Slow Poison

by Helen Slavin

  “We’ll take you to the bridge now,” she said, nodding at Emz. Anna moaned, a thin, sorrowful sound. Emz took Anna by the other hand.

  “Yes. Yes. We’re going now.” Emz held her tight. Charlie looked at Seren.

  “We’re parked in the lane at the back. When we leave, you need to lock the doors.”

  Seren did not doubt it.

  It took two seatbelts to restrain Anna in the back of Charlie’s car, and, even then, she was clawing at the windows.

  “Let me go, I have to go to the bridge, I must go, don’t stop me…” It was horrible, the waves of grief and desolation were rolling off Anna and were being concentrated in the confines of the car.

  “Look, just sit in the back with her and we’ll get back as fast as we can.” Charlie had faith that getting Anna back to Cob Cottage would help; however, they had only moved a few feet along the lane when Anna broke free of the belts, lashed out at Emz so that her head knocked so hard against the side window both almost cracked. Charlie jabbed at the central locking and sealed the exits.

  “What are we going to do?” Emz was visibly distressed. Charlie’s mind ticked and whirred reaching, as it always did, for the solution. It was sitting in a plastic crate in the back of her car.

  The opened bottle of Blackberry Ferment smelt heavenly, of summer days and turned earth.

  “Blackberry Ferment? You want to get her drunk?” Emz asked. Charlie shook her head. Anna was less fighty now, more limp and maudlin.

  “It’ll slow her down a bit at least. One should do it… she’s usually a lightweight.” Charlie reached for the last bin bag of discarded shot glasses from the Apple Day disaster pop-up and poured a hefty shot.

  Anna drank the first shot of Blackberry Ferment as if it was nectar.

  “Oh, it’s so beautiful… so delicious… so... so... so...”

  Emz looked at Charlie.

  “Has she been drinking already d’you think? At Apple Day maybe?” Emz asked. Charlie shrugged.

  “She doesn’t usually.”

  “Take me to the bridge. Take me now, before it’s too late to go.” Anna was more sensible now which made the plea all the more upsetting.

  “We will…” Emz lied.

  “After we’ve had one more toast to the bridge… yes?” Charlie faked enthusiasm, her eyes watching Anna. Anna nodded, her face crumpling into tears. She drank the second shot and began to soften, the tears melting out.

  “They’re gone,” she whispered. “They’re gone, aren’t they?”

  Emz looked at Charlie, her face stricken with an expression of sadness and realisation so raw that it made Emz look about seven. “And I have to follow them…” Anna whispered as her head lolled backward and she gave a low keening howl. Emz juddered with emotion, her arms throwing themselves around Anna’s neck.

  “You have us. You have us. Please don’t go.” Emz’s voice was little and small. Charlie rammed herself into the driving seat and turned the ignition. Action. Do it.

  By the time they arrived at Cob Cottage Anna was unconscious and the Way sisters, shaken by events, were struggling with the logistics of getting her out of Charlie’s tiny car. As they fumbled about, Anna slumping down or folding up, Ailith came out through the door. She stepped between the sisters.

  With a strong, deft movement she reached into the car and picked Anna up in her arms.

  “Inside with you,” she ordered the Way sisters. “Quick sharp.”

  Ailith rested Anna on the long sofa and, as Emz and Charlie, one sniffily, one red-faced, looked on, Ailith gathered the blanket and the cushion and made the elder Way sister comfortable.

  “You…” Ailith pointed at Emz, “sit you down here… and you…” she pushed Charlie into the other chair. The two looked forlornly on their sibling, her face less pale now as it looked over the top of the blanket. As they sat in silence the clock chimed midnight.

  “There you go… ’tis your time now, the small hours have come,” and she gave a little bow as she moved out of their way into the kitchen where, for the next half an hour, Ailith carried on a bustle of activity, of kettle boiling and tea steeping and griddle cake flipping.

  In the living area the Way sisters sat, the sofa and two chairs making a corner each of their triangle, and they tried to puzzle out what was happening and how they might stop it.

  * * *

  “His head is resting in the wrong place.” Anna’s pale face loomed into Charlie’s as she woke up. There was a scent of tea and maple syrup and Emz was already seated at the table with Ailith, eating pancakes.

