Gertie's Choice (5 page)

Janet had told her that
perhaps it was fate – that being the child of rape might have
caused her, as the mother, to resent and hate the child growing
within her. Knowing that as a mortal, the Great Evil was certainly
dead all of these centuries later helped in that respect. Also,
Gertie had the satisfaction in knowing that it was by her own hand
that her rapist died and that he would never be in her daughter’s
life. She did not know if she would ever tell Ophelia the true
story of her conception and birth. She had grown to love Thelma and
Luna as her own and thus welcomed her own child when she started to
make herself known.

She and her sister Ophelia
were born of two like entities and thus they were very powerful.
Thelma and Luna were half mortal like her daughter Ophelia and they
too were perfect
. Well, except for Luna,
but that is my fault.
Gertie thought,
thinking of the fight her and her sister Ophelia had one day in a
neighboring marketplace where Gertie had cursed Ophelia. She had
forgotten all about her oath that day, invoking the powers that be
to make her sister’s first born daughter have a backside the size
of the watermelon that they had been fighting over. She and her
sister were used to saying
offensive words or phrases to each other to express
anger or annoyance. Neither of them ever actually meant them and up
until little Luna’s birth, never saw any results of their curses
yelled in anger. Except for the heavy blue mist.

Gertie jumped as a vehicle honked
its horn at her. That was another thing
that was hard to get used to, all the wonders of this new world
that had opened up to them. No one road horses or had carriages.
They road metal contraptions that had motors in them and horns and
they were far less polite than those on horseback.

Gertie sat down on a bench and took out her treasured
purchases. She had found a store that sold face paint and Gertie
was an instant fan. She bought bright red lipstick and matching
paint that women here put on their finger nails and some even put
on their toe nails.
She did not find this to be frivolous as she was determined to
build what this side of the mountains called a Spa. A place where
you could go and be pampered and treated like royalty. She ordered
stock for her Spa with all of the most modern forms of makeup and
lotions. Janet had the knowledge of how to make oils and lotions
that made your skin feel soft and make you look younger too and
Gertie wanted Janet to teach her how to make them. Gertie had
witnessed how the servants had treated Janet in the old country.
She wanted to be treated like royalty herself. That had always been
her goal.

Janet had first taken
Gertie with her into this town on the other side of the mountains
several years ago, leaving Cindy and Ashton to watch the girls.
Accounts had been established and over the several years that they
had been here now, they had acquired almost every single thing that
they needed to become and stay self-sufficient and
self-contained.

There had been a convoy of
trucks filled with building materials and supplies that would come
into the new Village. Janet and Ashton would lead them to the
correct spot in the mountain range. Then, right before the convoy
of trucks neared the right set of mountains, Janet would hold the
ruby red ring up to the sun and whisper. The mountains would part
and a path would show the way into their Village. After the trunks
were all unloaded and the workers completed their tasks, the hard
working men would be served a special brew of coffee. Delicious and
effective.

They had planted and grown
their crops well and had harvested much. They had named their new
home Enchanted. Gertie, liked the name very much. It also made her
feel better that Julia had been calling herself Janet. Gertie knew
that it was silly, but calling her Janet made her, in Gertie’s
eyes, more of a friend than her old mistress employer, second
cousin to the king, Julia.

Gertie smiled into her
little mirror as she applied the red lipstick. She thought it went
very well with her red hair. She saw a group of young men walking
across the street from where she sat. All of the men had on a sort
of uniform and looked very nice in them. Gertie especially liked
the way one of the young men looked. Gertie loved to walk the
streets here and listen to people talk. Her sister Ophelia would
have chastised her for ease dropping had she been there, but Gertie
knew that here that was the only way she could learn about this new
world.

Gertie could hear a loud
noise every time someone went in or out of the building that the
young men had gone into. She slowly walked across the street to see
what she could find out about this place and maybe get another look
at the tall young man she noticed with the others.

Gertie tried to peek in the
windows of the establishment, but there was painted words on the
glass that prevented her from seeing clearly into it. As she stood
there with her hands to the side of her eyes, trying to get a
better look, she felt rather than actually saw, someone standing
next to her. She jumped and turned and had to lift her face up a
good inch in order to see the mouth on the face of the person now
speaking to her.

“You can see more if you
come in. May I buy you a drink?” The young man said. Ophelia
thought that this was the most handsome young man she had ever seen
in her very long life thus far. He had big brown eyes and dark
brown hair and had one of those uniforms on that the young men she
had seen walking into the building earlier had on. In fact, this
one was the one she had been searching for through the
window.

“Excuse me?” Ophelia
asked, wanting to take another moment to collect herself before
answering him. She wanted very much to see what was inside of the
building and also wanted very much to walk into the building with
this nice stranger on her arm. Most of all she wanted to continue
speaking with this young man standing before her. But he had
offered to purchase her a drink and she could not help thinking of
the coffee that she herself had given out to the workers on their
way out of Enchanted.
Could this be some
sort of a trap?

“Thank you, sir, but I am
not in the mood for coffee.” She finally said. “Then come inside
and have a beer, or a soft drink. My name is John and I would like
to talk with you longer, but my own drink is waiting for me inside
and I am afraid it is getting warmer the longer I stay out
here.”

Ophelia did not know what a
beer, nor a soft drink, was. But she was instantly smitten with the
young man before her and decided that she would go inside the
building with him and see for herself. “Alright, I shall come
inside with you, John. My name is Gertie.”

