Fluttering pressure, gentle movement,
slowly bulging bellies all send impulses of joy to some women. Their slightly
pudgy faces glow with brilliant radiance. Gingerly the new mothers’ hands
unintentionally travel to touch the safe cocoons that the growing life calls
home. A rush of unvanquishable sensation of the need to protect drifts through
these carriers of life.
A teen walks out the glistening glass
doors with her decision made. She pushes all the doubts out of her mind,
convincing herself what’s inside isn’t a life. Not being able to see the
microscopic maturing baby insider her, she allows her selfish desires to
outweigh her inclination towards preserving humankind. The evil has infected
her heart but many more persuade her she isn’t committing a hideous crime.
Oh Lord, forgive us! You made women to
carry Your precious creations but we still find ways to spit in Your face. We
conclude we know better than You because of the hardships we are allowed to
endure and we just don’t seem to care how our hateful actions chafe Your heart.
Why do we always want to claim Your
right, take Your role?! Why can’t we let go of our ambitions and let Your
perfect plan lead us?!
Lord, please forgive these floundering
people. Please forgive us for our selfishness that leads us to destruction.
Crying, distressed faces flash across the television. Traces
of pure agony lace every heart-wrenching word spewing from their dry, ash-caked
lips. They count their accumulating losses and tally them up among their
families.
Shuffling in line, they beg for their necessities because
they’ve lost it all. They try to contemplate the bright side of their horrid
situation by rejoicing for their loved ones surrounding them because they no
longer want to think of what’s been burned.
Drought rages the land, fueling the thirsty fire. Consuming
all of many people’s earthly possessions, the blaze leaves most without hope.
As a backdrop to my everyday life, the billowing smoke
stains a far-away part of the sky. Small worries crawl across my mind in wonder
if the expansion of the devouring flames will reach me, but I quickly silence
those selfish thoughts and remember those who have nothing to call home.
Humbled by this disaster, I pray for those who have lost so
much and for an end to this senseless destruction.
Conspiring brainstorming flowed
around her as her mind drifted to another time. Melancholy feelings cascaded
through her in crashing waves and she desired nothing more that to turn back
the clock.
Blankly staring at the passing
scenery around her, she relived the few memories she could recall. All the
times she was ostracized for her young age and the too-few days she had
childishly played with her friends swarmed her mind.
Wishing time-travel existed, she
pitied her missed opportunities and fading memories. These emotions, so thick
she could swim in them, were her undoing and she realized they were just wounding
her.
Morning what she couldn’t change one
last time, she began tucking her thoughts away in their designated compartment
in her brain and she drifted back to the present. The conversation around her
surged in a mighty wave of words to envelope her.
Smiling to herself because of the
friendly faces nearby, she decided to enjoy the current days rather that rehash
what was out of her reach.
The fraying edges of wiry yarn frizz
in the damp air as the faded blue threads continue to unravel. Collecting
particles of nearby dust, each separate strand hanging limp from the torn edges
proceed to ripen and emit a rancid perfume. Further towards the center, puslike
mold grows on a long-forgotten stain as the sprouting white hairs peek through
the oozing fungus in the search for fresh air. Underneath, withering threads
slowly decay to nonexistence and the worn surrounding strings disintegrate into
a pale blue powder. Housing tiny insects, the piles of blue soot gather
droppings and begin to smell like rotten eggs. Altogether, the diminishing blue
forgotten treasure remains for the sole purpose to gradually dwindle away.
I can feel their penetrating stares, daring me to fall.
Their glares jealously beg me to misstep on my stilt-like heels to fall flat on
my face. They intentionally watch for the one wobble in my ankles to be able to
condemn me as imperfect.
Every step I take in the crowded,
suffocating halls, I feel the pin-pricks of the flying swords being projected
from their eyes. Tingling pressure encases me as I futilely try to brush off
their fierce looks.
Stumbling from focusing so hard on not
trying to trip, I see the slight smiles brighten their hateful faces and I have
to remind myself to recover. Deep breath and I lift my head high to display to
them that they can’t have the power over me any longer.
