"The Pink Stars Fall Again"

“The Pink Stars Fall Again”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

Daniel Jefferson stood at the base of the broken down wooden porch. The once white boards of the porch were now tarnished and a dark brown. Various splinters stuck up from them and would for sure snag him if he ran across it in just his socks like he used to as a young boy. The wind blew just enough to make his mother’s wind chimes cling in the air. At the top of the chimes was a fireman. This made Daniel smile. He remembered the days when he was younger and how he used to dress up as a firefighter. He remembered the plastic red hats that his mother used by buy him at the Dollar Tree and the pair of yellow rain boots he used to wear. His father was a firefighter before the big fire on Independence Day of 1984 claimed his life. Daniel looked out in front of him. He could see the exhaust of his breath as he slowly walked up the four wooden steps that led up to the porch. Each step creaked with an eerie sound almost as ear piercing as Freddy Kruger claws scratching on a chalkboard. Daniel observed as he slowly made his way over to the front door. He could see that the lights were off inside the house, but that was about it. The windows were dusty and nearly impossible to see through. To his right, there was a window that was busted out as if a small kid had thrown a rock at it. He reached to open the brown wooden door of the house before he realized that it was already open. There was a woman standing in the doorway. She had a long face and brown curly hair. She was skinny and looked to be in her mid forties, perhaps just a tad older than Daniel himself. Her nose was large and hung over her mouth likes a beak. The woman’s a*s was large as well like two fully inflated basketballs that were forced together.

            “Mr. Jefferson, I presume. I’m glad you came. It’s only a matter of time now.” The woman said in a midrange nasally tone.

            “Yes ma’am. You’re the one who called me?” Daniel asked.

            “Yes sir. The name is Wilma. Come on in! I’ll take your coat and it here on the coat rack. Your mother is in her bedroom. I assume that you remember where that is.” She told him as she started to take off his brown jacket before he could even reply.

            “How is she? I mean, how bad is it? What are we looking at?” Daniel asked.

            “You have more questions than answers, do you? I can answer them all right here. It ain’t good. But I told you that over the phone. I think you know just about how bad it is. Now, go on! Your mother is expecting you! She ain’t got too much longer left!” Wilma said as she hung her coat on the coatrack and then pointed to the hallway at the end of the living room. Daniel nodded and started to make his way down the darkened hallway. He knew that it was probably just his imagination, but with every step he took it looked as if the hallway heading to his mother’s room got longer. His hands were moist and shaking and he could feel his throat starting to close up. That didn’t happen to him often. He never really got nervous. Not since he was in college and forced his friends to make him do something to get out of his comfort zone.

            It has been a while since he has seen his mother. There’s no real good reason as to why. When he was younger he dreamed of getting out of that dead end town. That was in the ‘90s. Since then, the town is practically a ghost town. The jobs have moved out and the only major way of transportation, the old train station, Tweetsey Railroad, has since been shut down. It reminded him of that old Dean Koontz novel that he loved as a teenager, Phantoms. Daniel reached the end of the hallway and turned to the last door on the left. He closed his eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath before he reached down, turned the doorknob, and walked inside.

 

2.

“Danny? Danny? Is it really you?” His mother said in a shrill voice. Daniel could feel his eyes begin to tear up. He closed them for a moment and waited for the crying feeling to subside. It was hard for him to believe that the sickly voice that assaulted his ear drum could have possibly come from the woman who tried her hardest to make up for his father walking out on the two of them by playing sports with him in the front yard when he was a kid. But he reopened his eyes, and there she was. The woman who once dressed up as Robin to his Batman and pranced around the house an red Long John underwear and swimming pool shoes. Daniel felt the strength in his legs go out as he stumbled his way over to the bedside of his mother. He couldn’t believe what he saw. She was pale. Her eyes were blood shot and almost glazed over. The smell in the room smelt like medicine and looked almost like a hospital. That didn’t surprise him much considering. His mother had always been a stubborn old b***h anyway. Her hair was thin and falling out. Daniel sat down in the armchair next to her and grabbed her by the hand.

            “Yeah ma, it’s me.” He said softly. “How ya doin’ beby?” He asked. She smiled and even let out a chuckle before she lifted her Kleenex covered fist and coughed into it. It was the first time she had smiled in a while. Somehow, he knew that. When she pulled her fist away dots of blood covered it. Yeah. It won’t be too much longer now. He thought to himself as he felt a tear start to roll down his check. He didn’t want her to see that, but he couldn’t help it.

            “No, no! None of that now. Nobody has ever cried a tear over me before and we’re not starting now. That’s not how any of this is going to go down.” She told him. Daniel smiled and nodded as he reached up and wiped the tear away.

            “You haven’t changed a bit have you? Still as stubborn as when we were kids, aren’t you?” Daniel said. His mother said nothing for a moment and just sat there as if she didn’t hear what he said. She just laid there and gazed out of the window.

            “It’s been a long time. Do you remember the night with the pink stars?” His mother asked him. She looked at him in the eyes. For the first time, he felt as if someone inside her head was home. He smiled.

            “Yeah, ma! I remember the night.” He told her.

            “It was just a damn meteor shower. When was that? 1990? That feels right. You saw ‘em and insisted that they were pink shooting stars. You kept shouting ‘the pink stars are fallin’! The pink stars are fallin’. I guess they kinda did look pink, didn’t they?” She said.

            “Yeah. They did look pink. I made a wish upon them, ya know?”

            “Yeah, I remember that. I remember that you wouldn’t tell me what you wished for, either.”

            “No, you wouldn’t let me tell you. You said that if I told you, it wouldn’t come true.” He told her. His mother looked outside again and then back to her son.

            “Well, did it come true? The wish, I mean. Did you get all you wanted from it? You seemed to have done pretty well for yourself.” She asked him. Daniel smiled and started to cry again.

            “Yeah, ma. I got what I wanted. I’m here, ain’t I?” He said. She smiled at him and looked back outside the window. This time, she didn’t look back at him. “Ma? Ma?” Daniel asked. He held his hand out in front of his face. Nothing. There was nobody home. Daniel cupped his hands over his face and started to sob. When he looked up, he saw a yellow Post It note with THE PINK STARS FALL AGAIN: 8.25.15…WATCH THEM WITH DANNY!

Copyright © 2015 by Cody Williams

Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

Reviews

[ANTO]

We've all experienced those "OMG' moments when someone passes on. Coincidences which see the two world's edges become blurred - they can reinforce our spirituality or they can plain frighten the BayJaysus out of us.
This one Cody, was the former, for me.
Nice one CW.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Anto! I'm glad you liked it.

-CW

[SmittyJas]

Well done Cody would bring on tears from any son who ever cared for his mother so much. Respect love and hugs great story telling my Friend.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for the kind review, Smitty!

-CW

[Nia Hope]

Very different from your usual sci-fi/ mystery/ horror but I love it all the same! Well written!!! :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for the review!

-CW