The Deathtaker's Daughter

by S. L. Baum

  “We need to keep the visitors coming. It’s good for business.”

  Tawny looked at her husband. “I don’t think they are in the market for handmade or second hand children’s clothing.”

  “I’m not thinking about just us. It’s good for the whole town.”

  “Yes, it is. The diner always draws in random visitors,” Pete agreed. “Strangely, the Medical Center gets several tourists as well, but those people are stressed out and not happy at all. Nobody wants to seek medical care while on vacation.”

  “Well, it’s a gorgeous town. I can’t believe we’ve never visited before.” Klaus put his arm around his wife.

  “I hope this won’t be your last visit,” Pete told him.

  Willa plastered a smile on her face. “Only time will tell.” If all went according to plan, they’d never be back.

  “Your daughters get along so well,” Tawny pointed out. “That’s so nice. We love Eva over at our house.”

  Willa looked over to where the girls sat at the table, giggling at something. “Eva’s a darling. And yes, the girls immediately took to each other. It’s so nice.”

  Nobody mentioned the obvious elephant in the room: Anna’s health. Willa and Klaus were glad. They were tired of talking about it, explaining her diagnosis, and putting on the brave face everyone expected or the devastated face that everyone feared.

  “Don’t you have another guest staying with you?” Tawny asked Krista.

  “Yes, we do. Her name is Barbie. But she said she’d have a hard time sitting through a movie without talking the entire time and probably being thrown out of the theatre. Barbie does love to talk, so she figured it was best if she stayed back at the house. I told her to meet us here later, if she feels like getting out.”

  “I hope we get to meet her.”

  “I’m sure you will,” Krista told her friend.

  Opal returned to the dining room with Lavinia on her hip. The child was too old to be carried that way, but with a young brother to compete with, she insisted on it sometimes, and Opal didn’t mind holding her. She hated that her baby girl was most definitely not a baby anymore. A knock on the glass of the front entrance drew her attention and she turned to see Adeline, Sheriff Albert Tucker, and his wife, Patricia. Opal put Lavinia down and went to let them in.

  “Everybody be good, Sheriff Tucker came to crash the party,” she called out as the trio entered the diner.

  “Semi-retired Sheriff Tucker,” Albert Tucker corrected her. “I’ve reduced myself to part-time hours only, now. Keeping the title, but reducing the pay. Patricia wants me to spend more time with her, now that she’s done the same over at the mill.”

  “We are going to build a much larger garden, maybe even a greenhouse for next winter,” Patricia announced. “We’ll be at the farmers’ market every weekend, when it starts back up again. I’ve always wanted to share my love of fresh vegetables and herbs.”

  “She’s got quite a knack for it,” Albert stated proudly.

  “Don’t you ruin all her hard work by stomping around in the garden,” Addy warned her brother. “He’s such lumbering guy.”

  Albert poked his sister on the shoulder. “Oh, you, hush.”

  “No bickering, play nice,” Patricia warned. “Do you people see what I put up with every single time these two are together? And do you know how many years I’ve been doing it? Strangers would think that they’re the married couple and I’m the sister!”

  “Well, I guess we are having an impromptu little party this evening. Let’s get the jukebox going and turn things up a notch,” Sam suggested.

  “Turn that jukebox as loud as you want. Eli and I will be in our corner playing chess. If we can get some sweet tea and cherry pie, we’d be mighty pleased,” Abe threw out his request.

  “I will get that right to you, boys,” Opal said with a wink.

  “I’ll get the tea,” Krista told her friend. “You get the pie.”

  “Everybody here seems so nice,” Anna whispered to Eva.

  “Mostly everybody is,” Eva confirmed.

  Trixie looked at Anna. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Is it about me being sick?” Anna asked.

  Trixie nodded her head.

  Trey bumped his sister with his shoulder. “Trix, that’s not polite.”

  “No, it’s fine. Ask away,” Anna told her.

  “I was just hoping that you are getting better. It looks like you’ve been sick for a while. So I guess I was just going to ask if you’re going to be okay,” Trixie asked.

