Sunday, August 2, 2009

Little Girl Lost

Returning home that evening just after sunset, Ethan didn’t allow him self any rest. He immediately plants himself in front of his computer. Checking his email he deletes the usual spam, marks other emails to be read later, responds to an email from his editor, and then clicks over to Facebook to see what his friends have been up to. Becoming quickly bored, Ethan goes directly to the SCDOC homepage and reads the contents of the public file on Richard Mason.

Skimming Ricky’s file, Ethan is surprised by a knock at his door. He answers the door to find that it is Brian Lewis, his ex-lover and friend who also happens to work for the Shadow Falls Police Department.

“Hi Ethan” Brian says awkwardly “can I come in for a minute?”

“Brian” Ethan replies “uh…sure. Is this business or pleasure?”

Ethan notices that Brian is a little on edge.

“Let’s go into the kitchen. I’ll make you a cup of tea.” Ethan says without waiting for an answer, he takes Brian by the arm and leads him into the kitchen.

As Ethan makes the chamomile tea, Brian takes out a file folder and places it on the counter.

“Ethan” Brian begins, “I need your help. The kind of help only you can give me…”

“What kind of help is that?” Ethan replies

“You know” Brian replies unsure of himself, “that voodoo, witchcraft…whatever you want to call it.

Ethan laughs.

“Ethan, a little girl is missing”

The moment of levity passed Ethan becomes serious now.

“Tell me what happened” he says.

“Her name is Tina Jones” Brian explains, ‘she’s 9 years old. She left her house this morning to go play with some friends. I’ve interviewed the friends and they say that they were playing hide-and-go-seek. When they couldn’t find Tina, they figured that she got bored and went home. It wasn’t until her mother starting calling all her friends that they realized she was missing.”

“I’ll see what I can do” Ethan replies concerned.

“There’s more, Ethan” Brian explains, “Tina has asthma and she forgot to take her inhaler along with her. If she has an attack, it could be bad.”

“Brian, I’ll do what I can” says Ethan. “Do you have a picture of her?”

“It’s in her file here.” Brian says handing Ethan the file.

Brian begins making his way back to Ethan’s front door to leave while Ethan follows him.

“And one more thing, if you find anything, call me on my cell phone not at the department.” Brian says. “You still got the number don’t you?”

“Of course I do”

Opening the door Brian turns around and says one final good bye.

“Thanks” he says.

“Don’t thank me yet, I haven’t done anything”

“I know you’ll do everything that you can.”

Brian leaves Ethan’s house closing the door again.

“And Brian” Ethan says to the closed door, “It was nice seeing you again.”

Going up to his bedroom on the second floor, Ethan tosses the file on his bed. Knowing that he cannot do anything for the girl while in a tense state, Ethan indulges himself in a short yet relaxing bath. Then he dries himself off and dresses in his boxers and a comfortable robe and collects some of his bathwater before pulling the plug sending the remaining bath water down the drain.

He walks the collected bathwater downstairs and out his back door, and turns to the West. Ethan pauses for a moment then throws the used bathwater over his left shoulder towards the east

“So mote it be.” he whispers.

Returning to his bedroom, Ethan takes the file off his bed and moves across the hall to what he affectionately calls “the Temple.” Inside the temple, Ethan unlocks the armoire in which he stores many of his magickal paraphernalia. He takes out the aged Book of Shadows handed down to him from his own mother, who received it from her mother, who received it from her mother. At his work table Ethan lights a candle and takes a few minutes thumbing through the book, contemplating those who’ve gone before, pausing to read bits and pieces of various entries. Finally he turns to the page he was searching for.

“To find a lost child,” Ethan whispers to himself wondering what happened to cause his grandmother to write the spell.

