Her Bedtime Story...

"Butterfly. Butterfly. In the night. Not in the sky?" the voice echoed.


Her parents had told her the tale. A hokey children's story to spook some sense into her. She'd met her real friends and they did not believe in butterflies. Or dragons.


The only belief she had was in the money tucked in her G-string every night. It was real. Not like her mother's story.


It never paid for her food.


It never paid for her winter clothes.


Her body.


It paid.


For everything.


Dance by dance it did.


"Butterfly. Butterfly. In the night. Not in your mind?" the voice found her nightmare again.


The dance was real as it felt. Her body moving felt right as it should. When they came to take her though, that is when it came to her. Whatever it was. It devoured them. Money. Substance.


"Butterfly. Butterfly. Dance your legs in front of my face!" she reeled into the night and her climax found her.


Not the way it was meant to be.


Nobody wrapped around her nibbling on her lobes.


She valued this and knew the value of it. But nobody. Nobody stayed. Nobody.


She was an object. Like the ad. An attraction to draw the money from the pocket of men.


Her mother's voice still got through. Every once in a while.


Was it wrong to dance? No. Just as it wasn't wrong to love your body and to love the dance. To Be. To love the dance with one that you love. Love stays. They don't.




The voice never came to her then. Only when she knew it was wrong. She gave. Herself to them.


"You f-ing beitch! I paid money for you!" his voice told her aloud.


Then she slept before her mother could wake her up.


Before it arrived. Then they were dead. All of them.


The same nightmare. She only wanted ballet and not their face in her...


She was twenty nine. Mature and beautiful and never gone.


"That's when I wake up." she lay on the couch.


Peculiar. His tongue. It moved like a snake's between his lips.


"When he shows up. Do you feel anything?" he asked her through his forked tongue.


"Yes. He shows up. Then they die. Can I get the TranQ prescription doc?" her eyes gave it all away though it peered from behind them.


"Not tonight. Do you want a sleeping pill?" he asked her concerned for her.


"No. I just want to sleep." she cried.


Then they're gone. All of them. Nobody left and no relief.


"That's just how it is when you risk what you risk is it not?" a forked tongue spoke.


"Who am I speaking to?" she asked honestly.


"I got what you need!" and then its all gone.


She wakes up and in the park but without her dance.


"Don't you see? Just stay away from it!" a forked tongue again.


Then he shows up and and again I'm home with his medicine.


"Grandma? Is that you?" I ask her through the cloudy world of the night salesman.


"No!" she says but I know she's lying.


She's not my grandmother.


The night salesman leaves but never dies.


"I'm the mind between but your not free because he's not clean and its not been a place where you can hide. Anywhere?" it answers.


Scales everywhere. Diamonds on its skin though it's a snake for sure. Just like the Bible snake, but this Bible snake only speaks truth.


My mind? You mean I have a choice?


"I dance but only for the salesman. He gives me money and I give sex." she tells it.


Then they die. It isn't long but they're gone.


Then she shows up. Just like my mother. My grandmother.


That field and the bugs with... wings.


They built it. The butterfly. Butterly. Not in the night but in the sky?


The salesman pays with money to me and I buy the feel good medicine.


Then it shows up and they die.


The butterfly in the field but it roars.


It's name is Walter. Walter Wisp.


They don't hear it but I do before she shows up.


She can dance too but not like they do.


Their legs fold beneath them like those taking a professional fall.


But its a real fall. And it's not Walter.


It coils and strikes at them one at a time just like the storybook.


"You make her dance but not for free. She's just like how she felt to be but not you and not me and I will take you from her dream because she's real!" Walter says to us but the pills get in the way.


Then we wake up in handcuffs and Walter is gone.


We're free no drugs or pills and the salesman doesn't come around.


He's dead as a board and pale as Walter Wisp that beguiling devil.


But Walter has never been here. Nora helps her to her feet and brings her there.


All those devils are dead. I cannot believe that people die. But they do. Real as for sure. Just ask Walter. Walter Wisp.





Epilogue




"Thanks. I don't know how to thank you. Just. Thanks." she cries hard.


Nora looks at her feeling Weltherwithsp from within.


"It's alright. I know. My mother told me the story too." Nora tries not to cry.


"Where are they?" she asks.


"We don't know. We're looking though. For Walter." Nora replies though she secretly knows Walter won't be found.


Nora calls her grandmother.


"Grandma?" she asks her.


"Yes sweetie?" her grandmother answers.


"Thank you for letting me know Walter." she says.


"You're welcome dear." answers her grandmother.


"Butterfly. Butterfly. In the night. There in the sky." the voice echoed.


"I dance." she says stretching far.


"Yes and well. You are one with the beauty of your body. Don't give it away and don't let them take it. Know beauty, Know confidence. Know you." Walter says.

"Am I beautiful?" she asks.

"Nothing but. Believe in you beautiful butterfly in the sky." Walter answers.


Heylyn heard it all from her vantage point. She flies quietly into the night.

Butterfly. Butterfly. In the night. In the sky.

Copyright © 2014 Brian Joseph Johns