by Kim Thompson
Willa woke at dawn, still crumpled beneath the window. She felt groggy, but when the memory of the black horse shot through her brain she was suddenly wide awake. Her body ached and she longed to climb back into bed, but Willa was certain that this was what Miss Trang had been waiting for. This was what they were all waiting for. She had to go to them.
Tiptoeing out of the house, she was again gripped by fear, but the day was reassuringly normal, the rising sun warm and friendly. The paperboy was working his way up the block; she could hear the monotonous thud as each newspaper hit its front door. Everything looked so ... ordinary.
She ran all the way. The air was fresh and cool for the first time in weeks. Birds sang. The town seemed so bright and cheery, she almost doubted what she’d seen.
The house was alive with loud voices and movement. Everyone but Miss Trang was in the parlour. They were wearing their pajamas and robes, and all talking at once.
“— absolute crap!” Belle was shouting as Willa ran in.
Horace began patiently. “The signs all point to a disturbance ...”
Belle interrupted him. “A disturbance! Well, thank you, Nostradamus! We all woke up, we all know there was a disturbance. Do ‘the signs’ tell you anything we don’t know already?” Horace sighed as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
Mab was in a frenzy, flying around in rapid circles, occasionally bouncing off a wall like an addled moth. Willa could barely make out her sharp little voice.
“We’ve ... got ... to DO something!”
Robert sat sullenly in the corner, punctuating the hubbub with the occasional crashing stomp of a hoof. Fadiyah flapped at the bars of her cage; feathers floated in the air. Even Baz, usually unflappable, was chewing nervously on her bottom lip and moaning.
“The most horrible dreams ... I know something’s happening. Something terrible, something absolutely horrid.”
Belle countered her, waving her hands in frustration. “Psh. Dreams! Nobody saw anything!”
Willa nervously cleared her throat. “I saw something.” No one paid her any attention, so she tried again. “I woke up and looked outside....”
“Stop that infernal stomping!” Belle hissed at Robert.
“Shut your trap, you old sea-cow!” he growled back.
Willa took a deep breath and shouted. “I SAW SOMETHING!”
Everyone froze, looking at her. Willa felt suddenly nervous. Her voice faltered. “I — I saw something. I think it’s important.”
Horace leaned past Willa and shouted up the staircase. “Miss Trang! Come at once!” He led Willa to an armchair. Miss Trang appeared in the doorway in a flash, looking strangely worn and tired. Willa could hardly believe she’d ever been afraid of the woman.
Miss Trang knelt before her and looked her in the eyes. “What did you see, Willa?”
“A black horse with red eyes, running down my street. Running up on two legs!”
Miss Trang blinked in surprise. The others murmured anxiously. She stood suddenly and turned to leave the room, barking, “Come with me, Willa.”
Willa followed, wondering if she’d done something wrong. Miss Trang led her into her office and shut the door. She sat at her desk and began writing, speaking to Willa without turning to look at her.
“I have to go away for a few days. I’m leaving right away. You will be in charge. You’ll find money for groceries in here.” She gestured briefly to a desk drawer. “It would be best if you slept here as well.”
Willa stared in astonishment. “In charge? Me? But I ... I don’t ...”
Miss Trang spun around in her chair and looked her in the eyes again. She didn’t look tired anymore; she looked steely and determined. “You are in charge. Keep the others in line. Don’t let the place fall apart. I don’t have time to give you the full story, but this is very, very important. All right? Will you help us?”
Willa swallowed. She didn’t know what was going on. She felt uneasy and fearful, but this was the first time she’d ever been needed for something important.
She nodded. “Yes, I will.”
Chapter Seven
Willa in charge
Miss Trang’s departure lifted the dark clouds of worry from the household. As she strode purposefully away up the street with only a small black bag in hand, the old folks relaxed into smiles. The house itself seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Willa watched Miss Trang until she was just a black dot in the distance. She felt Horace’s hand on her shoulder.
