A story for yA and Midlife Women featurng the Masonic Famil

Dear friend, come with me to revisit the most important event that never happened. Mostly, this never happened. All of this is made up - or accidentially familiar. Like, I would totally not tell you the true story of how one moment in time (props to Whitney)  tweeked reality for some of my closest friends. 

“My feelings have been besmirched!” Judy  said between hiccups and gulps of laughter. “It’s not my fault that my hair is soo big! I mean, I did curl it and tease it and spray half a can of AquaNet into it - but I accept no blame for my bangs camouflaging how tall this golden monster is!” 

Judy , chubby with light brown hair that went halfway down her back when not teased and sprayed to high heaven, had gray blue eyes and was bending over the 33 foot long bathroom counter to peer into the mirror. She was slightly sunburnt. Maybe she had been in the California sun, or perhaps had stood too close to a window. With skin that white it was usually hard to tell where the white nylon stockings ended and her skin began. 

“Is your head big or was that just your ego” Alexis stage whispered while arranging the thick satin hem of her dress. Alexis looked like the Tinkerbell fairy come to life. She barely cleared five feet and her blonde hair fell in a straight chin length bob that swung every time she turned her face. 

Judy  leaned over and lifted a fallen blue mascara coated eyelash off of Alexis’s freckled cheek and replied, “Haha. That was so funny I almost forgot to laugh”. 

“Girls, girls, line up so I can take this picture. If I hurry I can have the film processed at Thrifty's in the one hour photo booth and it will be ready to collect before the dance starts!

“Capes on or capes off” Cassie wanted to know. Cassie untied her cape and deftly caught it with her left hand before the heavy velvet crumpled onto the floor. She shook out her midnight curls as she walked over to her friend Jennifer, and looked at her aunt before relinquishing the garment. 

“We will do it both ways” Honey replied. 

“That's what she said”  three of the four girls chorused and started giggling again.

Elizabeth “Monty” Montgomery  reached to her shoulders and tucked her bra strap back under the neckline of her gown and grimaced. “Someday someone is going to tell me why that is funny” she softly muttered to herself. Monty rolled her shoulders and casually walked to the photo spot. Her walk had the effect was that someone had pushed the dark auburn hair girl on rollerskates from one place to another. 

They lined up on the steps at the far east side of the meeting room in the Santa Monica Masonic Temple. Judy  stood on the dias. Cassie was on the top step just below and 6 inches to the right of her, and below her was Monty on the second step. Standing on the meeting room floor and also six inches offset to the right of Monty was Alexis.  Each girl was dressed all in white. They looked like lost angels wearing the color of suffragettes from a time earlier in the century. White satin slippers, white stockings and white satin toga like robes tied with white chords. Not a zipper or button in sight. From the bottom girl to the top the robes looked slightly more faded and yellow  from wear and washing. 

Jenny, a small 16 year old member of the club came rushing up to the group and stuck her fingers in Alexis’s hair. “Hang on, you left it in! Let me just … now turn your head…there!” She held up a slip of white and purple rayon above her head in victory with one hand and with the other she reached over to take the top off an Aladdin's lamp sitting on a small table nearby.  “You can’t wear your first crown while wearing your headband!” she whispered and deftly shoved the offending accessory and two bobby pins in the lamp. 

The girls resumed their positions and one by one, Judy , Cassie and Monty lifted the golden crowns off their heads and held it over the hair of the girl below them. 

They posed over and over again with capes on, with them off, facing left, lining up directly top to bottom, with jazz hands, until finally Honey declared she had run out of her roll of film and would be zipping over to the store and back in a flash. “Aunt Honey, Cassie called out, grab me a diet soda please!”

---- Here is where the narrator of the Twilight Zone would interrupt and say "

The year was 1990 in my hometown of Los Angeles. These girls were members of an elite social sorority affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons.  Were they heading into a new term, or are they interring "The Twilight Zone"

 The white robes, purple capes, headbands, and crowns were all ceremonial. Regular members of the group had white cotton robes and some, who did not hold an office in the sorority, tied their robes with purple chords instead of white.   

Tonight was the Installation ceremony for Job's Daughters, which felt like an ancient order dedicated to sisterhood and service. Among the soon-to-be crowned were three inseparable friends: Cassie, Alexis, and Monty. Cassie, with her Mediterranean skin and dark curly hair; Alexis, petite and blonde; and Monty, a tall redhead with a striking presence, were all on the brink of stepping into a new chapter of their lives.

