CHANA THOMPSON

Krista Pompey - The Becoming

 

CHAPTER 1

The Vision

 

  She stood on the pier looking down at the water below her. Wave upon wave rolled with regularity crashing upon the rocks. The sky had darkened since she left her house. Was it going to rain soon? This time of year was always so unpredictable. She started walking again nearing the end of the pier and the path that led up to her house. Her mother still wasn’t home. She could tell because there was no car in the driveway. What was taking her so long? The supermarket was not that far away. The wind started blowing stronger. Turning her back to it, she looked out again at the water. The color of the water blended into the color of the sky.

  Walking up the path, She turned onto their property. She opened the gate and walked into the large front yard. Her stomach grumbled. At the front door, she turned the doorknob and went inside. In the living room, the television was on. Her father was sleeping on the sofa snoring lightly. Moving past him, she went straight for the kitchen. Opening up the refrigerator, she looked inside. It was filled as usual with lots of left­overs, and thankfully, there was one slice of cheese from the deli left. Taking it out, she placed it on the counter and opened the breadbox. It was empty, hopefully, one of the things Mom had went out to buy.

  Looking through the cabinets, she searched for crackers or something similar to eat with it. Nothing could be found. “Well, I guess I’ll have to eat it like this,” she thought.

  She went back to the fridge and took out some orange juice. It was also the last container and it was almost empty.

  “Better than nothing,” she thought. “I can’t WAIT until Mommy gets here.” Moving over to the window she looked out. There was no sign of her mother, and the sky had gotten even darker. Where could she be?

  This was a fairly typical Saturday. Not much seemed to happen around the house and it was still a week before the Easter break. Krista Pompey was looking forward to going back to school on Monday.

  Krista brushed by her dad sprawled out on the sofa, but he didn’t notice a thing. He’d been sleeping for at least an hour. She picked up the remote control that was lying on the coffee table. It was a large, sprawling sofa that could fit at least ten people on it. Krista loved it. Changing to the Disney channel, her father turned over onto his side and continued sleeping. One of her favorite series was on, and even though she had seen every show, she watched it anyway with an eye that con­tinually moved towards the clock.

  Another half and hour went by. Her mind started wondering back to the life she had lived up until a few months ago. Krista and her two sisters, Gianna and Adonia, with their mom and dad, used to live in Germany in a city called Cologne. During the last summer vacation, her parents after carefully consid­ering as many pros and cons as they could think of, decided to move here to Piermont Avenue in South Nyack, New York. Dad worked for a bank, and luckily for him, they had branches in America and he had been able to get transferred to one.

  In the past, they had come to New York on vacation, and everyone had always loved it, but to move here...that was something different.

  Gianna, who was two years older than her, com­plained the most. That was until she started school. Now, Gianna had so many new friends, she actually liked it here...almost better! Adonia, who was two years younger, missed her best friend but had also made lots of new friends. Krista was the one who felt bad, since she hadn’t made any!

  After learning for years everything in German, it wasn’t so easy to do it now in English, even though her parents spoke English at home. But Krista had to. In school, she spent so much time concentrating trying to understand what they wanted from her, that she just didn’t feel so good.

  The kids in Krista’s class were nice, well, almost all of them. Some of the boys were just a little rude, and two of the girls, Lisa and Toni, were always criti­cizing everyone. They thought they knew how to do everything better. There were a few girls she liked, but she didn’t live close to any of them. Krista attended a private school and none of the girls lived in her neigh­borhood. Just like in Germany, there were hardly any other black kids in her class. There was one girl, Dawn. In Germany, it had been a boy, Markus. She was used to being “different.” Kids asking her about her hair. Or something else they found interesting. Here they didn’t ask anything. She wished they would have any topic to speak with her! Her sisters had made friends around here, but up until now, she hadn’t met someone she really liked. Someone who could be her friend.

  Krista looked at the clock again. What was taking them so long? Her stomach grumbled.

  Passing by the floor to ceiling mirror in the en­tranceway, Krista examined herself. Her soft features looked back at her. Glistening brown skin, dark brown hair and eyes. She looked at her body. Well, she wasn’t really thin, but she wasn’t fat either. Sometimes looking in the mirror, she wished she were a little thinner. If she mentioned it to her mother, Mom would say, “Ridic­ulous, ridiculous Krista, you are BEAUTIFUL!” with such certainty, she wouldn’t think about it again for a long time.

  Her medium length thick curly hair was flying all over the place, as it often did after she ran around on the pier. It was normally windy there. Today, Krista had a green T-shirt on which said in diamond studs “peace” and blue jeans. Her sneakers were left next to the front door, because her mother didn’t like it when they brought dirt into the house from outside.

