The Witching Hour

  But was this his Deborah, the woman he had seen in the visions? He didn't know. No shock of recognition came to him no matter how long he studied it.

  Taking off the gloves and handling it yielded nothing, only the maddeningly meaningless images of intermediaries and incidental persons he had come by now to expect. And as he sat on the couch holding the photograph, he knew it would have been the same had he touched the old oil painting itself.

  "What do you want of me?" he whispered.

  Out of innocence and out of time, the dark-haired girl smiled back at him. A stranger. Caught forever in her brief and desperate girlhood. Fledgling witch and nothing more.

  But somebody had told him something this afternoon when Beatrice's hand had touched his! Somebody had used the power for some purpose. Or was it simply his own inner voice?

  He put aside his gloves, as he was accustomed to do now when alone here, and picked up his pen and his notebook, and began to write.

  "Yes, it was a small constructive use of the power, I think. Because the images were subordinate to the message. I'm not sure that ever happened before, not even the day I touched the jars. The messages were mingled with the images, and Lasher was speaking to me directly, but it was mixed together. This was quite something else."

  And what if he were to touch Ryan's hand tonight at dinner, when they all gathered around the candlelighted table in the Caribbean Room downstairs? What would the inner voice tell him? For the first time, he found himself eager to use the power. Perhaps because this little experiment with Beatrice had turned out so well.

  He had liked Beatrice. He had seen perhaps what he wanted to see. An ordinary human being, a part of the great wave of the real which meant so much to him and to Rowan.

  "Married by November 1. God, I have to call Aunt Viv. She'll be so disappointed if I don't call."

  He put the photograph on Rowan's bedside table for her to see.

  There was a lovely flower there, a white flower that looked like a familiar lily, yet somehow different. He picked it up, examining it, trying to figure why it looked so strange, and then he realized it was much longer than any lily he'd ever seen, and its petals seemed unusually fragile.

  Pretty. Rowan must have picked it when she was walking back from the house. He went into the bathroom, filled a glass with water, and put the lily in it, and brought it back to the table.

  He didn't remember about touching Ryan's hand until the dinner was long over and he was alone upstairs again, with his books. He was glad he hadn't done it. The dinner had been too much fun, what with young Pierce regaling them with old legends of New Orleans--all the lore he remembered but which Rowan had never heard--and entertaining little anecdotes about the various cousins, all of it loosely strung together in a natural and beguiling way. But Pierce's mother, Gifford, a trim, beautifully groomed brunette, and also a Mayfair by birth, had stared at him and Rowan fearfully and silently throughout the meal, and talked almost not at all.

  And of course the whole dinner was, for him, another one of those secretly satisfying moments--comparing this night to the event of his boyhood when Aunt Viv had come from San Francisco to visit his mother, and he had dined in a real restaurant--the Caribbean Room--for the very first time.

  And to think, Aunt Viv would be here before the end of next week. She was confused, but she was coming. What a load off his mind.

  He'd sock her away in some nice comfortable condominium on St. Charles Avenue--one of the new brick town houses with the pretty mansard roofs and the French windows. Something right on the Mardi Gras parade route so she could watch from her balcony. In fact, he ought to be scanning the want ads now. She could take cabs anywhere she had to go. And then he'd break it to her very gently that he wanted her to stay down here, that he didn't want to go back to California, that the house on Liberty Street wasn't home to him anymore.

  About midnight, he left his architecture books and went into the bedroom. Rowan was just switching off the light.

  "Rowan," he said, "if you saw that thing you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

  "What are you talking about, Michael?"

  "If you saw Lasher, you'd tell me. Right away."

  "Of course I would," she said. "Why would you even ask me that? Why don't you put away the picture books and come to bed?"

  He saw that the picture of Deborah had been propped up behind the lamp. And the pretty white lily in the water glass was standing in front of the picture.

  "Lovely, wasn't she?" Rowan said. "I don't suppose there is a way in the world to get the Talamasca to part with the original painting."

