Celeste Read online

  I would shake my head, but she would remain still for so long. I thought she might have gone catatonic.

  All of this made me more and more nervous. Often I would get up to check on Noble and be sure he was comfortably asleep. If he ever groaned. I felt my body tighten in fear. I would turn on my lamplight on my nightstand quickly. A few times it woke him, and he was angry about it.

  "I'm doing it for you. Noble," I would tell him. He would grunt and turn away.

  "You're the one who told us you were pushed off the tree," I reminded him every time he yelled at me for crowding him or spying on him.

  Finally, one day he told me he had said it because he was afraid of Mommy, afraid she would be even more and at him for climbing the tree. He knew she would believe him and blame someone or something else for what he had done. I was surprised because I realized he was smart enough to know not to use any excuse like that for anything else he did wrong.

  Still. I wanted to be sure.

  "You really didn't feel anything?"

  "I really didn't," he said. "so stop telling me what to do and warning me about this or that. You never leave me alone anymore," he moaned.

  One of the reasons he hated being confined was just that. I could see him do anything he did. He couldn't get away fast enough or climb up to the loft in the barn. He turned his frustration and rage into hatred for his cast. Sometimes, when Mommy wasn't looking, he would jab a pen into it and tear just a little of it. He never stopped complaining about itching.

  So it was no surprise to me that on the day Mommy decided Noble's cast would be removed, we were to have a party. The celebration hung out there with as much excitement about it as Christmas or birthdays. A special dinner was to be made, and of course. Noble's favorite cake.

  "Let's make a fire and burn my cast," Noble suggested eagerly.

  To my amazement. Mommy actually thought it was a good idea.

  "Fire is a purifier," she said. "That's why fires rage in hell, why evil things flee from it."

  "We'll roast marshmallows. too,'" Noble continued.

  Mommy didn't like that idea and told him you don't mix up such a thing.

  "Either we keep the fire sacred or we don't do it at all," she said.

  He was disappointed. but at least he could get his fire and vent his anger and his vengeance on his cursed cast.

  His leg looked so white and skinny when Mommy cut and peeled the cast off. She rubbed in creams and lotions she had concocted with her herbs, and then she had Noble stand and walk very slowly and carefully. He was stiff and moved with a little limp. I don't think he realized it himself, but Mommy's eyes grew small and full of concern.

  "Just take it easy for a few days," she told him. "Definitely no jumping. Noble."

  He promised to be good, and then we all went outside and gathered the wood for our fire. Noble said he wanted it to be so big it singed the stars. Mommy got it started by throwing some gasoline on the wood. It flamed up almost immediately and threw off so much heat, we had to step back.

  "Okay, Noble," Mommy said without a smile, "toss in your cast."

  He looked at me. Now that he was about to do it, he was a little timid, especially of getting too close to the fire. He seized the cast and then he threw it at the fire. It dropped in and immediately flamed up. Mommy stepped closer to Noble and put her arm around his shoulders.

  "This is good," she said, watching the smoke twirl into the night and disappear. "We burn away the evil that has touched us. This is good,"

  We watched the fire until Noble became bored. Mommy sent us into the house and turned on the hose to be sure the fire was out and no danger.

  "We should have had marshmallows," was Noble's comment about it all.

  After that our lives returned to the schedule we had always followed. Noble's leg grew stronger until his limp was hardly discernible. He put on weight, and because he was permitted to run about outside again, regained his healthy, slightly crimson complexion. Too often, however, the weather kept us indoors. Winter was particularly severe this particular year. We had some major snowstorms, and it was left to Noble and me to plow the driveway out, using our rider mower, which had a plow attachment. Noble wanted to be the one who drove it most of the time. I had to wait until he grew bored, and then I would take over.

  When he was alive and visiting regularly. Mr. Kotes had suggested that Mommy hire one of the local men who went around plowing out people's driveways, especially because ours was so long and wide, but Mommy wanted as few strangers on our property as possible.

  "We've taken care of it ourselves up until now she told him. "We'll continue as long as we can."

