Here's an older story I've written up some time ago, early, early last year, and thought I'd share it again, it's perhaps shows where my my mind was at , but without any serious consequence to details inside this older story, here is:
Eternity Can Wait
Goodie Blanchett sat in her rocking chair, the years sailed by over the clouds up ahead of the horizon. She knitted in peace,rolling back and forth in a wave rly fashion, the chair decades old, built by her late husband. She hummed an oldie to herself, hands of iron and steel busying themselves between two plastic needles.
The orderly came up to her, a live-in young woman in her mid forties, an old maid named Angie, came upon her softly, and placed her thin hand on Goodie's frail, skeletal shoulder. Angie was an old Maid, barren when she was young, and never lucky enough to meet Mister Right. She much prefered work, and accomplishment over material Posession. This was her retirement job, she wasn't much for travel, and she didn't rest on her laurels, but Goodie, nearing nine decades of life, was the perfect distraction for A give to take in while placating her tumultuous life.
"goodie, would you like some tea? I just put on the stove a full kettle, and it'll be verily finished in but a little moment. I know you like your tea extra hot,would a proper red tea be suitable today?" She smiled at the dorky woman, who heard her just fine, but refused to make a notion of anything but her twiddling fingers as the last stick was closed.
"Oh, I'm quite alright with the usual, Angie, ain't no bother to give me anything special, I'd rather have decaffinated tea if it's not a bother, I may take an early evening rest tonight. I just finished this lovely little area rug, I don't want to excite myself much, but I'm rather parched, and this Autumnal weather is troublesome, I'm getting a bit if cold lately, but I just can't keep myself from sitting in the pro rich in old Herb's chair. He built it especially for me, you know. Oh, but you've heard that old wive's tale all-too-often, even I catch myself repeating it! No Angie,mi think I'll just have some black decaffinated tea tonight, and have a good night's rest. I'm thinking I'll paint tomorrow! Oh, how Neb loved my paintings. I can't do much with the arthritis, mind-you, but damn it to Hell if I will give up over a bit of hand pain. Art gives me a fire, Angie, but you knew that already. You're a great friend."
She was full of an energy that seemed impossible, endless in it's serenity, yet Goodiewas nothing but a dear for Angie, and she smiled enthusiastically as the whistling kettle came from inside the tiny kitchen. The floral patterns about the walls was proof enough that an old woman lived there, because it was pristine as the day it was bought, decades before. Goodie was very independent, she was in great health, and had lived a very frugal, very plain old, healthy life.
Angie was there for doing the heavy lifting, and husks life a little bit easier for old Goodie, but the joke was that she was less-likely as healthy as the eighty-nine ear old woman was. Goodie was turning ninety in a few days, precisely one week to-the-day, Angie came to the realization, as she removed the red pot from off the burner, and quickly poured the piping-not water into two coffee mugs. The tea bags floated, and bobbled in the boiling gre, both dunking up and down as Angie steeped them both to brewed perfection.
She gave the decaf to Goodie, who slowly followed along Angie, sitting at the kitchen table. She smiled at her helpful side, as they both sat down and blew fervently in the hot tea, taking itty-bitty sips.
"I must say, you sure know how to brew a good cup of tea, dear Angie. I'll be resting early tonight,many plans for yourself this evening? It is Friday is it not?" goodie asked not looking up for. Her teas, as she slurped openly, her denture glue loss ending with every hot sippet.
"Oh,nothing really, Sweet Goodie, I was going to perhaps catch a movie on television, or maybe catch up on a good book. I've had a bit of a headace today, so I may just turn in myself." Angie tried to not make eye contact with the old woman, because she knew a subtle glare would be what she found. The soft-spoken Goodie was a very polished, very polite woman, raised in a respectful age, but even she at the nearing age of ninety would speak up in a candid matter.
"Nonsense! At your age, I would go out until midnight, if not later, and enjoy my time! You don't want to hang around hee like an old fogey! That's my job! Go find adenver urge, before you truly are too old to get some rouses of enjoyment out of this life, and your most exciting moments are when you're surviving a heart attack. I love you dearly Angie, but you cannot keep feeling sorry for yourself! You're in your forties,mbut you're not dead! I'll be fine, and even if I'm. It, the a good Lord take my sorry old soul, he will damn well do so whether or not you're here! So go have some fun, have double for me! I'm too tired to go out these days, but I'd kill for a shot of bourbon and a Virgina Slim again with my asthma, and mild scoliosis, I'd be playing with fire. Herb never approved of my late night follies,mbut he never denied me my fun. Don't let your meddling mind deny you your fun, Angie, you'll truly regret it!"
