Cee Cee smoothed back my hair. “Go on, my baby,” she murmured. And, as if reading my thoughts, “She’s still your maw maw. She’s still in there.”
I went up to her bed and sat beside her. She opened her eyes a tiny bit and, recognizing me, closed them. “Took you long enough to get here,” she said with a raspy voice.
“Sorry, it was a long flight,” I said. “And my arms are really tired,” I added.
She laughed, but that quickly turned into a hacking cough and another gasping breath. There was a lot of fluid in her lungs. On her nightstand was a breathing apparatus she was supposed to use to make her lungs stronger. I was sure she hadn’t used it.
“You okay?”
“I’m dying, so no.”
I bit my lip. I knew she was making a joke, but the reality of it all hit me, and I couldn’t stop the tears. When I sniffled, she opened her eyes again.
“Don’t you cry, little girl,” she said sternly.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”
Lucas motioned for the kids to leave the room with him and Cee Cee, and then closed the door.
I picked up Clothilde’s hand and kissed it, marveling at all the lines in her skin, just as I had done when I was Lyla’s age.
“We get old fast, don’t we?”
I nodded, looking at the lines in my own hands. I chuckled softly.
“Mais, what’s so funny?”
I smiled. “I used to be such a rebel, and now look at me. Back in Louisiana, practically living with my grandmother. I’m not as young as I used to be, either.”
A smile spread across her worn face. “You were always a rebellious little girl. I tried so hard to control you.”
I eyed her. “I know. My legs still have the scars to prove it.”
“I never switched you that hard.”
“Kidding.”
“We all knew you’d leave one day. You always talked about going to far-off places. And you questioned everything. ‘Because I said so’ wasn’t a good enough answer for you. You remind me too much of myself.”
I raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Oh yes, ma’am! I was just as rebellious and stubborn as you. I’ll bet you didn’t know that, before I met your paw paw, I bought a one-way ticket to Dublin, Ireland after I graduated high school. I had saved up all summer for college, but I got in a fight with my daddy and told him I was leaving.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded and coughed again, this time finding it hard to catch her breath. She let go of my hand. I reached out for her again but she shook her head. “Can’t … risk it.” I realized she meant that she couldn’t risk me trying to heal her. She got her breathing under control again and laid her head back on her pillow.
“Anyway,” she continued, “where was I?”
“Dublin. Why there?”
She shrugged her frail shoulders. “I got a map, closed my eyes, and put my finger down. It landed on the Irish Sea, so I settled on Dublin. Anyway, when I got there, I sent Mama and Daddy a post card to let them know I was okay. I didn’t have anywhere to sleep, though. I got a job as a bar maid at one of the taverns, and the owner let me have a little apartment upstairs. One of the young men who worked there became my friend. His name was Desmond. Lucas reminds me of him, but he had hair black like coal and blue eyes.” After a moment of quiet reflection she added, “Best lover I ever had.”
“Maw Maw!”
“Hush! You’re old enough to hear that now.”
“Not sure I want to. No, wait, I know I don’t want to.”
“Anyway, those were two of the best months of my life. I almost stayed with Desmond, but I knew it was time to come back.” Her eyes considered me. “The rebels inside us never die, but as we get older they seem more content to sit on the porch and sip iced tea. Iced tea with lemon. And mint from the garden.”
“Are you hinting for me to get you some tea?”
She waved her hand away and took another ragged breath.
We were silent for a little while. I thought she had fallen back asleep, but when I whispered, “I love you,” she opened her eyes again.
“I’m proud of you,” she said.
I furrowed my brows. “For what?”
“Your strength. You survive, and you do a good job of it.”
“Are you in pain?”
“Life is pain. And joy. Mostly joy.”
Tears fell down my cheeks.
“I said I didn’t want you to cry.”
I looked at her dresser with the little milk glass lamp on it. “How do you expect me not to? I wish you’d just let us heal you—”
“Look at me, Leigh-Leigh.”
