perpetual smile on her face. She truly looked like nothing could faze her. Allen wondered if she was high. “What brings you to my world?”
“Our friend Kay has been here to get incense and her birthday is coming up soon. We thought maybe you could help us choose a birthday present for her,” said Marie as she looked over a display of woven bracelets on the counter.
“I see!” the woman said with fascinated gusto. “Well, yes. I am sure we can find something. Tell me, what incense did she get before?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. It smelled musky, sort of. But with a little tanginess, too,” said Marie.
“Okay,” she said slowly drawing out the last syllable as she thought. “You say her birthday is coming up? So she is a Pisces. Creative, good friend, sense of humor. Hmmm. What color are her shoes?”
“Huh?” Marie looked up.
“Her shoes! What color?” the woman asked.
“Blue Vans,” Marie said.
The lady thought for a moment and then walked over to a cabinet in the front corner. She opened the glass door and pulled out an incense holder with inlaid blue stones around the edge and carved designs in swirls. She held it out to Marie.
“Wow! This looks just like something she would like!” said Marie. She turned it over and it was a couple of dollars. The lady handed Marie a box of incense sticks.
“How about $5 and we’ll call it even?” said the woman smiling even bigger. “I’ll even gift wrap it!” At this the lady seemed giddy. Marie nearly laughed at her enthusiasm.
“It’s a deal!” said Marie. She followed the woman back to the counter and watched her pull out a square of wrapping paper that looked hand painted with water colors. She pawed around under the counter until she found a box that was just the right size. Marie watched her fold the paper around the box in such a purposeful way that it looked like she was making an origami sculpture.
As she watched, she noticed a movement near a wing chair next to a bookcase on the other side of the shop. She turned to look but there was no one there, as usual.
Without even looking up, the shopkeeper said, “You saw her, huh?”
Marie held her breath. “Her?”
“Yeah, my little friend. She follows me everywhere,” the woman said.
Marie looked more closely in that direction. Sure enough, now she could see her standing behind the chair. There was a young woman with long brown hair and fine features. She smiled at Marie. Marie looked at Allen who was still looking around at the displays of unique items. The young woman looked as real as anyone. She wore a long green skirt that looked to be made of wool with a white button-down shirt tucked into the skirt. She wore tiny little brown leather shoes. Her blue eyes stayed a steady gaze on Marie as Marie looked her up and down.
“I have seen her all my life,” the woman said. “Funny thing is, she never changes. She looks exactly the same now as she did when I was a little girl. There was only one other person I’ve known that could see her, too. It was a lady I knew a long time ago.”
She didn’t say anything else. Marie hated to ask anything else. It seemed like prying. She didn’t know the woman well-enough to go poking in her personal affairs. There was just one thing, though, she had to ask.
“Have you seen others, others like your… friend here?” Marie asked holding her breath.
The woman paused in the gift wrapping. “No. But the lady I knew a long time ago did. She did and more. Odd things she’d tell me about.” The woman looked into Marie’s eyes searching. “Be careful, my girl. There are things we aren’t supposed to be a part of. It’s not ours to be about. My friend, well, something happened to her and she never came back. I miss her.”
She tied a cord in a bow around the box and handed it to Marie in a bag. Marie gave her the money. As the woman took it, she clasped Marie’s hand and looked at her with concern and said, “Goodbye, dear, and keep love around you, it’s the secret you know.”
All Marie could say was a nervous, “Thanks.” She took the bag and caught up with Allen before she got to the door.
He asked, “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I’m not sure, I guess so,” she said. That queasy feeling in her stomach was coming back.
CHAPTER 9 – THE SHADOWS COME
Marie and Allen were at Ellen’s apartment visiting with her and Sam. Sam told them how his parents had loved Ellen and they all had a great time. Sam had dark black hair. He looked Italian to Marie. His olive complexion and dark eyes made him look exotic. Macho charisma seemed to evaporate from his pores. He wore designer jeans, an alligator polo with leather Topsiders and no socks. He seemed to be striking a pose no matter what he was doing. Right then he was reclining on Ellen’s wicker sofa, one leg crossed over the other, ankle over knee. His left arm was around Ellen’s shoulders as she sat next to him with her feet tucked under her. She was hanging on his every word. Marie almost felt like she was intruding on a private moment. If any girl could worship her boyfriend, it was Ellen. Of course he looked at her like she was a goddess, so they were perfect together. At one point they started kissing rather passionately before they remembered Allen and Marie were still there.
Allen stood up and said he was getting hungry. “Anybody up for a club sandwich at the Europa?” It was getting to be close to the dinner hour.
