Scratch, page 13
“I like him,” Holly said.
“Yeah, me too.” Adam watched the dust rising behind Jack’s truck. He did, but he also sensed there was something else going on beneath the old man’s cheerful surface.
They climbed the path that led up the hill to the house. Seven steps led up to the wide front porch. A rose trellis leaned against one end and a wooden swing swayed on the other.
“Well, welcome home.” The front door was oak with beveled glass. Holly stuck the key in the lock and turned. The door opened into a foyer in which was a grand staircase. Some of the boxes Adam and Holly had packed were stacked in the hallway.
“I think it’s bigger in here than it is outside,” Adam said. He put Mike and the suitcase on the floor. Mike, feeling small and a little intimidated by their surroundings, grabbed his hand.
“It feels familiar,” Holly said, “but it’s been so long. Let’s explore.”
To the right of the foyer was a large room, dominated by a baby grand piano. Holly couldn’t remember ever hearing her grandmother play, but the sheaves of sheet music indicated that it was more than decorative. Adam plunked out the opening notes of “The Entertainer,” the only thing he knew, and discovered the piano was in tune. The rest of the room was sparsely furnished. Two wingback chairs sat in the corners, and a rocking chair by the window where the light was good. There were pots, empty now, where Dora had kept plants year round.
Across the hall was a sitting room, filled with an overstuffed couch, two matching chairs, and numerous antique tables. A picture window overlooked the steep front yard. An oriental rug, scuffed with use but still thick and colorful, covered the hardwood floor. A bookshelf lined the back wall, filled with books and knick-knacks.
“Wow,” Holly said again. She stood looking at a wall that was dedicated to pictures of Dora’s family and friends. There was a large black and white photo of Holly’s grandfather, Harv Porter, looking very proud and very young in his World War II army uniform. He crossed Europe in a tank and returned home without a scratch according to Carol, who had grown up listening to her mother’s stories about the father she never knew. Harv and Dora’s wedding picture flanked the army photo on one side. There was one of Dora alone in her white dress on the other.
There were a number of pictures of Carol, tracing her life from the time she was a baby up until the time she left home. One showed young Dora Porter holding her newborn baby. Jack was right about how much Holly resembled her grandmother. There was a procession of black and white school photos, all horn rim glasses and missing teeth, which Carol would no doubt be embarrassed by. There was one of her as a teen, ponytail flying, saddle shoes and pegged jeans. Dora had even kept Carol’s wedding picture, though Carol had thrown her own copy away not long after Reed had left.
Interspersed with these were pictures of Canaan through the years, featuring lots of people Adam and Holly couldn’t recognize. One of them showed a young Dora on the porch of the house. Her hair was swept up in the curls of movie stars from forties . She was wearing a tight black dress and showing a lot of leg for the time. She stood between two men in suits. The tall one on her right was obviously Harv, while the short man with the thick hair and briar pipe had to be Jack Hardy. They were three people in the prime of their lives, laughing and enjoying this frozen moment, thoughts of death and old age years in their future, unaware that for one of them that future would be very short.
“She was beautiful,” Adam said. “You look just like her.”
“Aww,” Holly said, and brushed his cheek with a light kiss. “And you’re a sweetie. You’re right. In my memory she was an old woman, even though she was only sixty or so when I saw her. It’s hard to believe she had a whole life before that, filled with hopes and dreams like everyone else. Look at that picture. Except for the clothes, that could have been taken of a group of friends today. They look so alive… so happy. And look at Gran’pa and Jack. They were studs back then.”
“Studs,” Michaela mimicked.
“Oops,” Holly said. “Little ears.”
“You’re right, though,” Adam said. “Jack still looks like he’s in great shape, but it’s hard to believe he was ever this young.”
“Let’s check the rest of the house.” Holly turned and bounced out of the room, Michaela quick on her heels. Adam smiled at his wife’s enthusiasm, glad she was happy. As he followed his family he hoped this house would bring them luck, and peace.
