Fred & Mary

by Kipjo Ewers

  “So …I do not regret losing my shit,” He threw on the brightest smile possible. “My Mary was worth going crazy for, and my world is a lonely one without her. But wherever she is, I know she would want me to move forward …no matter how much it hurt. So, thank you all for coming here, and helping me celebrate what would have been our one year anniversary …I think we all know she was that extraordinary person that touched each of our hearts in some way, so even though I went off the deep end …I know I’m not the only one who’s hurting and who misses her.”

  Fred eyes locked with a teary-eyed Sara, as he prepared to finish up his speech.

  “I just wish …”

  Fred’s words became stuck in his throat as his heart stopped. His entire frame proceeded to rattle as Ms. Santiago came through the crowd rolling his doll out in a wheelchair dressed in a simple white laced off the shoulder dress with white strappy wedged sandals. It appeared to have been fully restored after being run over and shot full of bullet holes.

  Confusion and concern flooded the room as Fred stumbled backward.

  “What’s going on? Why is that thing doing here? Ms. Santiago …”

  He jumped at the soft touch of a hand on his arm and turned to see a very calm Veronica standing by his side.

  “It’s okay Fred,” she smiled.

  “What the hell is going on V?”

  “What’s going on is that the music is going to play, and you’re going to have your one-year anniversary dance with your wife.”

  Before Fred could respond to what he now believed was an insane proposal from his sister, Barney and his father came to his side to find out what was going on.

  “What is going on? What are you doing Veronica?” Mr. Garrett barked at her.

  “Yeah V,” chimed in Barney. “Why would you …?”

  “Dad, both you and Barney need to piss off.” She turned to them with murderous intent in her eyes. “This is a conversation between my brother and me. It’s not about you two. So, either go back to where you were standing, or leave.”

  Barney gave an irritated snort as he backed away throwing his hands up. Mr. Garrett glanced at Fred who seemed semi-catatonic and then back at his daughter who dared him to test her. He reluctantly retreated to where he stood leaving her and Fred in the center of the bewildered crowd by themselves again.

  Veronica jumped in front of Fred’s vision which was fixated on the doll so that they could meet her eyes.

  “Fred, the day of your wedding, during the reception, Mary told me what you guys had planned, every year on the day of your anniversary no matter where you were, you’d have one dance, now’s your chance to keep that promise.”

  Fred glanced around the room at all of the confused faces and felt small. Most noticeable was Sara who was visibly upset.

  “Why are you doing this to me V?” Fred asked with frustration and pain on his face. “It wasn’t real! It was all in my head.”

  “If you believe that, then it’s not going to kill you to have this one dance.”

  “You had no right …”

  “Fred! I know when you’re lying and when you’re telling the truth.” Veronica cut him off with a snarl. “And right now, this is not about anyone else in this room. It’s about you and Mary, and the promise you made to one another. So, shut the hell up, and go dance with your wife.”

  Fred gave everyone around the room one final glance before his gaze fell on the doll.

  He handed his sister the microphone and proceeded to walk toward it deflecting all of the confused eyes that were on him.

  Fred looked at Ms. Santiago, who gave him a nod and pulled the doll out of the wheelchair. In front of his embarrassed and mortified friends and family, he awkwardly placed her arms around his neck, while positioning her feet on top of his. He waited as Veronica signaled for the confused DJ to play their song.

  At the sweet sound of Musiq Soulchild’s “Don’t Change,” He took the deepest of breaths, closed his eyes holding her close, and proceeded to dance.

  “I cannot believe you’d put your brother through this after all he’s been through Veronica,” Mr. Garrett muttered to her.

  “I will say again, dad,” she forcefully whispered back. “It’s not about you.”

  “Well, I’m not standing by and watching …”

  “Dad …shut up …” Veronica’s voice cracked.

  “How dare you …”

  “Daddy …stop and look,” a glass eye Veronica asked with a soft voice.

  “What…” a frustrated Mr. Garrett turned and lost his words to the vision everyone saw.

  “Oh, dear God,” his bottom lip quaked as his tears fell.

  Barney shook his head as his eyes became blurry with running tears. He grasped his chest as he gasped while Cynthia clutched his arm sobbing with disbelief.

  With his eyes closed, he felt her nose nuzzling against his, and then a light kiss on his lips which quickened his heart and flooded his eyes with tears. He shook his head fighting to believe that it was all in his skull, but her feet were no longer on top of his.

  He could feel her embrace as she caressed the back of his neck and placed her other hand on his chest.

  Fred forced his eyes to open so he could see that smile that made him fall in love.

