Authors: June Ahern
“
Oh hen, I’ve missed you so much,” he said huskily. He leaned down and kissed her bare shoulders. “It’s been so hard not having you with me.” He slid back the blankets to lie next to her.
She could feel his warm breath on her neck. Her first reaction was to shove him aw
ay. Then she sighed, thinking, he needs comforting, too. She turned to face him, tears wetting her face.
* * * * *
T
HE SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP
THE DELICATE BRASS BELLS hanging from Mrs. G’s back door banged chaotically when June burst through it. Like a whirlwind, the girl ran through the kitchen and into the flat in search of her friend. Cathy tried unsuccessfully to hold her back by grabbing her daughter’s oversized sweater.
Smoke from frankincense swirled around the living room as Mrs. G awoke, stretching from her position under a handmade afghan on the sofa. As she opened her eyes, she spied the mischievous grin on June
’s face as she pulled the crimson silk scarf and tarot cards from under a sleeve stretched down over her hand. Knowingly, Mrs. G smiled, moving her creaking body as she put out her hand.
Cathy entered the room wearing a pretty, light-colored suit with matching hat.
“Good morning, Mrs. G,” she called out in a singsong voice.
“
Ah, you look so pretty. Just like this sunny spring day,” Mrs. G said sincerely, noting the pink coloring that had returned to Cathy’s cheeks.
The two women watched the little girl dance around the room. Cathy shook her head, always astonished at the energy of her youngest.
“Sure it won’t be too much for you to watch her?” she asked apologetically.
Mrs. G laughed,
“Trouble? June?”
Cathy looked at her watch.
“I better hurry. I don’t want to be late and keep Jimmy waiting. He’s so tense these days with working two shifts. He’s found the perfect house for us. I can’t wait to see it.”
“
No problem,” said Mrs. G.
Appreciatively, Cathy put her hand on the old woman
’s shoulder. “Thank you so much. And please, would you no say a wee prayer for us that we get it?”
Mrs. G spread the tarot cards on top of a low brass table. Her arthritic fingers glided over them before pulling one out.
“You have house before summer. I know.”
“
That’s smashing news!” Cathy beamed.
Mrs. G ga
ve a delighted chuckle followed by a rough cough. Spitting phlegm into a large hankie, she calmed her breathing and waved Cathy away. “Go. Hurry. I visit with my little friend. We have fun. You be happy now!”
Cathy felt a rush of sadness noticing how frail Mrs. G was looking lately.
Impulsively, she gave her friend a quick hug. To June she said, “Be a good girl and don’t bother Mrs. G with your wild stories.” Leaning in closer, she added “Remember, we won’t tell Daddy about the cards, okay?”
June knew there would be a lot of trouble if her daddy found out about the cards.
Annie had warned her many times. She put a finger against her tightly closed lips.
As soon as the tinkling bells announced her mother
’s departure, June scampered across to Mrs. G to sit snugly next to her. Mrs. G picked up the cards, shuffled them three times and once again fanned them out across the table. June gingerly touched a few. She took a deep breath and became calm.
“
You like, but Daddy no like,” Mrs. G said. June’s round eyes looked up at Mrs. G seriously, nodding in agreement.
“
I know. My husband, he not like the cards either. Ahh, men! So afraid of women’s magic.” The old lady laughed heartily. “Oh well,” she said, tilting her head at June. “You, my little friend, you see much, eh? You are like me,
profetka
.”
The first time June heard the Polish w
ord, she liked the sound of it. When Mrs. G explained it meant “a visionary,” she felt good someone believed in her special ability. In time she became used to her friend saying Polish words. Without knowing why, she always seemed to understand what they meant. To June it was as though they had a secret language between them.
“
Come, I show you how to see more,” Mrs. G said as she lit a white candle. “Look at the flame.”
The two sat quietly gazing at the flame, hand in hand. The wise old teacher taught her young student how to conjure up an image while keeping her eyes on the flame.
“Let the pictures come to you,” she instructed. After a few minutes she asked June to tell her what she saw.
June began to see images take shape. Dreamily, she mumbled a few words about her Mommy and Daddy going up a very big hill. When ano
ther picture formed in her mind––a large white house with a dark trim––she said excitedly, “We have a big house! That’s our new home, huh?”
The two seers looked knowingly at each other with wide-eyes. June knew Mrs. G had the same vision.
The amber beads of Mrs. G’s earrings jangled when she nodded her head with approval. “Good. You learning.” She cleared the vision away with a swoop of her hand over the flame.
“
I saw my angel again,” June said.
With a penetrating gaze, Mrs. G touched the girl
’s vibrant hair. “Your angel have hair like you. Yes?”
June nodded in agreement.
“She wants your mother to see her, too,” said Mrs. G.
“
Mommy says she’s only my imagination. I’m not to talk about her anymore because Daddy will smack my bum if I tell any more stories.”
June confided in Mrs. G about how angry her mother would get over her stories, especially the one about making daisy chains with her angel on the hill. She insisted it wasn
’t a dream, but a place she really went to be with her angel. Mrs. G explained she shouldn’t say anything at this time about her angel because her mother wasn’t ready to remember certain days gone by.
Still, Mrs. G assured June that her angel was not her imagination.
“You, she, good friends. Someday you be together. I see this. You and your angel are
duchy siostrzane
. Understand?”
Feeling a tingling throughout her body, June nodded. Once again as before, without knowing Polish, she had a good
sense of what Mrs. G had said; she and her angel were indeed spirit sisters.
“Always know this
June, you and I, friends forever. My spirit mingles with your spirit. Now we too are
duchy siostrzane.”
