Clawful Reflections

by Harper Lin

  I had to shake my head because there were no flowers or cards from the precinct. As I quietly walked into the room, letting the door shut behind me, I thought that even if I wasn’t going to continue seeing Tom, I was going to send a real complaint to his precinct. What kind of men didn’t support their own when they got hurt in the line of duty?

  But as I rounded the curtain and peeked at the side table, I saw the garbage can filled with flowers and cards.

  Tom’s face was pale and sad. I stooped down and saw the cards were from his fellow officers.

  “Who threw these away?” I muttered.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I looked at Tom, expecting to see his eyes open, but he was out of it, with a tube down his throat. Where did that voice come from?

  Standing next to me, hiding inside the folded-up end of the sliding curtain was Patience. I jumped back but not quick enough. She hit me with the book she was holding. It was old, and I saw a crude pentagram on the cover.

  “Patience.” I covered my mouth where she’d knocked me. “Where did you get that book?”

  “I said you weren’t welcome here,” she hissed.

  “That book, Patience. Where did you get it?” It didn’t take a scholar of the occult to know that what she was using for a little light reading was not good for her.

  “You filled his mind with poison. Now you are back to finish the job. Well, you and your little coven are not going to get away with it. I’ll stop you.”

  “That’s not true, Patience, and you know it.” I scowled. “I’m here to help him, but you want to keep him sick and hurt just to keep him away from me. You know what I call that? I call that loco.” I made circles around my temple. “You’re going to need a bigger army than you and that book to keep me from helping Tom.”

  Patience chuckled. She opened her book and started to mutter off a bunch of creepy-sounding words while she licked her lips and giggled.

  From the shadows, I could see figures. They were large and black and looming. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But then I saw one of them step out of the wall. He was wearing a hat and a black jacket, and he had no face.

  “Oh, really? You’re using the men in black just for you?” I spat. “How much more selfish can you get? These guys are supposed to help some people along their way, not stand around and play manservant to the likes of you.”

  “They are here to stop you. They will be helping you along your way, Cath Greenstone. They’ll be helping you along your way to hell.”

  “Silence, imposter!” Aunt Astrid shouted. She pointed her finger at Patience, who shrank behind her book. “You dare use the occupants of the netherworld as if they are yours.” Her hand went up, and Patience clutched her own throat. “What have you done?”

  Patience’s head began to wobble back and forth and side to side. She clawed at her throat as she continued to fight Aunt Astrid until, finally, in a raspy voice, she confessed.

  “He will remain in this sleep until my debt is paid,” she said.

  “What is your debt, and who is it to?” Aunt Astrid asked, giving the old broad another good shake.

  “I wanted her away from him.” She jerked her chin at me. “I wanted him to leave her. You are dirty and filthy and…”

  “Yeah, yeah, Patience, I know,” I said. “Get to the point.”

  She didn’t like that I wasn’t interested in her monologue. Her eyes narrowed, and had Aunt Astrid not been there, she would have scratched my eyes out. But as it was, we were two against, well, Patience and her handful of MIB.

  “I promised a child. Any child would do. Any age would do. And I was willing to pay the price once I knew you were gone. The serpent wanted any child.”

  “Well thank goodness I came back,” I replied. “How could you? Do you know how many women in this country don’t like their in-laws? Still, they don’t go promising babies to demons. That’s it. Put that book down. You and I are gonna have a go.”

  I was ready to tear her limb from limb when my aunt raised her hands.

  “I am afraid you’ll have to answer to the serpent because you are not going to fulfill your end of the bargain.”

  “No!” Patience screamed and was just about to charge Aunt Astrid when she was lifted into the air. Her legs kicked, and she flailed her arms. Her round glasses fell to the floor, cracking.

  I stepped up to Tom and recited my words, just as Aunt Astrid told me to when we prepared for this. Though, now that I was standing there, watching a woman who willingly made a deal with a devil, I didn’t know if I really was prepared. Didn’t she realize that Tom was her baby? What would she have done if he were taken as a child? I shuddered to think about it.

