Life is Truly Blessed
OK, so I was thinking of posting my stories here, and I figured I'd start with my very first story "Life is Truly Blessed." You can also find it on ff, if anyone's interested. I wrote this one shortly after the first season's finale, so in May of 2006.
I hope you enjoy it.
Kat
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don’t own any of these characters. Eric Kripke does. I’ve tried to buy the rights, but since I’m a broke graduate student, it’s not happening! And, also unfortunately, no money was made by me on this.
LIFE IS TRULY BLESSED
Mary pulled the Froot Loops out of the cabinet and rubbed her weary eyes. Dean had woke them up last night with his terrified screams. He dreamt he saw a man with yellow eyes in his closet, and that man had crept to Sammy’s nursery. Although John told her that she was coddling the 4-year-old, she allowed Dean to sleep in their bed. And he was a kicker.
Better check on Sammy, Mary thought. Wow. Sammy was 6 months old today. Time flies. He was such a good baby, although she always had the uncomfortable suspicion that Sammy was different somehow. He hardly ever cried. He even slept through Dean’s cries last night. He was already nothing like his hyper-active brother. Dean was even hyper at 6 months old.
Come to think of it, Dean was quiet. Never a good sign. Something is very wrong.
She opened the door to Sammy’s nursery. Sammy was watching Dean playing with his weebles. He had a big smile on his face, all the time never taking his eyes off his big brother.
Dean looked up. “Hi, Mommy!”
Mary kept the door open and walked over to the whicker rocker and sat down. She pulled the throw around her. It’s freezing in here! It’s not cold in the rest of the house. What’s going on? She looked at the thermostat. The temperature was supposed to be 70. It felt colder. But, it didn’t seem to phase either of her sons.
She looked down at her son sprawled on the rug. “What are you doing, Peanut?”
“I’m showing Sammy how to play baseball! You won’t let me play ball inside, so I’m using these guys,” he added reproachfully.
Mary fought the urge to laugh. John and she signed Dean to play t-ball with his preschool last summer. He loved it! Even at four, he was showing signs of being a natural athlete. He’s gonna be a professional baseball player! Maybe play for the Royals! Or maybe he’ll become good at basketball. Win a scholarship to KU. That would be so good! She knew John opened a college savings account for both boys. She also knew he put money in both accounts every month. She was just not sure how much he put in.
Dean’s singing interrupted her musings. He was singing to Sammy. Mary felt so touched until she realized that he was singing the wrong words to Led Zeppelin. “Dean?” He stopped and looked at her. She continued, “I don’t want you singing those types of songs.”
Dean frowned, “But, Uncle Mike teached me them!”
She sighed. She was going to have a talk with her brother when she saw him at Thanksgiving. He shouldn’t be teaching her 4-year-old son those heavy-metal songs! “I just don’t want to hear you sing those songs.”
“OK, Mommy.” He knocked over one of his weebles and watched it roll back upright. “I don’t wanna go to school today, Mommy.”
“Why not?”
“It’s boring.”
Mary smiled sadly. Dean was very intelligent, very precocious, but he was having a little trouble learning his letters and numbers. His letters and numbers were printed consistently backwards and out of order. His shapes weren’t very good either. Mary sighed. Dean’s sandy hair and hazel eyes weren’t the only thing he inherited from her. She suspected he had a mild learning disability like she had at his age, although John said if Dean would pay more attention to the teacher and less time counting down until recess, he might do better in school.
He looked up at Mary, his hazel eyes looking into hers with a sad determination. He was so much like her it was really scary. She knew she ought to tell him to go to school, but she vividly remembered her own struggles with reading and writing in preschool and kindergarten and how much she wanted to stay home. Her parents always made her go to school, and she resented it even to this day. Even though she was now a graduate student at KU. She didn’t want her son resenting her. It wouldn’t hurt for him to stay home today.
“You don’t have to go to school today. However, I need to run to the university to turn in a paper. I need you and Sammy to go with me. And while I talk to the professor, I need you to take care of Sammy. OK?”
“OK!” His eyes lit up. Mary burst out laughing. He loved going to the university with her. He was already an irrepressible flirt. All the other female graduate students and the secretaries loved him. “He’s going to be such a heartbreaker when he grows up, Mary!” And Sammy was pronounced “the best, most well-behaved baby I’ve ever seen! And he’s the most beautiful baby ever!” Which was good because there was nothing worse than an ugly baby. No, she corrected herself. Even worse were those parents who have ugly babies, yet think their ugly babies are so beautiful. Which was a good thing that her boys were gorgeous. She couldn’t wait to see what her boys looked like in 20 years. Bet they’re going to be knockouts!
