A Banshee's Song


She changes her form as she moves through the fog. Yesterday she was an old washer woman, crying for the person she must warn. Tonight, she takes the shape of a beautiful woman with long blond hair that falls past her waist. She has already started crying for the one she must warn, her heart breaking for him and his family. This family that she has come to know so well, death always present, she cries louder. She comes to the small cottage and looks in the paned window, watching the mother tuck her children into bed. All but one. The oldest one is late coming home. He stayed by his father's grave long into the night. His mother was beginning to worry at the late hour and the damp chill in the air. He has to be home soon. Any second he will walk through the door so she goes to prepare something warm for him to drink. The beautiful woman turns her back on the cozy scene inside the cottage and flows toward the old family cemetery by the creek. She sees the young man kneeling by a fresh grave, tears streaking down his dirty face. She comes to him, tears flowing from her own bright green eyes. The wind begins to howl around them, her flowing white dress twisting around her legs, showing her white bare feet. The young man looks up, finally realizing that he was no longer alone. He is mesmerized by her beauty and is unable to speak. She cries as she opens her arms to him. Without even thinking he goes to her. He holds her as if she were the only thing keeping him from floating away. The beautiful woman starts to sing to him, comforting him with her words and lovely voice. He lays his head against her shoulder, her long hair twirling around them both. Her voice is so warm and welcoming that he starts to feel very drowsy. She continues to sing, telling him wonderful things that seemed to make his heart beat faster and his thoughts turn hazy. He starts to feel as though he no longer is within his own body. He looks into the woman's beautiful eyes and isn't afraid. Then all he feels is her warm breath on his face as she continues to sing to him. Slowly his eyes close and all he is aware of is her warmth and her soothing voice. The mother drops the cup of warm milk she is holding when she hears the wailing. No, please, not him too. She runs out of the warm cottage and follows the winding path towards the old cemetery. The wailing is louder as she nears her husbands grave. It is a heartfelt wailing that she hears when she sees her sons body floating in the freezing creek. She jumps in and pulls him to the creek bank and starts crying. She doesn't notice the beautiful woman on the other side of the creek, crying for another death. When the mother looks up, all she sees is the wind whipping the fog around her and her dead son, and she hears a wailing surrounding them both, then it grows faint as the wind stops howling. It takes her a few minutes to realize that her son, that she had pulled from the freezing creek and now lay dead in her arms, wasn't frozen, but warm, and he was smiling.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.05.2010

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