Changeling
Changeling
The night sky was dark and nothing stirred. Stars twinkled overhead. A trailer park spanned the street block and the blue flicker from a television set shone down through an open window to the gravel where nothing grew. Beer bottles lay strew here and there, along with shards of glass that were the ghosts of beer bottles past. It was an unusually quiet evening and there were not even the usual domestic quarrels that could normally be heard throughout the park.
A comet flashed briefly overhead, and another, and then another. No one was looking at the sky, though. That was okay because it wasn’t long before one of the comets landed squarely on the trailer park. The residents had no choice but to acknowledge it then. Thirty people came out from their tiny abodes with tousled hair, slippers and nightgowns to see what had happened. The only residents who didn’t come out were the two occupants of the trailer that was hit, a girl of thirteen and her mother.
Smoke billowed out from the pink and white trailer. People began to gather around it and someone knocked on its door.
“Everything all right in there?” the neighbor called from outside the trailer door.
“Someone should call the fire department!” another neighbor yelled.
“I’m on the phone with them now,” an elderly gentleman said.
“What was it? Was it a bomb!?” one woman in a rose-colored nightgown asked.
“Probably just a cooking accident,” said a disgruntled, sleepy man with white hair. This was met with several looks of disbelief and a few shrugs.
Finally the woman and her daughter came out, appearing unharmed, though also looking terrified and exhausted.
“What happened?” several people asked her at once.
“I don’t know,” the woman answered. “We were sleeping and then it was like a bomb went off; we found this,” she held up a fragment of what appeared to be a metallic substance.
“A meteor?” one man said with an amazed look on his face.
“Wow!” came a chorus of voices but after the fire department came and made sure there was no more danger, they all went back into their myriad trailers and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened at all.
Three weeks later, the mother was dead and Lilly, the daughter who’d kept the shard, was fighting for her life and no one could figure out what was wrong. Her fever had been 114 at one point, and no one expected her to live after that, but she did. She should be brain dead, blind, deaf and dumb but she wasn’t. She went in and out of consciousness but there was no loss of sensation, when she was awake, and she could still remember her own name. She would classify as a medical miracle if she got better and they told her so in an effort to cheer her up.
It took three years for the fever to fully pass, and two years of intense physical therapy for her to be able to walk and talk with ease. She wouldn’t ever be normal again, though. She spent a lot of time reading and trying to catch up on a life that had passed her by. She dreamed of doing normal things, having a boyfriend, going to college, taking walks in the park.
Very soon, she was doing all of those things. She found a tutor and within a year had her GED and a full scholarship. She had a dark haired and mildly-chubby boyfriend, whose name was Ethan, with whom she spent her days. He made up for his chubbiness with his good cheer and kind ways. He always opened the door for her and made every day special, which meant a lot to her, since she had fewer days than most. Together, she and Ethan made every day special. Although she was doing well, she felt that it was only a matter of time before the shadow cast over her short life would unequivocally reappear, and without warning. Next time there might be no miracle for her.
She enjoyed their days together immensely and more than he ever knew. On one of those sunlit days their walk had taken them to the heart of a forest park. They were pushing back branches from the path when a branch broke off in Lilly’s hand. Something about it caught her attention. What was it? She couldn’t tell. It was as if she became frozen in rapt fascination. Her fingers glowed, ever so slightly, and then turned the exact color and texture of the branch. Then they turned back as easily as they had shifted. Ethan turned around and looked at her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said, although her heart was pounding. She was wondering if she was hallucinating, actually. She dropped the branch and Ethan put his arm around her. They held hands the rest of the way home. If he suspected anything, he was quiet about it.
She developed a fascination with colors. She especially liked solid, bright colors. She would put her hand in front and watch the skin morph its color to the exact same shade. It didn’t take any effort. It was effortless, even natural, to her. She began to crave new and different things to morph into. When she meditated, she began glowing and becoming translucent so that she could view her own insides, the structure of bones and ligaments, and the pulse of her heart pumping the liquid light through her veins.
It was hardly the shadow of death that she’d expected to fall over her life again, but she wasn’t sure what Ethan would think. She felt a gnawing realization that he wouldn’t be able to deal with it at all. She was certain that he would leave her if he ever found out about her newfound ‘ability’.
Depression came and went for Lilly. She was moving to college soon, anyway. Ethan didn’t know what preoccupied his Lily. He only felt her becoming more distant and he assumed it was another guy. When she moved away to college, he felt it in her voice, that she was saying goodbye, goodbye. He had no choice but to accept it. He held her in one final embrace before she departed; he tried not to think about a future without her.
“I got you this,” he said, fighting tears. He held up a golden necklace with a heart-shaped pendant of blue crystal.
“Thank you,” she said. She took it and put it on. She was desperately trying to hold back her tears, too. “Goodbye,” she said. She turned away and boarded the plane.
