Friday Fiction for February 3, 2012

Welcome to Friday Fiction, which I get to host this week! Be sure to add your link to the list immediately following this header.

Things have been busy the past couple of weeks, and I haven’t had much time to write anything (and hence, my absence the last two Friday Fictions), but I really wanted to have something new and special for this week.

As I ready to post this, Nancy and I are celebrating our 32^nd Wedding Anniversary. I’ve always enjoyed a good love story, and I have been blessed to be able to live one with a wonderful woman for over three decades. Therefore, I decided I wanted a love story for this week, and so I written a continuation to a story posted two years ago on this blog, Reef, Her Madness. Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Nancy, and I hope you enjoy this ongoing tale.

Mermaid Weekend

Part 1

“I’m confused, Teresa,” her father said, taking in the garish opulence of the resort. “Why would you want to come here for your birthday, and how on Earth did you manage to afford to pay our way as well?”

“You’ll see soon enough, Daddy,” she replied. She accepted their room keys from the desk clerk, and then followed the bellhop to the elevator.

Her mother and fifteen year-old brother looked over a brochure on the entertainment at the resort. As the elevator indicated passing the fourth floor, her brother pointed at one page excitedly. “Hey! They’ve got a mermaid show, with the real mermaids!”

“Forget it, Trevor,” their mother said. “I’m not letting you go see topless mermaids.”

“They aren’t topless,” Teresa said. “They wear bathing suit tops for the shows.”

“Huh. When did you get to be an expert on mermaid shows?” Daddy asked, his tone bordering between sarcastic and disinterested.

“Since I spent time researching this resort and booking the trip,” she said.

The elevator stopped on the seventh floor, and the bellhop rolled the cart with their luggage into the hallway. He led them to adjoining rooms – a single for her, and a two-room suite for her parents and Trevor, and used the keys to open the door for them. The luggage was placed neatly in a closet, and he took a moment to point out a few of the amenities of the room before turning to leave. When her father tried to hand him a folded bill, the bellhop politely waved it away. “Already taken care of, sir.”

“That’s weird,” Daddy said. “I’ve never known a bellhop to turn down a tip, even if they’ve already received one.”

“Don’t worry about it, Daddy. I told you – this weekend is all covered. All you need to worry about is enjoying yourself. It’s a gift.”

“Huh. It’s your birthday. The gift is supposed to be for you.”

She smiled at him. “Who says it’s not?”

***

The lights over the audience dimmed, and spotlights played over the surface of a large pool. Despite her mother’s objections, the four of them waited at one of the best tables for the mermaid show to begin. The look she kept shooting Teresa conveyed quite clearly that, if there were any topless mermaids in this show, someone was going to be in deep trouble.

A lively nautical tune played over the sound system, as three dark shapes converged on the center of the pool from three different entrances. Just before meeting, they turned sharply upwards, and broke the surface in a precisely choreographed leap. Their arcs criss-crossed in mid-air, and then they slid smoothly back into the water.

Trevor let out a loud, appreciative whistle, earning him a scowl from Mom. When the three performers rose from the water to tail-stand for the audience, Trevor’s enthusiasm diminished a bit. “Wait – one of those three is a dude!”

Teresa laughed. “One-third of the Pod is male,” she said. “Or did you conveniently forget that?”

“But it’s supposed to be a mer-MAID show,” he objected. “Who wants to look at a dude with a dolphin tale?”

“Maybe I do,” she said.

“Shh,” Daddy hissed at them.

An unseen announcer officially opened the show by introducing the three Pod members present, and offered narration at appropriate times during the first half of the show. After a short intermission, during which a round of beverages was obtained for the family, the lights lowered again and a single spotlight shone on a platform at the back of the pool. One of the mermaids rested on an inclined pad, which raised her head comfortably above the platform and freed her arms to hold a microphone.

“Good evening,” she said. “As you might remember, my name is Marianne, and I’m joined on this performance trip by my sister Gretchen, and our brother Timothy. This will be our final weekend of this trip, and starting next week, three other members of the Pod will be here to entertain you. At this time in the show, we usually take questions and requests from the audience, but tonight, we’re going to do something a little different. Tonight, we’re going to involve a member of the audience in the show.”

