SOMETHING strange happened at the graveyard on the hill that full-mooned night, but Wendi Sue was too confused to notice it. She had been waiting for the full moon all day. She had decided to howl at the moon, and she had been feeling so excited. When the moon eventually appeared and did shine on her, something strange indeed happened; yet, she failed to notice it because she was not able to sense the change.
But, someone else witnessed the strange thing that happened that full-mooned night; and it frightened him stiff. Wendi Sue was howling at the full moon when she saw someone staring at her from a not so far distance. It was the undertaker, she readily recognized, standing motionlessly with his eyes and mouth wide open.
"Finally...," Wendi Sue sighed, "he takes notice of me." She smiled at the undertaker to initiate a friendly intercourse, but her smile was soon turned into a frown. The undertaker freaked out and ran away gasping for air.
Baffled and feeling somewhat abashed, she sat beneath an oak tree near the edge of the hill to make a sense of what just happened. "Why did the undertaker run away?' she pondered. "And how he freaked out..." she giggled, covering her mouth with her left hand.
"But why was he scared of me?" she went back to her mulling. "Was he frightened by my looks?" Then, she realized. She has not been to a beauty shop in quite a long while. "I must be looking so wrecked," she thought as she combed her wavy black hair with her hands. "I'll go to the beauty shop tomorrow," she concluded.
WENDI SUE greeted the new day with excitement. Her being finally noticed by somebody lifted her spirit, notwithstanding the freaking out that followed thereafter. The mid-morning sun found Wendi Sue on the narrow road that led downhill to the town plaza. From up the hill, she could see the town plaza at a distance and the pier beyond it.
"Little town...," she began to sing, feeling like the girl named Belle in her favorite cartoon movie, "it's a quiet village. Everyday.... like the one before. Little town... full of little people." "Haaaaahhh," she exhaled, "...there must be more than this provincial life."
As she walked along the descending road, she saw the widower named Mr. Burns at the lower end of the road. He was on his way up the hill to visit the grave of his deceased wife. He came just about the same time as the day before, he and his bouquet of red roses. Wendi Sue smiled, touched by the thoughtfulness of the old man. Then, she realized. She looked horrible. "He can't see me looking so wrecked," she uttered as she rushed towards the nearest headstone. She hid behind the stone until the old man has walked past.
Before long, Wendi Sue reached the town plaza. As she walked along the busy streets, she avoided staring at the other people's faces, believing that she would not attract attention if she did so. She did not want the town's folks to see her looking so horrible.
When she was passing by the Bank of Monty where she used to work, shiver crept deep down her spine. She walked faster. She couldn't stand the forlorn sight of the bank. It was never opened since the day that it was robbed, and she felt somewhat guilty about it.
The robber was her lover. She thought she could change him. She thought she could calm the storm that was raging inside him. "How could you not fall for a gorgeous troubled soul?" she argued with her self. In her mind, she could still see his deep brown eyes burning with defiance; defiance against whom, she still has not exactly figured out. Yet the mystery had made her fall for him more deeply.
Revisiting the days that she spent with her lover, she was reminded of the peculiar things that he had done, above them all, his shooting her on the head. "Fluky chap," she used to hear her lover puff out whenever he hears news of somebody dying, "he has found peace." Though utterly devastated by his shooting her on the head, she occasionally played his words back in her mind, to somehow ease her pain.
FINALLY, Wendi Sue arrived at the beauty shop. She peered through the glass window to see who was inside the shop. She saw the hairdresser attending to a sole customer. Expecting that she would be attended to next, she straightaway went in.
"That's odd..." Wendi Sue heard the hairdresser spoke to her customer as she glanced at the floral curtain that was hanging on the open doorway, "a lost wind."
"Lost wind?" Wendi Sue objected inwardly as she stared sharply at the hairdresser. "I'm a lost wind?" "This girl..." she muttered as she slumped on a sofa near the door. "Can she not let go of the past.... T'was not my fault that her man fell in love with me. Besides, he never stood a chance... that boorish, brainless, conceited.... Hmp!"
Suddenly, Wendi Sue noticed something. She looked to her left. She saw none. Then, she looked to her right. Again, she saw none; no reflections of her on the mirror. She rose and stood in front of the mirror on her left, to be sure. Still, she saw no reflections. "But the undertaker saw me last night," she groaned. "The undertaker!" she lightened up. "I must talk to the undertaker."
Wendi Sue rushed out of the beauty shop and went back up the hill to the undertaker's house. It was the only house on the hill, near the graveyard's gate. Standing by the door, she knocked tentatively. No one answered. She knocked louder. No one answered yet again.
Convinced that the undertaker was not home, she left and walked aimlessly amid the graves. Her mind was gripped by what she has just learned. "But the undertaker saw me last night," she insisted, wanting to cut the flow of her thoughts. She knew where her thoughts would ultimately lead to, and it caused her to dread. Yet, she couldn't deny, the undertaker has never taken notice of her except on that full-mooned night. "The moon might have something to do with it," she suspected, "I must wait for the next full moon."
An ominous truth she has just learned, but she was not shattered. Her sanity, she wouldn't let go. She has the full moon to look forward to.
-- The End --
(10-01-06)
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