Angel page 3

            “A what?” Amy said turning to follow the fast walking man along the side of the crowd. “He sure does walk fast. Why is he in such a hurry? Is this how fast they walk in the East?”

            “He’s on a mission,” Angelina said having no choice but go with Amy. Sharing a body had its problems, but Angelina couldn’t stop looking at the man. “Dietrich.” She said the man’s actual name only to Amy in their mind, as she had been speaking the whole of the time. Angelina didn’t like to talk out loud or to even make her presence known to the outside world.

            The two girls made it all the way to the gathered family, just before the Margrave, to stand in the back, to stand out of the way where they were suppose to stand. The Matron of the family introduced each of her own children, one son and three daughters, who bore striking resemblances to her except for the youngest girl who only had a slight resemblance. The Matron did not look old enough to have mature children like these, her dark wig and ample cosmetics expertly hiding her gray, wrinkles and blemishes.

            Once all the family had been introduced Amy was mentioned like less than a second thought. “And this plain-looking girl here, whom we have so charitably taken in, is Amy,” the Matron said and gave a slight gesture to Amy but didn’t even bother to glance at her.

            Angelina didn’t know why Dietrich was back. He was supposed to dead, yet it didn’t surprise her at all that no one here remembered or recognized him. They didn’t normal see people. With the introductions over Angelina could see that Dietrich was watching her now.

            The clustered group of the Family broke apart, drifting off to enjoy the party and one of the three daughters of the Matron took Dietrich by the arm and began to flirt with him. It turned Angelina’s stomach to think of Dietrich as one of the sisters’ new pets.

            “It’s too bad,” Amy whispered only to Angelina. “Maybe he won’t like them and go home. Is the East better than here?”

            “Anywhere is better than here,” Angelina said, watching him go. But there was no time to think about that now; they had to get back, to get back to work. They needed the money. 

            Amy turned to leave but an icy chill went through her as the Matron called her. She swiftly and quietly moved over to the Matron, curtseyed low and stayed that way, never looking the Matron in the face. The Matron not only had an authoritative voice but her eyes were a hazel color that quite often changed, a fact which terrified Amy.

Angel page 2

            Amy moved from the window to circle back around to the food. Amy was very good at moving around in the background, having been everyplace but not being seen. She was trying to eat as much as she could without being noticed. Amy especially liked the small, soft breads. Not only did they taste good but were easy to hide, both on her and from others seeing her get them. If the Family caught her eating she would be publicly scolded now and lashed later after being made to repay the cost of the stolen food. But Angelina made her eat anyway, made sure it wasn’t just bread and made sure she avoided anything that would make her ill. Amy always found meats and greens stashed in the pouch hidden beneath the bodice. The food from such a party would last them for days before having to worry about finding food again.

            “Eat this,” Angelina told Amy as she slipped a piece of food directly into Amy’s mouth. Amy didn’t resist. They only ate breads while at the gatherings, so that no one could smell any trace of food on their breath. Angelina took care of her even though she was only a simple, stupid thing.

She talked softly to Angelina about different aspects of the party and Angelina was making Amy giggle about them. They wandered to the entrance of the room, hoping to leave soon; they really had work to do, but they couldn’t leave until this new man in town had been introduced to the nobility by the Family. Amy had to stay until then so she, too, could be introduced as a ward of this family.

            “Maybe he came to his senses,” Angelina told Amy.

            “Maybe he’s lost,” Amy whispered back, watching the entrance.

            “Lost his mind, maybe,” Angelina quipped back and Amy softly giggled again as Angelina kept a watchful eye to the room.

            The herald came forth to make an announcement and they hoped it was this new man. “Margrave Bennu of the Eastern Realm,” the herald called out.

            “That’s odd,” Angelina mentioned. “There are no Margraves in the East.”

            “Maybe the herald heard him wrong,” Amy suggested, not wanting to think badly of anyone. She waited for Angelina’s reply and gazed at the man. She thought him handsome with shoulder length dark hair and a short beard that followed his jaw line. His skin was darker than the people around here but not as dark as she expected. “Angelina, is his skin dark enough to be a Margrave? Angelina?”

