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a new classic by Edward Summer |
ark
thunderclouds rumbled as the children walked toward Tony's house.
"That was so weird!" Tony said. "It sounds made up, you know, like a fairy tale. Do you think it's true?"
"I don't know," Ginger said, "but this amulet sure is beautiful." She turned it over in her hand and stroked it with her thumb.
A large drop of water fell onto Fred's forehead. "It's raining, " Fred
said.
"Thanks for telling me, Sherlock. I really couldn't have known it without you." Tony turned up his shirt collar and ran toward a large oak tree.
The clouds opened, pouring heavy sheets of rain in every direction. The children huddled together next to the tree trunk.
"It's dangerous under a tree when it's raining," Ginger said. "We could get struck by lightning."
"Yeah, but it's dry." Tony answered. "Lemme see that thing." He reached impulsively for the amulet. The moment his fingertips touched its surface, Tony was struck by a jolt of white-blue sparks. Flashes of bright light showered in all directions. "Yeowwwww!" He shouted as he yanked back his hand.
"What was that?" Fred asked.
Teddy blinked in disbelief. Have we just been struck by lightning, he wondered. No, he hadn't felt a thing, so it couldn't be lightning.
"It must be the amulet protecting itself… or me," Ginger mused.
"Well, whatever it is, it sure did a good job." Tony rubbed his tingling arm and blew on his burning finger tips. "I wanna know what's going on. We've gotta go back and find out so it doesn't happen again." He looked past the leaves at the downpour. "…ummm...after it stops raining."
Tony, Ginger, and Fred sat down and leaned against the tree trunk to wait
out the storm.
Mrs.
Seel turned down the gas mantles in the parlor by half. Now the
parlor was soft with shadows. Then she lit a single white candle in a crystal
holder next to her rocking chair. It made a warm glow in the center of
the room. She settled herself in the chair, picked up the quilt and resumed
work. She smiled a bit sadly as she fashioned a row of small, even stitches.
"You knew I was here?" A rasping, labored voice came from the shadows.
"I always know when you are here. I have known every time, every century. This time, it was inevitable." Mrs. Seel glanced into the shadows, but continued to sew.
"You still believe the prophecy, Queen Mother?" Reon paused for breath. "You could have changed me back at any time."
Reon tried to step out of the shadows within the huge stone fireplace that
sheltered him. Even cut to half, the gaslights were too bright for him.
He raised his arms to shield his eyes. Reon took a deep, grating breath,
concentrated and pointed both hands toward the nearest gas lamp. A wisp
of dust, followed by an almost invisible strand of cobweb began to issue
from a tiny spinneret on each of Reon's forearms. A row of spider's spinnerets
ran down his arms and, one by one, each began to produce dust and webbing.
The shifting cloud floated through the air, thicker and thicker, faster
and faster until it covered the first lamp and suffocated the flame.
Reon turned to the next lamp and extinguished that. Lamp after lamp, went out until only the candle remained. Reon moved so that Mrs. Seel was always between the candle and himself so that the flickering flame shone no light into his burning eyes.
Mrs. Seel never stopped sewing. "No, my son, I could not have changed you back. You are destined to search out the amulet all of your days. I am only a messenger."
"Where is it?" Reon demanded.
"I no longer have it."
"Then where…?"
"It is for you to find."
Reon took a step toward her. "How could you give up eternal life…to someone…else?" His breathing roughened. The sharp scales on his chest began to flare, flames trickling around them. "I will get the amulet…without your interference."
Mrs. Seel stood slowly and spoke defiantly. "Do you think that I am frightened by what is inevitable? My end is already near." She walked across the room and pulled back the thick, velvet curtain that hung in front of the stained-glass window depicting the wondrous kingdom of her story. A brief flash of sunshine broke through the clouds and caught the castle in the center of the window. Then the beam passed through Mrs. Seel herself making a multi-colored shadow on the rug.
"Look! Look!
Do you see those barren mountains?" She pointed to the mountain range beyond
and above the town. "Your kingdom is gone! Worn away by time and nature.
Nothing is left but an image in colored glass. There is nothing
for you to win!"
Reon cowered in the shadows, holding his arms in front of his eyes. "I will avenge the pain that Teefr has caused us all!" His voice became louder and harsher.
"Your brother is no more responsible than you are. Besides, I pity him more. The curse gave him no hope. He knows that he will die before you."
