In Dogwoods Blush, Reverend Roman Spindola carries two secrets that have haunted him all of his extended life. The first secret, which he reveals to Sheriff Dick Spear, turns out to a ghostly encounter and conversation Roman experienced with his deceased mother as a child. The second, which he experienced at age 16 but never revealed to anyone (until he revealed it to readers of the book) was a horrific vision of a bleeding dogwood blossom, screaming and crying in agony as blood dripped from fearsome wounds, pleading with Roman to stop the bleeding. This is how Roman, aged 79, recalled the horrific encounter from 63 years earlier in Dogwoods Blush:
"I heard it before I saw it. It was a low whine. It had a sad wail tone to it so I stopped and got very quiet as I tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. As I got closer to the source, I imagined I'd find a bee or some type of insect caught in a spider's web. It had that far away drone to it."
As Roman discovered it was a bleeding dogwood blossom, he went on to say:
"... this flower had a face! It cried out, its voice anguished and in pain! ... And then, it SPOKE!"
While I won't give away the rest of that emotional scene (so as not to spoil anything for interested readers who have not yet read Dogwoods Blush), rest assured that this shocking event forever changed the life of Reverend Spindola, leading him to a fearful analysis of the terrible truth the flower tried to warn him of those many years ago. If that visual creeped you out, welcome to the club! While several readers shared their feelings on the "yikes" value of that scene, more than a few have asked me if it was inspired by an old Vincent Price film called, The Fly. And the answer is ... YES! Released in 1958 by 20th Century Fox, The Fly tells the story of scientist Andre Deambre, murdered by his lovely wife who now seems insane. Compelled to dig into the mystery is Francois Delambre (Price in one of his rare roles as a non-villain), brother to the deceased who cannot understand why or how sweet Helene could become a killer. The story is well known to horror film fans and the movie spawned a sequel starring Price (Return of the Fly)and a series of remakes in the 80's. For those who may not know the story, Andre developed a teleporter device (about a decade before Star Trek hit our TV screens). After successfully transporting non-living items, Andre (in true horror movie fashion) decided to try transporting living tissue, using himself in the experiment. Unknown to him, a fly entered the chamber just prior to the teleportation. The "thing" that emerged on the other side was a grotesque monster ... a human body with the head and claw of a man-sized fly. While this creature seemed like a "normal" monster from 50's films and was a worthy heir to the various iconic beasties from classic Universal Films, it was the smaller "twin" that forever horrified viewers. As Andre stumbled around with his fly head and was eventually killed by his wife to end his misery, the mirror opposite fly body with a small human head (and tiny voice) escaped and was eventually caught in a spider web. Audiences cringed as the spider closed on its tiny prey that screamed in abject terror, "Help me! Please help me! NOOOOOOO!" Yikes! I don't know of a single person who EVER saw that movie who does not CRINGE when recalling that scene. It is this feeling that I tried to conjure again in Dogwoods Blush and the vision of the bleeding, crying, pleading flower. Do flowers actually cry? And if so, what sound do they make? Here's hoping I never find out!
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