Grimm Reapings

by R. Patrick Gates

  Christmas Day saw the continuance of the storm, which caused the delay ofJen and Jeremy's arrival at Diane's. SinceJackie's homecoming, Diane had come out of her holiday funk and had flown into a frenzy of activity: cleaning, baking, even braving the storm and the other last-minute shoppers to go out to the stores on Christmas Eve. The result was a fabulous turkey dinner as good as the feast Jen had put on for Thanksgiving. After exchanging gifts around the tree, they settled down with pie and coffee to watch the Frank Capra classic again.

  By evening, the storm was finally winding down. Diane was in her room, napping, as were Jeremy on the living room couch; his sister, Deb, in the leather recliner; and Steve in his room. Only Jen and Jackie seemed unaffected by the legendary somnolent affects of turkey. They sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee laced with Bailey's Irish Creme. Jackie told her about the book offer and his desire to do some research at Grimm Memorials over semester break.

  "That's great! Of course you can use anything you want! Since you're sharing, I've got some good news, too," Jennifer told her brother.

  An unexpected chill ran down Jackie's spine.

  "Me and Jeremy are going to start a family." Jen beamed at her brother.

  Jackie was taken aback as much by her news as by an echo of the chill returning. "Really? You?"

  "I kid you not."

  Jackie sipped his coffee and remained silent for several minutes. "I thought you didn't want kids. That's what you always said."

  "I know," jen conceded, "but I changed my mind."

  "Why?" Jackie wanted to know. His intensity made Jen laugh nervously.

  "Why? Can't I change my mind?"

  "Sure, but it just seems weird you change it now that you're living ... you know."

  "What do you mean?"

  Jackie looked at his sister and marveled at how, after all these years, he still couldn't tell if she really was as clueless as she led him to believe, or if it was all an act.

  "You know, since you moved into Grimm Memorials."

  "Why?"Jen asked, still in the dark, but the answer came to her almost as soon as the question was out of her mouth. She laughed. "You think my wanting to have a baby has something to do with my living at the Grimm place? Boy! You don't give up, do you? After all these years."

  "Old habits die hard," Jackie said sheepishly. They laughed together.

  Jen wagged her head. "You are such a dweebo," she said affectionately and laughed again.

  Neither of them was aware that Steve was standing just inside the shadows of the hallway, listening to them; had been for several minutes. He was trembling with such an overpowering feeling of hate for his brother, Jackie, that it was all he could do not to act on it and run screaming profanities at him. For a moment, he thought about doing just that and worse, but he managed to resist with a great effort of will. Instead, he went back to his room and lay on his bed, watching the snowfall outside his window, wondering why their conversation was both intriguing and a riddle to him.

  Around 8:00, Jeremy bundled up and went out to clear the car off and warm it up while Jennifer and Debbie got ready to leave, despite Diane's imploring them to stay a little longer.

  "Can't, Mom, I've got to get back to work first thing tomorrow. We've got to get ready for our big New Year's Eve bash. Plus, we're thinking of moving our opening to Labor Day and there's so much more to do and I've only got two hands and twenty-four hours in a day."

  Before he even knew what he was saying, Steve spoke up. "I could help," he offered. "I been asking Mom since Thanksgiving to let me come work for you, but she's afraid I'll get sick again, which is stupid that wasjust a onetime thing. I could come over tomorrow and help, and I'm off homeschool all next week, right, Mom?"

  Diane looked like a deer caught in headlightsstartled, unable to move.

  "Oh! That would be awesome! "Jen said immediately. "Debbie's going to help during her vacation, too. And I can pay you-not much. But a couple bucks an hour, under the table, anyway."

  "Oh, I don't think so," Diane stammered, finding her voice.

  "Why not?" Steve demanded, his harsh tone bringing an awkward silence.

  "Well ... how would you get over there?" Diane grasped at the only obstacle she could think of. "The Weather Channel is predicting another blizzard at midweek, and you know how I hate driving in the snow."

  `Jackie can drive me, can't you, Jackie?" Steve looked hopefully to his older brother.

  "Uh, yeah, sure, I guess, "Jackie blurted, shrugging at his mother, who had fixed him with a narrow-eyed glare at his first agreeable word.

  "I really can use the help getting ready for the party, Mom. It'll be okay," Jen said quickly, stepping in to soothe her mother with a quick, gentle hand to her shoulder. "Actually, I was going to ask Jackie to come over and work, too we need someone to go through all the manuscripts and paper in the library on the second floor. There's a ton of stuff and we don't want to throw out anything that might be important or valuable. "Jackie nodded and she winked at him. Jen kissed her mother's cheek. "So, you see, Jackie's coming anyway, why not let Steve make a little extra cash, too? He'll be fine."

  "See?" Steve cried loudly, barely able to contain himself.

  Diane remained silent and unconvinced.

  "I could use your help, too, Mom,"Jen coaxed. "In fact, I've been thinking, why don't you and Steve just move in with us? We've got the room and we could really use the help. We can make the B&B a real family business."

  Steve nodded his head frantically in wildly hopeful agreement.

