The Flower Girl

The Flower Girl

By R. e. Taylor

After a week of work, family, money problems and just life in general Joshua would get up early on Saturday morning, hop in his car and just start driving. It didn't matter what direction he drove in, he just wanted to get away for a few hours. But, on one Saturday morning in June something changed and after that he took the same route week after week until the leaves had all fallen from the trees.

That day he left as usual after rolling a set of dice to see what direction to travel in. He thought it maybe was silly to do this, but hell he did it every week. Highway two through four would mean travel east, five through eight meant south and nine through twelve meant west. Anyway, he rolled the dice as usual, and a one and a three came up so east it was.

He had his usual places to stop once he got started. When he was going east, it was a little mom and pop diner that specialized in three egg western omelets with a heaping pile of fried potatoes on the side. Joshua knew the waitress, so she always made sure that everything was covered by a thick layer of homemade Greek sauce. The thing was, he knew that if he survived breakfast he would have a great day. That morning was going to be a little extra great because the waitress walked over and told him of an estate sale going on about a mile away.

Joshua finished his breakfast, left a couple dollar tip and started off for the estate sale. He found it about a mile away just as the waitress had said. It was in a very old building that the city had condemned after the owner died, but the furnishings and everything inside was beautiful and a lot of it was museum quality.

There were people sitting on the porch behind a sign that read, “Anything you want $20.” The woman behind the table said that you had to pay $20 to get in, and you can take anything you can carry at no extra cost. Of course, Joshua thought that was the best deal he had heard in years so, he gladly paid the money and walked in. He saw so much that he wanted and so much that he couldn't have but when he hit the second floor he accidentally found his prize for the day.

He walked into the last bedroom on the right. There was a door that led up to the attic and a bed that was easily seen to be a boy's bed. The dust was so deep on the floor that Joshua caused a cloud to form just by walking around. He stepped gingerly across the floor until he heard the creak of a loose floorboard. He stopped and looked down. There were no nails holding the board down, so he reached down, grabbed the end and lifted it up. Under the floor was his treasure. There was a jar, sealed with wax that held hundreds of coins. He could see pennies, two and three cent coins, silver dollars and even a few gold five and ten dollar coins. From the dates that he could see all of the coins were of the civil war era, up until the mid 1880's.

He grabbed the jar and walked back downstairs. Thanking the women, he got into his car and drove off continuing his eastward journey.

Twenty miles down the road he was going through another little town when a farmer's market caught his eye. Of course, he stopped and started walking up and down the rows of vendors. There was everything there anyone could ever want. The Amish were there, with handcrafted baskets, jellies and organic vegetables. Farmers were there selling everything from their own produce to all-natural honey and candles made of pure bee's wax.

Joshua had spent nearly $100 on different things that caught his attention. His favorite was some honeysuckle honey from an old woman who probably spent her life at and this or any other farmer's markets somewhere in the area. Joshua usually paid $9.95 for an eight ounce jar, but that old woman was just so darn cute that he didn't mind paying the $9.95 price she asked. Then he saw a little girl carrying a bundle of flowers.

She was about ten years old, had fiery ginger hair which she had tied into pig tails that reached down past her shoulders. Her face was covered with freckles from the summer sun and she was wearing a cotton dress in pastel pink and violet. “Would you like to buy some flowers,” she asked with the most adorable smile.

Joshua was hooked. “How much are they darling,” he asked. She replied that they were 25 cents a piece or five for a dollar. He started looking through his money when his thought went back to a day when he was just 7 years old. He, along with his little brother and their friend, set up a Kool-aid stand in front of their house. They charged ten (s) cents for a small glass. Anyway, this car pulled up in front of them and asked for a glass and when Joshua asked for the ten cents the man gave him a dollar bill and told them to keep the change.

“My mother said that if I earn enough money this summer I can buy a bike,” said the little girl…

Joshua had the money in his hand. “I'll tell you what,” he said. “I take one flower.” He reached over and took beautiful rose, held it for a minute and broke the stem off and slid it gently into one of her pigtails. She laughed so hard, but the laughter ended and instead turned into the most beautiful smile when he handed her a ten dollar bill and told her to keep the change.

Week after week Joshua stopped at the same farmer's market just to buy one flower. He always paid with a ten dollar bill and refused any attempt of her's to give him any change.

The last week of the summer, the little girl, was at the market just as always except this time she didn't have any flowers, but the second she saw Joshua her face brightened and her freckles seems to dance on her face and her smile was back bigger than ever.

“Hello Little One,” Joshua said as he pat her on the head “How are you today?”

“I am doing great,” she replied. “I am so happy!”

“Did you get your bike,” he asked. Just then he could see a young boy, maybe five years old, riding a silver and red bike out of the corner.

“It was never for a bike for me,” she said. “My baby brother was born with a problem in his brain and the doctors said that he would never walk much less ride a bike. I promised him at the start of the summer that I would buy him a bike if he learned how to walk. We played and practiced all summer and then suddenly he stood up against a table and took two steps, so I got him the bike I promised him.

Joshua was so taken with the story that you could see tears running down his face, at her generosity and love for her little brother, and it got even worse when he found out that the little girl, due to her unselfish sacrifice, still didn't have a bike of her own.

“Do me a favor, please” he asked. “See that little purple flower next to those stairs.” She looked and saw the exact flower that he was looking at. “Now, Little One please pick it and bring it to me.” She did as he asked. It was a tiny little flower, no bigger than the eraser on a number 2 pencil.

He took the flower in his hand and broke the stem off. The little girl was watching and smiling the whole time. He took the stem and placed it gently in her ponytail just as he had done so many times.

“How much do I owe you,” he asked.

“Well Sir, it was always one flower for 25 cents,” she said with a smile.

“I don't have any change right now,” he said with a sad look on his face. “Will you wait right here while I get some change from the store across the street?” She said that she would wait. He was gone almost a half hour. Joshua made it a point to come into the park from behind her. “Now, close your eyes.” Once again she did as she was told and when she opened them Joshua was standing in front of her with a brand new mountain bike. “Little One I want you to have this so you can go riding with your brother.”

She had no idea what to say. She just stood there and looked at the bike while her brother rolled up beside her on his. Finally, Joshua broke the silence and told the little girl to keep the change. She said a quick thank you, but the joy on her face was one he would never forget, before she and her young brother rode off into the sunset.

Now, Joshua still drives by that farmer's market every once in a while. Occasionally during what was left of the nice weather he would still drive by. Once, he did see that little girl riding through the park. He stopped to say hi but, by the time he got out of the car she was already long gone. Still, he keeps on looking to see her with that ginger hair, freckles and her contagious smile just one more time. But, he never did sadly, in all the years, after that one very special summer.

In The Time Of Eiddoel Ohwydd

In The Time Of Eiddoel Ohwydd

by R.e. Taylor

On every planet in every galaxy throughout the universe, there is a time where the people celebrate the midpoint in the coldest time of the year, the point where day and night are the same length, where the dark time fades away, and the light takes over. On Earth, that time is called Christmas or the winter solstice. On the planet of Aragonia, it is called the Crystal Night.

Aragonia has a population of exactly 3,983,725,406 and out of that number 3,983,725,405 celebrate the holiday...as a matter of fact, it is the one day of the year, that the Aragonians most look forward to. Starting at sunrise, parties, parades and any kind of celebration you can think of takes place. It is a day where all of the races and species on the planet play together until the sun sets. It is then when a bonfire is lit in every town, village and city on the planet and they are kept burning until the sun rises once again. They are lit to honor the coming of longer days and life for the planet.

