by Skye, Mav
“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, Xena.” He picked it up unsure where to put it. Finally, he threw it on top of Baldy. “Do you have a spot in mind?”
“I do. Over here…” With a smooth swing of her hips, Velva strode toward the right. Daniel picked up his wheelbarrow and followed her.
Sir Sun couldn’t take his eyes off the gravestone Daniel had extinguished his butt on. A tiny morning glory embraced the base of the grave. Engraved above it was:
SHAWN FORD
1950-2010
Sir Sun stood still, quiet. Shock and surprise attacked him at the same time as he lifted his eyes to the acres of rolling green grass, gardens, vines. Huge oaks spread their limbs protectively over wide areas, the leaves not yet fallen from their branches and amongst them all? Gravestones. To the far, far right he saw a field of vines sprouting enormous orange gourds. Pumpkins. Who the heck grew pumpkins in a graveyard? Amongst them stood a tall man, a wicker hat on his head. Beneath the brim of his hat, Sir Sun swore he saw red glowing dots. Eyes.
Daniel had said they were going to a graveyard, but Daniel was also crazy. But this—all of it—was insane.
Sir Sun hadn’t realized how long he’d been watching the tall man in the field of pumpkins, waiting for him to move, flinch. His feet finally moved beneath him, and he caught up with Daniel and Velva. “Hey, there’s a guy over there.”
Daniel said, “It’s a scarecrow. We call him the Tall Man.”
Velva pointed at a patch of grass and motioned to Daniel. “What do you think about here? There’s an ugly patch of devil’s thorn that sprouts every spring. I think that’s fitting for the Undergrounder. Don’t you, Daniel?”
Sir Sun lagged behind Velva and Daniel while they chit-chatted. All he heard was Daniel’s voice going on about Baldy’s reawakening and finally death, and his soon to be journey through the chaos dictated by Eris to the underworld where he might be granted the wish to return to the tenth planet. Velva merely nodded her head, murmuring occasionally.
Sir Sun couldn’t keep his eyes off the beautiful vines springing over the arches, the delicate rocks shaped in the form of flower petals leading to various paths amongst the garden and graves. When he spotted a weeping willow near a pond, his heart raced with fear. But then he calmed when he remembered he was in Velva’s garden, Velva’s world. Here he was safe.
When they all stopped, Sir Sun asked, “Where are we? What is this?”
Velva turned her dark eyes on him and smiled. “My graveyard.”
“Your graveyard?”
“Yes, it’s where I plant those who have fallen.” She turned back to Daniel. “Do you see that cross there? That’s where the Devil’s Club grows. It’s where I want him.”
“But,” said Sir Sun. “There are so many graves. Did they want to be buried here?” He pointed at the acres where little stones rose out of the ground. “I—”
Velva said, “One moment, Timothy, I’ll explain everything. Daniel, just bury him in there.”
“What do you wish planted on top?”
“Oh no, a simple grave will do.”
Daniel stirred, “But it’s an Undergrounder. We need something to keep the spirit down.”
“I told you, Devil’s Club pops up every spring. I won’t clip it this year.”
“With all due respect, Xena, the native Indians believed that Devil’s Club could end droughts and periods of rain. It could heal post-partum depression or even arthritis, but it can not hold back the spirits around us. Some would even say it increases their power, and this one, Xena,” Daniel pointed at the dead body, “this Undergrounder’s evil is so strong, it will rise if we do not plant a pure and spiritual plant upon it.”
Sir Sun felt his jaw drop. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You don’t believe this, do you, Daniel?”
Velva turned her back on Daniel and rolled her eyes at Sir Sun, mouthing the word crazy.
She said, “Yes, you’re right, Daniel. Artemisia will do. It drives demons away. I have a few bushes on the back of the property by the fence. You can take clippings from it.”
“Wormwood. Yes, that will do. Very well, Xena.”
Velva grasped Sir Sun’s hand and turned back to Daniel. “Sir Sun and I are taking a walk. I’ll be back in awhile to check on your progress.”