  “With one hand, I bind you, Patience Warner. With the other, I steal your voice. You will never call on the serpent again. He will be denied his prize. You will not give it a baby.” Patience fell to the ground. She looked up at me and screamed a horrifying silent scream. Her face contorted in pain and anger.

  “A baby?” Bea asked as she slowly walked in.

  I shook my head as Bea walked up to the bed. She stepped over Patience, who scooted back to the corner where she had been when I first arrived. With mad determination, she began flipping through the book for some way to get back at us. To stop us. But it was too late.

  Bea put her hand on Tom’s head. Her face contorted in sadness.

  “It’s all right, Tom. It’s all right,” she said. “Stay with me. Just stay right where you are.”

  Aunt Astrid could see the kaleidoscope of colors that were being pulled from Tom’s body. She saw the sparks and the flames and the shafts of light that Bea controlled and moved and twisted. Things were torn away while others were mended.

  All I could see was Bea flailing her hands over Tom. Her eyes were closed, and her forehead was starting to get shiny with sweat.

  “You stay back,” Bea said with clenched teeth. I looked at Patience, but she’d collapsed into the chair and was twitching and rolling her eyes. “I don’t answer to you. You stay back.”

  Bea was getting tough with someone. I remembered the candles and pulled them out of my aunt’s purse. I lit them all and placed them at the head, the foot, and in the middle of Tom’s bed. The cats would help remotely. If I listened hard, I could hear each one of them fighting off the spirits. Peanut Butter made me smile, as he had gotten so much tougher over the past couple of days. Marshmallow was loud and foreboding. And Treacle was the strong, silent type.

  “I said you stay back!” Bea shouted. “Don’t even think about it!” Her hands moved so fast they were like a blur. She was breathing heavily, as if she were trying to run uphill. “I’m almost there, Tom. Don’t give up! Stay with me!”

  The cats fought. Aunt Astrid held Patience at bay, and I stood there waiting.

  Finally, Bea’s eyes popped open. She gasped for breath, as if she’d been underwater the whole time. She whirled around to Patience, grabbed her by the collar, and through clenched teeth, said, “I ought to feed you to that snake.”

  27

  Bigfoot

  I’m not ashamed to say I stood there in shock and awe. Bea had never, never spoken to anyone that way. Even when she was under the spell of the Medusa Praesentia, you could tell it wasn’t really her. This was totally her.

  She dropped Patience back in the chair where the woman slumped. Aunt Astrid released the MIB to go about their ghoulish business of tapping people for the hereafter.

  I took Tom’s hand and squeezed it. “Hey, are you in there?” He squeezed my hand back instantly. His eyes blinked and opened, and when he looked at me, he started to cry.

  “Don’t do that,” I said, wiping a tear from my own eye. “You’ll choke on your own snot. Let me get a nurse.”

  “You stay with him.” Bea smiled.

  “Unbelievable. My cousin can do what she did and still look like she’s ready for her close-up. Crazy.” I looked down at Tom. I was sure that when this moment came, I’d
be a ball of nerves, hemming and hawing and tripping over my tongue because I couldn’t say I love you to him. As I looked at him, helpless as he was, I got the feeling he knew. I also got the feeling he wasn’t mad.

  Aunt Astrid put her body between Tom and his mother. The woman still couldn’t talk, and it was as if her body had decided it had had enough. She sat in the chair like a rag doll.

  When the nurses appeared, they cleared us all out. Aunt Astrid took Patience and asked Jake to give them both a lift to her house. They verified her address from her wallet in her purse. Patience went without putting up a fuss.

  There was something very wrong there, but I walked up to Blake and told him what had happened.

  “Were you really going to fight her?” he asked seriously.

  “They tell you to talk smack in self-defense classes.” I tugged at my jeans and rocked on my heels. “It throws off the attacker if you start acting like you really want them to try it.”