  “Who? What?” Charlie scrabbled up towards them from her morning fug. It had always been like that, Emz and Anna were cheery morning people and Charlie was a grumpy morning person, a trait she had shared with Grandma Hettie.

  “That is why the Stuff has been buzzing town,” Emz said through a mouthful of maple syrup-soaked pancake. “All this mess and hoo-ha. We sussed it last night. Anna had a dream. Remember when we used to play Battle with Grandma Hettie, up on Yarl Hill?”

  “Rest me by herepath and ridgewayed rampart…” Anna began. Charlie looked at her.

  “I’m sorry, the Stuff?”

  “You know…the ‘Stuff’.” Emz made speech marks in the air.

  “I think we can say ‘Magic’,” Charlie barked. Emz looked shocked.

  “I thought you wanted to dodge the word?” she said. Charlie gave a heavy sigh.

  “It doesn’t work. Not saying the word doesn’t make it go away. We’re just giving it power by not saying it. Magic. The warrior’s head is leaking Magic because we buried it wrong. Call a spade a spade.”

  “Or a witch a witch,” Emz said. Charlie grunted, gave a decisive nod.

  “Owned,” she conceded. “So… we did it wrong first time… how do we get it right the second time?”

  “Well…” Anna handed her a plate of pancakes and a fork. “First… we have to go back to the castle and dig up the head.”

  Charlie grimaced, let out a resigned but weary breath.

  “I’m going to need bacon first.”

  29

  Parents’ Consultation

  The fly in the ointment of the Witch Ways’ Bone Resting Part II in 3D was the Parents’ Consultation Evening for the sixth form. Emz had managed to cram all three of her appointments into the first hour and a half so although there was going to be some hanging about waiting to see Mr Mill, the evening’s horror would be over by half past eight at the latest. She had assumed that she would be able, in the circumstances, to skip the whole event.

  “The Bone Resting is more important,” she had insisted to Anna, and Charlie had laughed out loud.

  “If you don’t show at the parents’ thing you will be in real trouble. It’s going to be bad enough when Mum finds out you didn’t tell her it was on.”

  Anna nodded.

  “That was a bad move. You know what Mum’s like…”

  Emz made her argument.

  “Yes. Camped out at De Quincey Langport R&D mostly. What she doesn’t know won’t…” Emz could not say it wouldn’t hurt her, she knew absolutely how hurt her mother would be. “Whatever. It won’t make a difference. I am eighteen.”

  Charlie laughed again.

  “Will you stop laughing?”

  “I will if you stop saying stupid things.”

  Anna gave Charlie a flashing look. “Don’t give me that look… she knows what I mean.”

  Emz did know and was adamant.

  “You will not do the Bone Resting without me.” She was getting red faced with indignation. Charlie and Anna looked at her.

  “We can’t do it without you,” Charlie reasoned. “End of.”

  They were making plans for a return visit to the castle. The moon was waning, but that couldn’t be helped, and the Way sisters had talked it out and decided that actually some things just had to be tackled and couldn’t wait for new, old, or any other kind of moon.

  “So, you’ll definitely be done by half eight?” Charl
ie was checking the details.

  “Check.” Emz was certain. She was certain because she was not going to be delayed or detoured.

  “We just have to get up to the castle ready for witching hour.” Anna reassured her sister. Charlie looked puzzled.

  “The head is a head. It’s buried under the stone. If we could find a way to distract Mrs Bentley that didn’t involve a small cupboard and a handful of Quiet Life tablets we could do this anytime.”

  Anna nodded. “You’re right. Okay. So, we’re a go. I’ll give you a lift, Emz, I’ve got to call in at the Castle Inn anyway about tomorrow’s shifts.”

  Emz grabbed her bag and Anna her keys. She opened the door and was startled to find someone already standing there.

  “Ready to go?” said Vanessa on the doorstep. There was a silence in Cob Cottage broken only by Charlie stifling a shocked laugh. Emz looked at Anna who shrugged.

  * * *

  Vanessa and Emz sat at the traffic lights at the top of Old Castle Road, lights which seemed, to Emz, to be forever red.

  “How did you find out?” she asked at last as her mother took the car out of gear.

  “I’m a scientist. I have my ways.” Vanessa’s tone was not harsh or upset although she didn’t appear to be able to look at Emz. She felt guilty now, for having done this to her mother.