Angelina watched the new man walking in and Angelina froze. “It’s a ghost,” she told Amy. He was supposed to be dead, this Margrave. Angelina knew he was no Eastern Lord, he was a native to this very city. He was a man that her thoughts turned to nearly every day. This was the man she herself had killed and now he was back, risen from the dead like the name Bennu suggested, for bennu was the legendry phoenix of the East. Angelina was stunned. 

Angel

            Faintly in the distance she heard the church bell ring, a noise which more often than not gave Amy a twinge of despair, not hope. It was of no surprise that the noise of the Family's gathering obscured the church bell--almost everything else in this city was obscured and overshadowed by the Family's endeavors. Tina, for instance, should have been well on her way down to the docks, but instead was stuck here. Amy wasn’t sure where Tina was, but only Angelina was here right beside her. The two had been inseparable all this night.

            Amy glanced out a window to see the darkness settle upon the town. She hoped to spy the approaching carriage and the evening would begin to move to its end instead of the continuing, restless waiting. As the glass darkened her own reflection appeared. She was pleased with her presentable plain-ness. She was pretty enough to neither stand out above the opulence nor seem a miss-fitting, base creature amongst the cruelly beautiful. First off, her face was nicely rounded, not long. Second, her nose was also nicely rounded and not so sharply pointed, like her “relatives”.

            Amy glanced from the reflection back to the mass of bodies, squinting to make the details blur and the hard edges and tense faces melt. Each one of them feared the faux-pas that loomed in the desperate pauses.

            It was too late. The guest of honor had not arrived, not sent word, and everyone else felt like fodder for the gnashing teeth of the Family's fury. Amy felt sorry for them but Angelina felt nothing.

            Amy glanced back to her lone reflection. She felt too tall for her age, but she wasn’t gawky by any means. Her hair was in a tight, thick braid and even though she couldn't see in the reflection the rich, light and dark brown color, she knew it was there. She knew a few of things that others didn't see, like the silky scarf she had underneath her dress that tickled her when she walked a certain way.

But Angelina knew a lot, almost everything as far as Amy could tell. She knew how to braid hair and how to send Amy away to safety at the right time and how to stand up to bullies. Angelina also knew adult things that Amy didn’t, like the fact that the vast array of exotic food that was presented to the guests had come at the cost of servants being only given half their normal food for the week gone by and the week to come, and the fact that the excuse given them about the extravagant cost was a lie, for the procurer of the goods had never and would never leave the grounds to spend his salary. Angelina knew lots of things Amy didn’t.

The dream realm

I dreamt last night first of a urgent drive. I was following another car to a house of someone who needed help. I was following my partner is a fast pursuit through winding streets. It felt like we are going the wrong way as we moved off the highway to the city streets. I felt unsure this is the right path, that I took a wrong turn or didn't turn at the right time and I lost my partner.
When I tried to reengage and caught up I was suddenly in an airport and trying to get to my flight and keep my group together.
First I was blocked at a crossing that was holding a family event. When I could pass I'd separated from my partner and couldn't find my oldest son. I continued on towards the gate, while calling my son and listening to messages he'd left that were hard to hear.
As I walked I saw my youngest son and gathered him to me as I continued. Soon I saw my youngest daughter and to my surprise my oldest daughter came into view and behind them was my partner.
Although we were all going to different places for a moment we were together and together we took each other to their planes. First the younger kids then my older son and my older daughter, then my partner and I wished each other good journey and to see each soon.
I love dreams, they are a window into our minds. (to quote some)
I like to write about dreams, both my own and the dreams of my characters. The dream world and the idea of dreams.

Cassie Andrea

This is a work in progress of mine that I will post a page or two of each week.
This is the first draft and I welcome comments.

Cassie sat on the midtown bus watching the street lights go by. This familiar route to her family home was a regular event in her life and one of the many things that was keeping her from the life she wanted to lead. She had been warned when the visitors were let into the house, her sister’s house now and source of income for her sister.

            Cassie was nudged, a familiar feeling of pressure without substance, by her friend next to her. “Cassie, we are the next stop.”

