The Witch (18 page)

“She’s not my real grandma. I’m helping her to go shopping.”

“That’s nice of you. I think she may be getting a bit anxious to continue her shopping. Last I saw her she was pacing back and forth in front of the men’s room.”

“Which building would my father be in?” Stephen asked, trying to forget the guard outside the door.

“Are you with someone else who’s visiting your father? “

“My real grandma is visiting Dad, but she isn’t with us. She’s in the building where Dad has to stay. We came here so’s I could potty.”

“Have you finished?”

Stephen nodded.

“Okay, let’s go see your fake grandma.” The young man offered his hand, but Stephen wouldn’t take it.

“First I’ve gotta know where my dad is.”

“I’d say he’s not in here. Wouldn’t you?”

Stephen checked the empty stall before agreeing to leave the men’s room.

“There you are. I was getting worried.”

“He couldn’t reach the towels and I gave him some.”

“See, you should have used the ladies’ room. I could have helped you.”

“But I don’t need any help to potty.”

“Thank you for returning him to me. I wouldn’t know what to say to his grandmother if something happened. The family has had enough bad luck.”

“So I heard.” The young man shook Stephen’s hand and returned to the men’s room.

“I want to see Daddy.”

Grannie Smith squatted down to Stephen’s level.

“Your father isn’t feeling very well. He needs lots of sleep so he can get better.”

“He can’t sleep all the time,” Stephen retorted.

“Give your dad some time to get better.”

“What if he never gets better? What if I never see him again? If I’d told Momma that I loved her, maybe she wouldn’t have gone away. I need to tell Dad that I want him to come home.”

“He knows, Stephen. I’m sure he’s trying very hard to get better so he can come home to you. I bet if you ask your grandma what your father said today she’ll tell you that he sent his love.”

“That’s not good enough. I have to tell him how I feel.” Tears blurred Grannie Smith’s face. Stephen fisted his hands and tried to clear his vision.

Grannie Smith leaned forward and gave Stephen a kiss on his cheek.

“Let’s go home. Your grandmother may be waiting to talk to you. Tell her how you feel and see what she says.” Grannie Smith stood and took Stephen’s hand, guiding him slowly down the hallway and to the front doors. He kept looking around, seeing strangers. Outside he tripped when he stepped off the curb; he almost fell except Grannie Smith had a tight hold on him.

“Did an ambulance bring Molly here when she had her accident?”

“I really don’t know, Stephen.”

“Do a lot of people die here?”

“Hospitals make people better.”

“Does everyone get better?”

Grannie Smith sighed.

“I think these are questions for your grandmother to answer.”

“Why? Don’t you know? Did Mr. Grannie Smith die here?”

“His name was Fred, child. Fred Rosen.” She quickly ushered him into the car and tightened his safety belt before closing the door. As she circled around the car she took a last look at the hospital. She remembered the emergency room so well.

When she got into the car she felt Stephen’s eyes on her.

“My husband Fred was very ill when he came to the hospital. The paramedics took him to the emergency room where the doctors and nurses did the best they could.” She turned her head to look at the boy’s small face. “Fred barely got to say goodbye to me.”

“What if I never get to say good-bye to Daddy?”

“I pray that you won’t need to say good-bye.”

“Is Dad in the same building that Fred died in?”

“No, your father is out of the emergency area.”

“Does that mean he won’t die, then?”

Grannie Smith took hold of his hand and kissed his fingers. A jumble of platitudes passed through her mind, but she couldn’t bear to lie to him.

“He’s made it through the night, and what we have to do is pray for him each day.”

“If I pray hard enough, will he live?”

“That’s up to God.”

“Daddy didn’t believe in God. Will God punish him for that?”

“No, Stephen. Your father is a good man, and that’s what is important. Let’s make our last stop at the pharmacy, and then we can return home and see what your grandmother has to say. Okay?”

Stephen pulled his hand away and turned his face forward.

“Does that mean Momma was bad?”

“Heavens no! God called her to him. She’s with Him now.”

