The Witch (29 page)

“A nurse! You think I’m an invalid?”

“Yes, I do. She won’t be full-time. Half the day you’ll have to manage on your own, but you’ll need assistance with bathing and the like. This was not my idea, though. The doctor wouldn’t release you until I found a nurse to come in.”

Jacob sighed and looked over at his son.

“What would have happened had Cathy won?”

“Well, I can tell you that the new owners of the house seem happy there.” Mrs. Rosen placed her coffee cup on the table. “I haven’t seen any sign of ghosts. The new people did some renovation work. New kitchen, redid the bathrooms, that sort of thing. I understand they replaced the furnace with a new one and whitewashed the basement walls to get rid of the …”

“Singed walls,” Jacob finished.

“Yeah. The people are quiet. Don’t really talk much to the rest of us, but they wave when they see me. Not like having you and Stephen living next door.”

“I know my son could cause quite a racket sometimes.”

“Having a child around made me feel a little bit young again. You know I actually spied a gray hair on my son’s head. If he’s getting old and gray, what am I?”

“I’m sure it’s premature,” Rosemary consoled. “Your son still looks like a kid. Does he actually shave?”

“Will I have to go back to the house?” asked Stephen.

“No way,” his aunt answered. “We’ll be staying at Grandma’s house.”

“But she’s dead.”

“Stephen, she’s not going to come back and haunt us.”

“How do you know?”

“She loves all of us.”

“I thought Momma loved me.”

“She did love you, Stephen, but she …” Rosemary hesitated.

“She was afraid of going to hell.”

“No, Stephen. Your mother did not go to hell. Maybe she had to spend some time in purgatory.”

“Is that where she is now?”

“I am sure of it.”

The plane descended for its landing and Stephen’s stomach balked at the change in altitude.

“You think she left earth when I stopped calling to her?”

“None of this is your fault. Your mother didn’t know what she was doing.”

“Yes, she did. She planned it all before she even died. That’s why she wanted me with her when she made the uglies.”

“Look, look. I bet that’s our little town over there,” Mrs. Rosen shouted out. “It was fun visiting Austin, but I’m so happy to be going home.”

“Do you ever see Momma?” Stephen asked.

“No. The house has new owners, and they’re taking good care of the place.”

“Maybe I should have left you with your father.”

“No, Aunt Rosemary. I want to see my friends again. Besides, I can help you with Robin.”

“More like I’ll be helping Mom take care of you, Stephen.” Robin made a face at her cousin and stuck out her tongue.

“Instead I think I’m going to be breaking up all sorts of rumbles between you two.”

The plane dropped through an air pocket and Rosemary had to grab the air sickness bag for Stephen.

Aunt Rosemary took a wrong turn one day in the car and drove by Stephen’s old house. He got to see the new owners with their twin Labrador retrievers running around the front lawn, chasing a sprinkler that went round in a circle.

The house was painted, but otherwise it looked the same. He stretched to see the side basement window that had been broken, but it was impossible to see it from the road. He imagined it had been repaired probably before the house was sold.

Twilight hovered over the house, and he thought he saw a familiar sad face weeping in a window. He hoped he had imagined it.

Cathy roamed from room to room in the house. She couldn’t quiet herself. The old people who had bought the home had few visitors. No children ever crossed the threshold.

The man’s sallow face was engraved by years working under the sun. His wife dyed her hair a bright orange she called red. Once in a while the grown children visited. Cathy paid no attention to them, couldn’t even recall what they looked like until …

A baby came into the house, wrapped in a pink blanket in her mother’s arms. A grandchild.

“Very young,” the old woman said, grasping her staff tightly
.

Ah, yes, Stephen had missed one of the uglies, and she kept Cathy company each night in the basement.

The baby’s eyes were blue; or had they not changed color yet? wondered Cathy, hovering above the carriage.

“Charming,” the old woman declared
.

“And so vulnerable.” Cathy smiled down at the babe
.

“Can she see you?” the old woman asked
.

“I’m sure she can. She hasn’t forgotten where she came from yet. She still remembers the prior world.”

“To which you belong,” reminded the old woman
.

“I’ll never meet God again. I now belong to hell like you.”

Cathy touched the blanket and gently let her icy fingers travel over the baby’s fisted hand.

But always the baby left. Her parents visited but once a week and never did they stay overnight.

“How will you win the young thing over?” the old woman asked
.

“Slowly. Patiently,” answered Cathy
.

“Grannie Smith’s here with her apple pies.”

“Good Lord, Mrs. Rosen, we’re going to look like blimps if you keep this up.”

“Rosemary, if someone invites me to dinner then they have to suffer through my desserts.”

“I like your desserts, Grannie Smith. Who suffers?” Stephen looked around the hallway and saw no hands being raised. “Besides, we need something home-cooked, ‘cause Aunt Rosemary had the dinner delivered.”

“I just didn’t want to poison anyone.”

The small group gathered in the dining room with the table already set for four. As the man of the house, Stephen sat at the head of the table. Robin sat to his right, and the two women fought over who should be closer to the kitchen.

“Robin, why do adults want to be able to run to the kitchen during the meal?”

“I think it has something to do with politeness, Stephen.”

The children gobbled down their food quickly in order to rush on to the dessert, but the adults languidly finished their meal, taking long pauses to exchange conversation and laugh.

“You should see the grandchild the neighbors have. She is beautiful. A tiny bit of fuzzy hair and the itsy-bitsy fingers. I forgot how miraculous small babies look.”

“What baby?” asked Stephen.

“Oh, the people who bought your house have just become grandparents for the first time. Suddenly they’re talking to everyone. I think it’s because they want to show off their granddaughter.”