  “I assumed you’d be busy.”

  “I’ve never missed a parents’ evening.” Vanessa threw down the gauntlet of information and Emz knew it to be true. The lights stayed resolutely red. Vanessa shifted back into gear for something to do.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” she said, and the lights turned green.

  * * *

  The school seemed organised and usual but Emz was aware, the moment they stepped into the entrance hall, of that prickling electrical feeling she had had the day before at Prickles and later in town. She was nervous of outcomes this evening and bolstered herself with the knowledge that, in a few hours, she and her sisters would have sorted out the problem.

  “I think we’re seeing Mrs King-Winters first…” Vanessa consulted her phone. As she did so Mrs King-Winters was moving to greet them. Emz looked into her eyes; they were a bright and deep shade of blue.

  “Good evening Mrs Way… Emz.” She was all smiles. Emz’s mind poked at her. By contrast Mrs Wilson, the drama teacher sitting at a small table close by, was tinny eyed and exuding sadness. It almost curled off her like smoke. As Mrs King-Winters and her mother exchanged a few pleasantries Emz could see sadness, despair, resentment, jealousy, revenge, rolling around the room, each emotion an incipient smoke clagging the air. Deep inside her an instinct was growling and it was, at once, both powerful and frightening. She had an urgent need to take action but before she could turn on her heels and head back to Cob Cottage Mrs King-Winters was ushering them along the staff corridor, away from the assembly hall.

  * * *

  Mrs King-Winters had been very clever and arranged a kind of ambush. Where the other students had to brazen it out in the full glare of the assembly hall, Mrs King-Winters, Emz’s first and, Emz anticipated, most troublesome appointment, ushered them into a side office on the staff corridor.

  “If you’ll just bear with me…”

  Within minutes Emz and her mother were sitting in the too small office with Mrs King-Winters, Mr Mill, Mrs Kumar, and Miss Beaton, who was responsible for sixth form pastoral care. As Vanessa was filled in on Emz’s current pick and mix attitude to attendance, Emz took in the spectacle of her teachers. Mrs King-Winters, still fine. Mr Mill, tinny eyes, thin smoky trail of resentment. Mrs Kumar, still fine.

  Miss Beaton. Tinny eyes and her real face peeked out, unbidden. It was a sleeping face, but the kind of sleep that comes from anaesthesia or a drug; it was a deep sleep.

  Vanessa wanted to ascertain the facts about Emz’s misdemeanours.

  “Has she missed many deadlines?” Vanessa asked with interest. “I mean, if there are essays and things that she could catch up on…”

  “Well. Er…” Mrs King-Winters seemed to be struggling. Mr Mill filled the void.

  “She does the work. She just can’t be bothered to turn up. When others, teachers, her elders and betters, they have to be bothered. These kids have no idea. They are so entitled…”

  Vanessa looked at him in the same way she looked at mice involved in intelligence tests.

  “So… the fact is that Emily has not missed any work deadlines? Is that the case?”

  “The case. The facts. You are such a scientist, aren’t you…” Mr Mill peered at her through peevish eyes. Mrs King-Winters looked uncomfortable.

  “Well… I think, I mean it is clear that Emily is a very capable student…” she gave an ameliorating smile to Vanessa who, Emz noted, did not smile back.

  “Shall we hear the evidence from Mathematics?” Vanessa’s voice was very cold and Emz wasn’t sure she didn’t see Mrs King-Winters shiver.

  “Mrs Kumar?” Mrs King-Winters prompted, hoping that Mrs Kumar would have some fresh ammunition.

  “Emz is a gifted mathematician.” Mrs Kumar smiled directly at Emz and so Emz braced herself. “She just does not attend lessons. Which is a problem.”

  “Is it though?” Miss Beaton’s voice was thin and sad. “I mean… they’re young, we push them so hard and for what? For what in the end? So, they can trot off to university, run up a massive debt and get their hearts broken by Brent The Bastard Williams.”

  Mrs King-Winters and Mrs Kumar stared at their colleague. She stared back.

  A tear could be seen dropping from her face onto her lap and Mrs Kumar reached into her bag and handed Miss Beaton a tissue. Miss Beaton was pitiful and grateful.

