The Mouth on that Woman

by Thomas G Robinson

“I don’t know… it just doesn’t seem right.”, she looked down and muttered to whomever was around to hear her, jamming her hands into the pockets of her worn overalls. “I just don’t see the point of it!”

The wind picked up a little. She felt the breeze getting stronger as she walked, the sound of leaves crunching under her bare dainty feet. Suddenly, the wind turned up just a little bit more, the leaves started dancing around, lifting themselves off the ground and swirling and twirling around her. She pushed them away, her hands now in front of her face, thrusting and pushing the leaves away from her eyes, mouth and hair.

“You don’t really believe that, Miss…” a soft voice whispered in her ear, “You don’t think that by walking away they’re going to leave you alone, do you?”

“Not right now, go away!” The girl demanded while she continued her way, still vigorously waving her hands in front of her face, “Haven’t you done enough already everything went wrong, you taught me nothing!”

The leaves colorfully continued to prance and dance around her, floating and twirling, never leaving her alone, as if they had choreographed this dance just for her, these floating and dancing leaves. The whispering voice became less of a whisper and now carried a stronger, yet respectful tone as it continued.

“Still, do you think that just because you turn your back on them and walk away that’s going to be the end of it all, do you? I must say” said the voice, slightly chuckling in amusement, “Tee hee hee, I know you know better, we all know better.” The less than soft voice said with a hint of humor in her tone. In fact, her slight chuckle became a little louder, losing itself in its own perceived humor.

“Shut up!”, the girl angrily shouted, her hands now in a fist, pointing down along her sides, thrust towards the ground as she stomped her right bare foot down onto the crunching leaves while staring at the sky, her eyes now glowing a faint red. Just then a loud crash of thunder and lightning exploded across the sky and all the leaves dancing and floating around her dropped immediately to the ground.

The elder woman's humor filled voice was quickly startled and rapidly turned into a scream of surprise, which was quickly muted in after-thought as well. She kept her mouth quiet, thinking it would be safer to just be quiet.

There, on the trail home, surrounded by colorful leaves on the ground, the girl stood. There was no wind, no noise, no sounds of a whispering voice, in fact, no sound at all. She lowered her head from looking up towards the sky, her glowing red eyes turned into a soft blue glow as she slowly closed, then opened them

“Oh, ahhhhhh…” she closed her eyes again as she silently released and exhaled, her breathing slow and calm. She opened her eyes, now a soft normal light brown, “That’s better”, she softly said to herself.

The silence and stillness continued until, “I… I… d-didn’t mean to anger you, m-my Lady, I’m only t-trying to advise you, as I have been ch-charged to do,” the whispering, and now stuttering voice responded in a tone even softer than before.

“It is m-my d-duty to keep you safe, y-yet aware of the circumstances re-related to y-your actions… or inactions”, the whispering and stuttering voice explained, getting a little bolder as it continued.

The girl stepped forward, crunching leaves again under her feet, her mouth closed tight creating a closed mouth, closed lipped grimace. Her soft-brown eyes displaying a touch of a reddish hue. She stopped walking and whispered faintly but sternly.

“Appear before me now”.

The leaves began to dance and twirl in front of her quickly into a blur then slowly dissipate. Once clear, you could see an elder woman, in a uniform with three stars to the right on her uniformed chest. Her outfit and appearance, impeccable. She was on her knees in front of the girl, her head lowered, bowed before her and her eyes looking directly at the girls bare dainty feet.

“My Lady, What I meant to s- “

“Silence!” the girl commanded, raising her right hand in front of the elder woman, as if she was the pope addressing a crowd, and in barely a whisper, interrupting her and making her stop in mid-sentence, “I will not stand for this. You dare to question.my actions, then taunt and make fun of me?”.

“I beg your pardon, My Lady, I…”

“You will not speak while I am speaking. In fact, you will not speak at all”, Again, speaking in a whispered soft tone,

With her eyes now glowing a deep and bloody red she raises her hand above the elder lady’s still kneeling body and places it on the woman’s head atop her hair. Suddenly, all you could hear is the muffled sounds coming from the elder woman as she looked up and, in a muffled attempt, screamed as she frantically felt around for her mouth, and there was none! Her mouth had suddenly disappeared!