It was the last time he ever saw her. He didn’t have another girlfriend after that. He stayed chubby and good natured and went to church and gave all his money to the poor. When he was forty, a bird came to visit him. It appeared to be a raven. It would fly near his house every day and even seemed to wave to him. Eventually, when he began feeding it, he thought he heard it say “hello,” back on more than one occasion.
After some time, the raven left, but an enormous eagle came to eat the breakfast he left for the raven. Ethan thought the eagle had the most beautiful golden eyes he’d ever seen. They actually glowed. He was sure of it.
He made a leather sleeve to wear so that the eagle could perch on his arm. They spent many years together, like this. Occasionally, she would repay his kindness by bringing him freshly caught fish to eat for dinner. One thing puzzled him, though. Sometimes, she appeared golden brown, and other times reddish brown, and sometimes almost white. Every day her coloring was different. When he was very old, long past ninety and nearing one hundred, when his curly dark hair had turned white, and his heart had not many beats left in it, the eagle came to him one last time. He ambled, with some trouble, to the open window where the unearthly raptor perched, waiting for him. In her beak she carried something shiny, golden and familiar. The years of solitude and loneliness melted away as he recalled, in perfect detail, the day he’d given it to her; it was the golden necklace with the blue heart-shaped crystal pendant.
More Posts from Stardustandmoonflowers and Others
Raven Life
Lookit’ me, aren’t I cute? Lookit’ us hop around like tiny lil people. If we act like children will you love us and give us a snack? Aren’t we just adorable? Oh, you think? Would you like to give us a burrito? If I sit on your rear view mirror, will you give me some of your delicious salad? What’s that, a vegetable?? No thanks, can I please just have your croutons, and some of that tasty salad dressing? Okay? Great. Did I just throw all your fast food wrappers all over the ground while looking for a tasty treat? Me? What?? Since I didn’t find a full size burger, do you think you can go to Wendy’s for me? No? Can we share? I’ll just stare at you until you become hypnotized to be my slave and go get me Wendy’s. Yay Wendy’s! Thank you nice person. You are nice. Let’s be friends or at least lunch mates. I love you so much when you feed me cookies and French fries. How am I not fat? One of life’s greatest mysteries. Oh you thought I was stuck to that light pole because it’s -30 degrees Fahrenheit and I’m just sittin’ here holding onto frozen metal without gloves? Nope, because my blood is made from liquid antifreeze. Are you watching?? Lookit’ how pretty I am when I practice my flying skills. I can fly high or low and do summersaults in the wind! Whee! Lookit’ me! You’re watching me because I’m so pretty, aren’t you?? I thought so! Whee! Did I just poop on your windshield? Oops. 🐤
Dream
March 18, 2024
Had a dream I was living at a place my aunt had, it was nice but it needed some fixing up. There were a lot of old items lying around, knick knacks and a light blue suitcase. I had made a doll that looked a little like a vampire Gregory doll I made but wasn’t of anyone in particular and it had rainbow hair, and was a girl doll. Then I left for a moment and when I came back I couldn’t find it. I was searching everywhere for it but my aunt had been rearranging, with dolls here and there, but she was on the phone and I couldn’t ask her where the doll was, actually I’d had two dolls. She wasn’t sure what I was looking for so she tried to give me other items but I didn’t take them and couldn’t tell her about the missing dolls because she was still on the phone. I started to feel tired and dizzy and just sort of fell asleep there.
When I woke up, someone had moved me to a place with pillows and blankets, not a bed exactly. I wasn’t sure what had happened or where I was.
Then the vampire Maharet came with a small retinue of girls. They were all very beautiful and wearing colorful gowns. Maharet had yellow eyes, very vampiric, almost scary, but then she smiled and kind of giggled and I felt that she was like a girl, and I felt okay. She looked like an actress that had played her in the dream awhile ago, but still looked super young so I knew it was her.
Then she got closer, kneeling over me, and put something sharp, like a nail, under my chin, and I told her, “not my neck!” but the sharp thing went through the underside of my chin and she drank, and then I tasted her blood coming up through the same wound. She said something after that but I can’t remember what.
Then they gave me some towels to wipe the blood off my mouth and I passed out or fell asleep again.
When I woke, someone had moved me again and I was in a nice bed with a nice blanket, and someone was describing to me that things should change in particular ways, all the glass should be oiled or washed, there should be no fabric hangings on the wall, only certain paintings should be on the walls, also that I shouldn’t be around “gaseous odors” and my leg was infected. I pulled back the blanket to look, and it looked ghastly, peeling, scabs covering half my leg, almost looking infected.
