The Change

I have decided to redo my blog, and for the time being write a few pieces of flash fiction instead of my usual commentaries.  I hope that what appears here in future installments will be of interest to my blog readers.  So here goes, with apologies for the long hiatus without any new blogs appearing.  This first one was published online recently with awordwithyoupress.com and now I share it once more with others:

The Change

            The news brought them out of the barn into the field just after dark.  One of the older cows spoke.    "She told us to meet Her here when the mist begins to clear the pasture."

            “What does she want with us?” wondered her companion. 

            “I don’t know for sure.  Look.  Edith is joining us and I see Barb too.”

            “This is very strange, sending us that message after milking time last evening.”

            “Don’t you realize?  It’s about the Change.”

            “Oh. Yes.  I had forgotten.”

            “Tell me, do you still want to go through with this?”

            “It would be an improvement, I think.”

            “Edith! Hurry!”

            “You know I can’t move as fast as you.  I must preserve what energy I have left for . . .

 the Change. . .”

            “Yes, of course.  Barb!  Come on!  She’s almost here!”

            They look past the rising mist on the field to the dark figure approaching, Her cloak waving with her movements.  She carries the Book. 

“It’s . . . It’s that Book,” Edith whispers, sliding her tongue over the word ‘Boooook.’  Barb has nearly reached the others when She joins them from the other direction.  She drops Her cloak, and lays the Book on top of it.

“Hello girls,” she says softly, almost inaudibly.  “I see you got my message and all of you are here.  Are . . . are you ready?”

 Holding up her right front hoof, Barb challenges, “Is this gonna kill me?  I'm not a young calf any more."

The Dark Cow gives no answer.  A nervous padding of other hooves on old meadow grass is the only response.  She begins to sing the strange melody.  Then, all joining Her, their song rises into the chilled air like a hymn, in a synchronized chanting.  They toss back their heads, letting their mystic music rise into the disappearing mist.

She opens the Book with her hoof to a page near the middle, and begins to read.  The words are unintelligible syllables.  The cows keep singing, keep singing, keep singing, until they are gone, transported into another realm, another universe, another existence.