The Witch (7 page)

“Mom, is that you or the uglies?”

Cathy broke free from the arms of death and instantly Stephen felt her presence. He sighed and smiled, knowing he was safe now. He even got up the nerve to move up close to the table.

“You are doing that, aren’t you, Mom?”

“Make him hold us in his hands, Mother. Make him accept us.”

“He is my son. He will know what to do. He has watched me often.”

“But he hesitates. He fumbles with toys instead of taking up his task.”

Stephen instantly took a step back, and his eyes widened when the plane burst into flames.

“Silly games. Silly toys. We are here for revenge.”

When there was nothing but ash left of the plane, he closed his open mouth and swallowed.

“Didn’t you like the card, Mom?”

“It was a beautiful card, sweetness. A beautiful card. Although ruined by the names that followed your own. Give me a better gift, Stephen. Give me your father’s pride and handsomeness. His face, his hands, his body are too perfect. Too much temptation for the young, for the trollops that blindly sin for him.”

“Mom, I’m getting scared. Something don’t feel right.”

Cathy stretched out her arms to hold her son, but as happened so many times before, she couldn’t feel the solidness of his body.

Stephen shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.

“I have to go now, Mom. I’ll visit again, I promise.”

“Cowardly, child.”

“Simpleton!”

“He mocks us.”

Growls, groans, whimpers all filled the air, panicking Stephen and driving him up the stairs to slam the door shut behind him.

“Stephen has a charming babysitter to look after him, don’t you, Stephen?” Grandma had brought over baked goods for breakfast, and Stephen, with a full mouth, couldn’t reply.

“I’ve been thinking about getting another babysitter,” said Jacob.

Stephen spit out his food into his plate.

“That’s disgusting, Stephen. You know you shouldn’t do that.” Grandma grabbed her napkin and tried to wipe Stephen’s chin.

“But, Dad, I like her. I think she should live here all the time.”

“She can’t do that, Stephen.” Grandma slipped the plate from under Stephen’s chin and threw the remains of his food in the garbage. “She’s too young to move away from her parents and it wouldn’t look proper. Now, upstairs, brush your teeth, and never spit your food out like that again. Go!”

Stephen looked at his father.

“Do what Grandma says, Stephen. We’ll talk about Molly later.”

“She hasn’t even finished my costume yet.” Stephen’s small hands gripped the table.

Jacob laughed, but Mabel pulled the boys hands from the table.

“Upstairs, now!” she barked.

Stephen rose from the chair so fast it almost tipped over, except Jacob caught the back frame. Stephen ran out of the kitchen.

“Mom, did you have to do that?”

“What, Rosemary?”

“Discipline Stephen like that. I’m supposed to be here to make him feel better and loved. Instead, you’re making it impossible to have any time with him.”

“Rosemary, Robin is different than other children. She’s …”

“In a wheelchair,” Rosemary finished.

“No, I meant she’s not as aggressive as Stephen. He needs to be taught how to behave.”

“Could you leave that up to me, Mabel?” said Jacob.

“I didn’t hear you discourage his behavior. Rosemary and I are family but also company, and he must learn how to act when in social situations.”

“When we were children Mom used to bat us in the head with her bag when she thought no one was looking. Once the mailman caught her and threatened to report her to Social Services.”

“He should have been minding his own business.”

“What did you carry in that bag, Mom? Lead?”

“Rosemary, I barely touched you with the bag. I meant to make you more alert to your surroundings. You and Cathy would drift off into dreamland and paid no attention to what happened around you.”

“Cathy one time emptied Mom’s bag into a drawer, and for some reason Mom didn’t notice how light it was. Boy, Mom was really embarrassed when she couldn’t pay the bill at the grocery.”

“Cathy always came up with little spiteful things like that.” Mabel’s eyes watered.

Jacob reached over and held her hand.

“Mabel, promise you’ll never hit my son with your monster of a bag.”

“Jacob …” Tears flowed down Mabel’s cheeks.

“Mom, Stephen is Jacob’s problem, not yours. You’re the grandma. You’re supposed to have fun with him. He’s supposed to look forward to your spoiling him. Okay?”

“I’m sorry, Jacob, I’m doing it again.”

