"Hello?" said the stranger.
"Who is this?"
The stranger's voice was calm, low and a bit muffled.
"Hi, there." The man on the other end sounded happy. "I don't know who you are or who you're trying to get in touch with. But, I just found this phone."
"I'm looking for my sister? This is her phone"
"No shit."
"Yeah."
"Like I said. I just found this phone on the street and it's a bit cracked, but seems to work okay."
Amy listened to the stranger's voice and her stomach tensed up with dread. The was the worst part was not knowing what happened to her.
"Hello? Like I said. Yeah. I just found this cell in the street."
Amy told the stranger that it was her sister's phone and that she would call him when she got to Sunnyside. The stranger lived close by and agreed to meet her, so that she could pick up the phone.
The cell phone was the only tangible clue that she had to figure out where her sister was.
After she spoke with the stranger, she left he baby with her mother in-law and headed straight to Queens.
When Amy arrived at the 46th Street Station, she marched off the 7 train to meet the stranger and search for her sister. The train rolled away and all the passengers went down to the street floor. Amy waited under the viaduct with the crowd. She waited for the light to turn red, so they could all cross Queens Boulevard and continue home, except for her.
As she looked up and down the street, she called the stranger. However, the stupid phone keep ringing and he didn't answer. She made her way to the supermarket and watched herself in the reflection of the glass. She was suppose to meet the stranger on the corner, right about now.
As people went into and out of the grocery store, Amy looked around for him. However, she didn't even ask his name. Funny. She looked around, but no one caught her eye. Everyone looked used up and tired. Their eyes were harden and indifferent to anyone in front of them. She looked at all of them, the young single girls, the young couples and the older couples. Then she saw and the weirdos, the ones that didn't fit into anything.
She called her sister, again, hoping to hear the phone ring nearby. She hoped that the stranger was close.
But, no one answered and no one approached her. She looked up and down the boulevard. Toward the west, she saw the sun sliding behind the great buildings of Manhattan. A blue hue took over the scene and there wasn't much time left before the night came.
She scanned the sidewalk, searching for the stranger. But, there was no one. A stream of people went in and out of the grocery store and the other stores along Queens boulevard that were filled with shoppers.
However, she could not wait that long for the stranger to call her back. She kept looking for her sister, no matter where the search led. That was the kind of sister she was.
As she thought about Noah, her little boy, she thanked god that her baby was home and safe.
Then, she noticed a pink piece of paper taped to a light post. The edges were worn and tattered from the rain. There was a picture of a woman on the flyer who had recently gone missing.
Her name was Veronica Auguire. She had just immigrated from South America. Her picture looked youthful and was quite pretty. She even looked a little like her sister, which was kind of strange. The only difference was that she was black. However, she had the same long black curly hair that her sister had. It was a little uncanny, actually. Then, she noticed that the same pink flyer stuck to several light post, leading east and away from the city.
She looked away from Manhattan and down Queens Boulevard. There wasn't much to it, just a couple of crappy building on the widest road that she had ever seen. The afternoon traffic grew.
It was at that moment, when she knew exactly where Mary was. The thought caused her heart to skip a beat. Suddenly, she couldn't breath and her chest felt heavy.
"Of course." She exhaled. "But how?"
There was only one other place that Mary could be. It was exactly one year to the day that Joe died. It was the only place that made sense.
"It was so obvious."
Sometime ago, Amy found out from a friend that Joe was buried somewhere in Calvary Cemetery. However, she didn't want to hear anything about it. He was the last person that she ever wanted to think about again.
For a moment, her body collapsed and she held herself up by a parking meter. She looked up at the Boulevard of Death and her forehead became wrinkled with heart break.
"It can't be. It's over. He's dead." Amy stood there in disbelief. "He's dead. I'm sure of it."
Calvary cemetery was where Joe was buried. It was only a few city blocks away. But, how did Mary know that that Joe was there?
Amy never said a word to her.
There were not many people who went down there. There was a bar and big box electronic store. Past that, she could see a hint of the stone wall of Calvary Cemetery in the distance.
"My God. It can't be. It can't."
It was at that moment, when the stranger approached her.
"Excuse me, miss." said the stranger. "Is this yours?"
She looked at the strangers face and down at the cell phone. Then, she turned toward the cemetery. The stranger asked her again. But, she did not care about the phone. All she cared about was her sister and the boy.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She didn't say a word to the stranger. Instead, she started to walk down the boulevard of death toward the cemetery. She left the stranger alone on the sidewalk with the cell in his hand. She had to leave. She had to get to her sister before the night came.
As the stranger watched her leave, a soft smile appeared on his pale white face and behind his brown rimmed glasses.
Twenty-Two
Deep Down Inside
The cemetery cradled Mary's body inside the earth as she laid in Joe's grave. Six feet down, her black hair mixed with the soil and her clothes were filthy with thick dirt. As she laid as still as she could, she waited for him in the cold darkness, waiting for something that was no longer human. The whole time, she had no clue that the creature who she sought, would one day rule the world.
