INVISIBLE PART 4 Written by Marini Barika Facey "CARDINAL"
Wings flap and paint the clear blue skies.
Red feathers fall and amuse the eyes.
An old man weakly bends and gathers the red feathers.
He sticks them in an envelope but they are not for a letter.
He picks up his dark red cane that he propped against a tree.
This old man has forgotten about the throbbing pain in his knees.
Slowly he walks to his cabin with a peculiar glee.
He leans his cane onto his sturdy wooden chest.
And he lays the envelope on his dusty desk.
Silently he is amused and curiously impressed.
He rustles through his dusty desk quite obsessed.
Woodrow is written on the side of the dark wooden cane.
And that name is engraved on the edge of a picture frame.
In this frame stands a tall handsome solider.
But now Woodrow is much, much older.
He once met a witch doctor named Ahkmad during his travels East.
The mad man gave Woodrow a parchment letter,
and a cane engraved with his name.
Ahkmad sternly warned him not to unseal the parchment on Eastern sand!
If Woodrow did, powers unknown would be unleashed and curse his hands.
Ahkmad also warned Woodrow not to open the letter too soon.
If he uses it before its time, it would bring him great ruin.
The witch doctor told him to open the letter after he needed the dark cane to walk. Ahkmad repeatedly chanted,
"The letter will then walk! Your chest will become a rock!
The letter will then talk! Your chest will become a rock!
The letter will then knock! Your chest will become a rock!
The letter will unleash the flock! Your chest will become a rock!"
Confused Woodrow heeded this stranger's stern words.
But he thought Ahkmad was deranged at first.
Until he returned home and kept being visited by radiant red birds.
He no longer thought the witch doctor was insanely absurd.
Woodrow opens Ahkmad's envelope with the faded parchment letter.
And pulls out of the other the radiant red feathers.
He put on his spectacles and reads the faded words aloud;
"If you can find freshly fallen red feathers,
then you can benefit from this letter.
Gently tether this parchment and the feathers
and place them in a pot of boiling water.
Stir this pot until its water is painted with a glistening blood and gold.
Let its radiance capture your soul!
Close your eyes and fantasize about who you once were.
Deeply breathe in the sacred that allures and reverses time.
Let it consume you! Let it mesmerize! Let it burn you! Let it set on fire!
If you take heed, you will become what you once were,
a man full of youth, vigor, and esteem.
Deeply breathe in the sacred, that allures and reverses time.
Deeply breathe in this drifting steam.
Burn to ashes the parchment and feathers,
because if you do not it will curse you forever!"
Woodrow tries to follow each instruction and lets the steam deeply consume.
But he forgets to burn the parchment and feathers to ashes, and excitedly leaves the room.
He looks in his mirror in wonder and surprise.
Woodrow strikes his hands against his sturdy youthful chest.
He can't believe his eyes!
His chest is like solid sturdy rock.
Suddenly, Woodrow hears a loud chirping flock!
He turns and looks at his knocking red cane.
And he watches his moving engraved name.
It crawls off of Ahkmad's cane and onto the floor.
And it heads towards the kitchen door.
It climbs into the boiling pot,
and foretells what will happen to Woodrow because he forgot.
The dark red cane becomes a raging flock of flapping feathers.
And chases after Woodrow,
as he runs to the pot to destroy the boiling letter.
He pours it out and burns his hands,
but swiftly strikes a match.
The parchment and red feathers slowly dance
as they are consumed by the flames.
The raging flock aims for Woodrow's head;
he screams out, because he knows he is dead.
As they charge after Woodrow and come near,
the dark red cane strikes Woodrow, and the flock disappears.
He deeply breathes in and out in amazement,
and looks at the red wooden cane. His hands throb, sting, and burn.
Frightened, he knows there is some lesson he must learn!
When the engraved name crawled into the boiling blood and gold,
it enslaved Woodrow's soul.
He will always be youthful and handsome;
unfortunately, he is tied to a slave's grave, shame, and pain!
Woodrow's hands are now engraved with an ancient law...
Like the cardinals trapped inside the dark wooden cane,
so Woodrow will be chained to the witch doctor's name.
Unless he finds his firstborn son...
Cyrus watches as the portal shuts abruptly and he tightly squeezes the root in his hand. Suddenly, he sees the younger version of himself run down the dirt path right in front of him and dust flies into the air. He watches himself run away and everything in him wants to stop this young boy! Instead, Cyrus remembers everything he did. He recalls hesitating and thinking of darting back home and straight into his mother's arms. He recollects thinking he could go into the market and make a living by having people bring their dead animals and loved ones to him, and he could bring them back to life with this new found gift of healing.
Young Cyrus' stomach rumbles so he decides to head back home, but as soon as he turns around, two men come out of the shadows and grab his arms and legs and cover his mouth with an old dirty rag and drag him away. As older Cyrus looks at his younger self, he wants to run and help, but he knows it will make matters worse for him in the future, so he angrily, sadly hobbles along on the dusty path. He longs to just get a glimpse of his mother, even if he can never talk to her again.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!