“No need to worry now. Miss Trang will know what to do.” His voice was warm and reassuring.
“But where is she going?”
Horace gestured vaguely. “She’s meeting with the others. They’ll ... they’ll take care of things.”
“What others? Who?”
“Oh, beings who are much more important and powerful than this sad group you see here.”
He turned to look at the others settling in for tea, chattering away and rattling cups without a care in the world. Mab sat on the mantle swinging her feet and whistling cheerfully. Robert was telling knock-knock jokes and Belle was rolling her eyes good-naturedly. Baz appeared with a plate of scones fresh from the oven and Horace hurried over to get his share.
Willa sank into a chair and watched them. She was glad that whatever was going on was being taken care of, supposedly, somewhere and by someone, but she still had her own worries. First there was the “being in charge” assignment which sat cold and anxious in the pit of her stomach. Looking after this crew seemed far beyond her capabilities. Miss Trang had advised her not to let Robert get his hands on any alcohol, and to take especially good care of Mab. Other than that, “you’re in charge” was all she had to say on the matter. But how could Willa be in charge if she had no idea what was going on? Almost as worrying was Miss Trang’s insistence that Willa move in until she got back. What was her mom going to say about that?
“Oh, I don’t think so, honey. I mean, you’re only twelve.”
In the past, Willa would have taken this as the final word and gone off to sulk in her room. But now, buoyed by the urgency of the situation and Miss Trang’s surprising confidence in her, she actually argued back.
“It means more pay. It’s just so Miss Trang won’t worry about them. They’re old, they need help, and what if there’s an emergency in the middle of the night? It’s only for a few days, and it’s not far away. I’ll call you right away if I need help.” Her mom said nothing, thinking. Willa pressed on. “Miss Trang is really depending on me. Please can I stay there? Please?”
Then, to her great surprise, her mom relented ... with one condition. She wanted to visit the house and meet everyone. Case the joint with a mother’s suspicious eye. Just what Willa was afraid of.
Nobody else shared her fear.
“That shouldn’t be a problem. We can have both your parents over for dinner,” suggested Horace.
“Will there actually be food?” Willa turned to Baz, who rolled her eyes.
“Ha-ha. Very funny. Of course there will be food. I’ll make my roast duck with mashed garlic potatoes and all the trimmings.”
Horace nodded. “It’s very good.”
The next afternoon Willa picked up the items on Baz’s grocery list and rushed about “parent-proofing” the house. She hid away the weird, supernatural knick-knacks. She was extra sweet to Mab before shutting her away in her dollhouse. She begged Tengu not to challenge her dad to any manner of combat, suggesting that remarks about the weather might be a better icebreaker. She elicited solemn promises from Belle and Horace to behave themselves and not throw things at each other. She enticed Robert to stay in his room for the evening with a bucket of fried chicken. And she made Baz promise again that she would serve actual, real food. When the doorbell finally rang that evening, delicious smells were issuing from the kitchen. Belle, Horace, and Tengu sat prim and proper in the parlour, and Willa was beginning to think this evening might go very well indeed.
On the way to the door her
eye caught Fadiyah in her cage in the corner. Her presence might cause difficulties. Willa’s dad was an avid bird watcher. One look at this glittering, exotic creature and he’d be all keen to identify it, and who knew where that might lead. Willa decided it would be safest to put her out of sight. She asked Horace to take Fadi upstairs and went to let her parents in.
They were bearing gifts. Dad had a bottle of Scotch and Mom had brought some homemade cookies and a catnip toy.
“You told me there was a cat,” she explained when Willa looked blankly at the toy.
“Oh ... yeah ... right.” Willa mumbled her way through the introductions.
Tengu bowed and shook her dad’s hand vigorously. “A pleasure, really a pleasure, I have to say. How’s the latest weather system been treating you, sir?”
Belle sat sullenly in the corner. She grunted in greeting and stared rather rudely at Willa’s mom, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. Luckily, Horace rejoined them just in time to carry the small talk, and Willa hurried into the kitchen to check on Baz.
