The Digger's Rest

by K. Patrick Malone

  “Aye,” the old man said, nodding. “She hath drawn them there,” and he rolled out the next panel. It was of the men storming the castle; the wolf was attacking one of them. The scene showed the man, in armor, running the beast through with his sword as a man in sack cloth shoved a holly branch, long end sharpened to a point, down the beast’s throat. As the knights went deeper into the castle, some began to fall with boils and sores, but as the men in sack cloth passed, they seemed to rise and recover.

  The next panel showed the men approaching the door behind which the she-creature lay, large with child. The serpent had wrapped itself around one man and had another in its jaws, a knight had just severed its head and a man in sack cloth had just speared it through the top of the head with another sharpened holly branch while the other men were ramming the door with a battering ram.

  ***

  In New York, Jack kissed Alida good bye, her eyes filling with tears. “He’s in trouble, Alida. I know it in my heart with all that’s ever made me a man. He needs me,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. She nodded that she understood. In her culture, she knew these things were real and true. The best she could do for him was to prepare him for the journey with his medication and the Lucero charm she’d bought at the shop in her old neighborhood and had sewn into the lining of his jacket for protection without him knowing it.

  ***

  In Boston, Julian Bramson the third was presenting his first-class ticket to London to the boarding agent at the gate. There was no one there to see him off.

  ***

  The next panel portrayed the she-creature in the throes of child birth just as the men were about to break through the door. The next showed her standing on the bed, haunches set to spring, clutching a demon child to her breast with one of her four arms, her wings spread, set to take flight, baring her rows of sharp teeth at the men as they rushed through the door.

  The next panel showed her hovering above the bed and one of the sack cloth men charging her with the longest of the holly spears, running it through the demon child in its mother’s arms and straight through the demon herself, front to back; the expression etched on her face by the stitching of the tapestry making it more horrific than anything Simon could have ever imagined. It was as if he could almost hear her screaming an ear-shattering high pitched scream of anguish, both for the death of her child and for her own physical pain. Simon trembled from the emotional and physical impact of it. The old man took his hand again. “Steady, boy,” he said. “Drink,” and handed him another cup of his strong smelling tea.

  The next panel showed the men binding the creature and her child in boughs of holly, carrying her to the main hall and setting fire to the corpses along with the castle itself as they went along back toward the tower gate. The next panel showed the burnt ruins of the castle and men hiding in the brush around it while a group of women, dressed in all manner of clothing, from the highest born to the lowest, making what seemed to be a grave stone over the burned bones of the creature and her child, under their image was the word ‘Lamia’,…witch.

  The next showed the men jumping out of the brush and slaying the women, tossing their bodies on a pile and setting fire to them. The final panel showed the men, again some in armor, some in sack cloth, and some in clerical dress pulling the large, heavy Celtic stone cross to the site and standing it upright on the spot where the women had put the gravestone over the bodies. The only words Simon could make out were, ‘Never rise.’

  The tableau of the tapestry revealed, Simon looked back to the old man. “Dost thou see?” the old man asked him. Simon wasn’t sure.

  “Either she called him or he disturbed her when he came, or maybe it is just her time to rise, almost a thousand years since she first came to this land, but no matter. No one could have ever known he would have brought thee,” the old man said, shining with proud determination.

  “Me?” Simon said, drawing back in surprise.

  “I have kept vigil over this land for over one hundred years, as my father did before him and his father before him and so on since she first came. Now we have thee.”

  Simon’s poor head started to swim from it all. “What does she want?” Simon asked, deep inside afraid to know the answer. The old man pointed to the tapestry, to the panel showing the she creature, her belly swollen with child.

  “She wants him,” the old man said. The color drained from Simon’s face, his pupils dilated and his lids fluttered as he fell backwards into blackness, fainted.

  ***

  Back in his bed at the inn, Simon woke to the thunderous sound of stomping footsteps and screaming, horrible terror-filled cries. It was dark and he was afraid. He felt a heavy load land on the bed next to him and opened his eyes. It was his mother, her gaunt face leering at him, her throat slashed open. “Run, Simon, run and hide now!” she cried and pushed him off the bed. He crawled under the bed, pulling himself up into a ball in the far corner; another shrieking, shrill death cry, then silence. Feeling four years old again, too petrified to move, unable to cry out, he just stayed there hoping someone would come along and help him.

  He didn’t have to wait long, a few minutes later, he saw the bed skirt move, a hand pulling it up slowly, then a voice.

  “Simon,” it called out to him under the bed. He pulled himself more tightly into a ball at first. “Simon, don’t be afraid. It’s me.” The bed skirt rose higher, a face peering under it, barely visible in the darkness. He saw the outline of the dark clothes and the headdress. “It’s me, Simon,” she said, reaching her hand underneath the bed to try and touch him. He could see her face then, out of the shadows; Sister Mary Immaculata.

  “I want to talk to you, Simon. I think I’ve made a terrible mistake in letting you go with that Dr. Bramson,” she whispered. “Has he touched you, Simon? In your private places?”

  “No, never!” Simon said to her, shocked out of his paralysis.

  “Has he ever made you touch him?” she whispered.