  “I hope I am going to be okay. I think so. I think coming to Cedar Creek will have a very good effect on my health,” Anna said with a smile.

  “Oh, that’s good to hear. And, I was also wondering… What grade are you in?” Trixie added.

  “I’m supposed to be in eighth, like Trey. But when I was really sick, a couple years ago, I missed so much school that I ended up having a hard time with my classwork. So I’m only in seventh this year. I’m doing my classes online, though. Our school district has an at home program for situations like mine, when getting to class on a regular basis becomes difficult.”

  “I’d love to do school at home,” Trixie sighed. “I hate sitting at desks all day.”

  “I actually miss school,” Anna countered. “When you’re at home so much you miss a lot of fun with your friends.”

  “Yeah, I guess I would miss my friends, but I might be willing to make that trade,” Trixie laughed.

  “Not me. Can’t play basketball if you aren’t at the school,” Trey said through a mouthful of hamburger. “And the friend thing. I totally agree with you on the friend thing.”

  “I’m glad you agree.” Anna laughed. “Do you have enough food in your mouth?”

  Trey took four fries and crammed them in his mouth. “Not yet,” he mumbled.

  All three girls started giggling at once.

  Willa and Krista came up behind them and put their hands on their daughter’s shoulders.

  “Having a good time?” Willa asked Anna.

  Anna nodded her head vigorously. “I am. I really am.”

  “Not too tired?”

  “I’m fine, Mom. I promise.”

  Krista hugged onto Eva from behind and kissed the top of her head.

  “You Tyson kids better be on your we-are-in-public behavior mode,” Tawny warned from where she stood near the jukebox picking out some songs.

  “We are!” they chimed in unison then turned to each other and sighed.

  “Thanks for making us a part of all of this,” Willa leaned toward Krista so she could be heard over the music. “It’s good to see her laughing and having fun again.”

  Krista leaned over to give Anna a quick hug. “This is one good kid. She deserves to have fun.”

  As the two women walked back to where their husbands were standing, Anna felt the energy drain from her, and rested her head on the counter for a second. Krista immediately stumbled forward and grabbed onto Sam to steady herself.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  “I just tripped. Just call me fumble feet,” she said with a forced laugh. But when she leaned into her husband she told him the real reason she’d tripped. “It happened already,” Krista whispered into his ear. “A connection has been made.”

  Sam nodded his head and hugged her to his side. He was glad to hear it. She’d told him that making a natural connection helped her to recover quicker. It was a good thing.

  Willa saw the exchange and knew something else had happened. “What is it?”

  Krista leaned over to whisper in her ear. “The process has started. My body has connected with Anna’s.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It just means that the first step has happened on its own. It’s good. It brings us one step closer to making sure Death doesn’t get to Anna.” Krista smiled; she was pleased.

  Willa’s eyes misted over and she nodded her head, unable to speak. After a moment she looked at Krista and
mouthed the words, thank you.

  Making a connection meant speeding up the process. It meant that Anna’s body would decline faster than it had been before. Willa noticed a marked difference just a few days later, on New Year’s Eve. They’d decided to stay in. Klaus, Willa, and Anna sat at the table eating the pork, slow cooked in sauerkraut, which Willa had made for dinner. It was only seven o’clock and they’d planned to stay up late and watch one of the New Year’s countdowns on the television, but halfway through the meal Anna let her fork clang down on her plate.

  “Sorry. I’m super tired,” Anna apologized. “I just want to relax on the couch. Is that okay?”

  “Do you want me to make a smoothie for you instead?” Willa offered. She wanted her daughter to keep her strength up and she hadn’t eaten much all day.

  “Can I just have a glass of orange juice with some ice?”

  “Go sit on the couch.” Klaus took her plate and put it on the counter. “I’ll bring you some OJ with lots of ice, just the way you like it.”

  “Thanks, Daddy.” She went into the kitchen and hugged her arms around his middle. “I love you.”

