Demon Stories

Diana: Ocean Drops, 1961, USA

Diana

Ocean Drops

1961, USA

Seagulls. Chirp, chirp, chirp

There is a little, white spiral seashell floating in front of my eyes.

"Its going to disappear, look!"

Blip, the seashell is gone. But it will reappear again. 

"Its magic! No, I just put it in my mouth!"

I'm smiling and I know he's smiling, too. "I knew I could get you to smile," Javana says, and the seashell appears, then looks like its being tossed between his hands many times. His hands, which were once a light coffee brown and now are no color at all. 

He places the seashell on top of my Wonderbread turkey sandwich. "Its a present," says his antiquated English accented voice. 

"I'll cherish it," I assure him, picking it up and putting it in my shirt's breast pocket. But when I look up from this safekeeping, I feel a small sliver of panic in my heart. I don't want to let on that I'm panicking, but now that the shell is gone from his hands I can't see him anymore. I can't tell if he's left or if he's still on this checked picnic blanket beside me. 

For a moment, all is silence except for the continually crashing waves in front of me. Then the seagulls begin to chirp, and I look at them. They're still fighting over the bread we had thrown at them minutes before.

"Javana, you..." I begin, looking around. I can't help it. I'm panicked. I don't want him to leave again.

A feeling of the hairs standing up on the back of my neck overtakes me and my spine shivers as the feeling of ice overtakes my left hand.

"I'm still here," he chuckles. "Right beside you."

All of the air lets out of my lungs in my relief. I can breathe again.

"I don't have to leave for a while," he says, and just by his voice I can tell he is grinning. Just happy to be here, with me.

"Keep holding my hand okay? I don't care if its cold," I tell him, not meaning to order him around. The cold feeling on it gets more intense twice and I know he is squeezing my hand assuringly.

A corner of my sandwich is torn off on the basket-like plate, and floats up to my mouth. My mouth opens obediently and my eyes automatically close in the joy of being fed by him again, like the old days. And in my mind's eye, I imagine him as he was before. Those caramel colored eyes. 

Its been a long time, but we have made a balance. I lost him for so long, but now in the balance of nature we have found each other again, in strange forms, but we have found each other again.

Javana is a busy demon. He has devoted his life to helping those in need, especially children. He has become known among demons as the spirit who helps children, the children's savior. We can't always be together, but meeting like this sometimes is refreshing to us. Its like gaining fuel until the next time.