This is the story about that one person in Aragonia who does not like the Crystal Night. His name was Eiddoel Ohwydd, he was the 75 year old descendant of Aragonian royalty. His father, Emperor Renfrew VII, was known as the most generous leader the planet had ever seen. Every Crystal Night, Emperor Renfrew made sure that every house had a big meal and a supply of wood for the cold nights, and his mother, Empress Crystyn, made warm clothes through the year to keep them warm from (in) the bitter cold.

Eiddoel, on the other hand, was a miser, despite his station in life he felt that the planet owed him anything and everything he wanted without a thought to anyone else. He never gave anyone a single piece of brass, nor would he ever buy anyone a meal (lunch)...Not even his own mother and father, and he would laugh his head off at the suffering at anyone worse off than he was. To say that he was the opposite of his family was to be gracious...he was as rotten as a piece of meat that was left to spoil, and that is why his parents disowned him and left him destitute and living on the streets.

It wasn't too long before he managed to open a small shop. No one knew what he sold exactly, but he always managed to have whatever his customers wanted or needed. The thing was, his prices for everything, were at least twice what any other shop in the area charged, and he never ever allowed anyone to buy anything on credit, but he almost always had customers...especially in the time before Crystal Night. On the actual night, Eiddoel would keep his shop open, but his prices increased. Still he had customers. Eventually he became one of the richest men in the town.

Once the shop was closed he would wander the streets alone, mumbling and knocking little children to the ground as he passed. Then when he got home, he would order his servants to continue working throughout the night, as he went into his den and drank a full bottle of Darcasian rum, and as always he would pass out as the alcohol ran out.

The night of Crystal Night, Eiddoel did his usual ritual, but this time the rum hit him harder than usual. He was sitting in his chair watching his fish swim back and forth, when the alcohol hit him, he slumped down and fell into a deep sleep. It was so deep that his snoring could be heard more than a mile away, when suddenly he heard a voice in his room. Thinking it was one of his servants he just waved it off, but the voice became louder and more insistent.

“Eiddoel,” it yelled. “It is time that you come with me.” He woke up and stared at a shapeless black figure who was standing by his fireplace. “It is time.”

“Time for what,” Eiddoel asked.

“I have been watching you since you were a child and I do not like what you have turned into,” the figure said as it reached out its hand. “You have a lesson to learn.” Eiddoel felt powerless for the first time in his life as took the figure's hand and they walked together through a mirror at the other end of the room. When they emerged what Eiddoel saw was completely unfamiliar. It was Aragonia, but it was different.

“Where are we,” he asked.

“Do not ask questions,” the figure said in a very stern voice. “Just watch and think.”

In front of them was a boy, Eiddoel guessed that he was no more than 15 years old, he watched as the boy, wearing a large red cloak, went from child to child giving them pieces of chocolates, hard candies and some small toys. The boy never said a word. He just continued to do what he was doing, and as he did the faces of the younger children lit up with smiles wider than even the river that flowed just a block away. All of the shops were open, and some of them were handing out little tokens that the kids would grab and stash in their pockets before running into the darkness.

“See that boy,” the figure asked. “Do you know his name?”

“No...Should I,” he replied.

“No one ever knew his name,” the figure replied. “He did the same thing year after year. He never asked for a thank you and he never wanted fame. He just wanted the children to be happy for one day out of the year.”

“So,” Eiddoel asked.

“Because of him the holy day of Crystal Night was born. It was more than 1,000 years before you were ever a thought in your mother's dreams.”

“What happened to him,” Eiddoel asked.

“He died after a long life. He was never a rich man, but every year throughout his life he made sure that every child knew what it was like to have a smile. He lived, penniless for 373 seasons, and in his will he asked to be buried in an unmarked grave, and that wish was granted. It was the least the town could do for him.” He took Eiddoel by the hand, “Eiddoel, what was your Crystal Nights like? I know that you had more presents than you could handle, and you were like those children. You had a smile that would last for days. Now, come with me.” The figure pulled Eiddoel and the walked through another mirror.

They emerged into a world that Eiddoel knew all too well. Walking around were hundreds of children, most of them were crying and the others just looked catatonic.

“What is wrong with them,” Eiddoel asked.

“People like you, destroyed the true meaning of Crystal Night,” the figure said. “Everyone has lost the spirit of giving. You have made it so that profit has become more important than the happiness of even the youngest child.”

Eiddoel stood there looking at the children, they looked so sad, “But profit is what keeps our society going,” he said.

“Eiddoel, how could you look into their faces, into their eyes, and say that any amount of money that you have made or will make means anything compared to those helpless children?”

“Is this...,” Eiddoel asked.

“Yes...This is your Crystal Night,” the creature said. “There is your house up on the hill. It is impossible to see the suffering of the people down here when you put yourself so high above them.” Then it told Eiddoel to follow it, and it led him to the gates of his factory. They looked through the gate, and they saw hundreds of people working hard at their jobs. “Don't you think that those people would rather be at home with their children, celebrating Crystal Night in the best way they could?”

“I have to keep the company running,” Eiddoel said. “The town needs the income that I pay out.”

“Come with me,” the figure said in an extremely firm voice.

“Where are we going,” Eiddoel asked, as they walked into a store and stepped into a mirror.

The trip was fast and when they stepped out they were standing in the middle of a cemetery. In the distance was an area that was fenced out. Inside the fence were graves marked by simple wooden crosses. There were people there. Some of them were digging up the graves and piling the bodies onto a horse drawn cart. Others were placing newly dead bodies into the graves, where the bodies were removed. Surrounding the area were thousands of people...Most of them crying and shouting out their goodbyes to their families and friends.

Why are we here,” Eiddoel asked as he started shaking. He thought that it was because of the cold, but it was obviously summertime and the air was somewhere around 86 degrees so it couldn't have been that. Maybe it was nerves...Yes, he thought, that was what it was...It was nerves, and he could control that.

“Look at those people,” the figure commanded. “They are the ones who give you the life that you have, and they cannot even gain rest from their poverty even in death.” The figure grabbed Eiddoel's arm hard as he continued. “That is because of you Ohwydd. You have taken everything including their lives. Is worth being the way that you are when so many have to suffer for it?” Then he swung Eiddoel around, and he was then watching a funeral ceremony. There was only a priest and the coffin… and the priest was having trouble granting the soul eternal rest.

Eiddoel looked up at the tomb, It was as tall as a two story home and as wide as it was tall. It was made of sparkling black granite, and the doors were lined with gold and red gemstomes from a mine more than a thousand miles away. “Whose is this,” Eiddoel asked.

“Can't you tell,” the figure asked. Eiddoel stood there for a moment and didn't say a word. Irritated the figure grabbed Eiddoel and threw him to the edge of the grave. The casket was open out of tradition...It was closed only after all of the right prayers were said. Eiddoel's eyes opened, and he was looking into his own face and eyes.

“I'm dead,” Eiddoel asked. “That can't be me. I was alive when we left.”

“Eiddoel, that was a year ago,” the figure said. “You died three days ago, and this is your funeral and your tomb. Doesn't it please you?”

“No it doesn't,” Eiddoel said. “Where are all my friends and my family? I know that my kids would be at my funeral...They loved me more than anyone else ever could.”