Their bitter stares go unnoticed by
me, for I have begun to ignore their judgments. With a smile gracefully
embracing my face, I strut the halls with unburdened poise to make them gape.
She froze, mid-step, at the sight of
the muscular black bear and his yellowed set of jagged teeth that glistened in
the fading sunlight. Eyes widening, a string of incoherent thoughts buzzed in
her mind. Droplets of sweat leaked from her pores as the sunlight, peeking
through the branches of the imposing trees near by, continued to raise her body
temperature. Spasms of shaking began to course through her body and she stood
paralyzed by the bear’s gaze.
As is in slow motion, the bear trekked towards her. She
felt her eyelids slide closed to block out the image of the approaching animal.
With tears flooding her eyes, she caught a whiff of the bear’s rancid breath
and strings of tingling pain ran along her ridged spine at his throaty growl.
Wanting this nightmare to end, she allowed the blissful blackness to take hold
of her.
Dressed in a crisp expensive-looking
suit and dark opaque sunglasses, Carmen finally glimpsed the man on the other
end of the phone. Tightly cropped, almost jet-black, hair covered his head in a
sophisticated style that reflected his illegally gotten wealth. As he removed
his sunglasses from his face, Carmen regarded his eyes that were a piercing
blue shade which commanded attention with a single glance. Between his slightly
too close eyes protruded a long slender nose to contrast against his clean
shaven face. A diamond and gold encrusted watch embraced his wrist, peeking
from under the long sleeve of his suit jacket. Overall tall and lean, he
stepped up to the door of the house where Carmen was patiently waiting.
“Let’s get this over with.” He
grumbled.
Leading him to the safe, Carmen
thought back to the warning in her father’s letter: Make sure you never input the wrong code into the safe. If you ever
accidentally do, the room will automatically lock you in and start extracting
the oxygen from the air. To stop this process, there is an override switch
under the panel with the numerical dial, which requires your finger print…
“Show me the detonators.” Carmen
commanded.
Unenthusiastically, he pulled them
out of his pin-stripped suit’s pocket. “Smash them.” Carmen coerced forcefully.
Hearing the glorious crunch under his feet, relief rushed through her. Grieving
her decision one last time, Carmen sluggishly spun to face the safe. She raised
her hand and started to turn the dial: 22-76-36-56-84
Immediately, the door slammed shut
startling the pair now trapped. A high pitched whistle resounded throughout the
small space. Dismayed, Carmen’s enemy accused, “What did you do?!”
“I must have inputted the code
wrong.” She innocently spit out.
“You idiot! You’re going to kill
us!” He panicked.
“Yes, I know. There is no way I am letting you get your filthy hands on
those blueprints!” Carmen vehemently retorted.
Shock at being bested froze him as
the color drained from his face.
Moments past and Carmen started gasping
for breath, feeling her lungs close up. Black spots dotted her vision and
everything blurred. Sliding down the wall, she closed her eyes and felt herself
drifting from conscientiousness. She gulped for one last breath before the
darkness consumed her.
Walking out of her father’s office,
Carmen went to hug Maryellen one last time and Carmen thanked her once again
for all her love and help throughout the years. “Good-bye, Maryellen.” Carmen
somberly whispered. Before Maryellen could say anything, Carmen instructed her,
“Go watch the news to make sure nothing tragic happens at the parade.”
Maryellen hesitated, opening her mouth to inquire Carmen’s reasons but instead
she just did as instructed.
After Maryellen had left, Carmen
made her way back into the secret room to lock away the blueprints. Walking to
the parlor in the front of her father’s house, she remembered one last thing
from her childhood…
Young Carmen cuddled in her father’s
arms, feeling safe and protected. Her father leaned down to whisper in her ear,
“I love you, Carmen. I’m so proud of you.”
A tear slipped down Carmen’s face as
she regretted all the times she had hated her father. For the first time in
years, she understood her father wasn’t as wretched as she had been convincing
herself.
Resolved in her decision to continue
with her plan, Carmen waited for the psycho to pull up to her father’s house.
Look
for the thermostat. It will be behind my desk. Carmen remembered from her
father’s letter. When you find it, input
your birthday.