Sir Sun stood motionless, taking it all in—the loveliness of it, the morbidity. Who was Velva? A glint of metal caught his eye, and he looked toward it. A dead tree reached bare and twisted limbs to the sky like something out of a Tim Burton film. A single black bird sat on the furthermost branch. It was quiet and watched them, but it was not the tree nor the bird that caught Sir Sun’s eye. In a wide hollow at the trunk of the tree gleamed an axe. Even from the far distance, he could make out the high polished edge, as if it been sharpened just hours before.
Beyond the twisted limbs of the Tim Burton tree, in the distance stood Tall Man. Sir Sun shivered. As beautiful as the garden of graves was, it was sodden in death. Velva had promised to answer his questions, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answers.
“Come on, I want to show you something.” Velva tugged at his hand, and he followed.
“Velva, you haven’t told me what this all is.”
“Sure I have. It’s where the fallen sleep, in the dirt. It’s where the plants live and also fall sleep. Hoping again to live someday.”
“But Velva,” Sir Sun swooped his arm out to the stones in front of them. “How did they get here?”
Velva didn’t answer. She kept walking, dress stirring about her leather heeled boots. After awhile she said, “What’s with the shirt?” She gave him a dazzling smile before looking away.
“Oh, it’s just—” he looked down at it. Girls Just Wanna Have Funyuns! He thought of how to explain.
She said, “Shelly’s?” and stopped at a small unmarked grave. It had a bush of some kind growing over it.
Sir Sun said, “I don’t know. It was in that guy’s—the Undergrounder’s dresser drawer. Daniel said it belonged to someone named Shelly.”
“This is where Shelly sleeps.” She knelt and patted the ground.
Sir Sun squatted with her, inspecting the earth. Grass grew thick and lush right up to the gravestone, suggesting Shelly had been here at least since spring. “How did she die?”
Velva shook her head. And then said, “She wanted to.”
“To die?” Sir Sun asked.
“No, to be buried here.”
Sir Sun turned to Velva. “How did she die, Velva?”
She said, quietly, bowing her head. “She was stuck in the game.”
“Game?”
“Yes, the game we were playing. She couldn’t find her way out, so she killed herself. We buried her here.”
Sir Sun tried to make sense of what Velva was saying. “So, she killed herself. What about her family?”
Velva looked up at him. “We were her family.”
“She was your sister?” asked Sir Sun. He felt Velva was dodging his questions.
“No.”
“Then why didn’t her mother—”
“Shush.” Velva turned and put a finger on his lips. He couldn’t help but spread his lips and taste her, hungry for her skin.
She shook her head and smiled. “Come on, you.”
In the moonlight, she led him down arched path, to a gentle rolling hill among the garden. At the base of the hill was a long, twisted vine—pumpkin he was surprised to find. Giant pumpkins guarded the hill. A stone dome arch dominated the top. The dome was covered with climbing blood red roses, some still in bloom. And underneath the dome was a tall headstone in the shape of a gothic cross.
“There is your answer, Sir Sun.” She opened a small garden gate, and they tread up the hill and under the dome arch.
Roses perfumed the air.
A wooden bench sat before the cross, and Velva drew Sir Sun to it. He sat, and she crouched on the ground, bringing her hands up to the cross, moving her lips in silent prayer.
“This is my mother, Timot
hy.” She drew her fingers along the letters of the name. Sir Sun bent to the grave with Velva and read the name: Reilly Jones.
She waved her hand from the gravestone to Sir Sun. “Mother, I’d like you to meet Timothy.”
21
The Crow Caws at Midnight
Silence ensued between them, not terribly uncomfortable, but with Sir Sun squatting between the woman of his dreams and her mother in the grave, he didn’t know what to say. Did Velva actually believe they could speak with her mother?
Velva continued tracing the engraved letters over and over, until she finally said, “Well? Aren’t you going to say hello?”
Sir Sun cleared his throat. He said, “How do you do?” to the headstone, feeling like a complete lunatic.
