The Myth of Gina

Gina Baker pushed her light curly strawberry blonde hair back behind her right ear and sipped her coffee in the bleak sunlight that seeped through the faded kitchen curtains.  “Meow” Purr… She felt a cold wet nudge at her ankle. She picked up a small little tabby cat, whom she named Trixie. She held Trixie in her lap petting her softly as she sipped her now warm coffee. After morning coffee, she would feed Trixie, then be off to the library to study the latest batch of antiquities. 

Gina was a 26 year old bombshell. She was absolutely beautiful, but she was nothing but a simple girl. She paid no attention to things like the latest styles, fancy hair dos, or sex appeal. She did not waste time on or lose herself into men who did not deserve the pleasure of her time. She was wrapped up into her work, which she loved. Just not as much as she loved her Trixie. 

“Good Morning, Mrs. Gina.” Gina walked into the library door to run right past Mr. Landry. Gina was so excited to get to the downstairs archives. “Gina?” Mr. Landry repeated again. Gina loftily smiled and replied, “Good Morning, Mr. Landry.” He was a tall thin man somewhere in his 40’s as far as Gina could make out. Mr. Landry never spoke of his age. “Are the antiquities ready for me to examine? I want to  see them as soon as possible. I am so excited!” He grinned big and said, “She’s here. Do you want to see her?”

Gina inquired, “Isis?” Mr. Landry shook his head up and down, his glasses falling to the end of his nose. She began to walk rarely briskly across the library past the rows of partitioned computers and between tall bookcases filled with books far above her head. She practically skipped down the long staircase into the basement. Edith, a short petite mature woman with peppered gray hair up in a tight bun, was standing on a small rolling stool looking at an archive box on a shelf about right at her eye level. Gina asked, “Did that come in this morning? Isos, right?” The excitement was building up inside Gina. Her eyes beamed with curiosity. The woman pointed at a big crate over by the door that led out to a back loading dock. “You mean that one?” 

Gina ran over to the tall rectangular crate. She pried at each of the sides, but she knew it was useless. She walked down an aisle between two tall shelves that almost reached the ceiling. The shelves were filled with small artifacts catalogued by alphabetical order. She entered a small room with tools for opening the crate. She thought of the prybar but reached for the circular saw instead. 

She stepped outside the door and headed back down the aisle to the crate. Edith was then standing by the crate. “Gina, you need to wait for the curator. Jones will be here soon. He knows it is here.” Gina backed off from the crate and put down the circular saw on the floor beside the crate. Gina replied, “I know we are supposed to wait for him to be here, but I have been waiting for this statue. What a magnificent piece!” Gina stared at the crate for a few more moments. Then she began to walk away. She turned and said, “I want to be notified the moment he gets here.”

Gina did not walk away. She waited until Edith went on her morning break to pick up a coffee and a donut from the worker’s lounge. As soon as Gina saw Edith  turn and begin up the long staircase, she quickly  walked over to the crate. She picked up the circular saw and plugged it in behind the bottom a row of items on the lowest shelf. She grabbed some work goggles that were hanging on the wall right by the door. She picked up the saw. It was heavy and awkward for her to handle, but she managed. Buzzzz…

She saw it for the first time; the statue was beautiful. Everything she expected it to be. Gina said quietly, “Hello, Isis!” She pulled the crate down around all sides of the statue. The statue was of magnificent beauty. It was excavated from a dig located right outside the Temple of Hathor in Dendera, Egypt.  The statue of Isis, Goddess of Magic, even when a little dusty was still captivating. Gina wondered if the stories were true. Was she really magical? She had heard stories about the magic of Isis. She took her hand and lightly dusted off the bottom of the front of the statue. Hieroglyphs. I know how to read this. She looked at it closely and muttered what she believed were the words inscribed in the chiseled stone. She repeated the words a second time even louder and with more confidence. The statue was bright with radiance. Gina was entranced with its bright light. The eyes of the statue lit up and the light shone bright in her eyes. She reached up to touch it. A quick electrical pulse ran through her veins. She collapsed.

“Are you okay, Gina?” Mr. Landry asked as he knelt down to lend her a hand to be able to stand up. The minute he touched her, she got a vision of him being hit by a car… No it was a truck, a large one… It was all a blur. Then, she adjusted her eyes again and saw Edith and Jones standing over her as well. She stood, feeling a little light headed, disoriented, and confused about what she had just seen. “Are you okay?” Mr. Landry repeated. “Yeah… I am fine.” Gina brushed herself off. They all gave her a slight look of disapproval. 