  "I don't know," he said. "Probably not likely. But you know that flower is really remarkable. This afternoon, when I put it in the glass, I could swear it had only a single bloom, and now there are three large blooms, look at it. I must not have noticed the buds."

  She looked puzzled. She reached out, took the flower carefully from the water and studied it. "What kind of lily is it?" she asked.

  "Well, it's kind of like what we used to call an Easter lily, but they don't bloom at this time of year. I don't know what it is. Where did you get it?"

  "Me? I've never seen it before."

  "I assumed you'd picked it somewhere."

  "No, I didn't."

  Their eyes met. She was the first to look away, raising her eyebrows slowly, and then giving a little tilt to her head. She put the lily back in the glass. "Maybe a little gift from someone."

  "Why don't I throw it away?" he said.

  "Don't get upset, Michael. It's just a flower. He's full of little tricks, remember?"

  "I'm not upset, Rowan. It's just that it's already withering. Look at it, it's turning brown, and it looks weird. I don't like it."

  "All right," she said, very calmly. "Throw it away." She smiled. "But don't worry about anything!"

  "Of course not. What is there to worry about? Just a three-hundred-year-old demon with a mind of his own, who can make flowers fly through the air. Why shouldn't I be overjoyed about a strange lily popping up out of nowhere? Hell, maybe he did it for Deborah. What a nice thing to do."

  He turned and stared at the photograph again. Like a hundred Rembrandt subjects, his dark-haired Deborah appeared to be looking right back at him.

  He was startled by Rowan's soft little laugh. "You know, you are cute when you're angry," she said. "But there's probably a perfectly good explanation for how the flower got here."

  "Yeah, that's what they always say in the movies," he said. "And the audience knows they're crazy."

  He took the lily into the bathroom and dropped it into the trash. It really was withering. No waste, wherever the hell it came from, he figured.

  She was waiting for him when he came out, her arms folded, looking very serene and inviting. He forgot all about his books in the living room.

  The next evening he walked over alone to First Street. Rowan was out with Cecilia and Clancy Mayfair, making the rounds of the city's fashionable malls.

  The house was hushed and empty when he got there. Even Eugenia was out tonight, with her two boys and their children. He had it all to himself.

  Though the work was progressing wonderfully, there were still ladders and drop cloths virtually everywhere. The windows were still bare, and it was too soon to clean them. The long shutters, removed for sanding and painting, lay side by side like great long planks on the grass.

  He went into the parlor, stared for a long time at his own shadowy reflection in the mirror over the first fireplace, the tiny red light of his cigarette like a firefly in the dark.

  A house like this is never quiet, he thought. Even now he could hear a low singing of creaks and snaps in the rafters and the old floors. You could have sworn someone was walking upstairs, if you didn't know better. Or that far back in the kitchen, someone had just closed a door. And that funny noise, it was like a baby crying, far far away.

  But nobody else was here. This wasn't the first night he'd slipped away to test the house and test hi
mself. And he knew it wouldn't be the last.

  Slowly he walked back through the dining room, through the shadowy kitchen and out the French doors. A flood of soft light bathed the night around him, pouring from the lanterns on the freshly restored cabana, and from the underwater lights of the pool. It shone on the neatly trimmed hedges and trees, and on the cast-iron furniture, all sanded and newly painted, and arranged in little groups on the clean-swept flagstones.

  The pool itself was completely restored, and filled to the brim. Very glamorous it seemed, the long rectangle of deep blue water, rippling and shining in the dusk.

  He knelt down and put his hand in the water. A little too hot really for this early September weather, which was no cooler than August when you got right down to it. But good for swimming now in the dark.

  A thought occurred to him. Why not go into the pool now? It seemed wrong somehow without Rowan--that the first splash was one of those moments that ought to be shared. But what the hell? Rowan was having a good time, no doubt, with Cecilia and Clancy. And the water was so tempting. He hadn't swum in a pool in years.