“The baby doesn’t live there?”

“No, Stephen, although I think the grandparents would like to kidnap her.”

“That’s not nice.”

“Stephen, Mrs. Rosen didn’t mean they would really kidnap her. They would like to see more of her, but they aren’t going to rob their own children of the joy of having a child.” Rosemary reached over and took hold of Stephen’s hand. It was cold. “Hey, it’s pie time.”

The adults removed the dinner plates and promised to return with apple pie and vanilla ice cream.

“What if Momma’s still in the house?”

Robin turned to Stephen and held her breath for several moments before speaking.

“She went to heaven.”

“You don’t know that. I thought I saw her face when your mom drove by my old house. I didn’t say anything ‘cause I thought I imagined it.”

“Probably you did. She can’t hurt the new owners.”

“What about the baby? “

“The baby isn’t you. She wanted to be one with you.”

“She wanted to live again, Robin. She didn’t want to go to hell forever.”

“Stop, Stephen. You’re out of the house and as long as you don’t go back you’re safe.”

“But I brought her back and now she has a baby to attack. The baby won’t know what’s happening to it. I gotta go back and make sure Momma’s gone.”

“No one will take you back to that place.”

“What if I visit Grannie Smith?”

“The last time Grannie Smith trusted you, you almost lost your soul.”

“But Momma can’t rob a baby of its life.”

“How do you know she will?”

“I remember her holding on to me. My insides felt all mushy and I started to black out. You saw me when your mom took me out of the basement.”

“And I never want to see you like that again.”

“Why are you kids looking so grim?” asked Rosemary.

The children didn’t answer.

“Don’t tell me you two had some sort of fight.”

“We never fight, Momma. Only …” Robin kept from looking at Stephen but sensed his eyes glaring at her.

“Only, Stephen’s scared for the baby,” Robin blurted out before Stephen could cover her mouth with his hand.

“Sit down, Stephen.” Rosemary passed out the apple pie with Mrs. Rosen’s help. “What baby are we talking about?” Rosemary grabbed hold of her fork and made a deep stab into the pie.

“The grandbaby Grannie Smith was talking about. Stephen’s afraid his mother still haunts his old house.” Robin looked over at Stephen with downcast eyes.

“The house doesn’t belong to you anymore, Stephen, so what goes on inside the house is none of your business,” said Rosemary.

“But I brought Momma back. I never got to banish her.”

“Banish? Such a fancy word for a little boy,” Grannie Smith said. “Where did you learn the word? Do you know what it means?”

“It means sending a spirit away from earth so’s it can’t hurt anyone. Momma taught me a little about it.”

“She did?”

“Stephen, your ice cream is melting. We can talk about this later on. Mrs. Rosen wouldn’t be interested.”

“I am. What I didn’t know is that Cathy actually was teaching witchcraft to Stephen.”

“He watched her a lot, that’s all.”

“No. She had me help her,” Stephen clarified. “And I helped make the stupid uglies who hurt so many people. I’ll never forget that.”

“Dr. Fisk told you it wasn’t your fault because you had no idea what your mother’s plan was.”

“But, Aunt Rosemary, I’m the only one who can make Momma go away.”

“How?”

Stephen shrugged.

“Since I brought Momma back I should be able to send her away.”

Mrs. Rosen looked at Rosemary.

“Do you think that poor, dear baby is at risk?”

“You said they only visit, never stay. Besides, I’m sure they don’t go down in the basement.”

“Momma isn’t limited to the basement.”

“But you destroyed the demons. She has no one to help her.”

“She doesn’t need help to take over the baby’s body. She only needed the uglies for her revenge.”

“He says he thought he saw someone crying in the window when we went past the other day,” said Robin.

“That could have been a real person.”

“No. The people were outside with the dogs.”

“They could have had a visitor. I’m sorry, Mrs. Rosen. I didn’t mean for this evening to be so grim.”

“I brought the topic up, Rosemary, and to tell you the truth, I might keep a watch on the place.”

“I can help, Grannie Smith. We can take turns watching.”

“Stephen, Mrs. Rosen can take care of her end.”

“No, she can’t ‘cause she can’t see Momma. I can. You have to let me stay with Grannie Smith to watch the house.” Stephen felt a slap on his right knee. Robin reminded him that he might be going too far. He leaned back in his chair and watched the ice cream melt while the others ate.

“Why did you tell your mother what I said?”

Robin flipped through the television channels. Nothing appealed to her.

“Why?” Stephen repeated. “Because I didn’t want you to get yourself in trouble.”

“So you did it for me?”

“No, Stephen.” She dropped the remote control to the floor. “You wanted to go to the house. No one will take you there. And how do you know the people who live in your old house want you around? Are you going to sneak in like a burglar?”

“I’ll tell them I used to live there and I want to look around.”

“Why should they let you?”

“Grannie Smith could get me in.”

“She didn’t jump at the chance to invite you over.”

“That’s okay. I can talk her into letting me stay. She likes me.”

“Yes, and she doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“They won’t know whether Momma is going after the baby’s body.”

“How will you know?”

“It feels awful. The baby would be miserable. Probably cry a lot and not be able to sleep.”

“You can’t do this by yourself, Stephen. If my momma hadn’t shown up you wouldn’t be you. You’d be your mother.”

Stephen’s face turned perplexed.

“Where would I be right now, Robin?”

“You’re the witch. Where do people go when their bodies are stolen?”

Stephen had no answer but he worried about the excited feel he got hearing Robin say that he was a witch. Could his mother have passed on her powers to him? He had enjoyed participating in the basement rituals with his mother. He felt guilty.

“What’s the matter?” Robin asked.

“Do you believe that I’m a witch?”