Bleeding Heart

A freezing fog had settled over Bleeding Heart for the third night in a row. For the last two nights while walking Bandia, her Irish Wolfhound, Victoria thought she heard children’s voices in the mist. She could swear they were calling out her name.

“You-hoooo! Victoria!” was followed by a loud rap at the front door.

Daphne let herself in. “Look who I found!”

Daphne was followed by Cela and Maddie, a couple they met while they were refurbishing the bar.

“I brought some herb I got from Elf, these guys brought wine!”

It was, in fact, several bottles. Celestina Di Geronimo was a sommelier and a wine buyer for the restaurant she owned with Maddie. She set down two bottles of cabernet sauvignon and tossed back her abundant, wavy coffee colored hair as she removed her wrap.

Maddie put two more bottles of cab on the coffee table and hung her black leather jacket on a coat stand. She wore her shoulder length, platinum blonde hair in a spiky style. She managed their restaurant, Di Geronimo’s. Di Geronimo’s was an up and coming restaurant in Bleeding Heart, the town really needed a good restaurant. Maddie hired and fired staff and kept the books with an always fair but stern demeanor.

“Wow, you guys, I wasn’t expecting company, or I’d have had a spread.”

“That’s why we surprised you, so you wouldn’t feel like you had to feed us. I have some fresh bread from the restaurant and a small assortment of cheeses. Sweetie, can you…”

“Already on it, Cela dahling.” Maddie went into the kitchen to put the food on a plate and grab a wine corker. She returned a few minutes later, “Let’s have some of this wine and cheese!”

“Thanks, babe. While I was out shopping for the restaurant, a salesman came up to me and gave me a sample of this cab sav. It was so yummy, I bought two cases for the restaurant and a few bottles for myself to have you guys try it.”

“It’s from a vineyard called Origins of the Gods. Pretty cool name.”

Maddie added, “She almost didn’t buy it. That guy was kinda weird, wasn’t he Cel?”

“Yeah, I saw him just skulking around the shop. I tried to dodge him, but he was right in front of me when I turned a corner. “

“So, what else was weird about him, besides the fact that he was ‘skulking’?” Daphne asked.

“The way he looked, his eyes were so black, and his skin was so pale. And there was this greenish light, like an aura or something all around him. There was this crazy looking pimp daddy ring on his finger… and a cane. It didn’t seem like he needed it for walking, like it was more for show.”

Maddie offered, “And he had Twinkie breath!”

They all laughed at that. “Seriously! I could smell it as soon as he opened his mouth!”

“He sounds charming. Maybe he’s Barnabas Collinson or… Nosferatu! Well, then, the wine must be really impressive if you bought it from him anyway!” Victoria snickered.

“Hell yeah! Let’s open this baby up!”

Cela opened the wine and poured them each a glass. The fragrance from the bottle hit their noses as soon as she opened the bottle. It had a sweet smell, rather enticing; Victoria thought she smelled it before. She closed her eyes and breathed in its’ aromas; the smell took her back to the day she and Daphne went to the cemetery at Blanchet Manor. She had smelled it before. That same, sweet heavy smell; it permeated the room.

“Cheers!” they cried in unison and clinked their glasses.

Victoria, overcome with the fragrance, felt as though time was moving in slow fragments as they brought the glasses to their lips. It felt to her as if she was watching from another room. She heard their oos! and ahs! like voices in a fog. Everyone raved about the smells and tastes of blackberry preserves, simmering in the kitchen or freshly ground coffee or dark, cacao chocolate Bonbons. Victoria could only feel a growing queasiness.

She inhaled deeply into the glass as if that would make what she smelled something other than the nauseating, sticky and sweet, it was consuming her. She hesitated before taking a sip and tried to tell herself not to drink it, but she drank it down on one gulp.

“Holy crap, Victoria! Slow down!” Cela shouted and it appeared to break the spell, momentarily. Victoria gazed at her, glassy eyed.

“You better sit down.”

“Yeah… I’m a little… light headed.”

“Brava, sister! But did you taste anything?”

“Are you okay, Vic?” Maddie asked.

“I’ll be okay… really. I don’t want to spoil the fun. I guess I got a little carried away. This wine really is something, Cela!”

The other ladies were eager to get back to the wine. Victoria was content at this point to sit back and watch. She observed them drawing in the smells and swirling the wine. They were making slurping, munching sounds. When they finished their wine, they began licking their glasses and made a competition of reaching the bottom of the glasses with their tongues, all the while, cackling like disobedient school girls.

They were scrambling to open another bottle and hurriedly poured but careful not to spill even one drop. And it started again with the oos! and the ahs!

Victoria was still nauseous. She felt glued to her chair, her body was rocking and rolling in her chair. The room began to whirl ever so slightly.

“Let’s have a smoke!” Daphne got the bong. The room soon became filled with the sweet essence of pot.

“More wine?” Cela asked. An uproar of laughter echoed throughout the whole house.

Daphne found Chic in Victoria’s CD collection and put on Good Times. “Come on, everybody! Let’s dance! Shit! Goddam, get off your ass and jam!”

Soon a chorus erupted, ‘Shit! Goddam! Get off your ass and jam!’

Cela and Maddie were pretend roller skating, singing along, “Clams on the half shell… and roller skate, roller skate. Good times!”

Daphne tried to pull Victoria out of her chair but was unable to get her to budge.

“I need air.”

They all looked at Victoria and saw the color draining from her face.

“Come on, sister, let’s go get Bandia and we’ll all go for a walk. Grab your jackets.”

The cold, thick air was recuperative as they stepped out into the night. It was difficult to see,

even the street lamps struggled to light the way. Victoria’s flashlight could only do so much.

Bandia didn’t seem to mind the frosty, dampness. They started off chanting ’lions and tigers and

bears… oh my!’ then moved to drunkenly singing Bill Withers’ Lovely Day.

Unexpectedly, Bandia took off like a rocket, pulling Victoria along.

“Wait! Wait!” they shouted, scrambling to keep up with Victoria and Bandia, Bandia

growling and barking… until she came to a grinding halt.

“What the hell, Bandia? Is she trying to kill us?!” Clouds of steam billowed around Daphne as

she tried to catch her breath.

The prickly fog was as painful to inhale as it was to maneuver through and made for a slippery

run.

Bandia was sniffing something in the grass. Victoria stood motionless, now sober from the

Excursion. She shined her light on it and stooped down to pick it up. It appeared to be a hair

comb, with a quite intricate design of a serpent, entwined in the teeth of the comb. She

remembered having a watch given to her as a child by her mother with a strikingly similar

design.

“Oh, wow!” shouted Daphne, “That looks like that watch you got on your 14th birthday!”

“You remember that?”

“Not till just now.”

They all stood quietly, breathing heavily, transfixed by the comb. Bandia was pulling on her

leash, ready to head back home.

The walk back home was decidedly slower… and more somber.

Music was still pulsating as they walked through the door. “Maybe we should call it a night,”

said Maddie.

“Not a bad idea. You keep the wine and the cheese, Vic.”

“Cela, are you guys okay to drive?”

“Yeah, we’ll drop off Daph; that run, and the cold air sobered us up.”

Victoria wondered if she still had that watch.