From: RhiaRamsay@aol.com
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 16:45:33 EDT
Subject: Lightening Shadows I-Far Away, Long Ago (1/1)
Lightening Shadows I-Far away, Long ago
By Elizabeth L. Iacono
RhiaRamsay@aol.com
Written September 3, 1998
Rating-G. Safe for all.
Category-Vignette
Spoilers-None
Keywords-Pre-XF
Safe for both Shippers and NoRomos, but as more parts come, NoRomos
start running. I'm a die hard Shipper.
Summary-Mulder has a recurring dream-or is it a forgotten memory
re-surfacing? It also makes him question his own past.
Thanks go to Missy and Julie for giving this a first read through
for me. Oh, yeah guys remember this one: They were that close! If
I have to explain that to the two of you, you two do not deserve to
call yourselves Shippers.
Feedback of all kinds is welcome at RhiaRamsay@aol.com. Please do
send it. It does wonders for my ego.
Disclaimer-Every stinkin time we have to go through this. Mulder,
Scully, and anyone else pertinent to the X-Files belongs to the
Surfer Boy, Ten-Thirteen, and Fox. Shannon, Colin, and Mama are
mine.
Lightening Shadows I-Far away, Long ago
By Elizabeth L. Iacono
Fox Mulder was no stranger to recurring dreams. He'd been
having them most of his life. There'd been the one about Samantha,
a common one. Most recently, he'd been dreaming about Scully and
losing her. But one night in June, Mulder began having a different
dream. And it kept coming back. And each time he dreamed he
saw more and more of it. Until a hot night in August when the
dream finally completed itself.
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Mulder propped open the window by his desk with a stack of
books. The window, for some God unknown reason wouldn't stay
open. And considering that tonight was sweltering and his A/C had
finally decided to lay down and die, the closed window would turn
his apartment into an oven.
He lay down on the couch in just his boxer shorts; anything
else would probably be melted onto his body by morning. The TV was
on, replaying last week's Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Those
cheesy old movies would have him out in no time, if he could ignore
Mike and the robots outrageous comments.
Luckily, Mulder was tired from a hard week and fell asleep
immediately, regaining the sleep he'd lost all week. But soon,
Mulder realized he was dreaming THAT dream again. The one that
never seemed to finish itself. But this time it was different.
It finished.
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Summer, 1965
The dream always started off with Mulder rolling down a big
hill covered with lush green grass. He knew somehow that he was
no older than three years old. He kept rolling and rolling down
the hill for what felt like forever to a three-year-old, but he
soon hit the bottom.
Mulder lay back in the grass and stared up at the sky. Every
time he dreamed the day was incredibly beautiful. The sky was a
deep blue, with large, puffy, marshmallow-like clouds racing across
the sky. The strong, warm summer wind that blew ruffled his
thick, oak-brown bangs. Mulder felt he could be happy laying there
forever. Then he heard the laugh.
It was a light, joyous laugh, coming from somewhere above
him. Mulder turned over and looked back up the hill. There was
a young woman, most likely in her late twenties to mid-thirties,
Mulder guessed, standing at the top. She had long hair the same
color as Mulder's, and it was flying everywhere as the wind tangled
it. Her long, loose skirt was pulled in all directions as she
stood there. She looked down at him, her clear blue eyes sparkling
with laughter.
Next, the woman spoke. "Fox, come back up here," she laughed
with a soft, Irish accented voice. In this dream, he was always
referred to as Fox. But for some reason, he didn't mind. In fact,
he liked it.
Fox now knew it was his turn to speak, same as always. But
the words and the voice that came out of his mouth surprised him
every time. The voice he heard was one used only as a young boy.
"No, Mama. This is fun!" he yelled back, giggling. Mulder knew
for a fact that the woman standing on top of the hill was not his
mother. At least, not the one he'd known as a child. Although
Mulder felt more comfortable with this woman he'd only met in his
dreams than with the mom that raised him.
The woman, Mama, laughed again. "Aye, Fox, I know it is. I
rolled down this hill myself as a child. You can come back here
later. We'll be here all summer. Right now, though, I have
something very important to show you."
Fox felt his eyes light up. "S'it something secret?" he
asked, always loving something special.
"Aye, it is. So come back up."
This was where Fox always consented and began scampering up
the hill. He leapt over some rocks and logs, even swerving once to
get away from an evil looking sheep that had apparently strayed
from the rest of the flock.
When Fox got to the top of the hill, he looked up at Mama.