  Faced with pressure from all sides, Diane sighed and shook her head. "We'll see. Maybe we'll come over and help."

  Steve started to protest, but Diane held up her hand, stopping him.

  "That's all I'll say for now. I need to think about it," she said firmly.

  Steve was crestfallen until his sister winked at him.

  "Great! "Jen said, giving her mother another kiss on the cheek and a quick hug. "We'll see you Monday then." She bustled her sister-in-law, loaded with presents and leftovers, quickly out the door.

  It is all coming together.

  Surprising how simple it is, how the Machine knits it all up tight.

  Step one to the permanent return home has been achieved. She can afford to continue to rest, gather strength, and wait.

  Soon, she will be back in her element, but first ... sustenance!

  Theo Silverstein was a five-year-old night owl, had been since birth. Right from the womb, he had insisted on sleeping all day and crying all night. After a few weeks of that, and having tried everything she and her doctor could think of, his mother heeded the advice of the old Italian woman who lived next door.

  "Hold him by his feet over his crib for thirty seconds, then turn him counterclockwise three times and put him back in his crib, upsidedown."

  His mother had done it, and it had worked, sort of. While he did start sleeping at night, he never fell asleep until late. Fortunately for his mother, being awake and on his own in the house when she was not did not bother the young Theo. The older he got, the more he enjoyed getting up after his mother had gone to bed and having the place to himself.

  Born out of wedlock, the result of an adulterous affair with a wealthy married man who paid Theo's mother handsomely to keep his birth quiet, Theo had no one but his mother to keep tabs on him. Though she was a healthy, young woman, she could not keep up with her hyperenergetic five-year-old and was usually asleep by 9:00. Rarely getting to bed before midnight, Theo would roam the small house, eat dry cereal from the box, color, and watch TV. He knew how to run the DVD player and had a small, but much loved and watched, collection of DVDs. Favorite among them was the one he'd just gotten for Christmas that morning: The Complete Power Rangers.

  Tonight Theo was up later than usual, having snuck several caffeinated sodas, which weren't allowed, while he and his mother had been making the rounds of holiday visits with relatives. Too wired to sleep, he was still up at 2:00 a.m., coloring in his new P
ower Rangers books and playing with his new Matchbox cars before settling in to watch the Power Rangers video again. He put the DVD in and ran back to the couch, knocking over the box of Cocoa Puffs he'd been eating from and spilling them all over the floor.

  "Oops!" he whispered. He started to get up to clean the mess, but the start of the show grabbed his attention first and he settled back, eyes wide, all else forgotten in the hypnotic glow of the screen.

  Across the hall from Steve Nailer's room, his older half brother, Jackie, lay awake late, first reading, then just lying in the dark staring at the ceiling. Sometime after midnight, just as he was drifting off to sleep, he thought he heard Steve's door open and close, and a few moments later, the front door. Jackie got up and crossed the hall to Steve's room. He opened the door just enough to assure himself that his brother was still in bed-he could see the outline of his body, wrapped in the blankets, turned to the wall.

  Jackie told himself he had been dreaming. He returned to bed and eventually achieved sleep. He never heard his brother's return, shortly before dawn.

  Theo Silverstein pressed Pause and sat forward on the couch. On the TV screen, the Red Ranger was frozen in midnight against a gang of Putties-the made-of-clay evil henchmen of the wicked Rita.

  What is that noise? Theo wondered, straining to hear it clearer. It was a faint pinging sound, like something hitting ... glass. The window! Jumping from the couch-wincing as the Cocoa Puffs toppled again, spilling chocolate beads worse than before-Theo went to the living room window, pulled back the curtain, and was surprised to see a shadow on the window shade.

  He took a frightened step back, letting go of the curtain.

  Someone was out there!

  Ping!

  They were tapping on the window. His first instinct was to wake up his mom, but as he turned to go to her room, he noticed something about the shape of the figure he could see through the shade. The head was bigger than a normal head and had a familiar shape to it.

  He turned back to the window and stepped closer. Yeah! He knew that shape-it was a helmet! Not just any helmet, a Power Rangers helmet!

  Theo ran to the window, pulled back the curtain again, and yanked the shade. It went up in a loud flutter. For a moment, the sight of the Red Ranger, his favorite, standing outside, enthralled Theo. But when he eagerly put his hands and face to the glass, the light shifted and he saw it wasn't the Red Ranger at all, just some kid-a teenager-wearing a heavy, hooded parka. He was motioning for Theo to open the window.

  "The Putties are after me," the kid said, his voice muffled by the glass, and looked fearfully over his shoulder. "Unlock the window and let me in. We've got to call the Power Rangers."

  Theo frowned and whispered: "What the hell?" It was one of his mother's favorite expressions and he used it as often as he could when she wasn't around to hear. He was young, but he wasn't stupid; he knew the Power Rangers were just a TV show ... yet. .

  "Hurry! the kid said, looking over his shoulder again. There was movement over by the snow fort Theo had built in his tiny yard. His eyes widened in amazement as a gray Putty ran through the deep snow by the fort and ducked behind it.

