Gravity Joy and sorrow

Karen lay dying sandwiched between asphalt and bus, blood pouring out every possible orifice, as if she were a human fountain.

" Dude, let's get this on YouTube," she heard a teenage voice say.

Karen had been a pin prick's length away from sneaking back to the Bahamas. When two cops started tailing her. She switched clothes with a teenager in the airport bathroom and began running. But the airport personell must have recognized her from a enhanced photo.

" That is what I get for my sentimental attitude," Karen slurred, the coppery taste of blood on her lips.

Karen had come back to New Orleans for Joel's memorial, starving for some semblance of normality. She needed vindication for her transgressions. People had once loved her and she had betrayed them all. Karen tried to talk to Celeste, but she was surrounded by a cluster of wellwishers. Karen never would have found her if it wasn't for the name tag.

Celeste wore pearls ,hair arranged in an elegant updo. In ten years, Celeste had turned into a yenta. Makeup applied like frosting on a cake,blue viens sticking out of her hands. Her gait was even more sluggish than before, if you could believe that.

Her daughter, was the person she most needed to see. The girl had suffered for years because of her mother's stupidity. Karen tried to call Kera once, but she got cold feet, hanging up when Kera finally answered. Guilt was Karen's constant companion,now. Even the sandy beaches of the Bahama's did the little to calm the turmoil that plagued her mind.

Sleep abandoned her no matter how many Ambiens she swallowed. A ghastly figure that resembled Joel's bloody corpse, chased Karen through the corridors of her troubled mind.

" Why did you kill me ? " Joel asked herin a creepy specter voice.

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Karen's memories drift away to the week following up 1976 bicentennial. She and Everett had been skating near the Redondo Beach Pier. Everett wobbled all over because running happened to be the only physical activity he was even marginally good at.

" Wait up , " Celeste hollered far behind them. She was walked at a snail's pace, squirting relish all over a kosher hot dog.

" Where should we go," Celeste queried, once she caught up.

The Redondo Fun Factory, the one with the mural of clowns , Karen interrupted with glee.

" You always get to pick, " Everett whined.

" Let Celeste choose ".

Karen shot Everett a warning look, but relented.It was the grownup route to take, give Celeste a free pass.People were beginning to wonder about Celeste, if she were queer.The most eligible men in L.A. were dying for a glimpse of those soft curves and freckles.Celeste politely declined each one of them.

" My heart isn't quite healed enough yet," Celeste shrugged, when Karen demanded to know what her deal was.

Once, when the two of them were sunbathing with a bevy of girls their own age, Celeste pulled her feathered hair into a pony tail.

Karen noticed what appeared to be a cigarette burn on the nape of her neck.All the girls started to whisper and point. Celeste's green eyes became filmy, she pulled the silky red tresses of hair down again.

" What happened to your neck ? "  Karen asked , later when the other ladies had left.

" My ex - husband couldn't find the phone book. He thought I hid it on purpose.So, he burnt me with a cigarette lighter.

" I hope you left him after the fact,"  Karen said, shocked a spouse could be so cruel.

" Stupid me, I took him back, that time. He seemed contrite and sincere. Also,I was newly pregnant. He was a changed man for a little while.

Another time after the baby died , I had my family over. We played poker, my grandmother won and gloated a little bit. He started to argue with her, I butted in. He was all smiles until they left, but as soon as they departed, the man turned into a lunatic. He threw me into a wall,which had nails sticking out of it.  The whole house was a dump, burning it would have been a major improvement.Which how I got these scars on the tops of my hands.He went after me with a bow and arrow. I hid in the closet all night, praying he didn't discover me. In the morning , he had gone off somewhere and that time, I did leave. Never looked back.

" Don't know about you guys, but I want to know my future," Celeste grinned, pointing to a tent covered in gold stars.

Much to Karen's chagrin , the three of them filed inside. A stout woman wearing a floral Muu Muu with flowing white hair sat in front of a crystal ball that looked like a snow globe. She guzzled a Pabst beer and chomped on an oversized slice of pepperoni Pizza with no plate underneath it, and grease seeped onto the tablecloth.

" Two George Washington's ,per person please, " Madame Eunice drolled in what had to be a New Jersey accent, readjusting bloated, blue veined legs on a apple crate.

Karen didn't recall what Everett's horoscope , only that he fluffed his afro with a pic and wore sunglasses flipped up over clunky red framed glasses that day.

"You have climbed some mountians in life and their will be more, but love and family will find you again," Madame Eunice told Celeste.

" Speak little , think much and tread carefully,lest you become a magpie prone to stumble through life alone," Madame Eunice said to Karen ,when it was her turn.

" That's it ? " Karen's whole countenance soured.

" Madame Eunice thinks its plenty,dearie now move it along," she glowered,opening another Pabst.

It started to rain so they feasted on frozen custard in the shelter of Everett's dove grey Pontiac . Celeste sat in an eery state of calm all the way home, smiling contentedly in the way labrador retrievers did. Karen felt restless,and the frozen custard tasted like sandpaper on her tounge.

Now as Karen lay dying on the avenue, she pondered the same reflection she'd entertained for all those years since. If that fat sorceress cursed her to fail at life or if she had done that to herself.

Before her mind could compute a valid reply, Karen expired in the street. Her brown eyes were wide open.