In the town of Bloomwood, far from anyone else, lived a small community of around two thousand people. Those who leave, never return. Until someone did, who didn’t even know they were doing so.
Julia Telling left her hometown and community when she was just 16 years old. She didn’t tell anyone: not her parents, not her lover and certainly not her friends, who she had suspected of plotting something big behind her back. She only took a dress and a photograph of her and her family in front of their blue, white-fenced house.
She hasn’t seen anyone from her past life ever again but has built a new one for herself. She got happily married to her husband, Mark, a man from a big city called Sarem, with whom she had two twins, Eleanor and Elliot. None of them really knew where she was from because she never really spoke about her past. That is until Eleanor had a daughter. Julia loved little Ray from the beginning. She sensed an instant connection with her, possibly even stronger than to her own daughter. Ray and her family moved to a town far away from Sarem but always visited during the summer, sometimes for a month, sometimes for only a couple of weeks. Julia and Ray would always chat, with Ray always telling Julia about her year and experiences, especially since she had just turned 16. Julia, for the first time since she left, mentioned her past life to anyone.
On the last evening of her visit in 2022, Julia gave Ray the 60-year-old photograph of her and her family. Ray couldn’t help but bring up how wealthy and happy they looked, and asked Julia what happened to her that was so bad, she decided to run away forever.
” My dear… It isn’t about what happened to me. Nothing did. But rather… About what could happen to me, or anyone, for that matter. Bloomwood wasn’t really a normal town. There’s a reason why it isn’t located near any other community. When I lived there, I heard many rumors about the town’s settlers making a deal with a higher power to always have what they needed. Other rumors would say that we are all witches. But really, they were just rumors. I left because I knew I didn’t have a future there. At least not a happy one. Well… that and my- Oh. Never mind that. My mind is just getting cloudy. I think I need some sleep, love. “
And that she got. She went to sleep and didn’t wake up the next day. It was a stormy day. Ray and her parents didn’t know about it until they got back home in the evening, since it was a long drive, but the news broke Ray. She was stuck on trying to figure out why her grandmother stopped herself from saying something and what it really was. When she was unpacking her bags, she found the photo that Julia had given her, only this time it looked different. Or it didn’t, but Ray had a strong feeling something had changed, only she couldn’t tell what it was. She flipped the image, revealing the back. It had “1962” written with old, black ink, as she remembered from last night. But also,”Light the candle” was written in red ink. She put her finger on the words and they got smudged like they were just a couple of minutes fresh.
She lit up a white candle she had in her room, but nothing happened. Half an hour later, after trying to figure out what was going on, she put the photo in the fire and the flame suddenly started bending in a direction.
© Octavian Nistor 2024-05-17