Following her father’s instructions, Carmen raised a
shaking hand to the thermostat keypad. Hesitating, she glanced at Maryellen,
who nodded, prompting Carmen to continue. As Carmen continued to look at
Maryellen, she realized just how much she risked Maryellen’s life by being
around her. “Maryellen.” Carmen started but paused, not wanting to make
Maryellen or her support leave. “I’m sorry, but I really need to do this
alone.”
Carmen saw the flash of disappointment spread across
Maryellen’s eyes before she masked it with compassion. “I understand honey,”
Maryellen said as she left the room.
Turning back to the thermostat, Carmen inputted the
numbers of her birthday. The LED screen flashed green as the thermostat split
open. A biometric scanner smoothly slid from the hole in the wall and Carmen
tentatively placed her hand on it. As the scanner confirmed her finger prints,
she thought back to her father’s instructions. After you have scanned your hand, the bookcases should divide to reveal
a hidden room.
After the room opened up for her, Carmen glanced around
the space she never had known existed. Towards the back of the room, she saw
the safe. Entering the room, she scanned the area only to see three empty
walls.
The code to the safe will be
harder to find. I have left you clues to find it, starting with the Qianlong
Vase. Carmen
stepped up to the safe and hesitated one last time. Looking at the safe, she
was disappointed to only see a number dial. Feeling as if she had missed
something, she continued to stare at the safe. Thinking back to the last clue
her father had left, ‘Carmenlove,’ she pondered what to do.
Finally figuring out the next step, Carmen pulled out her
phone and used the keypad to find the numbers associated with each letter.
Hoping she was right, she turned the dial: 22-76-36-56-83
When the safe’s lock clicked open, Carmen released the
breath she hadn’t known she was holding and she slowly eased the thick metal
safe door ajar, just enough so she could peer inside. She gently pulled out the
manila fold that was on top of a stack of items. Curious, she opened it and
pulled out sheets of blue paper. On closer inspection, she discerned they were
instructions to build nuclear missiles.
Shaking, Carmen picked up her phone and called The Voice
before she ran out of time. After one short ring, The Voice answered, “It’s
about time you got into that safe.” He grumbled.
“W-what is it you want out of it” Carmen hopped he
desired anything but the envelope in her hands.
“Your father stole a folder of blueprints from me. I want
them back.” The Voice demanded.
Crumpling to her knees, Carmen dropped the blueprints and
used the last little bit of her strength not to cry out. Felling guilty for
helping this psychotic man, she tried to form a plan to stop him. I can’t give him these blueprints. So many
people will be murdered if I do but if I don’t, I risk innocent lives at the
parade.
Abruptly, a plan formed in Carmen’s mind, giving her
courage and purpose. “If you want these blueprints, you are going to come here
for a trade. I will give you what you want and you will destroy the detonators
to the bomb on my wrist and the one at the parade. If you try to double-cross
me by setting off the explosives on my arm, you will end up destroying these
precious blueprints along with me. Also, if you kill anyone at the parade, I
will burn the blueprints before you could ever get your grimy hands on them.”
Carmen demanded.
“Fine, you little brat.” Fury flooded his words.
“Good. I will see you in ten minutes. Don’t be late or
you can wish these blueprints good-bye.” Carmen felt a rush of pleasure at
finally having control of the whole situation.
Arriving at her apartment building,
Carmen sprinted up the wooden stairs to reach her home. With hands shaking from adrenaline, she
managed to slide her key into the lock and turn it. Opening the door, she
rushed to her trash can and rummaged through it to find her father’s last
words, which she had discarded in disgust after receiving them.
Uncovering the letter, Carmen took it out and brushed it
off. Uncrumpling the paper, she read it
for the first time.
Dear Carmen,
Honey,
I know you are ashamed of my nefarious activities, as you have often called
them, but I want you to know that I have always loved you. My life of crime was
not always what it seemed to be. Regrettably, my crimes, rather than a
wholesome job, put our food on the table, but I didn’t always steal for
financial gain. Some items I have taken were to protect the innocent. I stole
from those who didn’t regret harming others. These types of items are locked
away in a secret safe I my office. With my passing, I entrust you with the sole
access to this safe. Under no circumstances should the contents of this safe
fall into the wrong hands. I am depending on you to keep them secure.
