by Clare Hexom
Caleb whimpered. I pulled him close.
“I think Grandma’s electricity is broken,” I lied.
The televisions and radios silenced at once. Lamps and lights went dark. Heavy clouds barred outside light from coming into the darkened rooms. The house fell eerily silent. No one said a word.
Mom flicked the light switches in the kitchen. Nothing happened. “We must have faulty wiring.” Her soft-spoken voice thundered in the stillness. “I’ll go downstairs.”
“No. Do not go poking around downstairs!” I started to move toward her. Caleb held me back. “Call Rick. We don’t know what happened.”
Judith flicked the light switch on the wall in the dining room. The chandelier above the table lit up. “That’s promising. Listen.”
The television downstairs turned on again, as did the TV in the living room, the volumes barely loud enough to hear.
“There’s madness going on in this house,” Ginny said in her sing-song voice as she crossed the kitchen to where we stood.
“Shh,” whispered Mom.
Pam looked up at the ceiling. “And there go the alarm clocks again.”
Judith stepped gingerly into the dining room and through to the living room. I followed her but stopped by the table. From where I stood, it appeared she was levitating in front of the fireplace, her arms extended parallel to the floor. She began humming a single note.
Chanting.
In a voice as deep as a man’s, she bellowed, “Mallory! Mallory Bain!”
I retreated into the kitchen.
She chanted louder. Smoke detectors throughout the house blared deafening alarms.
Caleb clutched me, pinching my skin as he gripped my clothing. He pressed his head hard against my hip. “Mommy!” he screamed and stomped his foot. “Mommy!”
I struggled against his unrelenting hold and squatted down beside him. I laid my palms against his ears. His little body trembled.
I looked up and shouted, “Mom! Make her stop!”
She ran into the dining room shouting, “Stop this carrying on, Judith! Come back in the kitchen . . . you’re scaring everybody. Judith!”
My fingertips fell short of reaching the sleeve of Caleb’s jacket laying rumpled on the chair.
“Sweetie, please let go of Mommy.”
He held on tighter.
Judith’s unbroken chant beckoned. “Mallory! Mallory! Mallory, come!”
Ginny bent her head toward her phone. “There’s no service in this house!” Her hands shook. “Doggone it! We need help!”
My stomach ached. My head rattled. I was dizzy enough to nearly pass out. When I teetered sideways, Pam’s eyes met mine. She understood. She grabbed Caleb’s jacket and wrapped it around his back. She then cupped her hands on his small shoulders and tried prying him away from me. “Come on, honey. Let’s go outside until your mommy and grandma make the noise stop.”
“Mallory! Mallory! Mallory Bain!”
I fell onto one knee in front of Caleb. “What a terrific idea.” My voice quivered. “You and Pam get some air and we’ll fix the electricity.” I gently pushed Caleb back at arm’s length.
“No!” He grabbed at my clothes again. “The bad man’s gonna hurt Grandma and Aunt Judith!”
“There is no bad man, Caleb. Go with Pam and I’ll come get you soon.”
“No service on my phone, either.” Pam leaned down close to Caleb. “Your mommy’s right. Aunt Judith is play acting. The noise is confusing her. Let’s you and me go outside. Come on, Ginny. You too.”
“You’ll be okay with Pam. It’s quiet outside. Count how many squirrels you see. You can draw one for me later.”
“Okay.”
I squeezed him against my chest. “Aunt Judith is scared right now, like you are. Grandma and I need to help her. I’ll get you in a few minutes when she’s better.”
Caleb took Pam’s hand.
“Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain!”
Ginny shoved a ball of tissues into her pocket to wipe Caleb’s tears. She closed the sticky door with a hard tug.
Dread washed over me, sickening me until I dropped down on the floor and leaned against the closed door behind me.
“Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain!”
Mom stepped into the kitchen doorway. “Mallory, please! Get up! Help her end this!” Mom was sobbing, shaking, wringing her hands. “My sister is losing her mind!”
“Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain—Mallory Bain!”
The living room was frigid as mid-winter up north. Upstairs doors slammed shut and opened again with a thud. The time on the beehive clock had stopped at precisely four forty.
Judith twisted to face me. Her face contorted, eyes rolled. She bellowed in a raspy voice, “He! Wants! Your! Attention!” Her head snapped back.
“Who wants my attention?” I shouted.
“A desperate soul! Trapped on the edge—between here and the light. You must find justice!”
“Justice. Justice for what?”
Judith sucked in a single gasping breath. The guttural utterances emanating from deep in her throat resonated like something inhuman, evil.
I shouted at Judith again, “What is talking to you?”
The television amplified. Mom stepped in front of the screen, futilely pressing the remote to turn it off. Alarms sounded and radio broadcasts escalated to full volume in all parts of the house.
I covered my ears. “Make it stop!”
Judith shouted in her own voice, “Who will kill them?”
I shouted louder, “Kill them?” My legs weakened.
Above the clamor, Judith shouted in her own voice, “You have frightened her child!”
The noise stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
With arms outstretched, Judith uttered, “Speak to me.”
We waited in silence. Judith collapsed on the floor. Mom and I rushed to her side and knelt beside her. I propped her up, my knee against her back. After she stirred from her faint, we helped her to her feet and walked her to the sofa.
Judith whispered, “He . . . speaks . . . to . . . your . . . boy, Mallory Anne.”
I shook my head. “No! He does not!”
“His spirit must speak in a way for you to hear. He sometimes lacks the power to commune.” Judith closed her eyes. “Listen for his warning, Mallory Anne. Listen! This spirit cares for you. He needs you.”
“Why did he say killing?”
“Be careful,” said Judith.
I dropped into the rocking chair and watched Mom’s shaking hands compassionately stoke her sister’s head.
“Psychokinesis,” I said.
Mom glared at me over her shoulder. “She can’t do that.”
“Either she willed the lights and the electronics on and off or she summoned an evil entity to do it. Now she’s bringing my child into her insanity and talking about killing. There’s no telling what that woman will do.”
“Mallory, shush!” Mom shivered and pulled an afghan over Judith.
“I’m going outside to Caleb. You think about this. We will leave if you allow her in this house. Get her out, and get her out of here now!”
“She is my sister!”
“Caleb is your grandson! He’s suffered enough already and he’s only six. I am sorry about your sister, but I will pack up our things and leave the minute I bring him back inside unless she is out that door first.”
I grabbed Pam’s jacket and mine and ran into the foggy mist to where she and Caleb waited by the curb. Pam had zipped up his jacket and tied his hood to keep him warm. He no longer cried, but hopped around like a rabbit while chirping about monkeys.
“Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed.’”
“I hope the house is back to normal, and Judith.” Pam called out as I ran toward them. She pulled a shivering hand from her pants po
cket to take her jacket. “Thanks.”
“Under control. I think. Probably an electrical malfunction. I’m texting my brother.”
Pam’s face showed grave concern. “Have him help your aunt, too, if he can. Ginny is long gone.” She managed a weak smile.
“I’m sorry this happened.”
“Don’t you worry. Things will work out. A young fellow on a big motorbike stopped. He asked if your house was on fire. He had his phone out, ready to call 911.”
“That was kind of him. A red motorcycle?”
“Gorgeous red,” said Pam.
Caleb started jumping beside me. “He called me ‘pal,’ Mom.”
“Good to know the man was nice.”
“I’d say he seems to be quite nice,” said Pam, lifting one brow.
“Not the burglar type?”
“Not at all. He lives in that swanky, brown brick building down the road and around the curve. You must’ve driven past hundreds of times. I assured him nothing serious was the matter. Nothing else I could say.”
I nodded agreement.
“He said he works in athletics something or another. He used to know the people who live in your house.”
