by Chris Neeley
He got up and opened his window wider, breathing in the air, glad that the asthma attack hadn't lasted very long.
He leaned his elbows on the window sill and gazed out into the night. Everything was wet and shiny. Freshly washed.
The sound of mother and daughter talking in the next room ceased and James listened to the night.
***
Seph hauled himself over the limb that the truck now straddled. He was shocked at the size of it; it was almost a whole tree. Seph scratched his head, standing in the light drizzle. How the truck had jumped its front tires over that massive thing, he had no idea. He walked back and forth in front of the truck, looking for damage.
"I'll be damned," he said.
How in the world was he going to get the truck off the thing?
It would have to wait until daylight. The only light on this part of The Bend was coming from the headlights of the truck and they weren't bound to last for long.
Seph turned the collar of his shirt up and pulled his worn cap down low. He'd have to hoof it the rest of the way home.
Seph shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and started walking. He jingled the change in his pocket to keep himself company.
This wasn't the first time that he had to walk home from Matthew's.
***
It took Anna half an hour to make up her mind. There were two spells that had caught her eye, and one would only make Seph sick. That wasn't good enough for Anna. She wanted to be prepared in case Seph didn't give Babe Rose his name. She couldn't take vengeance out on the witch that had caused Babe Rose to be born so soon, because she wasn't sure who was responsible. The whispered name that she had heard, she didn't understand.
But she would.
She would find out just who 'Mommadoll' was.
Right now, Anna's main concern was to get Seph to name Babe Rose. There was only one way that her crazed mind could come up with. Until Anna was sure who had cursed her, she couldn't afford to be seen by anyone. Not one other person.
'Mommadoll' could be anybody.
***
James shuddered. Goosebumps rose on his skin.
He opened his eyes. He was lying on his bed again. He didn't remember how he had gotten there. He must have dozed off for a few minutes.
He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. It was still dark. He wasn't sure what time it was, but it was pitch black in his room. Warm, too. Yet, he had felt a distinct chill. That was what had woken him up.
He rubbed his eyes again and squinted into the gloom.
Something stood in the corner by the window.
It was darker than the rest of the room. A spot, about four feet high and bottomless-pit black. It shifted, congealing itself.
The hair stood up on James' arms. He sat up straighter and leaned forward, trying to get his eyes to adjust.
The spot drew in on itself.
"Watch yo'self, boy," a voice, Aunt Doll's voice, breathed against his ear.
Icy fingers traveled up James' spine.
The black spot imploded, not making a sound, and disappeared.
James shook himself. It had been Aunt Doll's voice.
She was trying to warn him.
Something was coming.
Something bad.
***
Seph was only about a half mile away from home when he had the feeling that something was tracking him through the woods at the side of the road.
He watched out of the corner of his eye for movement.
He kept walking, afraid to stop, and watched the edge of the woods.
He took another step.
Something squished beneath his boot.
Seph stopped, one eye watching the woods, his boot most definitely stuck in something in the road. He lifted his foot a little. Whatever his foot was stuck in, it was stuck good because it didn't want to let go.
"Shit," he said, digging in his pocket for his lighter. He pulled the lighter from his pocket and stooped over. He lit the flame.
Sharp, bloody teeth jumped out in stark relief from a background of matted fur and wet pavement.
Seph's body jerked away in revulsion. He fell, landing full on his backside. His boot came free of the dead possum with a loud sucking sound.
The 'shine that was still in Seph's stomach lurched into his throat and blasted out through his mouth and nose. Seph gasped for air. His throat and the inside of his nose were on fire.
Something moved in the woods. Branches cracked, breaking under its feet as it moved through the brush, the noise sounding like a large animal moving along in the dark.
Seph jerked his head in the direction of the sound. His stomach revolted again and he sprayed the last of the contents of his stomach onto the wet road.
He heaved twice more. With nothing left to come out, he wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve.
Whatever had made the noise in the woods had moved on past Seph and was far up the road now. He could still hear it moving, but the sound was distant and faint.
He raised himself up off the pavement. His stomach did a flip and he held his breath, waiting for it to pass. When he realized that nothing was going to come up this time, he stomped his boot on the pavement, trying to get rid of the possum pieces that stuck to it.
Seph was wet, sick, and still had a way to go to get home.
And he wasn't too happy about the situation.
***
Anna had dosed herself with herbs to kill the pain. She was dead tired, but there were matters to take care of. Such as the naming of her babe. Anna swaddled the babe and started off on her trek.
She tried to keep quiet, going through the woods, but when she had seen Seph there in the road, walking, she had panicked a little. She had half a mind to call him out right then, until he stepped in that possum. Served him right, she thought. She hadn't meant to make as much noise as she had, but she hadn't been watching where she was going when he had stepped in the road-kill and she had stumbled over a fallen limb. She had almost dropped the babe Rose in the bargain.
