Perigee Moon (30 page)

A path opened up through the trees ahead and my feet bolted into action. Time was running out. Each tick of the clock pulsed through my limbs and forced them forward. I didn’t know what exactly I was racing to see but it was clear I was no longer in control of my actions, so I gave in, letting the fear course through my veins like acid. My feet slapped against the dirt floor of the forest and shards of fresh sunlight pierced through the green canopy above. The trees were thinning, and the murmur of voices was filling the silence around me. When the path ended at the tree line, opening up to a village, I dug my heels into the ground and stopped. Whatever force was driving me didn’t argue. This place seemed familiar somehow, but I’d never been here. I was sure of it. It was some sort of Town Square and at the center a wooden platform was set up under a tree. I stepped forward to get a better look and gasped. A rope noose dangled from the setup and a woman was being marched onto the stage for all to see. My eyes raked the crowd. Was anyone going to stop this? This was insane! I froze when my eyes landed on a boy across the crowd. His coal black hair and ice blue eyes were branded into my memory. It was Alex.

“Rebecca Foster you have been charged with the crime of witchcraft, an offence punishable by death and for this infraction you shall hang by your neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on your soul.” A large man in a brown waist coat and white wig led her onto the stand and slipped the rope around her neck as he spoke. My God. This was Rebecca Foster. Alex’s mother. She was beautiful. Her ivory face and flushed cheeks were framed by a wave of jet-black hair that spilled over her shoulders. And her eyes were even more blue than Alex’s, if that were actually possible. I looked back to him and his eyes found me across the crowd. Surprise flitted across his face for the briefest moment and my knees nearly buckled. Emotions flooded through me. Fear, pain, loss, anger, love. I could barley breathe. These weren’t my feelings and they felt foreign in my body, like a thousand needles pricking me from the inside out. These belonged to Alex. I was feeling everything he was feeling.

“You dared not persecute me when I saved your wife and newborn babe John Crowley.” Rebecca’s voice rang out strong and seemed to pierce the man like a dagger through the heart.

“Do you deny that you have consorted with the devil?” He said. “Even now, after you have been sentenced to die.”

“Aye sir. I do deny this charge,” she said, holding her head tall, her shoulders pushed back. Her thick Irish accent rang out sure and strong. God she was brave. No one should have to be so brave. I wanted to crumble for her. Tear her from the stage and run away. Were these my thoughts or Alex’s? I couldn’t tell anymore. I felt fused to him. And it was excruciating.

“She lies!”A woman shouted. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

The people gasped and parted, letting her slither through the sea of bodies like a serpent. Her light brown hair was wrapped into a tight bun behind her head and was covered by a white bonnet. Her eyes burned into Rebecca’s with an almost sick desperation.

“I saw Rebecca Foster in the woods two evenings ago,” she said, “I saw her dancing with Satan! Casting horrible wicked spells. You all know of her history. Her telling of fortunes. And you John Crowley, she used the devils magic to cure your own ailing wife and babe!” She pointed a shaky finger at him and the crowd gasped. “She is a witch! She must hang!”

My stomach rolled. Alex’s anger boiled in me and I grasped onto a nearby tree for support.

“This is blasphemy! You cannot believe such things. I am a healer. I have never caused anyone harm. I have not consorted with the devil!” Rebecca’s cool façade was crumbling as she shrieked and pleaded. Her wrists were turning raw and bloody from straining against the shackles.

Alex was moving through the crowd. Fear and determination were radiating from him in waves and crashing over me. Drowning me. He stopped when Rebecca cast him a firm gaze, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. His jaw was set.

“Stop this insanity at once!” He shouted. Rebecca’s face crumpled at the sound of his voice. It was her undoing, just like it would be mine if this were me.

“No Alexander. A leanbh mo chroi. Please,” she said, her voice breaking. “Stay out of this affair. These are mad men you are dealing with here.”

“What’s this?” The man held Rebecca’s arm stiffly and peered into the crowd. When he saw Alex he laughed as if he were an insignificant child.

“Free her. She is innocent. She is my mother and I vouch for her. She is a good puritan woman of faith whose only crime has been to heal those of you that were sick when you requested her services.”

“And that son is an act against God,” the man retorted.

“You did not always think so sir,” Alex said, his jaw clenching tight. Please don’t do something stupid Alex. Please. I pushed the thoughts out, hoping they would find him as his were finding me. A moment passed and his jaw relaxed. His eyes flashed to me for an immeasurable moment and he seemed lost, hopeless.

“Enough! Is there anyone else here that wishes to vouch for this woman?” He cast a sideways glance to Alex and grinned. “Anyone that didn’t come from the witch’s womb.”

The crowd fell silent and Alex’s head fell in response. His cheeks were wet and his pain nearly knocked me to my knees.

“Right, then,” the man said and jerked her forward, tightening the hempen rope around her neck, then took a step back.

“No. No. God in heaven no.” My breath was lost with the whispers escaping my mouth but they weren’t mine. They were Alex’s. He was on his knees and I wanted to run to him, wrap my arms around him and protect him from this. But I couldn’t. This had already happened. I was reliving Alex’s memory with him. Who knows how many times he had been plagued by this nightmare. Tears slipped down my face and I flinched at the sound of Rebecca writhing and gasping for life beneath the noose. I glanced up and her body was swaying in the wind, a lifeless ornament among the locust trees, Alex’s screams in my ears.

