The Vines

Justasur's music

"If I should die before I wake." We learn this sentence at a very young age. What a profound thing to say before you go to sleep each night! What does this say to a little child or a grown up as far as that goes.

Is this when the evil vine that starts climbing into our lives, starts to grow and threads its way into every fiber of our being until depression sets in and controls our lives? Is this where all the little different entities begin to show up? Guiding us at will to all the places good and bad. Where do we surface and take back what is ours? Where are all the happy faces kept? Who is that in the mirror? Looking back at me. Is it someone that can set the vines free?
So many questions! Where will it end?

How great thou art! Where would we be? If not for the greatest power of all! We stand so very small at the throne so large. Life would have no meaning. Our days would always be as night. For our journey will loom not as far, if our eye is on the heavens.

1940's So it begins on a dirt road in a little southern town, in a place called Skitter Flat. The steps on the front of the old wooden house wobbled and nearly give way as Dotty runs up them. Out of breath and gasping as she pulls open the old wooden door with the busted screen. Right at her heels is a growling dog. His head hit the door as it closes shut. Dotty looks around the room as she tries to breathe normally and waits for her pulse to slow down. She was five years old. Her red hair wet with perspiration lay in ringlets around her face. Her green eyes seemed huge as she looked thur the screen door, at the growling dog waiting at the door. The year was 1940. It was a muggy July day. Dotty had been playing in the ditch across the street, when the neighbor's dog showed up. Dotty usually kept an eye out for him. Today she was preoccupied by her mud pies. She let her guard down. Dotty looked down at the worn floor, where a puddle had formed. She realized; she had wet her pants.

The Year "2000" Dot shakes her head, surveys her surroundings. The room was inviting and decorated tastefully. All the colors, the floor to ceiling windows, the lovely pictures of art helped Dot bring herself to the reality around her. Dot pushed her chair back from the desk, maybe she was working too hard, she thought as she walked over to the windows. The sky was gray. The gentle rain fell onto the perfectly landscape lawn. Her stomach growled as she turned from the window and called for Riann.

Riann heard Dot's voice and turned away from the sink and the potatoes, she had been peeling. Her face bore a worried frown. She reached to dry her hands on the kitchen towel as she hurried to Dot's Office. Riann, had seen a very troubled aura around her employee's presence lately, she could not remember seeing such an aura before. It frightens her, for the gentle woman, that she had worked and grown to love like a dear friend. She wished, that Dot would confide in her and give some indication of her problem.

Dot was leaning over in front of the fireplace, stirring the ashes, when Riann hurried into the room. Startled, Dot shivered and stood quickly, nearly striking her head on the cherry mantel. "Oh, Riann, she said, as she turned to see who was behind her. "You nearly scared the life out of me"! "Sorry Madame", Riann softly replied. Riann looked at Dot's face, as if she could read her mind. "Oh Riann, I'm sorry, I just have the Willie Jibes lately," "Would you please be a dear, and bring me a hot cup of tea and put a little portion of brandy in it." "Certainly", exclaimed Riann, as she hurried out of the room. Riann fussed around in the kitchen, bringing out the brandy from the cupboard, and reaching for a cup from the china cabinet. The tea pot was whistling, as Riann got a pot holder and tightly gripped the handle,. Steam filled her face as she poured the hot water into the tea bag in the cup. She hurried back to find Dot curled up in the big easy chair in front of the fireplace. Dot's eyes seem to be deeply mesmerized by the golden sparks in the flames. She was definitely in deep thought, and this troubled Riann even more. It was so unlike Dot to lose touch with things around her. Riann, carefully sat the hot tea on the table beside Dot. "Would you like anything else," Riann inquired, "oh, thank you, no," Dot slowly gathered herself back to the moment. "I think, I will play some soft music and sit here at the fire and relax for a while,” “Please hold all my calls and I will catch up on them later."

FREE SPIRIT

While Walking in the garden
My heart began to weep
I saw the face of Jesus
And tears flowed down his cheeks
He said, For every pain you've suffered
I have cried for you.
But soon the tears will be over
and the stormy skies will be blue
For you I have a promise
you know I never lie.
You have a home in heaven
way up in the sky.
The trumpets will soon be blowing
and your troubles will blow away
For then you will be in heaven
It will be a glorious day.