“What an enchanted name.”
John said, smiling down on her.

“Funny you should say
that.” Gertie said, walking ahead of him into the
building.

The inside was so much
darker than it had been outside that at first Gertie wanted to turn
around and run back outside, sure that this must be some sort of a
dungeon. There was a white fog like substance in the air. It all
made Gertie a bit light headed. The music was loud and this type of
music she was hearing was foreign to her ears.

John led Gertie to a table
where they sat and he asked her if she would like a beer. Gertie
pointed to the drink that was in front of him and asked him if that
were one of these beers? When John said it was, she said it looked
like the type of drink that she used to see in the Ale
houses.

“Ale houses? Where are you
from, Gertie?”

Gertie at once panicked.
She was here to get information, not to dispense with her life
story. “I would like one of those soft drinks you spoke of,
please.” She asked. When the sugary dark liquid was brought to her
Gertie thought that it did not look so dangerous. She took a
cautious sip and then proceeded to drain the entire contents of the
glass in record time.

John laughed and told her
that he was glad that she had enjoyed it and asked if she would
like another. “Yes, please” Gertie told him. When her second drink
came, Gertie decided to drink it in a more lady like fashion. She
looked around at all the young men and women and saw that they were
holding tiny white sticks in their hands. Gertie had never before
seen white smoke come out of anyone’s mouth or noes and she was
intrigued. She watched as some of the young men and women danced
together, closely. This too was a new concept to her.

Gertie was having so much
fun that she lost track of the time. When she finally did realize
that she had to be back home before they sent out a search party
for her, she panicked. She had a very long walk through the
mountains and if the sun went down she would not know how to use
the ring to secure a path. She made a mental note to ask Janet what
she should do if that occurred. Of course, if she had returned home
after her business there was conducted, she would have been home
hours ago.

Gertie sat there and
suddenly felt depressed. Here she was having all of this fun and
learning new things, when her daughter Ophelia was being cared for
by Cindy and Janet. That was not right.

Gertie’s basic instincts
told her that she did not want to tell this young man where she
lived, no matter how nice he had been to her. When John excused
himself to use the restroom, Gertie walked out of the front door
and continued to walk at a fast pace, until she came to the area
she needed to be. She looked up at the sun which was beginning to
fade behind a cloud and she was afraid.

A moment later the cloud
moved and once again the sun shone brightly. Gertie raised her hand
to the sun with her finger pointing at the mountain and soon she
was able to pass through on her way back to Enchanted.

Chapter 8

Gertie was out of breath
by the time she reached the big house with the thatched roof. They
had purchased a miniature horse that they had named Zippy and he
had been waiting at the bottom of the hill to take Gertie home, but
she was still out of breath when she ran up onto the porch and into
the kitchen.

“I’m here, I am home now!”
She called out. She noticed the clean dishes drying on the side of
the sink and felt guilty that she had missed having even one meal
with her daughter.

“There you are!” Janet
said, walking into the kitchen. “What is that smell and what is
that you have all over your mouth? Are you bleeding, child? Have
you been in some sort of a fire? Sit down and let me attend to you!
I just put Ophelia down for her nap, she ate well, but missed you
something awful.”

Gertie took her mirror and
looked at herself in it. Not a pretty sight! Her hair was sticking
up from running and her red lipstick was half worn off and some of
it was on her chin and teeth. She could also smell the cigarette
smoke on her clothes.

“What have you been up to,
girl? Did you make arrangements for more supplies and workers to
meet us on the other side of the hill tomorrow morning as I
asked?”

“Yes, of course I did.”
Gertie replied, picking up a piece of bread that was freshly baked
and on the table. “Ten o clock tomorrow morning at the Sometimes
Pass, just like you said.”

“Sit down, child, and tell
me what has you all aflutter and looking like you have been running
from the devil himself.” Janet said.

“Not a devil, a young man.
I met a young man today named John.”

“A young man named John.”
Janet repeated Ophelia’s words. “Where exactly did you meet this
young man named John? Is he one of the merchants we deal
with?”

“Oh no, I was sitting on a
bench just resting my feet.” Ophelia started to say.

“You would have no need to
rest them so often if you didn’t wear those foot coverings with
spikes on the bottom of them.” Janet said.

“They are called high
heels, Janet. I also bought some red lipstick and I ordered a lot
of stuff just like it, lotions and oils and powders, to stock The
Spa when the workers finish with it.”

“I don’t think you should
use that particular kind of lip paint, dear, it does not seem to
want to stay on the lip. You even have some of it on your
teeth.”

“That is only because I
drank soft drinks, and I smell like this because I was in a room
where people were using these things that look like small white
sticks that they called cigarettes that produce white smoke.”
Ophelia tried to explain.

These new people you say
you have spent time with today, you say they produce white smoke?
You did not do anything to show them your blue mist, did you? Who
are these people? Are they from this world, or ours?”

“As far as I know they are
just plain people of this world who enjoy blowing smoke out of
their mouths and noses, drinking ale that they call beer. They
dance to some very peculiar music and twist and turn their bodies
in a sort of dance. Janet, you should see them, the boys and the
girls dance close together and even have their arms around each
other while doing it!” Gertie exclaimed.

“It does not seem very lady
like, and you say that this young man, John, took you to this place
where they all perform these acts?”