Mother's Voice

by Melissa Szydlek

  ****

  She arrived at Sissy’s house that night tired, but ready to enjoy the night and her sister’s various pumpkin concoctions. She felt better about the powers she had been given; secure in the knowledge that something of a higher power was watching over her. She decided to leave the mornings events behind her and enjoy her sister’s eccentricities at the Halloween party. Inside the house, music from The Nightmare Before Christmas was playing, and her sister’s guests all had smiles on their faces. Tom was sitting with a group of people who sat listening intently to an old, gray-haired man who was telling Halloween tales. The old man was saying something about a tapping in the darkness when Sissy came running up to Katie grabbing her and giving her a hug.

  “It’s the stories of the season that I love the most,” Sissy said.

  Katie smiled.

  “I’d offer you some cider,” Sissy said, “But there’s an awful wailing type of noise coming from the kitchen.

  “Oh no,” Katie said, “I’m off duty tonight.”

  “This doesn’t sound right, though,” Sissy said. I didn’t put any salt over the threshold of the door, but whatever is in there won’t come out, and it’s going to break my door if it keeps beating on it the way it has been.”

  Katie sighed and followed her sister into the kitchen.

  The noise was indeed emanating from a closet in the kitchen.

  “You open it,” Sissy said, nudging Katie forward.

  “No way,” Katie said, “You open it.”

  The wailing got louder as whatever was on the other side of the door pounded on the wood. The door cracked and a jagged line formed down the middle of it.

  “See, it broke my door,” Sissy pouted. “I lose more doors this way.”

  “I really don’t want to deal with this right now.”

  “Okay, fine, I’ll open the door. Have a skillet ready or something,” Sissy said.

  “What do you want a skillet for?” Katie asked.

  “So you can beat the hell out of whatever is behind this door.”

  “A skillet won’t be any match for whatever is behind that door, Sissy.”

  “Oh dear,” Sissy said as she reached for the knob.

  Sissy closed her eyes and opened the door. A cold, rushing wind blew through her. All the warmth left her body and she shivered.

  “It’s a phantom,” Katie said. “It’s not really there.”

  “You can say it’s not really there,” Sissy said as she turned around to face Katie, “But that large-toothed creature standing right beside you looks awfully real to me.”

  “Phantoms only exist if we perceive them to be real,” Katie said.

  “Phantom or not, Katie, that thing is going to make me wet myself.”

  Katie turned around to face the creature. Though she knew it could not really hurt her, the appearance that it took was frightening. It reared up and screamed. Katie and Sissy recoiled from the phantom and fell backwards into the closet. Instead of hitting the back wall, they fell into a deep, dark, and empty space.

  Katie wasn’t sure if they were in an actual room or not. She was pretty sure that they were in an “in-between” place where spirits sometimes escaped. The “in-between” places were just a black space where, given the right opportunity, ghosts or demons or any other type of spirit could slip into the world of the living. She felt Sissy’s hands on her face.

  “Please tell me that’s you,” Sissy said.

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  “Where are we?”

  “I’m not sure. Stop poking my face.”

  “Well, do we go feel for walls or what? I don’t want to put my hands in anything icky.”

  “Just wait. We’re here for a reason. Do you feel the heat? Something is coming.”

  Sissy started to ask what was coming when four golden horsemen emerged in front of them.

  “Oh, dear,” Sissy said. “Are they here to take me?”

  Katie hesitated in answering. She wasn’t sure why the riders had come, and it frightened her.

  “I don’t know,” she said to her sister.

  Sissy suddenly jumped in front of Katie and screamed at the riders, “You can’t have Katie. She’s too young!”

  One of the horsemen drew his sword, a bright and burning piece of steel that glowed with an orange fire. He swiped it in front of Sissy’s face so quickly that it took her a minute to realize that she had been cut. She held her hands to a wide gash on her cheek, but no blood came.

  “You’re not bleeding,” Katie said in amazement.

  “It hurts really bad,” Sissy said.

  “Don’t antagonize them,” Katie warned.

  “I’m not afraid to die,” Sissy said. “At least they’re golden and not red.”

  “They aren’t here to collect anyone,” Katie said, “Or they would have done it by now.”

  As if proving her point, the horsemen lined up in a row behind the sisters. The rider who had cut Sissy pointed to a spot straight ahead that was just gray enough to be distinguishable from the rest of the blackness. The riders urged their mounts forward, slowly pushing Katie and Sissy toward that gray space until they found themselves out of the blackness and in a tight passage. Katie started walking.

  “I’m too much woman for this little hallway,” Sissy said as she followed Katie.

