Free A Girl of the Paper Sky by Randy Mixter

minutes,” I said. “I won’t be long.”
    He nodded and disappeared into the living room. I turned back to Charly. “The danger. How am I in danger?”
    Now Charly stood. She came around the table and knelt beside me. “Your mother’s sight was much stronger than mine. She could see things that I could only imagine. She told me the next day what had happened between her and the man. After I left, he told her to stay there with him. He didn’t ask her, he told her, and she told him no, she wouldn’t.
    “She was frightened, Lori, afraid of his powers. What she didn’t know then was that her powers were just as strong as his. At that time she may have been able to destroy him, if she had known.
    “She held her ground, your mother did, and he backed off. ‘Another day then,’ he said to her. ‘I’ll ask you another day . ’ Then she said the flames in his outstretched hands grew brighter and shot up in the air, into the sky, and he vanished into the ground. Like a genie returning to his lamp, is the way she put it.”
    “Did she see him again?” I asked.
    “Oh, yes, many times. I never went back there, to the paper sky, but your mother went there often. Not of her own accord, though. After her encounter with the man of fire, she never wanted to return. She had no choice. There were times when she didn’t see him; times when she was surrounded by beauty as she walked with the deer made of straw.
    “At other times, he waited for her. His pleas for her to join him became more desperate. He threatened your father and he threatened you. He said he would destroy the both of you if she didn’t stay.
    “It was then, Lori, that your mother discovered her power. She cried and began to pray out loud, and as she did, the deer of straw moved beside her. Except then, the deer was made of more than straw. Mary said steel bands wrapped around its body, and its antlers were also of steel, and they glowed red, as if animated by the fires of a furnace.
    “The deer pawed the ground and lowered its head. It charged the man, and your mother heard him cry out before he became a ball of flame.
    “There was a bright flash of light when they met. A light so bright, your mother held her hand to her eyes. When she opened them, the man and the deer were gone. She saw a cloud of black smoke rising into the sky. She followed it with her eyes, and she told me she now stood on a hill overlooking Clarksdale. The dark cloud hovered over the town, and then the colors of the paper sky returned and the smoke vanished in its beauty.”
    “But it wasn’t dead, was it? The scarecrow hadn’t been killed.” I said.
    “No, but she had wounded it. She had shown it her power. It was the last time she spoke to me of the paper sky. I never asked her again about her dreams. If she visited the paper sky after that, she never told me about it.”
    Outside the sky had turned an ashen gray. It was time to leave, but I had a final question, one I did not want to ask but had no choice. “Did the smoke man, the scarecrow, kill my mother and father?”
    Charly said nothing at first and then she shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. They both died too young, I do know that. They both died way too young.”
    We both stood and she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “You have the power too, Lori,” she whispered in my ear “You have the sight, and it may be stronger than your mother’s. You need to protect yourself and your husband. Whatever the paper sky is, whatever the thing is that calls it his world, you have to end it. You need to be brave.”
    She kissed my cheek, and I heard her sob. It was on me now. It was my responsibility, my fate , to protect my husband, and my child yet to be born.
    “I will protect my family.” I broke away from Brian’s mother but still held her shoulders, as I looked her in the eyes. “I believe that thing, whatever he or it is, a prisoner or a ruler, I believe that thing was responsible for the