Costly Obsession: Animalize

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.... Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell,.... Fear him.

  Luke 12:4-5

  Susanne set up watch in the rocker by the bay window, a cup of coffee in her hand, and a sinking feeling in her stomach. This whole thing was crazy. Wendy on the other hand had abandoned all her own fears, anxiety, and concerns to dive into Tilly’s tome of incantations. Her emotions shut down and her game face on, the lives of her friends, her family, and the town lay in her hands; she had no time for anything but work.

  “Wendy... Wendy?” Wendy had no clue how long Susanne had been standing by her, politely attempting to catch her attention, but nearly an hour had slipped by since the guys had vanished into the night.

  “Huh? What? Oh, Susanne. I’m sorry. Is something wrong?”

  “No, no, everything’s alright; quiet in fact. A little too quiet actually.” She felt a little sheepish all of a sudden, almost like the little girl in her, who shook with fright whenever it thundered, was alive again with the anticipation of a storm on the horizon.

  “I’m sorry Susanne, here I am buried in work, not paying a bit of mind to you, and you must be going out of yours.”

  “Kind of.”

  “Would you like to watch TV or something?”

  “Thanks, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t help. I couldn’t concentrate on it.”

  “How about something to eat or maybe some more coffee?”

  “I’d better not, if I’m this wired now after only one cup I can’t imagine what I’d be like with another shot of caffeine and I don’t think I want to.”

  “True and I don’t have any more decaf. Hmm... I know how about some tea, it has less caffeine? Chamomile always settles my nerves, and if you don’t like chamomile I have other kinds.”

  Susanne accepted the invitation gladly, it may have been the middle of summer, but the night had grown cool and damp. The two made some polite chit chat, neither wanting to speak about their men or their mission, but the elephant would not be ignored for long once they were back in the living room.

  “You know, you’re lucky you got my attention at all. Usually it takes an act of God to get my attention once I get into something. Especially something as interesting as this.”

  “How are things going with that anyway?”

  “Actually, I think I may be getting somewhere here.”

  “Really? Did any of my grandmother’s books help?”

  “Oh yes, thank you very much for letting me use them.”

  “Well, I wish I could say it was my pleasure but...”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I’ll let you get back to work... Wendy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think I could take a look at that spell book you were talking about? I mean if it’s too delicate or whatever I’d understand. I just thought that it would be something I could do that would keep my mind busy. Give me a sense that I’m helping in some sort of way. Sound funny?”

  “Not at all. If I didn’t have this I’d probably be going out of my mind too.”

  “It isn’t too delicate is it? I mean I won’t hurt it by touching it will I?”

  “Well, we both should be wearing gloves so that the acid on our skin doesn’t eat away at the paper and cover, but with as much trouble as that thing has caused already I have no qualms about going gloveless.”

  Susanne snickered despite herself. She couldn’t imagine feeling levity at a time like this, but it was a welcome relief from the stress that threatened to crush her.

  “It’s written in an unusual Latin dialect. Do you know any Latin?”

  “Spanish and Italian, but no, no Latin. It’s just something to distract me.”

  Wendy smiled with more compassion than she thought she could have had at that moment and reached into her pile of work on the coffee table handing a priceless piece of history over to a friend she would have for life. “Here you go Sue, enjoy.”

  Wendy was right. The words were far beyond her comprehension, only a word here and there could Susanne make out at all, but still somehow the writing, the symbols, even the paper and ink itself enticed her almost hypnotically. There was something about those pages, it was almost as if... they kind of felt... well..., “Warm?”