Unbidden Love

Ron Koppelberger

Unbidden Love

The talisman was a marriage of gyrating beads and straight crow feathers bound by a worn leather tether and a small gilded chain. Rani Gean rolled the blue and ebony beads between her fingertips. The love of her life, Bobby Breck, he’d be hers, all in all by night shadow and lovers embrace; the fetish would assure his love, his tender kisses, his gentle hand in hers forever and forever.
Rani had fantasized about Bobby all through high school and when graduation day had come she’d been in a mild panic. What of our future Bobby she had thought. He was completely oblivious of her obsession with him, in fact he couldn’t even tell his friends what she had looked like. After it was finished , after the culmination of her wont, her insane need, he’d only say, “ She was all dark, eyes of deep hollow craziness, she was jus a damn fruit basket!” he told his football buddies.
Rani had stood in cap and gown near the front of the gymnasium waiting for bobby to walk across the platform and accept his diploma. She had it all planned out, she’d climb onstage and embrace him, express her love and her desire to be his wife. He had to be with her, he had to, he was her love, her breath and the sustenance in her life she thought as she pictured him as her husband.
The principle had called Bobbies name and just as he walked across the stage, at midpoint in the most important moment of his young life, she leapt. He staggered back as she embraced him and forced her tongue into his mouth. He had pushed her back, his arms outstretched,
“ I love you Bobby, we’re gonna be together Bobby………forever my love!” The gym coach and the principle pulled her away from him. She scratched and bit and in the end they had her removed.
Bobby had accepted his diploma with the gymnasium in an uproar. The principle had given him a consoling look as he congratulated him and patted him on the back; seconds later the gym coach with scarlet runnels from the fight across her checks, ushered Bobby out of the gymnasium.
He had believed she was crazy, yet he was compelled, They would be together, it was madness but he knew, he loved her without reason, her rash affections, her dark eyes, all he could think about was her.
Bobby shuffled closer to her house, slowly with conscious determination, keep walking he thought, just keep walking Bobby boy, she’ll be waiting. Her dark eyes called to him and he knew nothing else but the seductive currents of her attentions.
Rani had gone to the witch, she lived near the edge of Gibbet Marsh; she had said, “Take the fetish, take the charm and he’ll be yours forever!” The witch had charged her five thousand dollars worth of her collage fund for the charm, but it would be worth it she thought as she waited patiently for her love.
Bobby had gotten drunk after graduation, drunk as a skunk and he always drove too fast; a Stingray, his dad’s, “CRRRRRRRRAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHH!” he mumbled as he placed his hand on the front door to Rani’s house. The maneuver was difficult, he tried to turn the knob, the blood made the brass handle slick and he couldn’t get his damn hand to work.
The car had careened into a tree, his dad would be pissed but he didn’t care he needed her dark eyes , the passion he felt for her was unequaled by anything he’d ever experienced.
Rani hoped and prayed as she turned the charm in her hands, she could hear him fumbling with the front door. The witch had been right. He was hers now. Rani ran to the door and pulled it open. Her screams echoed for blocks, Bobby stood there at a crazy angle, blood pouring from his crushed head, he had flown through the Stingray’s windshield head first into a tree. He didn’t think she would mind, “IIIIIIIIIaaaagagagagagagha LLLLOOoooooooooovvvveeee YYYYUOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU,” he gurgled through his broken teeth.
The witch chuckled to herself her dark eyes glowing with fire and glee as she contemplated the twilight and the dawn of another day. “Young love,” she whispered, “…….knows the boundary of life and death sometimes.” She thought of her own lot, her isolation and solitary swamp life. Shaking her head she dismissed the brief notion of romance; she knew better.