Everything seemed to be under control. The duck was almost done and everything smelled absolutely amazing.
“You can leave that here.” Baz nodded toward the cat toy in Willa’s hand.
In the parlour Tengu was wolfing down cookies. Well, at least that will keep him from saying anything too weird, thought Willa. Horace and Dad were chatting about gardening like they were old friends. Mom and Belle eyed each other silently from across the room. Willa was just trying to think of something to say when there was a loud stomping from upstairs. Her heart sank. Robert!
Horace leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have put the bird in his room.”
“Is there someone else here?” asked Mom, looking up at the ceiling.
Willa fidgeted nervously in her chair. “Uh, yeah, that’s Robert. He’s ... sick in bed. The flu. Highly contagious. Didn’t want to infect everybody.”
Her dad smiled sympathetically. “Poor guy, that’s tough.” There was another hoof stomp from upstairs. The chandelier rattled.
“Maybe you should look in on him, dear,” suggested her mother, but at that moment there was another crash, from the kitchen this time.
Willa jumped to her feet. “I’d better check on Baz first,” she said as calmly as she could, then turned and fled into the kitchen.
The oven door was open. The roasting pan was upended on the floor. A greasy trail led to Baz, also on the floor, smiling blissfully with the duck in her lap. She was picking from the carcass and shoving the bits into her full mouth. Her eyes were mere slits and her head lolled drunkenly. Her free hand clutched the catnip toy.
Willa leaned against the counter, taking in the scene. It was all very simple, actually, once she put the pieces together. She frowned at Baz.
“So you’re the cat!”
Baz stopped licking her fingers and grinned for a moment before answering in her most velvety voice. “Meow.”
After a full minute of panic Willa pulled herself together and devised a plan of attack. First she phoned for pizza delivery. Then she wrested the catnip away from Baz, who put up quite a struggle. She threw what was left of the duck into a plastic bag, which she tucked under her arm as she hauled Baz to her feet and ushered her out through the parlour to the stairs.
“Baz isn’t feeling well. Probably caught Robert’s flu. Just getting her to her room.”
Willa surprised herself at the ease with which she fibbed. Nobody paid much attention to her, though. Tengu giggled in the corner while Mom stared silently at Belle with a strange look of suspicion and anger. Belle looked back warily, defensive now. What had happened? Horace leaned back in his chair, Tengu reached for another cookie, and … Dad was missing!
Willa fairly flew into the hall, where Dad was coming down the stairs.
“Just thought I’d take your sick friend that bottle. There’s nothing a shot of premium single malt won’t cure.”
“You ... gave it to him?” Willa’s head reeled. Her dad could be a little clueless, but surely even he should have noticed that Robert was half horse.
“I just knocked and left it outside his door.”
Willa sighed with relief as her dad returned to the parlour. By the time she had hustled Baz up the stairs and into her room (giving her the duck to keep her happy) the bottle had disappeared from outside Robert’s door. She knocked and peeked inside. Robert was sitting back on his hind legs in the corner opposite the birdcage. He leaned an elbow on the table strewn with chicken bones and glared across the room at the bird, gripping the bottle in much the same way that Baz had been clutching the catnip.
“Damn thing keeps staring at me!” snarled Robert, taking a swig from the bottle as he flung a bone at the cage. It bounced off the bars and Fadiyah’s eyes narrowed.
Willa hurried over and struggled to lift the cage, which was dreadfully heavy. “You know you shouldn’t be drinking. Miss Trang said so.”
Robert hugged the Scotch tighter to his chest and pouted. Willa rolled her eyes impatiently. “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. You can keep the bottle and I won’t even tell Miss Trang, if you’ll just stay in here and be quiet. Okay? Deal?”
Robert nodded and Willa dragged the cage out of the room. She thought about putting it in Baz’s room, but a cat and a bird in one room was probably just asking for trouble. She shoved the cage into the library and hurried back downstairs.
