Romancing the Afterlife

Dusk of the Living

Hundreds of years ago there existed a small tribe of aboriginals known as the Anasazis, who resided in Kayenta, Arizona, a region that no longer exists. They believed in peace and harmony with nature and all living things, and this individual culture was extremely important to them since their settlement was the last of the Anasazis. Males of their tribe provided well for their wives and children, but other than hunting for food were pacifists and abhorred violence. The few times they interacted with other tribes they always looked to make peace or trade. If one of their tribe started to act aggressive or violent, they gave him a chance to redeem himself, but if that failed they were banished. Their tribe strived to be completely free from pettiness or ego. Even in games, they chose not to be particularly competitive, because that could lead down the dark path of frustration, jealousy and bloated ego. Like most times of peace, past and future, this way of life would come to an end.

There came a day when a clan of wild aboriginals came along known as the Mohingan rebels, and they thrived on senseless violence and reckless breeding. They scorched a trail across the earth with their wild and malicious behaviour. They scorned mother earth and smoked and drank too much and were usually loud and obnoxious bullies full of arrogance. Violence was sport to them, sometimes even a contest the prizes always the acclimation of women they encountered. They never settled down. Always on the move they spread their descendants far and wide. Before colonists even stepped foot in North America, the Mohingan rebels had already established being complete and utter assholes of ignorance and intolerance.

Upon discovering the Anasazi tribe and learning of their non-aggressive ways, the Mohingan rebels thought them to be hilarious and silly tribe, especially the males. They constantly bullied the small tribe and their settlement, stealing food and women, and breaking property. The Anasazi males did little more than disagree and lecture them for their misbehavior, stifling their anger. For those that dared to actually oppose them were pushed in the mud and peed on, or were subject to many worse juvenile acts. When these things became boring to the Mohingan rebels they would simply cut off their heads instead, and even that was seen as humorous to these fiends. Once the Mohingan’s had satisfied their cravings for food and women, and had broken so much property there were was just nothing left worth breaking; they chose to stand on the outskirts of the village and just shout random insults at the wimpy Anasazis. The Anasazi women loved their husbands and supported them, but they refused to let the men act like gutless cowards any longer. They knew that inside the men were true warriors they only needed to be reminded of it, with a kick in the butt and an intimacy cut-off. The women rallied the men together and prepared them for battle during the night, sending every male from 16 to 46 (which was near the peak of the average life span at the time) to march up into the cliffs at dawn and take a stand against the Mohingans, to force them to vacate their land. For there comes a time when enough is enough, and a bully must be stood up to.

What occurred that morning in the cliffs is unknown, but great cries of agony, pain, exhaustion and death echoed down into the tribe’s village, until all went silent. Several days passed and no one returned from the cliffs. The children wept for their fathers and brothers. Eventually some of the women went to the cliffs and sought survivors, or the remains of their loved ones. The Mohingans had miraculously disbanded, but many lay dead on the ground with shock on their faces. Perhaps from having seen their own guts being ripped out by those they named weak. Scattered amongst the Mohingan bodies were the Anasazi males, in a chaotic pile of corpses making it hard to tell one tribe from the other. Because the remains were all so brutally mangled, the women were forced to burn and mourn all those that had fallen as one terrible violent tragedy. A few of the women were now carrying Mohingan bastards inside them that would now grow up without fathers, and yet be the future hope of the Anasazis. They mourned the end of their people and culture; it was one of the biggest forgotten tragedies in Aboriginal history.

Amongst the bodies were black glittering stones covered in blood. These stones their lady shaman had always declared as magical items, not to be tampered with. The women felt no caution, while ripping out these mysterious bloodied treasures that they felt their men had earned with sacrificial bravery. They brought back one hundred and nine stones to represent each Anasazi husband, partner, father, son and nephew. They presented them to their lady shaman, begging her to use the magic within. She kept the stones in her alcove and asked to be left in peace, without interruption

Whether or not the lady shaman knew what the stones could do, or how to use them is unknown. For days she shouted and prayed, called out to their gods, and burned many herbs and powders. The others in the village could only hope she would bring them some sort of miracle, while they reestablished roles within the remainder of the tribe to replace the lost men. This went on until one day a loud screech of revelation called out to everyone in the tribe. The lady shaman claimed she had found truth in the stones. Their loved ones had done more than defend them with their lives; they had protected them with their very souls. Their spirits had made the Mohingans turn tail. The lady shaman asked each Anasazi woman who longed for her partner’s return to sacrifice some of her own blood. Staining a stone one by one, blood on top of blood, the shaman blessed the rocks in an attempt to make a deal with the great spirits of the beyond, so the glittering stones could be channels of resurrection for their beloveds.