Reon raised his arms again, spewing a stream of webbing toward the windows. The cloud of dust and cobweb became so thick that it obliterated the stained glass mountain and the stained glass castle and the stained glass people around it and, at last, blocked out the sun.
Mrs. Seel released the curtain, covering all but a tiny strip of the window that ran from floor to ceiling. Except for the candle, the parlor was very, very dark.
"Teefr deserves no hope!" Reon shouted. "If he had not stolen the amulet, there would be no curse! I would not suffer in this form!"
"Perhaps you are right. Perhaps. But perhaps all that we ever needed was each other." She took a step toward her son and held out her hand.
Reon avoided her grasp, raising his arms over his head. He continued to spray dust into the air. New webbing began to float toward the old woman, but instead of settling on her, it passed right through her body. As she became more and more transparent, her body, the dust, and the air became one.
"Remember," Mrs. Seel said in scarcely a whisper. "Remember. I have always loved you. Both of you the same." Her words became a smile. Then, with the softest of sounds, softer than the yawn of a kitten, Mrs. Seel vanished. The dust and webbing that filled the air rushed together into a vacuum, first whirling madly about then falling to the floor.
An unearthly howl shook the room. But there was another scream, a silent one, in Reon's mind. This scream was far more terrifying than any sound that escaped from his flaming lips. It was a scream mixed equally of grief, hopelessness, and fury. The frenzy of his despair was so deep, Reon was beyond control.
His body shook and twirled, and the dust storm grew thicker. Webbing floated through the air uncontrolled, pouring from Reon's arms like a thunder storm. The air was so thick that only the searing red of Reon's eyes and the tiny flicker of his mother's candle penetrated the cloud. The harsh flames of Reon's eyes grew relentlessly brighter in the dust, but the glow of the candle ebbed and sighed and softly, slowly, gently, flickered out.
Ginger suddenly began to shiver.
"Whatsamatter?" Tony asked.
"I just got this awful chill," she answered.
"I'm not cold," Fred said.
"Great, Fred." Tony pictured Fred's mouth permanently shut with crazy glue. "C'mon. Let's go."
The rain had stopped. Only a gentle shower of droplets dripped from the sheltering oak tree. The children trotted back to Mrs. Seel's house. Tony and Ginger danced around the puddles as Fred stepped into each and every one, his shoelaces dragging through the ones that his sneakers missed.
As Tony raised the brass door knocker, the door eerily swung open by itself. He released the knocker gently, afraid to make any sound.
"Hello?" There was no answer. "Hello?"
"Do you think we should go in?" whispered Ginger.
Tony pushed the door open far enough to step inside. Ginger and Fred were at his heels.
The front hallway was very dark. The children knew that something was wrong.
"I'm scared." Fred clutched Teddy to his chest.
"Not so tight!" Teddy complained. "I can't see!"
"Sorry." Fred adjusted his grip.
No mysterious light penetrated the crystal windows as it had when the children first visited the house. Instead, everything seemed old. The woodwork wasn't polished, the carpets were stiff, the air was musty like locked rooms and hot attics.
Quietly the three tiptoed down the dark hallway to the parlor.
That room was the same, yet different. Everything was covered with dust and cobwebs. But these were not ordinary cobwebs, the kind that can be flicked away with a feather duster, but huge, heavy ones that seemed to have taken centuries to grow. The dust was so thick on the floor, that it puffed up around Tony's sneakers like talcum powder. The velvet curtains were clouded with gloom. What little color as could be seen through the stained-glass window was now waxed over by a dark film of dust.
Even Mrs. Seel's chair looked as though it hadn't been touched for years. Her quilt draped over it, covered by the same blanket of dust. Except for that and the children's memories, there was no evidence that anyone had ever lived here.
Only a tiny beam of sunlight fought its way through the image of the moon
in the stained-glass window. The beam caught momentarily on a needle and
thread hanging from the quilt. In the dim light, Ginger spied the green,
embroidered image of a frog.
"Look there!" Tony pointed at something in the dust on the far side of the room. A trail of strange, three-toed footprints led off into the next room.
Then a cloud passed across the sun and the room went dark.
Ginger stuffed the amulet inside her sweatshirt. "I think we'd better leave," she said.
The three children backed nervously out of the parlor. Once in the dark
hallway, they walked faster. As soon as Tony had pulled the front door
closed behind them, they broke into a run and didn't stop until they were
safely back at Tony's house.
