Black Cat

  "What's wrong with you? Stop it."

  I bent over, clutching my side. I thought I was going to start to vomit.

  "Stop it!" she ordered. "Okay, okay," she said when I didn't stop. "I'll keep your stupid secret. Relax. I said I'll keep your secret." She pulled at my shoulder.

  I fell back on the pillow. My breathing improved and my lungs stopped aching.

  "You're a basket case." She stood there thinking. "Look," she said, stepping up to the bed again. "I don't really care what you and your crazy mother do to yourselves and even to that special child. You can swim in this madness all you want, but you're going to help me from now on. understand? You're going to get her off my back. You're going to take me to see my friends, and you're going to help me get my money, because if you don't, have you committed as well as your mother.

  "Now, when you get up in the morning, you find out where she put my clothes and you get them back to me immediately. And from now on, whenever she gives me a stupid chore to do, you do it. Also, were going to town tomorrow night, so get that into your thick skull. You're driving me there. That's what you'll tell her and don't let her say no.

  "Don't let her say no to anything I want ever again. Make her understand what will happen if she does. Is that clear? I want to hear you say yes or I'll just start screaming my head off in here. Well?"

  "Yes. That's good." She smiled, "This might turn out better than I thought, even better than you thought. For one thing, you don't have to wrap up your boobs for me anymore." She laughed. "Now that we have more in common, I might be a better friend to you than ever." She walked to the door. "Good night. Noble. Or should I say. Celeste?"

  She laughed again and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her. "I told you this would happen," Elliot said.

  He crossed the room, and to my utter shack he got into my bed and lay beside me. "Now we can be together again." he said.

  He was gone in the morning, but all night long, I was sure I felt his breath on my cheek and my neck.

  And his hand holding mine.

  18

  Betsy Turns the Tables

  .

  Betsy was already dressed and waiting for me

  outside her door by the time I rose in the morning. She had Panther in her arms. His eyes were wide open, and in the morning light flowing through my bedroom windows and out my bedroom door, they looked like two shiny ebony stones glittering under the surface of the clear creek water. Unlike Celeste. Panther didn't usually smile at everyone he saw. Instead, he looked anxious. Most of the time I thought he stared with distrust and anger. I had to wonder how often he had been left alone, left crying his eyes out, hungry and uncomfortable.

  "Remember. I want you to find my clothes and return them to me this morning so I can get out of this stupid costume," Betsy said, and started down the stairs. Mama was already downstairs with Baby Celeste.

  Panic froze me. How could I do what Betsy wanted? How could I not do it?

  I wasn't sure Mama had hidden her clothes in the turret room. but I couldn't think of anywhere else. When I went up to look. I discovered the door was locked. I felt certain of it now because locking the turret door was something. Mama did only when I was in there with Baby Celeste and she didn't want us coming out before the workers doing the rugs and curtains had left. My mind was in turmoil. I was hoping to give Betsy the clothes and then tell Mama she must have found them herself. How was I going to get the key away from Mama or talk her into returning Betsy's clothes without getting Mama angry?

  When I went downstairs. I found they were all already at the dining room table. "What took you so long. Noble?" Mama asked. I glanced at Betsy.

  "Yes, Noble., why are you so late?" she teased.

  "I just didn't realize the time, Mama." She held her gaze on me, then turned back to fixing Baby Celeste's cereal and fruit.

  "So tell me." Betsy asked with her eyes mainly on me as soon as Mama took her seat, "how long did you try to find out what happened to Noble's twin sister. Celeste?"

  Mama looked up quickly from her mixed-grain cereal. She gave me just a slight glance and then turned to Betsy. "'We've never stopped trying to find out what happened to her."

  "Well. I don't understand it. Why don't I ever see her picture on a milk carton or something? You should be calling the police every week and asking what they've been doing."

  "What makes you think I didn't and don't still do?" Mania countered.

  Betsy shrugged. "You never talk about her. and Noble here never says anything either."

  "I think I told you once that it is very painful to relive it all," Mama said.