“Did it work?” Cain interrupted his father’s storytelling, giving him a look of doubt. He sat slouched on the couch in the safety of his living room, hundreds of years separate from his father’s tall tale. Cain stared at his dad impatiently looking for an answer to his question. Cain’s father shrugged his shoulders casually, making it all the more meaningless to Cain.

“No idea, my boy, but it’s the story my father told me when I graduated, and then he gave me this.” Cain’s father reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glittering black stone and handed it to him. It was unlike anything Cain had ever seen, like an opaque crystal in the shape of a rock, blacker than coal and yet shiny. It was the most extraordinary stone Cain had ever seen in his life ……and he couldn’t have cared less. “It’s a piece of our distant ancestry, a reminder for your adulthood to cherish what you love in this world before it is taken away.” His father looked on at him with a satisfied smile, anticipating the same sort of positive reaction he had once given his father when bestowed with this same gift. His small stature only put him a few inches above Cain despite standing. He had never been an intimidating man. Cain had always thought his father’s size matched his personality, and used this as an excuse the last few years to often disregard him. His mother always claimed his dad to be a beautiful dreamer, and to have a strong heart even if it was balanced with weaker nerves. Cain had made it his subconscious mission of his teens to prove himself not of the same caliber. No matter what his mother said. He hadn’t quite succeeded in differing himself yet anyway.

“So what you’re saying is my aboriginal ancestors were wussies who got slaughtered in exchange for peace, and you’re using it as an excuse to not get me a car for my graduation, because grandpa did the same to you?”

“Well, I didn’t ask your grandpa for a car, by that point I was already driving him around everywhere. I think I’ve told you before what he was like, but this was something he did right …I mean it’s a piece of your heritage,” his father advocated unconvincingly, while staring at the floor averting Cain’s disappointed stare.

“Dad, we’re not even native. You’re half Dutch!” He cried out incredulously.

“We were at some point though, and that is special. It brings someone you loved back from the dead. I dare you to find another one.” His father seemed desperate to convey the importance of this ancestral token to him, and the gratitude he should be feeling. Cain could see he had gotten his dad in a bit of a huff of anxiety. It was pretty typical of him.

“You just told me there are one hundred and nine of them. I’m sure there’s one on sale on Ebay right now for next to nothing, and you know why? Because it doesn’t do anything, but make you tell a stupid story.” Cain’s father couldn’t argue. He knew it didn’t actually do anything, or else he would have brought back Jimmy Paige who he loved dearly. His father chose not to respond, instead silently conceding.

Cain stomped upstairs to his room, disappointed that he didn’t get the Bumblebee camaro he’d been dreaming of. The car he had been giving his dad subtle and non-subtle hints about since the very first Transformers movie when he was nine. The camaro that would have changed his life and made him cool, so that he would have no problem showing up at the wild graduation party that almost everyone in his graduating class was expected to be attending, except him. That camaro would have gotten him respect from the rich kids, and admiration from the cool kids, and extreme never ending envy and jealousy from Jonas. Jonas would constantly be at his mercy just for the privilege to ride shotgun. Most importantly it would definitely catch the attention of Lucy. There was no chance she could possibly have ignored him riding in such glamorous style. Because if it could work for Shia LaBeouf, then why not him? He slammed the door to notify his father of his aggravation and utter disappointment.

His father did his best not to take this outburst to heart. The passing of the stone had meant something to him and it would have been nice if Cain had been as interested in it as he was to give it. One day perhaps Cain would see the significance in his gift, until then he could stir in his unappreciative adolescence. Slumping down on to the couch he turned up the volume on the barbecue cooking show he had been watching before trying to impress Cain. In truth, he could have afforded to buy his son the camaro of his fleeting dreams, but that's the only gift he would be getting for the rest of his life, because his dad would still be working to pay it off. Mr. Lewis ran an asphalt laying company, it was the number one company for asphalt and gravel in a town that rarely grew or developed. The car was a folly of an investment for a kid who had been driving for a total of 11 months, and couldn’t three point turn properly. It was much better for his money if it went towards the boy’s future, like college tuition if Cain ever chose to go.

Cain opened a drawer on his desk, and tossed the worthless gift on top of a collection of Maxim magazines. Closing the drawer he dropped into his computer chair, giving it a quick twirl around, watching all the posters on his wall becoming a blur. Nothing ever went as great as it should. He wasn't really angry about the car it was just something he and his dad had frequently talked about. Secretly he always knew his dad was joking when he agreed to get him the bumblebee camaro, but he felt like just for once the world might have given him a win. Still his dad could have given him some sort of car, something that would occupy him while he figured out his next step in life, and make getting to it easier when he did.

