8 Gone is the Witch

by Dana E. Donovan

  About an hour into the walk, or maybe it was ten minutes, it depended on who you asked, Carlos began opening up again. He made several comments about the orange sky. Thought it made everything look like early morning in the country.

  “I feel more conspicuous,” he said. “I think I liked it better when it was dark all the time.”

  Most of us agreed. Tony, still the old stick in the mud, kept his opinion to himself.

  “Lilith, do you think some of the crazy creatures we’ve seen will go into hiding once it gets light out?”

  “I don’t know, Carlos. Why don’t you ask Jerome? He knows this place better than anyone.”

  Jerome answered quickly. “Some hide. Others no hide.”

  That fed a moment of paranoia that we didn’t need. I tried not to think about it, but with all the strange sounds percolating out in the woods, every tweet, chirp and tick, I just knew that the others Jerome mentioned were about to make their debut.

  “Hey,” said Carlos, though this time not to anyone in particular. “Do you think Dominic’s still waiting for us back at the research center?”

  I looked at Ursula. Her gaze had been to the ground, but Carlos’ words brought her head up with a snap.

  “Of course, he’s still waiting,” I said. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

  Carlos shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s been a few days. A few weeks if you ask Tony. I mean how long can a guy hold a vigil.”

  “As long as he needs to.”

  “Yeah, but what if we’ve been here over a year? You heard Leona. She said––”

  “Aye, he will be in wait,” said Ursula. We all stopped to take note of her words. She stood steadfast and rigid, her posture trimmed in discipline. I had never seen such determination on her face before. Her leveled stare, keen and cool. Her chin up. Lips thinned. I watched her chest rise and fall on a steady breath.

  “Should I never return, and I may not, my Dominic will wait for me. For he doth love me as I love him, beyond mere time and space. What broken path our mortal lives do take shall not our bonds of love forsake. This I know is true.”

  I don’t recall if mine was the only dropped jaw or not, but I know the others were equally speechless. I felt a sudden sense of miscalculation deep in my bones. Something wicked in the cosmic cross-stitch of perceptual balance had shifted. Fate had skipped a beat and altered destiny.

  I began wishing, as never before, that I hadn’t let Ursula come with us. Only then did I truly question my motives for doing so. At the time, I had given in to Ursula’s argument of reason, justifying her mutiny against Dominic’s authority.

  In truth, I was spiting Dominic, showing him that he didn’t own her. I let her come to a place she didn’t belong, just to keep her from the person she did.

  Carlos went up and put his arm around her shoulder. “Of course he’ll be there. Listen, I was just talking is all. You know, kicking the old can. My head’s in a funny place. We’ll get you home. You know that, and Dominic will be there just like you said.”

  She nodded softly and continued walking. “Tis best we stay afoot.”

  We pushed on another couple of hours, only stopping every so often to gather some dirt to toss into the air, trying to locate a portal. We had just started out again, after our last failed attempt, when Tony asked us to hold up. He had picked up a small stone in his moccasin and needed to lose it.

  We stood in a small clearing where the sandy soil ran from the tree line all the way down to the water, outlining a small river lagoon. I could hear a waterfall off in the distance, but couldn’t see it. That indicated to me that the river was likely more fresh water than salt.

  As Tony sat on a mossy stump to address the nuisance pebble, the rest of us walked to the water’s edge to get a drink.

  “What do you think?” asked Carlos.

  “`Bout what?” I picked up a stick and pitched it into the river. The current swept it away at a jogger’s pace.

  “Are we heading the right way, towards town, I mean.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Because it doesn’t look like we’re going to find a stupid portal anytime soon.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Our destiny’s already planned out.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means––”

  “Help! Get`em off me!”

  We turned around in time to see Tony fly past us, covered in a blanket of small black bugs.

  “Tony!” I reached my hand out for him as he flew by, instinctively wanting to help, but not knowing how.

  Carlos yelled, “What the hell was that?”

  “Moss mites!” Jerome yelled, pointing at the spot where Tony had been sitting. The tree stump, once covered in a velvety soft mantle of forest green moss, now heaved with swells of swarming black bugs the size of beetles.

  “Mites?” I said. “Impossible. Mites are bitty little things. Those fuckers are huge!”

  “Babies,” Jerome said. “Nest sack break. Mites hungry.”

  “No! Tony!”

  I dove into the water and swam out to Tony. He had already removed his robe and was using it to brush away the clinging mites still feeding on his arms, chest and shoulders.

  “Get`em off! Get`em off!”

  “I’m trying! Hold still!”

  I came up behind him and began swatting, flicking and picking them off as fast as I could, letting the swift-running current carry them away. Carlos joined me, and between us, we cleared no less than a hundred of the bloodsucking arachnids off his body.

  “That’s it,” I said, rubbing my hands down his arms. “I think we got’em all. You okay?”

  “I think. Thanks.”

  We came out of the water and gave him a thorough once over to make sure we hadn’t missed any. Welt marks peppered his body on nearly every square inch. It had to hurt.

  As he stood there in his underwear, legs spread, arms out by his side, I slipped my finger into his waistband just below his belly. “We have to check everywhere,” I said.