She looked up at the girl, horror in her eyes as tears gathered and drizzled down her wrinkled but soft cheeks, her aged hands feeling around her face, searching for her own lips, her mouth, teeth, but nothing was there. She fell to the ground now attempting to sob, but only muffled muted sounds coming from out of her body, no real communication.

“Stand up!” The girl demanded.

Slowly, the elder woman got to her feet and stood at attention, her eyes facing the ground, tears still falling. With great fear, she was standing, arms to her side in a sign of respect.

“That’s better”, the girl said with a sneer. “You forget your place sometimes and, I’m sorry, but I needed to draw your attention to that and I couldn’t think of any other way”, she giggled as she explained herself. “Now, you’ve been my, eh… advisor for quite some time. And to tell you the truth, the absolute no-nonsense truth, I’m not pleased at all. I have had to listen to your shrill, and stupid voice my entire life and I am so sick of it."

She paces as she talks, arms clasp together behind her as though she were lecturing a room full of students, "Okay, you have advised me well… when I was a fucking child... But I’m 17 now. I’m going to get my full powers on my 18th birthday and I’m going to take my position at the throne just as my mother did, and her mother before her, and her mother before her… and when that happens I doubt I will require your services any further. In fact, I know I won’t!”

She spins back facing the elder woman still standing at attention, her face looking so gaunt, and without a mouth, she could barely contain the laugh wanting to come out so badly. But, there was a soft part of her that kind of liked her. Well, she'd practically raised her, so she continues the pacing lecture, “Now, don’t be upset… it’s just the way I feel. And though I appreciate your undying loyalty to me…”, she spins back around glances quickly at the muffled elder woman facing her, “It is undying, is it not?” she asked as the elder woman, whose eyes were following her every move with the utmost attentiveness, quickly nodded in agreement.

“So, I guess this is your notice. Now how did I hear how this went with our previous chef... what was the offer? Oh, yeah, I know... " she clears her thoat, "Ahem!, I hereby state by the powers invested in me by my forefathers, and the kingdom we reign over, with the blessings of the Gods of the Three Suns…", she stops to consider what had just come out of her mouth, the Gods of the Three Suns... they're so full of themselves, she thinks to herself, then laughs, "tee hee, and that’s saying a lot, tee hee… ahem”, she clears her throat again, and continues, “That your services will no longer be required effective immediately, and you are free to retire with, mmmm… well, I guess with full honors”, the girl said, rolling her eyes.

“You will be guaranteed fifty more years of life for which you can use to do whatever it is you do, at wherever it is you choose to live, with all the blessings, both with health and finances until you draw your last breath, blah, blah, blabbity blah. Ummm", she looks at the elder woman, decides to have a little fun for old time's sake, "Oh yeah, to accept this most gracious offer, all you need to do is tell me you understand the offer and accept your Golden End of Duty Retirement Package. You have one minute to consider the offer and verbally agree with the words, ‘Yes, my Lady’, starting….”, she glances at her watch on her wrist, “Now!”.

The girl looks up from her watch to face the elder woman, whose eyes are filled with horror and fear as she furiously grasps at her neck, her throat, her face where her mouth is missing, trying desperately to say the words requested of her, she is pointing at her mouth frantically.

The girl cocks her head slightly to her direction, her eyes slowly looking at her as she flusters frantically trying to get her attention to the fact that she has no mouth and therefore cannot utter the acceptance. The girl, acting as though she has no idea what the elder woman is trying to say, rolls her eyes, looks at her watch (the same watch the elder woman gave her for her birthday when she turned 12) then looked directly at the elder woman and said, “Thirty seconds left…”

The elder woman now pleading with her, falls to her knees and makes all attempts to let the girl know that her request was heard, and she’d like to respond, but her lack of a mouth is making it quite difficult. She starts clapping in desperation, then stopping as she came to realize something… remembering that when the girl was only five years old, she taught her Morse Code. The “dit, dit, dits and the dash, dash, dashes… she remembers they made a game of it and the girl learned quickly! And for years they played the "Morse Code Game", as she called it, and had so much fun.