As Dotty backed away from the door, she bumped into the end table. The lamp tilted and Dotty grabbed for it, just in time to keep it from striking the floor. She was trembling, as she straightens the lamp. Horrified of being discovered, here in the house, she peeked around the doorway. She saw her grandma, wearing a brown and yellow checked apron, and wringing out something from the potbellied washing machine. The washing machine was outside the back door. It had a wringer attached on the top, Dotty's grandma was pushing the material though and catching it as it came out the other side. Dotty eased through the kitchen, to the back door. Dotty's cried out, and her Grandma turned and looked at the backdoor, just in time to catch the frighten little girl.

Dot jumped back to reality. "What is happening to me?" she muttered, as her feet touched the rug, in front of the fireplace. The book of poems fell at her feet. The book lay open, Dot could see the book was still opened to the poem, she had read before falling into a sound sleep. Ever since she brought the book home, from the poet's corner auction, she had a feeling of being almost possessed by it. She was drawn to the book, as if she had to take it home. She had keep it by her side at all times since. Something beckoning her to go further and further into the mind of the author. These visions or dreams were so cunning and engrossed her every moment. A chill fell on her body. Dot walked into the foyer, and up the winding stairway, to her bedroom and pulled a wrap out of her closet and draped it around her slim shoulders. She looked around at the bedroom, her bed was the center vision point of the room. The 4 bedpost beautifully carved in cherry wood. The headboard high and eloquent. The soft pink satin coverings and pillows, matched the pink satin drapes that hung in the wide windows that faced the garden below. Dot's own watercolor art hung on the walls, in soft pink, lavender, and yellow pastels. The pine hardwood floor shined like glass. A daybed in the corner of the room, covered in a silk collage of spring flowers in bloom. Dot made a mental note to have the flowers in the vase on her bedside table changed and replace it with another vase of the morning's cuttings, that she had just brought in this morning.

Chapter Two

Dotty sat next to her Grandmother on the hard pew. They were at Bro. Ramsey's church. Dotty had gotten into trouble that morning, and had to sit with Grandma, instead of with the other kids. She had found a nickel on her Grandma's dresser and was slipping it into her dress pocket, while stepping backwards behind the bedroom door, when she tripped and fell into Grandma’s big galvanized wash tub, filled with Grandma's bathwater, from her morning bath. "Dotty, "Grandma called, “what have you done now” ,as she walked into the bedroom she saw Dotty laying in the dirty bathwater...holding the nickel up high in the air. “Unhuh, the devil pushed you into that water, for trying to steal that nickel." Dotty felt terror grip her, as she looked around the room for the devil. "Oh, come here young'un and I will dry you off, they will be here to pick us up for church and you are soaking wet!" After she got Dotty dried and changed, she gave her a hug and told her that God didn't like children that steal. Dotty had gotten her first lesson about the way the devil works.

"Devil, Get away from these people of God," Bro. Ramsey shouted, "The fruits of hell have no control," "We stomp you to the ground!" "We turn you upside down and stomp you to the ground, for We are the people of God!" "PRAISE GOD!" Dotty's Grandma, Jumped to her feet and grabbed Dotty's hand and pulled her down to the pulpit. At the prayer bench, her grandma said, “Kneel here and pray very hard to God." Dotty knelt next to her grandma, Bro. Ramsey put his hands on Dottie's head and shouted.."Leave this child alone, Devil" "In the name of Jesus, we throw you into the fires of hell." Dotty could hear the people in the church, behind her, shouting and talking in tongue...Ah Sashista shasay...Dotty prayed very hard. When she was though, she looked around the church. All the grown-ups were shouting and praying aloud.. it seems like a rolling thunder storm coming into the church. Hands were in the air over their heads as they prayed and worshipped God. Sometimes Dotty was frightened at the noise...but usually she sat and giggled with other kids while the grown-ups transformed into the spirit.

1990's

Dorothy walked out of Macy's, looked up and down the street for a taxi. She had her arms filled with brightly colored packages. She had just enough time to get home and get ready for the big party at the White House. She had planned this for months, but as usual she didn't think about what to wear, until the last minute. As a taxi slowed in front of her, she waved wildly, to get him to stop. She leaned over and recovered the packages that fell onto the sidewalk, as the taxi eased to a stop.

"Where to" "Miss", asked the taxi driver. Dorothy still trying to arrange the packages into some kind of random order, Looked at the taxi driver, and said, “Manhattan Club, Please".

Dorothy had worked long and hard to be where she was today. She had been determine to get through college, working at whatever job she could find to work and get to all her classes. It had been hard and long hours, but she had done it, and now it was going to pay off big time. Tonight she would be officially nominated to the democratic congress

To BE CONTINUED........

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