  I didn't mind the winter and the cold weather so much, and even enjoyed building the snow forts and snowmen with Noble on sunny days. We had a nice Christmas. Mommy kept to her vow never to shop in our community, so all of our presents and decorations came from the stores miles and miles away, Neither Noble nor I minded it, because it gave us an opportunity to take long rides.

  The spring thaw was late in coming, but when it did, the earth was so soggy we had to wait an extra few weeks to begin our garden. Between doing that, our schoolwork, and performing some minor repairs about the house, we three seemed constantly busy. Noble took advantage of Mommy's leniency during his recuperation and wormed his way into more and more television time. too.

  When the warmer spring days started and the trees began flowering again, Mommy seemed more at ease. Her periods of tension and suspicion dwindled, and her moods became lighter. happier. She even talked about taking us to a movie or perhaps to a fun park this year.

  I helped her plant more flowers, weed the small cemetery, and spring-clean the house. Noble volunteered to whitewash the old barn, and for a while we were the happiest we had ever been since Daddy's death. In fact. I began to have high hopes that Mommy would indeed permit us to go to the public school the following year , Her "We'll see" when Noble asked her periodically sounded less hollow. I knew Noble was the happiest he had been for months and months, especially after Mommy gave him permission to go farther into the woods to build his fort. As long as I tagged along, of course. I didn't mind. Noble was very creative and skilled when it came to constructing the fort, and when Mommy saw it, she even considered permitting us to sleep out one night during the summer. All of the darkness seemed to be lifting from our lives. The beautiful idyllic world our great-great-grandfather had seen the day he set foot on this property was once again within our reach.

  And then, one twilight when Noble and I were walking back to the house from the barn after we had cut some lawn and raked up the grass. I saw them. They began as shadows, shifted into confusing twisted shapes with distinct legs and feet, and then returned to shadows, one of which passed right through Noble before they both disappeared around the corner of the house. I was sure of it, and for the moment, the sight staked my feet to the earthen floor. My heart thumped and echoed down my spine. Noble, who saw and felt nothing, kept walking until he realized I had stopped.

  "What are you doing?" he asked.

  I looked about, hoping for sight of Daddy to reassure me, but there was nothing but darkness crawling in everywhere behind us like globs of ink.

  I was choked up and baffled to swallow a throat lump.

  "I'm going into the house," he said, frustrated when I still hadn't responded, and he kept walking,

  After a moment I followed quickly. Noble had already run up the stairs when I entered. Mommy was in the kitchen. I walked down the hallway and stopped in the kitchen doorway. She looked like she was talking to herself, but I knew it was one of her chants. Suddenly, she stopped what she was doing. I didn't have to call to her. She spun around and looked at me, her eyes small and dark.

  "What is it. Celeste?" she asked. "I saw something, I think," I said.

  She wiped her hands quickly on a dishcloth and walked toward me, nodding slightly.

  "Go on, tell me," she said after taking a deep breath.

  I hated
to say anything. I knew it was going to bring doom and gloom back into our lives. but I described it all.

  "Maybe it was just a shadow from the sun falling below the free line." I suggested hopefully.

  "Moving that fast? I doubt it," she said and looked up as if she could see through the ceiling into Noble's and my room. "No." she said shaking her head. "I have had some bad vibrations, too. lately."

  She returned to preparing dinner. Afterward, when we were all sitting at the dinner table. Mommy paused and looked at Noble.

  "Celeste has seen an evil thing tonight, Noble. I don't want you going into the woods anymore."

  "What? But I'm not finished building the fort in the woods. and I want to go fishing this weekend. Its time to go fishing again."

  "Don't disobey me. or I'll keep you confined to the house for the entire summer." she warned him.

  He looked down, and then he looked at me angrily.

  "She's just making it up," he said. "because she doesn't like going into the woods and she hates fishing."

  "That's not true!" I cried. "I love the fort and I like fishing."

  Mommy turned her head very slowly toward me and fixed her eyes on my face.

  "Celeste knows better than to lie about such things. Noble." she said without taking her eyes off me. "I didn't lie," I protested.

