Twin Adventure: A Spirit, A Dream, A Deliverance

An invisible hand grabbed Sadie’s leg, dragging her to the edge of her tiny twin-sized bed. “Sean!” Sadie hollered.

              Her fourteen-year-old twin leapt to her aid. “Sadie,” he said the same time as the door busted open and their grandmother Keturah entered their bedroom.

              “You, unclean spirit, get out of my house in the name of Jesus!” Grandma Keturah commanded.

              Sadie could feel the moment the creature released her, and the dark, oppressive atmosphere shifted but that wasn’t before she heard the words communicated, “I’ll be back.” She’d shuddered at the sound of the menacing voice, speaking to her spirit, but was happy to be rescued from its sinister plot.

              As soon as the ordeal was over, she sprung from her bed and into her grandmother’s awaiting arms. “How’d you know?” Sadie asked.

              “A grandma always knows,” grandma Keturah said.

              Sadie stiffened. Did she know about the adventures Sean and Sadie had been on? Did that mean she was also aware of Sadie’s run in with a taxi, Jarvis, Sadie’s former crush, Yael, the cherub, the giant they had fought and Sadie’s showdown with the demonic prince called Molech. If so, how did she know? How could she know? She was never present any of their meetings or battles or was she?

              The walls of the house were made of concrete and the panel doors were sturdy and strong. Sean and Sadie had also been discreet in their discussions and had concealed two out of three weapons, which comprised a slingshot – the slingshot that former King David of Israel had used to kill Goliath, a nine feet giant, and a ring that could vanquish giants and seal heavenly decrees. The third was a power packed camera that could nemeses temporarily blind. Sadie kept that one around her neck for it was a gift from her dad. Yael, the cherub, who’d scared her and Sean out of their socks the night they met, had added the power to Sadie’s camera.

              “Let me pray over you so you can get some rest,” grandma Keturah said. She brought out a bottle of olive oil, Sadie hadn’t realized she’d had with her. She then anointed their heads while repeating Psalm 23, a Psalm of King David, from the King James Version of the Bible. She then prayed over them and remained with them until they fell asleep on their respective beds.

              It was the best sleep Sadie had in days. Both her and Sean were sent by their parents to spend the summer holiday with their grandmother, Keturah, in Linstead, a rural district in the parish of Saint Catherine in Jamaica. The parish boasted fruit trees, lots of ground provisions and were known to have quite a number of farmers. The twin spent their days with Sean reading and Sadie snapping pictures. Sometimes they would help Grandma Keturah in her large garden, although she had workers and would occasionally take on a mentee as her way of giving back to the district. Grandma Keturah had specialized in selling callaloos and so her neighbours and even supermarkets would come to her for their supply.

              It was in the midst of that life that they encountered a mystical rainbow flower that had turned their lives around. They were visited by a cherub by the name of Yael, who had told them that they had to send a demon back into the fabric of time. He’d visited a week ago with a second assignment. It was to help break a curse off the most powerful family in Linstead, the Richardsons. The twins were successful in both ventures. But Sadie had been left with the nightmares of the events. Last night, the nightmares were capped off with a diabolic encounter. 

              What did it mean by it would be back? Sadie’s fork danced around the ackee and saltfish and fried dumpling on her plate, Jamaica’s national dish, while she gazed out the window at the sun lighting up the morning. It was a calm and serene day but her stomach was in knots and her throat felt constricted.

              “Do you want that?” Sean’s light brown eyes were hopeful as he stared at the barely touched breakfast. She glared at him, with eyes the replica of his. Unlike her, he’d been able to sleep, read, eat and crack jokes like their worlds hadn’t been turned upside down. A stab of envy pierced her chest but then she recalled he hadn’t experienced a near fall to his death, neither had he battled Molech, the baby eating demon; although, had it not been for his singing over her as she slept, she would have died in her sleep. With all the recent uproar, she wished she could say, “It was all a dream.” That simply wouldn’t be true. 

              “What’s the matter, my sweets?” her grandmother asked her and Sadie had the urge to fling her arms around her neck and curl up in her granny’s lap like she used to do when she was much younger.

              “Life,” Sadie said with a sad smile.

              Her grandmother chortled. “You’re only fourteen and you sound like that already. Imagine what will happen when you get to my age.”

              “If I get to your age.”

              “Don’t sound like that precious. Here, let grandma cheer you up.” Grandma Keturah donned a pair of glasses, got up from the chair and walked to a breakfront, where she retrieved her Bible. She opened the book and read, “Psalm 42.” She read the scripture from start to finish. Sadie closed her eyes and allowed the words to wash over her soul.

              “Better?” Grandma Keturah asked.

              Sadie nodded. She hadn't completely recovered from her doldrums but it had helped a little. Grandma Keturah clapped her hands, surprising the twins. “Great! Grab your swimsuits. We’re going to the river today."

             "No way!" Sean said, standing up.

             Grandma Keturah grinned. "Yes way. Finish up your breakfasts and go get dressed. Our ride will be here in an hour. "

              Soon after they had breakfast, Sean and Sadie grabbed their beach bags and proceeded to pack their items. Along with her swimsuit, Sadie packed her camera and the ring.

              She glanced in her brother’s bag. He’d packed his trunks, a towel and some marbles for sports. “Where’s your slingshot?” she asked.

              He snatched the bag from her hand. “I won’t need it.”

               “You don’t know that.”

              “Sadie, you’re being paranoid.”

              “No, I’m not.” She glanced around her and saw the slingshot in a pile of clothes sticking out in a corner. So much for being discrete!

              She marched over to it and snatched it up. “Is this any way to care for a God given weapon?” She dropped it into his bag.