  “No!”

  “But you want him to, don’t you?” she whispered, laughing and grabbed him by the leg, pulling him out. She drew back her head and she wasn’t Sister Mary anymore.

  She was his mother again, “I’m sorry I had to leave you, Simon, but I’m back now and I’m going to take you home,” she said, the sound of her voice gurgling through the slash in her throat.

  “No!” Simon cried out, struggling to free himself from her grip. “Let me go. Let me go!”

  Her face changed. She was Sister Mary again, tipping over the bed, pulling him out. “Dirty, filthy man touching my Simon. It’s all my fault. I’m taking you back home,” she raged, dragging him kicking and screaming across the floor toward the window. “No! Please. I don’t want to go. Help! Dr. Bramson! Help me!”

  He remembered the amulet around his neck and grabbed it with his hand, clutching it. “Help!” he screamed with his soundless voice. He felt in his pocket for the little black bird. He grabbed it and held it tight, screaming again in his soundless voice. “Heeeellllppppp!”

  Shadows came up behind Sister Mary in the moonlight. “Be gone, unclean thing!” the old man shouted at Sister Mary.

  From the other side; another voice; “Be gone unclean thing!” Gayle shouted. The Sister Mary thing released Simon’s leg and turned to them, spewing an incantation of her own in a language Simon didn’t understand.

  Amos and Gayle took each other’s hand and reached out for Simon’s. He took them, creating a ring around the Sister Mary thing. “What is thy true name, foul demon? Speak so that we should know thee,” the old man shouted. The Sister Mary thing changed again, back to Simon’s mother.

  “My name is Lydia Holly.”

  “Liar!” Gayle screamed. “Liar!”

  “Tell me thy true name demon so that we may know thee,” the old man commanded. The Lydia thing changed again, back into the nun. “Sister Mary Immaculata,” she said.

  “Liar, liar!” the old man shouted. Then she changed again, h
owling as if she were in pain. She had many arms, hair that seemed to move, and things Simon couldn’t see growing out of her body. “Do not break the circle!” the old man shouted.

  Simon called to her. “Tell me thy true name foul demon so that we may know thee.” The demon started cursing at Simon in French and German, English and Russian, and languages Simon couldn’t begin to understand. He shouted back loudly, demanding a response “What is thy true name?”

  “Kiskil-lilla!” the creature shrieked at him, writhing in an ecstasy of pain and reached out, grabbing him by the throat with one hand and between the legs with another.

  “Do not break the circle!” the old man shouted.

  Simon panicked, driven to action by the pain in his groin. He pulled the carved bird from his pocket and jammed it in her eye. The thing let out a blood curdling, echoing scream, exploding into a frenzy, forcing their hands apart with her many arms and expanding wings, pushing her way out of the circle.

  Enraged with pain, the creature turned back to face them, one yellow eye seeming to give off blasts of heat, the other weeping thick green bile, and began stomping back toward them, pushing Gayle and the old man away with a force that sent them flying into the corners of the room.

  Simon took a step back, then another. On the third try his brace caught on the leg of the overturned bed. He went falling back, landing on his back on the floor. The creature was instantly on him, straddling him, its many slimy hands holding him down; first his left leg, then his right; two hands were on his throat and another had his right wrist. Struggling to breathe and with only one hand free, Simon grasped wildly in the dark for anything within his reach to defend himself, tearing at the creature with his free hand.

  He saw the shadows rise behind her again and heard the loud clap of hands and a flash of blinding white light. The cry that followed made Simon think of what he’d heard in his mind’s eye when he saw the panel of the slain demon. The next thing he knew, he could move and breathe and the creature was flying out through the window without breaking it. Then nothing—blackness.

  ***

  The next morning when Simon woke, he wasn’t sure if it was real. The room looked like it hadn’t been disturbed, but when he got up, his groin ached, and when he looked in the mirror he saw the dark bruises on his neck. It was real, he thought and put his hands on the edge of the sink to keep his knees from buckling.

  When he went back out into his room he saw the carved bird on a string that Gayle had given him, on the floor by the window. He sat on the bed, trying to think of what to do next, then it came to him. What was it?…What was the name? Kiskillilla?

  He got up off the bed, felt his foot kick something and picked it up. It was a bent tin ring covered with white cloth. He turned it over and saw the words sewn there, ‘Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof.’

  He turned on his laptop, went to Google and put in the name, spelling it phonetically. There it was, in Wikipedia. He tapped on the link and saw the name. The force of what he saw pushed him back in his chair, making him take his head in his hands. Because when the page came up, the name that appeared across the top of the screen shattered what was left of his reality. His mind reeled out of control. “LILITH.”

  He didn’t know how long he’d sat there before he came back to himself. His next thought was, “And she wants him!” At that moment, whatever was left of the boy vanished from inside him, leaving only the man behind and he and realized that he would never faint again.

  “Over my dead body!” he said out loud to himself as he read the article, rapidly absorbing the information as he had done all his life. “Aye, lad!” he heard the old man’s soundless voice whisper in his ear.