Actually, Sammy worried her. He was a little too quiet, a little too well-behaved. Of course, compared to big brother, a tornado was quiet and well-behaved. And since Sammy is now six months old, it was time for a check-up. See if there is anything wrong. Because he made her uneasy, and she knew that was bad.
“Sammy stinks!” Dean turned to her, his freckled nose wrinkling.
“He probably needs changing.” She got up and picked up Sammy. Yep. He’s pretty ripe.
“Can I help?”
“Yes, you may. Pick up your toys first.”
Dean scrambled to put away his weebles, all the time singing “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!” Mary smiled at his antics, but ruefully admitted that this is why she hated taking him shopping. He would sit in the grocery cart, happily chirping out every commercial jingle to every product. It drove her nuts.
Dean ran to the bathroom, and Mary handed him the baby powder. She lifted him up to sit on the counter beside Sammy. “Can we go to the park today?” he asked nasally, his chubby fingers pinching his nose in an attempt to block Sammy’s smell.
“What’s the nice way to ask?”
Dean’s eyes flickered up to hers. “Can we pleeeeeease go to the park?”
“We’ll see.” Frankly, Dean terrified her whenever she took him to the park. His latest tricks consisted of crawling on top of the monkey bars and walking on them and climbing up the slide’s slope, usually when someone else was getting ready to slide down. She could grab her little devil when he clamored on top of the bars, and she could lift him off the slide. The swings were the worst. She would check Sammy for a second, then look up to see Dean swinging higher than any 4-year-old should. At the highest point, he would jump out of the swing, practically giving Mary a heart attack. He said he was flying; Mary was convinced he would break his neck on the hard ground someday. I got the next Evel Keneval on my hands here! And, she hadn’t yet figured out how to pull him off the swings without hurting him. Plus, he would watch her so when she would come running, he would just jump off anyways. She would swat his butt and drag him kicking and screaming from the park. But, the next day, he would jump out of those damn swings.
Still, he loved the park, and she loved his laugh when he was playing and when he wasn’t risking certain death.
“After I talk to my professor, what say we go see Daddy at the garage, Peanut?”
Dean looked up from Sammy. “OK! Then the park?”
“We’ll see.”
Dean looked back at Sammy and started making funny faces at him. The baby laughed and kicked at his big brother’s antics. It was hard getting the diaper on Sammy, and Mary was half-tempted to tell Dean to stop making Sammy laugh. But, her boys’ laughter made her unease slip away.
After all, what did she have to be uneasy about? She had a loving husband, two beautiful sons, and was going for her master’s degree.
Her life was truly blessed….
Disclaimer: Still don’t own them. Still wish I did. Although, Dean is probably glad I don’t own him.
Life is truly blessed
Dean loved going to the college with Mommy. He liked the box that Mommy called an elevator. The little circles lit up, and he liked to press all of them to see them light up. That usually made Mommy upset. So, he would wait until the door opened and Mommy stepped out to hit all those buttons. Except, Mommy would grab him and yank him out of the box.
He walked with Mommy to the main area. His eyes lit up when he saw the older woman behind the desk. She always had candy for him. Sometimes peanut M&Ms. Those were his favorites!
“Hi, Dean!” The woman greeted him, and she opened her desk drawer. Sure enough, there were little packs of peanut M&Ms waiting for him! He grabbed a handful.
“Dean, you have a ton of Halloween candy left over. You don’t need any other candy.” At the sound of Mommy’s voice, Dean dropped the packs. Oh, yeah. Halloween. Dean went as Han Solo, complete with a blaster and a lightsaber. Even though his teachers said that Han Solo couldn’t have the lightsaber because he wasn’t a Jedi. Dean thought that was a stupid rule, much like the other rules that the teachers made up. Han Solo was so much cooler than Luke Skywalker, but the lightsaber was such an awesome weapon. Mommy dressed Sammy as a cow, like those on Uncle Mike’s farm, although Dean thought he would have made a good Yoda.
The older woman winked at Dean and quickly handed him two M&M packs before closing her drawer. Dean moved out to stand beside Mommy.
Mommy asked the woman, “Is Dr. McAllister here, Lois?”