“One of my brothers.” I stared down the street, in the direction the bike traveled late in the evenings. Now I regretted having missed him.
The side door thudded closed and we turned toward the sound. Judith struggled to stick her arm through the sleeve of her raincoat with her purse dangling in her hand. A short time later, her car rolled down the driveway past us and onto the street. Pam waved, though Judith pretended not to see.
“Take heart.” Pam watched my aunt’s car heading down the street. She sighed heavily.
“Take heart about what?”
She waggled her finger. “Pray he stops again. He’s what you girls nowadays call a stud muffin.”
“A what? Who?”
“The fellow on the motorbike.”
Aunt Judith and my mother were more than sisters, they were friends. How unrealistic of me expecting Mom to keep her from visiting, unless Mom insisted we stay. Meeting new friends for me needed to wait until Caleb and I were settled in our own home with no chance of friends bumping into Judith and her delusional beliefs regarding the dead. This man might end up being a friend, however, he’d run fast if he ever caught her levitating and chanting.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
It came as no surprise to learn the electricity worked just fine. Rick supported my condition that Judith keep away from Caleb. Nevertheless, Mom accused us of ganging up on her. He argued again on my behalf. He said Judith had drawn Caleb into her drama. She wanted him to be the child she never had.
We pleaded with our mother to fear Judith’s dark practices as we now did. No human had the ability to levitate or even simulate levitation without trickery, a smoke-and-mirror illusion that required wires or a magician’s tools. Any person possessing the power to control the electricity and the electronics was too dangerous to allow in the house. Our dark practices theory lost footing the instant the words left our mouths when Rick compared Judith’s demonstration to demonic forces. But we believed there was no other rational explanation.
I paced back and forth in front of the family room sofa, where Mom sat listening to us. “If not evil, then telekinesis caused that spectacle,” I said. “No matter how she accomplished that feat, her objective was to sell us on her ability to communicate with the dead. We were eyewitnesses to her success.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “There is no scientific basis whatsoever for the drivel either of you are peddling.”
“She brought attention to herself,” I said. “Her heightened emotions triggered telekinetic energy.”
Mom guffawed.
“Mallory is right about telekinesis,” said Rick, looking at me instead of at Mom. We understood without saying we needed to sell her on something to keep Judith away. “It does seem impossible any kind of spirit caused the disturbance.”
“This is quite a guessing game you’ve got going here.” Mom stood up shaking a finger at us. “You two are treating my sister like a fool, and likewise, me. I’m done with both of you. Rick, go home.” She stormed upstairs and locked herself in her room.
After apologizing for inconveniencing him and sending Rick home, I turned off my bedroom TV and tucked Caleb into his own bed. I later tapped at Mom’s door again, this time holding a tray of food.
“You have nothing more to say. Take your tray and dump it.”
“Mom, we need to come up with a reasonable solution. Please, open the door. Come downstairs. I’ll be waiting for you in the living room.”
“Don’t waste your time. Go away. I’m on the phone with Aileen. She agrees you and Rick are behaving badly toward Aunt Judith and me. She wants you to stop.”
Nearly half an hour later, a bedroom door clicked open. I was surprised to see Mom, not Caleb, descending the staircase. She sat beside me and helped herself to the other half of my sandwich laying on a plate on the coffee table.
“You gave my regards to Aileen,” I said.
“Naturally,” Mom smiled. “She is understanding.” She held up a hand to keep me quiet. “And she agrees with me. No human being possesses mind power over lights and radios and televisions. If Judith says a spirit did it, then we should believe her.” She bit into the sandwich.
“Then the spirit is evil.”
“Not necessarily, from all I’ve learned from Judith.”
“I need your word she will stay away or we move out.”
Mom tossed the sandwich back onto the plate. “Don’t you dare give me ultimatums. This is my home.” With a roll of her shoulders, she added, “Besides, you have no place to go unless you run back to Chad.”
