Today and an excerpt

      I just got off the phone with Crystal. She's flying out early tomorrow morning to be with her father. (He lives several states away.) He's still with us, but the doctors aren't holding out much hope at the moment. When I hear something, I'll let you know. I know she would appreciate your continued prayers for her and her family.
      And in prayer requests, continue to pray for ER and his family as they adjust to life without their precious mother. It's doing to be a difficult time.
      Play practice is going well. The play is difficult, but the actors are growing into their parts. I have a couple that continue to concern me, but I have faith that they will be rise to the part. Everyone seems committed, and that makes a big difference.
      I've been doing housework and working on Darkness, Oklahoma today. This is excerpt where we meet Darcy. She has a destiny that she will do her best to avoid. I hope you enjoy it.

Except from Darkness, Oklahoma

      Registered Nurse Darcy Trutell hung up the phone and swore softly.
      "What's up?" Lisa Dixon asked, dropping a chart into the receiving tray at the nurses' station.
      Darcy looked over at the other nurse. "That was Delores. She's going to be late. She wants me to cover for a couple of hours."
      Lisa shook her head. "You should have told her that you wouldn't. What was her excuse this time?"
      "She said her daughter forgot a paper that's due today," Darcy said. "She has to take it to the school, and then she needs to pay her insurance."
      "If you keep letting her get away with it, she's going to keep taking advantage of you," Lisa said. "It would piss me off, that's for sure."
      Particularly since I know she was lying, Darcy thought. Like she knew that Lisa wouldn't volunteer to help and that Lisa didn't care much about Darcy one way or the other. Once, that unconcern would have hurt or angered Darcy. Now, it just made her tired.
      "Well, I'm off," Lisa said. "At least Margaret won't be late." She and Darcy exchanged a look at the mention of the day aide.
      "Have a good day," Darcy said, wishing that Margaret wasn't so lazy. In the month Darcy had worked at the Eliza Rhiden Memorial Hospital, she hadn't seen Margaret do much of anything, and what little she did do, she did grudgingly. Any other hospital would have fired Margaret, but her father was on the board. Besides, ERMH had the same staffing problems that other small hospitals had. Why work in Darkness when an RN could make triple the money in Oklahoma City?
      That's what Darcy would have done if things had been different. As it was, she was grateful for the job. At least she wasn't in North Carolina any longer, and if she could build up a good record again, she might be able to make the move to the city in a year or two. For that, she could work a couple of hours extra. If only she wasn't so tired. She hadn't been sleeping well; this was the first time in her career that she had to work the night shift.
      She picked up the report she'd prepared for the day shift and put it in the flow tray. Then she checked for new orders and began her rounds. Thankfully the patient census was low. She only had three patients.
      She shivered in a sudden cold draft. The hairs rose on the back of her neck. She looked over her shoulder to see the ghost.
      "No," she said. "Not again. Go away."
      She walked into her first patient's room. As she did the morning assessment, she was conscious of the dead man standing in the door. Her mouth tightened. She wouldn't let this happen again. She wouldn't.
      "You must help him," the dead man said.
      "I'll be back in a few minutes, Mrs. Simpson," Darcy said, brightly. The elderly woman smiled and turned her attention back to the television.
      Darcy made the rest of her rounds with the ghost stalking her. After she checked the vital signs of her patients, she went to the pharmacy and pulled the meds. She pushed the meds cart to the nurses' station. Margaret sat at the nurses' station, leafing through a magazine.
      "Margaret, Mrs. Fields in 212 needs to be turned," Darcy snapped. Margaret nodded, never looking up from her magazine. Darcy felt her face tighten. "Now."
      Margaret looked startled, dropped her magazine, and hurried to the room.
      "You must help him."
      Darcy glared at the ghost. She looked up and down the hall, and then said in a furious whisper, "Get out of here. I don't want you here. I'm not going to listen! I'm not going to help you. I'm done with that." She turned back to the cart, double-checking the meds.
      "I am beyond help," the dead man said. "I am damned by my own actions. I was misled, but it was my choice. I took her Mark willingly. It was my sin, and now I will pay for it."
      Darcy paused. This didn't sound like the run-of-the-mill haunting. None of that "Tell her I love her even though I was sleeping with her sister" or "You must take a message to my estranged son whom I haven't seen since I kicked his sorry hide out of my home years ago." She shook her head. No, she wasn't interested. It was none of her concern. She had enough to deal with. She had learned that if she ignored a ghost, eventually they went away. But any attention fed them. She should have never spoken to him.
      "I am doomed, but you must help him," the ghost said. "You both have been called to a Purpose. You will know him by his eyes. He has the eyes of a hunter. You must save him so that he can save you. The Bone Queen has awakened and even now seeks the Sword of Silence. You must not allow her to wield it or all is lost."
      "What?" Darcy stared at the ghost. "What are you talking about?"
      "She will do to all what she has done to me." The dead man reached his hands inside his shirt and pulled open his chest to reveal a black void that spun out toward Darcy. She didn't even have time to scream before the cold blackness closed around her and crushed her into oblivion.

Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

      Y'all have a good evening. Take care. Night!