Ready
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: prepare for, it was the zipper, the worst, once upon a time, midnight in a perfect world, Monday is for ones, come away with me, dance, immediately, learning to fall, underwear, I felt cold, we have a long way to go, leap of faith, discourage, is this a dream or fantasy
“Come away with me,” Audrey’s grandmother Ruby whispered, and Audrey immediately sat up. Was it a dream, a fantasy—or was this the evening Granny’d been preparing her for for as long as she could remember? “Get ready,” Ruby told her, and Audrey pulled on jeans and sweatshirt over her long underwear. Still she felt cold.
She rushed into the kitchen to find Ruby still in her nightgown. “What—?” Audrey began to ask, but the old woman thrust a backpack across her shoulders and a thick slice of buttered bread into her hand. “Eat,” Ruby told her. “You have a long way to go.”
Audrey bit into the warm oat bread and faced her grandmother. “You’re not dressed,” she murmured as Ruby stepped behind her to put a warm water bottle in her pack.
“You will meet the zipper at the confluence of the two rivers,” she said. Audrey turned to look at her. “Zipper?”
“It’s a boat, a fast boat. It will take you up through the delta to the coast, and there you will board a plane—”
“Why are you telling me this? Won’t you—?”
“No, I can’t go with you,” Ruby said in an unemotional tone. “But you will have a guide.” Her Grandmother was already out the back door into the darkness, and Audrey froze in panic. How could her Grandmother send her off with a stranger? Audrey always knew a time would come for escape, she knew it would be scary, but this was worse than anything she had imagined. She couldn’t go without her Grandmother. She couldn’t make this leap of faith without the only guardian she’d ever known. Not with a stranger.
“Once upon a time,” Ruby whispered and Audrey turned to see her standing in the doorway between two domains. “Once upon a time,” she repeated now that she held her granddaughter’s gaze. “Our family made an alliance with a powerful collective, a clever pack who promised to lead us to midnight in a perfect world. But we agreed to play by their rules: Mondays are for ones. That’s right, they’ve agreed to take only one of us at a time, and I’e chosen you, my beloved. You are the child I’ve taught how to fall, so that you could learn to get up over and over again. You will forge the path, you will lead a new dance for all of your kin. You are ready.”
At that, Ruby pushed open the door and two large coyotes with amber eyes and cinnamon brown fur pushed their way into the kitchen. “Here are your allies and guides, granddaughter. Keep them close.” She pulled Audrey into a hug. “Safe journey.”
Photo by Aditya Sethia on Unsplash