Lois said that he was, and Mommy took Dean and Sammy to a room where there were couches, tables, and books. Mommy called it a “study lounge.” She said it was where students like her did their homework. Why grown people had homework to do was beyond Dean.
Mommy laid Sammy in his basket thing and set it on the couch. She lifted Dean up to sit beside Sammy’s basket. “Now, Dean, I’m leaving you and Sammy here. I’m going to be two doors down, talking to a professor. I want you to stay here and behave. I don’t want to hear you, OK?” She pulled a folder and a book out of her bag and set the bag beside Dean.
“Mommy, can we go the park after this?”
“If you’re any louder than that, then no. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t move from the couch.”
She walked out of the room, and Dean heard her talking to someone. Suddenly, she appeared again, followed by a woman with her arms full of books and paper. The woman sat down at a table. Mommy said, “Dean, this is Jennifer. OK, be good for a few minutes.” She left the room.
Jennifer looked over at Dean. “How’s it going, Deanie?”
Deanie? He hated that name. A boy in his class, Kevin, called him “Deanie” once. After Dean gave him a bloody nose and made him eat dirt, Kevin hadn’t called him “Deanie” again. The teacher didn’t find the fight funny. He had to stay and pick up the toys for a week. Mommy didn’t like the fight either. He couldn’t watch TV or go to the park for a week. He couldn’t solve the park problem, but he discovered that if he lay on the floor in his room and press his ear to the floor, he could hear the TV. He was going to have to teach Sammy that trick.
Only Daddy seemed to find the fight funny. “That’s my boy! Nobody’s gonna push him around!” Daddy had said.
However, Dean thought that neither Mommy nor Daddy would like it if he punched this old woman for calling him “Deanie.”
“How old are you?” He asked the old woman at the table.
She laughed. “You’ll find out when you’re a little older, but you’re not supposed to ask a lady how old she is. But, I’m 27.”
Wow! 27. She was older than he thought! He couldn’t imagine being 27. That seemed so old!
He turned back to Sammy. “Sammy, I’m gonna tell you a story…” He started telling Sammy the Red Riding Hood story Mommy and the teachers liked to tell. Dean didn’t like the ending, so he changed it so the wolf also ate the woodcutter as well as Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother.
He heard Jennifer clear her throat. What is her problem? But, he really didn’t want to know, to tell the truth.
“I’m gonna draw you a picture, Sammy!” Dean dug through Mommy’s bag. She always kept crayons in there. Here they are! He pulled them out and looked to find paper with nothing typed on it or already written on it. He drew on some typed paper once, and Mommy got really mad. But, Dean found clean paper. Now, what to draw? Only one thing he could think of…
He looked at the finished picture. A pretty good drawing of the man with yellow eyes. He held it up in front of Sammy, and Sammy kicked at the drawing. “See, Sammy? This man was going into your room. He might be back tonight. But, don’t worry. Daddy scared him away last night. He’ll scare him away if he comes back tonight. Just, look out for him.”
Dean put the picture down, and Sammy smiled again. Dean rocked Sammy’s basket, and the baby giggled. “I have so much to teach you, Sammy! When you jump out of the swing, it feels like you’re Superman for a second. Just don’t let Mommy catch you jumping out of the swing. If you lay on your floor, you can hear the TV. The songs Uncle Mike teaches you are much better than the songs teachers and Mommy teaches. But, Mommy can heal scrapes by just kissing them. And she gives you hugs and kisses, even after you jump from the swings. And Daddy is big and tough, so he can scare away everything that scares you!”
Just then, Mommy appeared. Dean ran to her, and she lifted him up. He threw his arms around her neck.
“Thanks for watching them, Jennifer,” he heard Mommy say.
“That son of yours never shuts up!” Jennifer said.
Dean wrapped his arms tighter around Mommy’s neck. She hugged him back. He felt warm and safe in Mommy’s arms.
***************************
Disclaimer: I went to the free legal aide, and the nice lawyer told me that my delusions about owing Supernatural, the actors, the characters, and everything were in fact only delusions. He also told me that I actually own nothing of any value. I was very bummed out.
Author’s note: This is shorter. Actually, this note is probably the longest part of this chapter. I don’t like John all that much, and I find it hard to get into his head.
Life is Truly Blessed
John lifted the hood in the Ford Ranger and looked inside. It was going to need a new transmission, and he bet Mrs. Andersen, the owner, wouldn’t appreciate that news very much.