  He wasn’t shy about it. “Go on. Do it.”

  I pulled the elastic band back and looked inside. “Emm-hmm. Interesting.” I made a tisk noise through my teeth for emphasis.

  “What? What do you see?”

  “Interesting. You want me to reach down there and feel around? Could be a couple hiding under some of that.”

  “No, thank you. I can check it myself. Come on. Move it along, will you?”

  “All right. Only trying to help.”

  I slid my fingers along the waistband, pulling it away from his body as I circled around to his backside. “Ooh. That could be a problem.”

  “What?”

  I pulled the waistband further away. “Carlos, you better come take a look at this.”

  Carlos came around and peeked down inside. “Yup, I see what you mean.”

  “Come on guys. What is it?”

  “Ursula? You want to see this?”

  “Oh, come on! What could be so bad that you all have to look?”

  Ursula leaned over and stole a quick glimpse. “Aye, `tis as you say. A problem, indeed.”

  “Lilith.” Tony attempted a look behind him by twisting his torso. I slapped his back and told him to stop.

  “This is serious,” I said. “Don’t fight it.”

  “I want to know what it is.”

  “We’re trying to figure that out. Jerome, can you help us with this?”

  “Jerome? You need Jerome’s help?”

  “I got it!” I said. “It’s a classic SWW.”

  “SWW.” Carlos snapped his fingers. “That’s it! Of course.”

  “What?” said Tony. “What’s SWW?”

  I grabbed the entire back of his waistband with both hands and pulled up on it as hard as I could. “It’s a super wet wedgie!”

  Tony screamed louder than when the moss mites were biting his ass. To say he was pissed would be like saying the
ES has some slight peculiarities. Still, we all had a good laugh over it. Even Tony eventually loosened up some after seeing how hard Leona laughed.

  It could have had all the makings of a memorable moment, had Jerome not squelched it with warnings of imminent danger.

  “Mother mite! Mother mite!” he hollered.

  At first, I didn’t know what he meant. Mother might what? But then I saw him pick up a rock and throw it into the brush.

  “Mother mite! She come now!”

  We all scattered to find something with which to defend ourselves. I picked up a big stick. Leona and Ursula grabbed a couple of rocks. Carlos had his bolo and Tony picked up... well, I don’t know exactly what he picked up, but he sure looked good doing it in just his underwear.

  When I think of mites, I think of tiny creatures, often too small to see without a microscope. To learn that in the ES they came as big as cockroaches, well, that was just a trip and a half. So, when Jerome warned us that the mother was coming, I didn’t know what to expect.

  It broke out of the bush like a drunken sailor, bumping into rocks and trees in a staggered, clumsy gait. I tried to imagine how this bulbous freak; this sea tortoise on spider legs with lobster claws and cornhusk hairs, could grow so large.

  Despite being blind, it had keen senses. I know this because as we circled, it took the creature only seconds to figure it out. Still, that gave us plenty of time to launch an effective attack.

  We started by pelting it with rocks. Jerome and Ursula were good at that. Leona sucked. Threw like a girl, but it disoriented the creature enough for us to quickly gain the upper hand. By surrounding it, we were able to get in close, strike hard and then move out quickly again.

  In one coordinated move, I smacked the creature’s ass end with my stick to distract it while Carlos lunged forward and slashed a gaping wound across its side. It spun around and charged me. Tony stepped in with a large rock and dropped it on the creature’s skull. The audible crack told us it was over. The entire attack took less than a minute.

  “Is everyone all right?” Tony asked.

  We were, yet I could see the same was not so for him. He looked exhausted. The welts had gotten worse, and I knew he had aggravated his ankle by lifting that heavy stone.

  “Tony, listen,” I said. “Why don’t you have a seat over there in the sand? We’ll build a fire. Take a little break.”

  “I don’t need a break.”

  “I know you don’t, but the others could use one. Leona and Ursula are spent. Let them rest.”

  “Okay.” He gave in easier than I expected, confirming my assessment of his overall condition. “We’ll rest, but only for a while.”

  “Sure. Ten minutes, tops.”

  I have no way of knowing exactly how long we stayed there, time in the ES being what it is... or isn’t, but I know it was more than ten minutes. It took that long for Jerome to go out into the woods and harvest a bunch of sticky, broadleaf palms that smelled strangely of eucalyptus and lavender. He tore the palms into long strips like gauze and wrapped Tony up in them.

  In the meantime, Carlos took to cutting up the giant mite. He hollowed out the creature’s exoskeleton and placed its dome-shaped top plate upside down in the fire. He filled the bowl with river water, brought it to a boil by adding red-hot rocks from the fire, and then tossed in Tony’s robe.

  After boiling it, wringing it out and drying the robe over the fire, we were ready to go. So I thought.

  “What?” I asked, after Carlos tapped me on the shoulder.

  He gestured toward the riverbank. “Tony’s asleep. You want I should wake him?”

  I looked down where Tony lay, all cocooned up and sleeping soundly. “No,” I shook my head lightly. “It’s good to let him sleep. We all should sleep.”

  And sleep we did.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  I awoke the next morning under a blanket of ground fog, enchanted by the orange sky and charmed by the aroma of fresh fish cooking over an open flame.