  Krista hardly knew what to do with herself. The waiting was agonizing…and boring. She was just happy Justine was off today. Krista and Justine didn’t get along. No matter what she did Justine complained about it. If she vacuumed the floor, it wasn’t clean enough. If she loaded the dishwasher, the plates were in the wrong place. If she tried to explain something, it was too much, or too loud, or not enough. Justine complained about her oldest sister, Gianna, a lot, too. The only one who seemed to be perfect in the house was her youngest sister, Adonia.

  Krista and Gianna tried to explain this to their mother, but Justine was Mom’s older cousin. Justine used to baby-sit Mom when she was little. Mom was happy to have someone she knew to watch them, when she wasn’t there, whom she could trust and afford. Justine lived in a house down the street from them. Actually, they got this house through her. She told Mom that it was on the market, and if she were interested in it, she would help her out with the kids when she moved here.

  Mom and Dad found the offers too good to say “no” to.

  For Krista and Gianna, Justine was just weird. They just couldn’t put their finger on it to figure out what it was exactly. Justine had a number of houses that she had bought years ago and rented out. She just lived from the rents now. Justine didn’t really need the money Mom paid her, since she had never married and had never had any kids. Mom said we were a kind of substitute family for Justine, but we shouldn’t ever say it to her, she was really sensitive.

  Krista heard a movement on the sofa. Her dad was awake. He sat up, looked at the clock, and stretched and yawned.

  “How long have I been out?” asked Dad.

  “I’m not sure exactly, Daddy, maybe an hour and a half. I went outside during that time,” answered Krista.

  “Is your mom back from the store?” he asked, while he rubbed his eyes then stood up.

  Dad was tall with short, curly, light brown hair and his skin was a little lighter than hers. Krista found him really handsome. When he stood up, he towered above her. Passing by her, he bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead and caressed the top of her head, before walking into the kitchen. It was good to have him awake again and not be alone. Okay, she could have gone shopping with her mom, Gianna, and Adonia, but at the time, she absolutely didn’t feel like it. Afterwards, Krista wished she had gone. It would have given her something to do.

  “I’m hungry,” said Dad, “Are you hungry, too?”

  “I’m STARVING, Dad. I’ve been waiting for Mommy to come home and make something to eat,” said Krista passionately. “Are you going to make some­thing? There are lots of vegetables in the fridge!”

  “Okay, I’ll whip something up. Could you cut some peppers for me?” asked Dad. He went into the refrig­erator, took out eggplant, zucchini, and some garlic.   Unfortunately, they were out of onions that Dad added to everything. Reaching into the cupboard, he took out noodles and a pot and pan for cooking. The whole wall had lengthwise cabinets that opened as doors. Before the cabinets was a long kitchen island where the cooking was done. An extended area served as a long table, where they could sit and eat if they didn’t feel like going into the dining room (which was often.) The oven was separate and built among the lengthwise cabinets into the wall. It was all very modern and white, except for the natural wood countertops, and stainless steel appliances. Her dad placed all the food there and started cooking. She took out a knife and cutting board and began cutting the peppers.

  Krista loved cooking with her dad. He let her do anything she wanted except the fish. The fish was his domain. He had to season it, prepare it the night before, and then slowly cook it. Basically, no one in the house ate meat except their dad, and he ate only the occasional fish. Sometimes when they were at other places Gianna or Adonia would eat it, but she and her mom wouldn’t. Krista never really liked it, and her mom stopped eating it years ago.

  When Justine was here, she would complain about their strange eating habits. Trying to get the kids to eat meat would annoy Mom a little, but Mom just chalked it up to her age. “Justine is just getting older and is becoming stuck in her ways,” Mom would say.

  Krista and her dad worked together as they usually did. Without speaking much. It was their thing. No one else in the house seemed to like cooking as much as the two of them. Adonia loved when they were making cookies, or cake, or pizza. But the day-to-day stuff they had to eat, didn’t interest her. Gianna liked talking on the telephone or sending messages to her friends, often, the same person she was on the telephone with. Her father was starting to sweat. It was getting warm next to the cooking pots and pans. Outside a car pulled into the drive. Footsteps and laughter could be heard. She left the kitchen to say “Hi” to everyone.

  Taking off their shoes near the front door were Adonia, Gianna, and her mom. The front door was wide open and numerous packages full of food were on the floor. Adonia was sitting on the floor taking off one sneaker and explaining, “I wanted to get the sour cream potato chips, but then I changed my mind and picked out barbecue. Barbecue is better than sour cream. When I was five, I used to like sour cream only. But now I’m 9, and I like sour cream and barbecue.”

