Good Morning and Good-bye: Part Fifteen:

Mariana Spektor lit on the candles on the shrine she had hastily constructed in the corner of her bedroom. She had pried the box her grandmother had sent over from Ukraine out of the bottom of her closet. The only closet she had in her small apartment in Clifton neighborhood of Zimmzinnati, near the university.

She used the box as a stand for the contents of the box. It was an assortment of icons, crosses and strands of prayer beads that she had finished fashioning into a shrine. She stared at the icon of Jesus Christ. Then she averted her glance towards a candle.

With nothing but candlelight in the bedroom, Mariana knelt, made the sign of the cross and prayed. Her kneeling form cast a great shadow on the ceiling of the room. Her shadow was surrounded with the aurora of candle glow. Mariana was not one to pray very much. She had not considered herself very religious. She remembered her grandmother telling her she would need to pray for God’s protection and guidance in America. Now she prayed for both. She did not know what else to do. Whatever was inside the Myhat Regency was evil. It scared her, almost as much as the call she felt she was receiving. The same kind of call her mother and grandmother had told her about. Was God trying to speak to her? She felt her body become light, as if almost floating.

The candlelight turned to fire in her mind. She recognized her hometown in Ukraine on fire. Soldiers burned homes in their wake or indiscriminately were shooting down women and children. The men were rounded up and taken to the edge of town near a pasture. A man in a gold uniform stood in the pasture. No, a golden man it was with a basket at his hip stood in the field. Out of the basket, he spread shrunken skulls as if he were throwing seed down. With each skull, a man of the village screamed and vanished from sight. The golden man spread skulls to near an irrigation ditch. Beside the ditch was a city in miniature. He loomed above it hands on hips. He laughed a great guffaw and brushed his bushy moustache with each hand. She could not quite make out the face with the flames of the village reflecting in its continence. She did recognized the city. It was Symmzinnati! 

Mariana screamed, unable to take the vision anymore. She fell back and struck her back on her bed frame. Her eyes were wide open. Her mouth hung wide open and tears cut streams on her cheeks. She looked at the icon of the Lord and shuddered.

Comments

[Mahler]

it just keeps getting more interesting, and still keeps me hanging on the edge of my seat wanting more.....BRAVO!!...uh, and more please