  He glanced back up at the few lighted windows scattered throughout the dark violet wall of the house. Nobody to see him. Quickly he peeled off his coat, shirt and trousers, his shoes and his socks. He stripped off his shorts. And walking to the deep end, he dove in without another thought.

  God! This was living! He plunged down until his hands touched the deep blue bottom, then turned over so that he could see the light glittering on the surface above.

  Then he shot upwards, letting his natural buoyancy carry him right through that surface, shaking his head and treading water, as he looked up at the stars. There was noise all around him! Laughter, chatter, people talking in loud, animated voices to one another, and underneath it all, the fast-paced wail of a Dixieland band.

  He turned, astonished, and saw the lawn strung with lanterns and filled with people; everywhere young couples were dancing on the flagstones or even right on the grass. Every window in the house was lighted. A young man in a black dinner jacket suddenly dove into the pool right in front of him, blinding him with a violent splash of water.

  The water suddenly filled his mouth. The noise was now deafening. At the far end of the pool stood an old man in a tailcoat and white tie, beckoning to him.

  "Michael!" he shouted. "Come away at once, man, before it's too late!"

  A British accent; it was Arthur Langtry. He broke into a rapid swim for the far end. But before he'd taken three strokes, he lost his wind. A sharp pain caught him in the ribs, and he veered for the side.

  As he caught hold of the lip of the pool and pulled himself up again, the night around him was empty and quiet.

  For a second he did nothing. He remained there, panting, trying to control the beating of his heart, and waiting for the pain in his lungs to go away. His eyes moved all the while over the empty patio, over the barren windows, over the emptiness of the lawn.

  Then he tried to climb up and out of the pool. His body felt impossibly heavy, and even in the heat he was cold. He stood there shivering for a moment, then he went into the cabana and picked up one of the soiled towels he used in the day, when he came in here to wash his hands. He toweled dry with it, and went back out and looked again at the empty garden and the darkened house. The freshly painted violet walls were now exactly the color of the twilight sky.

  His own noisy breathing was the only sound in the quiet. But the pain was gone from his chest, and slowly he forced himself to breathe deeply several times.

  Was he frightened? Was he angry? He honestly didn't know. He was in a state of shock maybe. He wasn't sure on that score either. He felt he'd run the four-minute mile again, that was certain, and his head was beginning to hurt. He picked up his clothes and dressed, refusing to hurry, refusing to be driven away.

  Then for a long moment he sat on the curved iron bench, smoking a cigarette and studying things around him, trying to remember exactly what he'd seen. Stella's last party. Arthur Langtry.

  Another one of Lasher's tricks?

  Far away, over the lawn, all the way at the front fence, among the camellias, he thought he saw someone moving. He heard steps echoing. But it was only an evening stroller, someone peeping perhaps through the leaves.

  He listened until he could no longer hear the distant footsteps, and he realized he was hearing the click of the riverfront train passing, just the way he'd heard it on Annunciation Street when he was a boy. And that sound again, the sound of a baby crying, that was just a train whistle.

  He rose to his feet, stubbed out the cigarette, and went back into the house.

  "You don't scare me," he said, offhandedly. "And I don't believe it was Arthur Langtry."

  Had someone sighed in the darkness? He turned around. Nothing but the empty dining room around him. Nothing but the high keyhole door to the hallway. He walked on, not bothering to soften his footfalls, letting them echo loudly and obtrusively.

  There was a faint clicking. A door closing? And the sound a window makes when it is raised--a vibration of wood and panes of glass.

  He turned and went up the stairway. He went to the front and then through every empty room. He didn't bother with the lights. He knew his way around the old furniture, ghostly under its plastic drapery. The pale light from the street lamp floating through the doorways was plenty enough for him.

  Finally he had covered every foot of it. He went back down to the first floor and out the door.

  When he got back to the hotel, he called Aaron from the lobby and asked him to come down to the bar for a drink. It was a pleasant little place, right in the front, small, with a few cozy tables in a dim light, and seldom crowded.

