Anna's Visions (7 page)

Grammy drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“Maybe it’s time I talked to you girls about some other things, too – birds and
bees kind of stuff. You
know,
a good old-fashion sex
talk.”

Tori clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from
laughing aloud. What did an old woman like Grammy know about sex? In fact, Tori
couldn’t imagine her and Poppy having sex. It just seemed too weird. Besides,
at Grammy’s age, she wouldn’t know how modern women had sex? Tori had heard
stories from kids at school and she was sure Grammy had never done most of
those things. Surely!

“Okay, Grammy,” Tori said, doing her best to stifle a
giggle. “Go ahead. We’re listening.”

Grammy explained the act of sex, using all the proper
terminology: penis, vagina, sperm, intercourse, and ejaculate. Tori and Jill
were used to hearing the slang terms, so hearing everything called by its
clinical name made the conversation seem even funnier.

Grammy also told them that young women should save
themselves for marriage to avoid getting a bad reputation, and she made a face
when she said it, as if a bad reputation was worse than some sort of disease.

By the time Grammy had finished her speech, Tori and
Jill were fighting as hard as they could to keep a straight face. Then Grammy
lifted herself up from the swing, using Tori’s leg for support, and said,
“Well, girls, I’m going to get a bucket of green beans and you can snap them. You
did a good job cleaning the eggs. I’ll be right back.”

As soon as they thought Grammy was out of earshot,
they burst out laughing so hard that they could barely catch their breath.

“I can’t believe the words she used.” Tori lowered her
voice like the bass singer in a vocal group, dragging out syllables.
“In-ter-course.”

They were still laughing when Grammy came back out
with the green beans, but they quickly struggled to regain their composure.

“Have fun girls,” Grammy said. “I’m going to take a
quick nap while you work.”

When Grammy was out of hearing range, Tori looked at
Jill. “I hope Grammy doesn’t think we need to start wearing girdles with our
braziers.”
 

“I’ll stick with pantyhose and bras,” Jill said. “At
least she didn’t mention a bustle!”

The two laughed so hard, the task of snapping green
beans turned out to be more fun than work. When they finished, they took the
beans into the kitchen, dumped them into the sink, and covered them with ice
water like Grammy always did. Then they went back outside and rode Henry while
they waited for Tori’s mom to come and pick them up.

When Momma arrived, she sat on the porch and talked
with Grammy and Poppy for a few minutes. Then they climbed into the car, and
headed down the long driveway. Tori looked out the back window, waving to her
grandparents until they were out on the main road.

The next day, Tori and Jill walked uptown with the
money they’d made helping Grammy do chores. They went to JC Penney, where they
each picked out one white bra and one black bra, and then headed for the
dressing room. They eagerly stuffed their new projections into the padded
A-cups.

Tori looked into the mirror, turned from side to side,
and thrust her chest forward, admiring her new busty look.

Jill stood beside her, doing the same, then announced
proudly. “Hey, my boobs are bigger than yours. My cups runneth over! I’m almost
ready for a B-cup”

“Yeah, you do have a bit more to put into yours,” Tori
said. “But stop bragging, and almost doesn’t count, so stick with the A-cup and
don’t try to show me up!”

“Oh, my, nobody would dare show you up, Miss Jealous
Pot. Get over it! I’ll be in a B-cup long before you’re ready for one,” Jill
said.

Tori ignored her comment as she continued to admire
herself. “Just look at us. We look like Ava Gardner and Lana Turner – well,
almost. I’ve seen their pictures in old movie books, and they were beautiful
and busty. “I wonder if Ava and Lana wore padding, too.”

“Did they have padded bras in those days?” Jill asked
as if it had been a hundred years since Ava and Lana had graced the covers of
magazines.

“I don’t know – and I don’t care,” Tori said, still
admiring
herself
from all angles.

“Neither do
I
,” Jill said.
“Hey, why don’t we keep the white ones on? I’m not sure I ever want to take it
off. I just look too good!”

“Good idea. We’ll take the tags off and pay for them
when we pay for the black ones. I don’t want to take mine off either,” Tori
said as she ripped off the price tag.

They giggled as they stuffed their undershirts into
their purses. Then they headed for the checkout counter, paid for the bras and
wore the white ones out of the store.

Outside, they headed for a drugstore a block up the
street. They hurried inside, scanned the makeup racks, and counted their money.
They were excited to discover that they had enough to buy a complete makeup
kit: foundation, blush, lipstick, and mascara.

“It’s kind of funny that wiping a little chicken poop
off eggs is going to turn us into the prettiest girls at Tyler Middle School!”
Tori said with a laugh.

“Yeah,” Jill replied. “All the boys are going to be
crazy about us.”