  Klaus smiled down at his daughter. “I love you too, AnnaBanana.”

  When she left the room, Klaus turned to Willa. “She’s exhausted and she’s been napping a lot more than usual the last couple of days.”

  “She has a terminal illness and we’ve taken all her meds away, except for the painkillers. It makes sense.”

  “I know it does. I just don’t like it.”

  Willa stood up from her chair, took her plate to the garbage, and scraped its contents into the bin. She’d lost her appetite. “I don’t like it either. But Krista keeps telling me that things are progressing nicely. She’s happy with the connection that has been made and thinks we won’t have to stay here for much longer. While that all sounds like good news, it means–” Willa broke off, unable to finish her sentence.

  “It means that Anna will be dying soon,” Klaus finished for her.

  Willa’s breath caught in her throat. “But that’s what we want. We want death to come so that Krista can rip it away, so that she can make sure it won’t come back again to take our daughter away from us.”

  “I hate Death.”

  “He’s a real sonofabitch,” Willa swore, a little too loudly.

  “I heard that,” Anna called from the couch. “That’s three this week.”

  “Sorry,” Willa called back. She looked at her husband with a guilty smile. “Oops.”

  “Potty mouth!” he scolded her before wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tightly. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Willa softly kissed his lips. “We will get through this.”

  “That’s what we do.”

  “Orange juice,” Anna reminded them.

  Klaus got a glass from the kitchen cabinet and filled it with ice. “Coming,” he sang back to her as he opened the refrigerator.

  While he was taking the juice to Anna there was a knock on the door. Before he could get to it, the door cracked open and Barbie poked her head inside. “Hi, guys. Happy almost New Year. Can I come in?”

  Klaus handed the glass to Anna and rushed to the door. “Come, come. Get out of the cold.” He ushered her into the house, more worried about Anna getting cold than Barbie’s welfare. It had snowed the night before, and the storm had dumped quite a lot of white powder on the ground.

  Anna sipped her juice and waved, “Hey-ya, Barbie Doll!”

  “Hey-ya, AnnaBanana!” Barbie laughed.

  “Hello, Barbie. Have Krista and Sam started any sort of celebration yet?” Willa asked as she gave her a quick hug. Barbie had white flakes clinging to her shoulders. “I see it’s snowing again.”

  “The family just sat down to dinner. They said they are going to hunker down tonight,” Barbie told them. “Hunker sounds like bunker, which is where you’d expect to hide out. I wonder if that’s where the expression came from. Hunker down, bunker down,” she rattled on, in true Barbie form. “Anyway, yes. It is snowing again, just very lightly. There are little shiny pieces of angel wings floating from the sky to land softly on the ground. It’s quite beautiful. You should go spin around outside and let the snowflakes fall on you. I stopped to do just that on the way over.”

  “Would you like a cup of coffee, or tea, or maybe some hot chocolate?” Willa asked.

  “Coffee in this body just spells complete disaster, although I do have the occasional decaf. But, no. No, thank you. I came over here to say goodbye and to give my apologies for leaving much sooner than I intended. I’ve been in contact with some friends, and I’m suddenly needed elsewhere. It’s fairly urgent, so they’ve sent a plane to fetch me. It’s landing at some private airstrip nearby fairly soon, which I’m not the happiest about. You know I’ve never loved air travel. But anyway, someone went missing and I’m off to help locate that person, so I need to pack my things and go. I hope you’re not going to feel abandoned. I really do believe you are in good hands with Krista. She’s pure of heart.”

  “You did what was needed; you located the Deathtaker for us and we are settled and waiting. We thank you for that. I promise not to feel abandoned,” Willa told her. “I completely agree with you. Krista is a great girl.”

  Klaus grasped her hands with his own. “Safe travels to you. Thank you for helping us get where we need to be.”

  Barbie smiled a wide toothy smile. “It was my pleasure.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Anna frowned from the couch.

  Willa looked at her daughter. The girl wasn’t even attempting to get up to say goodbye. It was another reminder that Anna needed to rest.

