Lady of the Darkness

Jeffrey B. Romanczuk

I was having trouble getting to sleep, but this is not unusual. Insomnia has been my problem forever. Now I finally had a bedroom alone. No longer was my brothers' snoring an excuse for being awake under closed lids. So trying at least to rest and not get annoyed, I opened my eyes.

After watching the clock count off fifteen minutes, I grew even more restless. For no logical reason, I got out of bed and stood there in my underwear in the dark. Then I slowly put on pajamas, without turning on the light, and went back to bed. I hadn't worn pajamas to bed in ten years, since I was single-digit ages. As I was getting on the bed, I happened to look out the window. A plane was coming in for landing. I assumed it was a plane because I was looking at such a steep angle through the top pane. I thought I saw the wing tip and fuselage lights, but I didn't hear its engines. Everything was unusually silent as the lights passed. I stared at them until they disappeared in the darkness.

I slipped under the cover and looked at the clock. Just above the numbers, looking as big as real life, was Mary, "the handmaid of the Lord"--the one Catholics call "the Blessed Mother." Words get weak trying to describe her physical appearance, except to say she looked quite like she is depicted on those "recourse to thee" medallions. Or like she does in the statues, barefooted and treading on a snake. I couldn't see her feet well, despite all the brilliance in my unlighted room. To say she was beautiful is useless; she was perfect looking. It bothers me that I can't describe her any better, even though I stared for a long, long time, as I had at the night sky lights minutes before.

I couldn't turn away. My body seemed paralyzed, but I didn't want to move either. I had a thought to say something, but no words came. Finally, I noticed her hand was pointing to the space directly above my bed. Slowly, I turned my head away from The Lady and, as I looked above, another apparition appeared. It was a female body, part of one anyway, from the thighs to just below the breasts. What distinguished this partial torso from my previous visions, beyond that it was more real looking than my hot fantasies, was its pubic hair. The hair was upside-down, as if shaven to resemble a dark spearhead pointing to the womb. And the womb was noticeably swollen with pregnancy.

Quickly I turned away. But Mary was gone. I turned back and the other vision had disappeared too. My heart beat so hard I thought I could hear it through the silence. Then I noticed I was hyperventilating, so I waited before looking at the clock.

Two hours had passed since I watched that quarter hour flip by. I felt much better. It wasn't insomnia, after all. I must have been asleep, only dreaming. Of course. That explained it. I felt a lot better.