butchiesmom's Mood: 
Last Online:
04-17-2012 03:49 PM |
The Life Hereafter
Voices guide the one who will return,
A warm, gentle breeze tickled the hem of the open window’s curtain before caressing her bare calves. The freedom of dress she enjoyed in the life hereafter was miles away from the hot, ankle length gowns she endured in life. Since she’d left her mortal body behind when she entered this realm, it didn’t matter whether she imagined clothing on her ‘body’ or not. Most of the inhabitants of the hereafter didn’t bother with dress or, for that matter, a body. Freedom of pure thought was a heady concept.
Mornings were reserved for quiet contemplation. The voices were usually quiet then, giving Brinn a chance to reflect on what had been and what was to be. She had learned so much in the ten long years since she entered the life hereafter. She thought of how it all began for her over ten years ago.
She began hearing gentle whispers, like the conversation of a distant crowd, with the first tentative butterfly movements of the child. As the pregnancy progressed, so did the voices in number and clarity. Amongst similar warnings and the general confusion she perceived in the voices, she heard Guard the chosen one! The warnings grew stronger over the months until she heard, Evil watches! Find the one who knows! It was then she decided to leave the palace and find the one the voices wanted her to go to.
Though it was often confusing, she listened to the background voices constantly talking about something they deemed important. It was through their ranting she found out when the King found the prophecy and its translation. Seize that which is to be hidden. Go to him who knows. She found where the king hid the prophecy and escaped from the palace with it.
Though the voices guided her, she had no idea where she was going, or whom she was going to meet. They knew when danger was near and when it was safe to continue on. He who knows is near, was nearly her downfall. Just as she stepped from the woods into the meadow where the man was fixing a fence, she heard the sound of horses approaching.
She stepped back into the place she had been hiding before and watched the man deal with the patrol. It was quite a distance from where she was hiding to the road so she couldn’t hear the conversation. When they left and the man turned back and started walking toward her she wasn’t sure whether that meant she was safe or she should start running. After weeks of traveling, always hiding, running away was not an option. Either he was safe to be with or he wasn’t. She painfully got up on her feet again and walked toward the man who knew her name.
While waiting the birth of the child, she and Keirn often discussed the prophecy. Speculation wasn’t a part of the conversation because he knew every word, every line, and every stanza of it. He knew the translation before they opened its sealed packet. It was during those conversations she learned of his parents and how they had insisted he learn the prophecy and its translation. Drummed into his head every day, it was no surprise he understood what was to be.
She told him of Tomas and her love for him. Told him of how she never had a chance to tell Tomas he was to be a father and how she regretted it.
“A man should know he’s a father,” she said. “A father and child should have a chance to know and love each other.”
She told Keirn of finding out about Tomas’s wife and that their marriage hadn’t been dissolved as he had said it was. Though it had been a few months and hundreds of tears later, the pain of her love for him still wrapped around her heart and squeezed. Because of his wife and her prerogative to do whatever she wanted with the ‘bastard’ child of her husband, she insisted Tomas never learn of the child’s existence.
Keirn insisted her babe was the one prophesied. “You’re carrying the star child,” he would say. His absolute surety of what he was saying led her to suspend her misgivings for the moment. Her instincts and the voices’ constant insistence of her safety and that of her child with Keirn was only one reason why she stayed. The other reason being she had no where else to go but back to the court. She sank into a melancholy so deep, not even the voices could draw her attention.
Keirn’s warning to the midwife about Brinn’s melancholy was a wake-up call to her. The life hereafter? I think not! I have no intention of passing into the next realm!
Why Keirn told Mara she was waiting the birth of this child to pass on into the life hereafter was strange but he seemed to know things no other would know. Scary in a creepy, crawly kind of way. Was she right to trust this man or did he know something about this child’s birthing he hadn’t disclosed to her?