School was a few days from being over and he hadn't quite figured out what he was going to do yet. He knew his parents wanted him to go to college, even if they weren’t pressuring him, but the closest college was a trade school and that wasn't what he wanted. That's what his father had done, and paving lots with his dad had to be the last resort. He applied to one school that had a computer tech course, it was 3 hours away in a bigger more interesting city but they turned him down. He was too embarrassed to admit this failure instead he told his parents that he wasn't ready for college, which he felt was at least a little true. He promised them he would get a job and save, while he figured it out. He hadn’t handed in his empty resume in anywhere yet. His parents made too much for him to get a good student loan, but not enough to be able to pay for him without having any financial worries.

He opened his laptop that sat on his desk and opened up f*******:, there were no new notifications. He typed Jacks McRoyce into the search bar, hoping to make a new f*******: friend that he wouldn’t really talk to. None of the results matched the person in his school. He didn't know Jacks that well, but he definitely wasn't a 30-year-old married man from Cincinnati, or 21-year-old transgender boy who looked startling like a famous character from a television show his dad watched. He changed his search to Lucy Little and clicked on her profile, it was private. It showed they had one mutual friend in common named Kayl Morgan. Cain didn't know who he was or when he ever added him. An unrecognizable face, definitely not one he'd seen at school. Maybe someone he added in an effort to be more connected to Lucy, he didn’t remember it but it seemed like something he would do. Sadly Kayl’s list of friends did not include Jacks McRoyce either. He didn't bother deleting Kayl Morgan, because what was the sense of deleting someone who considered you a friend. Instead he went back to Lucy's profile and sent her a friend invite, possibly for the hundred and ninth time.

The television was on and a recorded episode of teen moms was on commercial break. Lucy was too busy browsing f*******: on her phone to fast forward through the ads and back to the show she was pseudo fan of. She had already liked 10 of her friends' memes, pictures and posts, had commented on one shared meme about cruelty to animals, and had shared one cautionary message and picture about a low life creeper who was last seen in a nearby city. Unbeknownst to her and most of the others that shared to care, the sad truth was the man's picture and negative description was sent out by his previous angry landlord who had taken revenge on him for not paying rent for too long and disappearing. He looked just creepy enough in the picture for it to be made viral without enough people bothering to fact check. Lucy declined Cain's friend request again, she worried about the reactions of people if he suddenly started posting or commenting on her wall, likely all the time. A lot of people on her friends list would question it, and frankly social media could be a cruel place sometimes. She could possibly be saving him from potential cyber-bullying and herself from being associated with such negative behaviour. Like Cain, she also did not remember adding their mutual friend Kayl Morgan to her f*******:, but his face looked familiar and she’d never seen a post from him that offended her, so she didn't bother deleting him.

She was interrupted from her online socializing and reality TV watching by her little sister Mary. “I'm hungry. Can you make dinner?”

“Fine.” Lucy put her phone down on the coffee table and got up exasperated. She headed to the kitchen to make some dinner. Something her mother used to do before her parents divorced, and she had to pick up more shifts at work. Lucy would have preferred to live with her father he had always been the more decent human being in her opinion, until of course he refused to take her. He took his divorce as an invitation to have a midlife crisis, and do all the things he apparently felt he had missed out on while trapped in his boring marriage. That choice led him to take all the money he had left, pack up the small amount of stuff that was undeniably his and disappear. He was long gone from Raccoon Hill, and they hadn't heard from him in a little over a year. Lucy hoped wherever he happened to be, he was doing well. She liked to imagine that he was now a rolling stone, travelling and having adventures with new and exciting friends. She never admitted to her bitter mom how much she missed him. She somewhat understood, she too felt the need to get far away from their boring town in the middle of nowhere, then she wouldn't have to babysit all the time and her mom would have to deal with more things at home. It wasn’t that she didn't like Mary she was just frustrated to have a mother who wasn't being a mom anymore. She was absent a lot, even when she was home sometimes. Mary saw her teacher, Lucy, and her best friend’s Madeline’s mom more than her actual mom.

