There Are Secrets in the Fog

I couldn't help but smile at Ms. Ida. Straight to the point, no chit chat. I liked that about her. I wasn't one for much chit chat either.

I gave Rihanna a quelling look and stepped out of the truck. Rihanna smiled sweetly back at me and slammed the door as she got out.

"Good morning, Ms. Ida. I hope you don't mind, but I brought my sister along with me." I waved in Rihanna's general direction as we both made our way to the front porch.

Ms. Ida met us at the bottom of the stairs. She gazed up at Rihanna, a slight frown on her face. Then, she looked at me.

"Twins, I see. Identical." She stuck her hand out towards Rihanna, "I'm Ida Pendleton. You can call me Ms. Ida."

Rihanna hesitated for a split second, then took Ms. Ida's hand. "Nice to meet you. My name is Rihanna."
They stared at each other for what felt like an hour, but was probably only a few seconds. They held hands for a wee bit longer. When they finally let go of each other, Rihanna seemed nervous.

Ms. Ida looked back at me. She had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Kiara, I'm sure you have a wonderful plan to get my yard back into shape, just let me know when you want to start, and how many strange men I should be expecting to invade my yard."

She dipped her head quickly, as if agreeing to something. "Well, with that business out of the way, why don't the two of you come inside. It seems we may have a few other things to talk about."

Ms. Ida looked at Rihanna. Her thin lips were pressed into a smile, which gave her the air of a nun in charge of a school for recalcitrant girls.

She turned and walked back up the steps and into the house. The screen door banged behind her. I looked over at Rihanna, who seemed rooted to the step. "Well," I said, "let's get on in there. You should be just bursting at the seems with curiosity about what she has to say."

Rihanna didn't look at me, but continued to stare at the screen door. "Curiosity is not the adjective I would have picked to tell how I feel at this very moment, sissy."

Rihanna smiled then, and turned to me. She had what could only be described as a devilish grin on her face. It made my skin crawl.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see wisps of black smoke beginning to crowd around the front porch. Rihanna saw it too. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "Ah, sissy, doesn't the air smell wonderful!"

"Not really," I said. I walked up the stairs and opened the screen door, motioning for Rihanna to enter before me. It gave me time to look around the porch. The black fog seemed to be growing darker and more dense.

As if in reaction to it, Rihanna seemed as if she was getting colder and more calculating.

The inside of Ms. Ida's house was tastefully furnished and could have been taken directly out of the pages of Southern Home and Garden Magazine. It was bright, and airy, and cheerful.

I led Rihanna through the den to the back of the house to the kitchen, where I knew Ms. Ida would be waiting. She did all her entertaining in the kitchen. Secretly, I rubbed my hands together, wondering what kind of treats she would have for us.

"Chocolate chip cookies!" Rihanna said, "those have always been my favorite!" Rihanna clapped her hands like an excited little girl. I tried to keep my expression neutral. Chocolate chip had never been Rihanna's favorite.

"Thank you, Ms. Ida." I said as I took a couple of cookies and sat down at her big, thick-wooded table.

The table was a family heirloom, having been passed down multiple generations. It was round, and I could just imagine King Arthur talking to his knights around a table like that on some cold, gray wintry day.

"Please, sit down Rihanna." Ms. Ida said. As Rihanna took a seat, Ms. Ida brought over iced tea in beautiful cut crystal glasses. It looked delicious in those glasses.

"Got these as a wedding present." Ms. Ida said as she took a chair for herself. "I have used them rarely, so I thought it would be fun to use them today."

"Ms. Ida, you have a wonderful home." Rihanna said, "It's so big. I bet it gets lonely here at night."

"Rihanna!" I said.

Ms. Ida looked at me with a patient smile. "It's OK, Kiara. Your sister is entitled to her opinion."

Ms. Ida turned to face Rihanna, "Young lady, I am going to give you a piece of advice. You can take it or leave it."

Rihanna smiled and straightened up at the table. She was all eyes for Ms. Ida. "Yes, ma'am, I'm listening."

"Shadows offer nothing but empty secrets. There is no excitement, and there is no love."

Rihanna's eyes hardened, "I'm not looking for love, Ms. Ida."

Ms. Ida ignored the comment, and continued, "So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love."

I could see gray storm clouds brewing over Rihanna's head. Ms. Ida seemed unaware of the coming thunderstorm.

"Look to these three things for fulfillment, and not at the darkness. Because, if you continue to allow yourself to be fulfilled by darkness, you will not only lose your mortal life, but quite possibly your soul."

