My ability to shift from mermaid to human ended at midnight. Unless you believed the stories about true love’s kiss under the mistletoe granting the ability of transformation. Which I didn’t. So I only had a few hours to observe the real effects of the mysterious plant and secure a sample.
I surfaced in
The sticky dough dripped off my fingers as I blew a stray strand of hair out of my eyes.
This is a lot tougher than she made it look, I thought. I eyed the oozing blob of dough on the countertop with suspicion. There was still half the butter to go into this dough and I was already losing the battle with the cloying mess.
Muzzy from sleep, I worked my way up from under the soil.
The Alarm has sounded! We must rise!
After emerging, I dusted off my tattered clothing, working gently so as not to abrade the grey skin on my palms. My shirt appeared more frayed than last time.
Well, what did I expect?
I made a last perusal of the place settings and brushed a hand down my cocktail dress. Perfect. The smell of turkey and buttered rolls filled our apartment.
Our friends would arrive any moment.
Gloria stomped into the room, still dressed in sweats and a stained t-shirt.
“What’s your problem?” I propped my hands
When someone dies, the general assumption is that they will stay dead. But every Day of the Dead, the laws of time and nature look the other way, and deceased relatives can drop by for family reunions.
Deceased relatives like myself.
I waited at the end of the driveway where my family lived. Reynolds stood by me with his arms crossed.
I snap my fingers, and the broom leaps from a corner and dances about the room. It sweeps up candy wrappers and stray autumn leaves that had floated into the shop throughout the day.
And what a glorious November day it has been!
My knees creak like an old floorboard as I sit on
Wishes drifted past my balcony in a dreamy river of light. If only I could make more than a handful of them reality.
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat as I looked down through the host of floating lanterns at the streets below. It was impossible to see even a scrap…
“My dear Jean-Luc, this is an essential part of the holiday,” Victor clapped me on the back, steering me past hay bales and piles of pre-cut pumpkins, heading deeper into the patch. “We select a pumpkin, then carve a design into it, and display it on the front stoop.”
I scowled and stared out over the field of orange and green.
I’ve been stuck in this cave for three days. Trapped by a wildergar. Once in a while, I peek through a crack between the barrier stone and the cave wall to see her—the largest and most terrifying of the mountain cats.
Her fur floats around her like feathers as she paces back and forth…
The biggest problem with being a scarecrow brought to life was the publicity. Memories of my prior existence in the zucchini patch remained fuzzy, but I was fairly certain there were no interviews, cameras, mobile phones, or TV crews before the kid worked his magic.
“Come on, Edgar. It’s one night.”
What was that? I lay shivering in bed as I peered into the deep darkness that invaded my room. I heard another rustle. Too panicked to scream, I reached for my light, and convinced my trembling fingers to turn it on.
The burst of light revealed a young girl standing at the edge of
My eyes burn, but I can’t look away, can’t let myself blink. What if I miss her? I block out as much of this world as I can, staring at the empty spot where the door always appears. Her door.
Three hundred and sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, and fourteen minutes since she’d said goodbye.
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