Good morning all. Ready to begin the short week before Christmas? I know many of you are already off on your holidays but I am not leaving until the 24th so I figured I would go ahead and post. so with that in mind, timers set if you are joining in and lets get going.
I like this. not entirely certain what memory is going to surface or where the story is going, but I do not trust Eustice.
Monday, December 22nd: Sweet smelling smoke filled the air.
Sweet smelling smoke filled the air. For a moment it smelled of baked goods and reminded me of caramelized sugar. I inhaled, thinking of the bakery. Images began to form in my mind. I could practically see the bakery. That wasn’t why I was here. That was not something I wished to revisit, not now.
I heard the splash of water as it was ladled on the heated stones. The sizzle and pop as the water turned to mist. Eustace dropped another handful of herbs on the small brasier off to the side. No one else seemed alarmed. All looked calm, peaceful
“The smoke calls each to their own path,” Eustice said. “Follow it and learn your truth.”
There were nods from those around the circle. In the smoky atmosphere they were hazy, indistinct. I suddenly had the feeling that I was the only one actually here, that the others were mere mirages.
“Close your eyes and embrace your journey,” Eustice said. I saw eyelids flutter down. All complied with the request. Eustice looked at me. He nodded gently as though he was encouraging me. I didn’t sut my eyes and he lifted an eyebrow. He had never liked to be thwarted. Apparently becoming a spiritual guide hadn’t changed that.
I sighed and closed my eyes. I could always stare at the inside of my eyelids until it was time to open them. The light behind my closed lids was red and I could almost see the heat from the stones and the brazier. I tried to remember what Eustice was calling himself now. It wasn’t Eustice. That much I knew.
He hadn’t been pleased to see me. I was an element of his old life. The one where he was a stockbroker who embezzled from his clients. I was the friend of the wife he cheated on and then ran out on. He hadn’t been pleased to see me. But it had been years since I saw his wife. To her I was a part of that life as well and she wanted to move on and forget about it as well.
I knew she remarried and was happy, but she wanted no reminders of the past so the gift I gave her was my absence. Of course Eustice and Caroline only came into my life when I was reshaping it. When I was pretending that what came before had not happened.
How could I begrudge them erasing their past now?
I kept my mouth shut and pretended I didn’t know him. He relaxed and all seemed well. I just missed what they called him. ‘I can not call him anything,’ I reminded myself. That might be for the best. I doubted I could give Eustice the no doubt more esoteric spiritually minded title he no doubt used.
I inhaled and images of the bakery once again danced in my memory. The memories were harder to block with my eyes shut, with no visual stimuli to focus on. The heat too was a factor of the memories. It was ever present from the big bake ovens we still used. There were the more modern bakery equipment pieces inside the building, but behind the building with its modern amenities were the giant stone bake ovens used to bake bread for several generations.
They weren’t used every day, not any more, but once a month and for special occasions, they were still put to use. Despite my best efforts, the head and scent pulled me back there, to the small courtyard behind the bakery, the old stones in the bread ovens heating as we prepared for the festival.
Ten til Midnight 