Reading over the spell, Ethan notes what he will need to perform it and gathers those things before him. He removes a picture of Tina from Brian’s file and burns it in his cauldron along with cypress, yarrow, and rosemary. He then gathers some of the resulting ash and mixes it with dripping wax from the candle, and presses it to a piece of quartz crystal that he has suspended on a length of thread. Finally, he holds the crystal by the thread roughly six inches over a map of the city of Shadow Falls and its outlying areas. Ethan focuses on visualizing the girl and then recites the incantation just as it appears written in the Book of Shadows….

Tina hides,

yet I would see;

where she abides,

reveal to me.”

At first, nothing appears to happen, but experience has taught Ethan to be patient. He continues to focus on the little girl as the crystal pendulum begins to swirl in a large circle. He moves the pendulum over the various grids on the map as the pendulum’s circumambulation grows smaller and smaller until finally it comes to a dead stop hovering over a section of the map. Ethan notes the spot in which the pendulum stops and a mental image forms in his mind.

“I see her” Ethan says to himself “She’s unconscious but not in any pain……”

Ethan continues to focus his mental powers on Tina Jones.

“I know where she is! Ethan exclaims.

Coming out of his trancelike state, he quickly dresses himself and rushes to his car. As he starts up his car and heads out of his driveway he attempts to call Brian on his cell phone, but he doesn’t have a signal.

Continuing alone, Ethan drives through the quiet town making his way to the War Memorial Building, which houses the offices of the local Hometown Association, and parks under a light. Taking a flashlight out of his car he walks away from the building towards the park where many of the town’s activities, such as the annual Kudzu Festival are held.

Walking slowly through the park, Ethan makes his way to a mound of large rocks. He slowly moves around the mound until he finds what he’s looking for. An opening in the rocks reveals the mound to actually be a man made cave about 10 to 15 yards in length. As he moves down the stone steps that lead into the cave, Ethan recalls how his father once told him that the cave was home to Fred Flintstone.

Shinning the light into the cave, Ethan steps around the discarded beer cans and food wrappers apparently left there by teenagers who often came to the cave to drink alcohol, smoke pot, or make out. Finally, he sees what he hopes to find and all the tension seems to leave him at once. Tina is lying on a structure of rocks that function as a bench inside the cave. Apparently unharmed, she seems to be sleeping.

Ethan gently wakes the girl up as he takes her in her arms.

“Did I win?” Tina asks still groggy from her nap.

“You sure did, sweety” Ethan replies as the girl falls back to sleep.

Ethan takes the girl back to his car where he places her in his back seat and covers her with his jacket. He dials Brian’s number and is relived when he hears the familiar ring.

“Hello”

“Brian” says Ethan “I found her, she’s ok”

“Where are you?” Brian asks excitedly

“I’m parked on the south side of the War-Memorial Building.”

“I’ll be there in three minutes” says Brian hanging up the phone quickly.

Brian arrives in minutes, simultaneously excited and relieved.

“I can’t believe you did it” says Brian “then again, I can’t believe a lot of the things I’ve seen you can do.”

“It was nothing” says Ethan enjoying Brian’s gratitude.

“Listen, you better get out of here before I call this in” Brian explains. “I wouldn’t want to have to explain how you happened to be out here at night and found her.”

“I understand” says Ethan getting into his car. “Call me in a few days.”

By the following week, the story of the little girl that had fallen asleep while playing hide and go seek had, for the most part, blown over. Brian received a public commendation from the mayor for his work on the case and his picture appeared in the local paper alongside Tina and her mother. A few days later Ethan receives bottle of expensive wine with an unsigned card on which was written the word ‘thanks.’

2 comments:

  1. Again this listener is not dissapointed Ethan. Who would have thought they would celebrate Kudzu. Untill next time.

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  2. Well in the South they have all kinds of festivals. There's a kudzu festival in Union, SC; that the town that Pamela Smith drowned her children in; there's a watermelon festival in Pageland, and even a Fish Festival in Great Falls.

    But the strangest one I've ever heard of is the Chitlin Strut in Sally South Carolina!

    Carolina Dean

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