“They are fighting over who gets your money,” the figure said with a laugh. “All of them want everything they can so, just like their father. Look over there,” he said pointing at the poor section of the cemetery. They have so many people who will miss them, and will love them, even after they have died. You get a priest and a tomb that is twice as large as their houses.”

“Why,” Eiddoel asked

“Because you have a life of hurting those who depended on you,” it said. “You deserve, what life has given you.”

“How old was I,” he asked.

“You were 378 seasons when you died.” Eiddoel started crying. This was completely out of his nature, but he couldn't help it. “You died of sloth, greed, envy and gluttony. But you do not have to.” Then there was a flash of light and Eiddoel was back in his chair. He was drooling, and his neck was sore, but at least he was back at home.

He looked through his living room window and could see the children of the town lined up against the company's gate. It was the night before Crystal Night, and he could see everything. They were all kissing and hugging their fathers and mothers through the metal bars. In the distance, he could see the cemetery with the mourners standing over the graves offering gifts and singing songs to their family members and again he cried.

The next morning he closed the factory and walked down to the town square. There was 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground. He told some of the people there to gather everyone up...He wanted to talk to them. It took about an hour to get everyone together.

“I have been a tyrant,” he started. “I have been killing this town and all of the people. Starting at this moment I am giving the company to the people who work there. I will just keep a one percent ownership to have money to live on. Other than that the money will go to the people. I will move into a small house in town. The house on the hill is going to the kids of the town so that they may have a decent school where they can learn and grow.” He pointed toward the cemetery. “Those people who are buried in the poorer section of the cemetery, will be moved and given a decent, free funeral, and there will be no bodies ever removed from their graves, ever again.”

The crowd was more than excited, you could hear the celebration throughout the entire town, and within a few minutes Eiddoel Ohwydd went from the most hated man alive, to the savior of not only the town, but the entire planet.

He thought back to that creature and everything he had been told. He did change his life, and the lives of everyone he could see… and when he died 80 seasons later he was buried in a plain grave with a small stone to mark its place. But when he died he had 10,000 mourners at his grave site. No one knew whether Eiddoel was happy or not, but he did good, and he was buried with a smile on his face and thousands of flowers in his casket, and he will be remembered.

The German/English Glitch

I've had the same little laptop for more that six years now. Everyone jokes with me about it being a “dinosaur”. Well, maybe it is but it has traveled all around the world with me. It has helped me study and learn other languages, helped me talk to my family at home and it even has every one of my travel pictures stored in a Zip file hidden deep on the hard drive...which is the only upgrade I have lovingly made on the machine. After all a five hundred megabyte drive isn't much use now-a-days. Basically, it has been my companion and friend for the last six years.

It was back in 2006. I had spent a year traveling around Europe when I met a young fraulein named Edith in a small town south of Munich. It was love at first sight so I took a job with an English language newspaper in Munich. Now, German wasn't a language that I was strong in. I knew enough to get along and maybe get my face slapped but that was about all so I picked up a CD Rom that taught the German language in about a month. Needless to say it did work and I went out feeling secure that I could do interviews with Germans in their own language.

The thing was about that program you had to install set of files on the computer and they remained there even after you were done using the program.

My first article was with a brewer down on Oberunger by the Marrianplatz. Actually, the interview went very well. My German was strong and, since he couldn't speak English I did the entire interview in German...including writing his responses not in English but in German.

The brewer told me about his beers, his awards and lastly his new oatmeal/rye beer that would, as he said, “would sweep every competition in Germany, in Europe as well as in America.” Then he took me on a tour and we spent a couple hours drinking beer and talking about beer. It was fun but I had to get the article done so I excused myself and went back home to write.

The article had to be 2,000 words and I had to have it done by 4:30 so I kissed Edith, grabbed a sandwich and locked myself in my office, which doubled as our bedroom but it worked well in either situation. It didn't take long...about an hour...but I got it done and emailed off to my boss I had it done at 2:30 so I went down and watched some TV with Edith.

A few minutes later I heard an alarm going off on the computer. I rushed in and saw that there was an email from my boss. I opened it and it just had two sentences. It said, “Are you being funny sending me your article in German? Rewrite and send in English od don't expect to write any anymore for us!

I quickly got to my emails and opened the one I sent to my boos. I opened the file and saw that it was written as I had written it. It was there and it was in German. “What in the hell,” I said. Then I opened the file that I had saved on my desktop and it too was written in German. “I know I wrote this in English,” I yelled.

Then I decided to perform a test. I wrote a small sentence into my word processor. It read, “The dog ran across the grass.” Then I saved it to my computer. Okay, I thought, that should work. But when I opened the file I saw that it read...”Der Hund lief über den Rasen.” That was strange and there was no explanation as to why it would re-write itself.

I spent the rest of the day and all of the night trying to figure out what was going on. I called some computer expert friends of mine and they couldn't offer any help. Finally, a teenager from next door, who had heard me yelling, came over and he told me that the German language program I had used put a translation program into my computer so that anything I wrote would automatically be rewritten into German. Then he came up with an idea that, for all the pain of this glitch, it could be fixed rather easily.

He and I went down to a computer store and looked around until we found what we wanted...an English language program from the same publisher. We thought that if it worked one way it just may work in the opposite way once it was installed.

I got home, installed the program and rewrote the article, in German this time. I didn't wait. I just emailed it right off to the newspaper. A minute later I got this email, “Even though you are late, thank you for rewriting the article. At least now I can read it. Will send your next assignment tomorrow.”

The thing is, for it being a pain in the butt glitch, it worked rather well. If I was writing to a German I would type the letter in English and mail it off and the same if I am writing to a person who speaks English. The message would be written in German and received in English.

All I can say is that if programmers keep making glitches it make make communicating between countries a lot easier.  

Mission To Mars

Mission to Mars

by Robert Taylor

DAY 1

APRIL 2, 2037

ENTRY 1

13:52:35

I cannot believe my luck. I am the first person to travel to Mars and back. I was told that they had developed a new engine that will make me go faster than any person from Earth had ever gone. I should make it to Mars in about a month, circle it a couple of times and then be back here in time for the 4^th of July. Won't that be great! The problem will be I will miss Easter. It is little Laurie's first one and I would really love to be there to share it with her but I should be far from Earth by the time Easter comes along. I left her a recording on the computer where I told her how much I love her and how much I miss her. I just hope that her mom will read it to her. Well, it is almost time to launch so I have things to do. I do hope that this goes well.

ENTRY 2

17:23:01

Lift off went as expected. They can simulate all they want but there is nothing that will train you for the stress and the sounds of lift off. I am now in orbit 564 miles from Earth and traveling at roughly 18,000 miles per hour. Great Britain, Germany, Russia and China have flown by the window in the last 20 minutes. No one who doesn't come up here will believe how beautiful our planet is. I have two days to orbit Earth before I start the trip to Mars. God, I hope I can see my house when I fly over it. I know that I can't but it is nice to imagine that I can.

DAY 4

APRIL 4, 2037

05:15:45

ENTRY 1

Today is the day. I just got off a talk with Mission Control. Everything is going fine and the burn is set to take place at 05: 45:12. That gives me a half hour to get my last looks at Earth for some time to come. I can see a hurricane starting up in the Atlantic. I sure hope that it doesn't hit Florida too hard. This will be the first one that they will go through without me there to protect them.

ENTRY 2

06:02:15

The 60 second burn took place right on schedule. I am on my way to Mars. Honestly, I can't believe it...I was chosen. Now all I can do is look back and watch the Earth disappear behind me. Believe me it is hard to see but this mission has to be done.