  They took a table in the corner. Swallowing half a beer in record time, he told Aaron what had happened. He described the gray-haired man.

  "You know, I don't even want to tell Rowan," he said.

  "Why not?" Aaron asked.

  "Because she doesn't want to know. She doesn't want to see me upset again. It drives her nuts. She tries to be understanding, but things just don't affect her the same way. I go crazy. She gets angry."

  "I think you must tell her."

  "She'll tell me to ignore it, and to go on doing what makes me happy. And sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't get the hell out of here, Aaron, if somebody shouldn't ... " He stopped.

  "What, Michael?"

  "Ah, it's crazy. I'd kill anybody who tried to hurt that house."

  "Tell her. Just tell her simply and quietly what happened. Don't give her the reaction which will upset her, unless of course she asks for it. But don't keep any secrets, Michael, especially not a secret like that."

  He was quiet for a long time. Aaron had almost finished his drink.

  "Aaron, the power she has. Is there any way to test it, or work with it, or learn what it can do?"

  Aaron nodded. "Yes, but she feels she's worked with it all her life in her healing. And she's right. As for the negative potential, she doesn't want to develop it; she wants to rein it in completely."

  "Yes, but you'd think she'd want to play with it once in a while, in a laboratory situation."

  "In time, perhaps. Right now I think she's focused completely upon the idea of the medical center. As you said, she wants to be with the family and realize these plans. And I have to admit this Mayfair Medical is a magnificent conception. I think Mayfair and Mayfair are impressed, though they're reluctant to say so." Aaron finished his wine. "What about you?" Aaron gestured to Michael's hands.

  "Oh, it's getting better. I take the gloves off more and more often. I don't know ... "

  "And when you were swimming?"

  "Well, I took them off, I guess. God, I didn't even think about it. I ... You don't think it had to do with that, do you?"

  "No, I don't think so. But I think you're very right to assume it might not have been Langtry. It's no more than a feeling perhaps, but I don't think Langtry would try to come through in that way. But do te
ll Rowan. You want Rowan to be perfectly honest with you in return, don't you? Tell her the whole thing."

  He knew Aaron was right. He was dressed for dinner and waiting in the living room of the suite when Rowan came in. He fixed her a club soda with ice, and explained the whole incident as briefly and concisely as he could.

  At once, he saw the anxiety in her face. It was almost a disappointment, that something ugly and dark and awful had once again blighted her stubborn sense that everything was going well. She seemed incapable of saying anything. She merely sat on the couch, beside the heap of packages she'd brought home with her. She did not touch the drink.

  "I think it was one of his tricks," said Michael. "That was my feeling. The lily, that was some kind of trick. I think we should just go right on."

  That's what she wanted to hear, wasn't it?

  "Yes, that's exactly what we should do," she said, with slight irritation. "Did it ... shake you up?" she asked. "I think I might have gone crazy seeing something like that."

  "No," he said. "It was shocking. But it was sort of fascinating. I guess it made me angry. I kind of ... well, had one of those attacks, sort of ... "

  "Oh, Christ, Michael."

  "No, no! Sit back down, Dr. Mayfair. I'm fine. It's just that when these things happen, there's an exertion, an overall systemic reaction or something. I don't know. Maybe I'm scared and I don't know it. That's probably what it is. One time when I was a kid, I was riding the roller coaster at Pontchartrain Beach. We got right to the top and I figured, well, I won't brace myself for once. I'll just go down the big dip completely relaxed. Well, the strangest thing happened. I felt these cramps in my stomach and my chest. Painful! It was like my body tensed for me, without permission. It was sort of like that. In fact, it was exactly like that."

  She was really losing it. She sat there with her arms folded, and her lips pressed together, and she was losing it. Finally in a low voice she said, "People die of heart attacks on roller coasters. Just the way they die from other forms of stress."

  "I'm not going to die."

  "What makes you so sure?"