Wonder and shock swam through
Carmen’s thoughts as she skimmed the rest of the letter while memorizing his
instruction. Her eyes reached the end of the crinkled page. Not believing what
she saw, she reread the last lines of the letter, wanting more to have been
written.
I can never express just how sorry I am to have
caused you to hate me so much, but throughout it all, know that I did
everything for you and your mother. I love you always.
For the last time,
Your Father
Refolding the letter, Carmen tried
to calm her mixed emotions. More questions rather than answers arose in her
mind at the conclusion of her father’s words.
Setting the letter on the floor,
Carmen rose to her feet and made her way to the car in a daze. Slipping into
the leather interior, she silently watched the landscape fade around the
speeding car.
Arriving at her father’s house, she
cautiously took a step out of the car, feeling unsteady. Remembering she was on
a time schedule, she glanced down and saw she had twenty minutes left.
A sense of foreboding set in as
Carmen shuffled to the front door, desiring to be anywhere else. She knocked
and wanted to melt under the pressure from the memories assaulting her mind at
revisiting her childhood home after seven years.
The door opened to reveal the
housekeeper, whose shocked expression prompted Carmen to speak, “Umm. Hi,
Maryellen. I need to get something from my father’s office.”
As Maryellen stood in astonishment
for a few more moments, Carmen took that time to examine the changes to
Maryellen that had befallen her over the past seven years. She noticed
Maryellen’s shortly cropped hair had completely whitened and the wrinkles, from
a hard life, had deepened. Even with
Maryellen’s obvious signs of aging, there was also a spark of fire behind her
eyes that bespoke of an unending flow of energy and vigor.
Maryellen hastily shook her head to
dislodge her surprise. A pleasant smile bloomed upon her weathered face and she
exclaimed, “Carmen, I never thought I would see your beautiful face again! It’s
a great pleasure to see you again! Come right in.”
Feeling comforted by Maryellen’s
kind words, the stress Carmen had experience over the course of the past few hours
overflowed and her last bit of strength fled. Not being able to hold her tears
back any longer, Carmen sobbed. Maryellen gently wrapped Carmen in her arms as
she revealed her whole ordeal in a torrent of words.
Minutes later, Carmen began to
collect herself and she pushed out of Maryellen’s arms, only to immediately
miss their soothing comfort. Remembering how Maryellen had been like a second
mother to Carmen, she gratefully thanked Maryellen and wiped away the
tearstains drenching her face.
Unexpectedly, Maryellen grabbed hold
of Carmen’s hand and dragged her to her father’s office. “Hurry child. Open the
safe.” Maryellen prompted.
Picking up the phone, Carmen’s
fingers flew over the buttons as her time limit ticked down to the last
seconds.
3…
Pick up!
2…
Come on, pick up the phone!
1…
“You’re cutting it close this time.” The voice angrily
stated.
“I’m touched you seem to care.” Carmen sarcastically
commented as triumph seeped into her voice at her next statement, “I know what
the message is.”
“Well. What is
it?” Impatience and irritation mingled together in his question.
“It says, ‘Where the quince blossoms are loved.’” Carmen
proudly stated.
“What is that supposed to mean?” A short string of cuss
words flowed from the other end of the phone-line, stinging Carmen’s ears.
“Calm down. I know exactly what it means.”
“Well…?” Hearing his tone, Carmen realized she should
stop being cryptic and give him what he wanted.
“My mother loved quince blossoms and her grave is
surrounded by their blooms.” A prick of sadness stabbed Carmen. Her mother had
died nine years ago but the pain and longing never seemed to abate.
“Go there and find the next clue. You have thirty
minutes.” Thirty minutes? The cemetery is
over an hour away!
Carmen began to protest but the call had already ended.
“Go to the OakHillCemetery.
Fast!” She commanded and felt the car rapidly accelerate.
As the scenery around her blurred by, Carmen futilely
tried to get a grasp on her overpowering emotions. A wave of longing for her
mother washed over her as she tried to keep her unshed tears from falling. I miss her so much.