  “Let me know how everything goes,” Barbie told them as she rushed forward to give Anna a smothering hug. “Text me when it’s all over and you are a sparkly new girl with every cell in its correct formation from head to toe. I bet you are going to feel quite marvelous when this is done.”

  “I bet I am,” Anna agreed. “I hope I get to see you again.”

  “Oh, you will. I promise. Goodbye.” Barbie hugged Willa and Klaus before she exited the guesthouse, and soon after, Cedar Creek.

  Chapter Twelve

  Willa stared out the window. It was a peaceful day and she was strangely calm. The girls were watching videos together on Eva’s new computer. Willa and Anna had walked over to the house after Abe shoveled the path between the two, clearing the snow. It was a snow day, which meant Eva was home from school. Krista hadn’t gone in to work because the medical clinic had decided to stay closed. Sam and Abe had just left to drive into town to check the roof of the hardware store, and Klaus had stayed in the guesthouse to finish up some emails. So, the four girls sat in the living room and sipped hot cocoa, the adult mugs spiked with a hint of Irish Cream, while oatmeal cookies were baking in the oven.

  “We live in a large apartment building in the city, right under the penthouse,” Willa told Krista as she looked out at the snow falling onto the treetops. “Klaus wanted the penthouse but the couple in it were not willing to sell. He settled on buying the two apartments below it and combining them into one. There is a doorman, nighttime security, and a maid to take care of our every need. There is a beautiful view from up there, but it doesn’t compare to this. I could live in a place like this. I could be happy somewhere that doesn’t seem to move so fast, all day, every day. It’s so nice to just slow down. After three weeks at this pace, I’m not sure how I’ll adjust when we go back home.”

  “I’ve lived in many places, but I will honestly say that Cedar Creek stole my heart within the first few moments of being here. This was supposed to be just a stop for me, in the middle of the night. I needed to sleep; I’d been driving too long. I never left, and this is my home. Maybe you should find a second home; a quiet place of your own to decompress, whenever you need a moment to just slow down.”

  “You’re right. I need to start visiting some of the more quiet places, somewhere only a few hours drive away. I’m making a
vow to spend one weekend a month somewhere new until I find a place that suits us. Then I’ll buy a house that looks out at a beautiful scene just like this. And if I can’t buy one, I’ll build one,” Willa declared.

  Anna looked up from the screen. “Oh, Mom, really? That would be so great. I’d love it, and maybe we could spend summers there as well.”

  “I suppose we could. Your father can work from anywhere. He’s always saying that, so I don’t see why we couldn’t.”

  “That would be just amazing.”

  Krista smiled. “What a perfect plan.”

  “After all we’ve been through, some quiet time together as a family would make me incredibly happy,” Willa decided.

  Anna got up from where she sat on the floor and went to sit on Willa’s lap. She draped her arms around her mother’s shoulders and tipped her head so they were touching temples. “It would make me very happy too. I’m tired of being tired, and I’m sick of being sick.”

  “I am both of those things and more, sweet girl,” her mother assured her. “But soon these sick years of your youth will just be a memory; a thing that happened in your past. Your teen years stand ahead of you, and you’ll make the absolute most of them; make up for all that lost time spent in hospitals, in doctors’ offices, and stuck at home resting.”

  “It’s hard to imagine,” Anna admitted in a breathy voice.

  “Oh, Anna, you’ll have to tell me about all the fun things you do in junior high and high school,” Eva told her.

  “I want a picture from your first dance.” Krista looked over, and Anna had her eyes closed. “Anna?”

  Anna’s hands dropped from her mother’s shoulders and Willa caught her daughter’s head as it fell forward.

  Willa looked at Krista with concern. “I think she’s passed out.”

  “She has, in a way, she’s gone into a coma-like state,” Krista informed Willa.

  “You’ve seen this before? At the medical center?”

  Krista shook her head and winced from the sudden pain.

  “This is it,” Eva breathed. “It’s going to happen soon. It’s time for Momma to use her power.”