The rest of the house was filled with memories and surprises. There was a kitchen with a hand operated water pump over the sink. Regular knobs and a spigot had been installed as well. A large pantry, lined with shelves, opened off of the kitchen. Another door led to the back porch, which was small compared to the front. The back yard climbed at a steep angle and gave way to the trees of the forest very quickly.
The dining room was lined with china cabinets, each filled with sparkling crystal and day-to-day dinnerware. There was a dark mahogany table. It’s thick legs ended in feet that were hand carved to resemble an eagle’s claws. A chandelier, heavy with tiny crystals, hung above it.
Off the dining room was the sunroom Holly wanted to use as a studio. The boxes with her art supplies were in a pile in the middle of the floor. Her canvases, carefully wrapped, leaned against one wall. The afternoon sun streamed in, casting sparkling highlights off every surface. It was no comparison to the light in Holly’s eyes.
“Yay!” she said, and clapped like a little girl, bouncing up and down on the soles of her feet. Mike clapped and “Yayed” in imitation of her mother.
“I love I, I love it, I love it,” Holly cried, and wrapped her arms around Adam.
“So tell me,” he said, “what do you really think?” She rolled her eyes, then hugged him again.
“I think, smartass,” she said, whispering the swear word so that little ears wouldn’t repeat it, “that we are going to be really, really happy here.”
“And safe,” Adam said.
“And safe,” Holly concurred.
“Smartass,” Mike said.
CHAPTER FOUR
Shelley crept out of her bedroom on the second floor of the parsonage. It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet, and she was damned if she was just going to sit in her room because Raz had banished her there for the evening. Being her brother-in-law didn’t give him the right to treat her like a baby. It wasn’t like he was her dad or anything. Sure, Shelley had lived with April and Raz ever since her real dad and mom had been killed in the fire five years ago, but so what? He would never control her. He couldn’t even control his own wife, let alone anyone else.
April had become overbearing since Dad and Mom died as well. She was trying way too hard to be a good parent to Shelley, and failing miserably. When all Shelley had needed was a sister to cry with, April had been there as the disciplinarian instead. She had always bossed Shelley around too much, playing the role of know-it-all big sister. She stepped into the role of know-it-all surrogate mother too fast and too easily.
Except that she didn’t know it all. Sometimes Shelley wondered if she knew anything. She didn’t know about her little sister and Jim, for example. Shelley may have thought so when she was in Jim’s bedroom last night before the… trouble, but she thought she knew better now. That had been her own anger and jealousy scratching at her mind. April was clueless about what Jim did when she wasn’t in his bed.
Shelley had asked Jim about it this evening after he returned from his supply run from Bakersville. He had assured her that April knew nothing about them, that he was just using April, and that someday he would take Shelley out of this backwater town and show her the world. But not yet, no, he needed more money saved, and Shelley needed to be older, and he wasn’t sure just where they would go, and he needed more time. Shelley believed him, of course. She left the store this evening with dreams of the future lodged in her heart and the taste of Jim in her mouth.
She ate dinner with Raz and April, with a smug and disdainful look on her face. They were speaking in code again, about Gabrielle and the Mansfields, and about the meeting of the church board. When the dishes were done (and didn’t Shelley always have to do the fucking dishes without any help?) Raz told her to go to her room. He didn’t ask her, he told her. There were things they needed to discuss that didn’t concern her. Shelley refused, and they had all yelled at each other for a while until she had stomped up the steps and slammed her door. She turned the volume on her stereo all the way up. They may have a meeting in the living room, but they were going to listen to Korn while they had it.
She laid on her bed for an hour, sulking and weaving fantasies about all of the places in the world that Jim was going to take her when they left, all of the places that weren’t Canaan. Somewhere in the middle of the daydream Adam Mansfield replaced Jim. He was handsome, and Shelley was sure he was smarter than Jim, or anyone in Canaan, for that matter. He could probably take her places no one here had ever dreamed of. She wondered how hard she would have to work to get him in her pants.