Mike, his partner at the garage, sat inside the office reading the newspaper. The unusual thunderstorms that had been going on going this past week were front-page news. Things are weird, John thought. A couple farmers came in, and they mentioned that they had cattle that had been killed. Some of the cattle had been struck by lightening, which, according the old farmers, that was a fairly common occurrence. However, some of the cattle died mysteriously, leaving their owners baffled. They also mentioned that the planted, but still bare, wheat fields had odd patterns in the dirt.
Two KU students came by to get their oil checked. The girls talked about these weird occurrences. Their conclusion: the Gates of Hell in the Stull Cemetery opened, and the Devil was unleashed. They mentioned that a friend of theirs went up to the cemetery on Halloween, and he thought he saw something before the cops arrested him for loitering. Apparently, every Halloween night, the Devil rose from the ruined church that supposedly had inverted crucifixes and danced with his followers in the cemetery. However, God and Nature couldn’t handle the Devil walking around, and these are the consequences. The cattle dying, the odd dirt patterns, and the unusual thunderstorms. All signs that the Devil was loose and waging war against God. Good vs. Evil.
John didn’t take much stock into those bizarre supernatural theories. They were products of superstitious and bored minds. There’s a reasonable explanation for everything. The cattle died because they were old or sick. Or some wild animal attacked them. The dirt patterns are caused by the hills around here and the rain runoff. And Kansas can have thunderstorms any time of the year. Late October and early November is uncommon but not unheard of. Still, something strange is going on…
But, he idly wondered what Mary would think of the theories that the students presented about the Devil. Mary was fairly religious. A Christian, but not in that Bible-thumping, I’m-always-right kind of way. She started taking Dean and Sammy to church, and although John would love to see how restless Dean handled sitting through a Bible story, Sundays were John’s days to sleep in.
“John?” Mike’s voice interrupted John’s musings. “You’ve been staring at the engine for 10 minutes. Is anything wrong?”
“Nah. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Mike grinned. “Oh, really? You dog, you.”
John chuckled. “No. Dean had a nightmare, and Mary let him sleep with us. And, he kicked me in a kinda strategic area. Didn’t get much sleep after that.”
That whole nightmare incident was weird, too. At Dean’s yells, John jumped up and ran down the hall. Instead of finding Dean in bed, he found his son standing in the hall by his door. Dean pointed to Sammy’s nursery. John went to check Sammy’s room while Mary comforted Dean. There was nothing in Sammy’s room, but John thought he saw a shadow moving down the hall when he left the room. Mary hadn’t seen anything. The power of suggestion. Dean’s babbling that there was a man in his closet, and I’m seeing moving shadows, John had thought. Just then, the lightening outside caused the lights to flicker, sending Dean into hysterics. Mary thought it was best for Dean to sleep with them, although John thought he was babying him too much. All John knew was that sleep virtually ended for him last night when Dean started screaming.
“Daddy!” At Dean’s call, John stepped around the car and saw them. His beautiful family. Why isn’t Dean in school? The thought quickly flitted through John’s mind, although he forgot it at the sight of Mary’s smile. She always had the power to make him forget everything other than her.
He picked up Dean. “Hi, Kiddo. What’re you doing here?”
“We’re gonna go to McDonalds! Wanna come?”
“Sure!” He put Dean down. “Let me say hi to Mommy and Sammy, OK?”
“OK!” Dean took off and climbed on the Impala’s trunk. Even at 4 years old, he already loved that car. John made a mental note to keep her up and running so he could hand it to his oldest son.
John lifted Sammy out of the carrier. Sammy gurgled and promptly went back to sleep. “Hi,” John whispered to Mary and bent down to kiss her.
He suddenly realized that he did believe in one aspect of the supernatural. He believed in angels. After all, he was lucky enough to have married one…
Please review.
Second Author's note: Stull, Kansas is a real tiny little town. It’s 12 miles west of Lawrence. If you’re from Kansas (like I am) and you’re interested in the supernatural (like I am), you’ve heard of Stull. Among other folklore and legends, the Stull Cemetery, which used to have a dilapidated church (which got blown down or fell down in 2002), was a Gateway to Hell. Every Halloween (and maybe the solstices) the Devil comes out of the church, and he dances with his followers. Students from KU (University of Kansas) have a ghost-busting tradition, but the cemetery is pretty heavily patrolled now.
