by Chris Neeley
James wouldn't confront him yet. Not after all this mess. In time, in time.
Before something else happened.
Chapter Nine
Anna shambled back through the woods, satisfied with the workings of her magic. She was not pleased with the fact that the boy had actually seen her, at least she thought he had. She couldn't be sure.
The leaves and sticks crackled under her bare feet as she walked. Sometimes she lifted low branches out of her way, sometimes she slid past them. The boy had help. That 'Mommadoll' voice had hissed in her ear right before Seph had yelled for the boy. At least she had heard the boy's name. James. Knowing your enemy's name gave you power over them.
The boy had squinted his eyes at her, but his father had hollered for him and that had seemed to break the spell he was under. Mayhap he hadn't seen. Anna hoped she had been lucky, although luck wasn't one of her major suits right now.
She had caused Seph to lose his woman and now his animals. It was time to see if she could call him to her . She would give him one sunset and one sunrise to come of his own accord. If he didn't, she would work a bit of magic and bid him to come.
He had seen her the night before at his pigsty, so maybe he could figure out on his own that she had the power to destroy him. If he did figure it out, you would think that he would surely come to her and beg her to stop, wouldn't you?
Anna came to the edge of the woods where they met the dirt track that led to her shack. A truck passed on the dirt road, raising a cloud of dust. She waited until the truck was long gone, then stepped out of the cover of the woods and headed in the direction of the shack.
She hoped Crow was back. She felt like talking to somebody, something. She wasn't mad at him anymore. She just wanted some company.
Someone that she could tell about what a good day Anna was having.
***
Seph couldn't believe what had just happened.
Those hogs had been all right this morning. What had gone wrong? That girl. She had done something last night, but what?
She had been responsible, he knew it in his heart, his head just didn't want to believe it. She probably had something to do with Chloe's death, too.
He walked through the stinking muck of the sty. The smell of gunpowder burned in the air, permeated his clothes. It was everywhere. It looked like a massacre. Hogs lay all over, bloody, torn to pieces. It looked like a war had been fought in the sty on this gorgeous August day.
Why had his life suddenly gone so wrong?
He knew why. He had done wrong and now he was doing penance.
He opened the sliding barn door and went inside. Mud dropped from his clothes in clods and splat dully on the floor as he walked.
Cliff had put Georgia in the stall. Seph stopped and leaned over the gate. Georgia was sleeping, of all things. He didn't see Cliff. He must have gone out the other door. Seph stood the gun in the corner of the wall by the door that led out in front of the barn. He went outside to find both boys leaning on the fence of the pigsty, surveying the destruction.
He walked over to them.
"I'm gonna get cleaned up. One of you boys, call the vet and get him out here."
The boys looked at him. There had been a war, all right. You could see it in their faces.
"Go on now. It's over," Seph said. He started off for the house. He felt a heavy weight bearing down on him. Pieces of gravel stuck to the soles of his muddy boots. He scuffed his feet as he walked, trying to scrape the muck and blood and who knew what else from the bottom of his boots before he went into the house.
When he got this mess cleaned up, this next little piece of his life that had decided to take a shit, he was going to pay a visit to the crazy girl.
He had to know whether it was her or just his bum luck that was ruining his life.
If it was her, he was going to make it very clear that she was to leave his family alone.
***
James watched his father walk away, his shoulders slumped, scuffing his feet. For once, James felt sorry for him.
James hadn't felt that way since his father had started drinking years ago and he had seen how his mother had suffered over it. Seph had never hit her, oh no. And James guessed that he loved her in his own way, but it was the late nights that turned into even later nights, that turned more recently into dawns, that had torn his mother apart.
James remembered what Aunt Doll had said. "See her." And he had seen the woman crouched in the raspberries. True, he had only seen her dimly, as if through a fog, a shadowy shape.
This was going to be a riddle that was going to take James some time to figure out.