“No, she’s not.”

“Stephen, don’t say that about your mother. Do you hear? “

He shook his head and worried that he had been bad to ask his mother to come back. Maybe she would have been happier with God and not so angry. Then no one would have died or gotten hurt. But he had missed her so much that he couldn’t let her go.

“He’s ours now.” The gargoyle giggled quietly while stretching his talons
.

Night had gripped the day again and the demons were set free from the wooden box
.

“I’m not so sure,” said the bird
.

“But he has only us now.” The gargoyle’s giggle turned into a loathsome chuckle
.

“He has his grandmother,” the black snake reminded
.

“Easy it will be to rid ourselves of her,” the dwarf pronounced, wielding his ax at the black snake, who glided quickly out of the way
.

“He doesn’t protect us properly.” The bird pecked at the box to sharpen its bill. “He doesn’t worry about our safety. He only tolerates us because of his mother. That worries me. What if he should turn on us?”

“Then we turn on him,” said the dwarf, waving the ax in the air. “Did you see how I took his flesh and blood? How we all took his flesh and blood. Sweet flesh and salty blood.” The dwarf smacked his lips. “More. We shall have more, and my ax will again make the first cut.”

“Our appetites must not make an enemy of him. Too much of his flesh and too much of his blood will sour in our mouths if we cause him to turn against us.” The snake wrapped its body round the dwarf, forcing the dwarf’s arms to his sides
.

A sly pig with a filthy snout and a stench that kept the others a distance away from him sidled up to the dwarf to snort his view
.

“In a way we are his prisoners. We return to the box at dawn and must remain still during daylight. We are made to feel embarrassed about our sins. At night our sins melt away and we are cleansed.”

“You’ve never been cleansed in your life,” said the dwarf, raising his nose into the air. “No, no, we are not cleansed. Sins become pure in the dark, that’s all.”

“Pure nonsense,” grunted the pig

The black snake moved away from the pig and the dwarf, seeking less polluted air
.

“I am a snake at night. What am I during the day? Only decoration? Do all my powers vanish in the day-light? No. I merely suffer temporary restrictions. Your ax looks dull when the sun hits it, but under the moonlight it glistens.”

“We must have eternal night,” shouted the dog with a man’s face
.

“No, we must overcome the sun,” said the dwarf, waving the ax in the air
.

“You are very stupid,” said the black snake. “We must join forces with the light. Make the sun our friend.”

“Impossible,” said the dwarf. “I don’t even like the heat the sun produces. It causes the color of our flesh to fade. It takes the boy away from us. It drives our mistress deeper into the land of the dead so that we can’t call upon her for assistance. I hate the sun.”

“And because of that the sun will always rule over you.” The black snake coiled its body and raised its head so all could hear him. “We are handsome at night. Why can’t we be the same during the day? The boy is beautiful under the sun and under the moonlight. We must get him to show us how to survive in both worlds.”

“But it is natural for a child,” said the dwarf
.

“We are children too,” said the dog
.

“We are centuries old, fool.” The dwarf turned his back on the dog, who immediately ran up to the dwarf and bit his rear end
.

“Ouch!” The dwarf dropped his ax and fell forward
.

“Stop!” hissed the black snake. “We can’t bicker among ourselves if we expect to win over the boy.”

“He hates us for what we did to his father,” spoke a timid voice. An old woman with a staff came from behind the box. “He knows it was we who burned his father alive.”

“But we spared the father’s life,” said the dwarf
.

“We cannot be certain of that. He could still die.” The old woman leaned heavily on her staff. “And what will the boy do then?”

All the demons looked at each other. Gradually they all bowed their heads in thought
.

“We kill the boy,” snuffled the pig, its head buried into rainbow-colored wax
.

“The mother’s loins will not abide by that,” said the old woman. “She’ll rage.”

“And we’ll destroy her too,” shouted the man/dog
.

“If we are to survive, someone who links to both worlds must also survive.”

“Then the mother is useless.”

“The boy is our charm, and we must prey on his weakness.”