Jones asked, “What happened? Did you read the hieroglyphics? The statue is said to have strong magical powers. If you can read the words, can you help me decipher them?” Mr. Landry looked displeased with Gina but did not lecture her. He sternly said, “You better get on it.”

Later on that night, Gina could not sleep. She tossed and turned. The same dream in her head of Mr. Landry being hit by a truck. It appeared to be backing up into some small space. She tumbled out of bed at 4 am. She stumbled to her laptop on the coffee table. Purr… Trixie jumped up on the computer keys, and Gina nudged her off. She was slightly awake with her hair stringing everywhere and clothes just barely draped on. She looked up Isis, the Goddess of Magic. She discovered the hieroglyphs, if spoken correctly, could create or alter reality. She thought, Maybe I am seeing something I can change. What other reality can I change? This idea of being able to alter reality, if real, was frightening, but refreshing. Gina had never been anything special. She thought of all the change she could make. But what if she chose to change things in a worse way? The thought was rather ludacris that this force would choose her.  She went and got her coffee sitting quietly and thinking with Trixie. She said, “Trixie, that is just not me! I am a plain girl. I cannot even think of where I would begin. Me? Some kind of hero? That’s funny, isn’t it?” Gina got up, got dressed. 

By that time it was after 7 am, and she headed to the museum. Everyone was there already. Even Jones… It was a new drop off of antiquities. The truck was backing up to the dock as Gina was pulling up in her car. She could see the truck was going to hit Mr. Landry. She signaled for the truck to stop, but it did not do so. She began honking her horn loudly. The truck stopped within a few seconds of hitting Mr. Landry. Gina thought to herself, It’s true… I can not believe it. She walked into the museum. She first took Edith’s hand. She whispered in Edith’s ear words that made the old woman cry softly. “You do not have to be sad or grumpy any more. He will be home when you get there.” Edith looked with her eyes filling up with tears. Her husband had passed away a few years prior, Edith was never the same since. But now she lit up. But she turned to Gina. “Dear child, do not make light or joke of my life.”

However, when Edith got home that night, she heard old tunes playing in the kitchen. Dinner with candles all laid out around the table. In the small glow of the kitchen, she saw her Glen striding around the kitchen dancing lightly to the music playing. Was this real? But she did not care… She ran to his arms, and they danced together most of the night. Edith glowing with happiness in his arms. She showed up the next morning at the museum in a new awakened mood as if her sun had set again. 

Gina was walking to the front door when she first saw Edith. Edith seemed to have a skip in her walk. She said no hello but simply inquired, “How did you do it?” Gina glanced at her and asked “Do what? What did I do?” She felt a little pinkish and looked slightly flushed in the light. Edith whispered, “How did you bring back My Glen?” 

Gina stopped in her tracks and muttered softly, “I did it! I changed a reality that had been, what if I can change the future?” Edith walked with her into the museum. They both decided not to tell anyone, but Edith would help Gina, in any way possible.

Leaving work that day, in front of the museum, she saw a minivan run a red light. She could hear the screeching of brakes as oncoming cars and then the crashing of metal and glass. She closed her eyes and thought really hard. She opened her eyes to see the red minivan screeching its tires on the pavement while making a hard brake. It jerked to a stop. The oncoming vehicles barely sped past the front of the minivan.

Gina ran inside the museum and told Edith of the whole thing. “I think I have to physically touch someone to change their past reality, and I have to be there in present to change the future reality.” Edith asked, “What are you going to do?” Gina smiled and inquired, “Is he still there? Your Glen?” Edith looked with a happy glow. “Everyday. He is home. Thank you, Gina.” With that Gina knew what she had to do. It was time to go and leave this life because there was so much she could change. She could save lives.

That night Gina looked up all current events for their local area. Edith emailed her all she could find as well. She watched the local and national news for predictions of natural disasters and tragedies. She used her Sky Miles, which she had earned through the antiquities company that funded her through the library to travel to do excavations and digs for the local and national archives. Over the next six months, she changed events before they could happen and saved thousands of lives.

She saved three hundred people at a peace rally in Pittsburg when a man with a gun opened fire on innocent bystanders. She saved five hundred people from being crushed by rubble at a historical event in a colonial house in Virginia. Both events, she saw in her eyes before they happened. Standing on sight, she was able to change the events from ever occurring.