  Adonia and Gianna looked similar yet different to her. All of them were various variations of each other with similar brown skin, eyes, and hair. Her hair color was a little darker than her sisters. They all looked alike, and yet not, to their mom and somehow also their dad. Mom was a head shorter than Dad. Her shoulder length hair had naturally strong, tight curls which she usually used a flat iron on to get as straight as possible. Mom thought she looked neater like that but it just made her slower to leave the house to do anything. Krista liked her hair both ways. Actually, she preferred the quicker way!

  Gianna, who already had both shoes off and was moving towards the television said, “I’m glad we got barbecue. I can’t stand sour cream. Hey, Krista, did anyone call for me when we were out?”

  Gianna was tall and thin. Her mom would always make remarks about how fast she was growing, and how Gianna hardly had time to wear new clothing before it didn’t fit her anymore. She was almost the same size as her mother with a similar athletic figure. Her mom had run track and field for years until she was injured and was forced to stop competing. She still jogged whenever she could find the time.

  “Gianna,” her mother said, “please take the grocer­ies into the kitchen. And Krista, please help her and unpack everything and put them where they belong.”

  “No, no one called while I was here,” said Krista, nodding in acknowledgment to her mother and answer­ing her sister.

  “Mommy, can I open the potato chips?” asked Adonia.

  “When your shoes are off, go help your sisters. Don’t you smell the food? Lunch is almost ready. You know there are no snacks before lunch!” spoke Mom loudly.

  Her mother, who had also just taken off her boots, was closing the front door. She picked up one of the last two bags of food and carried it into the kitchen.

  Everyone helped (except Dad who was still cooking) putting the food away. Gianna looked longingly at the television but didn’t dare go into the living room.

  “Mom, can I go over to Amber’s house after we eat?” asked Gianna. Gianna always had something she wanted to do and always had lots of GOOD ideas of what one should do next. Amber had a sister, Brie, who was Krista’s age. Krista could probably go along with Gianna if her mom said yes. She just didn’t know if she felt like it.

  “No, and please stop asking me. I’ve already told you more than once why,” answered Mom.

  When Krista thought about Amber, she thought about one thing. She didn’t like the kind of jokes Amber would make. They were somehow a bit cruel. Amber never said them to her or Gianna, always about other kids, but Krista didn’t think they were nice. And Amber often did mean things to her little sister. It just didn’t match her pretty face. Amber was really pretty. She had really nice features, a dark brown complexion, and a perfect shape. Lots of boys liked her. Brie was really cute too but a bit less than Amber.

  Amber and Brie’s mom, Theresa, was quite attractive as well. She had her new Colombian boyfriend, Ricky, who looked good on the outside, but there was some­thing about him they didn’t like. It was not just because he was there all the time and smelled always of beer, that didn’t help, but it was something else. Since then, every time Gianna asked to go visit her mother didn’t like them there when he was there. And since Ricky was almost ALWAYS there, they mostly only got to see Amber when she came over to their house. Her mother told them not to tell Amber and Brie so their feelings wouldn’t be hurt, particularly because they couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

  Theresa was really nice. Everybody liked her, except Justine. Justine found her too loud and what she called “obnoxious.” She also didn’t like the way she dressed. Justine would always say, “She needs to put some clothes on,” because Amber’s mom loved short, short, mini­skirts and dresses.

  Gianna and Krista only got to go to their house now when her mom or Justine came along. This didn’t happen often since Ricky would start yelling about something, making them leave almost as quickly as they got there. Justine secretly called him a “parasite.” Boy, was he loud!!! She and her sisters wondered why anyone would want a boyfriend like that. Amber and Brie wondered it, too. They would come over to their house whenever they could, since they liked it here better.

  The food was ready and everything had been unpacked and placed in the refrigerator, cupboards, shelves, and pantry. The table was cleared, cleaned, and set up to eat. Everyone sat down. Their dad gave out the food.

  “I am so hungry,” said Adonia. The food smelled really good.

  “Me, too,” said Krista. “I’ve been hungry for forever!!!

  “Me, three,” said Gianna laughing.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Who is going to say thank you?” asked Mom.

  “I’ll say it,” said Krista. “Thank you God for this food. You are always good to us. Amen.”

  Everyone said “Amen” and started eating.

  “Should we watch a movie this evening? It’s Saturday. Or should we play a board game?” asked Gianna between bites.