  Thrilled and frightened at the same time, Theo forgot what he knew about the difference between real things and make-believe, and unlocked the window. The kid outside quickly slid it up.

  "Thanks," he said.

  Before Theo knew what was happening, the kid reached in and grabbed Theo by the hair with one gloved hand, the other clamping over his mouth. In the next instant, he was outside in the freezing snow, the teenager on top of him.

  The teen leaned close and whispered to Theo, "Now this is my kind of window service," before biting off his ear.

  Steve Nailer woke shivering and naked, sitting on the edge of his bed in the muted light of early dawn. On the floor at his feet lay his fleece parka, wet with snow and more. He didn't want to acknowledge what the other stains were and didn't even have the memory of a dream to explain where they had come from. He stuffed the coat under his bed and crawled under the covers to sleep fitfully until noon. Late the next night, he hid the coat in the cellar, but when his mother would later ask him where it was, he would honestly not be able to remember.

  In the week following Christmas, Steve, Jackie, and Diane went every day to the former Grimm estate to help out with renovations. While Diane and Steve were put to work cleaning and painting, Jackie spent every day in the library on the third floor trying to make sense of the reams of personal papers that were there. It was overwhelming and, by the end of the week, he had to give up.

  "This isn't helping," he told Jen on Friday. "There's too much. It'd make a great book, but I think it's too much work for one person. I just need to focus on what happened to me, and us, too. There's just nothing here that will help me do that. Honestly, I think I'd be better off back in the dorm. Maybe I can get something done there."

  "No! " Jen argued. "You can still write it here, can't you? You can use the library and we'll give you lots of peace and quiet. What about my New Year's Eve party?"

  "I'll stay for that, but I'm going after." The truth was he just didn't feel comfortable in the house. While it was true that the place had changed and did feel completely different, he still didn't like it. To Jen, though, he made the not untrue excuse: "If I stay here and work, then Mom and Steve are going to find out what I'm working on and I really don't want them to know I'm doing this. I don't want anyone to know, okay? There's a very good chance I'm going to fail at this, and I don't want to look like an idiot in front of everyone.

  "Oh,"Jen mused, smiling, "you don't mind looking like an idiot in front of me?"

  "You and Chalice. She knows, too."

  "Of course,"Jen said, smirking.

  "You don't like her much, do you?"Jackie ventured.

  "What gives you that idea? If you like her, then I like her," Jen said, but didn't look at Jackie when she said it.

  Jackie's mother, Diane, had the exact opposite experience from her son. Where she had initially disliked being in Grimm Memorials, by the end of the week, she began to enjoy the work so much she contemplated getting a regular job, even just a part-time one, or maybe even taking Jen up on her offer to move in and work at the B&B. Since Thanksgiving and learning that Steve knew the truth, she had been thinking there was no reason to keep him homeschooled any longer. With a sense of relief she saw how simpler her life could be. Steve could go to school with kids his own age, and she could go out and find a job, or she could really get involved with the bed-andbreakfast and work closely with her only daughter. How many mothers got the chance to do that? Not only that, she could make friends and get a life. For the first time in thirteen years Diane felt hopeful about the future. For the first time, there was a glimmer of light at the end of the long tunnel of her emotional turmoil. For the first time she could sense a return to a place she thought she might never visit again: normalcy. In the middle of the week, she secretly enrolled Steve in Mt. Sugarloaf Middle School and spent part of each evening scanning the job ads in the local paper.

  For Steve Nailer, the week after Christmas, culminating in New Year's Eve, was much as it had been-a mix of fear-wracked waking moments interspersed with long blackouts. He came to the realization that no matter what was wrong with him, he was no longer in control of his body all the time. After New Year's, he would control it none of the time.

  After the complete blackout on Christmas night, Steve was feeling surprisingly better. He couldn't deny that a large part of him looked forward to going to Jen's with his mother and brother, while another part dreaded the prospect. The latter proved prophetic; when he got there his nose was immediately assailed by the scent of cotton candy and his ears with the sound of cicadas growing steadily louder, filling his head. From the very first moment on Monday that he set foot in the house, he remembered nothing until waking in the evening, back in his house in Sunderland. One moment, he was stepping over the threshold into Jen's house, the next he was sitting on the
couch in Sunderland, in front of a dark TV screen.

  "What are you doing?" his mother asked, startling him from behind the couch.

  He jumped up, his body trembling, his eyes filling with terrified tears. He tried to tell her what had just happened to him, and all that had happened since before Thanksgiving, all the way back to Halloween. His mouth opened several times, but the words would not come no matter how much he tried. Strangled whimpers died in his throat, bringing a look of concern to his mother's face.

  "Honey, are you all right?"

  "Why can't you just leave me alone!" he screamed at her in tears and ran to his bedroom, leaving his shocked and puzzled mother behind. The same thing happened Tuesday. By Wednesday, Steve dreaded going back to Jen's. The blackouts on Tuesday and Wednesday were each longer than Monday's; he didn't come to until close to midnight both nights, only to find himself back in bed in Sunderland.