  "What was she doing that day? Weren't you with her all the time. Noble?" Betsy continued as if she was leading the investigation. Her impish smile wasn't lost on me, and the moment I shifted my eyes away from her. I could feel Mama pull herself up.

  "That's enough. This isn't a topic I care to discuss with you or have you discuss at my dining table."

  "I'm just trying to be more caring." Betsy said. "Losing a child at that age had to be devastating for you. I can't imagine how I would feel if someone just upped and took Panther one day. I don't think I'd rest a minute or do another thing until I had found him."

  Mama glared at her. "I don't rest and she's never out of my mind, but I have many responsibilities," Mama told her, each word as sharp as a slap.

  Betsy smiled to herself and nodded. She looked down and Mama relaxed her shoulders, but I knew this was not going to end.

  "Here's what I really wonder. Sarah. You have such faith in your spirits, why haven't they told you where Celeste is?" Betsy looked up again. She made herself look as interested and as sincere as she possibly could.

  I quickly swung my eyes to Mama. How would she answer such a question?

  The spirits that guide us, that exist among us, are only here," she said softly. They do not wander the world like lost souls looking for a home and bring back news of the world. This is their home. We are their family."

  "But --"

  "That's enough!" Mama slapped her hand on the table so hard, a dish bounced. Baby Celeste's eyes widened and I looked down.

  A long moment of silence passed. Mama began eating again.

  "Whatever,' Betsy said. "Noble has offered to take me and Panther into town today," she continued almost in the same breath. "I need personal things now, not later."

  Mama looked at her and then at me. "Noble, did you tell her such a thing?"

  Words twisted like rubber bands in my throat.

  He told me this morning, didn't you. Noble? I asked him to think about it last night, didn't I. Noble? When we had a nice chat. right. Noble?"

  I felt as if the barrel of a pistol were pressed against my temple.

  "Yes," I said, and looked quickly at Mama, "I thought, if she was finished with her work, we could just make a quick trip to the supermarket'

  "No, its the mall I need to go to. Noble. I told you that."

  "Well, you're not finished with your work," Mama told Betsy. "I want you to clean out the pantry today, dust off the shelves, and then rearrange everything so it is all neatly set. The floor has to be washed in there as well. This is not a day to go anywhere. Besides." Mama continued like someone putting the finishing touches on a well-prepared response that anticipated Betsy's request, "I will be using the car today. I have to meet with Mr. Bogart and discuss our business."

  Betsy's eves radiated her anger, but she kept herself calm and smiled.

  "Okay. By the time you return, I'll have all that done and then Noble can take me. right. Noble?" she hammered in my direction.

  I looked at Mama. "Would that be all right. Mama?"

  "We'll see." she said. pursing her lips. She was mad at me, but I felt caught like a fly in a spider's web. Struggling only ensnared me more.

  Afterward. when Betsy was in the bathroom. Mama asked me why I had promised her such a thing.

  "She was so desperate and pleading and crying. I didn't know what
else to tell her. Mama."

  She considered, "Well.. I don't mind your being compassionate, Noble, but you have to be careful with her. She knows how to take advantage of people and play upon their kindnesses. Look what she did to her poor father."

  "I know, Mama. but I think things would be easier for all of us if she was Given some rewards for the work she's doing. She's doing what you want her to do now," I emphasized.

  "Hmm. Maybe."

  "Can she have her own clothes back?"

  "I don't see how that's possible." Mama started out to the car.

  "Why not. Mama?" I dared to pursue.

  She turned and smiled. "Because I had to burn them and bury them. Noble."

  "You burned them?"

  "Of course. Haven't I always taught you that fire is the most effective form of purification? Be careful. Don't give your trust and your good heart away too quickly. Take good care of Baby Celeste. I'll be home before dinner," she said, and left.

  I stood there staring at the closed door, my heart pounding. Burned them? Buried them?

  I looked at Baby Celeste, who had gotten herself ready to go out to the garden. Time to work," she said.

  I started for the door.

