The Witch (10 page)

“Momma?”

He felt a kiss gently touch his cheek. He smelled petals of her perfume and almost the solidness of her body as she hugged him.

But when he opened his eyes she left, and he remained alone in the small bedroom.

“Mr. Zaira, I need to talk to you.”

“Not again, Molly, I can’t take these talks. Is this about the fat, naked women running through my house?”

“No, the fertility goddess is minor in comparison to what I’ve seen.”

“I am so close to firing you. The only reason you still work here is that I can’t think up an excuse to tell Stephen. ‘Sorry, Son, but I’ve been fucking your babysitter. I’ve grown tired of her and let her go.’ Do you think at five he’d understand?”

“I think you should wait until he is twenty-five.”

Jacob laughed.

“I believe you like my son. I know you’re trustworthy. You’ve never cancelled out and you’re punctual. It’s just that I look at you, Molly, and I can’t help seeing Cathy swinging from a beam in the basement.”

“The basement. You haven’t cleaned out the basement, have you? “

“The basement never appealed to me. It appeals to me even less now.”

“Did you know your wife was a witch?”

Jacob turned stern.

“This could get you fired. Have you been putting wild ideas into my son’s head?”

“No, his own mother did. She practiced witchcraft, Mr. Zaira.”

“You’ve been watching too much television. Try dating one or two boys instead.”

Molly hesitated. If she told him the truth he wouldn’t believe her, unless she could bring him down into the basement.

“Let me show you what’s in the basement.”

“No!” he shouted. “I have a meeting to go to.” He started for the door. “And I’m giving you a week’s notice.” He slammed the door behind him.

“You promised not to tell Dad.” Stephen’s somber voice carried down to Molly from the top of the staircase.

“What your mother left behind isn’t right, Stephen. The uglies should be destroyed. They’re demons.”

“They belong to Momma.” At a slow pace Stephen descended the staircase. “She wanted me to keep them safe for her.”

“But she’s not coming back, Stephen.”

“Momma’s back.”

Molly looked into his icy stare. The boy’s features seemed carved of stone. His eyes had lost the little-boy brightness that had been there just a few days ago.

“If she’s back, where is she?”

“She’s in every room all the time. She’s tapping you on the shoulder now, but you don’t know it.”

Instinctively Molly used her hands to brush off both her shoulders. Immediately she sought a sly grin on Stephen’s face or listened for a giggle.

“You’re serious, Stephen. You believe your mother is with us right now?”

“I only see her shadow, but someday she’ll be flesh again.

“She doesn’t like you, Molly. You’d better go away.”

“I can’t leave until your father gets home.”

“Momma wants me to send you down into the basement to play with the uglies.”

“I’m sure they don’t play very nice games.” Molly’s skin itched, she smelled something sweet, and she tasted something coppery like blood.

“Tell her to go away, Stephen. Please. I’ll only be working here one more week. Your father just fired me.”

“I heard. You and Daddy hurt Momma, didn’t you?”

“We didn’t mean for her to go away and leave you, Stephen.”

She took several steps toward Stephen, but he backed up the stairs.

“I didn’t mean to hurt either of you. Believe me. I didn’t even mean for you to hear the conversation I just had with your dad. I’m trying to help. I don’t think what your mother did in the basement was right.”

“You don’t know what we did.”

“She had you help her?”

“Sometimes.”

“Don’t continue what your mother was doing. Make the uglies go away. You know how, don’t you?”

“Momma doesn’t want them to go away.” Stephen shivered, and Molly immediately moved to embrace him, but he pulled away.

“Momma’s hugging me.”

Molly touched Stephen’s hand.

“You’re cold.” Molly pulled back and started for the basement door.

“No,” he yelled.

She opened the door and flicked on the light before going down the stairs and rushing to the table. But the wax-covered table had nothing on it.

“You’ve hidden the box.” She faced Stephen, who had followed her down the stairs. “You wouldn’t take it up to your room because you’re afraid of the uglies. It must be down here somewhere.”

Stephen ran into the back of Molly’s legs, forcing her to grab hold of some old boards that toppled sideways, hitting Stephen across his brow. He lost balance and ended up on the floor.