  “Can we play Taboo Junior?” Adonia wanted to know.

  “Not that again,” said Gianna, “We played that last Saturday!”

  “I want to see a movie. I can go pick out a few films we can choose from,” said Krista.

  “Can we all go out to the movies?” asked Gianna. “At the mall, there are at least two really good movies we can see. And before that, we can look in the shops!”

  “Who said we are going out?” asked Dad.

  “Why don’t you want to play Taboo Junior? It’s really fun,” complained Adonia, while reaching for the salt­shaker, then adding a little to her food.

  “I’m tired of playing that game. Why can’t we go to the movies, Dad? It would be much more fun than staying at home, and they have a deal at Chili’s Grill & Bar, two entrees for the price of one. We could eat dinner after the film,” suggested Gianna while eating.

  “Are they really offering two entrees for the price of one? I wonder how long the offer is for? What do you think, Stella? Should we go to the movies?” asked Dad looking at Mom.

  “Well, David, I don’t know. I’m happy to finally be back home, I don’t know if I really feel like going out again. On the other hand, I’m not totally against the idea,” answered Mom.

  Krista just ate her food and didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter anyway. Once her parents decided they were going to do something, they all had to do it anyway. The noodle dish she and her dad made was really good. Right now she just wanted to enjoy the food and not think about what they were going to do later this after­noon.

  Krista looked around her at everyone sitting at the table and a thought came which didn’t always come.

  She loved her family. Her sisters. Her mom. Her dad. The feeling blossomed in her breast. Spread out. Filled the room. Covered the whole house and went further, further, further away. In that moment, everyone at the table stopped talking. Looking around, a smile began to form on each face, and her mom started laughing, just a light kind of laugh. Adonia, then Gianna, her dad, and then Krista, joined in.

  When the laughter slowly stopped, Dad said, “We’re going to the movies!”

  The rest of the meal was a blur. Soon after, everyone piled into the car and it took off.

  Krista looked back at the house. It was a colonial farmhouse built in the 1880s. Mom and Dad fell in love with its charm. It had a large living room with a fire­place, dining room, and extra bedroom on the ground floor that Dad used as an office. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a master suite. A spacious patio graced the ground floor behind the house, and not to forget, the two-car garage. The drive was around 20 minutes to the Palisades Center Mall Shopping Center where the IMAX movie theater was located.

  Sitting in the back seat of their mini-van, Krista looked out the window and watched the landscape fly by on the road leading to the highway. The sky was still dark, and Krista wondered if it would rain. The ride was uneventful. When they pulled into the parking garage and parked, everyone happily got out. They left their jackets in the car and walked over to the entrance leading into the shopping mall.

  The place was huge. In addition to the movie theater were clothing shops, department stores, restaurants, food bars, and a variety of other stores. Just about anything one wanted could be found here. The whole family loved coming here!

  “Mom, we have an hour before the film begins. Can we look at clothing in some of the shops?” asked Gianna.

  “We can look, Gianna, but we are NOT buying anything today. Today is a movie date,” her mother answered.

  “Is that rule for you too, Stella?” asked Dad.

  “It’s for the kids, of course!!!” said Mom laughing.

  The Pompey family continued walking towards the elevator that would take them to the shopping area. Getting off the elevator on the third floor, they walked into the huge building with so many stores it seemed endless. They passed by many food shops in the area where the movie theater was and bought the tickets for the film.

  Walking over to the escalator, the Pompeys took it down a flight. On the left, next to a row of shops, was the first clothing shop they went into. Krista and her sisters went to the accessories section. Her dad came with them and Mom went over to look at clothing. The spring collection was in. She and her sisters stood around and tried stuff on.

  “Look at this hat. Does it look good on me?” Kristaasked them.

  “How do you like these sunglasses?” asked Adonia moving her face from side to side.

  “You both look really good,” said Gianna. “Maybe you can get Mom to buy them the next time we come here. I like this necklace. It is so pretty and matches with my bracelet. I need new necklaces. The ones I have don’t really match the new jacket we bought last week.”

  Krista also put on sunglasses then looked in the mirror that was next to the counter.

  “Hey, these are awesome!” said Krista, reaching for another hat in a different color.

  “This one matches my grey sneakers,” said Adonia, looking down to prove the point.

  They winded up spending so much time in the onestore that most of the waiting time until the film begin was used up.

  “We have to go over to the movie theater,” said Dad. He had been waiting patiently next to the girls, answer­ing their never-ending questions.

  “Let’s go get your mother,” he said.