DAY 31

MAY 3, 2037

ENTRY 1

08:35:12

God, it is so lonely out here. Yeah, I get messages from Earth but nothing else. I would love to have a call from Steph but having a conversation is next to impossible because of the distance. I never realized how important Laurie and Steph are to me. They are so far away. No one has ever been this far away before. They surely don't know how to train you for this. Next week is Easter. I hope that Laurie gets something good. I brought a chocolate egg with me so I can imagine that I am here eating candy with her. I wonder...did Steph play that tape I made for Laurie. I know she won't understand but it was more for me than it was for her. I close my eyes and I can see her smile...I can see her smile.

DAY 28

May 4, 2037

ENTRY 1

20:56:38

I am here at last. I am the first human being to see Mars this close. It is amazing...it really it. There are mountains and valleys, things that look like rivers flowing down from the polar areas. God, it is beautiful. I can see faint clouds, red clouds but clouds none the less, floating across the surface. That was something that no one ever saw from Earth. I am scheduled for ten orbits. I'm going to take as many pictures as I can before I leave. They are not going to believe this at home!

ENTRY 2

21:30:15

The rocket just fired and I am finally out of Martian orbit. God, it was so beautiful. I took more than 100 pictures. I cannot wait to show them to Steph...she is going to be so happy. I miss them so much. I have never been away from her for so long. I look out the front window and I can see the Earth, It is just a small blue dot in space but it is home. I can't wait to feel grass again. Yeah, I am suffering from major cabin fever but I can't go outside to cure it and the sun isn't giving me enough light to get rid of the feeling of loneliness. If I could hear her voice or see a picture of how much Laurie has changed it would help but I don't think mission control is going to go for that. Dammit, I should have brought a picture with me but we hadn't taken one yet. God, I am a freaking idiot. Oh well, 30 more days and I will be holding her again.

DAY 39

May 29, 2037

ENTRY 1

11:23:56

I am well on my way home. I heard something strange this morning. There was a loud bang that came from the back of the ship and I saw some metal fragments fly passed the window. I don't know what it was but the Earth is still in front of me. Radar says that I am traveling at more than 155,000 miles an hour. The way I figure it I am still about 115 million kilometers from earth it is very possible that I should be home on time. I wonder if Laurie remembers me? It has been so long since I have seen her. I know that I am low on fuel. I am not sure how much I have left. I hope it is enough to make it back home....I can just hope. That is all I have left.

ENTRY 2

18:35:45

Whatever that was it damaged the ship. I still have power and life support but I have been knocked off course by 10 degrees. With the distance I have yet to travel I may miss Earth entirely. I will try some maneuvering thrusters to see if I can get back on course. A five minute burn should get back on course. If it doesn't burn long enough I will miss Earth and if it burns too long I will crash, most likely in the Pacific. I know one thing...it would not be good to strike the ocean at the speed I am traveling. I can only hope that. I have to do everything just right.

ENTRY 3

19:21:00

Just received a message from Mission Control. They said that I was struck by a micrometeor that ruptured the skin of the ship. They also said that their computers show that I have enough fuel for one try at correcting my course after that I am at the mercy of space. I am so glad that I am them only one on this mission. I could not stand myself if there were others on board. Yeah, I have been lonely and I do miss my family but if things don't work...I am the only one to give up my life.

ENTRY 4

19:35:21

I just did the burn. I was going to run it for 5 minutes. That was what the computer said that I had to do to correct my course. The burn only lasted for 1:30...not near enough to make the correction. I am going to try to release oxygen through the vents to try and turn the ship. I doubt that it will work but I have to try.

ENTRY 5

20:01:45

It worked just a little. Still a few degrees off course. I am hoping that Mission Control can come up with something up to correct this. The good news is that I still have enough air to make it home.

DAY 64

JUNE 6, 2035

ENTRY 1

08:27:00

I am getting more and more anxious. Mission Control hasn't come up with anything yet. They said that they may send a mission to rescue me but I doubt that it would work. I am going faster than anything they have setting around. It is going to be so close. I can see the Earth coming toward my ship. It is so beautiful and blue. Even the storms over the Atlantic are making my heart beat stronger. I want to go home. I want to kiss Steph and I want to hold Laurie. Why did I volunteer to take this mission. I didn't land. I took pictures. A fucking robot could have done the same thing. What am I going to do?

ENTRY 2

12:45:15

I got a message today. Mission Control let me talk to Stephanie. It was only for 5 minutes but for me it was forever. I love her so much. How could this be happening to me. I looked out the window and the Earth is so close I could reach out and touch it...I could reach out and touch Steph.

DAY 65

JUNE 7, 2037

ENTRY 1

13:45:01

I am watching the Earth fly by me. The corrections didn't work that well. The computer's telling me that I am still 125,000 from Earth. The funny thing is...the Earth is on my right and the moon is on my left and I can't land on either one of them. My family is so close and I can't see them...I can't hold them...but I can love them and I always will.

ENTRY 2

18:51:42

I am going to shoot this record out of one of the vents. I hope that someone someday finds this and if they do soon enough I pray that they will they will make a copy and give it to Laurie to listen to when she gets old enough. Laurie, I love you and I always will. You were just a baby when I left but please know that you will always be in my heart. Tell your mom that I love her. I just have one more thing before I open the hatch. This path will take me past the Earth and into the inner planets. I would rather die in the light of my home than on some deserted ball of rock. I miss my family and I miss my planet. Good bye to all. I am opening the hatch so I have one second to say....

© Robert Taylor 2012 

Party Of All Parties

When you're in high school and college you get invited to parties every Friday and Saturday nights and, if you're really lucky, maybe one or two on the weekends. Now, the parties can and will range from a quiet get together where everyone discusses the newest books to hit the Barnes & Noble to a frat party where more than a thousand college and high school students will pass through the door and leave a lot drunker than they were when they got there. Of course there were women at the drat parties so, once they got drunk, no one left who didn't have a smile across their face.

The thing was there was another kind of party and that was that hid away. No one would ever admit going there. They were impossible to find and, if you were blessed, you'd get a cell phone 15 minutes before the party started with directions how to find them. All that I heard about them was that the party turned into a freakin' blast and it was a very exclusive crowd.

I was a junior in high school when I started going to the many parties around town and eventually I got the reputation of being young but being one of the strongest party animals in Cleveland. My name is Randall Thornton but everyone who was worth knowing me called me R.T.. In a lot of places if you said you were a friend of R.T.'s you were on the VIP list and you were limited to that crap kids drank...you could get the good stuff that got you drunk in half the time..

About the time I got to college had outgrown even me. I was invited to every party anyone was holding. I went to about half of them and ignored. Then one Friday night I got the call I was waiting for. It was a man giving me direction to a warehouse down in The Flats. “Don't tell anyone else about this. You have to come alone. We have a full night of entertainment planed for tonight,” the voice said. He didn't give me a chance to ask any questions or say anything. He stopped talking and the line went dead.

A friend of mine wasn't standing too far away. He and I had plans to go over to Delta Tau Chi later that night...after all they always had the hottest girls and the most booze but I had other plans.

“Who was that.” he asked. “I didn't hear you say a word,”

I knew that I had to lie and make it a big one. I thought a second and come up with something that he might just believe. “That was the girl from town,” I said. “She calls me all the time to play me her new favorite song.”

“What song was it this time,” he asked with a kind of laugh in his voice.