              “That’s it. I’m telling Yael and Jarvis, no more mission. They need to find other kids because you can’t handle it.”

              “I’m fine!” she yelled. “I can handle it.”

              “Then why are you yelling?” he asked, his voice held no judgment, only confusion and that made Sadie even more perplexed.

              “I don’t know,” she said and then she started to cry.

              “Are you on your period?”

              She shook her head in the negative. She'd thought she was better, even if a little, after Grandma Keturah had read a little of the Bible but she couldn't shake the mass of dread forming in the pit of her tummy. “I’m scared and – and I feel heavy, sad and confused.”

              Sean sighed and opened his arms to his sister. Sadie hugged him and then proceeded to wail like a baby.

*****

The Rio Cobre river was long, winding and calm. Sadie longed to dive into it and ease the tension built from some of the most awful experiences she’d ever witnessed.

              Her, Grandma Keturah and Sean weren’t the only ones at the river. Quite a few families had come to the river to get away from the sweltering heat.

              No sooner had they arrived than Sean found some boys to play a ball game while Sadie changed into her swimsuit and headed to the river.  

              “Sadie,” her grandmother called. “Wait until you have company before you go in.”

              “Okay.”  

              “Oh, Sadie.”

              “Yes, Grandma.”

              “I didn’t call you baby.”

              “Sadie.” Sadie spun in the direction of her grandmother’s voice but her grandmother was busy talking to a lady a little further down the river bank.

              “Down here,” the voice said.

              Sadie rotated into the direction of the water, her heart in her throat. There in the water, a mossy green face stared back at her.  

              “Come on home, sweetie,” the creature sang. Sadie locked eyes with black devilish eyes and stepped into the clear water.

              The last thing she heard was her grandmother calling her name before she went under.

*****

Sean was watching his sister. He couldn’t tell the last time he’d seen her breakdown the way she had done that morning. He watched as she jogged to the water. She appeared happy. Good, he thought.

              “Sean,” his new teammate called. He caught the ball then sent it flying through the makeshift goal post.

              A scream had him springing into action.  A little girl stood near where he’d last seen Sadie, shaking and screaming, “Mermaid, mommy, mermaid!”

              “My granddaughter! Help!” Grandma Keturah exclaimed.  

              “Sadie!” he heard himself calling repeatedly as terror gripped his heart.

              “Mermaid,” the little girl continued to scream even as her mother shushed her.

              “Stop the nonsense.”

              He stopped short when he got to the river. A grotesque creature with half body and half tail was carrying his sister under water, downstream. Her body was atop the water like a stiff corpse and the creature was carrying her beneath. Though his limbs weren’t touching her body, it was clear he was using some mystical power to carry her along.  

              A mermaid, he thought.

              The sight of his sister’s lifeless form had him diving for the water except his feet didn’t leave the ground. Someone was holding him from behind.

              “Let me go!” he screamed.

              “Easy yute,” a male voice said. “If you go in there you’re going to die.”

              He trembled as tears streamed down his face. “My sister.”

              “Will live,” the man said, he pointed at three divers who had gone into the water after his sister.

              The creature raised up from under the water. It was a broad fellow, with a leaf at the side of his head and he was angry. The water started to foam and froth throwing off his sister’s rescuers. The man’s hand around Sean slackened and Sean manoeuvred himself out of his grip and started for his slingshot, which was in his beach bag.

              “That’s not how you take that one a marine spirit,” his grandmother said. His grandmother erupted into a language that he hadn’t heard her speak before and Sadie stopped moving and began to change direction. The creature, noticing his captive was no longer under his spell, glared in their direction. He then opened his mouth and howled. A ring of sound waves protruded from his mouth and in the direction of Sean and Grandma Keturah. The clear sky darkened and wind began to swirl around them.

              Persons raced to collect their belongings while others clung to each other and asked, “What is that?”

              Grandma Keturah stood, unmoveable and Sean clung to her as she continued her speaking.  She then raised her hand. The sky parted and a light shone from heaven vanquishing the mermaid devil. The river calmed and the men reached his sister, who had awoken from her stupor and started to flap about in the water.

              Sean stared in wide eyed wonder at his grandmother Keturah. “Grandma,” he said.

              “I’ve always hated mermaids,” she said. “They got the world thinking they’re some good creatures when it was their god, Dagon who took out Samson’s eyes.” Sean nodded like he understood what she was saying.  She smiled and touched his cheek. “Let’s go tend to your sister,” she said.

              As the men carried her ashore, Sadie could be heard regaling her rescuers with tale of a merman who had kidnapped her.

              “Poor thing hit her head,” said one the men.

              “Grandma it’s true,” Sadie said. “Sean, you believe me. Don’t you?”

              He hugged her then whispered in her ear, “I believe you. Grandma knows it’s true. She fought the spirit.”  

              Sadie eased away from her brother. “Grandma, d-did you?”

              “I wasn’t born yesterday, child,” she said. “Spiritual warfare is a normal part of a Christian’s life. It’s just that some of us are more exposed than some. We are from a family of seers.” Seers. Now that was a word that they hadn’t heard before.

              “Yes,” Grandma Keturah said. “We see with our eyes open, by way of dream or vision, things that exist in the other dimensions or things to come. It’s a gift but it also has many burdens.”

              “Tell me about it.” Sadie shivered

              “Let’s get you a towel,” Grandma Keturah said.

              Sean snuggled deeper into his sheet then shot up out the bed. All around him was dark and he was in bed. A smile graced his lips.  It was all a dream. Sadie being attacked. The mermaid. Grandma. The Angel. The deliverance.

              Sadie screamed. “Let go off me. Sean!”