  Mommy nodded.

  "No, you didn't lie,"

  Noble went into a sulk and refused to eat.

  "What you don't eat tonight, you'll eat tomorrow," Mommy told him. "We don't waste food. Noble Atwell"

  He sat with his arms wrapped around himself and kept his head stiff, his lips sealed.

  "I have apple pie and ice cream tonight." Mommy reminded him. "But meanness in, sweetness out," she recited. "If you don't eat your meal, you have no pie."

  Stubborn as always. Noble did not retreat from his sulk. Finally. Mommy told him to go upstairs and stay in our room. He jumped up.

  "I'll go into the woods, and El fish whenever I want to," he threatened and ran up the stairs, pounding his footsteps so hard, they vibrated in the walls.

  "He needs more of our protection than I ever imagined."

  Mommy said in a loud whisper. She rose slowly and started after him. I heard doors slamming. It was very quiet, and then suddenly I heard Noble pounding on our bedroom door and stamping his feet.

  I couldn't swallow the food I had in my mouth and gagged until I got it out. I rose slowly and went to the dining room doorway. Noble's shouting was muffled, but I could make out that was he screaming he wanted Mommy to let him out.

  Let him out? Out of where?

  I went to the stairway just as she was coming down.

  "You're sleeping in the living room tonight." she told me as she descended. Her arms were full of my things. "Take this." she ordered, and I hurried forward to accept it. "Put it all in the living room."

  "Why am I sleeping there. Mommy?"

  "Noble is to remain in his room by himself until he swears that he will not disobey me," she said. "It's for his own good."

  She returned to the dining room. I heard Noble's stamping on the floor get louder, and then he grew quiet.

  After I put my things in the living room, I returned to the dining room. too.

  "How long does he have to stay in there. Mommy?"

  "I told you. Until he promises," she said.

  I felt very bad for him and terribly guilty far telling Mommy about the shadows. Maybe that was really all it was, and look at what was happening to Noble. I shouldn't have spoken. I shouldn't have brought all this unhappiness into the house. All the commotion had made me lose my appetite, and I had to force down my own supper. Afterward, while Mommy was distracted. I took a chance and snuck a piece of apple pie upstairs to Noble, but to my surprise, the door was locked from the outside. I never knew our door could be locked that way.

  "Is that you?" he asked through the cracks when I fumbled with the knob.

  "I'm sorry. Noble," I said.

  "You and your big, stupid mouth," he said and kicked at the door so hard. I jumped away.

  Mommy heard it and came to the foot of the stairway. "What are you doing up there. Celeste?" she called up. "Let him think about what I told him. Come downstairs and finish cleaning up," she ordered.

  I looked about frantically for a place to hide the piece of pie and then hurriedly went to the bathroom in Mommy's room and dumped it down the toilet.

  "What were you doing up there?" she asked.

  "I wanted him to behave and come out." I said.

  She kept her eyes on me so long, I had to shift mine away.

  "Just do what I told you," she said and returned to the kitchen. I helped her clean up, and then I went into the living room and helped her set up the chintz sofa for me. I kept waiting to hear Noble call for Mommy and make the promise, but he didn't give in. Mommy was surprised, too. Nothing bothered him as much as being confined.

  "Something's gotten hold of him already," Mommy muttered with conviction.

  She didn't open his door to speak to him about it again. Later she went to bed. and I lay there listening and hoping Noble had decided to make the promise Mommy wanted, but he must have fallen asleep under a blanket of anger. and I was too tired to wait any longer.

  In the morning Mommy woke me to wash up and come to breakfast. I expected to find Noble at the table, but he was still locked in our room. Mommy went about her business. Finally, when it was nearly lunchtime, we heard Noble calling, and she went up to let him out. I remained at the foot of the stairway.

  "Im listening."

  "Do you promise and swear. Noble Atwell?" He mumbled a yes.

  "If you disobey me, you'll be kept in this house for the whole summer," she threatened. "I mean it."

  He came downstairs looking tired and defeated.