There are many other legends and traditions, including the Devil’s son being buried in the cemetery. However, I believe that those are just stories. Anyway, I embellished one of the legends (the Gateway to Hell) one by saying that the Devil is unleashed and waging war. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a legend.
I hope you enjoy it.
Kat
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don’t own any of these characters. Eric Kripke does. I’ve tried to buy the rights, but since I’m a broke graduate student, it’s not happening! And, also unfortunately, no money was made by me on this.
LIFE IS TRULY BLESSED
Mary pulled the Froot Loops out of the cabinet and rubbed her weary eyes. Dean had woke them up last night with his terrified screams. He dreamt he saw a man with yellow eyes in his closet, and that man had crept to Sammy’s nursery. Although John told her that she was coddling the 4-year-old, she allowed Dean to sleep in their bed. And he was a kicker.
Better check on Sammy, Mary thought. Wow. Sammy was 6 months old today. Time flies. He was such a good baby, although she always had the uncomfortable suspicion that Sammy was different somehow. He hardly ever cried. He even slept through Dean’s cries last night. He was already nothing like his hyper-active brother. Dean was even hyper at 6 months old.
Come to think of it, Dean was quiet. Never a good sign. Something is very wrong.
She opened the door to Sammy’s nursery. Sammy was watching Dean playing with his weebles. He had a big smile on his face, all the time never taking his eyes off his big brother.
Dean looked up. “Hi, Mommy!”
Mary kept the door open and walked over to the whicker rocker and sat down. She pulled the throw around her. It’s freezing in here! It’s not cold in the rest of the house. What’s going on? She looked at the thermostat. The temperature was supposed to be 70. It felt colder. But, it didn’t seem to phase either of her sons.
She looked down at her son sprawled on the rug. “What are you doing, Peanut?”
“I’m showing Sammy how to play baseball! You won’t let me play ball inside, so I’m using these guys,” he added reproachfully.
Mary fought the urge to laugh. John and she signed Dean to play t-ball with his preschool last summer. He loved it! Even at four, he was showing signs of being a natural athlete. He’s gonna be a professional baseball player! Maybe play for the Royals! Or maybe he’ll become good at basketball. Win a scholarship to KU. That would be so good! She knew John opened a college savings account for both boys. She also knew he put money in both accounts every month. She was just not sure how much he put in.
Dean’s singing interrupted her musings. He was singing to Sammy. Mary felt so touched until she realized that he was singing the wrong words to Led Zeppelin. “Dean?” He stopped and looked at her. She continued, “I don’t want you singing those types of songs.”
Dean frowned, “But, Uncle Mike teached me them!”
She sighed. She was going to have a talk with her brother when she saw him at Thanksgiving. He shouldn’t be teaching her 4-year-old son those heavy-metal songs! “I just don’t want to hear you sing those songs.”
“OK, Mommy.” He knocked over one of his weebles and watched it roll back upright. “I don’t wanna go to school today, Mommy.”
“Why not?”
“It’s boring.”
Mary smiled sadly. Dean was very intelligent, very precocious, but he was having a little trouble learning his letters and numbers. His letters and numbers were printed consistently backwards and out of order. His shapes weren’t very good either. Mary sighed. Dean’s sandy hair and hazel eyes weren’t the only thing he inherited from her. She suspected he had a mild learning disability like she had at his age, although John said if Dean would pay more attention to the teacher and less time counting down until recess, he might do better in school.
He looked up at Mary, his hazel eyes looking into hers with a sad determination. He was so much like her it was really scary. She knew she ought to tell him to go to school, but she vividly remembered her own struggles with reading and writing in preschool and kindergarten and how much she wanted to stay home. Her parents always made her go to school, and she resented it even to this day. Even though she was now a graduate student at KU. She didn’t want her son resenting her. It wouldn’t hurt for him to stay home today.
“You don’t have to go to school today. However, I need to run to the university to turn in a paper. I need you and Sammy to go with me. And while I talk to the professor, I need you to take care of Sammy. OK?”
“OK!” His eyes lit up. Mary burst out laughing. He loved going to the university with her. He was already an irrepressible flirt. All the other female graduate students and the secretaries loved him. “He’s going to be such a heartbreaker when he grows up, Mary!” And Sammy was pronounced “the best, most well-behaved baby I’ve ever seen! And he’s the most beautiful baby ever!” Which was good because there was nothing worse than an ugly baby. No, she corrected herself. Even worse were those parents who have ugly babies, yet think their ugly babies are so beautiful. Which was a good thing that her boys were gorgeous. She couldn’t wait to see what her boys looked like in 20 years. Bet they’re going to be knockouts!
