Beyond The Red Door
written by: Debra Elramey
@elramey
Both shrinks and preachers have tried and failed.
Who, then, will help conquer Nora’s fear?
Faith friends advise her to meditate, not medicate.
All to no avail. Dark forces haunt her dwelling,
bar her entry when the family scatters daily,
husband off to work, children to school.
Rather than face the house alone angst keeps her
on the run, drives her away to kill the seven hour
slot of time per day. She moseys around town,
wanders through stores, peruses the library, tosses
crumbs to birds in the park until the final bell
releases her children from school.
Then they all return to the grand house
with lion heads guarding the entrance steps,
a tall wooden gate enclosing a pack
of barking dogs out back.
When Mother Mary travels from Brooklyn
to visit her daughter Nora she calls upon the priest
around the corner to come and help her cast
the demons out. From room to room they roam,
Mary crossing every doorpost with olive oil,
priest perfuming their home with incense,
plumes of smoke rising with prayers.
Ritual done, they sit by candlelight
in the living room while the story unfolds
of a gang attack on her family during Nora’s youth.
As she speaks, cats round as raccoons,
a solid white & a couple tabbies claim laps.
She strokes fur with reverence and recalls a childhood
marred by foul souls flinging Molotov cocktails
through windows, her father firing back with gunshots.
Arrested and imprisoned for self-defense while gang
members walk free. A senseless tragedy, lifelong scars,
endless anxiety. Time passes and the priest strolls around
the block one day to find the house vacant, an absence
of barking dogs, lion heads gone, wind whirling leaves
across the yard. He stops and gazes at the red front door
and wonders where Nora is housing her demons now.
- Beyond The Red Door - October 22, 2024
- The Journey - September 4, 2024