  “Well, I’d be scared of you,” Blake said, not cracking a smile.

  “You of all people better be,” I added.

  We waited around for a while. Once Patience was at her home, Aunt Astrid put a spell on her and the house that would keep her there and safe until there was something that could be done with her. Bea stayed with me to wait until the doctors told us we could visit Tom. Blake brought us lunch and then left to get back to the station.

  “It was nice of him to bring us food,” Bea said as she devoured a spinach salad, a slice of garlic bread, and a slice of chocolate cake for dessert.

  “You know he brought you a cake with sugar and flour.” I pointed at her empty tray with a French fry.

  “I’m starving. Beggars can’t be choosers.” She wiped her mouth on the paper napkin.

  “If either of you would like to go in, he can have a visitor,” the nurse said as she came out of his room. “We just ask that you go one at a time. Even after all that sleep, he still needs to rest.”

  “Go on, Cath. Take your time,” Bea said as she took the remaining bits of my lunch off my lap.

  I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand, straightened my jeans, and headed in. Tom was sitting up. He smiled that handsome smile at me as soon as he saw me.

  “This is ridiculous,” I said. “The lengths you’ll go to get someone to bring you breakfast in bed.”

  “Don’t make me laugh.” He winced and held his side. “I got shot, you know.”

  “Yeah. I know.” I carefully scooted up on the bed and took hold of his hand. “So, how are you feeling now?”

  “I’m okay. Considering.” He looked at me so kindly. It was like he’d read my mind and was prepared for what I had to say. Except, I didn’t know what I wanted to say. “I’m sorry you had to see all that…with my mother.”

  “You were aware of it?” Now it was my turn to wince.

  “Cath, you have to believe me when I tell you that she wasn’t always like this. Something has happened to her. I don’t know if it can be explained through a doctor’s exam or if it’s something more…spiritual.”

  “You don’t need to explain anything to me, Tom,” I said. “You needed help. That was all I saw. I couldn’t just sit by.”

  “You saved my life.”

  “Actually, Bea did. I just brought backup.” I winked.

  “You know I saw them all. Treacle, Marshmallow. That little guy has really grown. How long have I been out of it?”

  “Just a little over a week or so. Maybe two weeks at the most.” I smoothed his hair. “You probably need a shower.”

  “I’ll request a sponge bath and get one of those younger nurses to give it to me.” He smirked.

  “Well, you know I won’t stop you there.” I chuckled.

  “I know.”

  The way he said those words made me get choked up inside. My chest tightened, squeezing tears out of my eyes and holding my breath tightly inside of me. I patted his hand.

  “We had a lot of fun, though, right?” I said, sniffling.

  “I’ve never met a woman like you before, Cath.” He smiled.

  “And you never will again. I’m like the elusive Bigfoot. Once you see it for yourself, you’ll never be the same.” Tom laughed and then winced, and that made me laugh and shake the bed. It was a vicious circle of laughter and wincing.

  “So, what are you going to do once you get out of here?”

  “I’m going to take Mom to get checked out. I’ll be on desk duty for a long while. I don’t know. I’m thinking maybe I need a change of scenery.”

  “Where would you go?”

  “My sister lives in Kansas. Her husband is a doctor. I think that sounds like the best bet. I’m sure I could get a transfer arranged from the department,” he said, looking off toward the window that was shut. “It would be hard to say goodbye to everything and everyone I’ve gotten to know here.”

  “Yeah. But you’re a likeable guy…most of the time. I’m sure you’ll have friends in no time. And I’m sure you won’t have any problems meeting the ladies.”

  An uncomfortable silence settled over us. I went to move my hand, but Tom wouldn’t let go. He brought it to his lips and kissed it. It was a nice gesture, but the tingles weren’t there.

  “You are one in a million. But you’ve ruined me for witches.”

  “That makes more sense than you know.” I smirked.

