“But I can’t pay you guys. Being on a farm is hard work. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get the business back up and running.” The two identical giants, Spooky and Spider, shrugged.
“I would think no time at all with four extra pair of hands…” Spider muttered around a toothpick. He always had one between his lips. Gabe said it was because he had a nervous condition.
“Five extra pair of hands. I know I came up spoiled but I’m ready for some good decent hard work!” Gabrielle said coming to wrap her arm around me. And I don’t know if it’s because of the pregnancy, but the only thing I could do was cry. I didn’t want to admit that I was a little scared to go back home without protection. Instead, I convinced myself that I was relieved they were coming for the simple reason being, all hands were needed to get my family’s business up and running again.
And so, my little pieced together family and I moved back south and began the long, hard journey of breathing life back into the farm. The first few nights felt strange, and if I had to do it alone, it would have been a lot harder. Instead, I had been busy trying to make accommodations for everyone. Although, Jerome had been right about Gabe’s men being adaptable.
Before night fall, they had turned the barn into something that resembled an army barrack. They had even set up a parameter around the farm and had it under full surveillance. So… umm, yeah, it felt awesome having them here.
I don’t know… it was almost as if Gabe was still somehow keeping his promise from the grave and keeping me safe.
And I know that sound strange but having his men here to protect us is not the only reason I say that. Upon arrival, I had been pleasantly surprised to see that when Gabe had bought the place, he had everything cleaned and all the furniture covered in white sheets. I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t going through major anxiety as I walked up the front stairs for the first time, thinking I would open the door and find Mayor Davenport’s dried blood or brain matter still on my floor.
Speaking of Mayor Davenport, or the clone of Mayor Davenport, or whatever Mayor Davenport was. I was happy to say, he was no longer the Mayor of our small town. He had moved his family to Dallas and was now running for the Governor’s seat. Frightenly, it looked as if he was going to get it.
After living through what I had, I now looked at all the folks I saw on television with new eyes. There was something strange going on behind the scenes and things just wasn’t always what they seemed.
Anyhow, about five weeks after we moved in, the fellas began working with contractors who they had hired to build them a few mobile homes further back on the property. I was super excited because Kenny and Stacy were coming to visit in a few days to check everything out. My mother-in-law and I had just gotten into the two-seater ATV to drive to the back to see how the fellas were coming along when my water broke.
Now, at this point in my story I’d like to tell you that things got better for me. That after living through a year of absolute horror, the wheels of destiny shifted and started going in a more positive, uplifting direction. But if I told you that, I would be lying.
The truth is, something went terribly wrong during the birth of my twins and I ended up flat-lining. Quite obviously, I didn’t stay dead, but while I was out I had a very strange dream that was so real, that to this day I argue that it wasn’t a dream at all. Rather, I had been taken to another dimension that exist parallel to this one and shown something very vital.
I was all alone, casually walking on the part of my land that the fellas were building their homes on, taking in the progress they’d made. The strange part is, I could hear the doctors frantically working to bring me back to life. I even heard my mother-in-law crying in the distance, begging for them to help me. But where I was, there was no sense of time, so I didn’t feel the urgency that I heard taking place around me.
In this existence, everything felt still and calm. I looked around and smiled at how beautiful the farm became when the moon cast its warm glow down on it. The pain in my heart that I carried around since Gabe’s death was gone for the first time. Where ever I was, I think, I wanted to stay.
“You can’t stay here child.”
Startled, I turned to see what looked like a homeless man with no shoes sitting on a crate underneath the old willow tree that I had played under when I was a small girl. Her beautiful weeping limbs blew around the man even though the air was still. I held up my hand feeling for the wind, but there was none.
Digging in my pocket, I pulled out the few dollars I had and was sadden by the fact that it wasn’t enough to get the man a pair of shoes.
“Excuse me sir, do you need help? Are you hungry?” He smiled at me, holding his head back as if he too was simply enjoying the view. I don’t know what it was about him, but he didn’t feel dangerous, so I stopped and leaned against the fence watching old William munch away on some grass. Even he was at peace in this place.
“You were wise to come back here.” He spoke again. His voice was so soothing, like water.
“But you must not get comfortable. This is not your home. The day is