Velva glanced back at him. “She says, ‘Dead.’”
Sir Sun tapped his jaw. “I figured that.”
Velva nodded, stood and sat on the bench. Sir Sun followed her motions, and they both sat and looked at the grave. Velva held a single red rose. When had she picked it up? He hadn’t noticed her holding it earlier.
She pinched the thorns along the side of it.
“She never loved me.” As Velva said this, the clouds shifted apart. Moonshine slipped through the large slats in the dome, creating a halo effect on the grave.
Sir Sun didn’t know quite what to say to this either, but couldn’t imagine anybody not loving her. “Why is that?”
“She was a seamstress. Daddy was a carpenter.”
“Sounds like a song from the seventies.”
Velva smiled, but it was a sad smile. Somewhere in the distance, a bird cawed, perhaps it was the black bird sitting on the Tim Burton tree. Sir Sun turned toward the pumpkin patch.
Velva said, “The crow caws at midnight.”
And suddenly, the words jarred an old childhood poem in his head. It was as if a light switch had been flipped, and the words came pouring over him.
He and Velva both chanted it together there by her mother’s grave.
“The crow caws at midnight
Tall Man nods his head
Beware of the axe
Sitting in his head.”
They looked at one another in surprise.
“That one gave me nightmares,” said Sir Sun.
“Me too. We jump-roped to it in grade school. Do you remember the rest?” asked Velva.
Sir Sun nodded. They both chanted together,
“The crow caws at midnight
Beware Tall Man—Dread!
For if he catches you
He’ll swing the axe
Until you’re dead.”
The crow cawed again. Velva turned back to her mother’s grave, but before she did, Sir Sun caught the haunted look on her face. “Isn’t that what you named the scarecrow over yonder in the pumpkin patch? Tall Man?”
“I suppose.”
“He’s missing the axe.” It was meant to be a joke, but when Velva turned back to him, there was no laughter on her face.
“Actually, he’s not.”
Another moment of silence spread between them. Sir Sun thought of the axe in the Tim Burton tree. Just as he shivered, the crow cawed again.
Velva spoke. “Daddy joined the Navy when I was five, and they took him away.”
“The cold war?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
She shrugged. “Japan, I think. Different places. Mama had a business to run, and little Carnie was always sick. Muscular Dystrophy, we found out later. After Daddy left, he never came back. He and mother got a divorce.”
“Carnie?”
“Short for Carnation. Just as my name is short for Velvet. Mother was a romantic.”
Velvet Jones. The name fit Velva like a glove.
“Mother tried to support us best she could, but Carnie was sick so much, she struggled between being home to care for her and working to pay the medical bills.”
“Where were you?”
“School, mostly. We moved to a rich farming town about an hour north of here. It was one of the places where everyone knew everyone, had grown up together. We were the outsiders. I was lonely. A lot.”
Sir Sun nodded, he knew what that loneliness felt like.
Velva continued, “When I was ten, mother’s business failed. We were in debt, and she was angry all the time. Carnie was in and out of the hospital. Soon after, my mother got an offer for professional suit tailoring in gentlemen’s homes. She did a lot more than suit tailoring.” Velva glanced at Sir Sun and gave him a knowing look.
Sir Sun nodded at her.
“She was never home anymore, so I took care of Carnie.”
He said, “That must have been hard on you.”
Velva shrugged again, tugging at the grass by the grave.
“Where is Carnie now? Does she live with you?”
“She’s dead.”
Sir Sun put his hands in his pockets. “I’m very sorry.”
“Don’t be. I never was.”
“Oh?” he couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice.
“Well, I loved her, you know. But she got bitchy, whiny. I resented spending all my time with her, especially in my high school years. She drained me. It was always, ‘Velva do this, Velva do that. Help me to the toilet, wipe my ass, feed me soup. The soup’s too hot.’ That was how I spent my early teen years, and I hated her for it. After Carnie had died, one of mother’s gentlemen came over late one night. He was looking for her, but he found me instead. And suddenly, I wasn’t so lonely anymore.”
