"Come with me Sara."
The rest of the family had dispersed around the house after my birthday dinner. My Mother and my Auntie had rinsed and placed the dishes in the machine. My Father, Uncle and the boys, had retired to the front of the TV for a football game.
Gina had reached over to place her fingers lightly on my hand before telling me to go with her.
I never did understand how Gina fit into the scheme of our family tree. I do know that it was far more apt to be on my Mother's side of the family as opposed to my Father's. It seemed as if she floated around the fringes of my Mother's family. Always hovering, always caring, and always there.
"Vicki?" her voice's tone floated towards the kitchen, "We are going out."
"Hunh?"
I hear my Auntie muttering something to my Mother. "Unh huh," my Mother mutters back, "right."
"This is her day Vicki." Gina says while looking towards the kitchen, (with an assumptive air,) then nods positively when Mother answers.
"Yes Gina."
Gina turns her head slightly and replies over her shoulder, "Don't worry Vicki, all is well."
I murmur an anecdotal, "Good bye," to my family as we walk out the front door.
"My my, it's a beautiful day." we are walking towards the fields, "Where are we going? I'm so glad to be eighteen, I mean I know it's lame and all,"
"Shush! Little girl." Gina said.
"I'm not a little girl!" I protest and stop where I am, (minus the stomping of my foot in a childish manner,) "I mean why are you saying that? I know you're older and all that but,"
She stops, takes my hand in hers and turns me to face her, "In relation to me, you are a little girl." (her eyes are different, warmer, normally dark brown, now they are suffused with something I am drawn to, a copper hue.) "I, am ancient."
Her voice is somber, portentous, and creates curiosity in me. "Yes this is a beautiful day, and you are eighteen, and the feelings you have are not lame."
Interlacing my arm upon hers in the gap at her side, she turns and we walk across the field.
"You are nervous. You know something is happening to you, and you know I am leaving tomorrow." We enter a forested glen. "I have been here these last 5 years for you, and now this is our time. Do you understand?"
"Well, I thought that, but I wasn't sure Gina." I said as we stopped.
She takes my hand in hers and we continue walking, "I want you to take a breath and let the ambiance of the scenic ladened eventide soothe you and still you for we are to accomplish a task." Her sweet voice seems to weave itself into the evening quiet.
We arrive at the shore of a creek, "All the Juenger, women," (she pronounced my Mother's Maiden name in the Teutonic fashion with the 'yot' sound for the J,) "have had this conversation and this, time," She gestures towards the creek bank, " ... we shall sit, ... with me."
"With you?"
"With me Sara. A Juenger woman has owned this land since so ... long ago and down through the ages," her voice was melodic and dulcet. " ... your mother's mother's mother, all the way back to Lilith, probably the Lady Eve also. It is passed down aeons and aeons, to her sisters, to you, and your daughter if you bear one, in succession." Her voice was warmer than usual, "This place is yours."
"I don't remember ever having been here." I place my feet in the water and feel the wonderful exhilarating swirl of the water on them. The depth of the water is immediate from the shore, "My God it's deep!"
"Yes it is deep," she murmurs her agreement. " ... endlessly deep, but not overpowering. Isn't it wonderfully warm?''