Angie knew from her tone, and rambling speech that Goodie was upset by her decision to stay in, but it wasn't as those Angie hadn't though it over. She really wasn't up for going out, and felt depressed about her circumstances. Goodie made sense,she didn't have to be there, she had Satirday off, even though she worked for Goodie regardless, but she had the luxury of sleeping in late. Maybe she would go out, she was sick of feeling sorry for herself, over nothing. Maybe tonight she would leave the universal remote behind, and put on a bit of makeup, and a nice dress, instead of fluffy slippers and pajama pants.
"Maybe you're right, I haven't been out in a while, but will you be okay, Goodie? I'd not want to leave you alone, what if you need something during the night?"
"I'll be just fine, Angie, I'm not some incompetent nincompoop! I can handle myself for an evening, and I'm certainly not going to need you to sleep, I've been doing it quite well for a near ninety years, and a pillow and do former have proven just fine! Go! Before I go out in your stead!" Goodie smiled at her friend, ushering her to go upstairs and change. Angie thought it over, and knowing that Goodie was absolutely fine with her departing,went straight up the stairs to the guest room she had been occupying for the past year-and-a-half, and began to doll herself up, and pick out the right dress. Oh she felt twenty ears younger! Excited by the premise of going out for a pleasant rendezvous and few cocktails. Perhaps she'd bit an old-fashioned jazz club, and listen to a few standards done by some young, fresh talent, or she'd head out for a midnight viewing of a movie, followed by a bit of dancing, and socializing.
Angie loved Goodie's conversations, but she needed to get out and mingle with fellow peers, and have some enlightenment. Goodie finished her tea before it became too cold that it would need reheating, and she stood up from the finished pine table. She steadied her self on the firm,four-legged top, and headed towards her room. She was nice and cozy from the heat of the tea, and the smell of fresh pumpkin, and CIA mon rolled throughout the frosty house. It was the fresh scent of life joyously careening off the season, and she always grew fonder of the scen eac-and-every year, even if it was coming from off the burning wick of a scented candle. She looked up to the table next to the bannister, and blew out the candle, shifting up the stairs with some help from Angie to her room, as the wisps of smoke laid rest the ambience of the room, swirling about in a leat-ditch effort to claim some their faculties, but alas the scent was gone.
Goodie laid to rest her fragile bones on the feather-soft sheets, and firm mattress of her master bedroom: the covers flowing over her, as to say a group of cartoon birds wre loafing her off into a caressing sleep. She was weary from the excimer of the day, it was a cold, blissful morning, and a cup of decaf chamomile was an excellent end to the colorful changes, and the harken to winter. She rested her head on her comfy pillow, and within minutes of the light being turned off, and the shutters closing off the setting sun, she was asleep.
Angie waited several moments as she always did whenever Goodie went to sleep, and after the soft snoring began, she went to her room, and began the transformation from melancholic coach potato, to Nubian goddess, dressed to the hilt with glamor, makeup, and jewelry stashed away for months. She dolls up like a Dutchess; leaving little to the imagination. Oh, girls should be proper, she agreed, but women of a certain age, they are allowed the right to flaunt, and she was indeed flaunting her assets, she wanted to get a few bites, even if it was from a few drunken carps.
She exited the house at 8:30pm, and headed down to the local speakeasy, as Goodie rolled over in her comfort, and smiled a toothless grin, in loving bliss. The comforter hugged her as the wind came in through the cracks in the windowpane. Snoring gently like a babe, she suddenly awoke, but not with a jolt, but a flick of the eyelids. The room was dark, except for a flowing glow, like the shadow of a cascading stream about the ceiling of the bedroom. At first she thought it was a nightlight, or perhaps the clouds over the moonshine fabricating dreams about her room. Alas, it was something else...something mystical, because as she became conscious again, she knew that it wasn't a light, but a prescence....Herbert Gaspar, her husband, former. He was with her, she could feel him there, like a spiraling light of uncontrollable love coming from all directions.