Sam was looking at Ellen like she was club sandwich and said, “No, thanks. We’ll just fix something here later.” Ellen leaned in and put her head on Sam’s shoulder and smiled at Marie.
Marie stood up and smoothed her pullover shirt into place and pulled her jacket on. “Well, we’ll see you guys later. Glad you had a nice visit with Sam’s parents!”
Allen and Marie let themselves out the door and went down the set of wood stairs outside to the parking lot.
“So are you hungry?” Allen said.
“Yeah, I am. That sounds great. If we’d stayed any longer, I think we would’ve seen a show!” Marie said.
“Those two are bit much. I wonder how that went over with his parents. But then again maybe his parents are like that too! I know what my mother would say about it. “If I ever acted like that with a boy, my daddy would have… blah, blah, blah!’” They both laughed.
“Yeah, I would be way too embarrassed to be with him in front of my parents,” Marie said.
They drove around th
e corner and down the street to downtown. It was a busy time of day. People were getting off work or heading to the grocery. People were walking down the sidewalks, going in and coming out of stores. Marie spotted the older couple walking on the sidewalk near the Europa Café. The younger woman was with them whispering away. Nearly pleading. This time there was a man with them, too. He was walking beside the husband. Marie saw the pregnant girl ahead of them. She was carrying a department store shopping bag filled with baby clothes. Marie was certain the girl had not been to Nordstrom’s lately.
Allen pulled into the parking lot beside the café and they got out. As they came around the corner, they could hear the older woman prattling on about the morals of young people today. Just then, the bag of baby clothes the pregnant girl was carrying ripped and clothes went everywhere. Marie was about to step up and go to her to help when she heard the older woman exclaim to her husband, “If you dare go pick up that tramp’s handouts for her little bastard child, I shall not suffer it!”
Her husband looked as surprised as Marie. Marie looked to the girl to see if she had heard the ugly outburst. Apparently she had. She was starting to tear up as she awkwardly knelt down to pick up the little pastel shirts and onesies. Marie went into over drive and hustled to her.
“Hey sweetie, Need a hand? These little things are so cute! We need to find a new bag. Allen? Can you see if they have a take-out bag in the café?” said Marie. Allen was a bit dumbstruck by the whole seen but relieved to have been given a job that removed him from the scene temporarily.
The older woman’s husband found his voice. “My dear, you surprise me! I don’t understand what’s gotten into you.” He turned toward the girl. “Honey, let me help. Pay no mind to my wife. She hasn’t been feeling well and it makes her grumpy.” He looked back at his wife who looked like she was about to explode.
The older woman let out a loud, very annoyed harrumph and turned to cross the street to get as far away from her husband as possible. The younger woman that followed her around was actually trying to block her from going into the street. The man Marie had noticed was crouched beside her husband with his arm around him.
What happened next was a blur in double time. Just as the older woman’s eyes left her husband and the pregnant girl and she stepped off the curb, she saw from the corner of her eye that the city garbage truck was barreling down Main Street at a good 30 miles per hour and was about 10 feet from her. Her husband and Marie were looking at the sidewalk to gather up clothes. The young woman tried to pull the older woman’s arm with all her strength but nothing could stop what was set in motion.
The only sound was the screeching of brakes and skidding tires as the truck came to an abrupt halt in from of the café. The car behind the garbage truck ran into it, making a terrible crunching metal sound. Everyone looked up in horror. Allen dashed out of the café to Marie’s side and shielded both her and the pregnant girl with his body. The husband couldn’t move. Marie saw tears in his companion’s eyes. It dawned on Marie, the older woman had to have been hit by the truck. She stood up, looked at Allen and crossed to the curb near the front of the truck. Sure enough, there lay the woman. She had a terrible head injury that left no doubt that she was dead. The grotesque scene made Marie catch her breath.
Then, as if the absurdity of it all wasn’t enough. She saw the old woman get up, but she wasn’t old. She was about Marie’s age. She had the same look on her face though, that she did a minute before. It had to be the older woman. She brushed herself off and smoothed her dress. Then she saw it, her older body, crumpled and broken, laying on the ground in front of the garbage truck. People were rushing towards her, but they were kneeling down around the broken dead body scratching their heads. Someone took off their jacket and laid it over the older woman’s head. The younger version of herself, was aghast. She looked at her arms and felt her face. Then her companion, the young lady that Marie always saw with her, put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Come with me,” she said.
