Shadow Effect

Mabry

I looked around for other possible staff in the pit but failed again. I flopped my back against the wall and let out an exasperated sigh. What the fuck was happening? A time-check told me it was 2:59am. I must've been watching that film for longer than a few minutes. The thought of that last picture and the screeching made me shudder. But, I'd be off of this hellish plane in about 2.5 hours. If I made it.

I thought I'd go back to sit and wait this out. I got back into the cabin and stopped dead as the two women in the front were staring and smiling at me. I hadn't seen their faces before, since one looked like she'd nodded out and the other wore an eye mask when I got on. It was also never too bright in there. But I saw them clearly now and I knew these women. One was dead and the other a teenage version of someone who I know is now in their 40s, sitting right there. Not two people who looked like them. It was, undoubtedly, Opal Brevine and Mabry Hilsner, staring at me with the blackest of eyes. Their grins reached up to their ears. Then they started laughing. The noise of the plane's engines faded out and all I could hear was their hushed giggles. Didn't sound anything like the way either of them did laugh, it was more like a stifled wheezing noise. I felt they were mocking me after I chased that staff member begging for this horror to cease.

The sight made me want to get miles away from them like I've done before. I wanted to run until I passed out, away from these ghosts of the past and these things and the little mind tricks but there was nowhere to go. Not 15,000 feet up.

Before I go any further, you should know who, exactly, Opal and Mabry were. They are the first two stories of people from my past and we'll get to more later.
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Mabry
It was around the year 1987. I had just turned 12 and it was summertime. We were from a relatively small place in Virginia, compared to Baltimore or LA, but it was still classified as a city. We didn't have ten different types of coffee shops, there were only two downtown. It wasn't a neon distraction but we had one of everything, library, food store, mall, fancy restaurant, bar/club, park, anything you might need.

I lived on the south side of town, and in the summer, neighbors would gather and hang out at street parties. People of all colors and ethnicities would be there. Our side of town had a more rich culture, as the north side was more of the expensive condos and apartments. Though there was a considerate amount of unrest over racial issues in some cities at the time, we had grown up in a diverse environment. When you're 12, you don't care what color your friend's skin is.

Anyway, at the block parties, folks would usually gather in one person's yard and fan out onto the street as more would show up. The chosen yard typically had a pool, which many of us had. We were considered a lower income area compared to the north, but we didn't live in the ghetto of the city. That was actually located at the end of the north side. We all had moderately sized row homes. Folks were decent; most had a job and didn't do drugs, except for the occasional beer and joint. I met Mabry, my kid best friend, at one of these.

I regard that particular party as one of my favorite memories. This one was especially entertaining and there were a lot of people. It was one of those summer evenings in late June when it isn't too hot or humid. My brother was still alive, 17 years young at the time. A crowd made up of people ages 7-20 formed a circle in the middle of the street around some kids playing Double Dutch. Moving through ropes were myself, Nala Iadiccio, at the time, and my neighbor, Nikkie. We were pretty flawless at this sport. I could do it on auto-pilot.

I was looking around and I could see a bunch of people sitting down across the circle with the boom box. Jump. Then facing the other way, I saw her. She was standing alone close to the cotton candy cart, picking little pieces off of hers and eating them, watching us move through the ropes in awe. You could tell she wanted to be up there too. I just remembered thinking how pretty she was. The sun was almost down but not quite, and it cast an orange light that seemed to hit only her face. It made her light hair glow and her eyes looked like pools of amber. I loved it because mine had always been nearly black in color. She had a thoughtful look on her face.