Her heart lifted as the butterfly coverings up, and she laid in her nightgown, a blazing light that stretched throughout the house grasped the epicenter of the room, almost pulling the entire bed towards it,mas the blissful feeling manisfested itself into the apparition of her dear husband. The autodidactic ghost came whirling in like the old movies of powder-covered actors on pull strings, and she saw that goofy, loveable face once again, and she wept. Her tears of joy were incomparable to those she wept at his funeral, full of fear, and loss. Goodie looked up, as Herbert came down to sit beside her, and he smiled greatly, the chill of his spectral hand touching her cold-sweated face, and there was a great deal of joyous enthrallment to go about the two of them. Words were not spoken, they were not needed, but Goodie decided to beak the spell of silence by asking if any of this was real. Herbert's reply was with an assuring nod, and the two clasped into each other embrace.
"Oh Herbert! I knew you would return to me again! I knew getting thwt crotchety old prune out of the home for an evening would invoke your spirit! How I've missed the last time we've talked! How is heaven treating you?"
"It's fine, Goodie, real fine! I've been missing you lately, and when I saw that the Old maid had left for the evening, it old be them perfect opportunity to swing on down and see my number one gal. Everything's going pretty well, I miss you, but that's the fine print, ain't it?" Herbert's ghost was snickering as it laid down on top the covers next to Goodie, who snuggled up closer to the spectral electricity.
"I just got an hour tonight, but I got good news! You'll be coming up there very soon, the guys upstairs said it'd be alright to have you come up early, not much, just a few years. Does that sound all right, Goodie?"
Goodie sat stunned, a mixture of emotions flowed around her stomach, like a mixing bowl with too many ingredients. She didn't know what to say! She could go with Herbert?! She could just go?! It didn't make sense, but she wasn't sure she wanted to give up any time....what choice would she make if given the opportunity? Everything about life was survival. Even the dying reach out to pull themselves up before they fall over and coddle I the sleep of the dead.
"You can be with me forever, but I must warn you: if you choose to stay, it will be for quite some time, and I will not be coming back to visit you again. I had to pull some strings to do this, and I'd know it's a a sacrifice, one that seems selfish to ask, but that's why it's your choice to leave this world, tonight,mor stay for several more years. I can tell you, darling; it's no better five, ten, or twenty years from now, the more the world changes, the more the core values, the core aspects of survival stay the same. I won't force your hand, but if you want, we can ride off into the dawn, and wake up in paradise, never to feel hunger, sorrow, or weariness again!"
He sounded so inspired, so sure that a goodie would be happy, but she wasn't certain...how many years left were there? She still had her children and grandchildren, who didn't bother with her much, but the weren't babies, full-grown adults now, but what about great-grandchildren? Would she miss a birth? She'd not be able to live, or in-this-case, die with such guilt. The qua dries were almost unbearable, not worth even the possibility of eternal happiness. She had to think about it.
"But...but what about the children? You've been gone for a while, but they will be orphaned, I can't imagine doing that to them before my due time! What if the grandchildren have babes? A whole gerneration would be gone from history, and I would miss out on holding a child again! I'm healthy, too healthy to just go! I'm good-hearted to others, I even let Angie leave early, because she was dying of boredom! Why did our oldest even see to have Angie hired? I'm able to care for myself, I'm not feeble-minded, a delicate glass vase that'll break from a single chip! How much longer would I have if I stayed here?"
Herbert grew weary with the leering questions, he felt in his ghostly heart that Goodie was not as excited about the circumstances as he had been when he rushed off to her with the news. Perhaps he had to assure her that she would be with him for eternity.
"My dear, sweet Goodie! Don't you see? You can leave tonight and we can have our own personal paradise! I've missed you for so long, and I am weary in what is the most blissful place in all existence! All the fruitful splendor a of heaven cannot eve enough if I cannot share it all with you! I know you are health, but why do you think people drop in a heart skip when they are young, happy, healthy? Do you see? We can be together forever, and I know you miss me as much as I miss you. We can remarry for I infinite once we leave this state of being, and go off to the glory and the kingdom of the eternal! If you choose to stay...it will be over a decade before I am to see you again. I do not know the precise date, or the precise year, but you will be a centenarian before you pass. I will be weary for equal time, as it passes the same in both states of existence. So please, come with me!"