All of the members of the local sorority chapter, called a Bethel, had their friends and family in attendance. This ceremony happened twice a year and a new group president was being put in place and the girls all had new responsibilities as their offices changed or they sat without offices in the “choir” . Judy  liked to think of it as the chorus in old plays where all the extra actors hung out for support. 

Judy  was a third generation member of the group, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother. She was, however, the first in her family to have been successfully elected to and complete a term as the president of a chapter. After tonight she never had to hold an office again or memorize portions of ceremonies, speak at children’s hospitals or take tea with old ladies. It was, she thought, like stepping off a cliff with nothing to keep her on the ground. As relieved as she was, she was also sad.  The thought that she would no longer have to keep up her perfect attendance streak to meetings and twice monthly events was rad, but it came with the realization that they were growing up and one step closer to separating for college and adult lives. 

While Honey was driving across LA in her yellow convertible VW, the girls ran to the dining room to check the gift boxes where presents and notes from supporters were anonymously deposited. Each of them found a golden bangle sitting on a plastic bear filled with Honey. 

“I know we are not supposed to, but let’s…” Cassie started

“Put them on” the others said together. 

“How is it only 5 o’clock and already, like, the longest day ever?” Monty asked as she slipped the bangle over her fingers and slid it onto her arm. 

“Totally, because, like, I was here at like, I dunno, 8 this morning putting on chair covers and ironing table clothes and it is not even my installation!’ Judy  griped. 

“It is all of our Installation. Whoever is Queen does not matter. This is for everyone, I just got to pick the colors, food and DJ” replied Cassie, patiently and logically. 

Monty eyed her up and down, “Also you got to pick the day for our beach date and a service project and our bedsheet pattern for our “look alike” outfit. You have a lot of power. Remember what Spider-Man taught us. with great power comes great responsibilities”.

"Yeah, yeah - like anyone even knows who Spiderman is. Pick a refrence that is like, totally someone people can recognise!" Cassie said while rolling her eyes.

Jen skittered into the dining room and bounced while announcing “it is time to line up, the music is starting” 

The meeting room where the ceremony was going to happen was a large white room was a navy blue carpet.  The floor was sunken such that on the North and South side of the room there were rows of spectator chairs raised one step above the floor. The girls were lined up at the west side of the room and in between the doors on the inside of the room there was a DS positioned with two steps where two chairs sat.  The Opposite end of the room was edged with three steps and then a stage approximately 6 ft deep where three chairs were centered. off to the right and left or two other chairs. to the left was a piano and to the right a desk like you might find in a Banker's office. the only light shown dimly from the center of the ceiling. positioned directly underneath the light was an altar which was really just a big square chest covered in a satin tablecloth. 

As the piano started to play the song, Through The Eyes Of Love, a teenager dressed in a formal gown emerged from each of the back doors and walked up to the altar. each held a tapered candle tied with a silver and pink bow. They tapped an electric candelabra with the candle while one hand secretly tightened the light bulb so that the lights shaped like candle flames lit up one by one . Somewhere in the seated, sidelined crowd a small child could be heard saying “ooooh!” and the girls outside the room tittered. The girls each faced away from their lit candles and walked to the large chairs centered on either side. 

A light on the east side of the room came on and two adults, a man in a top hat and woman in a formal dress introduced themselves and welcomed the visitors to the Installation of Officers and Bethel Choir. When the lady asked the man to invite in the “Installing Honored Queen” , Judy  looked at all of the girls lined up and waved. 

“I am on my way to insignificance” 

“From the ranks you have risen, and to the ranks you will return” came the responding whisper.

One after another the girls entered the room. Their entrances were timed to a poem about them and their new role. They were brought behind the altar and listened as Judy  explained what their new office duties were and then led to their chairs which were strategically placed around the room. This happened again and again until two girls were placed in the West Dias chairs and only Monty, Alexis and Cassie remained.Monty went to the back North door and Alexis stood in the doorway on the back South door. 

Cassie smiled and said “I will see you up there.” and then her friends walked into the eclectic candlelit room and she was alone. While she waited for them to be installed she turned and looked around the aniti-room. She read the plaques of all the other girls who had been queen and looked at the photographs of former Masonic Masters and Eastern Star members. Her eyes caught a black and white photo of two masons. She reached out and traced their names “ Arthur McDaniel” and “Charles Boerstler”. They looked so young and she could almost hear their laughter. 