Her friend was so serious that June felt frightened, until the old woman smiled warmly and tenderly patted the little girl
’s cheek. Mrs. G picked up a family photo and said, “I miss my husband and sons.”
“
They miss you, too. Before we go to our new house, you can go home to them,” the little seer predicted, pointing at the photo.
Surrounded by tarot cards and swirling incense, the two sat quietly. Mrs. G took hold of her little friend
’s hand and closed her eyes, tears seeping through.
June knew she was remembering happier days before the war.
“Soon that pain there,” June said, gently placing her small hands over her old friend’s heart, “won’t hurt anymore.”
* * * * *
T
HE AMERICAN DREAM
JUNE
1, 1955
THE BLACK FORD station wagon carried the MacDonald family up the hills of Castro Street toward their new home on Liberty Street. The girls sat in the backseat chatting with excitement. They counted out loud the numbered streets they drove by, starting with Seventeenth Street. Their car, filled with moving boxes and furniture piled on top, chugged up the steep hills past Twentieth Street. The next street was where their new home would be.
The station wagon, heavy with the load, weaved a bit. Jimmy over-compensated his left turn from Castro onto Liberty Street. The girls squealed and laughed loudly as they rolled against each other in the backseat.
Jimmy straightened out the car and then a loud bump alerted the family that the boxes on top of the car were loose.
Liberty Street greeted them with a variety of colorful homes ranging in style from Victorian to Edwardian. The large two-story Victorians had ornate carving
s around the frames of their long windows. The smaller Edwardians were almost cottage-like next to the larger Victorians. Most houses had lots of colorful flowers in full summer bloom. The street was not wide and busy like Market Street. It was quiet, with only a few cars parked outside the homes. An elderly couple came out of one of the smaller houses, which had a garden of deep red, hot pink, and yellow roses.
“
Are we almost there, Daddy?” Mary called out.
Unable to contain his pride, Jimmy pointed up the street towards the sudden rise of a short steep hill.
“It’s just up that hill is our new home.”
He stopped the car and jumped out to tighten the cargo on top of the car.
The day the papers for the house were finalized Cathy had told the girls what a big blessing it was for the MacDonald family. If they had stayed in Glasgow, it was likely the family would never have been able to buy a house; certainly not one like the one they had just purchased.
At the second house from the corner of Liberty Street, two women in their early thirties moved a frayed brown couch up the stairs of a Victorian. The woman pushing the couch was short with a trim body that moved nicely beneath her jeans and striped colored shirt. Her long, thick chestnut hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. She called out directions to the other woman to maneuver the couch past a curve in the stairs.
“For God’s sake, Bernice, you’re letting it slip back on me!”
“
Okay, okay, Sadie,” said the taller woman pulling the couch.
The MacDonald family watched them. The tall woman reminded Cathy of Nurse Hamilton, the Highlander nurse who had the same wide-shouldered body. Cathy could tell from Sadie
’s dark glaring eyes that she was exasperated with their progress.
The various blue colors painted on their Victorian reminded
June of the ocean and she immediately felt akin to the two women. She wondered if these neighbors would become her friends.
Two children unloaded an old battered truck filled wit
h boxes and furniture. The girl, who was about nine-years-old, had the same spirited look as Sadie, the shorter woman, although the girl was as skinny as a rail. She had light brown hair cut short with long bangs hanging low just above her dark eyes. The boy, who looked about June’s age, had dark chestnut hair, like Sadie’s.
“
Mom! Tell Brian to help me! He’s so weak!” yelled the girl, struggling to get a small wooden table out of the truck.
“
Hold your horses, Jeannie Callaghan! I’ll be right there,” Sadie called back.
Jimmy leaned his head into the station wagon and said,
“Looks like move-in day for them, too. I’d say those women need my help.”
The girls whispered to each other, wondering what he was going to do. As he walked toward the women, Annie rolled down the window to hear what would come next.
“Just moving in, eh? Here ladies, I’ll give you a hand,” he said, pushing up his sleeves as he crossed the street. The women looked at him briefly, but kept on with their task.
“
Why don’t you call your men out and we’ll get this up in no time.” Jimmy moved up a step closer to Sadie.
Sadie burst out laughing.
“We are the men here. But, thanks anyway.” She looked over to the MacDonalds’ car and said, “Looks like you’ve got a move-in job yourselves. We’ll come over and help you when we’re done.”
“No. No. Couldn’t ask you ladies to do that,” Jimmy said, backing away from her. He quickly retreated to the car.
June had never seen the odd, perplexed look on her father
’s face before.
“Queer lot,
them,” he mumbled, looking back at Brian who shyly ducked his head away from the staring girls. “Better keep the girls away from them,” he added. “That poor wee fellow.”
June wondered why her father said that about the boy. As the car started off up Liberty Street, Brian
’s eyes locked with June’s. His face turned a crimson hue from embarrassment at seeing her looking at him, but he didn’t turn away from her. Their friendship began on that day.
The family drove up the hill and stopped in front of one of the large two-story Victorian houses near the top of the street. It was newly painted white with dark rust trim. Alongside the house
, in full bloom, were hydrangea bushes in white, pale lavender, and pink that accentuated the crisp cleanliness of the house.
The family got out of the car and stared up at it. It was a grand house.
June watched the colors around her father’s body change from a murky brown to soft green. She knew how to read his emotion from the colors. Mrs. G had taught her how to match emotions with the colors from the aura energy surrounding people. She had explained that understanding a person’s feelings would help her to know how to act toward that person. The green around her father was a good sign. It told her, her father was hopeful about their new home and not worried as indicated by the darker color.