The Replacement

The Replacements

By

Rhonda Davis

Maggie's heart began to race. She knew the time had drawn near. Mandarin was already twelve, and the birthmark was becoming increasingly prominent on the child's cheek. She could still smell the scent of the newly delivered infant Mandarin so clearly that it didn't seem that 12 years had passed since they put her in Maggie's arms.

The door to the cabin burst open as the child rushed in with the cold wind with her.

"Momma, come quick," she screamed, and the terror in her eyes answered all of Maggie's questions of arrival.

At the very edge of the woods the cloak was unmistakable, as it blew in the wind behind the figure of the stranger. The red lining with streaks of blinding light emitting from its seams, held Maggie in her tracks.

"Momma! Who is he! Who is that, look at his eyes!" Mandarin exclaimed!

As tears rolled down Maggie's eyes she knelt beside the child, her gaze fixed on the stranger as he approached them.

"Don't be afraid dear," Maggie said, "this is your destiny."

Maggie's breaths quickened as her knees dug into place. She diverted her eyes from the child to the stone slate that appeared in his left hand, and the bright red feather-pen in his right. The same authoritative voice, low and softly spoken, as if from another source, coming from a mouth that never moved, the eyes of the stranger changing colors as it read from the slate. Mandarin's face, lit from the stranger's aura, began to soften into a smile.

"Mandarin Grace," he began, "you are hereby ordered by the General Positioning Committee to begin your journey of replacement."

"Has the child been raised accordingly?"

"Yes your lordship," Maggie replied. "The removal is ready and the cloth of deliverance is intact."

Maggie rushed to the back of the house and returned with the box. As she lifted the lid the light from the box glowed blue as Maggie raised the cloth and placed it across Mandarins shoulders. The pain in the child's eyes was more than Maggie could stand! She wanted to turn away from the sight that was occurring but she could not move from her stance, all round her blue lights pranced over the child's head and then, the all but familiar cry, a cry she had heard time and again, brought relief. Maggie caught the child as she fainted into her arms.

Chapter 2

The silk comforter was keeping Elizabeth so warm she didn't want to wake to the maid beckoning her to rise, she just wanted to sleep.

"Come my little beauty, you don't want to sleep your birthday away. Your father will be expecting you at breakfast." She heard the maid saying.

As Elizabeth rose she glanced but for a moment at the news on TV, the floods, the wars, the depletion of world resources, today these things seemed to make her feel drawn to them than any other day. Upon looking into the bathroom mirror, she felt chills and screamed out,

"Lucy, Lucy! What has happened to my face, what is this,"?

"What is wrong my dear?"

"This, this mark on my cheek, what is it? Where did it come from?"

"My dear you have always bore that birthmark, it's as your father's and your father's father has had down through the ages. What is it my dear?" feeling her forehead, are you ill?"

Chapter 3

Maggie held the newborn in her arms. Her hair so beautiful, the red mark prominent, but this time it was placed just below her ear, such a pretty child. The stranger stood near,

"This will be the last one."

"I know," said Maggie.

He began the listing of the placements.

"The first, the U.S.A, the second, Great Britain, the third, China, the fourth, Japan, the fifth, Germany, the sixth, Russia, the seventh, Africa. Each of these nations will have the fulfillment and the judgment will overflow to their neighbors, the return is imminent, nothing will be written that is not fulfilled, they will be given an extreme event, a chance to change this one time, when this one is twelve, I shall return.

As Maggie sat rocking the child, the scent of the child's mother rose to her nostrils. Whispering low to the child she says,

"And she smelled like her mother before her. You are named Mandarin 12"