Dixie Gets a Message

Stepping back into her Mother's house after her two week sabbatical to the Retreat House, Dixie was reluctant to cross the threshold. Something wasn't quite right, and she couldn't figure out what it was, but knew something was amiss, other than her own somber mood. She had hoped, that writing the check for $500 to Sr. Eulalia to install a hot tub in the convent to"ease their aching backs', would have made her feel better, but it didn't.

The feeling had started when she first crossed the county line on her way home. Uneasy, but unsure why, Dixie decided to make a few stops before heading to the house, if for no other reason, but to avoid getting there.

Her trip to the Pharmacy to refill her tummy pill prescription had only fueled her unease. Standing in line, she had overheard a woman behind her talking about someone named Eva who had mysteriously gone missing. The other woman mentioned someone named Amanda who was also missing, but assumed a runaway.

Dixie discounted their conversation, until she was in line at the grocery store, and overheard another lady talking about someone called Sooky being missing as well, to which her companion repled that her neighbor was missing as well. Dixie thought the name was  El Shay, or something like that.

Even at the post office, where she stopped to pick up her mail, people were talking about missing folks. Adam. Ell, Liz, and other names she recognized were ballied about. "Weird", she thought, as their conversation turned to someone named Marilyn who had been recently killed in an accident in Hawaii.  

Finally pulling into her driveway, Dixie's thoughts replayed the in line conversations she had overheard, as she gazed down the street and noticed the stack of newspapers on the stoop of the house where those conjoined twins lived. Dixie knew it wasn't like them to not stop the paper when they went on tour.

Something strange was definitely going on here, and enough that people were noticing in droves.

Before she left, consumed with her own grief, even she had noticed that the woman who ran the concession stand at the high school games, Sabrina something-or-other, had stopped coming, and that that she hadn't seen that cute Brian kid in a few months now.

Taking her bags into the bedroom, Dixie spied an envelope on her bed. Now she was not only uneasy, but scared as well. No one had a key to her house, and she knew without a doubt that there was nothing on her bed when she left.

With trepedation she picked it up gingerly, as if it were made of fine spun spiderwebbing. The envelope had no name, and no return address, but she figured it had something to do with Carol, or more precisely, Ray. Dixie couldn't have been more wrong.

Opening the envelope, Dixie pulled out a single sheet of notebook paper. Scrawled on the sheet in thick black marker were four words:

"THIS IS NOT RANDOM"

Dixie dropped the note on the coverlet, and sunk to her knees on the floor."What the hell does that  even mean?", she wondered.

The events of the last few weeks had taken their toll on her. Carol's death, the horrendous inquest where the police made her feel like a common whore, the nighmares, and the strangew feeling of unease she felt when coming back into town all hit her like a ton of bricks.

She was petrified and confused. Was the note from a cop? A friend or relative of Ray's? Or was it something more sinister, something to do with the missing people?

Panic started in her throat and threatened to render her motionless unless she acted. Grabbing her already packed bags off the floor, Dixie grabbed her keys and headed out the door. She was, at least pleasantly surprised when one of her favorite songs was playing on the radio when she started the car. She sang along as she turned onto the interstate "...eight six seven five three oh ni-i-i-ne...."


"I think its time to visit Healinglite's commune."