Sir Sun didn’t like where this was going. “So you—”
“Yes, I started working my mother’s men on the side. She didn’t know. They didn’t say anything. I had friends for once. All the friends I could ever ask for. They gave me gifts, anything I wanted. I drove Vipers, had all the heels and spa days a girl could ask for. It was the most amazing times.” He watched her close her eyes, a flirty smile on her face.
Sir Sun’s stomach turned. “Didn’t your mother question where it all came from?”
“No, she wasn’t home enough, and she didn’t care—not after Carnie died. The men—the business—became her life. Besides, even if she did take three seconds to look around, at that point she was rich. Money was everywhere. She didn’t care much if I used it. She did keep her diamonds locked in a wall safe. I tried to crack the code, almost every day, but I never did get it open.” Velva clasped his hand in hers. “I‘ve never told anyone this before.”
“I can see why,” he tried to smile, but he was disturbed and saddened at Velva’s story. She had been so young, looking for love in all the wrong places… much like he had.
“Eventually, I dropped out of High School, spent my time living the high life. Mother did find out about that. The school contacted her. She came home early from a cruise and found me with one of her gentlemen.
“She kicked me out. I had nowhere to go. And out of the blue, a lawyer contacts me. Daddy had died from a drunk driving accident. But months before he died, he’d won the lottery. Millions.”
“Seriously?”
Velva nodded. “Seriously. And he willed it all to me.”
Sir Sun shook his head and whistled between his teeth.
“Mama was terribly jealous. For once, I was the center of attention. I was daddy’s girl. And it felt good. I was making more on interest than she made with all her years of whoring put together and that’s when the games started.”
“Games?”
“Uh huh. I was bored. I already had all the clothes and shoes I wanted. I had acquaintances in men, but I didn’t have any real friends. I never learned how to make an honest friend. But, something I had always wanted but never had, something that money couldn’t buy—was my mother’s attention. She wasn’t a friend, but because I had been raised by her, we were still close. I knew her as intimately as she knew me. And now that I had daddy’s money, she was my nemesis… which in a funny kind of way, is almost the same thing as friendship. Do you know what
I mean?”
Sir Sun shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
Velva squeezed his hand. “Oh, you! Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you find out someday.
Sir Sun feigned a smile. “Great.”
Velva giggled and continued, “Oh yes, mother was my enemy. A very envious one.” She stopped and turned towards him. “Now, what I’m going to tell you next may get confusing, so pay attention, Timothy.”
He nodded.
“My mother had two favorite pets.”
“Pets?”
“Man pets. Both were brothers—twins! Don and Juan.
Sir Sun rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”
“Seriously! This is very serious stuff. Pay attention. Don and Juan may have been twins, but they couldn’t have been more different. Don was intense, passionate and knew exactly how to make a girl scream.
“Juan was shy, gentle in nature. Soft spoken. He brought her flowers, gave her jewelry. He was more romantic where Don was more… animal. Do you know what I mean?”
Sir Sun said, “I think?”
“So, she could never decide which brother she liked better. Don or Juan. Neither of them knew she was sleeping with the other. At first, she didn’t even know! Both attended the same bar, but on different days of the week. My mother had first seduced Don one night, then Juan the next, thinking it was Don.”
“Okay. So, what does this have to do with—”
“I’m getting to it. I also slept with Don. He was one of our shared gentlemen. He’d been asking me to go taboo for months, but I hadn’t the care or energy to role play like that. Though, mind you, I am a terrific actress.”
“Taboo?”
“Yes, Don wanted me to dress up like his stepmother… clothing, wigs and all. She used to do these things to him.” Velva leaned over and whispered in his ear.
Sir Sun eyebrows shot up, his jaw fell.
“All true,” Velva nodded. “Anyway, I called him and told him I’d do it for three times the amount my mother charged—not only that, but he had to agree to schedule it on the day and time he’d previously arranged to meet her so that she would walk in on us. He understood that making this arrangement with me, he would be losing her completely.”