“I don't know some song by Katy Perry,” I said. “God, I am getting so tired of getting calls from her.” I had to make an excuse to get away from him so I pretended that I was angry. “I'm going over there and tell her face to face that I don't like the music she is sending me and tell her to stop. He offered to go over with me but I told him that it would be better if I went by myself. He reluctantly agreed and told me where he was going to be later that night. Of course I told him that I would meet him but I really wasn’t sure if I would or not.

I had just about 10 minutes to make it 14 blocks so I hopped in my car and took off. I did 60 all the way across town. Running red lights and shooting through stop signs I made it with a couple minutes to spare. Thinking back now I was risking my life just to get to a party but God knows that I made it safe and I was going in.

There was a bouncer at the door and he wasn't checking IDs. When I got to the door he asked for my cell phone so I took it out of my pocket and handed it to him. Now, he never said a word after that. He looked at my received calls and then opened the door and let me in.

Inside it was dark...very dark. There was a string of red neon tubes as well as along the ceiling. On each table was a small candle that lit the entire table. I don't see how but it did. As my eyes cleared I could see more. The walls were decorated in black. I could see the edges of stone but even they were black. Gargoyles watched from every corner of the room and the strangest thing of all...there was a huge vulture resting on a perch on the bar.

I was too busy looking at the decor to notice the people. They were strange to say the least. There were about 200 people in the place and it looked like it was pretty much even. There seemed to be just as many women as there were men. The thing was, outside of a few of us nearly every one of them had pale skin.

“R. T.,” I heard a woman say from the bar. “I am honored to have you at our party. Please mingle and get to know some of us...I am sure you will have fun.”

The thing was I didn't know her. I never even met a woman with the eye color she had. They were pure white. No definition at all...just white spheres and, man, that was freakin' strange.

“We have a full bar,” she continued. “Since this is your first night there is no charge for anything for you.” I thanked her and, just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared into the crowd.

I got me a Bloody Mary and started walking around. I do have to say that they did have women and they were all sexier than any model I had seen anywhere and they seemed eager to please because there was a constantly a flow of men and women going through a set of doors at the left end of the bar. I had to know so I stopped one of the waitresses and asked her what was behind the door.

She smiled at me and kissed me so hard that she bit my lip. I tasted my blood coming from a small gash on my lip before she answered in a very sexual accent. “Darling,” she said as she licked my blood from her lip. “That room is where you go when you want to experience pure, unlimited nirvana. No one who goes in comes out exactly the same.” Then she kissed me again and I felt her tongue parting my lips. It was the most passionate kiss I ever got from a woman I didn't know.

I hung out for a while and talked to some of the other people. All in all it was a fairly nice party. The people were strange but friendly, like I said the girls were hot and the drinks, although the Bloody Marys tasted funny, were for the most part as good as any bar in town.

A few of the girls tried getting me to go through the door with them but since this was my first time I just wanted to see what the party and the people were like. I was there until about 3 a.m. And when I tried to leave the woman who talked to me when I came in stopped me.

“R. T.., what did you think of my party,” she asked. I told her that I had a lot of fun but I had to go. “We'll have another one next week. I will call you to let you know when and where.” I asked her if I could bring a friend and her answer was short and sweet. “No...you have to be invited. We know your friends and none of them are worthy to be invited. Maybe one day I will invite one of them but not today or tomorrow.”

I didn't say another word except to thank for the invite but before I got out of the door she reminded me that I was not to tell anyone about what I had seen or heard. “We do not want our parties to be known by anyone who is not one of us.” I just nodded my head and got my ass out of there.

It was a hard week for me. I couldn't stand the waiting...waiting for the phone to ring to give me the time and location of the next party.

Of course, my friend was bugging me all week to find out where I disappeared. He was quickly approaching the verge of madness but I never said a word about what I had seen. It was, to a large part, that I was listening to what that woman told me but also I really didn't think that he would believe me and if he did, even just a little bit, he would follow me and try to crash the party and I wasn't sure how they would react to that. It may come down to he, I or both got hurt or even worse. They did seem like nice people but some of the nastiest mass murderers ever seemed like nice people until they were pushed too far and I didn't want to take a chance.

Finally, on Saturday I got the call. The party was being held in the basement of one of the buildings down at Public Square. I knew the building and there was a club on the first floor so, although there would be thousands of people walking around no one would notice anyone walking into the building.

I didn't care about driving. I was going to have a few more drinks so I hopped on the RTA and took the train into town. It was just a 10 minute ride so I was going to have plenty of time to get to the party and maybe find out what all was going on behind that door. The more I had thought about it during the week the more I needed to find out and it was going to be tonight.

I got to the door a full 3 minutes before it was going to be locked. The doorman looked at me and immediately said, “Mr. R.T. It is so very nice to see you tonight. There is so much going on in there I know you will have fun.” I just nodded at him and said that I was sure I would and I went in.

The woman I spoke to the week before wasn't there so I just walked over to the bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. It tasted the same as the ones I had earlier but there was still something strange about them that I just couldn't put my finger on. As soon as I took my second sip a woman walked over to me.

Her skin was pale as the others'. Her hair was long and wild. It was also black. Now, I am not talking about the brown black that most people have. Her hair was indigo blue black. As a matter of fact I could see that there was a few small streaks of actual blue in the front of her hair. She was dressed in all black and it was like a tight cat suit with some studs around the wrists and neck. She also had black eye liner and lipstick to round out her appearance. Wait, I forgot one thing...she had a pair of earrings that were shaped like cobras with faceted rubies in their eyes and their mouths open showing some really nasty looking fangs. Even with all that she was a knockout so I decided to start talking to her.

“Hello R. T.,” she said. I had no idea who she was but I let her keep talking. “I hope that you are having fun so far tonight.” I nodded that I was having fun. She smiled at me and got very close...close enough to whisper in my ear. “Well, if you want we can get together and I know that I will change your life.”

“How,” I asked.

“Just give me 15 minutes and I swear that you will be changed,” she said as her smile got bigger. Then she kissed me more passionately than the woman had the week before but it was oh so much more fun. At least this one didn't bite me but what she did do was get me another Bloody Mary and, as she did, she kissed me again and just walked away.

Now, I was a normal boy. It was so hard not to follow her right then and take her through that door. While I was standing there at least 7 men walked in through that door but the funny thing was only the women came back out. I did notice that some of the women were taking two, maybe three, men into that room.

I was talking to myself. “Is this some kind of a brothel,” I asked. What in the hell was going on in there.

I stood there a couple of hours just watching. It was so strange. I had hosted a lot of parties in my young life but whenever we had a room like that...whoever when it was damn sure to come out. I made sure that nothing this strange ever took place. Something like that could ruin a party goer’s reputation.

During all of that time I was hit on by so many women it was actually silly but I wanted the girl that I had met earlier but I had a lot of trouble finding her. Finally, I was over by the door and she approached me. “Are you ready,” she asked with a big smile on her face. I nodded my head and she opened the door.

Behind the door was a hallway with three black doors on each side. They were black which was a stark contrast to the blood red carpet and walls. We walked to the second door on the left hand side and as she opened it another woman walked out of the room next to it. They shared a slight smile as they passed and from what I could see the lipstick on the one...not mine...was smeared. I had an idea what she was doing but I wasn't since a man never came out of that room...at least not one I could see.

Anyway, she held the door open as I walked in. Inside the walls were the same red as the hallway and inside the room was a bar, a couch and a single candle lighting the room. The funny thing about it was that the flame was not orange/yellow the way most flames are...it was a black flame that still put out enough light that made it easy to see.

