The Girl Most Likely To ...
by Barbara Lynn Terry

Part II - Dinner at the Richards house (cont.)

"Well, I think it is nice to have someone her own age helping her. Sandi, I taught you makeup and hair styling when you were nine and wanted to know why I was putting makeup on to go work. I think this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for the both of you. Sandi, why don't you take Renée to her room. I want to talk to her parents for a bit."

"Come, Renée, the adults want to be alone." There were giggles and laughter from everybody.

“Oh God, I have no clue what to pack for this trip!” Sarah whined as she went through her closet looking at all her clothes.

Faith giggled. “Tis a right pishy on ya Moira cannae be there, aye?”

Sarah turned to stare blankly at Faith for just a moment. “For a second there, I almost understood that.”

“You’ll be fine!” she insisted as she flopped down on Sarah’s bed, watching her spelunk through the closet.

Phobia

Ever been scared of something?

Not just a little scared, but turn-white-and-faint, heart-caught-in-your-chest and soil-your-pants scared?

I had something I was that scared of as a kid. Something that made The Monster In The Closet or The Thing Under The Bed minor inconveniences in comparison.

It was a girl.

It was THE GIRL.

Not that SHE looked scary, or creepy, but just the fact SHE existed at all.

Because SHE was inside my head, always after me to let HER out.

Once there was a way,
To get back homeward.

A figure stood over the girl who lay sleeping on the bed. She sang a wordless song that seemed to bless the girl as she slept; not so much sleeping as languishing in a stupor from little food and way too much Jim Beam.

“I’m sorry.”

I have a very momentous decision to make. Should I go on living the lie I am living now and be what my family and society expects me to be or should I start my life anew and be who I know I really am.

She sat on the steps just upstream of the bridge. Two hours now, as the Ouse roiled and surged round the old stone and debris span in the eddies. Soon, perhaps, the flood markers in the pub downstream would need another notch, and the gardens to her right would be submerged. Winter rains, winter floods, who gave a shit, really? All part of a world she had tried to engage with, that had spurned every attempt she had made to join. The light was fading slowly on a miserably grey and washed out February afternoon, and as it went, so would she. There was only so much strength given to a person, she thought, and when that was gone, so were they.

The glow of the laptop cast an eerie pall on Jeremy Armetta’s face. He peered at the screen and shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks. Ironic that illumination gained such a painful meaning, but ultimately was to his benefit. He looked down at the book he had open in front of him next to his laptop and shrugged his shoulders. Whoever said that always being in the ‘right’ was a good thing didn’t know what they were talking about. He closed the book and shut the laptop before turning back toward the bed where his wife slept. What she had told him wasn’t the right thing to do as far as he knew but what she said to him still felt right…. ”Call our Son.”

Pass It On
Chapter Four

When they broke the embrace, they wiped the tears from their eyes and Destiny reached into her pocket and pulled out the coin. It had changed since the last time they’d looked at. Only the words “Pass It On” remained, everything else was blank now.

Destiny nodded as she rubbed the coin between her fingers. “I understand now.”

Katie shrugged her shoulders. “So tell me because I don’t.”

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