  No matter what I did or said, he wouldn't talk to me. He wouldn't even look at me. Mommy tried to make things up to him by promising to take us for a ride and maybe, just maybe, if he was good, take us to the fun park that was nearly forty miles away. It would be a full day away. That did put the light back into his eyes.

  "But will I ever be able to back into the woods and go fishing?" he asked her.

  "Yes. Noble, When I say." she said.

  He seemed satisfied, but on the weekend, when we were supposed to go the fun park. Mommy woke with a very bad cold. It was the first time we had seen her so sick. She had a fever and a cough that made her so tired she had to stay in bed. I made breakfast and lunch. and Noble and I waited on her.

  "I'll be better in no time." she promised and fell asleep, sleeping most of the day.

  Noble was far more disappointed than I was. He sat on the lowest front step and scratched shapes in the dirt with a stick. Every once in a while he would look out at the woods in the direction of his fart,

  "I don't know why I can't go in there," he muttered. "And this is a great day to go fishing. I could catch something for supper. I bet that would change her mind."

  "Don't you even think of it." I told him. "Noble?"

  "Leave me alone," he said.

  I went back inside to see Mommy. She was still sleeping. so I thought about what we would have for dinner. Maybe I could get Noble to help me. I hoped. Maybe that would distract him and keep him from thinking of his fort and his fishing. I went out to tell him, but he was riot on the stoop.

  "Noble?" I called. 1 went about the house looking for him, and then I went to the barn. He wasn't there, but my heart stopped and then started.

  Where our new fishing poles and tackle box were kept, his were gone.

  My first thought was to go tell Mommy, but I knew she was sleeping, and she would be so upset to hear about Noble doing this, she would get up and maybe get even sicker. I decided instead to go after him and make him come back. He couldn't be too far ahead of me. I imagnied, and I knew exactly where we had always gone to fish.

  I ran through the forest, paying little regard to the branches and bushes that slapped at my
legs and scratched me. I had to find Noble and bring him home before Mommy woke up and asked for him. When I got to the stream. I stopped and looked around. At first. I didn't see him.

  "Noble!" I screamed. "Where are you?"

  He didn't respond. I walked along the short. The water was flowing faster and wider than I could ever remember it. It was no longer a bubbling brook. It actually roared as if it was remembering itself when it had been a river. I went upstream a bit and then, after not finding him, ran back downstream until I turned a corner with the creek and saw Noble squatting on a large boulder out in the water. He had obviously followed a trail of smaller rocks out to it. He reached back with his pole and flicked it forward, just the way Mr. Kotes had shown him.

  "Noble!" I called.

  If he heard me, he ignored me.

  "Noble, come back home this instant!" I screamed. He didn't turn around.

  I had to go into the water, stepping on rocks toward the boulder. They were like ice because of the glistening water rushing over them.

  "Noble!"

  Finally he turned around and smirked at me. "What do you want?"

  "You can't stay here. You have to come home now. Mommy doesn't want you here. Noble."

  "Go away," he said. "I'm going to catch a big fish and make her happy."

  "I'm not going away. You're coming home." "I'm not," he said defiantly. "Get away,"

  "I'll drag you home. I swear I will, Noble Atwell, Now come home."

  He turned his back on me again. I worked my way closer to him, and this time, when he reached back with his pole to flick his fishing line. I managed to Arab hold of the end of the pole. He jerked forward and fell back with surprise.

  "Let go!'' he shouted.

  "No. You come home right now. I'm not getting into trouble because of you." I pulled on the pole, and he pulled back. For a few moments we were in a tugof-war, which he seemed to relish.

  "Stop it. Noble!" I screamed, nearly losing my balance on the smaller rocks.

  "No, you let go," he shouted.

  He stood up to get more leverage and pulled very hard. The pole began to burn my palms. so I had to release it. When I did so, however, he kept his momentum and fell backward off the rock. I didn't see him for a moment, and then I saw his leg and the rest of him turning in the water. Streaming around his head was a line of crimson. His body hit another boulder and then dipped under the water and came up. For a moment I couldn't move a muscle, and then I screamed and charged through the water toward him.