“You’re talking stupid.”
“Mallory!”
I tossed my head back. “Where we’d go is not the point of discussion here.”
Mom closed her eyes and smiled pacifyingly. “It’s time we faced the truth—Judith has a gift.”
“The woman terrified Caleb and the rest of us, you included. I doubt Ginny Hughes will ever set foot in this house again.”
She uttered a few tsk-tsks. “Ginny’s a twit. Give her two weeks until she’s bored with her orchids and I’m the only person left on earth willing to browse dusty estate sales with her. She loves creating a tempest in a teapot. It’s how Ginny is.”
“Aunt Judith creates tempests, too.”
“All right.” Mom patted my hand. “As far as my sister goes, perhaps she reacted strangely to an electrical malfunction.”
“We made up that excuse for Caleb’s benefit. Rick found no malfunction.”
She rolled her eyes. “I will concede in part, only because I understand Judith gets a bit carried away when it comes to her spiritualism. I know we can’t have her upsetting Caleb. I blame her peculiarities on Uncle Steven’s untimely death, or even your greataunty Liz, for that matter.”
“Why her?”
“She keeled over dead in front of Judith when Judith was seven.”
I guffawed. “Oh, come on.”
“No, it’s true. Liz was babysitting us kids, and while pinning up the hem of Judith’s party dress, she clenched her throat and fell over dead. Aneurysm. Judith bawled for a week and demanded Daddy bring Lizzie back. ’Til this day, your uncle Tommy and I never discuss what happened in front of our sisters.”
“Why would you?”
“To make matters worse, Tommy teased Judith about Liz smacking the kitchen floor like a raw egg.”
“Our kitchen floor here?”
“Yes. The other side of the doorway leading into the dining room. Judith calls it the death place.” Mom paused. “Perhaps you would think better of her if I suggest she get psychological help.”
“Or a priest.”
“Now you sound like a dimwit from the dark ages. Burn my sister at the stake, why don’t you?”
I glanced sideways, raising my brow. “Witchcraft and demonic
possession aside, she needs help. Pam’s quick thinking and my downplaying the ordeal held Caleb together, otherwise he’d be a wreck, which I am not ruling out yet.”
“Tommy is bringing his family over on Sunday. I need to tell him that what happened today is why Judith won’t be here. They are expecting to see her.”
I hesitated. “She’ll freak out again.”
“Tom will handle her.”
I sensed Mom was handling me to get her way. She ignored the likelihood Judith would act out on Sunday with a larger crowd to impress. I granted her this one exception despite the fiasco I expected. Strange behavior was Mom’s problem and would be met with “I told you so,” for starters.
“Fair enough,” I said. “Invite her again, but Sunday is her last visit as long as we live here.”
I went upstairs with a terrible ache pounding the back of my head and neck. I hoped for a night of uninterrupted sleep. When I flicked on my bedroom light, Caleb cried out. He laid in my bed cuddled up with Monster and Edgar. I clicked off the light and fingered a pair of pajamas from the dresser drawer in the dark before heading into the bathroom.
I touched a soft towel against my chin and peered at my reflection. Too-pale skin and dark circles mirrored one of the walking dead. I considered whether or not the proximity to Judith was worse, equal to, or less detrimental to our well-being than living with Chad. I expected too much leaving Memphis. We should have stayed there and made do.
I heard whimpering from the other side of the door. A thump. I gave the door a gentle pull and Caleb toppled onto the bathroom floor, his thumb stuck in his mouth.
I knelt beside him and snuggled him in my arms. “Caleb, sweetie.”
“He’s knocking on the window again. He’s cold.”
“Who is cold?”
“The man.”
I caressed his head and worried how Judith influenced him even when she wasn’t here.
“It’s raining, Mom. There’s water on the window.”
I listened to the pattering against the glass behind us.
“He sees me.”
“A person outside can’t see you.”