“The fact that he is human?” asked the bird
.

“No, the pity he feels for others who are in pain.” The old woman shuffled over to the dwarf. “He hates you. I can see it in his eyes. If we can make him pity you, then we have won.”

The dwarf looked around at all the other demon faces
.

“He doesn’t hate me.”

“He merely despises you,” said the old woman. “You try to wield power over the boy. He knows that. Your eyes tell all.”

“Small and beady,” added the black snake. The dwarf’s eyebrows crouched down over his eyes. “Listen, the mother doesn’t understand the boy. He’ll break under too much evil. He should be introduced gently, slowly.” The old woman leaned heavily on her staff
.

“No!” shouted the dwarf. “Enough of this babysitting. We must force him to our will.”

“Shhh!” The old woman spun in a circle and covered her lips with an index finger. “She’s here.”

Each demon bowed as gracefully as he or she could. The black snake reared up and dramatically bowed his head
.

“The boy is mine,” the mother said. “He is of my flesh. He takes my place while I cannot reach into his world. But through him I’ll become stronger and will take material shape.”

“You have no body,” reminded the dwarf
.

“I have my son.”

The demons all began whispering to each other. “The boy!”

“She’ll take the boy’s body.”

“She’ll be with us again.”

“His will is frail.”

“He’ll have no defense.”

“He has a soul,” the tiny old woman stated. “A pure soul.”

The mother blew her breath on the demons and all were silenced while she spoke
.

“He has killed in my name. Under my instruction. Stephen’s soul is no longer free of sin. His father is maimed. All because he set you free.”

The black snake coiled into a ball, and the old woman used her staff to return to the box. The rest of the demons cheered
.

“Momma, they won’t let me see Daddy. I begged Grandma to sneak me in the way you and Dad did when Grandma was in the hospital. But she said this was different, that Daddy was very sick, and he might get sicker if I brought in germs. I promised not to bring any germs with me, but Grandma laughed. Why did she laugh? Doesn’t she know Daddy needs me?”

“Of course she does, Stephen. Every night you say your prayers with her. She always hears you mention your father, but sometimes you forget me.”

“I never forget you, Momma. Even if I don’t say your name I still pray for you. I always pray for you. I pray that you come to me every night.”

“And don’t I answer your prayers, Stephen
?”

“Could you make Grandma take me to see Daddy?”

“Grandma can be so unfair. She makes you suffer so.”

“Not really. She just won’t let me see Daddy. I asked her to let me stay in this house like you asked me to do and she has. She brought over several suitcases of clothes. I don’t think she likes the way you kept the utility room. I heard her complaining and spraying and wiping. It’s really clean in there now.”

“Grandma is tedious.”

“What’s tedus?”

“She’s finicky. Nothing I ever did made her happy. She was very cruel to me.”

“Did she spank you?”

“She tortured me with her words
.“

“Bad words?”

Stephen felt a wave of coldness and knew that his mother hugged him. A soft kiss on his cheek gave him goose bumps.

“Don’t you like Grandma anymore?”

“She hurt me very much, and she’s never said that she was sorry.”

“Did you ask her to say she was sorry?”

“I shouldn’t have to, Stephen. If she loved me she’d know when I hurt. She’d cuddle me the way I embrace you
.“

Stephen’s shoulders shivered with the cold. He looked at his hands and saw they had turned red. His breath came out in puffs of smoke, and his toes curled inside his slippers.

“I would feel at peace if only she once said she was sorry for all she’s done.” His mother sighed and let her arms fall away from Stephen
.

“Maybe I can help,” Stephen said. “I could tell her how you feel and she’d … But she’d never believe me. She’d think I was telling lies.”

“Of course she would. She has no imagination
.”

“Are you just my imagination?” asked Stephen, searching the room with his eyes. He saw a wisp of a shadow pass through the moonbeam spread across his bedroom carpet. From out of the dark white hands reached out for him. He almost pulled away from them but understood they were his mother’s hands, and he reached out his own in greeting.