She was so much taller from this point of view. Mama
bent down and picked up Fox. "That's my boy," she said happily.
"We go now?" Fox asked in his child's voice.
"First, we go tell Grampa that mean old Alma got out of the
pen again. Then we'll go get Col and Shan."
Fox moaned and laid his head on Mama's shoulder. "Aww, why,
Mama?" he whined.
Mama patted his head lovingly. "They've got to see this too.
It'll be special for all three of you."
Fox looked up and saw them getting close to a large house.
This was another common feature in the dream. The house was
large, with two stories, and made out of light grey stone blocks.
Every time there was smoke pouring out of one of the many chimneys
and a delicious smell wafting out the open windows. On one side of
the house were two wooden buildings, barns Fox had figured out
after the first few dreams. On the other side was a large cliff,
towering into the sky.
Mama pushed open the door to the large house, walking the two
of them into a big kitchen with a large stone fireplace and a big
pot of stew simmering over the fire. There was an older woman
sitting by it in a rocking chair, knitting something. Mama sniffed
the air appreciatively. "Oh, Eveanna, you always make the best
stew."
The older woman looked up at Mama and smiled. "Ah, I knew there
was a reason I liked you best out of all my children-in-law." They
both shared a laugh here. "Colin and Shannon are watching the
telly, if you're looking for them." Eveanna always seemed to know
what people were looking for. Fox believed that she had some sort
of psychic ability.
Mama groaned. "I knew I never should have let Jerome bring
the blasted thing here." Mama began walking to the room where the
TV was, and then suddenly turned, making Fox dizzy in her arms. "Oh, ple=
ase tell Da that Alma got out of the pen again."
"I will," Eveanna called after them.
Mama walked into the family room and promptly turned off the TV.
"Hey!" ten year old Shannon and nine-year-old Colin chorused.
"We were watching that," Shannon whined as only a girl could, "and
we don't get The Avengers in America." It was here that Fox had
noticed that while most of the older people spoke in some sort of
foreign accent, Shannon, Colin, and himself spoke with American
accents.
"It's time for that special thing I told you about on the
plane," Mama said calmly.
"Awright!" Colin said and jumped out of his seat. "Let's
go!" Shannon and Colin raced out of the house and into the yard.
Mama followed quickly behind, still carrying Fox. He was now
excited too, and the three kids had identical grins on their
faces. As a matter of fact all the kids looked nearly alike, with
brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes.
Once out in the yard Shannon asked, "Mama, which way?"
Mama raised a long-fingered, elegant hand and pointed to a large
boulder at the base of the immense cliff. "To that big rock." The
two kids took off for it. Fox began squirming in Mama's arms. He
wanted to get there too.
"Mama," he started.
She looked down at the boy in her arms and smiled, a
expression that looked so much more comfortable on her face than on
the face of the mother he'd grown up with. "You want to run, too?"
she asked. Fox nodded. "Okay. Down you go." She placed the boy
on the ground and watched as he took off after his siblings.
This was the part where Fox usually woke up. But for some
reason, tonight, the dream was finally finishing up. Maybe it was
the weather, or the old pizza he'd had for dinner.
Or maybe, it was time to finish.
Mama approached the rock and gestured the kids behind it,
where they saw a gaping doorway in the cliffside. Shannon, Colin,
and Fox lagged behind, waiting for Mama to go in first. Mama
picked up a torch from inside the mouth of the tunnel and lit it
with a match. The torch flared to life as Shannon and Colin
finally began to edge into the cave, but Fox still waited outside.
Mama bent down to his eye level and said "It's all right to be
scared, Fox."
Fox nodded and said quietly "I scared, Mama." With that Mama
picked him up and carried him into the tunnel. Fox always felt
safe in Mama's arms. As safe as he felt with Scully.
Mama led them through the twisting tunnel until they came upon
an underground stream. The stream carried in sunlight from outside
and lit up the small cavern with a lovely golden light. Mama put
the torch in an iron bracket nailed to the cavern wall. "Can we
drink here Mama? I'm kinda thirsty." Colin asked.
"Me too," Shannon chimed in.
"Go ahead. It's safe." Mama turned to the boy clutching her
neck. "You thirsty, also?" Fox shook his head no and tightened
his grip on Mama's neck.
"This is what I wanted to show you." Mama turned to the far
wall of the cavern where the light fell on the rocks. The two
stopped drinking and came up behind Mama.