Trevor got an excited look on his face, which elicited an eye-roll from their mother. His arm was shaking with the anticipation that the mermaid was going to ask for a volunteer.

Marianne continued. “It’s very rare that any of us travels alone, but last year, Timothy decided to take a solitary vacation for his birthday. When he returned, he told us this amusing story about meeting someone he called, ‘Crazy Reef Girl.’ Ladies and gentlemen, Crazy Reef Girl is here in the audience tonight, and we would like to invite her to join us in the pool.”

Trevor’s expression dropped, and people started looking all around the theater for the mystery woman.

Marianne waited a minute, and then added, “Come on, Teresa. You knew we were going to do this to you, so you’d better have come prepared.”

Teresa stood up, and the spotlight caught her just as she slipped the loose dress over head to reveal the swimsuit beneath. She kicked her shoes off beneath the table, and took a step towards the pool.

Her parents looked confused, and Trevor had that, ‘I-can’t-believe-it’s-my-sister’ expression on his face.

Timothy swam to the near edge of the pool, and waited for her to climb in. She accepted a pair of goggles from him, and covered her eyes before allowing him to tow her into the deepest part. He locked his arms behind her back, and she wrapped hers around his neck.

Flipping backwards, he made an easy kick towards the bottom, and then powered back to and through the surface in a steep-arced leap. Teresa caught bits and pieces of Marianne’s commentary during their segment of the performance, but most of the time, all she heard was the rushing of water and splashes. He finished the routine by towing her around the entire perimeter of the pool, making only one quick bob to the surface for air, before finally floating together facing each other, just in front of the platform.

“I’ve missed our swims together,” he said.

“Me, too, but there’s something I’ve missed more,” she said.

“Oh? What’s that?”

In response, she pulled him close and kissed him, earning them loud applause and whistles from the audience.

To be continued…

Friday Fiction for January 13, 2012

Oh, look! It’s Friday the Thirteenth, and I get to host Friday Fiction this week! Whether that is lucky or not, you can decide for yourselves. Frankly, I think if any day was going to be unlucky, pairing a Monday with the number thirteen would qualify far more than any Friday. Whatever you do, though, don’t let the date keep you from sharing your own Fiction entries this week. Just add your link to the Linky list below!

Early in the Pod stories, the premise is that the Pod’s knowledge and experience with spiritual things is very limited, but this doesn’t inhibit their curiosity. In this excerpt from “Marta’s Pod,” I explored this a little. For a secondary character, Sally Hyland has always been one that I’ve enjoyed writing. I hope you enjoy reading her.

Chapter 19

It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.

~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Sally Hyland was used to being sought out for questions and concerns. She was often approached by members of their congregation that were more interested in a sympathetic ear, rather than the counsel that Diego would offer. Amusingly, she was as likely to give tough counsel as he was, and folks were often blindsided since they never expected it from her.

It was not unusual that the Pod would come to one or the other of them for advice or questions. Their education in spiritual matters had been almost nil under Dr. Marcel, and their perception of religious people based solely on the parodies portrayed on television. For the most part, though, their questions revolved around basic human relations.

Of all the Pod members, Marta tended to come to Sally the most, primarily because Sally was the only other woman with children that Marta had any long standing access to. It helped that Joshua Hyland was a year ahead of Marcel; Sally had plenty of access to mothers who had raised children to seek advice from when she dealt with some new phase of development, and by the time Marcel reached that phase, Marta could glean similar advice from Sally.

It wasn’t mothering advice that Marta wanted when she sought out Sally that afternoon, though. The two women had taken refuge in Josh and Marta’s room, where they could speak with some privacy and with little interruption. “Sally,” Marta asked. “Why does your God do things for some people and not for others?”

Sally flinched. “Wow; you certainly decided to dive right into one of the deeper subjects on this one. Would you mind if I asked what brought this up?”

“Why am I the one who has gotten so much, and not Eva, or any of the other Pod members?”