I gazed upon her with blurry vision but could see that her expression had softened.
“It’s time for me to go. I’m ready. Too many people waiting for me.”
“How can anyone be ready to die?”
Her breath hitched again. “There is no death.” She patted my hand and drifted back to sleep. I sat near her for perhaps half an hour, wanting to hold her hand, listening to her uneven breathing. And my memories of her came and went. I was left with an impression of a tough old lady who was a lion for her family. I kissed her forehead and went outside to find the others to tell them to come be with her again, because, with every hitching breath, I feared the end was coming before too long.
Lyla and Jonathan were by the pond, sitting on the swings, but not swinging. Jonathan looked like he was trying to cheer up Lyla the best way he could, but she just sat there, angrily staring at the pond. Smittens glided lovingly in between her legs, but she paid her no attention.
Lucas had his truck bed down, and he was sitting on it, looking out at the setting sun and the dark, gathering clouds with a beer in his hand. I joined him. He gave me a questioning, panicked look.
I shook my head, and he relaxed a little.
“How’s Lyla?”
He shrugged. “How you’d expect her to be. Angry. Scared.”
“She looked like she wanted to kill me when I got here.”
“Give her some space right now. She’s still just a little girl. But after, when it’s over, don’t give her any space, because she won’t know what she needs.”
I nodded, feeling numb. “Where’d Cee Cee go?”
“Pick up your friends at the airport. They said a guy called Felix told them to go ahead and come here, that he’d round up the ol’ posse.”
I ignored his cynicism. “Ruby didn’t come?”
“Cee Cee said she was on her way.”
I nodded at the beer in his hand. “That from Maw Maw Clo’s fridge?”
He smiled a little, but I could tell he had been crying. “Yeah. Funny thing is, she hates beer, but always keeps a few in there for me.”
Thunder rumbled to the southwest, and a drizzle began to fall as the sun continued to slip below the red horizon.
“I can’t do this, Lucas. I don’t know how to deal with it. I can’t …” My voice strangled with tears. Lucas held me tightly to him. He was crying, too, but he did his best to be strong for me. Lucas, the strong and silent.
“I’m not going anywhere, Leigh. You won’t be dealing with this alone, you got me? Let me take care of everything for a little while.”
The rain held off, but ash from the field continued to fall like black snow all around us as thunder rolled again, but farther away this time. It seemed the storm would miss us.
I pulled away, wiping my eyes. “We should all get back inside.”
The kids were no longer near the pond. A quick look around, but they were nowhere that we could see.
“They probably already went back in,” he said.
We went back to Clothilde’s room. The first thing I saw when we opened the door was Jonathan sitting in the chair by the window, transfixed as he stared at Clothilde with his mouth slightly agape. In front of him, though he could not see, were two tall, nearly transparent figures looking down on Clothilde. I stopped short, not prepared to see the
Guardians already.
I stepped further into the room to see Lyla standing over Clothilde, one hand placed on her head and the other on her heart.
“Lyla, no!”
I rushed to pull her off of Clothilde, and she screamed, “NO! I can help her! Make them go away! Tell them not to take her!”
“Leigh …” said Lucas.
“She can’t, or she’ll turn,” I told him, struggling to hold her back as she kicked and scratched my arms that held her waist.
“I can help her!” she yelled.
Jonathan began to cry.
And now I could see a light leaving Clothilde’s body as she started to slip away.
It took all my strength to hold Lyla back as she kicked and screamed.
“Lucas … hold her hand! Hold it for me, please!”
He rushed to her side and held one of her hands in his. “It’s okay, Miss Clo,” he murmured to her. And, despite the piercing pain in my heart and my exhausted muscles from restraining Lyla, I had a sudden surge of gratitude for Lucas. I couldn’t touch her, so he took my place. His hand was the last thing she felt as her light expanded, filling the whole room, and I was the only one who could see it. It was the most awe-inspiring thing I’d ever experienced. And, even though tears were streaming down my face, I smiled and felt a sudden overwhelming peace, because I knew there was more; there was more to this life after all, and someone as good as her—well, the light never dies.
