Putting my Feet In The Dirth- July Writing Prompts# 3 Misty Moon Magic

” Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what Spring is like on
A-Jupiter and Mars “

Fern’s favorite song that Fall- and anyone within ear shot of her knew what it was because she sang it on a loop was ” Fly Me To The Moon “.

Most of the people around Fern tuned her impromptu concerts out after awhile because Fern sang a lot, but unfortunately the one person who could not do that was Grandma Beverly.

Fern’s Grandmother Beverly was on a good day not Fern’s biggest fan, but after nine year old Fern picked up that particular song and only sang those four lines and badly to boot, Beverly went from not caring for her scruffy Granddaughter much to outright hating her.

The sound of that child’s voice set Beverly’s teeth on edge now.

But to be honest everything about Fern set Beverly’s teeth on edge- her dirt brown hair that always had a snarl in it somewhere, Fern’s dark brown eyes set in her slightly muddy complexation that she inherited from her- as Beverly would politely say, ” Asmita, my son’s exotic wife. ” and said her granddaughter wide and toothy smile reminded Beverely of a screeching monkey- which is how Beverly actually referred to Fern every single chance she had.

” You’re such a happy screeching little monkey, ” Beverly would say with forced jocularity. ” Aren’t you Ferny?”

” I don’t know Bevy ” Fern would answer back ” am I?”

It was around Christmas when the family got together that Beverly snapped like one of the dry bones that littered her Son’s front yard- along with his Screeching Monkey Child, Frank had a dog named Mavis that got on Beverly’s nerves only a fraction of an inch less then Fern did.

Fern was outside with Mavis when her Grandmother breezed up the front walk for Christmas dinner. She only stopped long enough to ask her Grandaughter why she didn’t clean up after the dog every once and awhile.

The yard was littered with bones and dog toys.

” I did. I always clean up after Mavis. But she likes old bones. I’ll bet that’s why she likes you”

Mavis jumped up a little and wagged her tail like crazy.

” Well. You’re not doing a very good job of it.” Beverly said and just when she thought she had her temper in check she opened her mouth and said ” Good for nothing little Screeching Monkey.”

Fern watched her Grandmother gather herself up and arrange a smile on her face and then she watched her climb the steps to the front door, ” Ho Ho Ho! ” she sang out to Fern’s cousins were waiting at the door and who did not look like ” Good For Nothing Screeching Monkeys ” and none of them had ‘exotic Mothers “the way Fern did.

The door shut and Mavis picked up a bone and dropped it at Fern’s feet.

Fern was about to bust into her most favorite song in the entire world when decided to sing a new song her Mom had just taught her instead.

Mavis picked the bone back up and Fern lifted her face to the sky and just a full moon burst out from behind a cloud and she said, ‘ I’ll get you some good crunchy bones in a sec Mavy. I’m going to get you a bunch of crunchy bones”

Then Fern, who was not a screeching monkey and to be fair to Beverly she wasn’t even a human child all of the time and Fern’s mother was exotic but not in the bigoted narrow minded way Beverly thought- lifted her chin up and sang

Ooh, ooh, ooh
What a little moonlight can do
Wait a while
‘Til a little moonbeam comes peepin’ through

Mavis lifted her chin up too and howled along with Fern, she happily wagged tail in time to Fran’s singing and thought about Crunchy Bones in the way that dogs do.

After Fern’s tail sprouted and her claws and teeth popped through she started to wag her tail too.

I wrote this back in 2006, but it’s probably the best Rearview Mirror story I can tell, so I’m posting it here for today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt: Rearview Mirror.

From Halloween 2006

Written at The Soul Food Cafe

Have you ever been on a road trip, and ended up driving down those dirt roads that lead into the dead empty towns with boarded up fast food places with names like “ Chicken Basket “ or “ Hank’s Hamburger Haven “ and have you noticed  there’s always a gas station with those funny tin signs advertising a brand of cigarettes or beer that no one’s seen on a shelf in over 50 years?

No doubt on these trips you’ve seen the houses too, the odd gray houses sitting up off the road.

You’ve probably even seen curtains hanging in the windows and you weren’t  sure but you think you may have seen someone looking back out at you as you drove by.  Maybe you’ve even seen one of those old time drug stores with the Soda Fountain in the back but you know, you wouldn’t stop there on a bet to check it out because you’ll tell yourself you don’t have the time…you’ve got somewhere to get to.

There, you’ll reassure yourself that sounds good. But that little voice, it’s  the real reason you don’t stop because it’s screaming at you, “ don’t you dare stop! Hey are you listening to me? I don’t care if you run out of gas! You will not stop in this town because if you do you’re going to have to get out and push. Don’t you even think about stopping here, is that clear?”

Then when you hit the other end of “ Main Street” (which will only take about three minutes) and you’re back on that long empty dirt road that some joker of a map maker called “ interstate 101 or Highway 19” you’ll have forgotten you were afraid. 

After a few more minutes that empty little town that scared you half to death will be long behind you and it’ll be like you were never there at all. 

That’s what the town of Bocksbohne is like; once you leave it you’ll never be sure you were really there.

One summer Audley Frame was driving to Seattle and somewhere along Amorita Pass high in the Olympic Mountains she passed through a town called Turnsole (clearly marked on her map) and after a few miles she was on a dirt highway that lead straight into Bocksbohne.

That’s what the white sign with the peeling black letters read. 

Welcome to Bocksbohne 

It wasn’t suppose to be there according to the map, it had no reason to be there out in the middle of nowhere but it was there all the same and before she knew it Audley Frame was speeding passed a drive in theatre with a rusted swing set and a fallen over carousel under a weather-beaten movie screen. Across the street from the drive in was Chieko’s Drugstore and further up from that was little brick building with a sign in its window.

She slammed on her brakes and was snapped back in her seat by her seatbelt and she hardly noticed the pain because all she saw was the sign. It was a simple sign, the background was flat black and the letters were neon orange and the sign simply said: 

Help Wanted. 

The window was caked with dust and grime and right there in the center of the window screaming in brand new orange neon letters was the word: 

HELP. 

Not HELP WANTED

Now it just said  HELP.

Audley’ s foot came off the brake and she let her car roll forward and she turned to watch the window as her car tried to pull itself away from building.

Now the sign read   “ HELP WANTED INQUIRE WITHIN “.

The letters were blood red and the ink was so fresh it had smudged a little on the filthy glass window.

“ Red Ink” she heard herself say, “ it’s red ink.”

Then her foot found the gas pedal and Audley’ s car roared passed buildings and houses with broken windows and doors that were falling off of their hinges. She ignored the rusty children’s toys abandoned on the sidewalks and she hit a few curbs and before she knew it she was out the other end of Bocksbohne and when she looked into her rearview mirror she saw her dark brown was not shot with gray.

She put her hand to the mirror and turned it down, she had no intentions of using it until Bocksbohne was behind her. 

Far behind her.