In the unearthed grave, Mary kept her legs still and her eyes closed. The whole time she prayed for Joe to return. Somehow, she would not feel complete until he was by her side. Once they were back together, they would have an eternity together.
Like a picture. That's right. The love that she felt for him - and him for her - would one day be frozen in time for an eternity. If only, she could touch his lips once again.
Mary heard her sister, Amy, calling for her. She imagined her sister running through the cemetery, searching for her.
"Mary! Please Mary. Your son needs you."
Her sister's voice was muffled as it filtered through the ground. But, Mary did not answer. She stayed in Joe's grave and kept quiet. She stayed in the cool earth where there wasn't much time. In a few moments, she was sure that he would arrive.
The night was coming, she thought.
At first she wanted to laugh at the thought, but remained calm. It was inevitable. The night was coming. She knew it and that was all that mattered. She would see Joe, once darkness descended over the city. Not only would her life change, but everyone else's.
She closed her eyes and laid on the cool ground. It felt like she were in a pool of cold water. Strangely, it felt comfortable and warm to her. She no longer heard her sister voice above. Instead, her sister's voice fade with the dying light.
For a moment, time slowed in her head. A second became a minute, A minute became an hour. And it all became nothing. Nothing mattered, but Joe.
Then she thought, she heard something that sounded like air breaking through the soil. A fissure opened by her right ear and Joe spoke to her and she could almost feel his lips.
He spoke to her, in that dry monotonous tone. "I've missed you."
"Joe."
"I have missed you for so long. Farrow."
"I
know, Joe. But, I'm here. I'm here for you."
"I was thinking? Have you missed me?"
"Yes. Oh yes. I've missed you so much. I've been searching for you the whole day."
"And now. We're almost together again. Crazy how things work out."
Mary smiled to herself like a madwoman, holding her hands to her mouth. She started to hyperventilate.
"You know I love you, right?" He told her.
"Yes. Yes." She almost started to laugh with glee and her eyes began to tear with happiness.
"Don't you miss me?" Joe asked again.
Mary stayed quiet, snickering to herself. Then she spoke up. "Of course I do. But, where are you. I can't even see you."
"You don't need to see me. For I am always with you, just as you are with me."
She felt the cool earth tightened around her and nothing else. She barely noticed the way he had a firm grip on her neck.
"What about the boy?" She asked.
"What about him? The boy means nothing. It is you that matters."
Mary smiled even brighter, when she heard Joe say those words to her. They made her feel special.
Then, she remembered her son.
"Please don't let anything happen to him. It's not his fault. Or mine. I needed the boy's help at first. That was all."
Then, Joe squeezed her neck, like he used to. He could crack her wind pipe, if he wanted to. She felt the pressure on her throat and thought better. The only way to calm Joe done was to change her tune.
"I'm sorry, Joe. I'm sorry. But, I don't need the boy at all, not anymore. I promise. I don't need him at all."
"And neither do I."
"I don't care about what happens to the boy as long as I'm with you."
Joe released his grip on her.
"Why do I always have to remind you. I always have to tell you this, Mary. But you have to be strong. And sometimes it takes real choices to be strong. Do you get it?"
"Of course I do, Joe. I swear I do."
"Good."
"But why?" She asked.
Joe became annoyed. "You have to be strong because you have to survive."
"Survive what?"
"The night."
Mary thought about what Joe just said. What about the night, she thought. Then, she remained quiet and remembered all those women who had gone missing.
Joe brought her closer to him and she burrowed her head further into the ground into his shoulders. Then, Joe whispered into her right ear, a little while longer.
As the night approached, their voices seeped out of the grave. The land of the dead spoke and told a story of what was to become of the world.
"Mary!" Amy yelled, as she searched for her sister in the field of the dead.
"Mary."
Twenty-Three
By Her Right Ear
About a thirty minutes ago, Mary's sister, Amy found herself walking on Queens Boulevard by the Sunnyside/46th St. Train Station. The 7 train pulled away and blue sparks fell upon the street. For a moment, the sun came in sideways and the evening light disappeared. That was when she started, when she started the search for her sister, who went missing that same day.
Amy thought about what her mother-in-law said. "It's not safe to go out there, not in that neighborhood. Don't go, Amy. Think of your child."
For most of the afternoon, Amy tried to get in touch with Mary who had been acting strange for the last couple of weeks. Amy called her at work and found out that she left early. She couldn't help, but think about how out of the ordinary that was. She couldn't let it go and dismiss it as nothing. She had to find out what happened to her sister.
Something about all of this bothered her and she felt it in her stomach. From time to time, she rubbed her belly to soothe herself.
There must have been something wrong because Mary was nowhere to be found. For a moment, it felt like her sister had disappeared from the face of the earth. She called and called. But, her dear sister never picked up.
Eventually, a stranger - who happened to find her sister's phone lying in the gutter - answered.