He turned back to the mess in the hog sty.
"Do you want to call the vet, or should I?" Cliff asked.
James leaned against the fence rail, his feet mired in mud, but he didn't care. The thought came to him that money was going to be mighty scarce this winter. "I'll call him," James said. "Why don't you go check on Georgia, see if she's still...sane?"
Cliff walked off, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
James started for the house. His eyes shifted to the raspberry bramble. It called to him, 'come see, come see--the woman was here', but James shook it off.
He had to call the vet.
At least Doc Varner could examine the hogs and tell the family what had caused their cannabalism.
Just as James hung up the phone, Fern raced into the kitchen. "Is G-Georgia okay?"
"She's fine. She's out in the barn. Go on out, Cliff's out there," James assured her.
Fern placed her hand over her heart and rolled her eyes to the ceiling like a drama queen. "Oh thank God," she gushed and slammed through the screen door at a full out run.
James shook his head and went out the door. He walked out to the barn, glancing toward the woods.
He'd deal with that later. He needed to help the family right now. The sun was moving to the afternoon side of the Hollow and they had a lot of work to do before dark. James thought he might as well get started.
He hoped that it wouldn't be too long before Doc Varner arrived.
A sty full of hog carcasses in the heat of an August night sure could draw some unwanted visitors down from the mountain.
***
Anna paced the warped wood floor of her shack. The floor creaked with every other step that she took, creating an eerie music.
What to do, what to do?
She stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked on it as she walked in circles, trying to decide. Should she wait or do it right now?
She'd do it tonight, in the midnight, when the spell would be more powerful.
She snapped her fingers. She still needed one more ingredient--dust from a headstone.
She gathered her things together and left the shack, heading in the general direction of Rockside.
She knew exactly which stone to collect dust from that would draw Seph to her. She had seen in her scrying mirror the area of the cemetery that the Chloe woman was buried in, but that cemetery was a big one. She'd have to wander around until something looked familiar. When she found the Chloe woman's marker, she hoped that it would have some dust on it. The dust from that particular marker would have a powerful pull on Seph Mayhew's heart.
The afternoon was passing.
She'd better get a move on if she wanted to get everything done before the midnight. Tonight, she would even take a bath. If she had enough time.
She cut through the woods, not wanting to be seen by anyone on the road. It would take her longer, but she still didn't know who the spirit 'Mommadoll' was for sure except that she had some connection to the boy James. That made the boy James a threat. She should do something about that, she really should. The boy could put her in danger and she couldn't have that. Oh, yes. She'd definitely have to deal with the boy.
***
Seph helped Doc Varner drag one of the sow's carcasses, one that wasn't too torn up, over to the lift that was attached to the bed of Doc's pick-up. It took Seph, Doc Varn
er and James to lift the hog the two inches off the ground they needed just to get it onto the lift.
Seph took off his cap and wiped his brow. Dusk was falling and they still had two more hogs to haul to the pile of pork flesh that they would set fire to later. Seph hated to do it, but there wasn't anything else he could do with them. Doc Varner had said that he had to run some tests on the one that he was taking with him before he could know for sure what had set the hogs off in such a tizzy. It could be anything, Doc Varner had said. Better to burn them. Better not to take any chances. He had seen some 'coons with rabies over the summer and you never knew.
Doc Varner hit the switch that started the lift. It whirred to life, lifting the hog slowly up until it was level with the bed of the truck. It clunked to a stop.
Seph jumped into the bed of the truck. "Come on, James, let's get her in here," he said. James jumped into the truck and together they took the hog by the legs and scooted it into the bed. Seph hated the feel of a dead animal, especially one that was all ready going stiff. Its skin felt like putty as it slid over the stiffening muscles when he pulled.
He climbed over the hog, trying his best not to put his boot in it, and jumped back down to the gravel.