“Oh dear, if I could answer that question, I’d have to be God.” She smiled to keep the words soft. “Diego always explains it this way, though. We are here on the surface; we can only see so far ahead. We cannot see what lies beyond the horizon, so we don’t know what we’re going to need to deal with whatever is ahead. God is above; He can see beyond the horizon and knows what lies ahead. He gives His gifts in accordance with what He sees ahead and what He plans. We may not understand until years later, when we finally can look back and see how everything fell into place.”

“I still don’t understand why me? It seems that everything has come my way, and not to anyone else in the Pod.”

“It’s come to you, yes; but where has it gone from there? You have received gifts, and what have you done with them?”

“The Pod shares in everything I get. Well, almost everything; some aspects of Josh I don’t share with anyone.”

“You know, one of the errors Diego and I deal with so often is what people do with the gifts that God gives them. You see, God doesn’t give us things so we can sit around and admire our pretty trinkets; He gives gifts that we are supposed to use in some way, most often by passing them along to someone else who needs them. Have you considered that you are the one who receives the gifts here because you pass them along to the rest of the Pod?”

“That may be so, but what about my parents? Why could it not have been Eva’s parents that found her, so that she could share them with the Pod?”

“I don’t know, Marta. Again, our perspective is so limited from where we are. Maybe there is a reason your parents are supposed to be here instead of Eva’s. Maybe it’s Mark; maybe your parents found you because time with the Pod is what Mark needs. Have you considered that their being here isn’t a gift to you so much as it is a gift to them? Perhaps it’s simply their turn to be blessed.”

“I wish your God would let us in on what He’s doing.”

“So do I, but I fear if He did, I’d try to get in the middle of things and mess up His plans. So often, I just have to trust that He knows what He’s doing.”

“I guess it’s easier for you to trust Him than it is for me.”

Sally laughed. “I wish it were. I don’t want to think about all the times I didn’t trust Him, and tried to do myself what He said He’d do. Every time I find myself perplexed by what’s going on, I have to make the conscious decision to have faith. When I finally reach the point where I think I can trust Him without wrestling with it, I find myself having to trust Him with something even more difficult, and it’s no easier than it was before.”

“You serve a strange God, Sally Hyland.”

“Maybe so, but I can assure you, He certainly makes serving Him worth it.” She reached her hand across and brushed some hair away from Marta’s eyes. “He lets me be His hands to touch people like you.”

Friday Fiction for December 23, 2011

I have the privilege of hosting Friday Fiction this Christmas weekend, so please feel free to post your link in the list and join in the fun!

I love writing the Pod Christmas stories, and this short scene takes place the first Christmas after the events in the story, “Allison.” Merry Christmas, and I hope you enjoy all the stories this week!

The Mermaid Under the Mistletoe

Pod Christmas Story, 2011

By Rick Higginson

Every eye in the room turned towards the door as word spread of who had just arrived. Joshua Cardan was accustomed to such attention; there was no company facility or function that he, as owner of Cardan Pharmaceuticals, could ever hope to sneak into.

“Josh,” Marta said beside him. “Is it too late to change my mind?”

He patted her arm. “Probably,” he said. “Of course, you did walk into Diego’s church this way, and for all the times you said you wanted to accompany me to the annual Christmas Party, you really should go through with it now.”

Robert Barron slipped through the crowd and stepped in front of them. “So, we finally get to meet her, eh, Josh?”

“You don’t know how many times over the past few years I wished I could tell you about her, Rob. Yeah, you finally get to meet her. Marta, this is Robert Barron, the Chief Executive Officer of Cardan Pharmaceuticals. Rob, this is Marta.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Cardan,” Rob said, extending his hand.

Marta shifted her weight on the walker to take the hand. “Please; it’s just Marta.”

Rob smiled. “Of course; Marta.” He turned towards the gathered employees and gestured for a path to be made. “We’ve had a special table prepared for you tonight.”

Josh took the wrap from her shoulders, and handed it with his suit coat to an attendant. It always seemed strange to see her in clothing, but the bright green holiday dress fit her nicely and looked attractive on her. If one ignored the tips of the fluke sticking out from under the hem, it would have been easy to miss the fact that she was a mermaid.

Rob’s wife was already seated at the table, and she greeted them pleasantly as they approached. A medical style gurney waited at one place setting, draped in festive cloth to mask its utilitarian nature. At Rob’s direction, they stepped up next to the gurney, and a couple of young men gently helped Marta onto it. Josh took a chair next to her, and scooted into place.