Actually, Sammy worried her. He was a little too quiet, a little too well-behaved. Of course, compared to big brother, a tornado was quiet and well-behaved. And since Sammy is now six months old, it was time for a check-up. See if there is anything wrong. Because he made her uneasy, and she knew that was bad.
“Sammy stinks!” Dean turned to her, his freckled nose wrinkling.
“He probably needs changing.” She got up and picked up Sammy. Yep. He’s pretty ripe.
“Can I help?”
“Yes, you may. Pick up your toys first.”
Dean scrambled to put away his weebles, all the time singing “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!” Mary smiled at his antics, but ruefully admitted that this is why she hated taking him shopping. He would sit in the grocery cart, happily chirping out every commercial jingle to every product. It drove her nuts.
Dean ran to the bathroom, and Mary handed him the baby powder. She lifted him up to sit on the counter beside Sammy. “Can we go to the park today?” he asked nasally, his chubby fingers pinching his nose in an attempt to block Sammy’s smell.
“What’s the nice way to ask?”
Dean’s eyes flickered up to hers. “Can we pleeeeeease go to the park?”
“We’ll see.” Frankly, Dean terrified her whenever she took him to the park. His latest tricks consisted of crawling on top of the monkey bars and walking on them and climbing up the slide’s slope, usually when someone else was getting ready to slide down. She could grab her little devil when he clamored on top of the bars, and she could lift him off the slide. The swings were the worst. She would check Sammy for a second, then look up to see Dean swinging higher than any 4-year-old should. At the highest point, he would jump out of the swing, practically giving Mary a heart attack. He said he was flying; Mary was convinced he would break his neck on the hard ground someday. I got the next Evel Keneval on my hands here! And, she hadn’t yet figured out how to pull him off the swings without hurting him. Plus, he would watch her so when she would come running, he would just jump off anyways. She would swat his butt and drag him kicking and screaming from the park. But, the next day, he would jump out of those damn swings.
Still, he loved the park, and she loved his laugh when he was playing and when he wasn’t risking certain death.
“After I talk to my professor, what say we go see Daddy at the garage, Peanut?”
Dean looked up from Sammy. “OK! Then the park?”
“We’ll see.”
Dean looked back at Sammy and started making funny faces at him. The baby laughed and kicked at his big brother’s antics. It was hard getting the diaper on Sammy, and Mary was half-tempted to tell Dean to stop making Sammy laugh. But, her boys’ laughter made her unease slip away.
After all, what did she have to be uneasy about? She had a loving husband, two beautiful sons, and was going for her master’s degree.
Her life was truly blessed….
Disclaimer: Still don’t own them. Still wish I did. Although, Dean is probably glad I don’t own him.
Life is truly blessed
Dean loved going to the college with Mommy. He liked the box that Mommy called an elevator. The little circles lit up, and he liked to press all of them to see them light up. That usually made Mommy upset. So, he would wait until the door opened and Mommy stepped out to hit all those buttons. Except, Mommy would grab him and yank him out of the box.
He walked with Mommy to the main area. His eyes lit up when he saw the older woman behind the desk. She always had candy for him. Sometimes peanut M&Ms. Those were his favorites!
“Hi, Dean!” The woman greeted him, and she opened her desk drawer. Sure enough, there were little packs of peanut M&Ms waiting for him! He grabbed a handful.
“Dean, you have a ton of Halloween candy left over. You don’t need any other candy.” At the sound of Mommy’s voice, Dean dropped the packs. Oh, yeah. Halloween. Dean went as Han Solo, complete with a blaster and a lightsaber. Even though his teachers said that Han Solo couldn’t have the lightsaber because he wasn’t a Jedi. Dean thought that was a stupid rule, much like the other rules that the teachers made up. Han Solo was so much cooler than Luke Skywalker, but the lightsaber was such an awesome weapon. Mommy dressed Sammy as a cow, like those on Uncle Mike’s farm, although Dean thought he would have made a good Yoda.
The older woman winked at Dean and quickly handed him two M&M packs before closing her drawer. Dean moved out to stand beside Mommy.
Mommy asked the woman, “Is Dr. McAllister here, Lois?”
Lois said that he was, and Mommy took Dean and Sammy to a room where there were couches, tables, and books. Mommy called it a “study lounge.” She said it was where students like her did their homework. Why grown people had homework to do was beyond Dean.