  “Cath, I told you I had a couple of psychic experiences, some premonitions that came true.” He patted my hand as he talked. “I never thought much of it all until we met. Then I thought that maybe it was something more. Maybe it meant you and I were meant to be together. It was something we had in common. But after what my mother did, I just don’t want it.”

  “I understand.” I tilted my head. “It’s a gift, but that doesn’t make it any less scary or overwhelming.”

  “I could see her, Cath. I wasn’t in a coma like the doctors said. I mean, for all appearances, I was in a coma. But I knew when people were in the room. I knew when my mother was here. I knew when you were here. She wanted me to stay here, and I don’t know why.” His voice wavered. “I need to go someplace to start over again. There are just too many things here that I feel might trigger her.”

  “Like me? I’ve been known to rub people the wrong way.” I wiped one of his curls off his forehead.

  “Please don’t think it means I don’t still love you. I do. More than you’ll know.” I felt my cheeks burn up with embarrassment. “But it would take more than this to keep us together, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah.” I looked down. “Your mom, she’s just lost, Tom. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

  “That’s the really tragic part, Cath. She does know. She’s known for some time what she’s been doing, and none of it seemed to bother her.” It was Tom’s turn to look at his hands. He was embarrassed. “But she’s my mother. I can’t hate her. I can only try to help her.”

  “Do you know where she got that book from?” I asked, rubbing my chin where she got me good with it.

  “What book?”

  “Well, it was an old-looking book with a pentagram on the cover.” I said it as if the words hurt my mouth to speak them. To be truthful, they did. Tom was the last person in the world I thought should be going through this. He was so good inside.

  “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “Are you sure it was a pentagram?”

  I nodded sadly.

  “She’s like an alcoholic. She just doesn’t know when to quit.” He wiped a tear from his eye.

  “I think your plan for her is the best idea.” I tried to be cheerful, but I had no clue if taking Patience to Kansas would help or a psych evaluation or even one of those deprogrammers they used for people mixed up with cults. This was not my decision to make, and I was glad of it.

  “It’s all I’ve got right now.”

  We sat for a little while longer and chatted. I tried to be as encouraging and optimistic as possible. Had Tom asked, I would have come to visit him
again, and I would have even helped him get settled at home while he finished recuperating. But he didn’t ask me to. And I didn’t offer.

  I gave him a hug and a kiss goodbye, and that was it. When I walked out of his room, the person waiting for me was not who I had expected it to be.

  28

  All Smiles

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Blake quietly.

  “I was waiting for you.” He looked at the closed door. “How’s he doing?”

  “I think Tom is going to be fine. His mother, on the other hand, needs some help. But he might be able to get it for her.” I didn’t want to tell Blake all the gory details. It wasn’t his business. I would have felt like a real gossip had I shared the fact that Patience Warner was, for all intents and purposes, a certifiable devil worshipper. “Hey, I left a burger here with Bea. Now both of them are gone.”

  “Bea ate it. Then she said she had to get home, so I told her I’d wait for you.”

  “That can’t be. Bea is a vegetarian. You’ve seen all the stuff she cooks at her house. Kale and sweet potatoes and tofu.” I shivered. “She’s just weird that way.”

  “Well, as sure as I’m sitting here, she polished off that burger in like three bites.” Blake shrugged.

  “I’ll bet it’s just some kind of side effect from her ordeal.” I nodded. “She’ll get over it.”

  “So, are you going to stick around for a while?” Blake asked as we walked down the corridor of the intensive care unit toward the exit.

  “No. I’m going home, and I hope not to come to this hospital again for a long time.” I folded my arms over my chest. “It’s full of sick people here,” I whispered.

  Blake nodded as if he concurred with my assessment of the number of ill patients. I rolled my eyes.

  “That was a joke?” He looked at me.

  “Yeah, Mr. Spock. That was a joke,” I replied.

  “It was pretty good.” He nodded without smiling. “Would you like a lift home?”

  “Is that a joke?”