The Brooch

A Stepping Stone Pt 2

"Scar? Scarlet, my sweet, wake up." Mama Woods eyes popped open as she suddenly heard a familiar voice calling her name.

Her eyes began to look around an unfamiliar space. She gasped in awe at the sight. For there standing over her was her daddy. She couldn't believe her eyes! It was as if a day of his life, had never went by, in her fond childhood memories of what he once was. He looked as he did when she was a child. Strong, tall, with fierce, beautiful, green eyes, that shimmered like emeralds in a pool of serenity.

"Daddy?" Scarlet said sitting up and embracing her daddy in pure joy! "Whut are you doin here?" But then she stopped and wondered... "Wait! Whut am I doin here?" She said confused gawkin around. "And whut exactly, is here? Landsakes Jehoshaphat on a fried chicken Sunday! Em... am I dead?"

"No." He laughed holding her face. "You most certainly are not."

"But you are!" She gazed stunned!

"Yep! I guess I am." He chuckled.

"Then how, on God's green earth are you here?" She questioned.

"On God's green earth?"

"Yes!"

"I am not." He said standing up and walking to a bright and blinding light. "I am hard to explain." He smiled.

"A ghost?"

"No." He shook his head.

"A dream?"

"Perhaps." He peculiarly replied standing further away. "That's whut you kin call me for naw if ya like."

"So I am in a dream?"

"You are in the in between." He smiled stepping forward.

"I don't understand daddy." Scarlet said as her voice suddenly echoed in the room.

In that instant that Scarlet gazed down to the ground, there she saw...

There in the distant light draping below, like a glass covered well, shielded with thick ice, and a mirror of reminiscence, there was her Fred.

"Fred!" She called out racing to and banging on the sheer attire!

But Fred did not answer.

"Fred!" She called out again!

No words were returned. He never once looked up. He only kept looking down...

She wanted to break the barrier that shielded him away from her. She banged as hard as she could. Yet it would not break! It didn't even falter or shake! She screamed his name again and again. But only the echoes of her voice danced in the vacant where she was. She gazed confused at what her eyes did perceive. It was almost as if she were on the other side of him. Yet nothing changed.

She gawked as Fred, fully clothed, sat drenched in shower of heat with drops of endless water trickling from his skin. And in his arms, there her unclothed body lay, unmoved. But she could not grasp, how could that be? She pondered. She gasped at the unfathomable glimpse. Then her eyes gazed up upon her daddy.

"Daddy... why won't he answer me?" She cried.

"He can't hear you, my sweet."

"Why?"

"Because your spirit is currently not there."

"Whut?" She murmured.

Her daddy walked by the shielded well, grabbing his daughter's hand.

"Daddy? She said still glimpsing at Fred. "If I am not here, and I am not there... where am I?"

"You are where memories are lost, and hopeless dreams are sold to others who wishes were never told. But grew quiet and then became old..."