Mommy laid Sammy in his basket thing and set it on the couch. She lifted Dean up to sit beside Sammy’s basket. “Now, Dean, I’m leaving you and Sammy here. I’m going to be two doors down, talking to a professor. I want you to stay here and behave. I don’t want to hear you, OK?” She pulled a folder and a book out of her bag and set the bag beside Dean.
“Mommy, can we go the park after this?”
“If you’re any louder than that, then no. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t move from the couch.”
She walked out of the room, and Dean heard her talking to someone. Suddenly, she appeared again, followed by a woman with her arms full of books and paper. The woman sat down at a table. Mommy said, “Dean, this is Jennifer. OK, be good for a few minutes.” She left the room.
Jennifer looked over at Dean. “How’s it going, Deanie?”
Deanie? He hated that name. A boy in his class, Kevin, called him “Deanie” once. After Dean gave him a bloody nose and made him eat dirt, Kevin hadn’t called him “Deanie” again. The teacher didn’t find the fight funny. He had to stay and pick up the toys for a week. Mommy didn’t like the fight either. He couldn’t watch TV or go to the park for a week. He couldn’t solve the park problem, but he discovered that if he lay on the floor in his room and press his ear to the floor, he could hear the TV. He was going to have to teach Sammy that trick.
Only Daddy seemed to find the fight funny. “That’s my boy! Nobody’s gonna push him around!” Daddy had said.
However, Dean thought that neither Mommy nor Daddy would like it if he punched this old woman for calling him “Deanie.”
“How old are you?” He asked the old woman at the table.
She laughed. “You’ll find out when you’re a little older, but you’re not supposed to ask a lady how old she is. But, I’m 27.”
Wow! 27. She was older than he thought! He couldn’t imagine being 27. That seemed so old!
He turned back to Sammy. “Sammy, I’m gonna tell you a story…” He started telling Sammy the Red Riding Hood story Mommy and the teachers liked to tell. Dean didn’t like the ending, so he changed it so the wolf also ate the woodcutter as well as Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother.
He heard Jennifer clear her throat. What is her problem? But, he really didn’t want to know, to tell the truth.
“I’m gonna draw you a picture, Sammy!” Dean dug through Mommy’s bag. She always kept crayons in there. Here they are! He pulled them out and looked to find paper with nothing typed on it or already written on it. He drew on some typed paper once, and Mommy got really mad. But, Dean found clean paper. Now, what to draw? Only one thing he could think of…
He looked at the finished picture. A pretty good drawing of the man with yellow eyes. He held it up in front of Sammy, and Sammy kicked at the drawing. “See, Sammy? This man was going into your room. He might be back tonight. But, don’t worry. Daddy scared him away last night. He’ll scare him away if he comes back tonight. Just, look out for him.”
Dean put the picture down, and Sammy smiled again. Dean rocked Sammy’s basket, and the baby giggled. “I have so much to teach you, Sammy! When you jump out of the swing, it feels like you’re Superman for a second. Just don’t let Mommy catch you jumping out of the swing. If you lay on your floor, you can hear the TV. The songs Uncle Mike teaches you are much better than the songs teachers and Mommy teaches. But, Mommy can heal scrapes by just kissing them. And she gives you hugs and kisses, even after you jump from the swings. And Daddy is big and tough, so he can scare away everything that scares you!”
Just then, Mommy appeared. Dean ran to her, and she lifted him up. He threw his arms around her neck.
“Thanks for watching them, Jennifer,” he heard Mommy say.
“That son of yours never shuts up!” Jennifer said.
Dean wrapped his arms tighter around Mommy’s neck. She hugged him back. He felt warm and safe in Mommy’s arms.
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Disclaimer: I went to the free legal aide, and the nice lawyer told me that my delusions about owing Supernatural, the actors, the characters, and everything were in fact only delusions. He also told me that I actually own nothing of any value. I was very bummed out.
Author’s note: This is shorter. Actually, this note is probably the longest part of this chapter. I don’t like John all that much, and I find it hard to get into his head.
Life is Truly Blessed
John lifted the hood in the Ford Ranger and looked inside. It was going to need a new transmission, and he bet Mrs. Andersen, the owner, wouldn’t appreciate that news very much.