She tried staying quiet in the first hours of labor, but it hurt! How the Plateau women were able to go through this without so much as a whimper was beyond her. She could see, between the waves of pain, Mara’s disapproval of her screaming but the screams kept coming anyway. Within a few hours, her voice was so hoarse; she couldn’t produce more than a weak whimper. She was so relieved when the child finally slipped out of her and let go a long breath.
Brinn lay limp on the bed listening to her child whimper as Mae cleaned her. She felt Mara’s head on her chest as she listened for a heart beat. She tried to tell the midwife she was just tired, but couldn’t open her mouth to talk. Leaden arms wouldn’t do her bidding. Eyelids refused to open. Though she should’ve drawn another breath by now, she didn’t feel the need to do so. Was this it? Was this the end for her?
Wait! How is this possible? Brinn thought. Am I gone or not? Should I be able to feel and hear? She tentatively tried opening her eyes. Good! I can see! She watched as Mara took her daughter from Mae and headed out the door.
“Wait! Mara! Aren’t you going to finish with me? Where are you going with my babe? Can’t you hear me? Bring her back! Mara! Bring my babe to me!”
Though Brinn screamed the last few commands, Mara continued out the door as if she couldn’t hear her. Brinn had sat upright with the last words and now looked for Mae to help her out of the bed. She was going to have Mara’s head for this! How dare she disobey a direct order!
Brinn felt as if all the worries she’d had during her pregnancy were gone. The voices, however, were still there. In fact, they were louder than she’d ever experienced before as if some of them were standing next to her. Mae was to her right and weeping, not talking, so it wasn’t her. She looked to her left, and almost jumped out of her skin! Black hair and huge brown eyes adorned the head of the handsome man standing by her bed.
“She can’t hear you,” he said. “You’re not of her world anymore.”
“You’re not in my head anymore,” she exclaimed! “I can hear your voice with my ears.”
“You are of this realm now. Come!” said the handsome one, “We have a long journey ahead and should be on our way.”
Though she had risen as he bid, Brinn wasn’t sure what to think, say or do! She had no intention of leaving, until she knew Keirn had carried out the traditions she requested of him before she went into labor. She jumped, with Mae, when the cottage door slammed against the wall behind it.
Some truths transferred to her from Keirn as he walked through her to the bed where her body lay in repose. She listened in shock as Keirn, her father, sat beside her and talked to his daughter for one last time.
“For your safety, I couldn’t take you and your mother with me when I was forced to flee for the lives of those caught up in the prophecy,” he said. “I beg your forgiveness for not telling you sooner. Even now, it’s not safe to be known as my kin.
That’s why Mother wouldn’t tell me about my father, she thought, I wouldn’t be alive now had they known I was his child. I’m listening to his words of farewell, to me, his daughter!
Though she knew he couldn’t hear her, she answered him. “I understand why I wasn’t told of you, but why now? Why are you telling me now when I can’t be there to rejoice with you? What is it about you which places your loved ones in danger?” She asked.
The handsome one insisted. “There is much to learn and to do before the time is nigh.”
So, this is really happening! Brinn thought. I’ve crossed over into the life hereafter! I hope it gets better than this.
Even as she acknowledged the truth of what Keirn had said, she watched as he gathered his belongings, and tore through hers looking for the prophecy scrolls and found the note she had left for him.
“It’s time to go,” the handsome one repeated. Brinn walked out of the cottage as the fire caught the thatching of the cottage roof. She watched as Keirn named her daughter and gave her and the scrolls over to Mara, insisting they and the child be guarded well.
“She’ll never be alone,” Brinn vowed “As long as I am here...”
“It’s time to go,” the handsome one insisted. She walked across the clearing to the stairs which appeared and climbed the steps toward her child’s future.
|
Ya know, this is an extraordinary work Gail! It is captivating, authentic, beautifully written & executed, and very well will be your magnum opus in my opinion. The ending to this was brilliant! 
Linear Mode
You may not post new threads