Now, she was threading her way on farther down the road, thinking to catch him up ahead. She'd tell him then. She'd show him his babe and insist that he bury her, with his family name. She would leave Babe Rose in his hands.
But she would be watching.
Chapter Five
James pulled on his jeans, put some socks on and went quietly downstairs to the kitchen.
The moon had come out from behind the clouds, sending shimmering light sifting through the gauzy white curtains that hung across the back door window, making an angular rectangle on the floor in front of it. The supper dishes sat in the dish drainer beside the kitchen sink with a haggard dish towel slung over them. The hen shaped canister set that held flour, sugar and coffee, roosted in a line on the countertop, silently watching James as he padded in stocking feet to the back door and pulled back the edge of the curtain.
The gravel area that joined the barn and the house to the driveway was deserted. The security light that hung at the peak of the barn was dark. The storm must have kicked it out, James thought. He flicked the light switch beside the door. The overhead kitchen light stayed dark. The house and the barn were out of power. James peered out into the dark driveway again. The truck wasn't there. He let the curtain drop back into place.
He wandered out of the kitchen and felt his way back to the bottom of the stairway.
He went up two stairs. The third stair creaked, shattering the silence of the house. He waited, frozen on the stairs. He didn't want his mother to wake up. He knew that if she did, she wouldn't go back to sleep because his father wasn't home yet.
Damn his father. Why did he have to go out drinking? He had gone to Matthew's Friday night, the night when all the old coots gathered to play cards. But on Monday? James didn't understand it. Twice in one week. Was there another woman involved?
Anger rose in his chest at the thought of it.
If there was, James was going to confront his father.
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His mother didn't deserve to be treated like that.
No movement came from upstairs. James eased his foot down on the next stair. It didn't creak. He carefully climbed the rest of the way up and stood in the hall, listening. Steady breathing came from the other bedrooms. James heard his brother, snoring loudly. Cliff could sleep through anything.
James went into his own bedroom and felt around for a shirt. He found one on the floor at the foot of his bed and slipped it on. He found his shoes under the bed and put them on, too.
Quietly, he went back downstairs and out onto the front porch.
He sat on the swing that hung on chains from the roof. The chains creaked a little when his weight came down on the seat. He braced his feet on the wooden floor of the porch so that the swing wouldn't move. He was afraid that his mother might hear it creaking and come out to see who was out here in the middle of the night. He leaned his arm on the armrest and took a chain in his hand. The chain was cool to the touch. A light sheen of moisture covered the metal links. The air was wet and heavy from the brief rain. Even though the swing was protected from the weather by the porch roof, it still felt damp. James felt the dampness seep through his jeans, but he didn't move.
The smell of green things drifted across the road from the woods in front of the house. James liked the smell of living in the country. There were a lot of things that he liked about living down here in the Hollow but, someday, he wanted out. He wanted to get out in the world and see some 'life', life other than raising livestock and living in the shadow of the Ridge. Some people thought that living in the mountains would be heaven on earth. But it wasn't enough for him.
His anger at his father simmered inside of him as he sat and watched, waiting for Seph to come home.
***
Anna cuddled the babe Rose to her chest. She wrapped the afghan that she had swaddled the babe in tighter.
Babe Rose felt so cold.
Raindrops dripped down on her from the trees and she tried to shelter babe Rose from them. The afghan wrapped around her tiny body, layer after layer, made babe Rose seem the size of a normal babe.
Anna sat on a downed tree trunk a few yards in from the edge of the woods and just slightly kitty-corner from Seph's house. The woods closed in around the mother and tiny child, wanting to keep them to itself.
Anna had sat in this same spot, on this same log, many times before. Anna stared at the darkened house.
She had been out walking in the woods, looking for mushrooms to fry up for supper one afternoon. As she had neared the edge of the woods, she caught a glimpse of Seph through the line of trees, coming out of the barn and going into the house. She had been out searching for hours and seeing Seph was a good enough reason for her to sit down and rest a while. She had watched the house that day, all day, up until it was dark and the lights came on, one by one, in the house with the black shutters. She had stayed on, still watching, as the lights went out and the night spread through the woods. The house became still and quiet.
Seph had never come back out of the house, so she figured that must be where he lived. She had come back many times and watched, sitting on this very log.
She had watched him slop his hogs and work under the hood of the old truck that he drove. She had even seen the tip of his cigarette, glowing in the dark, as he sat on that front porch swing that she knew was there but couldn't see in the night. He had sat, smoking and relaxing in the evening, looking awful satisfied with his life.
Anna had spent way too much time sitting here on this log. That was one of the biggest reasons that she had gotten so far behind on her summer chores.
There were so many times that she had wished that she lived in that house. The house itself was more that she could ever hope for. It was at least four times the size of her old shack. But just to have Seph and the babe would have been enough. Even Seph, part-time.
Anna watched Seph's family, moving behind the windows, windows that kept her out, going about their life inside the house. She had seen two boys and the girl and figured that they had to be his kids.