Bumpy Ride

The old pick up trundled, rattled and bucked down the pitted country road. With each pothole, each jarring dip, her anxiety mounted.  She had been feeling incomplete since she awoke this morning; the reason why, she didn't want to consider at the moment. Plus, something about this trip to Ms. Ida's house had her on edge. The exhilaration from the actual separation from the part of her- the responsible, boring, predictable and weak part-began fading early in the morning. By the time she climbed into to truck next to Kiara, the feeling of being incomplete began worming its way under her skin, putting her on edge.

Whack! Her head hit the roof of the truck as Kiara drove into a deep pothole.

"Damn it! Kiara. Watch the potholes! My head hurts."

"Awwww, I'm so sorry, Sissy!" Kiara spat.

Rihanna rubbed her head and looked out the windshield. The truck was chugging its way up a small incline. As it neared the top, Rihanna got her first glimpse of the  house. As described by Kiara's, Ms. Ida's house was an old, giant, Victorian, ginger-bready type home in dire need of a paint job. The oak trees towered above the house, keeping it shaded pretty much all day and the bushes surrounding the house were huge, as if they were attempting to completely overtake the home. It all seemed very ordinary for an old house lived in by an old lady, except for a trace of black fog drifting low on the weed strewn grass of the lawn.

Rihanna shivered. For a brief moment, her anxiety level dropped and she felt euphoric. She wanted to leap out of the truck, plop down into the fog and roll around and around and around. But just as suddenly, the anxiety returned and she felt a little out of whack, like something wasn't right.

"Maybe Meanie Me is starting to realize that she can't thrive without all her parts." I thought. As I watched myself throughout the truck ride, I couldn't help but think about the welfare of my family should this Rihanna return home, or if she would even consider returning home. I could not fathom even Meanie Me purposefully hurting the children. More likely, she would disappear, abandoning the kids and Rico. I couldn't allow that to happen.

I wondered about her strange reaction when she noticed the fog. She had been radiating tension since we left Kiara's place, but once she caught sight of the fog, she seemed more relaxed. Kiara, though, who had been quiet during the trip, concentrating on hitting every pothole on the road, clenched the steering wheel and began to breathe deeply as if to keep herself under control. Two opposite reactions. 


The fog drifted across the yard, but stopped short of the porch steps. I noticed that as we made our way up the driveway the fog would roll and pitch its way toward the porch, but would then flip backward as if repelled by some force. A black, slow moving wave that never ceased in its effort conquer the porch steps and ultimately, I thought, Ms. Ida's house.


 The ebb and flow of the fog lulled me into a state of relaxation. Or at least that's how I felt, relaxed. I wasn't sure if a disembodied spirit could actually be relaxed. I started to think about my reaction to this whole episode. I didn't panic when the split first occurred. Neither did I feel defeated. I knew myself well enough to know that I had a "dark" side, but I knew on an instinctual level that my darker side was not evil. So what caused me to split into two separate parts?


I had been wallowing in a semi state of self pity for the last few months. The kids were older and didn't need me like they used too and Rico and I had adopted our roles as parents, forgetting that we used to revel in each other's touches. I felt sad, lonely and useless. I had become distracted by selfishness. Instead of delighting in the accomplishments of my children or the small things Rico would do for me, like bring me coffee in bed each morning, I focused on the realization that I was growing old and my way of life was going to change in a few short years.

I had let the devil into my thoughts and couldn't muster the strength to kick him out. Maybe that was the opening he needed to to lure my darker, supposedly more fun side, out. I had lost sight of God and forgotten my favorite verse, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

I felt I was onto something, even though I still wasn't sure how the dark visitor fit into the whole scheme. At that moment, I was jerked out of my reverie when Rihanna gasped. Ms. Ida had just walked out onto her porch. She was a small, thin woman. She seemed very prim the way she stood, back straight, and hands clasped in front of her, hair pulled into a tight neat bun. Her eyes were vibrant, as green as you might imagine a field in Ireland might be after a spring rain. Her expression, though, could quell Ironman, Superman, Batman or any other man who might think to cross her wishes.

"Kiara!' she yelled. "My yard looks like hell and I want to know what you are going to do about it!"

Accentuate the Positive

It was Rihanna that had ruffled my hair. I felt it. The energy was familiar, safe. And I knew it was her. Rihanna was up there somewhere...floating around.

Cleo was self-involved with her fur, and Hank whined a couple more times, wagging his tail.

He was looking up in the far right corner of the room, and I assumed Rihanna was maybe there, peering down at me. A little weird, but OK.

Hank whoofed softly, took a deep breath, blew it out, circled around in the same spot three times, then threw himself on the floor and closed his eyes.

The thunder and lightening had moved on, leaving behind a steady pounding of rain. It was peaceful, with the noise of the rain hitting the back porch, and the dog and cat sleeping comfortably.