"What's that?" Shannon asked. "It's beautiful." Colin could
only nod.
Mama spoke. "It's your father's family history. Every
generation comes in here and carves the symbols for everyone in
their family.
"Where are we?" Colin asked.
Mama pointed to one of the last sets of symbols. "There's
your father. He's at the top because he's directly related to the
blood line." She pointed to one attached the father's by a thin
chain carved into the wall. "There's mine." Then she pointed to
three under those, also attached by finely carved chains. "And
there's yours, Shan's, and Fox's."
Fox was soaking up everything. This was the first time he
was seeing this in the dream and was amazed at the realism of it.
It was so real, it could have been a memory. Then the
little boy part of his mind began working again. He'd seen
something on most of the symbols and he asked Mama about it. He
tugged on her shirtsleeve. "Yes, Fox?"
He pointed at his father's symbol. "What's that thing that
looks like a dog with points?"
Mama chuckled. "You always were more observant than the rest
of them." She rearranged Fox's position on her hip so they could
get a better look at the symbol. "Well, it's called a dragon.
It's in your symbol, too." Fox glanced down at his and nodded.
"It's part of an old family story, Fox. The story is that everyone
on your father's side of the family has dragon blood in them. No
one knows how it got into the family, but just that it's there."
She glanced down at Fox, who was listening wide-eyed. "But, then
again Fox, it's only a story."
"Like the books we read on the plane?"
"Exactly. It's all just a story." Mama turned to where
Shannon and Colin were pointing at the wall.
Fox, though, had noticed something in Mama's eyes when she was
telling the dragon tale. Something deep inside him had said that
Mama wasn't telling just a story, but something that had actually
happened. And this something both thrilled and scared Fox.
Mama said "Come on. We can see more of this another day, and
maybe your father can tell you some more stories about this place."
Shannon and Colin ran ahead of Mama on the path. "I liked
that, Mama," Fox murmured, and laid his head on Mama's shoulder.
Mama placed a comforting hand on the back of Fox's head. "I
do, too. You're tired. Go to sleep, Angel." Fox nodded and
drifted off to dreamland.
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<<<<<<
Mulder sat up on the leather couch breathing heavily. That
had to have been one of the most vivid dreams he'd ever had.
Mulder got up and looked out the window which was, thank God,
still open, and began to think.
It hadn't felt like a dream to him, but more like a memory.
It was like what had happened when memories of Samantha's abduction
had started coming back.
Mulder looked at the picture of the eight year old Sam on his
desk. Even though most people don't remember much of their early
childhood, it for some reason bothered Mulder that his earliest
memory was of his mother bringing Sam home from the hospital.
There was the four years before that where he didn't know anything
about. He didn't know what his first word was, or when he'd taken
his first step. His parents were never ones to be sentimental, and
after Sam was gone no one had really cared.
Mulder suddenly smiled in the half-light from the TV. He'd
always thought that his parents probably hadn't named him. If they
did he'd probably have been saddled with Bill Jr. He shuddered.
Just like Scully's brother.
Mulder laid back down on the couch. He was probably delving
too deeply into this. It was probably just a dream brought on by
reading one too many Internet articles on cases.
Still, Mulder couldn't help but call up part of a song he'd
once heard in an animated movie the airline had put on because a
large portion of the passengers was a brownie Girl Scout troop.
The song just seemed to fit how he felt at the moment.
'Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember.
Things my heart used to know
Things it yearns to remember...'
Mulder dismissed the strange thoughts brought on by the dream
and settled in to watch the end of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
But deep inside, Mulder knew it wasn't over yet. Not by
a long shot.
The Beginning of Lightening Shadows.
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Part 2, Lightening Shadows II-Glowing Dim As An Ember, will be
out as soon as possible.
MST3K ain't mine. The Avengers ain't mine (It was the only British
TV show I could think of from the '60's). The song is 'Once Upon
a December' from "Anastasia." It's not mine. And to whoever
thinks I'm too old to watch cartoons, let me just say this: Bite Me!
(I had it first. Esther Nairn stole it from me. Ask my sister.)
The dragon thing is-well, I just like dragons.
The sheep's name, Alma, is from an episode of Forever Knight, which
had a real funny part involving Nick, Schanke, a confessional, a
near affair, a vampire named Alma and Nick's really bad Scottish or
Irish (I can't tell) accent. (Well, I thought it was funny.)
Oh, yeah, can anyone guess where I got the title
Lightening Shadows from?
(
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geocities.com/area51)