Mike, his partner at the garage, sat inside the office reading the newspaper. The unusual thunderstorms that had been going on going this past week were front-page news. Things are weird, John thought. A couple farmers came in, and they mentioned that they had cattle that had been killed. Some of the cattle had been struck by lightening, which, according the old farmers, that was a fairly common occurrence. However, some of the cattle died mysteriously, leaving their owners baffled. They also mentioned that the planted, but still bare, wheat fields had odd patterns in the dirt.
Two KU students came by to get their oil checked. The girls talked about these weird occurrences. Their conclusion: the Gates of Hell in the Stull Cemetery opened, and the Devil was unleashed. They mentioned that a friend of theirs went up to the cemetery on Halloween, and he thought he saw something before the cops arrested him for loitering. Apparently, every Halloween night, the Devil rose from the ruined church that supposedly had inverted crucifixes and danced with his followers in the cemetery. However, God and Nature couldn’t handle the Devil walking around, and these are the consequences. The cattle dying, the odd dirt patterns, and the unusual thunderstorms. All signs that the Devil was loose and waging war against God. Good vs. Evil.
John didn’t take much stock into those bizarre supernatural theories. They were products of superstitious and bored minds. There’s a reasonable explanation for everything. The cattle died because they were old or sick. Or some wild animal attacked them. The dirt patterns are caused by the hills around here and the rain runoff. And Kansas can have thunderstorms any time of the year. Late October and early November is uncommon but not unheard of. Still, something strange is going on…
But, he idly wondered what Mary would think of the theories that the students presented about the Devil. Mary was fairly religious. A Christian, but not in that Bible-thumping, I’m-always-right kind of way. She started taking Dean and Sammy to church, and although John would love to see how restless Dean handled sitting through a Bible story, Sundays were John’s days to sleep in.
“John?” Mike’s voice interrupted John’s musings. “You’ve been staring at the engine for 10 minutes. Is anything wrong?”
“Nah. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Mike grinned. “Oh, really? You dog, you.”
John chuckled. “No. Dean had a nightmare, and Mary let him sleep with us. And, he kicked me in a kinda strategic area. Didn’t get much sleep after that.”
That whole nightmare incident was weird, too. At Dean’s yells, John jumped up and ran down the hall. Instead of finding Dean in bed, he found his son standing in the hall by his door. Dean pointed to Sammy’s nursery. John went to check Sammy’s room while Mary comforted Dean. There was nothing in Sammy’s room, but John thought he saw a shadow moving down the hall when he left the room. Mary hadn’t seen anything. The power of suggestion. Dean’s babbling that there was a man in his closet, and I’m seeing moving shadows, John had thought. Just then, the lightening outside caused the lights to flicker, sending Dean into hysterics. Mary thought it was best for Dean to sleep with them, although John thought he was babying him too much. All John knew was that sleep virtually ended for him last night when Dean started screaming.
“Daddy!” At Dean’s call, John stepped around the car and saw them. His beautiful family. Why isn’t Dean in school? The thought quickly flitted through John’s mind, although he forgot it at the sight of Mary’s smile. She always had the power to make him forget everything other than her.
He picked up Dean. “Hi, Kiddo. What’re you doing here?”
“We’re gonna go to McDonalds! Wanna come?”
“Sure!” He put Dean down. “Let me say hi to Mommy and Sammy, OK?”
“OK!” Dean took off and climbed on the Impala’s trunk. Even at 4 years old, he already loved that car. John made a mental note to keep her up and running so he could hand it to his oldest son.
John lifted Sammy out of the carrier. Sammy gurgled and promptly went back to sleep. “Hi,” John whispered to Mary and bent down to kiss her.
He suddenly realized that he did believe in one aspect of the supernatural. He believed in angels. After all, he was lucky enough to have married one…
Please review.
Second Author's note: Stull, Kansas is a real tiny little town. It’s 12 miles west of Lawrence. If you’re from Kansas (like I am) and you’re interested in the supernatural (like I am), you’ve heard of Stull. Among other folklore and legends, the Stull Cemetery, which used to have a dilapidated church (which got blown down or fell down in 2002), was a Gateway to Hell. Every Halloween (and maybe the solstices) the Devil comes out of the church, and he dances with his followers. Students from KU (University of Kansas) have a ghost-busting tradition, but the cemetery is pretty heavily patrolled now.
There are many other legends and traditions, including the Devil’s son being buried in the cemetery. However, I believe that those are just stories. Anyway, I embellished one of the legends (the Gateway to Hell) one by saying that the Devil is unleashed and waging war. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a legend.