by Josh Kent
Chapter 20
It was not snowing and the sun was shining in the windows at Huck’s house. May and Violet and Huck sat at the kitchen table in her pa’s house. Her pa was making eggs and coffee.
Violet said, “I hear Falk’s going to try to follow Mosely and the creature through to the otherside.”
May said, “They say that the witch, Wylene, has a power to open the gate.”
Huck turned and put eggs on everyone’s plate and then poured hot coffee for each of them into their little white cups. “We don’t need to fool or inquire in those things anymore. What we need to concentrate on is helping Vernon and Benjamin rebuild those houses on the west side that got destroyed and to help them rebuild the church, too.”
He sat down and they all started eating their eggs and their eggs were very good.
“They’re supposed to try it today, whatever it is that they’re going to do, a spell or whatever it might be, to go to the otherside,” May said between bites.
“I told you, May. We don’t need to worry about them and that. We’re going to have enough to worry about and more trying to build this place back up.”
“But if it works, I thought that we should go and see and see them off.”
Violet looked across the table at Huck Marbo, looked deep into his green eyes, and he looked back at her and looked even deeper into her green eyes. Huck huffed and then looked at May.
“Pa, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for . . .”
“We’ll go,” Huck said. “We’ll go and see them off. They say that they’re leaving right when the sun is directly overhead. So let’s eat and get a move on. We’ve got stuff to take into town anyway and get the shop set up. We’ve got a lot to clean up.”
Violet smiled in a funny way at Huck and they finished their plates.
Wylene was sitting on the doctor’s porch and looking out into the sunshine. “You don’t really know what sunshine is until you haven’t felt it for so long. You don’t realize that it gives you a kind of energy that you can’t get from anything else."”
“I suppose so,” Jim said to her. He was cleaning his rifle. On the wooden table in front of him was his shining ax and his Dracon pistol that the preacher had given back to him. Jim was trying to say as little as possible because he was inwardly so excited that he thought he might burst into laughter if too many words came from his mouth. He thought he might lose control. After they’d talked with Hattie and Straddler and the rest the night before, it came out that Wylene had the ability to open these gates, but that she needed to rest up and gain energy and that she could only do it at certain times and in certain ways. But she felt that if she got good enough rest and healing herbs she might be able to open one in the morning.
Old Magic Woman, or Matishne, as Wylene called her, did know how to use just about everything that had been on the doctor’s shelves and in his bags. With those items, she packed as much medicine on and into Jim and Wylene as she possibly could, and the two had slept soundly through the night.
Early that morning, it was decided.
Matishne said, “Sparrow is not beyond repair. Simon Starkey and I will stay behind here with Benjamin and the preacher. We can make this town strong again. Should Old Bendy’s Men come this way, we will stand together with the men and women of Sparrow against them. But you must go, James Falk, you must go to find your father.”
“And I will go with him,” Wylene had said immediately. “I have business of old in the Wydder, and James will need my help.”
“So it will be,” Matishne said.
When the sun was overhead and blazing, Hattie and Samuel, Violet and Huck and May, Benjamin, Simon, and Matishne stood watching as Wylene moved her arms slowly and spoke sharp words into the air.
Soon her arms were stretched out and her palms were open with the sunlight glowing in them. Then there was a noise like a pop and everyone heard a whining sound. Across from Wylene in the snowy grass, a rock split open and a cold wind came from the darkness behind the rock. Soon the darkness grew into a patchy looking shadow and then into a shimmering, black emptiness.
“It’s open,” Wylene said.
Jim turned and looked at each of them standing there. He looked at Fenny’s bright eyes and perked ears, he looked at Hattie’s old face. He looked them all in the eye. His eyes finally rested on Old Magic Woman.
“We will see each other again, little Jim,” she said.
Packed with medicines and ammunitions, specials and elixirs, and other stuff that Matishne had given them, the two moved through the black gate. It slowly, but surely, disappeared, leaving only the sunny field and the good people of Sparrow.
Epilogue
He walked in.
“They are in the den,” the preacher said to the man wearing the broken glasses.
“And no one else knows?” Spencer Barnhouse asked the preacher.
“Only Falk knew that I had them and now he is on the otherside.”
“The other side?” Spencer asked him, stepping toward the old fireplace in the preacher’s home.
“He went through to the place they call,” and the preacher whispered this word, “the Wydder.”
Spencer Barnhouse said, “Hmph. Show me the papers.”
The preacher went to the mantelpiece and moved the stone just so, and the stone opened up. He reached inside and slid out the shiny metal box. He handed it to Spencer Barnhouse.
The two men sat down in the chairs.
“Your wife is not here? There is no one in the house but you and me, right?”
“No one.”
Barnhouse slid the lid to the box open and inside were the several sheafs of paper. His hands fidgeted with excitement. He could barely bring himself to touch them.
“But these are not copies,” Spencer said. “These are the original papers, these are Falk’s original journals and the scriptures.” Spencer gasped. “Where did you get these?”
“There is a cave in the hills. It is the same cave where that witch-woman, Wylene, took us when we escaped the burning church. That’s where I found these. Near where they buried the body of Isham Pritham, the doctor.”
“What happened to the copies that I gave you?”
“I do not know. When I got home from the cave, they were gone.”
“Who else knew about them?”
“As I said, only Falk knew. Only Jim Falk knew about the copies. But he doesn’t know about the originals.”
Spencer Barnhouse raised his eyes after reading a few pages of the scribblings. “Take me to this cave, Preacher.”
THE END