“Yup; at this point I should be sending you home.”

“Like Cathy did.”

Jacob nodded.

“Don’t go home, Mom, just lighten up.” Rosemary stood to walk over to her mother and give her a hug.

“Stephen will forget all about this,” said Jacob.

“But not about his babysitter,” said Rosemary. “Why are you thinking about changing sitters? I always thought Molly was conscientious.”

“I think he’s gotten too close to her. You heard him talk about having her live here.”

“Yeah, but that’s because he misses the mothering Cathy gave him. That’s where you can come in, Grandma.” Rosemary patted her mother’s shoulders. “Instead of being the bad guy, why don’t you give Stephen unconditional love? He already has Jacob to boss him around.”

“But—”

“A grandma’s unconditional love,” interrupted Rosemary.

Mabel nodded her head.

“I’m going upstairs to make up with Stephen and find out what he wants to do today. I promise I will not try to affect his decision even if I think it unhealthy.” Mabel stood.

“Going to visit his mother at the ocean isn’t unhealthy, Mom. Cathy’s only been dead a short time.” Mabel nodded and left the kitchen.

“Thanks,” said Jacob. “I didn’t think you approved of my fatherly techniques.”

“Mom’s going to alienate Stephen the same way she did Cathy. I don’t want that to happen. I’m afraid she sees a lot of Cathy in him.

“As for you, you creep, I never said you made a bad father. A bad husband? Yes. You fool around with Stephen’s babysitter?”

“Rosemary, why would you think that?”

“Because I was stupid enough to sleep with you the night before you married Cathy.”

“Ah, but Cathy and I were not officially married yet.”

“Come off it, Jacob. You’re a male slut.”

“And you, Rosemary?”

“Stupid.”

Rosemary shivered.

“Is there a window open?”

“No. It’s me giving you the shivers,” Jacob said, smirking while picking up the breakfast dishes. He placed the dishes in the sink and ran the cold water over them, getting his own hands wet in the process. Shaking off his hands, he turned to see Rosemary looking out the window and softly walked over behind her and settled his wet fingers on the back of her neck.

Rosemary jumped to her feet.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, turning the full force of her anger on Jacob.

“Stop being so jumpy, Rosemary. You used to have nice soft curves, but now you look like a scarecrow. Divorcing Will certainly didn’t help matters. How much do you weigh now?”

“None of your business.”

“Don’t blow up at me because you can’t find a decent boyfriend to soothe your nerves. When’s the last time you went to bed with anyone? Should we count in months or years?”

“Between you and Will, I’ve had my fill of low-life men. Obviously Cathy felt the same.”

“We don’t know what was going on with Cathy. She went in and out of her depressions. When we first married, she’d go for days without talking. With the arrival of Stephen she seemed better.”

“That’s because she had lost a previous baby.”

“The one she aborted?”

“She didn’t want to. Mom dragged her into the clinic.”

“If I count from the date you married Will to the arrival of Robin, I come up with six months.”

“Will was willing to marry me. The scum who got Cathy pregnant wasn’t. I shouldn’t say that. He and Cathy were both underage. I believe she had just turned sixteen, and the guy wasn’t much older. Everyone except for Cathy wanted the baby gone. She’d remind me yearly of how old that baby would have been.”

“Stephen served as a replacement?”

“Never a replacement but a second chance.”

“Tell them, tell them.” Mabel pushed Stephen into the kitchen in front of her.

“Let’s go to the zoo,” said Stephen. “And eat chili after we see the animals.”

“This came from Stephen. I didn’t say anything.”

Stephen looked up at his grandmother. “You mentioned there’s a new baby gorilla.”

“But I didn’t say we should go to the zoo to see the gorilla,” Mabel said, looking back and forth between Jacob and Rosemary.

“Before we gorilla
aficionados
go to the zoo, I’d better call Will and make sure Robin is all right.”

“Is Robin going to be all right?” asked Stephen.

“Sure. Her dad probably fed her something greasy and she has a sensitive stomach.”

“You feed me greasy food.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got a tummy of iron,” Jacob said patting his son’s stomach.

Stephen scratched his head.