  The blackness eventually gave way to lighter shades of gray and amber as Katie and Sissy walked. They saw a soft orange glow ahead of them. The corridor seemed to get smaller and smaller, but as they reached the end, the orange light grew brighter and they found themselves in yet another space. They saw that this one was as big as the outdoors as it opened up in front of them. The temperature changed. It was cool and brisk, like the perfect autumn night, but neither sister could really tell if they were outside or if what they were seeing was an illusion. There was a tree a few feet away, filled with leaves the colors of the sunset in all of its yellow, red and orange brilliance. Though the tree appeared to be alive, there was a wall behind it.

  “Are we in a room or are we outside?” Sissy asked in a whisper.

  “I don’t know,” Katie said.

  “Well, I’m confused.”

  They noticed strands of orange lights that were hanging from the branches of the tree in a haphazard pattern, and they appeared to be moving, as if hanging themselves from the limbs. As the sisters looked up, they saw a woman in the tree, her face obscured by the many leaves. Her short legs hung down over a branch, and one leg was kicking and tapping as if moving to some unheard music. The woman was hanging the lights in the tree and when she spoke, Katie and Sissy felt lumps in their throats, and they were forced them to make a low “mmphf” sound just so they could breathe again. The emotion of the moment strangled them.

  “I don’t know if I like it like this,” the woman said. “What do you girls think? Maybe around the trunk would be better?”

  The woman climbed down from the branches with ease, moving fluidly for such a short, heavy woman. She was dressed all in pink, with a pink rose comb in her thick auburn hair. Her tight spandex leggings looked impossibly short, and her pink and white deck shoes made Sissy think of the Professor from Gilligan’s Island. She tugged on her long pink shirt, and it appeared to be more out of habit than a need to rearrange it. Her blue eyes were bright and brilliant, shining in the indescribable darkness of the space. She held out her arms and said, “My two girls.”

  Katie and Sissy ran to her like toddlers and sunk their faces into each side of her neck. They had to lean down and cock their necks at odd angles because she was so short. She smelled like vanilla and in her arms, it felt like home. Katie clung to her, afraid to let go, while Sissy cried loud and laborious sobs, her large body shaking. Their mother was just incredibly beautiful. The image that both sisters had of her when she died – pale, bald, and her face full of pain from the cancer that wreaked havoc on her body - was gone. She was young and the lines of wor
ry that had creased her eyes were nowhere in sight. Her hair was done perfectly, swept up in an elegant wave of red and brown locks. Her makeup was fresh, her eye-shadow was her signature pink color. She even had a large purse slung over one shoulder, as if she were getting ready to go somewhere. Mom always carried a big bag with her.

  “I don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “I have to get going. I just wanted to finish decorating and see if you wanted the lights on the branches or on the tree trunk?”

  This made the sisters laugh.

  “I think the trunk would be nicer,” Katie said.

  Their mom pulled more lights out of her purse and strung them around the trunk of the large tree. The lights that had been in the branches were gone.

  “But mom, I heard your voice, a scream,” Katie started to say.

  Their mom laughed.

  “You know how the horsemen are. They always have to be so dramatic. They have to make a grand entrance every time. Don’t let it bother you. I have never been happier. I’ve watched you girls grow and become such wonderful people.”

  The smile never left her face as she spoke.

  “I can’t,” Katie said, “Mom, I can’t live without you.”

  “You know what,” her mother said, “You aren’t living at all. Live a little. Have fun. It’s a party 24-hours a day up there,” she said while pointing upwards. “Elvis is all the time wanting to play Aggravation with me, you remember that board game don’t you? And your grandma always wants me to come see her ‘beautiful chickens’. Those are the ugliest chickens I have ever seen.”

  “The rubberneck ones?” Sissy asked.

  “Of course,” her mother laughed.

  Their mother finished hanging the lights and took a small mirror and some pink lipstick out of her purse. She applied more to her lips and then sprayed herself with a small bottle of perfume.

  “Well, I really have to go. Be good and behave. I promise you, everything is going to be all right.”

  A lone horseman appeared. His golden light warmed the sisters.

  “I’m driving,” their mother said to the horseman, who then promptly edged towards the rear of his golden steed. Their mother had trouble getting up in the stirrups, but finally managed to mount the horse. She blew kisses at her daughters and said, “I love you both,” and then she was gone. Everything went black again.

  When Katie and Sissy looked up, they saw stars and the moon shining brightly in the Halloween sky. The autumn sky hung low and everything looked close enough to touch. They looked around and found themselves in Sissy’s yard, next to a new tree that they hadn’t remembered being there before. Orange lights were strung on its trunk, and two pink roses lay on the ground.

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