[Two worded prompt. One good, one bad: one loved and favored, one hated or dispised. Well how about adding three words to the prompt, one New and enlighting as well! Game on...can you guess my third? Here's hoping you read my  Family Seeds prior. If not go back later... Here then is Psychopomp.]

Stunned Janelle turned for the stairs. Giant tears welled up in her beautiful eyes. She had always wondered who her father was, but this couldn't be true. Not now, with the way she felt about Jed.

Why hadn't she questioned it?

The way Madame fawned over him should have been her first clue. How could she have missed it?

How could she have let her guard down. Sending her to pick him up at the aeropuerto. Angry tears flowed down her tan face.

She stopped herself at the top of the stairs. The morning sunlight caught the natural red high-lights of the brunette's hair. Still shocked by the admission, she needed to catch her emotions before turning to face them.

Jed's heart raced. The moment shattered. His first reaction was disbelief, as he sank to pick up the broken pitcher.

It was time.

Maria squeezed Jed's elbow pulling him up. While at the same time, producing a joint from her bosom. In one quick movement she lit the spliff and inhaled the vapor.

She could see that now was time to tell the truth.

Pulling her breath all the way down to her toes, Maria Sativa froze, momentarily, before handing the spliff to Jed. "Por favor ... que necesitas esto." She lowered both her voice and gaze.

Jed quietly accepted the smoke.

After all these years of storytelling, there had never been a need to tell Janelle who her father was. At least not in her mind. He was gone...pinga poof...twenty one years gone from the picture. Not until two weeks ago and his phone call, had she even thought about Jake 'Pinga' Johnson. She had rearranged the truth about their lives.

"We are surrounded by many good men." She would dismiss the precocious child early on when asked about parentage. Later, she would say, "Why do you need just one padre. Pick the most guapo for tonight, darling."

The one who is up on high...the Americano...he had left her high, dry and pregnant.

Psychopomp...She, for taking her own soul to the dead with the stolen story. All this time pretending child birth was the cause of Cecilia's, an ancient puta, death. Janelle had been promised into her orphaned care upon deathbed. "Safe passage Sparrow mine. Que sepas siempre el sonido de la verdad." She lied it daily, until they all believed it, even herself.

Janelle had been a mishap, a slight detour, but certainly not an hijo no deseado. Unwanted child... maybe only in the timing of her pregnancy back then, but certainly, the girl had been raised with every opportunity and all the love Maria possibly could hold in her broken heart.

"Janelle... tú eres mi corazón, y mi alma...but I see...today... that your heart has changed."

Janelle turned.

"Haven't I given my all to you, mi hija? Stop... por favor, espera, déjame explicarte."

"Janelle, wait." Jed stepped over the shards past Madame and reached for her arm."I think I'm..."

She leaned forward and slapped his mouth.

"Don't say it. You didn't know either, right?"

"I swear to you Jenelle, not ever..." He pulled her into his arms. "On my grave, I never knew." Then he kissed her wet face working down her cheek until her lips were all his. The passion from within hotter than this morning. They belonged together.

"We can not do this." She pushed back his advance.

"Yes you can." Madam coughed. "You can't conceive his child." She pushed the soft hair off her daughters shoulder. "That you must not do. Free love does not produce seed, remember Jed?" She stood beside him smiling.

"Madame is right, Janelle. Nothing has changed about the way I feel inside about you."

"How could you have lied to me? Was there no Cecilia either?" Her stare dead on.

"Sí, oh sí, hay una puta vieja. Yo concocked toda la historia a su puesto fuera del negocio."

They both couldn't believe what was coming out of Maria's lips.

"Wait, you created a lie about and old whore to put her out of business?" Jed stepped back a couple of steps and scratched the top of his head.

"Well then Madame..." Janelle spit out the words, "who is my real mother?"

...to be continued.

Tgwithin © 2012