“Oh, Stephen! I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.” She kneeled down next to the child and saw the blood dripping down into his left eye. He rolled away from her and under the table, setting his back against one of the far legs.

“Let me wash that for you. I don’t think it’s too bad.”

Stephen sulked against the leg, and when she tried to pull him out he batted her away with his hands.

“You can’t stay under there. Please let me look at the cut.”

Stephen shook his head and used his right hand to mop his brow.

“I’ll stop looking for the box if you agree to come upstairs with me. I’ll wash the cut, and we’ll have a bite to eat. I know you love the restaurant that serves the spicy chili. We’ll go there.”

“You’re trying to poison me. They might have frogs’ legs and bats’ feet in that chili.”

“What?”

“I’ll come upstairs if you promise never to search for the box and you won’t try to ever feed me that chili.”

“Agreed. No box or chili.”

“Promise.”

Molly had never seen Stephen this angry or aggressive.

“I promise.”

“And you won’t say anything to Dad about what happened down here today? “

Molly hesitated.

“If you tell Dad I’ll ask why he was ‘fucking’ you.”

“Don’t ever use that word, Stephen.”

“I will if you go to Dad, and he’ll be even madder at you ‘cause I’ll tell him you told me that word.”

“You overheard—”

“I’ll tell him you said it!”

“All right. Come upstairs.” She reached out a hand to the boy, but he chose to crawl out from under the table in the opposite direction.

Hours later when Jacob came home Molly had already decided this would be her last day in the house.

“What happened to you?” Jacob asked his son as soon as he saw him.

“I bumped my head when I was playing. Molly washed the cut and put a Band Aid on it. It’s fine.”

Jacob looked at Molly who hovered near the door.

“Something I should know about?” he asked.

“I’m not coming back. I can’t after the talk we had this morning.”

“I need you to finish out the week. Old Stephen here needs your first aid. Right?” He squeezed his son’s shoulders.

“If I find someone to take my place, would—”

“No, Molly. I’m not going to dump my son with a complete stranger. I’ll get started looking for someone else tonight, but I’ll expect you to finish out the week.”

She looked down at Stephen and noticed how complacent he looked. Usually he looked forward to seeing her; now his eyes looked dull with indifference.

“As soon as you find someone I’ll stop coming,” she said, noticing a sudden coldness filling up the room.

“She didn’t find the box, Momma.”

“Good boy.”
His mother kissed him lightly on the wound.

His father had pulled the Band Aid off earlier in the evening to check the wound and left it uncovered, saying the air would heal it.

“I feel bad that I pushed Molly. She really didn’t mean for me to get hurt.”

“But, Stephen, you managed to get her away from the box. Exactly what I wanted you to do.”

“I know, but I still kinda like Molly. Only she’s too nosey. She doesn’t keep a secret. I hope she doesn’t tell Dad how I pushed her and made her knock over the boards.”

“She won’t. She just wants to get away now, but not before we give her back the costume she made.”

“But, Momma, she made that for me to wear to school on Halloween.”

“You can’t keep her present, Stephen. She’s been mean to us by telling Daddy our secrets. What if Daddy found the box? If he went down into the basement he’d clean everything out, including the box.”

“I know the uglies would be safer here in my room, but they scare me, especially the stupid dwarf who keeps smiling at me. I wish he’d stop. I don’t think he has a nice smile, and besides, he looks like he carries a little ax.”

“But it’s very tiny, Stephen. Besides, he knows he will have to obey you.”

“Because I can send him back to where he came from?”

“You will give him freedom.”

“What happens when he is free? Will he hurt anyone?”

“Only bad people.”

“I don’t think he should be allowed to hurt anyone. He’s bad too.”

“Bring the costume and mask over to the bed, Stephen.”

The boy obeyed his mother. He tried to tease his mother by holding the mask over his face and growling.

“Do I look scarey, Momma? I don’t want to look scarier than the uglies. I just want to make people laugh.”

“What did I say, Stephen?”

“That I had to give the costume back to Molly. But I painted the mask. She drew the face and cut it out for me, but I did all the painting, so it’s kinda my mask too.”

