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Unexpected Adventures Ahead

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Originally posted; 18 November, 2009.

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The Lanaghan-Martinelli home was warm in late October. Though the temperature outside was approaching forty, inside it was comfortable, inviting. Ten-year-old Vanessa was having trouble with her scarf. She’d tried three times now to tie it on, each time ending up with a different incorrect and ugly tangle of hair and cloth. She was worried that not being able to get it would somehow make them late or unable to go to Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Rya’s Halloween party.

Her “big mom” Samantha had been unofficially adopted by Rya’s mother, Shayden some years ago, and Ness had never known a time when she didn’t have three sets of grandparents. Mamma Shay and Grandpa Andrew were the ones she saw most. Grandma and Granddad Martinelli, Samantha’s parents, never seemed particularly excited to see her. Little mom’s family, Reagan and Carroll, lived too far away to visit.

“Aww, mom!” she called out from the corner of the living room. Both of them answered at once, identically, their voices making a perfect chorus.

“Yes, dear?” they asked. Ness walked over, and they saw immediately what it was. Eryn undid the awfully tied knot and re-did it herself, finishing the headpiece perfectly. The little girl reached up and touched it as though to make sure it was there. Now it was okay! The year’s Halloween costumes had been the child’s idea after seeing an old photo of big mom and Mamma Shay in their gypsy dance costumes. Eryn was absolutely fine with her decision. She’d made these dresses before in another life.

“That’s all! I wanted it to be right for mamma!” Ness said. Eryn patted her shoulder, then stepped over to a dark, polished wooden box. From it she pulled a glass ball. Its surface was still very clear, but it was marred with haze and chips in a few shy places. “You have a crystal ball, mom?” the girl asked.

“Oh, aye.” Eryn answered with a strange look in her eyes. She held up the ball and looked through it as she continued, her Irish accent thickening for some reason. “T’was fifteen hundred and forty-two by the Lord’s calendar when I first ‘eld this in me ‘ands. Best I kin, the man what was giving it t’me ‘ad nae need for it nae more. Mayhaps because he were dyin’.”

Vanessa gasped out loud, and Sam rolled her eyes as she smiled. Flanna had a strange way of showing up when she was least expected. Eryn blinked, and her gaze was once more her own.

“He died?” the girl asked.

“That’s right,” Eryn told her, no more speaking in outmoded, Irish-tinted English. “O’Grady was his name, and he taught Flanna everything she knew. At the time of his death, he left her his divination ball,” she said, offering the crystal to Ness, who took it wide-eyed. “This one.”

“Be
careful with it, Ness,” Sam warned. Ness looked up at her, then back at the ball.

“How does it work? Are there magic words?” she asked. Eryn shook her head.

“If you’re meant to see, you will. That’s all I can say,” she told her daughter. “Just look into it.” Ness heard and did as she was told. Holding the sphere up, she peered into it. At first there was nothing, just the strange, fish-eyed and inverted view of the inside of her house.

“Just wait, hon,” Eryn suggested. Ness agreed with a nod and kept watching. Soon something began to resolve. A dark-hooded figure with a stylized white porcelain mask, designed with the look of a laughing face, appeared. She watched closely as it moved, then faded away.

“I could see!” she told her moms excitedly. Eryn had seen, too. With a significant glance to Samantha, the short woman sighed, knowing that the crystal’s image was only a harbinger of adventure –and annoyances- yet to come.


The Lanaghan-Martinelli women, all dressed up with suddenly somewhere more important to go. I had intended this as a Halloween picture, but I didn't exactly have a lot of time during October to work on it. Still, in the immortal words of NYC port authority worker Cheech Marin, "Better late than never."

Characters, art & story © Antique Submarine
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Comments3
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marklungo's avatar
Very nice work! And I love the easter egg one of of your previous pics hanging on the wall.