My eyes snapped open. “Alex! Wake up!” My fingers tightened around Alex’s shoulder blades as I shook him against the mattress. Oh God he was still trapped there, watching his mother’s death. A sheen of sweat had broken out across his forehead, leaving his black hair damp against his face.

Alex’s hand shot out and wrapped around my wrists at the moment his eyes flashed open and I collapsed over him with relief. He held my head to his chest as he tried to regain control of his breathing.

“Do you remember?” He sounded dazed. “Were you really there, in my dream?”

“Yes.” I tilted my face up to him. The sun was rising across the horizon and golden sunlight was seeping through the window and landing on his cheeks. My grandparents would be up soon, and Alex was still in my bed. His eyes were closed as if he were trying to get control of his emotions, his expression was unfathomable.

“Alex?”

He pushed the hair back behind my ear. He was trying his best to smile, but it never made its way onto his lips.

“Alex, how did that happen?” I asked. He was shaking.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I honestly don’t know.”

Sage, sea salt, three red candles, thyme, and a written copy of Mother’s original spell. I have everything. Now all there is to do is wait. Wait for death? Wait for life? Only time will tell.

~Alexander 2010

***

At seven we began to hear Grandpa rattling downstairs in the kitchen, preparing his morning coffee, so Alex slipped out the window and promised to come back around to the front door in about an hour. It gave me just enough time to shower and change and try to do something clever with my makeup and hair. Unfortunately it also gave just enough time to dwell on the bizarre events that had occurred while we were sleeping. I had known that Alex’s mother was murdered, but to actually witness it, to see the brutality of it all, to feel Alex’s pain radiating from him in waves was enough to make my stomach turn. By the time I finished swiping a coat of cherry lip gloss over my mouth I heard Grams letting Alex in downstairs.

He smiled when he saw me bounding down the stairs to meet him and it still made my heart leap that I had this kind of effect on someone like him.

“Are you alright?” I asked softly as soon as Grams left the room.

He nodded and held up a black bag filled with books. “I’m fine, but I brought some reading material so that we can try to figure some things out. Is that all right?”

I ran my finger along the binding of one of the books and smiled. “Of course.” I didn’t want to seem over eager, but the fact that he was ready to include me in his world was enough to make me giddy.

Alex followed me to the kitchen where I grabbed a couple of granola bars, two bananas, and two glasses of orange juice. Alex grinned and grabbed the two glasses from my hands before I could drop them.

“We’ll be up in my room if you need me Grams,” I called over my shoulder as I headed for the stairs.

“Oh, Rowan?” she called.

I stopped. “Yeah?”

“The door stays open, unless you want to have a conversation about birth control. Your choice.” I could hear her chuckling all the way up the stairs as if she could sense my humiliation.

Alex quietly laughed and I shoved him up the stairs.

“Sometimes it’s so easy to forget how young you are,” he said as we settled onto my bed and spread out the food in front of us.

“You mean how young
we
are,” I corrected him through a mouth full of banana.

“No I mean you.” He grinned and peeled his banana. I stopped chewing, feeling confused. I guess I had always just assumed Alex was my age. Was he not?

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well if we look at it from one perspective I am over three hundred years old considering I’m not exactly in my time,” he said, nonchalantly.

I nodded. “Wow, gross. I think you might be a little old for me in that case.”

He threw his head back and laughed.

“Okay, what about literally. How old are you?” I asked. It really seemed odd that I didn’t already know this.

“Eighteen,” he admitted, “I’ll be nineteen in a few weeks.”

I swallowed and my eyes went wide. Dad would totally freak if he knew I was dating a boy out of high school. Of course he would also most likely freak out if he knew he was a witch from the seventeenth century. Who was I kidding? He couldn’t even find the time to call me to see how I was, let alone care about my love life.

“Rowan? Love, are you alright?” Alex scooted closer, scrutinizing my face.

I shook it off and pulled a book from his bag.

“Fine. So what’s this one?” I quickly changed the subject. He looked like he wanted to press the issue further, but decided against it and turned his attention to the book.

“This one is about healing. Herbal remedies and such,” he said as I flipped through the pages. “It’s where I got the remedy to fix your eye.”

“So do you think there’s something to help with your nightmares in here?” I immediately regretted it when I glanced up. His face was tight and drawn, his eyes closed like he was trying to block out the memory.

“Alex I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have–” He raised his hand dismissively.

“No it’s fine,” he said, his face relaxing. “I think there is. I remember mother concocting a special tea for a child in the village one time to help with night terrors. I’m hoping it’s in here.” He spoke as his eyes skimmed over the page I was looking at. After a few minutes of silent reading he finally pulled another book from the bag. This one had a black leather cover, and looked to be in fairly good condition.

“And this one?”

He smiled. “This one deals with dreams and their meanings.”

“So it might have an explanation as to why I was in yours last night?” I treaded carefully, not wanting to upset him again.

“Hopefully,” he said. “Though it’s not the first time you’ve been in my dreams you know,” he added with a grin.

“I think I’d remember that.” Or would I? I bit into the granola bar as I thought about it. It crumbled in my mouth with a burst of honey and oat flavor.

“Like I told you before, I’ve been having dreams about you since I was eight Rowan. You can image how surprising it was to finally see you in the flesh after all that time.” He brushed a strand of hair from my face that had come loose from my braid and tucked it behind my ear. My cheeks flushed and I didn’t really know how to respond to that, so I continued to chew, nodding with interest.