She touched a grieving mother who had just lost her son in a car crash, and she was able to change reality to where the crash had never happened. She stood at his graduation, not knowing him or any other child there, and watched the boy’s parents hold him in their arms. Tears flowed down from Gina’s eyes.

Then she collapsed. The payment for using this power was that it would weaken a person, and he or she would just turn to ash leaving this world forever. It was the price to be paid for such power. As she fell to the ground, she heard a voice say, “Is that the woman that changes things? I have heard of her.” A man and a woman approached her. She felt the hands of a young man holding her up. It was the young man who she had saved from the car crash that would have ended his life.

Gina was rushed to the hospital. The media surrounded the hospital. Everyone wanted to meet and talk to this heroine who could supposedly change reality and save lives. Thousands of people stood outside the hospital with candles. Doctors tried everything, but could not save her. Gina’s body was mysteriously shutting down. 

Edith was sitting watching the national news when she saw a story appear about “The Miracle Woman”. She had not heard from Gina in a few days.  Edith looked over at Glen sitting in his chair reading the local newspaper. She was so thankful for what Gina had done for her. She did not care about what had happened. She was only delighted he was here with her every day now, and that had to do with what Gina had done.

Early the next morning, Edith headed into the library. She spent all day looking up how to save Gina from the mortal ending of the magic. Suddenly, Edith jumped up and ran up the stairs to the main library. She walked briskly up to Mr. Landry. “Sir, I know how to save Gina.” Mr. Landry looked at her solemnly with that serious face. He said, “I do not know if the stories are true, but I need you here.” Edith scowled up her face and huffed off in disappointment. She ran back down the stairs to Jones. “Jones, you have to help me! You have to help Gina!” Startled, Jones turned around and asked, “How?” 

It took Edith, Jones, and four of the men hired to deliver the antiquities there to the museum to load the statue up in the back of Jones' oversized blue pick-up truck. He owned a truck to be able to navigate terrain to certain locations. Though he was a curator, he still loved the excitement of the dig and would often go on-sight. 

Edith rode with Jones as he drove throughout the night over to a small town outside of Cold Creek, Mississippi. There they pulled up to the hospital at about 10 in the morning. They had to figure out how to get the statue to her. She had to touch it again and somehow wake up enough to say the hieroglyphic words once more. 

They tried to explain to the doctors and nurses, but they were just asked to leave. They planned to sneak in after hours, get her, and somehow bring her down to the statue. They would sneak up there late at night to get her and bring her to the statue, but how were they going to wake her up enough to say the words?

Somebody in the sea of people holding up candles heard of the plan. He was a big bulky country looking man. He stood above Edith. He said, “I would like to help. She saved my daughter from that train derailment a few months back. How might I help?” A few more people volunteered and the plan changed. 

They soon had enough people to take the statue to her. Edith along with a small group of people were to be the distraction while Jones and a few of the sturdy men were to carry the statue into a back door of the hospital that according to a map of the hospital opened up almost right beside an elevator. They could then take it to the 4th floor. Gina’s room was about 6 doors down on the left. It would be up to Edith and her group to distract the nurses on the floor.

A little after 1 am during a shift change, they attempted to execute the plan. A short teenage girl with bright red and a tall boy with light brown hair opened the double doors. Jones and his crew were in with the statue. They loaded the elevator undetected, they thought, but they were caught on a hospital security camera so the security on the 4th floor were there and waiting for them. Edith came up with her group, and they all tried to be the distraction, but there were just too many security guards, until one told the others to stand down. He asked softly, “Will this help her like she helped my boy?” Jones replied, “Yes. It is the only way.” The lead of security then signaled for the other men to come help. They carried the statue a little further. They loaded Gina up in a wheelchair, but as she got closer to the statue, she awoke.

Edith hugged Gina. She said, “All these people have come to save you. All you have to do is read the inscription again. Read the hieroglyphics.” Gina lifted up with what little strength she could muster up and uttered the words quietly at first. And then repeated them again louder. She stood. People cheered.

Gina continued to get better. All three of them returned to their jobs back home at the library. The statue got transferred to a different location. And Gina still had a touch of the magic, but she reserved it for the little miracles. However, everyone in that area knew of The Myth of Gina for years to come. Gina lived her full life, and it was said that if there was laughing over weeping to be heard, Gina was there.