“Lay the costume and mask across the bed, Stephen
.“

He hesitated, his fingers rubbing the furry costume.

“Don’t disobey me, Stephen. I’ll have to go away if you do.”

Sadly Stephen spread the costume across the comforter on his bed. Slowly he placed the mask at the top of the costume, visualizing what he had looked like in it.

“Remember what the wolves at the zoo looked like, Stephen. They skulked across the grass and jumped up on some rocks. One of them growled fiercely and showed his teeth. You grabbed onto me and felt your own teeth that were so much smaller than the wolf’s. Can you see it again?”

“I was smaller then. I wouldn’t be as afraid now.”

“I want you to feel the fear all over again. Imagine that wolf coming for you. Saliva dripping off his teeth. Crouching in readiness to spring. Your small neck vulnerable. Meanwhile all the wolf can see is the whiteness of your neck. A weak victim for his dinner.”

“Momma, I’m not sure I like this.”

“I need you to do this for me. Please, Stephen.”

He closed his eyes and saw the big wolf that had frightened him. He watched the animal circling around him. The circle kept getting smaller, and the eyes of the wolf grew until, hypnotized by the dark eyes, Stephen couldn’t move. He thought he heard a throaty noise, low, intense. The smell of earthen dung stung the air. Under his hands he felt the costume move. When he opened his eyes a wolf sat on his bed for only a moment before deflating to the costume Molly had made.

“Perfect, Stephen. Now you give the costume and the mask back to Molly. Tell her you can’t keep it because she hurt you.”

“But I’m not all that mad at Molly, honest.”

“Stephen, she wanted to destroy my box. She wanted to take your daddy away from me. Instead she took me away from you.”

“Did she make you very sad, Momma?”

Cathy felt the ligature mark on her neck.

“Yes, Stephen. It would hurt me if you accepted a gift from Molly.”

“I never want to hurt you, Momma. Not the way Molly and Daddy hurt you.” He heard his mother chuckle. “You believe me, don’t you, Momma?”

“You’ve never hurt me before, Stephen, and I’m sure you will obey me now.”

“It would hurt if I didn’t obey?”

“It would cause me great sorrow. I would cry for days if you should ignore my wishes.”

“I never want you to cry, Momma. I want you to laugh again and give me your special kisses.” He felt his mother’s embrace and her kiss pressed against his cheek, but the kiss wasn’t the same as when she had lived. Instead of warming his tummy the kiss made his shoulders shiver and his skin broke out in goose bumps. “Will you someday be like before? Will I be able to hold your hand? Will you be able to climb into bed with me and warm me on stormy nights when the lightning is booming over our house?”

“There’ll be a day when we can rejoice in our unity, Stephen. However, if you fail to obey me I will have to go away and will never come back.”

“Don’t scare me, Mommy.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of unless …”

“Momma. Momma. Are you still here with me?” Stephen pulled the blankets together into a ball and searched the dark room with his eyes. “Momma, I’ll protect the uglies. Molly and Daddy won’t be able to destroy them. I promise. And I won’t keep the silly costume. I’m a big boy; I don’t have to dress up anymore. Halloween is for babies. I’m not a baby. Momma, answer me. Please.” His little heart pounded, his skin flushed with the rising temperature of his body. He wanted to be cold again. Cold and in his mother’s embrace.

“I’m here, Stephen. But if you ever doubt me or refuse anything that I want I’ll have to go back to the ocean.”

“Is that why it feels so cold to be near you? Are you still cold from being in the water? Are you mad at Daddy for throwing you into the water?”

“Death makes me cold, Stephen.”

“Can I bring you back? Dad says you can’t come back. Grandma says God wanted you near him.”

“I left too soon, Stephen. You must help me to return to you.”

“How?”

“You’ll know when the time is right. First you must accept me back inside your heart.”

“You’ve always been inside my heart. I’ve never sent you away.”

“But we must be closer than ever before, Stephen. We must be one.”

“He touched us today,” the dwarf cried out gleefully
.

“Only briefly and certainly not with any love or respect,” said the gargoyle
.