“I don’t believe that a witch stole Robin’s nerves, but …”

“Hmmm?”

“But if she had, would that make Robin’s tummy upset?”

“Nah, I think her father’s bad cooking could, though.”

Stephen sat on the oak floor and rested his head against his father’s leg.

“How come we never see Uncle Will anymore?”

“Because he’s no longer married to your Aunt Rosemary.”

“Why not?”

“Ask your Aunt Rosemary.”

“But she’s gone to pick up Robin from her daddy. Aunt Rosemary didn’t even get to go to the zoo with us.”

“Hey, what did you think of that baby gorilla?”

“Couldn’t even see him ‘cause his mom kept him so close to her.”

“That’s how moms are.”

“Do you think his mom will go away from him someday?”

“More likely he’ll leave his mom. Maybe even go off to another zoo to begin a brand new life. Some of us do it sooner than others.”

“But I’m too small to leave home.”

“Yes. Someday, though, you’ll break my heart and leave to have a family of your own.”

Stephen shook his head.

“I know how sad it would make you. I wouldn’t hurt you the way Mommy hurt us.”

“I keep trying to explain, Stephen, that she didn’t do it on purpose. She had problems.”

“Then why didn’t she come to us? We would have helped her. You always say I should come to you and you’ll make things right.”

“I may not always be able to make things right, but I will be there to give you support.” Jacob ran his fingers through the boy’s tawny hair.

“I would have helped Mom. She always did stuff for me. There must have been something I could have done for her.”

Cathy’s shadow fell upon the room, her chilled spirit almost numb from the coldness of death’s hand. Her ravaged soul ached for peace, but she fought the quiet that beckoned to her beyond the world she once knew.

“Help me, Stephen. You can still help me. I can’t rest until you’ve avenged me. Your small hands and lips carry the magic to bring the fiends to life.”

She spread her arms to enfold her little boy, but Jacob scooped up his son to wrap him in a bearish hug. Her fingernails scratched at air, her stagnant breath poisoned the air around her, and her little boy appeared to flinch away from her.

“Tell you what, Stephen, if you go upstairs and get ready for bed, I’ll tell you some more about Brandy and the witch.”

“Don’t forget the new lady that’s sharing Brandy’s cage.”

“We must escape from here,” said the lady standing next to Brandy in the cage
.

“Fine. You come up with a plan and I’ll be most happy in assisting you to escape. I’ll even escape with you.”

The lady frowned at Brandy
.

“You expect me to rescue us?”

“Why not? Obviously I haven’t been successful at getting away from the witch. Maybe you’ll have a better plan.”

“Witch! Witch!” screamed the lady
.

The witch, who had been sorting her garbage, stopped and toddled over to the cage
.

“We’re terribly thirsty and hungry. You must feed us.”

“Nonsense. You ate up all my jams, bread, and tea just fifteen minutes ago when you were in my sitting room.”

The lady turned toward Brandy
.

“Tell her you’re hungry,” demanded the lady
.

“That might not be a good idea,” said Brandy
.

“When did you last eat?”

“This morning.”

“Well, it is easily the middle of the afternoon now. You must be hungry. What did you have for breakfast?”

“Frogs’ legs and bats’ feet.”

The jam and bread in the lady’s stomach sloshed around dangerously
.

“Eew!” shouted Stephen. “What did Brandy have to drink for breakfast?”

“Drink?”

Stephen nodded his head violently.

“I believe it was a puree of snot.”

Stephen let out a scream of disgust.

“Luckily the lady didn’t ask what Brandy had had to drink because she surely would have lost her lunch.”

Stephen giggled.

“The witch can’t treat you that cruelly,” the lady said to Brandy
.

“Cruel!” shouted the witch. “They were the freshest frogs’ legs and bats’ feet I had in the house. You’ll get nothing of the kind, young lady.”

“I certainly wouldn’t eat it if you served it to me,” the lady indignantly said
.

“I wouldn’t antagonize her,” warned Brandy. “She serves much worse meals when she is out of sorts.”

“Like what?” asked Stephen.

Jacob sighed.

“It’s much too gross to repeat, Stephen. You might never be able to eat again. Especially not that chili you like so much.”