She missed those days.

She snapped out of her thoughts and she placed her foot quickly on the ground, making sure the girl saw what she was doing, hoping she’d remembered what she taught her all those years ago, and started shuffling her feet against the grass, leaves and dirt making short and long sounds with every carefully forced indent.

The girl, not too surprised and even a little amused, looks at the elder woman furiously digging and scraping, and dashing with her feet spelling out the letters, Y-E-S-M-Y-L-A-D, with only one letter left to sound out, just as the second hand hit the zero she dashes her foot against the grass, leaves and into the dirt a final time. Then a loud piercing buzzer went off over her head, the elder woman muffles a surprised scream, her eyes filled with horror and worry as the girl squints her eyes and covers her ears to avoid the sudden, but expected, loud buzzer noise.

The elder woman, falling to her knees, knows she failed to beat the timer, knowing her fate now lies in the hands of the girl she raised, with all the expectations of a Right Hand Advisor to a Queen in Training, an upper royal position of respect and honor, but wondering where she failed in her attempt to teach her empathy, humility and yes, even respect.

The girl puts her finger under the chin of the elder woman, raising it up to where the elder woman’s whole body starts lifting to get up until she is floating just an inch off the ground in front of the girl. The girl flicks her finger from under the elder woman’s chin, the elder woman’s body drops back down to the ground as her feet meets the earth to where she is once again standing in front of the girl, facing her.

The elder woman starts to think of her own daughter, and her granddaughter, fearing she’ll never get to see them again. Thinking that this may be her last day on the job, and who knows what her punishment for failing the girl would be? Sometimes it’s just a day of her ignoring her and treating her like she doesn’t exist, which she hates because she feels unimportant all day. Sometimes it’s a dock in her pay, and she has to get an after-work job to make up the difference in order to pay the king’s high tax rates they bestow upon the citizens. Sometimes she’ll just smack her, not too hard, but stern and she’d much rather have that than any of the other punishments. It’s quick, abrupt and then done. And they can continue with her lessons for the day without worry.

“Shame… I didn’t um… hear a response to my offer of retirement”, she almost gleefully stated, but with a sarcastic tone in her voice. “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a Lad, unless you were talking to a young boy that I can't see,” she teased the elder woman, mocking her unfinished attempt to spell ‘LADY’ in Morse Code.

“Ahhh, she remembered!”, the elder woman excitedly thought as the girl paced around her, contemplating her next move. “She remembered Morse Code! Which means she remembers all my teachings!” she gushed to herself with a slight sense of pride and accomplishment filling her heart, slightly forgetting about the uncertainty that still lies before her.

“Are you paying attention to what I’m saying?” the girl asked in a stern voice, interrupting her short-lived, heart-felt moment. She quickly nodded to the girl, eyes down, head down, facing her. “Good”, the girl quipped, “I’d hate to think all my kindness and patience was going unheard and unappreciated and without response, as was your lack of any indication to my retirement offer whether it to be accepted or denied... I’m quite disappointed in your lack of interest in your own future… Ha, I guess I’ll accept your statement what was it, oh yes, ‘L-A-D?”, she snorted and then started a full and disturbing laugh.

“LAD?!” she repeated, “Ah ha ha ha ha! All you had to do was say three words and you would have lived the remaining years of your pathetic life in peace and harmony, without a worry in the world! BUT YOU FAILED!” she yelled at the elder woman, working herself into a frenzy, now with her mouth directly in front of the elder woman’s eyes, so close you could see her eye lashes moving to the force of the girl’s berating words.

“Oh, don’t point at your throat! As if you have any excuse for not respectfully and graciously accepting my wonderful offer of retirement. I cannot believe you would have the gall to not even answer me correctly. I mean, you know the punishment for not responding to a Royal’s inquiry, I know you do, yet there you are responding to a ‘Lad’, whoever that is. And, oh…. by the way, how dare you!”

As the girl continued to work herself even more into a frenzy, the elder woman stood there, an inch away from the girl’s mouth, her face moistening with spit from the girls mouth as she continued to scream at the top of her lungs to her.