“R. T. please sit on the couch.” she said as she crossed the room. “You are going to experience things that you have never dreamed of before.” She smiled as she slowly removed the cat suit and let it fall to the floor. Her body was beautiful to say the least. The light reflected on her skin so that she looked like a living diamond and her bra and panties were made of the sheerest lace I believe could ever be made by man.

I did as she said and walked over to the couch as she walked over to the bar to pour us each a drink. I don't know what it was but the second I drank it all of my senses were heightened to a point where I could hear music coming from the party just as if it had been playing in that room. The only thing was that all of my inhibitions disappeared just as fast.

I laid back on the couch as she walked over and kissed me as her hands held me tight to the back of the couch. “I hope you like this,” she said as she straddled my waist wrapping her legs in with mine. “I really do think that you will like this.” I wanted to say that I was sure I would but I was totally speechless. My eyes closed as my body reacted to her sensuality.

Her nails clawed into my shoulders and I could feel the blood flowing down. She ripped the sleeves off of my shirt and began kissing the wounds, letting her tongue clean the blood that was flowing from my body. Then she tipped my head back and she drove her teeth into the side of my neck. It was very, very painful but it was more erotic than it was hurtful. I could feel my heartbeat and the blood flowing through my arteries. It was warm as it left my body. I wanted her to have all of it. My life was hers. She drank, rather fed, from me for several minutes. I wasn't sure exactly how long but I knew I didn't want it to stop but she did and all she could say was, “Please come and see me again. This will be better every time you come here.” Then she just left, closing the door behind her.

I was there for about 18 minutes until I got my strength back and was able to move. I opened the door and was escorted out of a door. The door opened and I was back in the parking lot near the back of the building. I went back a few more times and I went into the room with a different woman every time. They would feed from me and then leave me just as that first one did.

The last time I went as a guest I found that I didn't want to go into the room with one of women I had seen so often. I had developed a hunger that I could not explain and my skin was not light brown that I was so proud of. It had turned as pale as most of the people attending those parties.

I started taking the young women who had come and did not know what this place was. I would take them and feed from them just as I had been fed upon. Some nights I would feed on 10 or 12 women in one night and that would just barely cure my hunger.

Now, I am not warning you not to come to the party but if you get a strange phone call early on a weekend evening telling you a place and a time for the party of parties....take care. It could be me looking for someone to feed up. I do promise that you will enjoy the experience but your life will never be the same.

© Robert Taylor 2012

“Rakshasa’s Jar”

My grandmother owned a small antique shop down on Cedar Rd, right across from the chocolate shop where I spent most of my time when I was kid but once I turned 12 things changed when my grandmother simply disappeared without a trace.

The police searched for 4 months but to no avail...she was gone and the thing was that she left without closing and locking her store up.

I was one of the first people in the store after she disappeared. There was a ton of dust covering everything. Most of what she sold was purchased from estate auctions all over the state but, despite her efforts, very few things sold. Allegheny Heights was just not the kind of town to be interested in old things so the few sales that she made were to people who were just passing through and saw a quaint little shop and decided to stop in. Thank God for her pension or else she would have most likely starved to death.

Whenever I was out of school for the summer my mom and dad gave me the job of doing an inventory of everything that was in the store. I hated the job 1I could usually find some freaky things that grandma would let me take home so even though I hated the job I loved going through everything she had collected.

So, when she disappeared I got the job of doing a complete inventory of her shop. Of course there were a huge number of ivory, silver and even a few gold thimbles, antique cameras and some paintings by artists no one ever heard of. Yeah, they were beautiful pictures but not really anything anyone would buy. I finally made it to the backroom where she kept the big stuff and her pottery. There were antique appliances, old Grecian statues and one thing that caught my attention...a huge Chinese ginger jar. It was beautiful without a chip in the porcelain and it was inscribed with Chinese characters surrounded by naked mermaids. Grandma put a price tag on it for $12,000 saying that it was more than 1,000 years old. The strange thing was that it had a gold amulet dangling from the lid. I decided to grab both and take them to my bedroom. It took all I had to move it. It was over three feet across and weighed what I thought was a ton but I rolled it as best I could.

When I got home my mom and dad were out at their jobs so I rolled it up the one step in the front of the house. I always complained that I wanted a bedroom on the second or even third floor of a house but at that moment I was so happy that we had a single floor house I could barely contain my pleasure. It actually got a lot easier to roll once I got it into the house and finally into my bedroom. I took it and stood it in the corner of the room. Luckily the lid never came off and there was no discernible damage to it so I covered it up with one of my blankets and went back to the shop to finish the job of counting things.

I got back home about 8:30 and, after quickly eating my dinner, I rushed into my room, closed the door and locked it behind me. I did not want anyone to know about the jar until I was ready to show them.

“What are you doing in there ?” I heard my mom yell from the living room.

I had to think quickly so I pretended to be on the phone. I knew that she had walked from the living room to a spot near my room. “I am working on something with a friend of mine,” I said.

“Working on what,” she asked.

“We have a game tomorrow down at the youth center and we are planning our strategy so we'll win,” I replied. She knew that I played baseball so that sounded like a perfectly good lie that I knew would work.

“Okay,” she replied. “I won't see you when you wake up so good luck with the game.” I knew that excuse would work. Hell, her and dad never went to my games so they wouldn't ever know that I was lying.

I walked over and pulled the blanket off of the jar. It was so shiny and perfect I could not believe it. The lid was on tight. No matter how much I tried it just wouldn't move. I tried heat, vasoline, hair oil and I even went down to the kitchen and tried cooking oil but nothing I tried worked. Finally I grabbed it with a rubber glove my mom used to clean the bathroom with and twisted as hard as I could. I heard a grinding noise as the lid moved just a bit...just enough to let me know that it was working. The more I tried the louder the grinding got until it was so loud that I was sure that mom and dad could hear me but it was moving farther and farther until it came off in my hand.

My heart was beating so loud and pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to come out of my chest. My breathing was heavy as if the air was full of water and I was drowning. I knew that it was not true but my mind could not tell my body that.

I sat down on my bed. My body was shaking. It was almost orgasmic but since I was only 12, didn't like girls and was a virgin. I am using that description not going by my lack experiences. Yes, it was orgasmic. It took almost an hour for all of the excitement to leave my body. I still had the lid in my hand. The inside was covered with mother of pearl and the rainbows that came from it was absolutely beautiful but there was a symbol painted inside. Another Chinese symbol. I had to get them translated and see what this jar was used for.

The next morning I did rubbings of the symbols and took them to a college down in Pittsburgh. I had heard from some of my friends that they taught Mandarin there so they might be able to translate it for me. I went into one of the buildings and saw the name Dr. Lin May Chou...professor of Chinese culture and language. I found his office and when I got there my luck was fantastic...he was sitting behind his desk grading papers or something.

“Doctor Chou,” I asked in a voice that was nervous and yet interested.

He looked at me and smiled. “Yes boy, I am Doctor Chou,” he said with a smile on his face. “How may I help you?” I took the rubbings out of my pocket and handed them to him. He got a stern look on his face as his eyes darted back and forth over the symbols. “Boy, where did you get these?”

I got them from a ginger jar I found in my grandma's shop,” I said. “They are all over the thing surrounded by naked mermaids.”

