Jael Holmberg…

Wild overgrown vines crept over the walls of the stone gardens, stretching their green fingers out into the unkempt yard. Sitting in a deck chair Mara Hallow took a quick drag off the cigarette pinched between her long white fingers. She stared out into the yard idly wondering how many unique shades of green were out there. Everything grew so quickly in the fertile Tennessee soil. Putting out the glowing butt, Mara lit her fourth cigarette, chain smoking to distract herself from the thoughts that ached in the back of her head. The door behind her opened and she shifted in her chair to see who it was, it was her father, the minister.

“I wish you wouldn’t. My mother died of those things.” He said pointing at her pack on the patio table.

Mara rolled her eyes, “Grandma died of Pneumonia.”

“And cancer. God, you look just like her. You act like her too, she would have said the same dumb thing.”

“I feel like a ghost.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about –“