Doc Varner hit another switch and the lift closed itself up like a tailgate. Seph wiped his hands on his handkerchief and held his right one out to the Doc as James jumped over the side of the truck bed and headed back to the sty.
"I want to thank you for coming out so quick, Doc," Seph said, shaking the man's hand.
"No trouble, Seph. I was dearly sorry to hear about Chloe, you know. It was pretty sudden, wasn't it?" The old man's eyes brimmed with sincerity.
"Yes, it was. You'll let me know about the sow?"
"Yep. I sure will. Don't know how long it'll take though. Maybe a day, maybe a week. Depends on what I find." He clapped Seph on the back. "Things'll get better, Seph, you just wait."
Seph cocked his cap back on his head and looked to the woods. They looked deep, dark, full of secrets.
"I sure hope so."
"Atta boy," Doc Varner said. He started for the front of the truck. He got in and started it up. He leaned out the window. "Sure wish I could haul one of the boys home with me. To unload this carcass, you know?" He raised his eyebrows comically.
"James," Seph said, snapping his fingers. James was helping Cliff drag one of the lighter hogs toward the pile. He came out through the gate, not bothering to close it behind him, and walked up to the truck where Seph stood.
"What?" he asked, wiping his hands on his jeans.
Seph searched his son's face. The boy didn't look much like a boy anymore. His face held the grim seriousness of a man that had seen too much in too little of a time. "Go on home with Doc Varner here. Help him get this sow out of the truck. I'll come by and fetch you later."
"That's okay. I'll walk back," James said, going around to the passenger side of the truck. He stomped his boots and climbed in beside the Doc, closing the door.
"You sure you don't want me to pick you up? You've done an awful lot of work today," Seph said through the Doc's open window.
James looked at him with dead eyes. "No," he said. "I'd really rather walk if you don't mind."
Seph nodded his head. Maybe the boy needed some time away from the farm, some time alone. Seph slapped the side of the truck, making a hollow thump. "See ya," he said.
Doc Varner pulled away from the barn and drove on down the driveway.
Seph waved as the truck turned onto the road. Doc Varner beeped the horn and kept on going.
Seph pulled the bill of his cap back down and headed back for the sty and its mound of carnage that was heaped in the middle of the mire.
One more hog on the pile, then he'd set it off.
What a waste.
***
"So, James, are you ready for school to start? It's just a few days off, you know," Doc Varner said as they drove down The Bend road.
"Yeah, I'm ready." Actually, he hadn't thought about it lately, but it would be good to get away from the farm, even if it was only for the day. Besides, James really did like school. He felt that an education was going to be his only way out of Rockside and the Hollow, so he studied hard, got good grades and hoped that he'd get a scholarship when it came time for college. He had to get out from under the shadow of Hoary Ridge. With everything that was going on, he wondered if he would have a mind left when it came time to leave.
"Well, that's good, that's good," Doc Varner was saying, "What are you going to be this year? A senior?"
"A junior," James said, smiling at the man. The greenish glow of the dash lights only made Doc Varner look older than he was. He must be around seventy by now, James thought, but the man still had some muscle left in him.
Doc Varner pulled into his own driveway and drove on past the house to the low brick building out back that served as his office. He had pens and stables behind the brick building, to the one side, to keep the animals and livestock that he was doctoring.
James looked around as Doc Varner drove around to the back of the building, then backed the truck up to set of metal doors that were set back in slightly from the edge of the building's walls. A single light bulb in a wire cage hung above them. It reminded James of a prison. Doc Varner shut the engine off and they both got out of the truck, the sound of the doors closing causing a horse in one of the pens to whinny. They walked to the back of the truck.
Doc Varner fished a set of keys from his pants pocket and unlocked the huge metal doors, pushing them open to the inside. He went into the building and disappeared into the darkness that fell just beyond the puny glow of the light. James waited quietly, not wanting to arouse any more livestock that happened to be penned outside. Before long, lights flicked on in quick succession throughout the building, bathing the hall in bright light. James heard something, a wagon, or a cart of some kind, rolling along the tile floor inside. The Doc appeared from around a corner, pushing what looked like a metal gurney, only it was twice as wide as the ones used in hospitals. It rattled and squeaked as Doc Varner brought it out through the doors and parked it just outside.