  Fred quickly turned to see his father blinded with his tears give him a slow head nod.

  He was not crazy; somehow, someway she found a way to make it to their first anniversary.

  On that night, for one final night, he danced with his Mary.

  “Go Fred and Mary!” roared Barney through his sobs. “Go!”

  For that one night, no one questioned what they saw. Fred’s smile finally came back as Mary wrapped her arms around his neck. He drew her close and gave her a kiss that would make the strongest of hearts give out.

  “Can someone please fill me in …what the hell is going on?” A dumbfounded Hank whispered to Veronica.

  “He didn’t think I’d believe him when he told me what was going on,” answered a teary-eyed Veronica. “And I almost didn’t, until I went to his apartment myself. I was there for almost an hour, and then I got angry and started crying. I said something about if she was really there, whatever she was doing was hurting Fred, and she needed to stop. I honestly didn’t believe I was talking to someone.”

  Veronica pulled out her phone, and click on her text message application. There was a text message with no name or phone number that said, “V, you know I would never hurt him.” A slew of other messages followed the first message.

  She turned to Hank with a quivering smile.

  “She found her way back to him.”

  As the song ended, they both turned to everyone within the room. Mary turned to Barney and simulated a three-point shot. He burst into laughter as his tears ran thick realizing she was telling him who hit him with the basketball that day.

  Her attention then turned to a terrified Sara, who timidly stepped out with a visage unable to process what she was seeing. Mary didn’t wait as she strolled over to her sister, who coiled back a bit in fear. Mary then took her hands and slowly got her to do one of their hand games from when they were children, as she mouthed the words to “Chinese Restaurant.”

  Sara with streaming tears and trembling lips started to play as she spoke the words of the game.

  Fred watching from the sidelines covered his lips as he wept with joy.

  Sara didn’t wait for the end of the game as she screamed and hollered clutching onto her sister with all of her strength.

  “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Mary!” She wailed.

  She kissed Sara’s forehead and rubbed her back to calm her down.

  “She said you were always forgiven,” Ms. Santiago stepped in to speak for her. “Nothing your crazy little ass can do can ever make her stop loving you.”

  Her words only exacerbated Sara’s grief.

  “She has to go dear, her time is almost up, but she will always be watching you.”

  Mary gav
e Sara one final embrace and kiss before Ms. Santiago, and Veronica took over consoling her.

  Mary turned walking back to her husband. As she held his hands looking into his tear stained face, it felt as if everyone within the room watching vanished leaving just them.

  She brought his forehead closer to hers allowing their third eyes to touch. Fred whimpered as he could finally hear her real voice.

  “Ms. Santiago taught me how to do this. I kept my promise,” she whispered in his head. “Now you have to promise me. Promise to let me go and live for you. Promise me.”

  “I promise,” Fred cried. “But it’s going to be so hard; it’s so lonely without you.”

  She placed her hand at the center of his chest.

  “Look around you silly, you will never be alone, and this is not goodbye; this is ‘see you soon.' I love you so much.”

  “I love you …I love you.”

  Out of nowhere, she took a step back as her facial features read shock. Her grip felts tighter as she began to shake.

  “The light …is here … it’s really here.”

  Fred gave her a perplexed nervous look.

  “Isn’t it …?”

  Everyone shuddered except Ms. Santiago as they heard the sound of massive wings. Fred watched as Mary turned to Ms. Santiago who cupped her mouth as her own tears ran. The old woman answered her with an ecstatic nod of joy.

  “I have an escort too.”

  “Where?” He sniffled.

  She pointed to the corner of the roof.

  “I have to go, see you soon.”

  With one final deep kiss on the lips, the doll went limp in his arms.

  “Mary?” Fred whimpered. “Mary?”

  At that moment, Fred felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Ms. Santiago standing next to him. With a smile, she pointed, and he turned to see the world next to the world.

  “I see her,” Fred squealed. “I see her.”

  Standing next to the shimmering gold light was a being in blinding gleaming silver armor with ancient unearthly etches on it, and two sets of snow white wings. The radiance around its head made it impossible to see its visage.

  His eyes were on her as she walked toward the light. She looked up at the being who gestured for her to enter, then turned back to Fred waving to him one final time. As she entered, the celestial entity followed behind her causing for the light to vanish.

  “She has passed over,” Ms. Santiago announced.

  A wailing Fred lost his legs as he collapsed to the floor still clutching the doll. He held it close as he rocked back and forth.

  Mr. Garrett rushed over to his son falling to his knees to hold and console him.

  “She’s gone, dad …. She’s gone.”

