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Dancing : beautiful
She looked like something from a fairy story, long red hair topped with a crown of golden leaves, her face was painted with sparkles and her dress looked like the curtains in the hotel he stayed in before he shipped out, all blue and gold.
She was wearing little house slippers and twirling among the fireflies between the trees out back of the bar, where you could hear the beat but not the melody.
She was about the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and like all the good things in Clyde Logan's life, she faded away as if she had never existed.
It was months before he saw her again, he was picking up a pallet of strawberries from the farm, she was running through a field, no paint on her face this time, hair bound up all twisty in a red ribbon, dress was prettier too, softer, moved with her.
Once again she disappeared and this time Clyde called the VA, to be told it was a sixteen month wait for non urgent psych appointments.
He saw her two days later as he fished in the creek with Jimmy, but Jimmy saw her too, stood in the middle of the deepest part of the lake, but the water only came to her waist, like she were sat in the shadows, she stood and ran as if the water were only a foot deep and faded from view.
I guess the Logan Curse includes being haunted now.
He got back from the bar about three am, sat on the porch and drank a longneck, unwinding from the shift and enjoying the air when he heard her crying, he knew it was her before where saw her, the sound faded in and out like a TV on the fritz and he couldn't help but follow the sound, she was kneeling in the ground, wailing.
He tried to drape his shirt around her, but it fell through to the ground and disappeared.
Clyde had been alone, but hadn't felt it until that moment.
He was startled to see her, well he figured it was her, but she seemed to be a bit of a thing, no older than Sadie, which was handy and she and Sadie seemed to be playing some sort of chasing game, willing round the park, Sadie put her hand on her shoulder and she faded from view.
Sadie said she didn't come around very often but she said her name was Ophelia, but Sadie just called her Phee, Phee thought Sadie was a fairy, and Sadie was pretty sure Phee was a ghost, but she wouldn't hold it against her any.
Clyde saw her often after that, never getting more than a few words, he saw her dressed up pretty with flowers once looking so happy, and only her time even more dressed up, but sad.
And then he found her in the creek.
Her pretty hair cut short and her face still as the night.
Clyde waded out to the river, before she had interacted barely with the environment but this time he could see the water reacting to her.
He grabbed her arms and pulled her against his chest, she was so cold, so still.
He checked her over, pulse but no breath, checked the airway and breathed for her, desperately trying to call 911 while holding her head back for breaths with his prosthetic.
She coughed, water and vomit pooling in the grass, looking at him in wonder.
They took her to country hospital, and thank goodness for that little bit of extra padding in his pockets because between the ambulance and the stay that kind of hospital bill would have sunk someone just starting over.
She said she didn't remember much, and between the hair, the bruises and the little one under her heart, well, they assumed some kind of nasty trauma.
Clyde took her to Mellie the day she got out of hospital.
Mellie called her Sadie's ghost and Clyde couldn't help but bristle, she weren't a ghost, and well, if he felt a mite proprietry over her person that was between him and his conscience.
Mellie smoothed out her hair, the short pixie cut suited her, and she looked sweet in a light cotton dress and boots.
She stayed with Clyde, they never really talked about it, he just moved her into the spare room and carried on trying to get her papers.
Eventually he gave up on the official route and an old army buddy helped out.
And Miss Ophelia Varres popped into existence.
She collected glasses and learned to make coffee and tend bar with Clyde, she didn't stay shy and soft for long, her wit was sharp, even if her language was a bit flouncey.
Her belly was gently curved and Clyde couldn't help but wonder at the miracle of her.
She never spoke of her baby's daddy and Clyde was glad, he didn't like the idea of anyone touching her… well, almost anyone…
She kissed him under the mistletoe four months after she arrived, she she wanted to "observe the custom" she sure seemed to like observing the custom, because once she'd done it once, well she didn't seem to.see.a reason to stop.
The third time Clyde saw her in a pretty dress with flowers, Joe Bang was walking her down toward him where he stood, Jimmy beside him at the front of the Boone County methodist Church, her simple bouquet of snowdrops balanced on her big round belly. She was definitely smiling this time and he didn't think he'd ever seen her quite so beautiful.