  BOOK FOUR

  SHATTERED

  Wearin' her perfume, Chanel No. 5 Got to be the finest girl alive She walks real cool, catches everybody's eye She's got such good lovin' that they can't say goodbye Not too skinny, she's not too fat She's a real humdinger and I like it like that She's the devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, Devil with the blue dress on Devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, Devil with the blue dress on. Lord have mercy!

  Devil with the Blue Dress on

  …..As performed by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels

  Chapter XX

  WIKIPEDIA (What Simon Saw)

  They give you fever When you kiss them Fever if you live and learn Fever! 'till you sizzle But what a lovely way to burn

  Fever

  ………As performed by Miss Peggy Lee

  But I know what I like I know I like dancin' with you And I know what you like I know you like dancin' with me Yeah, yeah Kiss me once Kiss me twice C'mon pretty baby, kiss me deadly

  Kiss Me Deadly

  ………As performed by Lita Ford

  The article opened with a brief overall description.

  ‘Lilith is a female Mesopotamian night demon. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits, as Lilitu, in Babylonia, circa 3000 B.C.E. Many scholars place the origin of the phonetic name "Lilith" at somewhere around 700 B.C.E.’

  Simon already knew the basics from work in Ancient cultures in their biblical context, but the extent of his knowledge ended there. He read on, holding his breath as he worked the little black pad on his laptop frantically, his big blue eyes scanning the pages like a high tech computer with curls. Reading furiously, Simon stopped suddenly, staring at one particular section, remembering what the old man had said about the demoness in the tapestry, ‘She wants him.’

  ‘Late medieval Jewish legend portrays her as the first wife and equal of Adam. Considering Adam inferior, Lilith left the Garden of Eden of her own free will (Other stories claim Lilith refused to lie under Adam, as she considered that this was too submissive). Adam then bade three angels to find Lilith and bring her back. When Lilith refused, God punished her by commanding that she slay 100 of her children, called Lilin, each day.’

  “What do I do? What do I do?” Simon kept repeating to himself aloud as he scrolled down, by this time, large crystalline beads of sweat covered his forehead and were beginning to run down in his eyes. He wiped his head with his sleeve without his eyes ever leaving the screen.

  ‘The key to this identification lies in the bird talons and the owls. While the relief may depict the demon Kisikil-lilla-ke of the Gilgamesh passage or a goddess, identification with Lilitu is more tenuous and likely influenced by the "screech owl" translation of the King James Version.’

  By the time he got to the section about the Hebrews, he was soaked around his neck with sweat, always in the back of his mind the singular thought, She wants my Mitch. He felt a stitch of pain in the center of his back, like burning, and his body jerked. More than that he began feeling it again, something he’d never been really familiar with before, more anger. Like the way he felt when she hurt Deck, but more intense. The pain in the center of his back began to ripple outwards, making him hunch his shoulders as he read.

  ‘Another text discovered at Qumran, conventionally associated with Book of Proverbs, credibly also appropriates the Lilith tradition in its description of a precarious, winsome woman – The Seductress (4Q184). The ancient poem – dated to the first century BCE but plausibly much older – describes a dangerous woman and consequently warns against encounters with her. Customarily, the woman depicted in this text is equated to the “strange woman” of Proverbs 2 and 5, and for good reason; the parallels are instantly recognizable:’

  ‘Her house sinks down to death, And her course leads to the shades. All who go to her cannot return and find again the paths of life.’ (Proverbs 2:18-19)

  ‘Her gates are gates of death, and from the entrance of the house she sets out towards Sheol. None of those who enter there will ever return, and all who possess her will descend to the Pit.’ (4Q184)”

  ‘However, what this association does not take into account are additional descriptions of the “Seductress” from Qumran that cannot be found attributed to the “strang
e woman” of Proverbs; namely, her horns and her wings: “a multitude of sins is in her wings.” The woman illustrated in Proverbs is without question a prostitute, or at the very least the representation of one, and the sort of individual with whom that text’s community would have been familiar. The “Seductress” of the Qumran text, conversely, could not possibly have represented an existent social threat given the constraints of this particular ascetic community. Instead, the Qumran text utilizes the imagery of Proverbs to explicate a much broader, supernatural threat – the threat of the demoness Lilith.’

  Simon’s body began to shake with it, the anger at the dawning knowledge that his innocent mind would never have conceived, then protectiveness, of Mitch, so strong. “Anything. I’ll do anything,” he said out loud to himself, the pain had vibrated down to his arms by then. His eyes were like a calculator, absorbing the information, synthesizing it, analyzing it as he read on, possessed himself by what? A feeling he couldn’t describe, had no words for.

  ‘She wanders about a night, vexing the sons of men and causing them to defile themselves.’

  ‘For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f)’

  ‘The demon Lilith, the evil woman, is described as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a black, monkey-like demon, and it is associated with the power of seduction.’

  ‘A medieval reference to Lilith as the first wife of Adam is the anonymous The Alphabet of Ben-Sira, written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries.’

  ‘Genesis 2:18: After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. (In this act, Lilith becomes unique in that she is not touched by Original Sin, having left the garden before Eve came into existence. Lilith also reveals herself to be powerful in her own right by knowing the name of God).’