  “It’s going to be okay my boy …it’s going to be okay.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Fred stood in the middle of his bedroom now bare looking around for one final time.

  Three weeks after the last night he spent with Mary on their anniversary, Fred made plans to move out. He sold off the majority of their furniture keeping two personal items, her writer’s chair, and daybed.

  It was time to leave, and start a new chapter in his life.

  He exited the bedroom, strolling down the hallway allowing memories of her both living and dead to dance before him one final time.

  As he entered the living room, a smirk grew on his face at the patch of newly laid hardwood floor, and the night that almost cost him his life.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  The same night Mary passed on when Fred had calmed down; Veronica told him what happened after they spoke, and how she went to his apartment.

  How Mary revealed herself to her followed by Ms. Santiago walking in and explaining her role in what was going on.

  Veronica then helped Mary who had been hiding in the doll body for protection sneak out of the San Diego’s police department. Actually, what happened was Veronica sat parked a couple blocks away as Mary walked out of the evidence room, and out the back door undetected.

  Jennifer then took the body back to the Real Doll office where after they got over their initial shock repaired the damage that was done.

  When she realized that Fred was finally letting her go, Mary stayed at Veronica’s apartment until the day of their anniversary so that she could have her final dance with him and say goodbye.

  Two days after their anniversary, Fred had a revealing sit down with Ms. Santiago.

  Aside from being his landlady, she was also a white witch who practiced magic for charitable purposes.

  She explained that the powerful combination of the trauma Fred experienced after witnessing Mary’s death and his sorrow prevented her from passing on.

  As much as she cared for both of them, Ms. Santiago was bound by her teachings and the laws of the living and the dead not interfering or interacting with one another. She told him, the two realms were separated for a reason. God ruled over all realms but allowed Hell limited privileges in the territory of the dead.

  The first was to drag the damned to hell at their leisure, the second was to torment the living that attempted to contact and communicate with the dead.

  Although Fred was not trying to talk Mary, the unbearable pain of losing her continued to intensify leaving him open to demonic attacks and persuasion. The day the doll was delivered, a powerful evil presence broke through Ms. Santiago’s protection seal on the building and was lurking around it, waiting for Fred to come home and bring the doll inside the apartment so that it could do Fred harm.

  To protect Fred, Ms. Santiago had no choice but to break the law of interaction and perform a powerful ritual to bind Mary to the doll preventing the demon from manipulating it. The enraged spirit left the house waiting for another opportune time to strike. However, Mary’s interference in its plan made her a new target for the malevolent entity.

  The alchemy ritual allowed Mary to physically manipulate the doll like her own body to communicate and interact with Fred as long as she followed one rule. She had to limit what she revealed to Fred about the world of the dead, most specifically about demons. To do so would break the binding spell that protected her within the doll, and would also attract other malevolent spiritual entities to Fred.

  The binding spell also had a time limit of four full moons from when the spell was cast and would disappear altogether by the Hunter's Moon. Accepting that her fate was sealed, Mary spent her time getting Fred to find peace and to let her go of his own free will.

  Fred then equated that when Ms. Santiago saw Mary in the hallway, she knew who she was and that her being scared was an act.

  Ms. Santiago corrected him stating that she knew it was Mary, but the combination of Mr. Robinson screaming and her coming out of nowhere in her getup scared the hell out of her. She maybe a witch, but she was also human.

  She also revealed while Fred was at work, she would go up from time to time to check on Mary and her progress. The day Mary packed up the apartment she went up early that morning after Fred left to lecture and warn her that she was getting too comfortable, that for Fred’s safety she had to complete her mission before she passed on.

  Fred asked Ms. Santiago several questions that were on his chest.

  “So, when Veronica came to you the first time, why didn’t you and Mary tell her the truth?”

  “Mary and I both realized that our plan had backfired,” she confessed. “The more time you spent with her, the more you found it harder to let her go. You needed time to face this, to heal and come to a conclusion on your own. Also, your sister would be in danger the longer Mary remained revealed to her.”

  He nervously asked what the terrible noise he heard after the shooting was.

  She only answered that divine intervention had stepped in, and punishment was dealt out to those who would make deals with the devil.

  He accepted her answer knowing better not to go into detail and the
next question that was swirling in his gut.

  “The day Mary said, she wasn’t in danger, she was lying to me that whole time.”

  “Yes, she was,” Ms. Santiago nodded. “As I said, the same rule of the living being prevented from interfering with the world of the dead also applies to the dead in reverse. Spirits that have not passed over who attempt to interfere in any way leave themselves open to demonic attacks, and even the possibility of being dragged to hell itself, this also goes for those who have seen the light and not passed over.”