The Guardians held their arms open, and the light became concentrated into one white, blazing orb. They enclosed their arms around it, and then disappeared, taking the light with them.
I let Lyla go. She lunged for the bed and Clothilde’s other hand. She closed her red, angry eyes and tried with all her heart to bring her back.
But it was too late.
Drained, I just sat on the floor under the window that looked out over the garden.
Jonathan still cried in the chair near the door.
Lucas, still holding her hand, leaned over and kissed her forehead. He went around to the other side of the bed and put an arm around Lyla, who paid him no notice. He smoothed her long, brown hair and kissed her on the top of her head. He gently pulled her hands away from Clothilde’s body. She struggled a little, but she knew it was over. Lucas bent down and hugged her. She buried her face in his shoulder and cried her heart out.
***
Cee Cee arrived with Noah and Miles about an hour later. They said Felix was going to finish gathering the rest of the paladins and then come to the house. Ruby came by half an hour or so after they arrived. She had packed an arsenal in her bag: powders, dust, trinkets, her staff. She gave some things to Cee Cee, who added them to her rhinestone Elvis purse.
While we mourned, Noah patrolled outside, and Ruby was careful to perform a protection spell on every door, window and wall in the house. Miles seemed saddened, and though he probably thought no one noticed, I saw a few tears roll down his cheeks. He sat quietly in the living room, either meditating or praying. Lucas put Jonathan to bed, but it was a while before he would sleep. They were in the guest room above us, and I heard him explain to Jon about life and death and Heaven. It seemed to comfort him.
Cee Cee sat on the couch, in between Lyla and me, her arms around our shoulders as she wept. Lyla’s red eyes stared at the door to Clothilde’s bedroom which was next to the living room. I thought the tears had finally stopped for me, but every now and then I’d replay everything in my mind and cry again.
Ruby came to get us when she was done with protecting the house. Noah came in from outside. I went upstairs to tell Lucas that it was time for him and Jonathan to leave.
He lay beside Jonathan, who was deeply asleep.
“Is he okay?” I whispered.
Lucas kissed his son’s head and then sat up. “No,” he whispered back. “And I’m not either, to tell you the truth.” Even in the dim light, I could see his eyes were still red and glistening like mine.
“You need to get him out of here.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking about taking him to Carrie’s. I’ll drop him off and be right back.”
I was firm. “Luke, no.”
Affirmation washed over his face, and he looked me square in the eyes. “I’m not leaving you here to face this without me.”
My heart sank, and I wanted nothing more than for him to stay. “What about Jon? If something happens to you … don’t leave him to face this world without you.”
His gaze turned upon Jonathan who now began to softly snore.
“You know I love you,” I said, “but there’s nothing you can do. Guns don’t work on them, you know that.”
He looked at me again and his eyes smiled. “That’s the first time you said that.”
It took me a second to realize what he meant. “You don’t know how much I wish I didn’t need you. How much I wish I didn’t want you.”
He smiled warmly.
“Yeah, I do love you,” I said. “I love you for all the years of being my friend, for the way you love your son, for being a father to Lyla after David died, for holding Clothilde’s hand as she slipped away … and I love you for the way you make me feel like I have a family, like I belong somewhere. I love you because you … because I feel like I’m home when I’m with you. I don’t ever want to lose that.”
He got up and put his arms around me, his hand on the small of my back, pulling me to him. And then his lips pressed against mine. I saw our future together in that moment—he, Lyla, Jonathan and I—and I wanted it so badly I’d do anything for it.
“Okay,” he said with a strangled voice.
“What?”
“I’ll go.”
I hugged him. “Thank you.”
