Some people suggested a sequel to my story "Alien Life Forms," so I gave it the ol' obedience school try.
Jennifer, Needy, and Chip in the year before Low Shoulder came to town.
Based on characters, themes, and the setting created by Diablo Cody.
Fire, Water, and Blood
by Diablo Priest
Tell me all your thoughts on God / 'Cause I would really like to meet her. / And ask her why we're who we are. —Dishwalla, "Counting Blue Cars."
Prologue
Antonia Lesnicki had her only child when she was young, and the experience and the baby gave her life meaning and direction. Toni had always been intelligent, and this was a severe handicap for a girl in this rural part of the state—it was "provincial." It was backward. Few girls escaped. Most here had babies. Was her pregnancy an accident? or was it somehow ordained? Toni's closest friend was soon pregnant as well, but there was a wedding, and the baby Jennifer was given a proper surname—Check. The father of Toni's child was there for the easy part, nothing more. Despite her fears to the contrary, Toni's parents stood by her. However, being a single mother caused her to put college on hiatus. She was always more comfortable with working class people anyway. Toni's father was a union electrician and a practical man; her mother a stoical housewife; so that when Toni's intelligence turned inwards and morphed into a metaphysical quest, the young mother would say that her spiritual side was inherited from her daughter Needy—really Anita.
Toni was going to name her daughter one of those vogue names, seemingly made popular by soap operas. But her spiritual trek was already nascent. She had come across an old book in Warzak's Book Store that contained poems and musings that dwelt on the mystery of the Grace of God. The author had dedicated his work to his daughter Anita; and so, Toni, at the last moment, named her daughter Anita—meaning "grace."
Like her mother, Needy, while a teenager, began to have peculiar dreams. She remembered the first one because it had been so vivid, and it occurred shortly after Jennifer bought their heart pendants.
She found herself in Jennifer's bedroom, but it seemed much bigger than it was in reality. A light, very bright but not blinding, was behind a veil or curtain that divided the room. Needy knew that Jennifer's four-post bed was behind the veil; and while she could not see clearly, she saw movement. Something on the bed was moving. She found the opening of the veil and entered the sanctuary. Jennifer's bed with its tall ornately carved white posts was there, illuminated by a pure light that glowed from no particular origin. As the bed was elevated, Needy could not see what was on it from her vantage point. She advanced silently as if walking in a holy place and climbed three steps.
A white pelican was nestled on Jennifer's bed with her young. The mother looked as though she were pruning her feathers; but with her long bill, she concentrated on one spot with a violent pecking. As Needy watched, a crimson spot grew where the pelican was pecking her own breast, and her young then fed on the blood that flowed from the wound.
This scene horrified Needy. Fecklessly, as happens in dreams, she gasped but produced no sound. Her struggles to vocalize her shock, woke her.