They proudly clutched their purchases as they walked
back to Tori’s house. Once there, they rushed upstairs, pulled on the tightest
sweaters they could find, and lavishly applied their new makeup. They admired
themselves in the full-length mirror, thrusting their breasts out as far as
they could. Tori fluffed her hair, blew a kiss at her reflection, and at that
moment she
was
a movie star in her mind.

“We’re
boy-magnets!” Jill said. “No boy could resist either of us.” Just as Tori was
about to agree, Jill cocked her head as if she’d heard something. “Oh, oh, I
think I hear your parents coming into the house. Maybe we’d better take off
this makeup – quick!”

“No, it’s okay!” Tori said. “In fact, let’s go
downstairs and show off our new look!”

Tori reached for Jill’s hand, but again Jill pulled it
away. “Please! I know my way down the steps. Geeze! I’m tired of you pulling my
arm out of socket every time you decide to go somewhere. Leave me alone!”

“I’m sorry, I forget, and you don’t have to be so
hateful,” Tori said.

“Well, I’ve already told you I’m tired of you dragging
me!” Jill then smiled. All was forgiven for the time being.

Tori returned the smile and said, “Let’s get
downstairs and show Momma and Daddy what we’ve got!”

Downstairs, Tori pranced across the floor and stood in
front of her father as he sat in his recliner reading the newspaper. “Hey,
Pops! How do I look?”

He lowered the paper and looked at her. His face paled
and he yelled, “Mona! You’d better come in here!”

Tori’s mother came in from the kitchen, wiping her
hands on her apron. “What is it Ed?” She then looked at Tori – and instantly
seemed to be on the verge of fainting. “Lord
have
mercy!”

Tori was
confused. Why wasn’t Daddy smiling? Why wasn’t Momma
running for the camera? Neither one of them said a word for a long moment until
her mother managed to say softly, “Our little girl is growing up, Ed. We might
as well accept it.” She turned and walked back into the kitchen, mumbling,
“Lord, lord.”

“Lord is right,” her dad repeated. Then he looked at
the girls and added, “It looks like boy trouble won’t be too far away.”

Anna’s Note

August 22, 1969

Every day for the past twelve years, I’ve picked up
fleeting glimpses of impending doom for my darling granddaughter, yet I can’t
seem to get a clear view. I’ve prayed over and over, begging God to let me see
it all – and to let me tie all those flashes together so they’ll make sense.
I’ve also prayed for a vision of how Jill fits into the picture, but it’s no
use. All I can do is
wait
, wonder, and pray.

Anna West-Morgan

Chapter Five

Tori was fourteen-years-old, five feet and two inches
tall, slim with a fair complexion, and had been told my many people that she
was a stunning beauty. At that time, she thought she should have been allowed
to party with the older kids and not
have
any rules,
but her parents kept her on a short leash.

She and Jill still spent their summers with Grammy and
Poppy and for entertainment they took the cane
poles
Poppy made for them, sat on the pond bank, fished for hours, and complained
about their boring lives and how stupid their parents were.

Tori always dug the worms because Jill said she wasn’t
touching anything slimy. Tori dropped them into a coffee can that was half-full
of dirt, then they headed for the pond, and Tori baited their hooks.

They caught mostly bluegill, which they threw back
because they were too small. They kept the big catfish and tossed them into a
five-gallon bucket of water until they had enough for a meal.

They both dragged the bucket of fish back to the
house, where Poppy skinned and gutted them. Then Grammy would fry them in a
cast iron skillet. When she added hushpuppies and coleslaw to their catch of
the day it was a delicious meal. Eating with Grammy and Poppy always seemed to
make everything taste better.

One hot August day Tori sat on the front porch swing
peeling dead skin from her legs. She had fallen asleep while basking in the
sun, pining for Jill, who was in Waco visiting her grandparents.

Grammy came outside after she had finished baking a
cake and made her way across the porch. She dropped her tired body into the
swing, wiped sweat from the back of her neck, and fanned herself with a straw
hand fan. The heat and humidity had made her cotton dress stick to her, but she
said the heat helped relieve her arthritis somewhat.

She patted Tori’s thigh. “I warned you about too much
sun at once. You have to take it easy the first few times you lay out. And I
know you’re blue for Jill, but she’ll be home soon. I miss her, too.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tori said sullenly. “I just get
lonesome – and bored. Don’t take offence, Grammy. You know how I love spending
time with you and Poppy, but I want to do something exciting – and I’m never
allowed to do anything!”

“Oh, sweet, your day will come.” Grammy wiped her
brow. “Don’t wish time away. It goes fast enough – though at your age time does
seem to crawl. As for me, I can’t believe you and Jill will be starting high
school in two weeks. Where does the time go?”