Goodie remained shocked, but this time it was filled with a vile taste of petulance in her sneering words. Ten year! Ten grand years with family tossed for her husband? She loved Herbert, and dearly missed him, but it was not as though she had a month, or even a year to live... A decade! A decade of good, bad, sickness and health! She knew it as only a number, but to love to see one-hundred years old, it was an achievement she simply had to accomplish!
"I am not going, Herbert. I love you, dearly, more than life itself, but figuratively, not literally! If the tables were turned, I'd want you to be th for the children as long as you could! They need me still! When I'm certain Sally will be with child, married and fulfilling her motherly duties ell before my time to pass! I'd never throw ten years away, it would be sacrilege! Life is not some guessing game, Herbert! It's not something you can play with one day, and move onto something else the next! It is a story that deserve and exposition! A beginning with a determined end! I have to stay, and I know your suffering, but if you suffer so much, then I'm certain it's more than just me being with you, something else is troubling you. If you are in Heaven, then God's joy should be enough! I'll join you eventually, Herbert, but it is almost sinful to even ask me to leave before my time! Life is precious! Suffering itself is precious if we must to get the mortal joy! No! I've decided that I'll be afar ing until The Lord Willing fakes me to greener pastures. I'm sorry my love, but I'll hope you wait for me, but if you move on, I'll not hold it against you. You've been a great husband Herbert, bringing happiness to me at times of doubt, but I cannot do this for you, and I know you'll understand."
Herbert's spirit grew dearh with pain, and a bit of shame, and suffering that seemed too mortal, too human that his soul seemed to almost glow with rosy skin.
"But! But eternity, we could be together for eternity in joy and bliss? Why suffer any longer?"
"Eternity can wait, Herbert, and I'm not suffering, I'm downtrodden that you've been gone, but is don't jump off the cliffs to meet you, I'll love you forever, but right now, I'm not sure you're the same man I've married. I've never seen this petty, greedy side of you while alive. What's going on? Are you truly Herbert?" Goodie sat up, and crossed her arms in defiance, beginning to question everything Herbert was about to say.
Herbert was growing distant, a cold sweat, a suspicious frog full gasp arose from the withered transparency in front of Goodie.
"I....I...."
"Oh my God....you're not Herbert at all...who are you?!" Goodie asked with a fright. This was not her husband, how could she have been so blind before? He would never have come to her like this, with such an obscure request. This was their third meeting, and she knew that something was wrong.
Suddenly, the man she thought was ex love of her li, the husband long lost to the heavens and sky, was a disfigured monster sitting in front of her. A demon! A monster! A creature not made of a mortal human soul!
It grew fangs that hung like snake bites, and spoke some lnaguage darker, older than life itself. A speech that speech was modeled from. But never perfected. The sound was almost tiring in how distinct it was, like all the radio signals in the world were merging, but slightly out of tune, and if she could tune in, it would be as coaxing as a Siren's song.
She cast the comforter off her body, and flung her crucifix at the beast, calling out the name of a God to force this demon away. With a light thwt shined at the peak of dawn, a fire of pure light, angelic whiteness barreled into the room, and in a blaze, the demon had been vanquished.
Goodie huffed and puffed, as she caught ther breath, her heart beating faster than when if had when she run marathon in her twenties. She didn't know why a vision of her running the marathon in Greece came across her vision, but she caught her breath, and gently passed out on the bed.
She awoke to Angie coming in as the sun was high up in the sky. She was visibly intoxicated, but she had her heels in one hand, and purse in the other with a man on her shoulder, and a smoke in her hand.
"Oh! Goodie dear! Glad to see you up so early...or late, anyhow this here is Tom? Dick? Harry? Anyhow, we're both really tired, and I said that you wouldn't mind him staying over, right?" Goodie waved them off as she made herself a tall glass of hot tea, and sipped with a little lemon and cream to add some sort of balance. She felt so wobbly since the incident, and she knew never to speak of it ever again. She would take it up with the man upstairs one day,mbecsue she'd be thrown in some home if she ever told another mortal soul. For now....Eternity could wait.
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