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Synopsis: Two Blocks from Slab Town is based on the actual events of Cissy, an eight year old girl, growing up in a Southern, rural town during the 1960’s. Her father was a World War II veteran suffering from a post traumatic stress disorder. Cissy lives two blocks from Slab Town, an area where homes were made out of rough, slabs of wood. These huts provided little protection from its predatory environment, animal as well as human. Cissy's mother was a clairvoyant, while her father was a clairsentient. She was able to survive and protect those around her by unleashing her sixth sense. As Cissy, I was glad to have this experience. I learned that a single flame can cut through the darkness making its own path.
Two Blocks from Slab TownHeatby Saturna Brown 
Posted: 16:00 April 19, 2009
Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. (Sholom Aleichem)
In the heat of the summer, sweat ran down our foreheads to our chins and around our necks. We had several methods trying to stay cool and it did not include sitting in front of an air conditioner. Back then, if you had an air conditioner, you were rich!
Well, one method was getting under the sprinkler. When Mother and Father yelled about the water bill, there was always the neighbor's house. Joey and I became Indians racing into the neighbor's yard, when we saw the sprinkler on. We pretended to be on the war path, hooting and hollering, until we were told to go home. When Father heard of our antics, he forbid us from any future exploits. He did not appreciate our behavior, or the way we disgrace the Native Americans. Father shared with us his heritage and we discovered exactly 'why' he was upset. We had Cherokee blood flowing through our veins.
When it became too dark to get wet outside, there was always the bath tub. I would put my head under the running water, before Mother told me to turn the water off. Turning the faucet on in the tub was saved for Sundays, because that was when we were allowed to take a bath. If we got dirty before Sunday, we took a sponge bath.
Mother was raised during the Great Depression. A bath once a week was considered a luxury back then, especially is you did not have to bathe in used water. Mother had shared with us the Saturday night baths she took as a child. A tub was filled with heated water from several kettles. The age of the children determined who went first in the tub. So, if you were the youngest, you knew you were bathing in some really dirty water.
Sometimes, on very hot evenings, I would take a face cloth and get it really soaked with cool water from the faucet in the bathroom sink. Placing it on my face, it did not take long before it was nearly dry and I would have to soak it again.
One evening I had fallen asleep on a chair in the living room. When I opened my eyes, a skeleton came out of the wall flying towards me. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I sat staring at this apparition. Then it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
I did not imagine it! There was something unusual about the house we lived in, especially in the back bedroom. Father had built the house, so no one had died in it. That meant it was the land.
Father slept in the back bedroom, because it was his way of dealing with the flashbacks of war. Father was taking his medication sent by the Veteran's Hospital, but it did not prevent him from having bad dreams.
His bedroom would get icy cold in the middle of the night. Father always kept a portable heater near his bed and turned it on when the room got cold.
Joey and I would snoop around in that room only during the day time. Sometimes, Joey would feel a strange presence in the closet, but I never did. Joey was more psychic than me, because he had experienced a near-death experience as an infant.
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