BY MARINI BARIKA FACEY
PART 8 FEATHERS PART II
Gwendolyn slowly steps deeper into the cave, when suddenly she hears an old record player! "This doesn't make sense. Well, nothing really makes sense here." She ponders to herself. "Unless... Can it possibly be? No, I must be imagining things!"
Mysteriously illuminated on the cave walls is a little girl standing on her tiptoes next to her mother. "Eliza, do you like it? What do you think of this modern contraption?"
Gwenny cannot believe what she is witnessing, and covers her mouth with her hands in astonishment! She watches closely as a childhood memory plays like a broken record, but astoundingly, a part of her past is being revealed to her for the first time right before her eyes! Gwen begins to weep because she forgot what her mother looked like and how beautiful she was!
The cave gradually grows brighter. Gwen remembers her father looking through a box of records to pick out a perfect one for them to hear. "Eliza, lift Gwen up to see where the record spins!" Elizabeth begins to raise Gwendolyn then she abruptly stops herself because of aching pain surging through her body. "Honey, could you please come and lift Gwenny this time! You know how much I love to pick her up and swing her about, but I'm afraid I'm feeling a bit weaker than usual." "Of course of course Eliza! I'm sorry my love. Do you need to go lie down my dear?" "I suppose I should, but I don't want to sleep too long, so please wake me before afternoon tea." I should come with you Elizabeth." "No! No! Nonsense, besides, look at how excited Gwendolyn is!" He looks back at his daughter and smiles at how amused she is. Eliza walks away as her husband gently lifts their daughter up high to see this new thing.
Gwendolyn didn't realize how long it had been since she saw her father smile, and it made her smile in this huge cave in the middle of nowhere, but only for a moment, because she clearly remembers what is about to happen next and quickly turns her face away from the wall! Blitz randomly appears and gently whispers for Gwenny to watch the cave walls, because there is something she must see, and never knew! She hears her mother coughing!
Tears quietly roll down Gwendolyn's cheeks as she looks at a happy little girl dancing about, oblivious to the fact that her father had run off to see her mother.
"Peter, I have a little box that I've tucked away in my drawer that has a sealed letter for Gwen!" "Eliza, why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well and that it started up again?" "I didn't want to alarm you... Peter you know I would never want to..." Eliza harshly coughs and Peter tightly squeezes her hand! "...leave you or little Gwenny. Promise me that you will always be together just like we have always done. Promise me you'll give her my letter!"
Eliza coughs even more violently and their maid Irma runs to fetch some damp cloths as they wait for the doctor, but Elizabeth's hands loosen out of Peter's grasp... His screams are covered by the record player blaring in the living room. He smothers his face in her chest and weeps bitterly!
"Why would you make me watch this? It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my... I didn't mean to kill my mother..." Gwenny slides down to the ground and puts her face in her knees. Blitz gently, quietly circles her and feather-like dust falls over Gwenny like a blanket, covering her pain and nakedness.
Gwen looks up because she sees her father riffle through her mother's desk to find the box with the letter! He tears it open and begins reading it! Appalled, Gwen gasps because she marvels at what her mother's letter entails and cries as she sees her father crumple it, and toss it into the fireplace. The illuminated images slowly disappear and the cave begins to grow dim again.
To be continued...