"Bet you thought I was going to make you help me carry that hog inside, didn't you, James?" he said, then he snickered.
"I wondered," James said, humoring the old man and his joke.
The Doc went to the front of the truck and flipped the switch to let the lift come down from its tailgate position. It whirred loudly in the stillness, easing itself down until it was level with the bed of the truck. It clunked metallically into place.
Doc Varner got the metal table and brought it up to the lift and locked the brakes on it. James looked at the table.
"Don't worry," the Doc said, "It'll take the weight. Let's move her out of the truck."
They climbed into the bed of the truck and after a lot of groaning and a lot more cussing, the hog was finally on the table. Doc Varner raised the lift back up so that it became a tailgate again. "I can take you back home, son," he said.
James wasn’t sure if he could. He was showing his age in the unforgiving light of the caged bulb. "No really, that's okay," James said. "I'd better be going."
"Well, all right. But don't say I didn't offer."
James smiled at the old man. He had always liked the Doc. He didn't much like seeing him under these conditions but that wasn't going to cause him to be rude to the man. "I'll see you around. You sure you don't need anymore help?" James asked.
Doc whammed his hand down on the metal table. It made a resounding boom. "Nope. I'll work on her right on this table here. You best get moving on home. Your Dad might still need some more help. He's having an awful rough time, you know."
James nodded his head and took off walking.
"You be careful now," the Doc warned when James was almost past the edge of the building.
"I will!" James called over his shoulder.
James feet hit the road and turned in the direction that would not lead him back hom
e.
He was headed for Rockside.
He was headed for the cemetery and Aunt Doll.
***
Anna wandered around the headstones, pausing before each one that looked like it was shaped like the Chloe woman’s name. She bent to read each inscription. Each one had a different name and it was not Mayhew. Her fevered mind was racing, frustration setting in when she still couldn't find it. She needed to light a candle. She needed to take another look in her mirror and see if she could get her bearings in the Godforsaken place. She let out a giggle, laughing at her own thoughts. As if she believed in God.
Anna found a wide flat headstone and slung her potato sack up onto the top. The moon glowed down, giving her enough light so that she could dig a candle and some matches from the dark interior of the sack. She scraped the match against the side of the stone. It sparked to life, a tiny flame in the darkness. She held it to the wick of the beeswax candle and lit it. She blew out the match and tossed it on the ground. She held the candle sideways to let some melted wax from the tip drip onto the top of the stone. When there was a tiny opalescent pool of wax, she stuck the base of the candle in it, anchoring it to the headstone. The flame licked yellow-white, sending flickering light over Anna's makeshift work area. She got her mirror out and held it close to the candle. The surface of the black mirror was liquid, swirling with images. She concentrated, trying to make the mirror reveal the funeral scene again.
It floated up from the bottomless pit of the mirror.
Anna looked deep and marked a willow tree, two graves to the left of the woman's stone. The stone had Seph's name on it too. Anna looked around her. Dark shadows of trees loomed throughout the cemetery. She spotted a rounded one in the distance, an upside down mop. She gathered her things, blew out the candle. She took off in that direction, skirting headstones and monuments.
The hulking mass of the willow tree lurked in the darkness. Anna's eyes scanned the stones around the tree. There. She hustled over to where she thought she saw the Mayhew name. Yes! Moonlight reflected on the shiny stone. Anna dug through her sack for an empty tin. When she found one, she got it out and took off the lid. She ran her hand along the top of the stone. Luck was running in her favor tonight. She carefully scraped the dust off the top of the stone, brushing it into the tin. She capped it, grinning insanely in the dark.