While smoking a cigarette at her windowsill, she heard Jack Hardy arrive. She had smoked since she was twelve, something else that her sister and brother-in-law were too stupid to know. Shortly after Jack appeared, Nellie Claremont rang the bell. Shelley wasn’t sure how that twisted old bat could walk this far, and wondered how drunk she was this evening. She carefully doused her cigarette in a glass of water, taking time to make sure it as all the way out, then hid the butt in an empty pop can. She hit the repeat function on her mp3 player and tiptoed out of bed. She cracked the door open and listened. They were just settling down in the living room. Jack was complimenting April on her lemonade, and Raz was being overly solicitous to Nellie’s comfort. Shelley skulked out of her room, socks sliding smoothly across the hard wood floor of the hallway. Each small creak of the boards made her stop and wince, wait until she was sure they hadn’t heard her, and then move on.
She crouched at the top of the stairs and peered through the railing. She couldn’t see anyone, which was okay. That meant they couldn’t see her either… so much for their secret meeting. Shelley didn’t know what the big deal was, but she was determined to find out. Secrets could be power, she had discovered.
Their voices drifted up the steps, soft at first, warring with the music that still blasted from Shelley’s room. She almost went back to turn it down, but her fear of being discovered was greater than her frustration at not hearing everything. She chanced moving down two steps, and leaned forward as far as she could without being seen.
“They seemed like a nice couple,” April said. “And that little girl was certainly a real cutie-pie.”
“Yes,” Raz said, “she was. But did you see the costume she was wearing? It was an angel. What if they already know about Gabrielle?”
“Coincidence,” Jack said. “Holly said that her mother gave Michaela the costume.”
“And Caroline was raised here, remember?” Raz said. “Dora Porter was a member of the church board for years.”
“Until something made her mad,” Nellie pointed out in a wavering voice. “She quit the church when Caroline was just a baby. You might not even have been born yet, Raz. This was when your father ran things. She never came back, except for a picnic or something like that. I know she never set foot in the church again until her dying day. Didn’t even want to have her funeral in the town she spent her life in.”
“That’s part of my point,” Raz said. “She was angry with the church for some reason, and she knew about Gabrielle. Gabrielle and… the other.”
“It’s just us here, dear,” Nellie said. “You can say it out loud. She knew about Scratch.”
Scratch? Shelley wondered.
“Yes.” Raz’s voice betrayed his nerves. “She knew everything as a matter of fact. The things that right now only the four of us are supposed to know.”
“She was part of the board, Raz,” Jack said. “It’s our job to know those things, so we can… protect our town.”
“But she left the board,” Raz said. “That made her an outsider to the church. What if she told what she knew to Caroline?”
“Caroline was never in the church,” Jack said. “And she left here a long time ago. Even if Dora did tell her stuff as she was growing up, do you think she believes it now?”
“Can we take that chance?” Raz asked. “What if the Mansfield’s know? If they’re living here, there’s a good chance they may discover it anyway. We know how easily that can happen.”
“Last night was an accident,” April said.
“Which could have been avoided if Shelley wasn’t such a loose cannon,” Raz snapped. Shelley flinched at the vehemence in his voice.
“She’s young,” April defended.
“But her actions threatened the community,” Raz said. “She let others see our secret, and it’s not over. There will be questions when someone realizes those two men are missing.”
“We’ve dealt with those kinds of questions before,” Jack said. “We can do it again… may God forgive us.”
“It was God who gave us Gabrielle.” Raz’s voice rose a notch into his Sunday tone.
“And what about Scratch?” Jack asked.
“Where good exists, evil always thrives,” Raz said. “It was part of the pact that bound Gabrielle to this town. You know that, Jack. Better than any of us. You’ve lived here for a long time. Your grandfather, along with my great-grandfather, were the men who discovered them, who found the holy words to bind the devil and the angel.”
