Chapter Three

The Orchid and the Fern

 

The following is an excerpt from Chapter Three of Mama Root: The Old Woman of Loop Road

 

 

 

~~~     There was no real decision to be made as to the choice of literature; though she had other volumes, only one was her constant companion.  She opened the book to a random page, turned back three leaves, then read aloud:
 

Blush lips extol o’ Love’s new blossom bright
In quatrains clear an’ couplets fresh with dew
But claret petals fade with wanin’ light
Then fall ta’ earth, bereft their crimson hue

In mossy arms spent leaflets now repose
At end they journey back ta’ whence they came
Its flesh returned unto the earth, the Rose
Will rise once more with countenance the same

An’ in the ebbin’ o’ the vital tide
Love feigns ta’ pass ta’ some forgotten shore
But flows anew ta’ span the channel wide
Ta’ fill the heart, forsakin’ nevermore

As Rose reborn towards Heaven’s light will arc
Love’s vivid bloom Time shall not curse ta’ Dark

        Aged hands prominent with veins and covered with desiccated gray skin closed the timeworn cover of the book titled, Writings of Darkness and Light, penned by a long-forgotten author by the name of Royce Voithem.  The woman’s features and the book’s cover were kindred: the skin of the hands was translucent and stretched smooth, with purple-pink knuckles and chipped nails the hue of ancient ivory.  The book was of an equal age, with a cover worn threadbare by use and pages rendered sepia by the passage of time.
       “My, my, how that one touches me” the old woman intoned. “So very lovely, in a almost sad sorta’ way.”  She looked past the corona of the candle into the darkness of the room.  “Reminds me o’ those times past an’ the love we had, don’t you b’lieve, Charles?”~~~