The CEO picked up a microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, Joshua and Marta Cardan. I think this party can officially begin!”

Before and after dinner, a steady stream of people came to the table, introducing themselves to Marta and extending their holiday greetings. Marta seemed to get more comfortable with all the attention as the night wore on, though eating at a table with formal place settings was much too confusing for her. Meals in the Family Room were never formal.

After dinner, tables were cleared and moved out of the way. The DJ changed the music from holiday classics to dance tunes, and couples soon made good use of the open floor space.

“Well, Marta,” Rob said, watching the festivities. “How do you like the party?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I think the only thing that would make it better is if I was able to go out there and dance with Josh.”

“Josh said you might feel that way,” he said, and nodded at some of the attendants.

The men pulled the curtains back, and opened two large glass doors. The courtyard outside was decorated for the holiday, and lights shone on a large swimming pool.

“It will be a bit cool out there, but the pool is heated and the music is being played in the courtyard as well.”

She raised up on her arms to get a better look. “Josh? Did you know about this?”

He grinned sheepishly. “I had a hint, yeah. I was told to come prepared to swim.” Removing his tie, he added, “I have my swim trunks on under my suit, and why I suggested the bathing suit top would be good to wear under your dress tonight.”

Rob took his wife’s hand. “You two have fun. I’m going to enjoy the dance floor with Mrs. Barron first, and then we’ll change and join you two in the pool.”

Marta was helped back into her walker, and they made their way through the doors to the poolside. Curious onlookers watched as Josh unzipped the back of the dress, and helped her slip it from her shoulders. There were noticeable gasps as the fabric fell to the ground, revealing the gray tail where hips and legs should be, but Marta didn’t react to them. She lifted her fluke enough for Josh to remove the dress from beneath her, and an attendant took it to hang up.

Scooting the walker closer to the edge of the pool, she turned around to face away from the water. With the mechanical device no longer between her and the water, she fell backwards into the pool and flipped gracefully around.

Josh stripped down to the bathing suit and lowered himself more gently into the pool. He was no sooner in the water, then Marta took hold of him and drew him into the deepest part. With arms around each other, they began to sway and twirl in time to the music. People watched the first dance, and when the next song began, many started dancing in the courtyard.

“If you look up, Mrs. Cardan,” Josh said, after a number of songs. “You’ll notice that we’re under mistletoe.”

A large leafy sprig, wrapped around with bright ribbons, hung from a line stretched over the deep end of the pool. She glanced up and grinned. “I guess this year I don’t need to tell you to stay away from it.” She kissed him, which resulted in loud applause and cheers.

“See?” he said between kisses. “It’s not just the Pod.”

Rob and his wife paddled out near them. “Okay, Josh. You two make this look easy, but I don’t think we quite got the hang of it.”

Marta gave Josh a mischievous look, and he smiled back at her. “Just don’t drown him. He’s the only one who really knows how to run the company.”

She spun from in front of him to extend a hand towards Rob. “May I?” she asked Rob’s wife.

The woman nodded, and relinquished her partner to Marta.

“The first thing to remember,” Marta told Rob. “Is that the water is your friend. Now, deep breath,” she said.

“Huh?” Rob said.

“Take a deep breath,” she repeated. When he did, she wrapped her arms around him and dove sideways, taking him on a quick, tight circle around the bottom of the pool.

“Well, Mrs. Barron, I’m not nearly as good at this as Marta is, but I think I can show you enough that you and Rob will be able to manage.”

“You’re not going to dunk me, are you?” she asked.

“I’m definitely not as good at that as Marta is, so no, I’m not going to dunk you.” He took her hand and guided her into a waltz position. “Biggest trick when it’s two regular people, is coordinating the leg kicks. Dancing with one of the Pod makes it easier, because they can hold us up with little effort on our part. We, though, have to keep kicking if we want to keep our heads above water, so just like dancing on land, we need to time our steps.”

Marta and Rob surfaced again in the center of the pool. “Comfortable with the water now?” she asked.

“I don’t think I dare say no,” he replied.

“Hey, Rob!” Someone yelled from beside the pool. “You’re under the mistletoe!”

