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| Photograph: Michal Hlavac/Unsplash |
A white owl perched in a tree with brilliant green leaves. Its yellow eyes glowed as it stared down at the woman lying on sanguine dirt. She was motionless, but the owl watched her closely, tilting its head slightly. The sky was blood red, as if the world was ablaze, but there was no fire in sight.
Someone’s watching me.
Althea’s eyes flew open in a panic. She sat abruptly, her heart pounding in her chest as fear gripped her throat. The owl in the tree shifted as if it was commanding her attention. Startled, Althea looked up at the bird. It simply gazed down into her eyes with the same contemplative stare.
Where was she? How did she get here? Althea tried to remember the events that brought her to this moment, face to face with this dazzling creature, but she couldn’t retrace her steps. Althea examined her surroundings.
The green leaves of the tree were in sharp contrast with the sky. The white of the owl against all the red made it look like an angel coming to save the righteous from doom. It didn’t feel real. Althea walked closer to the tree.
The owl sat on a branch that hung low. So low that Althea and the creature were eye to eye. She suddenly had a strong urge to touch it. Slowly raising her hand, she studied the bird closely as she stretched out her arm.
No movement. The bird appeared to trust her. Appeared to be willing to be touched by her. It sat still, watching as her hand got closer. For a moment, Althea was convinced that the bird was leaning towards her.
Do owls bite?
The thought came suddenly. The wonder in Althea’s heart began to cloud with fear. She hesitated for a moment, pausing her hand mid-air. It was a moment too long. In a whirlwind of wings and feathers, the snowy owl leaped off the branch and took to the sky. Flapping its wings so forcefully that Althea’s coily hair shifted violently.
Althea watched the bird disappear into the horizon. A crumbling sound brought her attention back to the tree. It disintegrated in front of her. The vibrant green and deep brown turned to gray ash and fell to the floor. Althea knelt down and ran her finger through the ashes. A knot formed in the back of her throat.
The stillness was disturbed by a large breeze. It swooped in and lifted the ashes into the air, sending them over Althea’s right shoulder and fleeing behind her back. She whipped her head around to follow the dust’s path, but it was gone.
In the distance, an object glimmered in the sunlight. Althea looked up into the sky.
What’s wrong with the sun?
It seemed smaller, less intense than she was used to. Its usual warmth was replaced by a distant iciness. The object glimmered again, recapturing Althea’s attention. She walked towards it. Her footsteps were so light she felt like she was gliding.
A mechanical beast slept peacefully in the sand. Up close, it was quite large. A layer of red sand rested gently on top of an array of solar panels. To Althea, the machine resembled a bird with a long, proud neck. Its wings splayed at its sides. She knelt down for a closer inspection.
On one of the wheels, there were letters buried underneath the red dust. Althea brushed it off with the back of her hand. White letters were shown against a blue background: NASA. Althea gasped and stepped back.
A rover?
She surveyed her surroundings again with new eyes. Red sky. Red earth. Cold sun. It all finally clicked.
“Spirit,” she said, gazing at the rover with wild eyes. “Is that you?”
The mars rover remained motionless. Its camera staring off into a distant place that it would never reach. Althea rubbed some of the dust off the panels. She remembered reading an article about Spirit, the Mars Exploration Rover that got stuck in the martian sand. It’d been a decade since anyone heard from it. And yet, here it was.
Althea smiled at her rare find. No one would believe that she had found the lost rover. She couldn’t wait to tell-
The sound of an ocean and a seagull squawking interrupted her thoughts. Althea glanced over her shoulder as a crisp breeze washed over her. She was standing on top of a hill staring at a large body of water. It looked just like the beach, except the sand was ruby red, and the water was black. Was it even water, Althea wondered.
She watched in awe as roaring black waves crashed into the red sand, sending shimmering droplets of black into the air. A seagull flew overhead, floating in the gentle breeze. Althea closed her eyes and let the wind dance with her kinky hair.
Serene.
When she opened her eyes, she was standing at the shoreline. The shimmering black water raced from the deep, stopping just before it reached her toes then skipping away. It reminded her of the onyx in her grandmother’s high school class ring, deep and dark while also light and reflective.
