Christmas #1 - Hindsight BFF #144

Hindsight

BFF #144

They say it’s 20/20.  Don’t believe them.  They don’t actually “know” everything.  The vision you have of the past and how it could have met the present with an alternate ending, is only speculation.  Hindsight.  If everything had fallen in place with an alternate spin, with more information, better cooperation, even nicer weather.  Hindsight.  It’s called that because it is behind you.  Don’t look back with regret or longing…simply look back to learn enough to look forward!  Otherwise, those same mistakes are going to be made again and again.

Here I was, chained inside some dark dank place only Heaven knows where.  I’m cold.  I’m thirsty.  My wrists and ankles hurt.  If I wasn’t so frightened, I would think this was some cliché from a “B” rated horror movie.  The place stinks of all sorts of smells, none of which are equated with a field of flowers.  I hear both screams and moans of the tormented.  I can do nothing but reflect.   Woulda-coulda-shoulda.

We had just begun planning the winter holidays.  When the call came in.  I was at Grandmother’s house.  Grandmother has a small two bedroom, yellow sided, lots of flowers, kettle always on the stove for tea, white picket fence sort of a house.  We were lounging around her backyard trying to make plans, via skipe and e-mail with the rest of my family.   My siblings have other obligations to specific days of the calendar year. My four siblings and I are cooperative.  I am a sorceress, a freelance detective and I sell minor spells to supplement my income.  My three brothers and sister are corporate Wicca. 

Baby of the family, Scarlett is the “head mistress” or CEO of the coven/corporation.  The three brothers are general managers of three divisions within the coven/corporation.  Yeah, I know, it bugs Scarlett too.  But, I think they are one and the same;  A hive of people all working towards the same end. Just like a coven, corporations can be good magic or bad magic it all depends on the end goal. 

Scarlett and the brothers are of the good variety.  They have renovated an abandoned brown space manufacturing plant and with the help of like minded (other cooperative covens/corporations) people, they made the building a green space.  Cleaned up the ground the building sits on, put in reverse osmosis water plant to clean the water, and even has a park for wildlife.  After all, wouldn’t the coven be remiss if it didn’t have its wildlife nearby?  Next time you travel, take a look around the buildings closest to the park…you’ll see what I mean.  Next time you travel, take a look at your friends who need to be “nearest nature”.  You’ll see.

Just because they need to be close to nature, doesn’t mean they are specifically Wiccan.  It simply means they have an “alternate” calling.  You’ve seen the show “Grimm”.  If you didn’t like it, it probably cut too close to home.  Which “fairy tale” character do you have running through your blood lines?

I try stretching my back to relieve the pain between my shoulders.  I learn the hard way, most of the time.  At least that’s what my Grandmother always tells me.  She tells me I’m as stubborn as my Aunt Wendy.  Only when Grandmother says it, it’s Aunt Windy.  So, Aunt Wendy hacked into my skipe session with Julian my older brother.  Aunt Wendy was all out of breath and hysterical.  Trust me, Aunt Wendy never gets hysterical.  Shouting mad, yes.  Fist pounding irate, yes.  Hysterical, not a chance.  But this time….she was frightened beyond anything I had ever seen.

Aunt Wendy didn’t get much out before she shouted she had to leave her apartment and head for Holy Ground.  That was our clue as to where to find her.  She would be found at St Jerome Catholic Convent.  She was scared.  Got my attention!    My family in trouble, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and my Irish Clansmen joins forces with the African Warrior Princess of my heritage.  I would not leave until I knew my Grandmother was safe.  Grandmother and I put more protections around the house.  We reminded the flowers that they were as much for warning as for beauty.  We reminded the picket fence it was kept so white and pure to keep evil out.  We reminded the graceful elm (that sheds it’s leaves and makes me sneeze!) that it too was there to keep prying eyes from peering down upon my Grandmother.  With her safely stocked and protected, I knew the rest of us could figure out what was happening.

Meanwhile, my siblings were hastily trying to find our parents.  Mom is a bit of an activist, dragging Pop’s along with her.  Not that he minds.  Most of the time he agrees whole heartedly with her, but with her presence he actually does something about those gut feelings.  (nah, not Wiccan, just empathic)  Plus, after bailing her out of jail a couple of times, he tags along to make sure she doesn’t go too far.

I try moving my legs again.  My calves are beginning to cramp up.  Moving my legs requires me to come back to the “here and now”.  I ache so badly.  I need to review the events to date.  I need to go over what I know.  I desperately need some hindsight. I have tried slipping out of the cuffs.  My wrists, hands, ankles and feet are now bloodied and skinned.  I imagine the next horrific thing will be that my captors let hungry rats loose into my chamber…..