  "Where do you think you're going?" I heard Betsy ask, and turned to see her standing in the hallway. "Get your ass in here and work on the pantry."

  But if I don't do what has to be done in the garden..."

  "I don't care about that stupid garden. Did you find out where my clothes are?"

  "Burned," Baby Celeste said.

  I turned to look at her so quickly, a sharp pain shot through my neck. She looked so much older, her face firm and her eyes steady and dark.

  "What did she say?"

  "Nothing. I didn't get a chance to find out."

  "Yeah. right. When your mother gets back, we're going to the mall, Noble. God, why do I keep calling you that? Maybe I'll just forget and call you Celeste. huh?"

  I saw how much she enjoyed tormenting me.

  Panther started to cry in the kitchen. She had left him in the bassinet.

  "Oh, that kid is so cranky here. Actually, he's cranky everywhere. I'm too young for a baby. Look after him, too. I'm going to borrow some of your mother's makeup and see about my hair."

  "You can't go into her bedroom! I cried.

  "Watch me. She took mine, didn't she? I want to do my nails, too. Im falling apart in this house. You'll bring my lunch up to me later. Ill have an egg sandwich. I have to admit that bread your mother makes is good. She should be a baker and stop all this other nonsense."

  Panther's cries grew louder.

  Betsy put her hands over her ears. "It's all yours," she said, and hurried to the stairway.

  I went into the kitchen, Baby Celeste followed; however, she looked unhappy about it. She waited while I calmed Panther, but she looked impatient.

  "We have to go to the garden," she said. "Not now. First we have to do the pantry." "No," she said firmly.

  "Just listen to me and do what I say. Celeste," I said irritably. Betsy was doing this to me, making me intolerant, but I couldn't help it.

  Baby Celeste shook her head defiantly and started out of the kitchen.

  "Celeste, don't you dare go out You wait for me to finish in here first. You can help with the pantry."

  "We have to go to the garden."

  Panther started to cry again. What did he want? He had been fed and he didn't feel wet. "Shh." I said, rocking him gently. He cried harder.

  "The garden." Baby Celeste said, and stamped her foot. Then she turned to go out the front door.

  I ran after her and, holding Panther in my tight arm, seized her shoulder with my left and turned her back sharply. She winced but she didn't cry.

  "You stay with me. Celeste. I told you we'll go to the garden later."

  She glared up at me, then shifted her eyes toward the stairway as if she knew this was all Betsy's fault. Her eyes grew small and dark and her lips tightened. How much she looked like Mama. I thought.

  "Help me with Panther," I said more gently. "Make him stop crying."

  She thought a moment and then, with some reluctance, reached up to touch his hand. The moment she did so, he stopped wailing. His sobs wound down as he looked at her. She never shifted her eves from his.

  me,

  -

  "See, he likes you. You can be a great help to I said, and returned to the kitchen. I put him back in his bassinet and placed it on the kitchen floor. Baby Celeste stood beside it and looked down at him. He reached up and she took his hand into hers.

  "Thank you. Celeste." I said, and started on the pantry, Before I was finished. Panther had fallen asleep and Baby Celeste had curled herself up beside the bassinet and fallen asleep herself.

  After I had taken everything off the shelves and dusted as Mama had wanted. I washed the pantry floor. Just as I finished. I heard Betsy calling down from the top of the stairway.

  "Noble Celeste. I'm hungry. Bring me my lunch," she shouted. "Quickly." Baby Celeste woke up, but thankfully Panther did not. I prepared the egg sandwich for Betsy and made one for Baby Celeste. too.

  "We'll ao out to the garden when you're finished with lunch," I told her.

  I carried up Betsy's lunch and brought it to her room, but she wasn't there, "I'm in here," she shouted from Mama's bedroom.

  Slowly, anticipating something terrible. I walked to the bedroom. Betsy was sitting at the vanity table. She had almost every jar of cream open, powder splattered over the table, lipstick tubes open, and tissues everywhere. She had done up her face after much experimentation, but that wasn't the worst of it. She was also wearing one of Mama's pretty dresses, one that she had bought when she had first begun dating Dave.