“Boy, I hope life picks up once I’m in high school!
Today I just want Jill to be here. I miss her so much.” Tori sighed as if the
world was standing still and it would remain so until Jill returned. She sighed
again, patted Grammy’s arm, and asked, “Did you finish my doll you started
awhile back?”

“I sure did. I was going to make two of them alike,
one for you and one for Jill, but my poor old hands wore out. I guess you two
will have to share the one,” she answered, rubbing her hands together the way
she always did – even when her arthritic hands weren’t aching.

“Grammy, do you remember me telling you about the
first day I met Jill and there seemed to be sparks between us when we first
touched hands?”

“Yeah, I sure do.”

“When I asked what it meant, you said you’d explain it
to me when I was older.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I’m older, right? So will you please explain it
to me? It was the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Tori said,
pausing as she remembered that moment. “I’ll never forget the feeling.”

“I think you’re old enough to grasp the concept. I
suppose your momma wouldn’t want me talking about it, but you asked and I’m
going to tell you what I believe. You can take it for what it’s worth. It’s
like this. You felt a strong energy when you touched hands because your spirits
are linked – you’re kindred spirits, some people would call it. Your spirits
recognized each other from another lifetime – maybe many lifetimes.”

Tori looked into Grammy’s eyes. “I believe in
reincarnation. I think we get more than one chance to get things right, so we
keep coming back again and again. Jill and I have always had a special
connection. We can even communicate with our eyes, and sometimes it’s like we
can read each other’s mind.”

“You can,” Grammy said, nodding her head. “I’ve seen
you two exchange looks when you don’t want me to hear something – almost like
identical twins.”

“Do you think we might have been twins in another life
time?” Tori
asked,
her eyes as big as saucers.

“I guess it’s possible. We don’t usually remember how
we were related in previous lives – or maybe we weren’t related.” She pushed
herself up from the swing, using Tori’s leg for support, and added, “Your momma
probably wouldn’t approve of our talking about reincarnation, so I guess I’ve
said enough for now.”

As Grammy went back into the house, Tori continued to
peel her thighs. She had been determined to have a dark tan by the time Jill
came home, but the fresh pale skin beneath the peeling layer told her it wasn’t
going to happen.

She went inside and helped Grammy make supper. After
they had eaten and the dishes were washed, dried, and put away, they again went
outside and sat together on the swing. They sat in silence for a while,
enjoying the sounds and smells of the summer night.

Then Tori asked, “Grammy, how do you get the gift?”

“I guess it’s just one of those things you inherit,”
Grammy said. “Many mountain people have it. It’s kind of like the mountains are
so close to Heaven that God just reaches down and blesses certain people with
the gift of sight. I inherited it from my great-grandma. It seems to skip two
generations.”

Tori thought for a moment. “That means my child could
inherit it. Wow! That would be so neat! My daughter could tell me what to
expect in the future. I could definitely dig a daughter like that,” she said.
“Or son,” she quickly added.

Grammy said, “I’ve often thought about that, too. But
let’s just be quite for a few minutes and listen to the night sounds. To me
there’s nothing any more peaceful or calming than the sound of God’s creatures
on a summer night. Crickets used to sing me to sleep when I was a child.”

“Well, you can call it singing if you want to. I just
call it racket” Tori laughed.

“Racket or not, let’s be still for a while,” Grammy
said. They rocked gently and listened to the soothing night sounds of chirping
crickets and croaking frogs. Twinkling fireflies put on a dazzling display
against the vast blackness of the Milky Way.

Tori gently lay her head on Grammy’s shoulder, and
whispered, “When I was little, you always told me that twinkling stars were
angels blowing kisses, remember?”

“Of course,” she replied, giving Tori a squeeze. “And
it’s the truth. Look up there. The angels are blowing you kisses from all
across the sky.”

At that moment, Tori couldn’t imagine being anywhere
else in the whole world. She even found herself enjoying the singing of the
crickets.

Soon, Grammy’s head began to nod. Tori motioned to
Poppy, who was sitting in his favorite metal rocker by the front door. Poppy walked
toward Grammy, took her hand, and said softly, “Come sweet, it’s time for us to
go to bed.”

Tori said goodnight as she watched Grammy and Poppy
walk slowly through the screen door and thought how wonderful it was that they
were still so much in love after fifty years of marriage. She couldn’t imagine
her life without them. She gently pushed the swing back and forth, listening to
the comforting sound of the squeaking chains until she glanced at her watch and
saw that it was almost eleven o’clock. She decided it was time to call it a
night herself.