Mary was nearly an exact replica of Lucy when she was ten. She had blonde curls, puffy cheeks and piercing crystal blue eyes under very light coloured eye brows. She always wore a smile, but rarely laughed. She was still short, but if she was like Lucy in a few years she would sprout up overnight. Her mother claimed that she also looked like her in her youth, but pictures of 10 year-old Mrs. Little revealed that Lucy and Mary’s appearance came from their father’s side. Mary’s personality was different than Lucy’s though. Lucy had always been very sociable and drew positive attention from peers and adults, but Mary wasn’t very social. She wasn’t introverted she just didn’t waste her time on most others. She often seemed more mature than her years and little too smart for her own good. Her teachers saw her as odd, outspoken and sometimes confrontational. Not everything she did made sense to people, but if you mentioned it to her she would advocate that you were stepping on her creativity and individual growth. Madeline was the only friend she ever brought over to the house or went for a sleepover with.

Despite being different than her, Mary looked up to Lucy. Her sister was her senior by eight years. She was the best female role model Mary had. She always seemed busy and had a lot of friends, and she was nice to people. Lucy had taken her to meet special teenagers during the times she volunteered. Mary liked getting to know some of them, in some ways they made more sense to her than other people in her life. Lucy also took care of her, even if she made her feel like a nuisance. She made her dinner, she made sure her favourite clothes were clean for Monday, she brushed her hair sometimes and she didn’t censor herself around her. Mary admired her sister a lot for her confidence and wisdom, she tried not to bother her with problems but when she did Lucy usually had a good solution for her.

Lucy put a packaged vegetable lasagna in the oven, and began making a salad. Mary usually wanted hot dogs, but Lucy was semi-vegetarian (ccasionally chicken or fish was okay), and Mary did not compromise when it came to vegetarian wieners. She told her sister when she made her own dinner she could have whatever she wanted, it was never a satisfying answer. Her phone chimed in the living room indicating she had received a text. She sent her Mary in after it, who after being instructed a few more times reluctantly retrieved the phone for her. It had chimed several more times in the meantime. Lucy opened her phone up while attempting to cut mushrooms at the same time.

Danielle: Hey girl, what are you doing? (very happy emojii)

Danielle: We're thinking of drinking at Amber's.

Danielle: Bruce got us wine. He's going to be there with Christian.Hamil not Wells. Of course. (tongue out winking emojii)

Mom: Make sure Mary cleans her room if she wants to go to her friend's house this weekend.

Lucy: Sorry Danny (sad emojii) Stuck at home with sister (grumpy emojii) Going to do some reading for Law exam.

Danielle: You suck (tongue out winking emojii)

Lucy: Since when did we start hanging out at Amber's so much?

Danielle: Since she broke up with Derek and started dating again.

Lucy: She never stopped dating. Always on the prowl. (angry cat emojii)

Danielle: Whatever hater.

Jane: Love you babes (kiss emojii) sorry you can't hang, but you'll be at Jacks grad party?

Lucy: Totes.(wink emojii)

Jane: (excited emojii)

She put her phone down on the counter as she scooped up the mushrooms and dropped them in the bowl with the lettuce. Mary stood besides her watching her meal prep. “So who was it?” Mary asked her.

“It was mom,” she replied, grabbing a ripe tomato for slicing. She cut the top off the tomato, as Mary made an attempt to look at her phone, but Lucy moved it away from her.

“What did she want?”

“She wants you to stop being a brat and bugging me.” Mary crossed her arms and made an annoyed pout face to show her displeasure. She walked away from the counter to the kitchen table and pushed over a chair. It made a thud as it hit the floor, and Lucy turned back to see her standing there with no expression. Lucy gave her a sharp look of annoyance, and Mary lifted the chair back up and sat in it, resting her arms on the table and under her chin she sulked. Lucy’s expression lightened, “Okay relax she just wanted me to make sure you cleaned your room.”

“My room is clean!” Mary said a little outraged, as Lucy had predicted in her mind.

“I know that.” She began dicing celery.

“I told her I cleaned it on Monday.” It was actually on Tuesday, but it didn’t really matter.

“I know that too. Keep your room clean until Friday and you can go to Madeline’s for the weekend.”

“Are you saying that, or is mom saying that?”

Lucy sighed, “We're both saying that.” She shook the salad around to mix it up.

“Madeline’s mom is going to make us barbecued steak sandwiches.” This was Mary’s attempt at a dig at her; Lucy had withstood much worse from much dumber people.

“Well that will be a treat for you.” Lucy told her, putting the salad down on the table despite the fact the lasagna wouldn’t be done cooking for another forty-five minutes. Mary didn’t even look at the salad.

“I don't like mushrooms.”

“Pick them out then” she said exasperated. She headed back to the living room to watch TV and stare at her phone until the oven timer went off.