Once, while she was looking through some old photos, she happened upon a picture of her grandmother affectionately hugging a man who was not her grandfather. At first, she was going to dismiss it, but something in their body language indicated more than friendship.
“Big Mama, who’s this man you’re all boo’d up with in this picture,” she asked, a big grin on her face.
Her grandmother peered over her shoulder at the photo. A warm, involuntary smile crossed her face.
“None of your business. That’s who.”
Althea and Big Mama giggled like two schoolgirls. Big Mama glanced over her shoulder to make sure that they were alone before taking a seat next to Althea at the kitchen table.
“The summer before my senior year of high school,” Big Mama said in a hushed voice, with an accompanying mischievous grin, “I got the notion that I was an adult and could make my own decisions in life. Every year my mama and daddy went back South to visit family, and they dragged us kids along with them, except I was convinced that now that I was going to be a senior, I was pretty much an adult and could do whatever I wanted.”
Althea let out a laugh, “and how did that go over with Mama D?”
“Terrible,” Big Mama said, chuckling. “Child, she slapped me over my head and told me wasn’t no adults in her house that didn’t pay rent. I ended up going, but I was PISSED about it. I decided that since I was forced into this boring, old family vacation, I might as well make the most of it by going on an excursion.
One night when everyone was asleep, I snuck out and went down to this little hole-in-the-wall joint where all of the college kids used to hang out.”
“Oooooooo Big Mama, no you didn’t!”
“Girl, yes, I did! I ain’t have no sense back then.” Big Mama stared affectionately at the picture, running her finger over the anonymous beau that she clung to.
“The place was jumping. They didn’t even have security at the door. You could just stroll right on in. And stroll I did. I walked up to the bar and told the bartender I wanted whatever was going to help me have the best time. And boy, did he oblige!
Before I knew it, I was out on the dance floor in a trance. Swaying with the music. It was so hot that my dress clung to my hips, and my little press-and-curl wore out.
As I was dancing, I felt like there were eyes on me, like someone was watching me. Well, I looked around, and that’s when I saw him, Joseph Clayton, the tallest, finest drink of water I’d ever laid eyes on. Until your grandfather, that is.”
Big Mama gave Althea a wink.
“Anyway, he didn’t even look away when he saw me notice him. He just kept staring. I thought he was going to burn a hole through me. That liquid courage had me brave, brave. I marched up to him and asked him if he was just gonna stand there and stare or if he was going to join me.”
Althea gasped.
“Mmhmmmm, I sure did. Joe wasn’t the type of man to back down from no challenge. He ain’t even say anything. Just grabbed me by my waist and led me back out to the dance floor. We danced and danced and danced, and we would’ve kept on dancing had the cops not shown up to raid the place because Pinky, the owner, refused to pay a bribe.
I was scared, but Joe was used to that sort of thing. He just grabbed my hand and led me out the back of the place and into his old truck. Before I knew it, we were speeding out of the dirt parking lot, laughing our heads off.”
"And then what happened,” Althea asked suspiciously.
“Oh, not much. We drove down to the creek. Sat by the water talking.”
Althea looked dubious. She raised her eyebrow and waited. Big Mama laughed nervously like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar.
“Okay, we may have gone skinny dipping.”
“Big Mama!”
“What? I told you I ain’t have no sense back then. He was cute, and I wanted to break the rules. So I did.”
Big Mama laid the picture on the table and studied it warmly. Althea watched her. Her grandmother’s nostalgia washed over her as if it was her own.
“Did you give him some cookie, Big Mama?”
“Althea! Now, what type of question is that to ask your grandmother?”
“A valid one,” Althea replied. “You looking at his picture awful thirsty like.”
“Girl, you ain’t got no sense,” Big Mama said with a chuckle. “I ain’t looking at his picture like nothing, and I didn’t give him any cookie. Your grandfather was my first and only.”
“Mmhmm, if you say so,” Althea retorted.
“What are you two in here laughing about,” Althea’s father asked, interrupting the banter.
Althea smiled as she looked out over the martian ocean. Whenever she thought of Big Mama, she felt warm inside with a twinge of sadness in her heart. Nobody made her laugh or told stories like her late grandmother. She missed her desperately.
Sitting in the sand, Althea watched the picturesque. She wished she had her own Joe Clayton to go skinny dipping with.
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