“And what evil have we done in the last century to keep them secret?” Jack asked.
“We have done what God asked of us,” Raz said. “Our town benefits from the healing touch of Gabrielle, and the pain she takes from us is sent to that devil, Scratch. He bears our pain. The pact binds him to us.
“We can’t let the outside world know of either of them,” Raz said. “It’s more important than ever. Can you imagine what would happen if word got out that we had kept an angel hidden for all these years. It would be on every news program in the world. Our community would be overrun by the media people, destroying our town, our way of life. Not to mention what would happen to Gabrielle if she were taken from us. The unbelievers would not accept that she was an angel. She would be studied, dissected, destroyed.
“Not to mention what would happen to us if Scratch were freed.”
“We’re getting off track,” Nellie interrupted. “We have had these same arguments for years. It is not ours to know God’s will, but we have been given the burden of this secret, and the means to keep it.”
“You’re right,” Raz said. “The question is what do we do about the Mansfields?”
“We wait,” April said. “I don’t think they know anything, and I don’t think they are likely to attend our church. If they come on Sunday mornings, that’s fine. They won’t see anything out of the ordinary, and no one in town will say anything. We know that. We’ll continue to have the Wednesday night healings, and take precautions to make sure no one can just walk in, like last night.
“Then,” she continued, “after awhile, if we see that they are all right and can be trusted, we let them know the secret. They wouldn’t be the first. Jim was an outsider a few years back, and now he’s loyal to us, and to the secret.”
“That’s a wise plan,” Nellie said.
“And what if we can’t trust them?” Raz asked.
“You know the answer to that one, dear,” Nellie said.
“The main thing, as always,” Raz said, “is to make sure that Scratch is never allowed to be free. That is the danger. If outsiders discover Gabrielle, she will be taken from us. That would be bad, but her freedom would break the chains that bind Scratch, as well. Those are the terms of the pact, and whether we understand it or not, it’s God’s plan. If one is free, then both are free, and Scratch is evil. We cannot unleash that upon the world.”
“So we commit evil acts ourselves,” Jack said.
“To prevent a greater evil from escaping.” There was righteousness in Raz’s voice.
“Do we know our parts?” Nellie asked. “If the unthinkable happens, and Scratch is freed, are we ready to bind him again?”
“It has been a while since we read the rite,” Raz said.
“We haven’t done it since I was first initiated into the church board,” April said. “Maybe we should go over the words.”
Shelley leaned forward even farther, and almost lost her balance. She grabbed the railing for support and used her free hand to stifle the gasp that almost escaped. She didn’t know what she had stumbled into, but there was much more going on in Canaan than anyone dreamed. There was a devil chained somewhere in town? Her sister had known? There were secrets inside of secrets here, and she was determined to find out what they were. It would be more power for her, she knew. There had been something in all of their voices as she listened.
They were deeply afraid.
She took a chance and crouched even lower so that she could see into the living room. She hoped the dim light at the top of the stairs would help to hide her. She briefly wondered what they would do if she just walked in right now and told them she had heard everything. If she knew their secret, they would have to make her a part of it, wouldn’t they? They would have to tell her everything.
She remembered Joe’s face last night, right before he had climbed into the back of Jim’s truck. The people of Canaan were willing to go to great lengths to protect their secrets, and the movers hadn’t known what Shelley now knew. What if Raz was willing to go even farther? Would they take Shelley up to the Boneyard too? She didn’t really think so, but the idea of walking into the living room right now was suddenly less appealing.
Besides, she reasoned, what good was knowing their secret if they knew she knew.
Light from the living room brushed her cheeks as she peered down from the darkness. Raz pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked a drawer in his roll-top desk. He dropped the key back into his pocket and dragged a large book, a Bible Shelley presumed, into the light. He turned to the others and nodded toward the dining room. April helped Nellie to her feet and the four of them went into the next room.