I didn't know what to think about Rihanna. In some way, it was as if she had an out-of-body experience, but her whole self had not left her body. And, what about the black, smoky spector at the top of the stairs. Was it all related?

The Rihanna that was physically present in her body was still Rihanna, but darker. She was being attacked by something, I had seen it myself in my own out-of-body experiences. I thought about the past few days, then back a few months.

For awhile, Rihanna had been depressed, bored, and just not very happy. She had talked some about needing excitement, and something new. Was it this negativity manifesting itself?

The Bible says that what you think becomes your reality. You are what you think, basically. And letting those thoughts become spoken words adds to their power, therefore bringing them to fruition. 

The positive to this is that if you think, and then speak, good things, then you will be blessed. The flipside to that is the negative - from tiny, supposedly inconsequential thoughts to those large, "I can't do anything" thoughts - that, once spoken, can bring a life of misery and failure.

It was Satan, wheedling his way into your brain, slowly poisoning your thoughts until you lose hope.

This had been the path Rihanna had been following for months, and I just hadn't seen it, or maybe acknowledged it for what it was. And now, the poisonous thoughts were manifesting and morphing her into something different, and not so nice.

And why was I so certain that Ms. Ida held answers? Shadows surrounded her house. It seemed to me that she was also under a concentrated spiritual attack. How would that help our situation?

Too much to digest right now. My body ached from my hog adventure, and my mind felt drained and muddied from dealing with the realities of spiritual warfare.

I suddenly felt a little better having acknowledged the fact this was warfare. It was in my best interest, and Rihanna's, to watch what I thought and spoke.

I laid back down. The bed jiggled as Hank jumped up. He settled himself next to me. I closed my eyes, and said another good night prayer, and pointedly turned off the light.



Hissing and commotion on the bed woke me up, and I nearly fell onto the floor. The animals had managed to move me completely to the edge of the mattress.

Early morning light peeked through the slats in the shades. The sun had not yet cleared the trees, but light had already given my bedroom a pale, light-blue glow.

I had a horrible headache, and my mouth was dry. It felt like a girls night out hangover, excluding the fun. I rolled off the bed, and went to the door.

"Come on, guys, time to go outside." Hank jumped off the bed and trotted outside. I had to crawl under the bed and grab Cleo, who had quickly hidden herself.

"You too, fat cat." I said, as I grabbed her and pulled her out. Cleo meowed and gave me a warning hiss, but it was all an act. We danced this routine almost every morning.

"Oh, sissy!" Rihanna sang at my door.

Ugh. I rolled my eyes. Really?

She knocked loudly, "Sissy, it's time to get up. The birds are chirping, and I am restless!"

I rolled off the bed and walked to the door. Hand on door knob, I took a deep breath and pulled the door open.

Rihanna took a step back, a look of fake shock on her face, "Sissy, you look terrible. Did you get any sleep last night?" She smiled sweetly and flitted towards the kitchen.

"Ick," I said, slamming my door closed. I looked over in the corner where Hank stared the night before. "I hope you are still around, Rihanna, because that witch out there is highly irritating."

I went to take a shower.

The smell of fresh coffee greeted me as I left my room. I didn't see Rihanna, so assumed she was either in her room or on the front porch.

I made myself a cup, and blinked in surprise at the taste. It was really good. Rihanna usually made weak coffee, and drank it black. This coffee tasted like the perfect balance between water and coffee grounds. It was smooth, without a bitter aftertaste.

A smiled. I had found an upside to the dark Rihanna. She could make a kick-ass cup of coffee.

I found her on the front porch. Her eyes flicked towards me as I approached, and she smiled a close-lipped, secretive smile. My personal joke about her coffee-making abilities vanished.

"Sleep well last night, Sissy?"

I pulled out a chair from under the table. It's metal feet scraped across the concrete. I winced out of habit. Steve used to berate me for scraping the concrete. After all, who would want to see scratch marks all over the porch? The thought made my heart hurt.

I sighed as I sat down, "I slept OK. How about you? I'm surprised your "new self" didn't turn to ashes when the sun hit you this morning."

Rihanna chuckled, "I was careful not to stay in it too long."

"We need to be at Ida's by at 10:00 this morning." I said.

Rihanna perked up, "Good. I can't wait." Her eyes glittered. For a split second I was reminded of a lizard, or a snake. The hair on my neck stood up.

"I don't like what you have become, Rihanna. This "new you"," I waved my hand in her direction, "is not appealing. You are not whole anymore, and I'm afraid the longer this lasts, the harder it will be to put you back together."

She leaned back in her chair, and took a sip of coffee. "Well, Kiara, maybe I don't want to be whole. That part of me that you like was weak and scared. I am so much better now."

"We'll see about that." I said. We finished our coffee in silence.