Just Be There Blog

a rewrite

a rewrite...I changed this story from present tense narrative to past tense. I wrote this 15 years ago.

Kenifyd

"There is a swirling darkness there just behind the eyes." The old woman smiled showing her toothless gums as she brought up both her hands to place her index fingers to her face just behind her eyes. The young girl who sat beside her, squinted from the bright afternoon sun as she tried to understand the old woman's ramblings.

'Why?' The girl thought to herself. 'Why does she try to make sense of what this senile old woman tries to say? It never makes sense.'

But the old woman's cackling voice persisted.

"And then the thickness numbs and builds a painful pressure in the front of your head, right here." The old woman rubbed her forehead as if to sooth an ache away.

"But no matter you see, because it is nothing to me; just some phantom and ill gotten memory."

The girl winced as the old woman laughed.

"It just gets all swirly grey and numb thick and pain and they comes in the night and take the very spark of life ands they twists it tight with afraidness and shamefulness and the youth energy hides it's fresh laughter being torn from thems that can't get away."

Gently the girl placed a hand on the old woman's shoulder as she wrapped her arms tightly around her knees and rocked herself gently. Her tears flowed freely from the clear insane grey eyes.

"It is okay Dame Kenifyd. The bad man has gone away and won't return."

Again, the woman's harsh cackle made the girl wince.

"Theys coming I tells you. And theys never stays away. Theys always here, right here I tells you in the grey swirly behind these eyes."

There was a silence then as the old woman and the girl sat by the hut. Fennris wondered if she should attempt to get Dame Kenifyd back inside. She was agitated and it may be wise to get her out of sight.

But Fennris wasn't up for a struggle and Kenifyd was always non-compliant when she got agitated. No, it was best to sit here beside the old woman and try to sooth her through the roughest spots in her tirade.

In a soft voice, almost a whisper, the old woman warned her great-granddaughter of the evils life brought.

"Theys can do those things and never guilt touches thems. In the nights when they not suppose to be there. Ands they tells you be quiet or theys going to kills you. Always same. Theys coming again in the grey swirly behind these old eyes."

Again, the woman wept as she rocked herself. Fennris rubbed the old woman's shoulder and crooned to her gently trying to calm her agitation. The girl looked around to see if anyone else may be able to hear what Kenifyd witch said today. Fennris frowned, though no one had yet taken notice. Always, when Kenifyd grew agitated, the evil filth that spewed forth was not far in following.

As the grey haired woman found a moment of quiet, Fennris stood with the intention to persuade her grand-dame into the hut. She was no harm except to herself when she got this way. She incited the fears of the villagers and someday what she said would be her death.

'Her death and any who try to defend her.' Thought Fennris. 'She is crazy, this old woman.' Fennris knew there was no help for it. She grimaced at the thought.

"Please Grand-Dame Kenifyd, the sun is terribly hot and the hut so much cooler to sit in." Fennris gently lifted the thin blue veined hand to assist the woman in her standing. But the old woman looked up into the blue brightness of her grand-daughter's soul and shook her head with slow sadness.

"No Fenni girl. The shadows fill yonder hut. Only in the bright hotness of the sun am I safe. Theys no coming to the full light of the day you see, only in the shadow and the deep night they use for their deeds. And they says be quiet or they kill you. But every-time they come you dies and you no knowing your death till they be gone. They take piece by piece till you are no more and leave a sliver only, to keep your body living. No little Fenni, I stays right here in the safe hot light. I only a sliver left and they coming to take my death and making it theirs to own. My soul in peril great it is. I stays here in the sun and be safe."

Resigned to the inevitable the young girl sighed from deep inside her growing fear. "Yes, Grand-Dame. Do you want some water then?"

The old woman nodded slowly but said nothing. She looked around her and the old grey eyes glazed over as she was teleported to a past long gone and lost to the dust of time. A smile crept over her old face and she was young again.

Fennris sighed in relief as she entered the hut to fetch a cup of water. Kenifyd would quiet down for a while. The smile always preceded her growing weariness and she would soon succumb to sleep.

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