TheBanyanTree: A Story I Wrote A Long Time Ago

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

THE TALE OF THE SHADOWS AND MIRRORS
By Sharon L. Mack

The great coat came from her father.  He was a large man and had worn it most days of his life, sometimes even in the summer if it rained hard enough.  After he died the neighbors and friends  that came to help wanted to throw it away with all the other useless paraphernalia that had made him, him.  Dera let them do what they wanted but not with the coat...never, never, the coat.  It looked like him and smelled like him and when she put it on she walked like him.  Hard large strides, man-like in every way.  Heavy and strong.
 
The sleeves covered her larger than life hands and the hem came to the tip of her boots.  Most of the buttons were gone so she used large pins to keep it closed when the weather grew cold.  Dera liked the way it felt on her shoulders.  It felt like his strong arm covering her, protecting her.  It was the only thing that made her feel small...the largeness of the man, the largeness that was her father.
 
Dera kept that coat and wore it into her old age.  After her father died life was not good to Dera.  Her father left a great debt and so the old place was sold and all that was within it.  Nothing much was left except a few personal items and five hundred dollars.  Dera didn't have many skills and no one wanted to hire a girl in those days, no matter what her strength and size.  So Dera was sent to live with relatives far away from the place she called home.
 
The relatives, a distant Aunt and Uncle, were cold and uncaring.  They felt Dera was a burden and said so openly.  They took what was left of the money.  Dera quit school and spent days in her room wrapped in the great coat listening to the sounds of the wilderness around her.  She would sing and talk to the spirits.  The spirits would bring her father to her.  Dera could talk to him...she could talk to them...they understood her sorrows.
 
As Dera got older and stranger, her Aunt and Uncle asked her to leave.  They said things were getting too hard and they no longer could take care of her.  She felt a strange urge to giggle at them but suppressed it.  Dera thanked them, turned and picked up her great coat and her aunt's great hat.  She never knew why she did that.  It was a silly hat.  Broad and pink and feminine, just what she wasn't.  The brim extended past her shoulders, which she shrugged as Auntie began to scream after her, "Bring my hat back you idiot...bring my hat back!"  But Dera didn't bring the hat back.  Dera continued down the hill and away from the ugliness of the people who never cared.
 
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The people in the city used to see Dera in her father's great green coat curled up on a doorstep, or in the alleys going through the large trash bins.  She often collected bottles and turned them in for cash at the liquor store.  Dera stood out among her people, the street people of the city, because of her large pink hat.  Everyone knew who she was.  People avoided looking at her directly because of her size, which was most intimidating.  They would go around her in a large wide arc or cross the street if the walkway was too narrow.  They never knew where she came from and no one really cared.
 
Julia used to notice her from her window.  She lived above her father's restaurant with her family and would watch Dera go through the trash for food.  Once Julia tried to give Dera clean food from the kitchen but Dera had disappeared before the door had fully opened.  Julia felt sorry for the tall woman in the great, green coat and the large pink hat.  She wondered about her often.

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When the carnival came to town, Julia went with her three brothers.  They had to go late because everyone was busy at the restaurant.  Upon arriving, her brothers went their own way leaving Julia to herself.  There weren't many people left by then but Julia didn't care.  She rode the rides almost alone, ate her hot dog and cotton candy in peace and could easily find a place to rest on the benches outside the tents and kiosks.
 
The Carneys were tired and so they weren't chanting their usual chants.  The called out only when she passed them.  As Julia walked the midway she heard one voice that stood out above the rest. She looked around to see which Carney was calling to her, but all were silent, so Julia stood still listening.  It was a soothing voice; it seemed to float on the air hovering just above Julia.  It was as though it only called to her.  Then it suddenly stopped.

Julia looked around for her brothers but they were nowhere to be found.  She looked toward the fright house where an old Carney stood.  He stared at her and then waved his hand, his voice wooing her to come inside.  At first Julia resisted but before long her curiosity won out.  She looked toward the house again and the little man winked a slow wink and crooking his finger at her pointed to the door.  Above the door was a sign, "Shadows and Mysteries Among the Mirrors."  Julia went to the door.  A strange power drew her in.
 
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As Julia walked among the mirrors, playing in front of them all, she wondered what the 'shadows and mysteries' were.  Perhaps it was just a ruse to draw folks in.  Each mirror was different and each mirror was placed at a different angle forcing a maze through which one had to walk.  It seemed endless and the directions were many and varied.  Julia began to wonder about a way out.  She was afraid her brothers would look for her and not finding her would be angry with her.  Julia wandered left and then right and then tried to work her way back to the beginning but the mirrors wouldn't let her.  The deeper into the maze she got the more it began to feel like the mirrors were moving, blocking her retreat.  She looked into them deeply to see if she could see something.  Her sense of direction became non-existent.
 
Julia walked and walked, this way and that turning as the mirrors turned, further and further, deeper and deeper.  The darkness cast strange shadows upon the mirrored images of her as she passed.  She thought she heard a kitten mew, a puppy whine, a baby cry.  None were exactly clear.  It was more of an impression upon her ears.  A soft breeze blew as though someone were fanning her face.  As she looked up she was surprised to see tiny white feathers fill the air, tumbling and floating towards her like snowflakes.  They fell to her uplifted face and tickled her cheeks.  She held out her hands and tried to catch them as they floated to the floor.  She walked and skipped and twirled among the feathers laughing and giggling with joy.  How beautiful!  How special! At last Julia stopped and closed her eyes and lifted her face to the feathers, letting them fall uninterrupted.  When she opened her eyes at last she was surprised to see a single mirror the size of a large wall several feet in front of her.  Instead of mirrors angled around her there were satin and silk clothes draped where the mirrors should have been. The mirror began to move backward revealing a beam of blue-white light under which stood a dim figure.  The figure stood before the mirror facing Julia but the image in the great mirror showed a profile rather than a rear view.  
 
Julia felt she probably should be afraid but she wasn't. The figure seemed vaguely familiar.  Taking a few steps closer the image began to clear and with shock and surprise Julia knew who the person was before her.  It was the lady of the streets.  The figure shoved her hands deep within the pockets of her great coat and smiled behind the veil of her great pink hat.
 
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Dera knew the child.  She had tried to give Dera food when she was hungry.  The spirits had told her that the child was magical and Dera believed them.  She watched Julia's face and knew that the child was not afraid and Dera liked that.  So many were afraid of her.  Julia peered at the image in the great mirror watching as the figure of Dera bent forward in it but stood tall before it.  As the image in the mirror stood up it was holding a kitten, nuzzling its soft fur.  The image blurred and cleared and Julia saw a puppy just under the hem of the great coat.  A child floated past in a great blue bubble.  It held a small white feather in its hand and gurgled with contentment.  A dove flew above the mirrored image of Dera and sat upon her shoulder completely unafraid. 
 
Dera still stood facing Julia with her hands shoved deep into the pockets of the great coat and smiling.  Julia drew nearer mesmerized by what she was seeing.  Softly, gently Dera put her hand on Julia's back, guiding her toward the great mirror.  The breeze picked up and the great cloths billowed around them closing off the rest of the room.  Slowly Julia was pulled into the imagery of the mirror, first as a shadow and then as a reflection and finally into the flaps of the great green coat.