LatinosUSA

Dawn

Marcie steps out onto her patio garden and into a gray haze that mutes the morning sun. She hasn’t heard of any wildfires burning nearby, but, then again, she pays little attention to the news. When she turns on the spigot, she gets mere dribbles and figures she’ll try again in another hour. Making her way to the road, Marcie can hear the daylilies weeping. Blood drips from the magnolia blooms. Spooky, the neighbor’s cat, lays dead on the blacktop. I knew times were changing, she thinks, a hand atop her swollen belly, but I’m sorry, Baby Girl. So sorry.

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Mercury Rising

The thermometer breaks with a snap and falls to the hardwood with a couple of clinks. Let Mommy not hear, Little Sarah whispers to her inner-priestess. Even as a child, she knows her power. A shaft of moonlight glistens atop the liquid metal beads as she moves them with her mind. She separates them, bids them to hover, then releases them. They fall to the floor with a jiggle before finding their way back together. She glimpses her distorted reflection in the unified bead of quicksilver and contemplates its meaning. Am I a good witch, she wonders, or a naughty one?