His face turned white as he looked at the rubbings. “This is the name of Rakshasa, an ancient Chinese demon,” he said. “My guess is that the ginger jar is not a ginger jar at all.” I looked confused...after all I had seen many of these in grandma's shop. This one was bigger but no different from the others. “I think it is some kind of burial jar. They used them back in China to bury the spirits of those who did evil...even more so when the spirit was a demon which is what Rakshasa was...one of the worst there was.”

“Why ?” I asked. “What did he do?”

“He did everything he could to disrupt funerals, torture and steal souls both living and dead and so much more,” he said. “Basically he was a total badass!” Then he asked me if I could bring the jar to his office.

“I had a hard time getting it home,” I said. “I don't think I could get it down here by myself.” He assured me that would be no problem. He would get a few of his graduate students go to my house and pick the vase up. I told him when my parents were working and set up a time to send the students over.

“When you get home,” he said in a very strict voice. “Do not look inside the jar, just put the lid back on and seal it as tight as it was when you found it.” I didn't ask why. He was way too serious to answer any questions I may have so I promised and started leaving for home but before I left I told him that I wanted to be there when he opened it. He reluctantly agreed and I left.

I got home a while later and the jar was still right where I left it. Everything looked the same but for one thing...there was a strange glow coming from the opening of the jar. I was a kind of blue but yet not blue. It looked almost as if someone mixed a deep black with navy blue.

Yeah, I was curious...how could I not be? I was a boy and that had to have been the strangest thing I had ever seen but instead of looking I placed the lid gently on top and pressed down to seal it to the rim of the jar. When I finished that I twisted and pulled on it to make sure that it was sealed tight. It was.

That night I didn't get much sleep. I kept dreaming about Rakshasa. In my dreams he would dig up the graves of the newly dead and hide the bodies many miles away so that they could never be found or I would see him going into childrens hospitals, leaning over the children and sucking their souls right out of their young bodies....leaving them for the nurses to find on their next rounds. No matter what the dreams were they came to me every time I closed my eyes and they were as realistic as if I were there watching what he was doing and everything he did was worse that the thing before and all of them combined made a story that ever Wes Craven could not conjure up.

I woke up sometime around seven and before my eyes were fully opened I looked at the jar and then around my room. On my mirror were scratched the words 我希望我的鑽石. Now, I could never read Chinese other than to order General Tao's Chicken but some how I knew what those words said and they said, “I want my diamond.” I just looked at it for a moment and then thought it best to write them down so I could show the professor when I got to his office.

My folks left around 8:30 and the students showed up some time around ten so it was safe for them to take the jar and haul it back to the university. I'd be damned if they were going to leave me so as they were closing the back of the truck I ran and jumped in the front seat.

“You aren't supposed to go with us,” one of them yelled.

I was determined that if the jar was going so was I. “That jar isn't going anywhere if I can't go with it,” I yelled right back at him.

“The professor...,” he started.

“The professor said that I could be there when that thing was opened and I want to make sure I am,” I yelled.

Now, I am not sure if I won the argument or if he just gave up because he mumbled something, got in the car and we started off for Pittsburgh. It wasn't that far of a distance but it felt longer because they didn't speak and they had some hokey religion program that promised salvation for anyone willing to give the pastor $1,000 and it sounded like he was promising sainthood for a donation of $2,500. It was all a crock of shit. I knew it...pretty much everyone on the planet knew it but the moron driving the truck took it as gospel.

We finally got to the university and I walked with the guys as they carried the jar inside. Dr. Chou was there waiting. He was dressed in a white lab coat with some kind of velvet gloves which I assumed was to keep his body acid from touching the surface.

“I did some more research on those rubbings,” he said. “It is definitely a jar that the ancients thought would hold the spirit of Rakshasa. It got lost some time around 900 years ago and ended up in a couple independent collections over the year. There were always stories but nothing was ever proven and no one was allowed to study the jar until now thanks to you.” Then he looked at me and asked me if I had looked inside. Of course I said no since I hadn't and I didn't tell him about the message or the glow from inside the jar...at least not then.

They put the jar on a low table. The students started making their own rubbings and measurements of the cap, the circumference and the weight. Then Dr. Chou started playing around the lid. It was holding tight and the tighter it was the more he tried to force it open. Both he and his students were groaning hard and breathing harder that people should but it didn't move.

“Move away,” I said as I walked up to the jar. They all backed away and I put my hands on both sides of the lid and gently squeezed as I turned the lid right for a few millimeters and then to the left and it came off easy...very easy. I stood there holding it as the other just glared at me for knowing how to do it. But that didn't seem to stop them. As soon as the lid was off they all gathered around but not too close to see what was hidden inside. Dr. Chou was the first one to actually look inside.

“Give me a flashlight,” he yelled. One of the students brought one for him. He lit it and he stuck his head almost all of the way inside before he had any kind of reaction. When he finally had one we watched him back away and I was sure that he did some kind of dance but he said he didn't but the way his feet were moving it could only have been a dance. It took his like 15 minutes to calm down but when he did we heard all about what he had seen.

“Doctor, what was it, what did you see,” I asked with a burst of adrenaline.

“Canopic jars,” he said with a voice still straining from the excitement. “It has a half a dozen of them in there. I saw them I saw them all. They were jade...the deepest green jade I had ever seen and the lids were carved in the shape of different dragon heads. One was just freshly carved it looked like...maybe some time in the last couple of years.”

“My grandma has had that thing for five years I think,” I said. “I just know she never put it out for sale and no one was allowed to touch it.”

The doctor went back over to the jar and started removing the canopic jars one by one, setting them on a nearby table for more research on what their engravings said and why they were in a ginger jar in the first place. Then, while he was removing the last jar he let out a yell so loud it almost shattered the jar. “I found it,” he yelled. “I found it!”

“Found what,” I asked.

“I had heard about it since I was a freshman in college. I always thought that it was just a legend but now it is here in my lab. I cannot believe my pure luck,” he was yelling as he ran around the room while bouncing off of the walls. Then he did something I'd never expect....he ran over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“What is it,” I yelled back as I backed away from him.

He reached into the jar and felt around for a second before he pulled it back out and when he did he was holding a large diamond that was blacker than even the midnight sky out in the desert. Smiling he said as he held it out, “This has got to be the Diamond of the Gods. It is said to hold all of the powers of the Chinese gods when the ancient peoples turned against them.”

“Doctor,” I said in a very nervous voice. “There was a message on my mirror this morning that said "I want my diamond.”

Suddenly his face turned white...whiter than even the clouds outside. “When you opened the jar did you see anything strange,” he asked.

“Not when I opened it,” I said.

“When then, boy,” he yelled at me. “When did you see it?”

I stood there for a minute. Yes, I was getting more and more scared with every second that passed. “When I went to close it,” I said nearly in tears. “There was a glow and a mist that came out of the top and disappeared. I thought it was just dust from the jar being so old.”

“Glowing dust,” he asked. It was easy to see that he was getting angry with me.

“I didn't know,” I said. “I never opened anything like that before."

“Do you know what you did,” he asked. “Do you?” I just stood there shaking but I managed to shake my head enough to let him know the answer. I didn't know what I had done. “You released Rakshasa. You let the stealer of souls out into the world.”

Just then the ginger jar shattered and the canopic jars flew across the lab. No one was near it and no one could explain how or why the jar broke as we were all too busy trying to keep the canopic jars from breaking. We gathered all six of them and placed them on one of the smaller tables and wrapped them in bubble wrap just to make sure that they were safe.