Now her mom and Belle were ignoring each other completely, staring icily into space. Willa’s heart sank. Horace and Dad glanced at them uncomfortably. Tengu was laughing so hard, he fell right off the ottoman he was perched on.
“What happened? Did they fight?” Willa whispered. Both her dad and Horace shook their heads in utter bewilderment.
“No. They haven’t said a single word.”
Willa looked back at Belle and her mom in surprise and for a split second was struck by their identical expressions; stony and unforgiving. That’s the end of my staying here, she thought. And the thought of letting Miss Trang down pained her more than she ever would have expected.
The pizza arrived and Willa tried to make the best of the meal. She still served the carrots and beans, and the garlic mashed potatoes, carefully smoothing over where her elbow had gone in while she was pulling Baz to her feet. It seemed like a rather bizarre menu. Horace and Belle both raised their eyebrows but said nothing. Surprisingly, her mom and dad seemed genuinely impressed when she gave them her apologies.
“That was quick thinking, Willa, ordering pizza. Well done,” her dad offered.
The rest of the evening went a lot smoother, since Willa had rolled Belle to be seated as far as possible from her mom. Dad, as diplomatic as ever, endeavoured to smooth things over with the old lady, and Belle reacted by turning on the charm as well. Horace in turn was impressing her mom with his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient history. Tengu crouched on his chair, his attention focussed solely on picking the mushrooms off his pizza slices and dropping them on the floor. Willa was finally able to sit back and relax a little. As she was leaving with her parents for home, however, Belle and her mom gave each other another long, icy look before Horace could wheel the old dame away.
They walked in silence and darkness, moving in and out of the pools of streetlight. Willa’s mom seemed totally lost in thought. Finally, in front of their house Willa could stand it no longer.
“So … is it okay? Can I stay there nights?”
Her dad tipped his head doubtfully and looked at her mom, who snapped out of her reverie at the question.
“Oh, right. I, uh …” Willa was surprised. Her mom hadn’t even been thinking about the issue. What was on her mind?
Dad jumped to her defence. “I thought you showed a lot of maturity there, Willa. Saving dinner and all. And looking after those poor old dears when they get sick. I was very impressed.” He put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a little squeeze. Willa smiled. Good old Dad. They both turned to Mom, expectant.
<
br /> She gazed at the two of them for a moment and suddenly looked very tired. “Yes, you managed wonderfully. I think this is a good experience for you.” She paused. “You can stay there starting tomorrow, but if anything gets out of hand you give us a call, any time of the day or night, all right?”
Willa couldn’t believe her ears. She nodded eagerly. “Okay, I will. Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Dad!”
“Only ...” her mom wasn’t finished, “... about Belle. She’s … I wouldn’t trust her, honey. Just try to avoid her if you can. I mean it. Watch out for her.” And with that she turned on her heel and strode up to the front door.
Willa and Dad exchanged puzzled looks as Mom jangled the keys in the lock.
“They didn’t say anything to each other?” whispered Willa.
Her dad shook his head. “Not a word.”
Willa’s mom disappeared into the dark house.
Chapter Eight
Willa moves in and the place falls apart
The next morning Willa woke with a foggy brain. Her limbs felt heavy and slow. She had slept very strangely, a deep, smothering kind of sleep, with no dreams.
She packed a small bag of essentials and headed over to the boarding house, yawning all the way. She couldn’t shake off the drowsiness.
The house was very quiet, which made Willa uneasy. Belle sat in the upstairs hall, gloomily staring out at the backyard. Willa asked her which room she should stay in.
Belle shrugged. “I don’t care. Suit yourself.”
Willa chose a turret room on the top floor. It was smaller than the other rooms, but she liked it because it was round and had a little window seat with a worn red velvet cushion. She peered out the window, down at the people in the street. Ordinary people going to the store or work. Ordinary kids biking to the park and meeting up with their friends. They seemed very far away, like she was watching them through a telescope. She unpacked her clothes and toothbrush and such, and went in search of the others.