Before he had a chance to reply, Marta planted a quick kiss on him. He pulled back, surprised, as the whistles and cheers echoed over the water, and turned a confused look towards his wife and Josh.

Josh laughed, along with Rob’s wife, and returned to the dance instruction.

Before long, others had changed into swimwear and transitioned to dancing in the pool. Festive Holiday tunes kept everyone moving, and the queue for a dance with Marta grew longer than the night would accommodate. Almost all wanted to maneuver the mermaid under the mistletoe, and Marta seemed only too happy to let them. For all her earlier trepidation, she was having more fun than Josh could remember her having on any Christmas since the first in the Family Room.

He spun in the water with the date of Marta’s current dance partner, and smiled. For an evening, she could enjoy being a part of the world of regular people.

When the last dance of the night was announced, he turned to find Marta with her hands held out to him.

“I told the rest of them, that I wanted one more dance with my husband tonight,” she said, pulling him into her arms.

“Are you going to take me under the mistletoe again?” he whispered to her.

She kissed him. “You, Mr. Cardan, have never needed mistletoe with me.”

Friday Fiction for December 16, 2011

The talented Sara H. is hosting Friday Fiction this week, over at Fiction Fusion. Don’t miss the terrific stories posted for your enjoyment this weekend!

As promised, this week is the conclusion of the Clockwork Deacon Christmas chapter. Enjoy, and come back next week for the 2011 Pod Holiday Story.

Clockwork Deacon

Chapter 6 – A Clockwork Christmas, Pt. 4

Jacob awoke first in the morning, and ran to the window. The Sun was barely up, but it was no longer night. It was Christmas. He jumped onto his brother’s bed. “Isaac! Wake up! It’s Christmas morning!”

Isaac’s eyes popped open, and he sat up immediately. “Are Pa and Ma up yet?”

The door opened slightly, and their mother peeked in. “Yes, we are up, and you boys know that you must be properly dressed and groomed before you come downstairs. Don’t dawdle – we have much to do today.”

They hurried to change from their pajamas to the nice clothes they had been told to wear for the day, and gave as fast a combing to their hair as they could get away with. With the kind of enthusiasm that was never exhibited for either school or church, they fairly flew down the stairs, and were met at the door of the living room by their mother.

“I declare, boys,” she said, fussing over their clothes and hair as though they were to meet President Roosevelt himself. “One would think you two had never dressed yourselves before. Santa Claus has already been here, and the gifts beneath the tree aren’t going to disappear if you take the time to get ready the proper way.”

“Yes’m,” they both said, trying to see around her to the tree and its waiting treasures.

“Tch, and your hair. Isaac, did you bother to comb it at all?”

“Yes’m, I did,” he said.

“With what? A stable rake?”

“I used a comb, Ma!”

“Well, after breakfast you are to comb it again the right way. I won’t have you going out looking like you’ve been standing in a whirlwind, you hear?”

“Yes’m.”

“Now, you two are to walk CALMLY to the tree, is that clear?”

“Yes’m.”

She stepped out of their way, and immediately reminded them to WALK.

They dropped to their knees beside the tree, and began to search beneath it.

Pa walked in from the entryway, carrying two small boxes. “Odd,” he said. “There were two boxes on the front step, one with Isaac’s name on it, and one with Jacob’s. Who do you suppose left these here?”

Both boys bit back a laugh. “Pa,” Isaac said. “Shouldn’t we bring Deacon in for the gifts, too?”

“Deacon?” He gave Isaac a quizzical look. “We’ve never worried about including Deacon in our Christmas Morning before. Why this year?”

“Well, Deacon’s part of the family, too, ain’t he?”

“Isaac, what have I told you about ‘ain’t’?” Ma interjected.

“Deacon’s part of the family, too, isn’t he?” Isaac corrected his question.

“Not in the same way you boys are, or your mother and I,” Pa answered.

Isaac’s eyes cut momentarily to the two boxes in Pa’s hands. “Please, Pa?”

The glance did not go unnoticed. “Does Deacon have something to do with these gifts?”