The next morning, Grammy rattling pots and pans
awakened her. Her bedroom was downstairs and she could hear every sound in the
house. She crawled out of bed and slowly made her way into the kitchen. “Are
you making biscuits?” she asked sleepily as she walked to Grammy’s side.

Grammy was stirring gravy in the old cast iron skillet
and when she heard Tori’s voice, she dropped the spoon into the hot gravy.
“Lord, have mercy, child! Someday you’re going give me a heart attack!”

Tori laughed as she always did when she startled
Grammy. She’d been doing it since she was old enough to sneak up on her, and
always when she least expected it. “Sorry, I thought you heard me coming,” Tori
said, and realized she had to be more careful with Grammy.

Grammy laughed, too. “Sit down. I’ll fix you a plate,
you little imp!”

Tori sat down at the table and a few minutes later
Grammy set a plate filled with biscuits, gravy, and fried eggs in front of her.

As Tori began eating, she said, “You know I’ve got to
go home today. Jill is supposed to be back early in the morning and I can’t
wait to see her. Can you drive me to town when we’re done with breakfast?”

Before Grammy could respond, Tori thought she heard a
car door slam out in the driveway. Then she heard a second door slam.

“Jill!” she said, jumping up and running out of the
kitchen. Though she stubbed her toe on the coffee table as she rushed through
the living room, she made it outside in record time.

As she ran across the porch, Jill was headed up the
steps. They hugged each other and jumped up and down, doing their pee-dance as
they had always called it. “I knew it was you. I could feel it in my bones!”

“Well, tell your bones to stop being such
tattletales.” Jill laughed. “I wanted to surprise you.”

Grammy emerged from the house and stood watching their
happy reunion and waiting for them to stop chattering long enough to say,
“Well, let me give my other granddaughter a hug. I’ve missed her, too, you
know.”

Jill raced up the steps and hugged Grammy tightly. “I
missed you, too, Grammy.”

“Lands sakes, where’s my manners,” Grammy said after a
few moments. “Come on in, Rose. We can have a cup of tea while these two do
some catching up.”

Rose and Grammy visited while Jill helped Tori gathered
her clothes from around the house – including the bedroom floor, the backs of
chairs, and the bathroom. About a half hour later, her bag was packed and she
was ready to go. They both kissed Grammy goodbye, and then hurried outside and
climbed into the backseat of Rose’s car.

As they drove down the driveway, Tori looked at Jill,
and said, “We’ve only got two weeks to practice our cheerleading before school
starts.”

Jill laughed. “I think two weeks is enough time to get
our jumps, flips, and splits perfected.”

“I hope so. You know I have trouble doing a full split
like you can. But I’ll get it with a little more practice.” Tori hoped she was
right.

They began practicing in Tori’s backyard that
afternoon and continued for the next two weeks. Cheerleading was the most
important thing at that time.

* * * *

The first day of high school was the biggest thrill of
Tori’s life – partly because her parents had promised she could double date
when she became a freshman. The thought of her first date and her first kiss
nearly overwhelmed her. She was in the big league now – a genuine high schooler
– and if she were elected cheerleader, she thought that she’d really be
stepping in high cotton.

Two weeks after school began, all the students
assembled in the gym. Coach Norman walked to the middle of the floor and stood
in front of a microphone.

“Good morning
students – and for all you freshmen, welcome to Dixon High.”
He paused and waited for the students to settle down,
and then continued. “Before we begin the tryouts for cheerleaders, I’d like to
introduce our varsity football team. As I call each player by name, give them a
big hand if you please.”

The students fidgeted during the ensuing quiet.

“Wesley Asner, quarterback,” Coach said.

Wesley came running out from the locker room, across
the gym floor, took his stance, legs apart, and his hands behind his back, and
smiled.

Tori felt her face flush, not believing her eyes. The
boy she had seen in dreams was standing in front of her! He had coal-black
hair, brown eyes, olive complexion, and a wide smile showing pearly teeth.

She sucked in a deep breath. It was mind-blowing.
Grammy had always told her to pay attention to dreams because they were
messages from the angels, showing her what lay ahead. She’d never really known
what Grammy was talking about until that moment.

She barely heard Coach Norman announce the next
player, “Billy Rice, wide receiver.” Billy ran across the floor and stood next
to Wesley, and smiled. He was stocky, with sandy-blond hair and steel-gray
eyes.

Jill gasped, and then whispered in Tori’s ear, “Geeze!
That’s the best-looking hunk on the face of this earth!”

“No,” Tori said, shaking her head, “I think Wesley
is!”

Coach announced the names of the other players one by
one, and they each ran across the floor and joined their teammates. There was a
thunderous ovation as all the players stood for a moment. Then Coach asked them
to join the other students in the bleachers while cheerleading tryouts took
place.