“But you promise me that you’ll protect Lyla and yourself as best you can, okay?”
I nodded my head against his shoulder, and then he picked up Jonathan and carried him downstairs. I opened the front door for him, but before he walked out, he turned to Noah, and I saw a pleading look in his eyes that said protect them. Noah nodded a silent promise, and Lucas carried Jon out to his truck.
I held the door open for him as he placed Jon inside and buckled him up. He hugged and kissed me goodbye, and as his taillights faded out of the driveway, I wondered if I’d ever see them again.
When I went back into the living room, Noah looked at me with sympathetic eyes, and I realized that he had probably heard every word Lucas and I said upstairs. He smiled sadly for me as if to give his blessing. I returned the smile and then sat on the sofa beside Lyla, who was nestled in the crook of Cee Cee’s arm. As soon as I sat next to her, Lyla got up and went into the kitchen and sat at the table, facing the refrigerator.
Cee Cee patted my knee. “Give her time, my baby.”
Ruby rocked in my grandfather’s old chair. I had never seen her look so nervous, and that scared me more than I cared to admit.
Miles sat in a chair near the TV, his eyes closed, and lips moving silently, in prayer perhaps.
Noah stood by the window overlooking the side of the house near the arbor covered in dead honeysuckle vines and the path that led to the garden in the back. He looked as nervous as Ruby.
There we sat, not a word spoken between any of us.
And we waited.
16
The Dark of Night
It was 1:30 in the morning, and the smell of coffee filled the house. Cee Cee had consecrated the Book of Avelina a few hours earlier, sometime after she was able to set her grief aside. She had lit a white candle, burned a small cedar branch from one of the trees outside, and passed the book through the smoke. She had us join hands and said, “I consecrate this, the Book of Avelina, with the powers of fire, air, earth, water, and spirit. By God’s will and through our best intentions, this book will only be used for good. Let it serve us well, here and the beyond. Amen.” She said this seven times.
Lyla had long fallen asleep at the table. I had carried her to the couch and covered her with a blanket
around 11:00, and Smittens curled up next to her. The only light on was the one over the stove, and it cast a soft glow upon us as we spoke quietly around the kitchen table.
From where I sat, I could see the door to Clothilde’s room. Even though I saw her soul leave her body, there was something about the atmosphere and the time of night that had me glancing at the door every couple of minutes, expecting her to walk out of it.
“—the pond?”
“Sorry, what?” I said, taking my eyes off the door to the bedroom.
“How deep is the pond?” repeated Miles.
I shrugged. “Three or four feet in the middle? If that.”
He was quiet for a moment, staring down at the table, his eyebrows scrunched into deep thought.
“Have an idea?” said Ruby.
“Maybe.” He looked up. “If we can turn it all to holy water … If we can get them trapped there … I don’t know. Just thinking aloud.”
“There are going to be too many,” said Noah and then shook his head in frustration. “There’s going to be so many. Even if the others join us, we’ll still be way outnumbered. I don’t know, Miles. Maybe we should hide out for a while.”
I shook my head. “Maybe we can hide, but I can’t take Lyla away from here and just run away. I can’t ask my friends to hide and not be able to tell them for how long. This needs to end.”
I think Noah was surprised to hear the determination in my voice. The truth was that I was faking my confidence. My whole psyche was riddled with dread and fear, but I didn’t want Lyla to see that. I didn’t want her to be afraid any more than she already was.
“Maybe we can take a look at the pond and see if we can arrange something,” said Miles.
I stayed inside to make a fresh pot of coffee while they went to check the pond. I didn’t want Lyla to be alone in the house, anyway. If she woke up and no one was there, she’d probably be terrified.
I was half finished my cup of coffee when they came back. For the first time, they looked hopeful.
“That’ll have to do for now,” said Noah.
“What did y’all do?” I said.
“I blessed the water,” said Cee Cee.
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Page 24