  "It didn't quite fit," Betsy said, standing. "but I fixed that." She had taken a scissors to the hem and chopped it back.

  "The bodice isn't bad. I'm surprised your mother wore such a dress and showed so much cleavage."

  All I could do was think about what would happen if Mama returned and saw this.

  "Well, is the pantry done?''

  "Yes," I said, but shook my head at her and at what she had done. "You've got to clean up this room and you can't wear that."

  "Oh. really? What will happen? Will I be fined? Will she take back some of my trust fund? Will she give me some new chores? Which we now know means she'll be giving them to you. Noble Celeste."

  "Please put everything back the way it was. I have your lunch."

  "Just put it on the table. And go look for my clothes. Find them before she gets back or greet her at the door with headline news that will bust her heart."

  I stood there, debating with myself whether I should tell her what Mama had told me and what Baby Celeste had almost revealed, but before I could decide. Panther's screams were suddenly so shrill, I practically threw Betsy's lunch tray onto the table and then ran downstairs.

  When I reached the kitchen. I saw Baby Celeste standing beside the bassinet and looking down at him. His screaming continued.

  "What's wrong with him. Celeste?" I asked, and approached.

  His face was crimson, the crests of his cheeks as red as raw meat. Tears flowed down his cheeks so quickly, it looked as if he could drown in his own sobs. At first I had no idea what was wrong, and then I saw the black candle beside the sole of his left foot. The tip of the candlewick still glowed like an ember in a fireplace, and the heal of his sole was crisp and bright red. The shock of it sucked the wind out of my lungs.

  Betsy had reluctantly followed me down, swaggering in the dress and holding half of her sandwich.

  "What is it? Why does that kid cry so much?" she demanded, coming up beside me.

  She looked down and for a few moments just stared at him and continued to bite and chew her sandwich. Then she saw the candle and slowly knelt to pick it up and looked at it closer.

  "What's this?"

  I shook my head.

  Baby Celeste wore a contented, firm expression with
out the slightest hint of any fear of reprimand.

  "It was lit. Look at his foot!" Betsy cried, seeing the burn on the heel of his sole. She turned to Baby Celeste. "Did you do that to Panther?"

  She didn't answer. Instead, she looked up at me. "We have to go to the garden."

  "The garden!" Betsy screamed. She threw the candle down and seized Baby Celeste's shoulders, shaking her. "Did you light a candle and put it in the bassinet? Well, did you. you little--"

  "Stop it!" I shouted. pulling Baby Celeste from her grasp. "We've got to put something on that burn quickly."

  Panther had been screaming so loudly, his voice was strained.

  "Why would she do that? She's crazy, too. You're all crazy!"

  I went quickly to Mama's herbal closet and found an extract of witch hazel that I knew she used for burns. I began first by applying an ice cube to relieve the pain, and then dried the spot and applied the remedy. We rocked the bassinet and eventually Panther closed his eyes and fell asleep from the shock and excitement.

  Betsy stood off to the side and watched, not making any effort to help soothe her own child and comfort him.

  This does it," she said when I finished. "You get me my clothes and we get your mother to give me my money. I'm out of here. I can't wait to get away from you lunatics."

  "I can't get you your clothes," I said in a quiet, defeated voice. "Why not?"

  "My mother said she burned and buried them."

  "That's what I thought that monster said before," Betsy replied, looking at Baby Celeste. "You'd better keep her away from Panther. Otherwise, whatever happens will be your fault."

  Betsy went back upstairs.

  I knelt down and took Baby Celeste's hand in mine.

  "Why did you do that. Celeste? Why did you burn little Panther?" She shook her head.

  "Why? Tell me," I demanded.

  "Clean him."

  "Clean him?"

  She had seen Mama use fire too often to drive away evil. I thought. This happened because of the things Mama had told her?

  "That was bad. Celeste. You were bad,"

  "No." She shook her head and pulled her hand out from mine.