            “I know, Julia, I did live their growing up. Gran really needs talk to Medea about these readings she is scheduling. Medea is never going to believe that this is Gran’s doing until they talk.”

            “Well your sister needs to stop denying her ability to hear the dead, then maybe this feud between them will end. It’s like Medea is insulting Jolie by not acknowledging her, your grandmother may be dead but she still feels.” Julia gave her a soft smile. The middle aged woman was very wise and compassionate and been Cassie’s friend since she was a child. Julia had been there when her mother wasn’t and seemed to have become her personal assistant now.

            “Medea will come around. Maybe not tonight but soon. Tonight was pretty interesting.”

            “I think you smoothed thing over pretty well,” Julia signaled the others on the bus to come forward and her bodyguard came from their various seats on the bus to be ready to leave when the bus stopped. “I figure the woman will call at least once more.”

            “Maybe you can find Ann some friends to visit her. Give her a social life she didn’t have during her life.”

            “I’ll see what I can arrange,” Julia smiled. The spirit knew more spirit then any spirit Cassie knew. And topically no one talked to Cassie without talking to Julia first.

            Tonight’s job was (wallpaper)

            As the bus stopped practically in front of her house, Cassie could see she hadn’t made it in time to get the visitors out of the house and Cassie sighed.

            “Looks like your sister beat you here this time, Cass.” The bus driver said while opening the door.

            “Thanks Bob,” Cassie bolstered her enthusiasm to help these unsuspecting innocent people. Walking to the front of the bus Julia slipped out the door in front of her while her guards formed around her. It was a good thing they were dead or they would block her view.

            “She looks upset,” Bob nodded to the house to see Cassie’s sister up in arms. She could practically hear the cussing from here.

            “Yeap,” Cassie said as she trotted out of the bus and up to the house. “Julia, would you check on Gran,” Cassie asked her assistant as she entered the house to hear her sister enraged at the intruders.

            “I said what the fuck do you think you’re doing in my home?” Medea yelled while pushing her short blond hair out of her face.

            “Medea,” Cassie interrupted, “please don’t curse. You know why they are here.” Cassie nodded pleasantly to the two individuals in the front parlor. Just from looking at them she could tell they weren’t a couple.

            “Not that shit again.” Medea stomped nearly in a circle. “I swear if they say..”

            “If I may,” the man of the group spoke up, “we had an appointment.”

            “That,” Medea nearly spit. “I didn’t schedule anyone for this time of day. I never do. It’s when I do my fucking shopping.”

            “I know and you know Gran knows that to, that is why she schedules people for this time of day. So not to bother you,” Cassie said calmly, “and stopped being vulgar.”

            “I locked the door,” Medea growled, “I even checked it twice. I closed the museum and left and now there are fucking people in the house again.”

            “The door was unlocked,” the man said coming a little closer still trying to set the record straight. “I got here about the same time she did,” he pointed to the other person, a quiet woman who was very uncomfortable with the conflict in the room. “A middle aged woman, Madame Jolie answered the door.”

            “And she is who you had the appointment with,” Cassie finished and the man nodded and Medea growled. “Medea I wish you would just accept that Jolie is going to keep working weather you approve or not. Why don’t you go put your food away and I’ll settle things out here.”

Welcome to the realm

Greetings to anyone and everyone who actually reads this.
I'm looking forward to sharing my worlds with you. From stories and book I'm working on to inspirations I have.
For example I'm working on several projects. The next book in the series that I just started publish. I have a work in editing to publish by the end of the year. I'm just finishing a first draft of a work about spirits and time travel, and working on a romance about a girl with very slight psychic abilities looking for family and love.

I plan to start to post a story I've been working on about a medium/psychic in the very near future.

Last night I had a dream about friends who were taking advantage of other friends. It made me think about how we deal with people we care about when they take advantage of us. This, unfortunately, is something I've had to to deal with in my life and I write about it from time to time. This dream didn't spare it own story, like many of my dreams have, but tonight sleep will tell where my medium's story is heading.

I look forward to one day getting feedback from the world at large.
Enjoy the my creations.
Melynda Caston