She moved back to the doorway to take her turn walking into the room as she heard the words she had dreamed of since she was eleven, “ Among the glowing candle lights one girl alone is seen”. She stepped into the light, made a left turn and stood under an arbor trellis decorated by silk flowers intertwined with white lights. It was hard to see out into the dim room from inside the brightness but from the corner of her eye she saw the shape of two familiar men. Cassie smiled to herself and thought “Wow, now I am seeing Art and Charles everywhere”.

Judy ’s voice, inviting the Installing Officers to walk Cassie to the altar brought Cassie’s focus back to the present moment. She took the two steps down and listened to the swish and rustle of her skirt and the footsteps of Monty, Judy  and Alexis. With Judy  behind her and one friend on either side, Cassie felt exposed, nervous and oddly comforted. A frisson of tension was blooming in her stomach  Monty and Alexis put the cape on Cassie and held up the back while Cassie fastened the ties around her. They then each placed a hand on her shoulder while the golden crown was lowered on her head and she heard something about wisdom and judgment.

That’s when it happened, the preplanned and oft repeated ceremony glitched and the room fell silent and suddenly extremely bright.  

In attendance were Cassie’s mother and her two aunts, three women whose own secrets were buried deep within their pasts. As the ceremony reached its climax, Cassie, Alexis, and Monty knelt before the assembly, their hearts pounding in unison. One by one, they were crowned, their tiaras sparkling under the chandelier's light.

Just as the last crown was placed on Monty's head, a deafening clap of thunder shook the building. The lights flickered, and a cold, unnatural wind swept through the hall. Everyone seemed to have still. Gasps came from the three ladies on the sidelines while a purple haze filled the room. A shadowy figure materialized in the center, its form shifting and undulating like smoke. For a moment it was a woman in a tall tiara, then a boy with a sword and a chain around his neck, that morphed into a man in a tall hat. As soon as the figure took a recognisable form, it fluidly changed again. The shadow spoke in a voice that seemed to echo from the depths of time.

"The gift shall be passed, as it was written. Mark this moment if you can, as you may not remember it clearly again. Around you are people, yet they can not be your witness. This gift is a kindness, a curse and a mission. Everything depends on your vision "

A bolt of lightning struck the ground between Cassie’s mother and her aunts, and a spectral chain of energy shot towards the three young women. The air crackled  as the power leaped from the older generation to the younger. The room fell silent as the shadow vanished, leaving a chilling whisper in its wake. 

Still, no one spoke. No one moved. There was not a breath brought in or pushed out, not a whisper, whimper or … you get it. Everyone looked and sounded frozen. 

Cassie was the first to feel the change. Her vision blurred, and when it cleared, she could see them— tiny little dark blobs, slightly larger than roaches, they were lurking in the corners, their malevolent eyes fixed upon her. She gasped, her dark curls falling into her face as she tried to make sense of the horrifying sight.

Alexis, the small blonde, felt a strange pull in her gut. In an instant, she was no longer in the grand hall but in a different Masonic temple across town. She reappeared a moment later, breathless and wide-eyed and, realizing she could teleport from one temple to another. She reached over and found her cape - pulling it around her and wishing it was her fathers soft grey cardigan. 

Monty, the tall redhead, felt a surge of power in her veins. Her body tingled with an unfamiliar energy, and as a ghostly figure approached her, she instinctively pushed her hand forward. The spirit seemed to smile as it melted into her fingertips and floated through her before dissipating into vapor. 

“Nope. Not today. That was gnarly and I don’t agree to deal with that today”, Cassie said as she looked at her friends and family in the eyes before wishing she was walking up the stairs in the eastern side of the room to sit on the throne and started shoving her gavel and pens aside to find aspirin for the headache that was building. 

"I am definately going to need a Titos Taco after this  night is over! she whispered to Alexis. "

"Dude, I am gonna need something stronger than a taquito, that's for sure" came the quiet utterance. 

All three girls stood and  everyone else and the room was suddenly filled with chatter and whisper and the click of cameras as if nothing had happened. 

And, dear reader, for everyone else but those six, nothing at all happened out of the ordinary. However, for our three friends, nothing would be the same again and each of them would handle it differently. 

Together, they embarked on a journey that would take them to the darkest corners of Los Angeles and beyond. Cassie's ability to see demons, Alexis's power to teleport, and Monty's gift to banish souls and demons to hell became their greatest weapons in the battle against the supernatural.

As they faced their new reality, the bond between the three friends grew stronger. They were no longer just daughters in a Bethel; they were warriors, bound by a curse but also by a shared destiny. And as they fought the forces of darkness, they discovered that true sisterhood could conquer even the most formidable of curses.