Visions
A Short Story
By
Marvlous Harrison
Copyright 2008 by Marvlous Harrison
Visions
“Earth Quuaaake!!!!!” A young white lady screamed as the building shook violently around her.
“Everybody…outta the building…now!” a stocky black man in his mid-forties commanded everyone as he stood by the emergency exit of the municipal building directing everyone out. He was the fire & safety director. His job was, in the event of an emergency, to get everyone safely out of the of the building; even if it mean risking his own life. He took his job seriously.
The earth shook continuously for six minutes, shifting building’s foundations, shattering facades, cracking the ground and uprooting trees. It even toppled over most of the headstones in the nearby cemetery. The religious people took this as an omen. In the end the Earthquake covered a ten mile radius and registered a 7.1on the Richter scale, which was virtually unheard of for Tallahassee Florida. It took eight lives, caused countless injuries, and hundreds of millions in property damage. $239,000,000 to be precise. The good thing was, it was all a terrible nightmare girl was having. Or so she thought.
The nightmare was so vivid and detailed Virginia Walden woke up drenched in sweat, panting from fear. She could still smell the dirt and hear the screams of the women and children. She tried to compose herself as she looked around the room searching desperately for confirmation that her nightmare was over. Her eyes settled on her twin sister who was sleeping soundly in her bed a few feet away. Virginia quietly got up from her bed, tiptoed across the bedroom to her dresser, and eased a fresh nightgown out of the draw. She stepped out of the damp one letting it crumple to the floor and as she pulled the dry one over her head her sister asked, “You had another dream didn’t you?” scaring her half to death.
Virginia caught her breath and replied, “Yeah.”
“You gonna tell daddy?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You better not. He gonna think you crazy and have you put in the hospital.”
“So what I suppose to do then, keep it a secret?” Virginia asked annoyed
“You better if you know what’s good for you,” Ryn said smartly. Virginia hated it when Ryn spoke to her in a condescending way. Virginia hated it even more when Ryn was right. As she got in the bed Ryn said, “Tell me about it.”
“For what, so you can crack jokes?” Virginia replied.
“Because I care,” Ryn answered in a soft voice. When Virginia didn’t say anything Ryn, said, “Please,” as she reached out and touched her arm.
“Get off me,” Virginia said snatching away from her touch. She then got in her bed and pulled the covers up to her neck and waited patiently until sleep crept up on her again. It took twenty minutes.
The next morning the twins sat at the family table in silence as their father prepared breakfast. He was a single parent raising two adolescent girls so he made it a priority to cook breakfast for them every morning before school. The girls cooked dinner.
“One of y’all wanna tell me what’s goin on?” he asked with his back to them as he finished scrambling their eggs.
“Nothing’s going on daddy,” Virginia answered quickly.
“Nothing my behind. It’s so quiet in here I can hear the crickets outside.”
“Crickets? We live in the projects on the 6th floor,” Ryn said smartly. Their father was from Greensboro, North Carolina. He moved to New York when he was nineteen, shortly before he let their mother.
“Ryn, don’t be smart,” he said as he finished the eggs and cut the stove off. He didn’t need to look at them to know who opened their mouth. Ryn was the more vocal of the two.
“But daddy, I’m saying…,” Ryn began as he turned around with the hot skillet and eggs.
The look on his face told her he wasn’t up for her wise cracks this morning. He didn’t believe in spanking his girls but they knew not to try him. “Forget it,” she said reluctantly.
“Good…now eat your breakfast before you be late for school,” he told them as he scraped the eggs on their plates.
After a minute or so Virginia asked him, “You not eating breakfast daddy?”
“I already ate baby girl,” he said with a smile as he sat across from them. He was haunted by the thought something was bothering Virginia. He couldn’t put his finger on it but he knew if he gave her time she’d come around to telling him.
Robert Walden was a proud black man. He devoted all his time to work and his girls. He worked the day shift at a mental health residence as a case manager often pulling doubles for extra money. Physically, he was a giant. He stood 6’5, 240lbs, and was in perfect condition. Chasing the twins around kept him in shape. Inside, he was kind and gentle with a smile that would light up a room and with a personality people automatically gravitated to. The twins’ mother was just the opposite. Physically, she was only 5’1, 105lbs, with light brown skin and green eyes. She was a beautiful person inside and out, but often secluded herself due to her shyness. The two met while working the same shift in a psychiatric ward. She was interning to become a psychiatrist and he was working as an orderly to pay his way through school to become a case manager. He was pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree. It was love at first sight. They courted each other for several months before becoming serious. Three years later they were engaged and she was pregnant. The wedding was planned for three month after the twins were born.
The twins were a spitting image of their mother. They had her small frame, her beautiful smile, her sparkling emerald green eyes, and her lovely personality. But since Robert was a dark cocoa complexion they shared a mixture of both their skin tones. They were identical expect for one thing, Ryn wore her hair long and Virginia wore her hair short. Since there weren’t any other females to help him groom them, Robert kept their hair styled short since he didn’t know how to braid. As they got older Virginia, being her usual passive self, kept her hair in the style her father chosen for her. Ryn saw it as an opportunity to express her independence, she let hers grow.
As they sat in the kitchen eating breakfast they watched Good Morning America on a small 13 inch television. This was also a morning routine for Robert and his daughters. “Today in Tallahassee, Florida Mother Nature proved just how unpredictable she could be,” the news reported announced as images of a destroyed city flashed across the screen. “For the first time in recorded history an earthquake shook the sunny city in the south brining death, destruction, and mayhem to a state that’s normally accustom to bright skies and packed beaches.” Ryn’s mouth hung open, shocked at what she was hearing. Virginia, on the other hand, continued eating her scrambled eggs with cheese as if she never heard the television.
The twins left for school thirty minutes later. Robert usually drove them but on this early fall morning the twins were stuck taking mass transit.
“Ginia, you have to tell daddy,” Ryn told Virginia as they walked from the rear of 207 Alexander Avenue, heading for the 5 train.
“I’m not telling him nothing,” Virginia said adamantly. “Besides, you the one who told me not to tell him…remember?”
“This different…people died!” Ryn knew how her father would react if Virginia told him about her dream but things were different now.
“So what, he not putting me in no hospital with crazy people.”
“But Ginia…,”
“No Ryn…and I mean it!” Virginia said sternly. “You saw what happened last time I said something.”
“We was only seven then…we was little. I wouldn’t had believed us either,”
“So you tell him then,” Virginia told her stopping in the middle of a parking lot they were cutting through on their way to the subway station on 138th stree
t and the Grand Concourse.
“Tell him what?” Ryn asked with an innocent look.
“Just like I thought. You’ll leave me standing there looking crazy, just like before,” Virginia told her before she began walking again.