Twenty-four minutes later, Carmen pushed aside her sorrowful
thoughts of her mother and prepared herself for the task ahead. As the car
started to slow, she jumped out of it, slightly dizzy from the swift speed, and
raced to her mother’s grave. Slipping in the mud, wet from a recent rain, she
managed to climb to her destination with two minutes to spare.
Carmen’s eyes glazed over the gravestone until they were
caught on a small inscription she had never seen before. Normally below the ground-level, the etching
held her attention and she crouched closer. Running her fingers over the word,
‘carmenlove,’ she took a moment to contemplate why her father carved this word into the stone.
Realizing this was the next clue she needed, Carmen
picked up the phone and waited for the voice she despised to answer.
“What did you find?” The voice demanded.
“Just one word, ‘carmenlove.’” Wonder filled her voice.
“Good. That must be the code.” The voice mumbled almost
cryptically. “Your next task is to go to your father’s house. In his office, he
has a safe. You need to get something from within it. I am sure you know how to
open it.” The voice sneered.
“What?! This is the first time I have heard of that! How
could I kn…” Carmen’s words died on her lips.
“Yes, I believe you do know how to open it.” The voice
snickered. The call ended but Carmen hadn’t noticed because she was engrossed
in her thoughts. The letter…
Carmen rushed back to the waiting car and ordered, “Go to
my apartment. I need to pick up something.”
Carmen glanced down at her wrist the
instant her time constraint reset to ten minutes. Great,
Carmen sarcastically thought to herself, he’s
giving me all the time in the world, isn’t he?
Pushing her frustration aside, she
began to flip the vase around, examining every inch to find her father’s
etching.
Moments later, Carmen finally
spotted the small words at the bottom rim of the vase. She read:
“xizzg uif ywjogm
dmpwaqnt ezg mpzmf.”
Excited about her find, Carmen
reached for the phone to call the menace giving her orders. Realizing she was about to further help some
psycho in his crazy scheme, she hesitated. Knowing she couldn’t waste more
time, she redialed and called.
“I found it.” Carmen informed the
voice when he picked up.
“Good, good.” The voice paused while
the pleasure of getting one step closer to his goal washed over him. “What does it say?”
“It is unintelligible words,
probably a code of some sort.” Carmen guessed.
“Figure out what it really
says. I am giving you fifteen more
minutes.” The line went dead and Carmen momentarily contemplated the brevity of
the call this time.
Before she could dwell on it longer,
Carmen started her task. Brainstorming
on the type of code used, Carmen tried to remember her dad’s favorite method to
encode messages…
“Carmen, for this cipher, you will
first need a date.” Her father instructed.
“Umm. What about my birthday?” Young Carmen’s
excitement flowed through her words.
“Okay, that is 11-4-82. What you have to do is write your message
out.” Her father wrote ‘I love you’ on a piece of paper. “Next, write the
numbers under it; one number for each letter.
When you are done with that you shift the letters in your message to the
right in the alphabet according to the number below it.” At Carmen’s confusion,
her father explained further. “For example, the ‘i’ has a one under it, so it
will be shifted to ‘j.’ Do you get it?”
“I think so.” Carmen’s voice didn’t
hold much confidence.
Focusing back on the present, Carmen
remembered how to reveal her father’s message.
Looking at the time she had left, she realized she only had 13 short
minutes left.
Carmen pondered what date her father
would have chosen. She tried her mother’s birthday and then her father’s
birthday. When neither date worked, she
tried their anniversary.
With five minutes left and still no
luck at exposing the message, Carmen began to panic. Worried thoughts swarmed her mind. What if
I can’t get this? What other date could I use? For all I know, it could be some
date only he would remember. Why can’t my father’s legacy stop haunting me?!
Breaking through her thoughts, the
driver gruffly commanded, “Get back to work. I would prefer not to die because
of you.” Carmen snapped out of her defeated thoughts as if the driver had
thrown a bucket of icy water over her.
Trying the last important date she
could think of, Carmen hoped her birthday was the key. Relief flooded her when she ended with an
actual phrase. As she celebrated over
her accomplishment, she read over the message and immediately knew where to go
next.
