Skipping on Grave Stones
an excerpt

In the depths of the fog a song echoed, a child’s voice reverberating in the depths of time and space.

“Red and yellow… green and blue…” the little girl sang.

“Hello?” Mina asked, her own voice falling flat in the grey mass of mist. Her night cloths stuck to her skin, feeling damp and she pushed out against the fog expecting to feel it push back.

“Somewhere there’s another hue…” The little girls voice seemed closer. There, in the dim twilight, she appeared, a girl dressed in pink primrose, her long blond tresses tied up in a bow, the mists swirling around her. She skipped from one stone to another, her shoes clipping against the granite.

“John and Edward, Mark and Dave…” She skipped from stone to stone, calling names as Mina watched, walking forward in a daze.

Mina looked down at the stones and saw words… numbers…

“Someone new in this old grave…”

Skip, click. Skip, click. The sound reverberated through her mind.

“What… what are you doing?”

“Feel the earth, closing in. Don’t forget to lift your chin.”

Mina reached out, taking the child in her hands. “What are you doing?”

The child only smiled, then looked toward the stone Mina had just taken her from.

Mina slowly turned her gaze to the gravestone. There in gothic letters were the words: “Mina Edwards, June 6, 2030 – June 10, 2100”

Mina woke with a start, the sound of shoes hitting stone still echoing through her hazy mind.

She pulled herself from the bed. A few steps to the bath, run water, splash. All so mundane.

She looked up, water dripping down her nose, into a mirror, her face distorted by water dripping into her eyes. The sight was still odd. The nose was just slightly larger then she remembered, her lips fuller, and her hair darker. It wasn't an unattractive look, just subtly different.
Mina Edwards, dead ten years ago. Yet there she was, looking back at her in a mirror, the same but subtly different.