TAMARA NICOLE CANTY - THE WOMAN IN THE GOLDEN CAGE

Tamara Nicole Canty has been creating stories since she was in rompers, and still continues today. She finds her home and solace in the bosom of her characters’ worlds, and if she had her choice she would stay in one of those worlds rather than the mundane, colorless, and realistic world around her. While she enjoys writing novels, her heart is also with her screenplays and her poems. She resides in Riegelwood, North Carolina with her widowed father and young sister.

The Woman in the Golden Cage ​

​I had finally drifted off to sleep. It was getting harder and harder these days to find peace in rest. I didn’t know why exactly, except that every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. The mysterious girl in the golden cage, with those dark smoldering eyes beckoning me, always beckoning me. But what was she calling me to? I always woke up before I got the chance to figure that out. It never failed, I was back in a throne room of some sort and the golden cage was right in the middle of the room with her inside. This time I was determined to get to her, this time I was determined to get answers. I was almost there and then came the banging at my front door. 
     When I squinted over at the clock it was 3:00 A.M., the knocking didn’t stop until I shouted. 
     “I’m coming!” 
     I got up from my bed, leaving a pool of sweat behind and I opened the door. But the delivery person had gone, leaving a giant box right at my doorstep. What courier service could possibly be working at this hour? And how could they just leave without helping me get this giant box inside? After much exerting effort I finally got it inside, and closed the door behind me. I had to go and retrieve a towel from my bedroom, so that I could towel off all the sweat. Sure, my trainer kicked my butt every week, but he had nothing on the box. I hung the towel around my neck, and just stared at the thing for awhile with my arms crossed. 
     A sudden uneasiness gripped me when I realized that, once the thing was opened there was no going back. It was funny how opening a huge cardboard box, could possibly change the trajectory of my entire life. But here I was walking toward it, anxious to see what was inside. I didn’t waste another minute tearing the tape from the seams and when I had stole a peek inside, my blood froze cold because, my eyes refused to move from the golden bars of a cage. Instead of stopping I tore into the box like a wild man and when I had finished, there she was the beauty with the smoldering eyes that haunted my dreams.  
     I knew that my mouth was opened because, I could feel the air going in and out, but I just couldn’t close it. I mean, here she was looking right at me with a smile on her lips. I had to be still dreaming. And when she spoke her first words to me, they seemed to weave around my heart. 
     “Only you can set me free, Sire.” 
     Her words were completely insane, there was no doubt about that, but how she made them sound so sensual I would never know. Maybe it was her accent.
     “You have the wrong man.” I was finally able to muster when my mouth started working again. 
     “No, Great King, you are the one that I seek.” 
     Gosh. I had to shut my eyes and grit my teeth against her exotic beauty. It would be so easy to take advantage at a time like this and that’s the last thing I wanted to do. 
     “You have the wrong man,” I was far more insistent this time when I repeated myself. 
     “Come to me, my king, and I will prove to you that I am right,” her words were a tender plea. 
     What could I do, but approach her? She was a damsel in distress and I always did have a nagging knight in shining armor complex. But when she let her soft caramel colored hand caress my cheek, I saw many wondrous things, things that could not be of this world. And when she removed her hand, I could barely breathe. 
     “What was that?” 
     “Your home, my lord.” 
     She let her fingers linger about my cheek. Suddenly, I felt the electric connection between us. Who was she to me? I had to know. 
     “If that was my home, then who are we to each other?” 
     She lowered her eyes from mine, as her smile melted to sadness. 
     “I am your Queen, my lord. So, you have forgotten me?” 
     I could feel her breaking heart and it cut me. 
     “Not completely,” I brought her eyes back up to mine. “You haunt my dreams, Lady,” I admitted. 
     This made her smile. 
     “Tell me how to release you.” 
     “A joining of our lips will set us both free.” 


     And when my lips fell softly on hers, I was able to open the golden cage’s door and with the opening of that door came the opening of my mind.