After that, I went out to explore the area of this new place and I think I was sent to another place on some sort of mission or trip. It was a beautiful city like out of a fantasy movie. It had stone structure that was light peach in color, big open places to gather, narrower streets and very narrow side streets that were almost impassable if there was anything in the street, but there were lamps overhead on the walls, and it was beautiful with a sense of cleanliness and simplicity.
I was a newcomer there and was just learning the basics. They were like a city outside of time. Everyone there seemed to know what was expected and got along, or seemed to, and they were generally peaceable. I was walking to where my own room was and passed a place where girls were taking baths. There were little rows of blue pools, with tiny separators so everyone got their own sense of having their own bath. When one wasn’t in use, you could just go up and step in to get your bath. All the girls wore beautiful gowns that they kept on to bathe. I was in a hurry so I didn’t get a bath.
Just past the baths, I came to another place that was a little like a display room from a pet shop or a zoo, that was separated from passersby with glass, and some ventilating material. Two men, already bloodied and exhausted, appeared to be fighting to the death, or it might have been a man and a woman whose face I couldn’t see.
They both dealt the final death blow to each other at the same time. I turned away, making my way away from there, and found four tiny stone Buddha heads on the ground, that had just appeared, for each of them, eight in total. How odd, I thought. Then the statues began to move, twisting and writhing, and then they began to cry. The Buddha heads had turned into baby Buddhas, four for each life that had been lost there.
I went to check out the room that was waiting for me and accidentally fell asleep, even though I really felt to get one of those baths would be great.
The next day I woke up and had to go somewhere like to class and I didn’t have time to get a bath and was super miserable because I was dirty and my knee had blood oozing from a bandage.
They gave me little packets that I had to open to load videos on a computer. Each packet had two videos. Once I watched the videos, I had to seal up the little package and send it back so they knew I’d watched the required video.
Someone was trying to help me, to show me how to do it, but he pulled the backing off too much of the sticky tape and it stuck together.
Then we had a get together that night. We were given a variety of t-shirts and present to share among ourselves. Nobody was particularly interested in the stuff, so they gave me some of it out of pity, because I looked like I needed it, still being a bit dirty and bandaged up.
One of the items was a packaged set of vials, of different colors, looking like medicinal herbal extracts or fruit juices. I seemed to be the only one who thought that looked good, so I was looking at it, considering opening it, and a guy took it from me and told me he would show me what it does. I was like, “okay...” but a bit skeptical.
He pulled out a particular vial, popped down on the seal, and from the bottom of the vial, a crystal cup appeared. Into this, he poured out the liquid, and it turned light and clear, slightly fizzy. He did this again with another vial so he had one to drink too.
He told me to taste it and held up his glass to toast. We toasted and drank. It was the lightest and sweetest thing I ever had to drink. Then he tried to get me to let him drink from my cup while I drank from his, but if we did that we’d be kind of married, so I said no, because he was trying to trick me, and I said, “I see what you did there!”
I wanted to finish the cup of champagne, but I had to go. There was someone who had invited me to his shop where they sold sweets, especially there was a kind of bean that I thought would be good.
I stopped in, it was an Arab shop, and got a free item like red and green jellies, then tried a little mountain shaped cinnamon roll on a stick, then I got the beans I wanted and was buying my stuff but there was some confusion about price and they gave me a whole box of the red and green jellies for free.
Then I joined some others and we were traveling by helicopter around the area. I met someone who asked for my autograph which I thought was strange. I wasn’t sure if she had some ulterior motive, and didn’t find out. Our group was traveling again and some of them would jump out of the helicopter into the water. Then I awoke.
The Shape Shifters
Are they animal, vegetable, or mineral? That question implies life within minerals. So, mineral classifications must be for a life-form such as a shape shifter, although their true origin is as yet unknown.
Shape shifters evolved long ago with the eldest of the Earthly inhabitants. Having had several hundreds of millions of years of immortality to adapt to their ever-changing environment, they have become one of the best-adapted forms of life, our distant-yet-close relatives.
They love changing environments, because that is what they are designed to do... change! How wonderful, to be able to turn into a fork, or a spoon! Shape shifters love to meditate on matters such as texture, movement, color, placement, strength, element, size, and weight, as well as looks. Shape shifters really do enjoy being noticed. That’s why they’ll sit on the side of the road shifting, just slightly, or into something odd. They only do this on roads adjacent to the old places, especially ancient still ponds, because they admire water and are purely reliant upon it.
They are quite friendly, and may stalk you as a leaf, or as a miniature automobile. They may make themselves invisible, to say hello, and you’ll only know they’re there because you’ll sense their intelligence watching you. They are always nice. Perhaps they are building memories of you so as to transform into your likeness and take over your identity… but no worries, they’ll only do that to protect you in case you’re in need. :)
The Thunderbirds had babies! <3 Hadn't seen them in awhile and now I know why. <3