“You’ll see when we open ‘em, Pa. Deacon should be here, though. Please, Pa? Ma?” He gave them both a pleading look. “I’m not gonna open any presents ‘till Deacon is in here, too.”

Pa fixed him with a searching look. “You would really delay opening your gifts, to wait for Deacon?”

“Yes, sir, I would.”

Jacob stepped forward. “Me, too, Pa. I want Deacon in here, too.”

His expression softened. “Mrs. Randolph, I believe our sons are becoming fine young men.” He handed them their respective boxes from the porch, and then went back to the door. “Deacon,” he called outside. “Deacon? Would you come in here?”

A couple of minutes later, Deacon rolled through the door, still wearing the Santa accessories from the night before. He stopped just inside the room, and waited for instructions.

“Deacon, Isaac and Jacob request the pleasure of your company for our Christmas Morning celebration. Would you care to join us?”

Deacon processed the question, then gave his single nod. He moved to a position out of the way, and settled into his quiet waiting mode.

“Now,” Pa said. “Since you boys seem to know something about these mystery gifts, why don’t you go ahead and open them, and then you can enlighten your mother and me.”

Isaac opened his, and unwrapped the paper from around the miniature Automaton toy. He turned the key on the back, and then set it on the wooden floor. The tiny Airship Mechanic Automaton moved about the floor, its arms swinging a tiny wrench in one hand, and an oil can in the other.

“Well, I’ll be,” Pa said.

Jacob likewise wound his, and released it to run about the floor.

“I take it that Deacon had something to do with these,” Pa said.

“Yes, sir,” Isaac said. “Deacon, and Syl, the man with the wooden leg. Syl gathered all the metal, and Deacon made them. There’s one for every boy an’ girl in town.”

“And just how long have you two known about this?”

“Since last night, Pa. We went to see if Deacon was in the shed, and he was workin’ on the last ones. We helped Syl with wrappin’ ‘em, and he asked us to not tell anyone. Well, he did say we could tell you and Ma, but he asked we not do so ‘till this mornin’.”

The Reverend looked towards the Automaton. “I assume you have been working on this for a while, Deacon?”

Deacon nodded.

“Deacon delivered all of ‘em last night, just like he delivered ours,” Jacob said. “He went around, just like Santa Claus.”

“Do you boys know why Mr. MacKenzie and Deacon did this?”

“Syl said he thought every child should receive a toy for Christmas, and he said that Deacon had been so helpful when he was learnin’ to walk again, that he thought everyone should have a Deacon,” Isaac said.

“I see,” Pa finally said. “Well, I suppose that I’ll need to speak with Mr. MacKenzie myself later today, and hear what he has to say for himself on this.”

“You ain’t mad at him, are you, Pa?”

“Isaac,” Ma said.

“You aren’t mad at him, are you, Pa?”

Pa smiled. “Do you think I should be, Isaac?”

“No, sir. I think what he did was a good thing.”

He tousled the boy’s hair, earning him a disapproving look from his wife. “I am inclined to agree. I just want to hear the story behind this directly from him.” He cut his eyes at the Automaton. “I’ll certainly not get it from Deacon, that’s for sure.” He picked up one of the toys from the floor, and looked it over carefully. “At the moment, I rather wish I were a child in this town, so that I were getting one of these, too.”

“You got the real Deacon,” Jacob said.

“I sometimes wonder, if we really have Deacon, or whether he simply stays around because it suits him,” Pa said. “Now, I believe the real Santa Claus left something for each of you under the tree, and I am just dying of curiosity to see what you might have received.”

The boys turned back towards the tree, just as Deacon rolled up to Pa. He held out one of his mechanical hands to the Reverend, palm down and fingers closed. Pa held one hand, palm up and open below the mechanical hand, and Deacon opened his fingers.

Something small, shiny, and copper dropped into the waiting hand, and Pa brought it close to his face.

“What is it, Pa?” Isaac asked.

Pa lowered it so the boys could see.

“I didn’t see any like that last night,” Jacob said.

Isaac could not remember a time when his father had been at a loss for words, and even years later, he would remember this as one of the few times it ever happened. Pa would later tell him that it hadn’t been the little model of Deacon that had left him so awed that he couldn’t speak.

It had been the tiny Bible held in Deacon’s hands.