  Mom was coming out of the dressing room when they walked over to where she was. She had nothing in her hands, so that meant one thing…she hadn’t found anything she liked.

  “I love this shop,” said Mom, “even if I don’t find anything I want.”

  “We have to get over to the movie theater. The film or at least the previews are going to start in a few minutes,” said Dad in relief. He disliked shopping for clothes.

  Her family got on the escalator and went back up a flight then walked over to the movie theater. The candy store they all loved released an enticing smell of delicious sweetness. Krista’s mouth started watering. Before they reached the entrance point where their tickets were checked, they got in line for the much nec­essary munchies to eat during the film. Everyone wanted popcorn. While she and her sisters wanted frozen Smoothies to drink, her parents decided on lemonade.

  Thankfully, the line was pretty short. After getting what they wanted, they went through the entrance point, giving up part of their tickets and entered the theater.

  It was light enough inside to see where empty seats were which were almost everywhere since not many people had bought tickets for this film. The Pompeys decided on the middle section because it wasn’t too close to the screen. The film was a new Walt Disney production. Adonia and Gianna wanted to see it since the advertisements started appearing on television. Krista had seen them as well but didn’t really care if she saw the film or not.

  It darkened in the movie theater. The previews for upcoming attractions started playing. Another Disney production flashed upon the screen.

  “I want to see that. It looks really good. Mommy, can we see it?” Adonia wanted to know.

  “Why not, honey,” said Mom.

  “That one looked interesting, Stella. What do you think?” asked Dad.

  “I like it, too,” answered Mom while chewing on popcorn. “Let’s keep it in mind.”

  The rest of the previews were shown. Finally, the film started. The dark room became quiet as everyone atten­tively followed the unfolding events of the film. Krista watched with everyone else but then a feeling over­whelming her body pulled her attention away from the screen. A glow from within and without became more and more intense. Everything around her disappeared and a form, a human-like form, began to appear. As it came closer, a warmth and extreme feeling of happiness covered her in all regions of her awareness. A thought was transmitted from the form, which remained par­tially unclear.

  What Krista could understand sounded like, ‘The time is coming. Prepare yourself with good thoughts…the time is coming,’ It seemed to say.

  And then slowly It disappeared. She was left with a feeling of, as if, something had transformed inside of her. She felt good. Incredibly good. But she could sense…something was different.

  Her mother was nudging her.

  “Krista, come on. Get up! We’re leaving!” exclaimed Mom next to her, as though she had been repeating the same thing for some time.

  All of her family was standing already and the room had lightened. Everyone about them was slowly filing out of their seats, into the aisles, and piling out of the theater.

  The film was over! What seemed like a few moments had been in reality over an hour! Krista looked at her parents. They looked the same as usual and didn’t seem to have noticed that something different had occurred. They were talking about the good and bad parts of the movie. No one was really paying attention to her.

  What was that Figure and why did she feel somehow strange? Did anyone else see it? All they were talking about was the film. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hardly noticed they were back into the parking garage walking towards the car.

  The drive home was as uneventful as the one to the movie theater. Krista remained deep in thought until they reached home. Getting out of the car, everyone went into the house. The usual taking off of shoes, and then everyone slowly moved off into different direc­tions. Krista went into the living room.

  Dad went into the kitchen and ate some of the food from lunch that was still in a pan then took out some­thing to drink. When they were still in the mall and finished with the movie, they had passed by Chili’s. After noticing how long the lines were for seating, Dad had decided against going inside. So, everyone was a little hungry.

  Gianna and Mom joined Dad in the kitchen for a snack. Adonia could be heard from her bedroom singing a song very loudly.

  “Anybody want to have some frozen pizza?” yelled Mom through the house.

  “I want some,” said Gianna.

  “Me, too,” spoke Krista loudly from the living room.

  From the singing bedroom was no reply.

  “Adonia?” yelled Mom. Still there was no reply.

  “Adonia?” yelled Mom again. Nothing. Giving up, Mom ran up the stairs to Adonia’s room. “Adonia, do you want to eat pizza?” Adonia’s muffled reply was not audible.

  Mom came downstairs and put two pizzas in the already preheating oven. Dad and Gianna joined Krista in the living room and turned on the TV. Krista got up and went with her mother who was alone in the kitchen.

  “Mom, something strange happened in the movie theater...” Krista began to say when Adonia, still singing loudly, came down the steps and into the kitchen. Krista gave up trying to speak to her mother at the moment. She would wait and speak to her another time. Burying herself again in thought, she went back into the living room and waited with her sister and Dad for the pizzas to be ready.