Warrior Women: Ally and Adeline's Journey Ahead

“Hello, Mama.”

My head snaps up at the voice. I blink the sleep from my eyes and find myself in the same room I fell asleep in. The fire has died down to embers now. It seems to have been hours since I laid down. I look over to the chair and there is a little girl sitting in it. She looks almost exactly like me, with my fair skin, freckles, and red hair. She even has my green eyes. She is also wearing one of my dresses and has a dirty rag doll clutched in her hand.

“Oh! I mean…” I can feel my face flush as I realize just how silly this must sound. “How did you get here?”

The little girl giggles and jumps off the chair. She takes a few steps toward me and as she does so, her body starts to fade away into smoke. In a moment, all that is left is a wisp of smoke which drifts lazily across the floor until it disappears into nothingness. “We’re all connected, Mama. All of us are connected to each other through time and space if we only knew how to look for them. You should try it some time, Mama! It’s really fun!”

I sit up straight and stare at where she had been standing only moments before. This can’t be real, can it? Maybe I am still dreaming? No…no…this feels too real for that to be true. For a moment, I just sit there and continue to stare at where she was standing, hoping that she will reappear again but soon I realize that it is no use because I can hear her giggling outside my door now as well as all around me in the house.

I get out of bed and follow the giggling sounds out into the hallway toward Adeline’s room then through her door into her closet then finally through her mother’s closet back into my room again all while hearing giggling all around me but never once seeing the source of it or any ghostly figure at all for that matter…but still feeling her presence all around me. After walking through every room of the house several times over without finding anything more than various ghosts of memories throughout my life, I give up and head back downstairs to sit by the fire with Crockett.