The woman, like always, looked away. She knew she was there, but she actually turned away from her. The companion looked down sadly. There was nothing she could do now. For years she had tried to get through to her, but she refused to hear, refused any compassion for others. The companion had been with her all her life. She knew the woman had been bullied as a child. Her family was poor and she wore rags to school. The other girls were cruel to her at school. Her mother had neglected her and lost herself in a bottle. Her father spent most of his life in a prison. The girl grew up and vowed to show them she was just as good as anyone. She worked hard and saved her money to buy good clothes and make a good appearance. She’d married her husband because he was well-known in the community. Finally she would be treated as worthy. She became well-known in her church for supporting causes and people would go to her asking for help. This made her feel very important. It really didn’t matter what the cause was as long as people knew she was the one to go to for help.
But things weren’t going as well as she had expected. Lately, she would get very irritated when they asked her for support. She would ask them what was it for and they would tell her it was for needy children or for girls that needed a helping hand and a fresh start. She would think to herself, “Where was all this help when I was young? I did the right thing! I never got pregnant out of wedlock! I didn’t bring children into this world in poverty! I worked hard!” No amount of whispers by her companion was going to help her have empathy. She chose to be bitter.
The companion vanished leaving the younger version of the woman standing in the street alone. She walked a few steps away and then Marie saw the shadows gathering under the cars around the woman. It looked like clouds of car exhaust until they started to take form. They came out from their hiding places and made a ring around the woman. She stopped and spun this way and that. They grew taller and long arms formed from the smoke. Long fingers with claw-like nails. The woman looked horrified as they started to grab at her. Then they changed into people. The smoke faded away. They could have been normal people except they looked drained of life, haggard and worn, dark circles under their eyes. They looked hungry. They taunted the woman and pulled at her hair, laughing. Then they said horrible things that made Marie wanted to weep for her, “You never were anything and look at you now. You’re still nothing. Those fancy clothes can’t hide the truth. You’re one of us!” Marie shuddered. With that, they circled closer and covered her with their bony arms and claw-like hands. The ground seemed to swallow them all and then there was nothing there at all.
Marie was frozen with fear from seeing how horrifying the whole scene was. Sound came back to her ears. Sirens. Screaming. Crying, the older man’s sobbing cries. People were hugging him. Allen was at Marie’s side and turning her away from the road.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he said.
He led her to the car and opened her door. She stiffly got in, still in shock. Allen thought that with what she had been through at the lake, he needed to get her as far away as possible. He took her back to the dorms and they curled up under the covers and cried together.
***
Ben and Jacob were sitting at the kitchen table. Ben had seen the shadows take a soul before. It was so sad. Most of the time it was expected. A person had turned away from compassion and turned bitter or greedy. They had stopped listening to their Protector. It was possible for them to change the course they were on, but unlikely. There was nothing the Protector could do after a certain point. Even at the last minute, the moment after death, there was still a chance. The older woman’s protector could have whisked her to safety within the Gathering place of Protectors. Sadly, there was nothing left to do when the woman turned away. The shadows claim their own. Unfortunately, the woman would be indoctrinated into their ways and would torment people forever. She would never know real peace.
Jacob was deep in thought. Something was eating him.
“What’s up, Jacob?” Ben said.
“It’s just, things are going a new direction. Marie clearly saw everything. I saw her reacting and followed her gaze when it was happening. I’m not really sure what will happen next. The live ones usually can’t see us at all. They might have a quick glimpse like she did in the lake, but not a full view of someone else’s event. We need to talk to Tom.” Jacob said.
“Well now I’m worried! If you’re uptight, something is really awry!” Ben said.
“I’m going to bip out and find Tom, okay? I’ll be right back. And Ben, stay close to her; I mean it.” Jacob said. “I’ll will be right back.”
Jacob flashed out of sight. Ben got up and went into the bedroom and sat down at a chair by the window. Marie and Allen were asleep. The clock by the bed glowed 2:04 A.M.
***
Jacob appeared at the Gathering. This was a marble portico far away from the world of the living. It was shaped in a circle with Corinthian columns around the edges. Souls were all around. Old souls. The greatest minds from humanity sat around benches and tables and discussed current events. They had the knowledge of all time to draw from. What had worked a thousand years ago was still useful today. There is that saying, ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’ and they knew it to be true. Humanity, and its eccentricities, never really changed. In the center of the Gathering was Lorenzo. He was perfect love. He loved them all as family. Every soul, young and old. He encouraged the Protectors to try harder, never give up until the last opportunity.
The old souls here didn’t look like what you would imagine in a museum picture. Their image was the person in their prime of life. They all appeared to be about 20-30 years old. It was deceptive, though. Some had lived hundreds of years of life before lives were shortened, and then had been counselors here for millennia. You couldn’t judge by appearances. Even Lorenzo looked like a 25-year-old man. He wore current clothes: jeans and pullover. He was very humble and approachable. The souls that talked to him, though, gave him great respect like you would a king.
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