The elder woman's eyes looking directly in the girl’s eyes, respectfully listening to every word, nodding in acceptance, bowing her head every time a question was asked and assuring her in agreement every time a situation regarding her past errors were brought up, and nodding in consensus to everything the girl said, without fail.

She knew it wouldn't be much longer, "she's going to ramble at me for awhile more", she thinks to herself, "So, a slap it is, oh I hope we can hurry and get this over with. I have so much to do after today's lesson is over. I can't wait to get home to my granddaughter, she'll be so happy I'm going to be home more often". She knows the girl will honor the offer and return her mouth to it's rightful place, she just has to do it this way for some reason, she thinks to herself, lost in these thoughts.

“And I said LOOK AT ME WHILE I’M TALKING TO YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!”

Just then, she felt a hard and swift crash against her left cheek as the girl slapped her so hard her head was thrust to the right, almost turned to facing the opposite direction her body was facing, as she spun around to meet her face’s direction, and losing her balance, falling to the ground and sliding three feet, ending up with her face smushed down into the dirt. Her nose filling with blood and getting trapped by the dirt that filled her nostrils blocking its flow as her face slid in the dirt. She quickly passes out.

Suddenly, and without warning, a loud crash of thunder and lightning sounds, and the day quickly turns to darkness. The birds stop chirping; dogs begin to nervously bark all at the same time, all over the neighborhood.

The girl’s eyes widened, and her now red hand went over her mouth, as she turned around and as quickly as she could, started running away, leaving the elder woman' on the ground and trying to get as far as she could from the elder woman’s body lying motionless on the ground.

But the lightning and thunder persisted in a stream of explosions that appeared to be flashes of light following the girl, as she began to yell obscenities at the crashing thunder and blinding light.

“FUCK YOUUUUUU, THERE’S NO WAY I’M STAYING, FUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUU!”, the girl yelled as she was suddenly but slowly lifted into the air, suspending her while her running feet no longer touching the ground; her body now forcefully returning to the “scene of the crime” against all the restraint the girl could muster to fight doing so.

“What do you think you are doing?” a booming, but soft and stern voice bellowed across the sky, surrounding them. “Why are you not being civil to your advisor?” the booming voice questioned.

“I, was d, dis-apl, plining her… sh, she was out of l, line!” the girl stammered.

The elder woman, lying face down in the dirt, slowly regained her senses, opening her eyes to dirt, grass and leaves, but remaining motionless. She feared facing the booming voice and wanted nothing to do with the situation at hand. She again, closed her eyes even tighter, and tried to remain still.

“You dare to strike your advisor, Three Star Commander of the Guards of the Queen’s Royal Advisory! You lack protocol. You lack discipline. You lack the ability to swiftly handle the issues at hand. And for that, I blame your advisor! Her inability to teach you the fundamentals of your position has not gone unnoticed!”

The booming voice continued as his presence became more and more visible, and while he spoke, he slowly began to appear before her. As she remained suspended in air, her feet continued with the running motion, to which the man noticed and yelled, “AND STOP THAT INCESSENT MOVING OF YOUR LEGS AND FEET, GODDAMMIT!”

The girl stopped ‘running’, and stayed there, motionless, eyes wide, looking directly at the man and staying completely still. The man glanced at the elder woman, lying frigid on the ground. She had come to, faintly hearing his voice, felt his gaze and felt hopeful that this ordeal will soon be done with, and they can continue on their day of learning.

With barely a raised eyebrow directed at her, her eyes widened and before she could blink, she immediately burst into a fiery explosion of burnt human flesh, guts, skin, bones and blood. The gory explosion left everything around her dripping with thick red blood and pieces of flesh and brain matter strewn about.

The girl, without even flinching, head down in shame, paused for a moment, then looked up at the man, blood running down her face, a piece of brain and a partial piece of an eyeball stuck to her front tooth, her right nostril and to the right side of her hair.

“I’m sorry”, she stammered, "I, I know I need to act more quickly on my decisions. It is something I am aware of and will try very hard to correct", she said placing her finger on her watch, softly rubbing and caressing it. She spat the eye from her mouth, brushed her face free of all the death on it, then with her eyes turning a faint and soft red, looked up and said, "I just…. I just want to make you proud, daddy".