  “I think…” Mrs King-Winters moved to take the reins, “that Emily is, we all agree, a gifted student with a bright academic future.”

  “I agree,” Vanessa stated. Emz dared to look at her mother. Still fine. No tinny eyes. She did not very often look at her mother’s real face; she was always distracted by the fact that Vanessa was her mother, it was as if her real face didn’t matter in the same way, she was simply Mum. Now Emz looked. Vanessa’s real face was turned away, was looking out through the office window, dreamlike and thoughtful. At the nape of her neck, just below her hairline, Emz could see small black marks tattooed into the skin, angular, like writing. Emz gasped and her mother turned to give her a sharp look.

  “So. Can we agree on a way forward for her?” Vanessa concluded. Mrs King-Winters jumped in.

  “Your family has been through such a lot in the last year, Mrs Way. Such a lot. I think that any forward planning for Emz needs to take all that emotional upheaval into account.”

  “Go on.” Vanessa did not sound encouraging. Emz was panicking.

  “It is a small matter to defer a year and take the exams next time around… there are options here and we’re here to help.” Mrs King-Winters was the ringleader, Emz could tell, but Mrs Kumar attempted a coup.

  “I’d be happy to offer one-to-one tutoring out of hours,” Mrs Kumar smiled. “If you wanted to defer then we could work together at keeping your knowledge ticking over… if that would be useful in your decision making.”

  “If you keep slacking here Emz…” Mr Mill chipped in. “You will fail in the summer and when you fail, I fail. You make the school fail. Is that fair?”

  Mrs King-Winters cast him a cold look. Emz could see his real face, his mouth slightly open and drooly. She looked into his eyes. That tinny effect was very strange, like a contact lens made of the sheen of diesel. Emz stared hard, her instinct once again drawing in information, readying itself for action.

  “I think what we are advising is…” Mrs King-Winters took charge, leaning forward, smiling at Vanessa, who, without allowing her to finish, turned to Emz, took her by the elbow and began to move them both towards the door.

  “Okay. Well. Great meeting. Lots to think about. We’ll let you know.” Vanessa bustled them both out into the corridor. “Bye,” she
called as they hurried towards the door, her mother half shoving, half carrying her.

  Emz was waiting for the storm, the blasting, the ultimatum. They walked across the car park and they got into the car.

  Her mother started the engine.

  They drove out of the car park.

  They drove, still with not one word spoken, out onto Horse Hill Road and ran along the length of it, the only sound the creak of the suspension as they passed over the sleeping policeman at the junction with Hartfield Road. They drove on towards town and Emz was surprised that they did not turn onto Old Castle Road. Instead they turned back onto Ham Street and out towards Leap Woods. As they ran past the trees Emz found her thoughts tumbling down into the paths and snickelways. There was the brief ticktick of the indicator and they were bumping along the drive into Prickles.

  Winn already had the kettle on and had invested in a box of cakes from the bakery. She was snaffling down a vanilla slice as they arrived and Emz was aware that clearly Mrs King-Winters was not the only one with a strategy. Emz’s real face radar scanned Winn. No tinny eyes and Winn’s real face, a rosy cheeked young woman. Emz liked Winn’s real face, it was, by far, one of the best faces she had ever seen. With no tinny eyes or sleeping real faces, and the shotgun safely out of sight, Emz felt less geared up and turned her full attention to whatever battle these two had planned.

  They sat around the Formica topped table in the kitchen. Winn had got out the best mugs, the really big ones from the local pottery that were a stormy blue and green. Vanessa opened the box of cakes.

  “Ooh, religieuses, Winn, you remembered.” Winn nodded through her mouthful of vanilla custard and handed out plates. Emz’s mother picked out a fat choux pastry affair swizzled with chocolate. “Oh lush… the mocha ones.”

  Emz did not choose a cake. She sat down in the chair that was offered, Winn licking her fingers as she poured the tea. Emz could not pick up the mug, although she wanted to, she wanted to feel its rounded warmth, to look into the storm of blue and green of the glaze. She was shaking. Time was ticking. Town was poisoned, what was more important than dealing with that? She knew the true word for what was going on, it was lurking in the shadow of her head but she couldn’t use it just yet. Stuff. Yes. Okay. Deep breath, Emz.