And she had seen the woman who lived with him.
She didn't like the woman from the get go.
The woman had Seph.
Anna didn't.
Life in the farm house seemed to revolve around Seph and the woman. She had even seen them, Seph and his wife, sitting on the porch swing, Seph with his arm around her shoulders, talking low.
Anna had wanted to scream.
That wouldn't have done her any good and she knew it. It would have driven Seph even farther away than he was already.
Anna had wanted Seph to be a part of babe Rose's life.
Now, look what had happened.
Babe Rose was dead. She hadn't had a chance. She had been conceived by spelling and Anna would avenge the life that had been stolen from her child by spelling as soon as she found out who had dared to go against her.
But first things first. She had to see that Babe Rose had a proper burial and a proper name.
She knew Seph Mayhew couldn't be the one who had cursed her. Her magic had worked on him more than once. If he had been the witch, he would have been ready and waiting after the first time when she had spelled him with the tea. She wouldn't have had a second chance at him.
So, Seph was the only person that she felt easy about showing herself to.
Anna's hair hung in a tangled mass. Circles under her eyes told how much her body had been through. She knew that she looked bad, but that didn't matter now.
Anna sat in the dark and dripping woods and rocked her tiny bundle in her arms.
Waiting for Seph.
***
Seph's legs were just about ready to give out. He had never felt this bad in his life. The rain had soaked him clear through and he thanked God when it had stopped. His shorts even drooped inside his jeans. They were driving him nuts, rubbing him raw with every step that he took.
At least his mind was clearing up. His head hurt but the fuzziness of the 'shine had worn off right after he had thrown up in the road.
He walked, trying to keep a steady pace. It wasn't easy. He couldn't see too far in front of him. The moon broke through the treetops every now and again. He picked up the pace for a time until he was back in the dark. He was moving awfully slow. After what he had been through, he was surprised that he could move at all. He would sure feel it in the morning.
He just plain should quit drinking 'shine.
The problem was that he couldn't forget that girl. He had never done anything like that before. After everything had come back to him about that wild night in the clearing, he'd vowed that it would never happen again.
But it had happened again.
He didn't know why he had gone to her shack this past Friday night. Just that something had bid him to do it. He didn't know why he had taken her to bed again, either. He admitted that not too many men would have stopped, could have stopped, if they had opened the door of that shack and saw her standing there, naked as a jay-bird and wet as morning dew with rose petals clinging to that firm, young body of hers. It was like she had planned it. It had worked on him. He had gone at her like she was a bitch in heat. He had enjoyed himself and that was a fact. Being with her had made him feel young again. She had made him feel like he was the only man in the world and that every other man was only a boy in her eyes. She had cast a spell on him that he couldn't resist.
Until she had told him that she was pregnant.
He shook his head as he walked. He hadn't noticed the swell of her belly. It couldn't be his. He didn't even know her name, for Christ's sake. He and Chloe had been married for twenty years now and true, it had taken a few years for the kids to come, but they had come and now his family was complete. He had a good wife, two strapping teenage boys, and a daughter that he couldn't be more proud of. How could he even think twice about messing that up? What would he say if Chloe found out about the girl? Lord, she'd probably run straight to the lawyer and make hi
m pay for it to boot. He'd lose everything. The kids, the farm. Everything.
He had to change his ways. Ever since the thing with the girl had happened, he hadn't been himself. He snapped at the kids, snapped at Chloe and he drank too much, trying to forget.
He felt sorry for that girl, pregnant and alone, but there wasn't anything that he could do for her that wouldn't cost him a higher price than he was willing to pay.
Seph walked in the dark, head down, hands in his pockets, feeling like he had betrayed every value that he ever had in his life.
***
James leaned forward on the swing when he thought he heard someone walking on the road. The chains on the swing creaked in protest. Something moved in the woods. James heard a branch break.
***
Anna heard Seph coming. She held Babe Rose close to her breast and got up from her perch on the sodden log and started weaving her way out of the woods to the road. She stopped right in the middle of the road, shawl draped across her shoulders, and waited for Seph to get a bit closer.
***
Seph heard something come out of the woods a few yards ahead. It sounded like it had come out and stopped in the middle of the road. He slowed his pace, his eyes searching the darkness in front of him.
Then he heard someone call his name softly in the night.
***
James heard something. Someone had called out. He couldn't understand what they had said or exactly where the sound had come from. He rose from the swing and walked to the edge of the porch, trying not to make any noise.
***
"Seph," Anna said, again. She could see him now, standing stock still about six feet away. She moved closer to the man she loved, Babe Rose's father.
***
Seph was having a nightmare. That was the only thing it could be. It was the drink, the DT's, maybe the after effects of the wreck.
The girl had called his name and now she was walking straight for him. He wanted to run the other way. A voice inside his head reminded him that he was a grown man and not some school boy. She was carrying something in her arms. When she got within a foot of him, the moon broke through the trees, illuminating her in terrifying starkness.