Chapter 8 Meeting of a Supernatural Kind of the Coed Persuasion during a Journey with a Story thrown in for the Bargain
Selu, Pah and Delirium, in various degrees of attention and anticipation, all wait for Nuala to make a move.
Nuala seems lost inside herself, to a degree where the other three can no longer tell if she is pondering whether to go into the taxi or not, or any other deeper and greater conundrum.
Suddenly Nuala sighs, such a deep sigh that feels like a shudder, shakes her head, mutters incoherently, and moves once again to the street side door of the taxi, allowing the others to enter through the sidewalk side.
When Nuala is seated in the street side window of the back seat, she finds that the other three have piled themselves in on the back seat as well.
It is then that she notices that once again the passenger front seat of the taxi is occupied.
Then she notices that the taxi driver is the same as in the journey before.
She moves as if to get out of the taxi, but it speeds off into traffic in that very instant.
Only then does she notice that the passenger is different this time around.
Transparent would be the word to describe her.
She is wearing a gown in some sort of transparent fabric, gauze silk or some such.
But it is not just her garment that is transparent. Her skin is also transparent, allowing you to see her muscles, joints, and assorted organs. Her muscles and assorted organs are also transparent, allowing you to see the skeleton underneath. And her skeleton is also transparent.
So that when you look at her you can see right through her, say at the seat where she is sitting down on, in which she leaves an indentation though, so that you know that she is not immaterial, but you also can see all the layers of her and also her surface and outline.
"Ghost-Mother…" Is all that Nuala can muster.
The woman Nuala addressed as ghost mother just stares straight ahead.
As an ice breaker, the taxi driver interjects:
"I will tell you a story."
Nuala throws a longing glance out the window, wishing she herself could become immaterial and slip out of the taxi.
Then settles down to listen.
"A long time ago, very far away,"
Begins the taxi driver.
"There was a Grand Father."
"There was a Father"
"The Father had Three Mothers."
"From the First Mother he had the First Born son, the Elder Brother."
"From the Second Mother he had the Middle Son, the Young Brother."
"From the Third Mother he had the Late Son, the Younger Brother."
"The First Mother the Father hated. She was strong and willful, and would have herself superior in all regards to him, even unto lovemaking."
"The Second Mother the Father despised, for she was a creature devoid of personality or character, a wisp of a woman."
"The Third Mother the Father loved, for she had enough of a backbone to be her own creature, and yet she was subservient to him, in all things deferring to him."
"The Grand Father preferred the Young Brother."
"The Elder Brother had many misgivings. It rankled with him that his Father hated his Mother, and it rankled with him that the Grand Father preferred the Young Brother to him his Father's First Born son."
"The Elder Brother was a Farmer, the Young Brother was a Shepherd."
"One day the Young Brother got careless of his flock, and his flock strayed into the Elder Brother's garden and ate it all."
"In a fit of self-righteous anger, avenging the loss of his own, the Elder Brother slew the Young Brother's flock and then murdered the Young Brother."
"The Grand Father, for he favored the Young Brother, cursed the Elder Brother and banished him."
"The Father, having his heritage ensure by the Younger Brother, offspring of his favorite wife, did not object."
"So the Elder Brother was forced into exile, adding to his previous misgivings the fact that is Grand Father had banished and cursed him."
"The First Mother would not let this stand."
"So in defiance to the Grand Father, since she could not overthrow his decisions to banish and curse her son, soon joined him in exile."
Sensing that the story is done, Nuala in one swift motion opens the cab door and jumps outside, not caring whether the taxi is still rolling or if it is stopped, not caring that even if the taxi were stopped she might run into the path of an incoming car.
As luck would have it, the taxi is indeed stopped, and parked in a recessed parking lot where taxis stop and embark and disembark passengers.
Nuala has enough presence of mind to make it to the sidewalk.
There she frantically lights up a cigarette.
The others rejoin her, one by one.