We didn't notice at the time but a door in the far wall slowly opened. Now, I knew that door had a squeak in the hinges. I had come through that door earlier but now it was totally silent. The doctor and his assistant were busy picking up the shards of the ginger jar while I was looking at the carvings in the canopic jars. They were beautiful to say the least and for a young boy the images were just too fantastic for words. I just stood there and stared for probably 15 minutes.

In a split second a figured appeared out of empty space. It was ghastly to look at. It had ruby red hair surrounding an oriental face. Horns protruded into the air and each sent a sulfuric smoke into the air. Its hands were burnt so badly that it was hard to call them hands they were more like paws with claws that measured at least 6 inches in length. Its eyes,..I will never forget those eyes. They were glowing green...the same green as the canopic jars but they were transparent. Standing there I could see right into the back of his skull. The funny thing was...he didn't have a mouth...at least not one that I could see and that, despite everything else, was the freakiest thing about this creature.

“Can you see that,” I asked in a strangely calm voice. I know I should have been freaking out...you know... running around, yelling, but I didn't feel that. Everyone in the room looked at me as if I was crazy and pretty much in unison they all asked me what in the hell I was talking about. I pointed and said, “Right there! You can't see that....thing standing there?”

Dr Chou told me that there was nothing in the room but I knew better, I could see it, Whatever it was it walked by me without even looking at me. “What are you doing ?” I asked as it walked farther and farther from me and towards the table where Dr. Chou and the others were working. “What are you doing ?” I asked again in a firmer voice and again it just ignored me but Dr. Chou shouted back to me that he was looking at that diamond he found in the jar.

When he said that I could see the creature's ears perk up so, at that moment, I knew who it was and what it was after. “Rakshasa,” I yelled as loud as I could and as I did it turned slightly and its eyes locked onto mine for just a second before it turned back to Dr. Chou. I saw in its eyes that it was the creature who was locked in the jar for 1,000 years...it was the demon and it wanted that stone.

“Boy, will you be quiet for just a moment,” Dr. Chou yelled back at me. "I have to be extremely careful with these artifacts. I will be just a few minutes and then I will talk to you."

As soon as he finished talking Rakshara stood directly behind him, He wasn't in the posture he was when he walked in. It was almost looking at a cat stalking a bird. It was like watching a cougar hunt a small mouse and the mouse didn't know it was behind him.

“Dr. Chou,” I yelled but as I did Rakshara raised his hand and just one of his claws touched Dr. Chou on the shoulder and I watched him fall, gasping for breath and finally withering into dust and the creature just smiled and it was almost as if I heard it laughing.

“No,” I screamed as I ran over to the doctor. He was just a pile of dust. No skin, no muscles, no bones...just a pile of dust.

I looked up and saw Rakshasa reaching toward the table. I guessed that he was going to steal the diamond and take all of the powers locked inside of it. I also knew one thing : since all of the students had taken off when Chou collapsed,. I had to be the one to get the diamond and I had to do it fast.

It seemed as if it didn't notice me any longer, if it even noticed me at all. I was able to move around without it looking at me to see where I was or what I was doing so I slowly walked up to the table. He had just reached for the diamond when I stepped between it and the diamond, snatching it from the tabe and running across the room with it. It was then that he started watching me.

It started toward me at a pace a lot faster than it was using when it walked in. It was growling loud and that kind of sounded like a bear who was protecting its cubs and its mouth was fully open. For the first time I got to see into its mouth. Yeah, there were long sharp teeth on the edges but the rest of its upper mouth was filled with barbs that looked a lot like a collection of the sewing needles my grandma used to sew with. Its eyes, I will never forget his eyes, they weren't the color that I had seen earlier...they were glowing brightly and the color was something that I could not comprehend. It was truly terrifying.

I just stood there holding the rock. It was a lot warmer than it was when I picked it up and it kept heating up until it was burning the flesh from my hand but, even through the pain, I kept my hand wrapped tightly around it. Rashasa was no more than ten feet away from me when the pain got to be too much for me. By now I could smell my flesh burning so I opened my hand and the diamond )fell to the floor shattering into a lot of pieces when it hit the hardwood floor. As it did Rashasa screamed in pain and he back off.

At the same time I looked and saw the canopic jars shaking. They made such a loud noise that I fell to the floor with my hands covering my ears but that didn't help. The noise was so loud that even through my hands I was sure that my brain was going to explode. I could feel blood flowing from my ears and nose. The noise got louder and louder until I heard a number of small explosions. I counted six in all. Then I heard something strange...six voices in different languages and they were all yelling at the creature.

I looked and I saw someone who looked like the pictures in my history book when we were studying ancient China. Another was dressed like a Greek soldier and yet another looked like someone who had stepped out of 12^th Century Britain. The last figure I saw was a woman dressed in modern day clothes. She looked familiar but I wasn't sure who she was.

“Demon,” the British man said. “Turn and face us.” He stood still except that he had pulled his sword and was holding it before him. The rest did the same, except for the modern woman who just put on a show of her bravery. “You have kept us too long,” he continued.

It turned toward them and started running right at them. It was growling louder than it was when it was after me. It seemed to have one thing on its mind and that was to kill everyone in the room.

The British man stepped forward and shoved his sword into the chest of the creature. He twisted the blade while the others used their weapons to slash and stab the creature. Rakshasa swung its claws back and forth trying to slice his enemies and its bites were so powerful that I could feel them way across the room. But its claws and teeth never found a target despite several attacks. While he was trying the British man stabbed again and again, each time deeper and more powerful. Finally the creature fell onto the floor and after one more growl he turned into dust and was blown away in a breeze.

I crawled out of my hiding place and ran over and kicked the last bits of dust across the room.

The British man came of and offered me his sword. “You were brave, son,” he said. 'Not many men would have been able to do what you did. Live your life with honor and you will be as a brave of a man as you are a boy.” I looked at the sword and it looked very familiar. I thought about it a minute before I looked at the sword and then at the man.

“Your majesty,” I said. “Are you?”

“Yes,” he replied/

“And is this?

“Yes boy, you are holding my sword,” he said. “It has served me well and I want you to have it to protect you and help you be brave throughout your life.” He walked back over to me and touched the sword. He smiled and talking to the sword. “Excaliber, protect this boy as you have me.” Then he just turned and walked away. I knew at that moment who I was talking to. I had met King Arthur of Camelot.

One by one each of the six faded away until was standing there facing the woman. She walked to me and said, “You do not know me, do you?” I told her that I had never seen her in my life. She was young and dressed like a woman right out of World War 2. She had an accent that I had heard all of my life.

I looked closer at her and saw into her eyes. “Grandma,” I said as she wrapped her arms around me. Then she whispered in my ear telling me that, yes, she was my grandma and that she was going to a much better place now that she had been saved. I knew I should have been sad but I actually felt happy. Then she told me one other thing before she too faded away.

I took the ginger jar home that day. I made sure that the lid was always kept far away from the jar. I had it for about a week before I talked to my mom and dad and told them everything that happened and what Grandma had told me. We took it to the post office, packed it up and sent it to a museum in Hong Kong. Of course, the lid was sent separately. We didn't want to take any chances.

Me, I still run that little store my grandma owned. It is doing well and I always keep a picture of my grandma on a shelf behind me. That way I know that she will be there if I need her.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Excaliber. I still have it after all these years. It is stored in a velvet lined box in my bedroom and when I have a son...he will get Excaliber when I die and I just hope that it does as good for him as it did for me.

© Robert Taylor 2012