  Everyone else was up, including Tony, dressed in his robe and looking fine. I found him and Carlos perched on a log by the fire, twirling fish on a stick and laughing at things that I’m sure only guys find funny.

  The girls were down by the river, laughing, wetting their toes and splashing their faces.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Tony, after taking a seat next to him.

  “Never better. I don’t know what Jerome bandaged me in last night, but it worked. Look.” He pulled his robe all the way up to his crotch. His legs were clear of all but the smallest bite marks. “My chest and arms look just as good. Even my ankle doesn’t hurt so much.”

  “That’s great.” I stood and stretched like a cat welcoming a new day. And it was a new day. Gone were the fractured lines, veining a dark sky like so many cosmic blood vessels. Morning, it seemed, had truly come to the ES, cloaked in a pale orange glow, harking a new dawn and evicting the shadows of the long black night.

  Carlos asked me, “Like something to eat?”

  “Sure. What have you got?”

  “Catfish. At least I think that’s what they are.”

  I leaned over and took a closer look at the fish on a stick. Two tiny black fish eyes stared back at me. I turned the stick over and saw two more.

  “Hmmm, Anything else?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then sure. Catfish sounds good.”

  “Come and get it.”

  I pointed to the pile of fish on the ground between them. “What’s all that?”

  “More fish.”

  “I see that. How did you catch so many?”

  “We didn’t. They came to us.”

  “No way.”

  “Sure,” said Tony. “Haven’t you ever heard of walking catfish?”

  “No.”

  He pointed behind me. I turned around and laughed at what I saw. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of fish were swishing along the ground in a mass migration heading into the woods.

  “I don’t believe it. Where are they all going?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe they’re disoriented because of the Decussate.”

  “Guess it answers an age-old question, doesn’t it?” said Carlos, smirking suspiciously.

  I took the bait. “What’s that?”

  “Does a fish shit in the woods?”

  Tony laughed at that, which made Carlos feel good. His humor is often a bit dry for most. To get Tony laughing usually takes a comedic coup d`état on his part.

  Carlos rolled a fish stick out of the fire and handed it to me. I squatted next to Tony and took a bite, peeling off a juicy chunk of fillet. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was eating, but it was damn good, I’ll tell you that.

  Soon, the others joined us, and by the time we all finished eating, we found the morning mist had completely lifted. Everything seemed brighter. We could even make out both suns, which now looked like twin black holes set against a pale orange sky. Carlos mentioned as much and suggested we should get things moving again before the night returned. That got Tony’s engines fired up, too.

  “He’s right. We need to giddy up. Pack your things, everyone.”

  Carlos questioned aloud something that had been bothering him since the fish first walked up on shore.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “It’s like the Alaskan salmon runs. Every year the grizzlies show up at the streams before the salmon, sometimes weeks ahead of the run.”

  “Yeah?”

  “They’ve been doing it for tens of thousands of years. It’s just something they know to do.”

  “Sure. The young learn it from the elders; they in turn grow up and teach it to their young and so on.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Carlos. I assume there is a point to all this?”

  “The point is that if these catfish have been doing the same thing under the discussant sky for thousands of years, and they probably have, then where are all the grizzlies?”

  Tony gave the question considerab
le thought. “Well, maybe there aren’t any grizzlies in the ES.”

  Seemed simple enough for Carlos. “Yeah. That makes sense. I guess.”

  “Guys?” I said.

  Tony expounded. “You know, Carlos, you can’t necessarily draw parallels between everything in the ES and Earth.”

  “Guyyys?”

  “I know that.”

  “Guy–yyys.”

  “Sometimes, things back home can seem––”

  “GUYS!”

  “Lilith, please. Can’t you see we’re talking?”

  “And can’t you hear what sounds like a freakin` grizzly out there in the woods? It’s coming this way.”

  Oh no,” said Carlos. “See, we already determined they don’t live here because––”

  “Carlos!” Tony hiked his thumb up over his shoulder. “RUN!”

  The six of us took off running, staying close to the riverbank where the trees and vegetation were sparse.

  “There!” I yelled, directing everyone’s attention to the base of the waterfall ahead of us.

  We dove into the river and swam to it, seeking shelter behind the curtain of cascading water. A natural rock platform under the falls served as a stage in which to wait out the danger.

  “Hey look!” Carlos yelled, his voice booming above the crash of falling water. “There’s a cave back here!”

  “Forget it!” Tony hollered back. “We’re staying here until the danger passes!”

  “Maybe it has,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Maybe it already has!”

  “I can’t hear you!”

  Jerome pointed into the cave. “Ooh, shiny!” He started in without a second thought.

  Carlos lunged for Jerome’s tail but missed. “I’m going in to get him!”

  “What?”

  He disappeared into the void.

  I turned to the others and shouted. “I’m going, too!”

  Ursula immediately followed. Leona and Tony waited all of ten seconds before joining us.

  “Nice how you all listen,” Tony complained.

  I snapped back, “Stow it, Killjoy. It was too noisy out there. We couldn’t hear you.” I waved the others on. “Come on. I think Jerome went this way.”