For a split second, she was relieved to hear someone on the other end. However, she became even more worried, when she heard a man's voice.
"Hey."
She held the phone tightly with her body. "Please help me. I'm looking for my sister. This is her phone."
"No shit?"
"Yeah."
So Amy decided to leave her baby with her mother-in-law and go into the street to look for her sister.
Mary, where ever you are, I will find you, she said to herself.
"Do you really have to go?" Asked her mother in law.
"Yes."
"Come on Amy. Please stay."
"I have to go"
"Amy. You've heard about all those strange disappearances happening in that neighborhood. It's not safe, not after dark."
The world was already changing and Amy didn't even notice.
"That's why I have to go, Emma. My sister needs me. She's out there. I know you would do the same."
"Why don't you wait here for Nick so he can go with you. He loves you, so much. He'll do anything for you. At least wait for him."
"It's better, if I go now, before it gets dark."
The old lady sat quietly and kept staring at the late afternoon sky out the window. She knew that Amy would not listen.
Then, Amy looked down the hall toward a bedroom with its door closed. The hallway looked like a cave that went deep into the house.
Down there, her baby Noah slept behind a closed door, nice and safe. She wasn't with him. But she knew that he was safely sleeping behind the door.
Amy stood on the other side of the house, by the front door with her hand on the knob, ready to leave. But, she could not stop staring down the hall.
She looked into the darkness and knew that she did not want to walk to the door, step inside the room and kiss him on the forehead. No. She did not want to say good bye to her child. She didn't want to make a big deal about it. She didn't want to make it seem as if this were the last time she were going to see her baby. She didn't want to think of it like that, not at all.
"I'll be back," she whispered.
A few seconds later, Amy left her mother-in law's house and headed to Queens to search for her sister.
Once in Sunnyside, Amy stopped by a couple of parked cars and a stream of people walked in and out of the grocery store. There was a bank next door.
"Excuse me..." a stranger said to her.
Amy looked up and saw the stranger with a broken cell phone in his hand. It was the phone that belonged to her sister Mary.
Amy arranged to meet the stranger to pick it up in Sunnyside. She was desperate to retrieve it because it was the only clue that she had to figure out her sister's whereabouts.
Amy couldn't understand why Mary would drop her phone like that. It was the most expensive piece of equipment that Mary owned. It cost about a thousand dollars. On top of it, Amy was the one, paying her phone bill.
On the train ride over to Queens, she thought through a myriad of possibilities, each one was worse than the other. However, there was one theory that popped into her head. It was the one that she never wanted to hear. It was the idea farthest from her mind.
She felt so stupid for not thinking of it first. It was so obvious.
She looked out there, toward the cemetery, and the cold hand of fall took a hold of her and a chill went through her spine. She remembered that it had been a year since Joe died. It was exactly one year to the day. The coincidence was striking.
"Miss?" Asked the stranger.
She ignored him and the phone he held in his hand. Instead, she kept looking down Queens Boulevard, away from Manhattan, a way from the city. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't avoid him. The thought struck her in her heart, like an arrow.
"It can't be," she said with dread in her quivering voice. Terror resonated within her.
Then, she collapsed again, into herself
. Quickly, she supported herself by grabbing unto a parking meter.
"Miss?" the stranger called to her. But, she no longer listened to him. She no longer cared about the stranger or that stupid phone.
"It can't be him." she whispered to herself, while she stared down the road.
Down Queens Boulevard, there
was a cemetery. She knew it. But, blocked it out of her mind for so long.
"It can't be," she said.
In that moment, Amy started to run down Queens boulevard, where there was a steady flow of rush hour traffic coming her way. She ran pass the corner bar and the big box electronics store.
She ran down the boulevard of death and she kept running.
She kept running toward her sister. And behind her, the sun kept dying.CHAPTER 3
How long Before The Wind Takes Her
A few years ago, Amy blew off work and sat on a park bench on the Low East Side of Manhattan. The park was large and mostly covered in concrete. There was a group of Asian women practicing GiGong on the hot asphalt of the basketball court. The group moved their arms in wide circles and everyone stretched their legs in unison. They carried their weight from one end of their body to the other, like a metal sphere that they balanced with every part of their body.
They moved as one.
Each woman looked peaceful, as if the world around them had slowed down and fallen away. The noise of the traffic was gone. The thunder of the crowd dissipated and the worry of the world had vanished. As they carried out their ever so coordinated street ballet, Amy admired them.
She quietly examined every move that they made.
By looking at them, she knew that those women had something that she did not. They were all living in the moment, where only the wind mattered. And with the wind their souls swayed.
For a moment, Amy wished that she could write about what she just witnessed. But, she hesitated. And with that moment of doubt, her words crumbled and disappeared, leaving her unsettled and unfulfilled.
She remembered Nick's words. "All you have to do is just try." And when she looked at him, his smile always reassured her that he was right. That she was doing the right thing.
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