Call of the Raven (24 page)

She couldn’t read since Julio had stood over
her until every last page of Hatori’s book had burned in the big
roaster his mother had given them for Christmas. She didn’t want to
watch television because when she was reminded just how fictional
happy endings really were, she became even more depressed. With
nothing better to do, Elle climbed out onto the fire escape and sat
down.

“Hello Miss Rosemary,” Elle said without
turning. She had heard the little girl coming up the ladder rungs
and even though she didn’t want company, she knew she was about to
get some.

“Mom left and told me to stay in the house.
She said she had some things to do and was going to look for a job.
I kind of got the impression that she would be gone a few
days.”

“Are you worried about that?” Elle asked.

“I’ve been alone most of my life whether
she’s home or not.” Mary sat down next to her and Elle turned
sideways so that she could see the little girl’s face. “I know,”
Mary sighed, “I talk older than any ten-year-old you know.”

“I guess that’s a good thing because that
means you’re smart and that means a lot, these days.”

“You’re smart Elle.”

“If I were smart I wouldn’t be here now—
meaning in this mixed up mess of a life.”

“Had you been given the chance Elle, what
would you have done with your life?”

“I read about the adventures Pain goes
through in the
Tale of The Two Brothers
and sometimes I
think I might want to have such adventures. I think about traveling
and seeing things that I’ve never seen before like the ocean and
the Smoky Mountains.”

Elle moaned wistfully. “I think it would be
nice to have friends and a family like the one Pain has. I think of
big houses with families gathering on the holidays, where everyone
is laughing and having fun. Truthfully, I’ve never thought about
me, what I would like to be personally. I don’t see myself as a
doctor or flight attendant or anything like that. Those things
aren’t important to me.”

“Well I want to know my dad,” Mary said. “I
don’t believe he’s still alive like my mom does, but it would be
nice to know things about him other than his name and the fact he
used to sing her some silly song. But,” Mary hesitated, “I think
the best thing…the most important thing to me…ever, would be to
tell someone my secret. I want to tell them what I am.” Mary’s
eyes, wide and beseeching, rose slowly up to Elle’s.

“Okay,” Elle shivered. “You’re really creping
me out.”

Mary nodded. “Yes, but that’s probably about
to get worse. I’m like one of the shifters in your book Elle. I can
change into an animal. That’s why I started following you to work
so I could hear more of your stories.”

“I think I’m going to go inside now Mary.”
Elle rose to her feet. “When you’re out of this weird mood you’re
in, we’ll talk more.”

“It’s ok Elle,” Mary said with her eyes still
on her. “I didn’t expect you to believe me. I was just hoping you
would.”

***

There was nothing
in the fridge to eat
and Mary was hungry. She hadn’t eaten anything of nutritional value
for two days. There were no more Moon pies and the handful of
Cheerio’s wasn’t enough to control her hunger. She closed the
fridge and went to the cabinet. She’d done this several times in
the last couple of hours.

This trip didn’t reveal anything new either.
She hadn’t expected it too. There was nothing there but flour,
sugar and a few broken stale taco shells. She couldn’t recall them
ever having tacos. Mary couldn’t eat them. It was hard telling how
long they’d been there.

Taking the Cheerio box from the shelf, Mary
poured the last of it into her hand. She slowly chewed as she
watched a roach crawl across a greasy stove burner. Inwardly, she
hoped there weren’t any hiding in the cereal box. She moved again
to the fridge hoping mysteriously that something had appeared since
the last time she checked. Her mother had told her not to leave the
apartment or Mary would have gone begging again.

People were starting to talk about the dirty
little girl that knocked on doors asking for food, and mom was
starting to get worried that social services would show up soon. It
wouldn’t be the first time that they did on the account of Mary’s
wandering.

Finding it hopeless, Mary slammed the fridge
door shut and returned to her room. Sitting down on the bed she
picked up the book that Elle gave her. She opened it to the first
page and started reading, but the words didn’t make sense. Setting
it aside, Mary felt like crying. She hated her life and she had so
hoped that Elle would believe her.

A loud noise startled Mary and quickly she
bolted upright. Mom still wasn’t home. Many times in the last
couple days she had been tempted to ask Elle to come downstairs and
keep her company, but Elle had not only been avoiding her, her
boyfriend had been spending a lot more time at home. Just when Mary
thought that it might be her mom returning she realized that the
voices she heard belonged to two men. As something loud crashed to
the floor, Mary instinctively hid under the bed.

“Make it look like a robbery and I’ll see if
the kid is in her room.”

Mary scooted closer to the wall and pushed
the box of cars in front of her face. Reaching out from under the
bed she quickly pulled some dirty laundry toward her and tried to
conceal the rest of her body, all the while hoping that her feet
weren’t poking out from the end of the child size bed.

“Man this place is a dump.”

Hard footsteps neared and Mary held very
still and tried not to breathe. She thought of the bugs she often
saw crawling on the floor when she was lying in her bed at night.
Her dirty discarded clothes hadn’t been washed for weeks and the
smell was attracting them. Suddenly she saw a boot between the box
of cars and a musty smelling towel.

“She’s not here, but come have a look at this
book.”

More footsteps neared, maybe three sets in
all. It was too hard for Mary to tell. Not all of the intruders
could fit into her small room, so they stayed in the kitchen. One
of the men laughed.

“Oh how cute she’s reading a book about
shifters, so that can only mean one thing. She’s questioning what
she is.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“What’s it matter she’s just a kid. We need
to find her quick before they do.”

Mary felt something crawling on her head and
closed her eyes resisting the urge to swipe it away. The bug moved
down unto her forehead and on her left eyelid. She pinched them
tight as the feelers touched the bridge of her nose. A horrible
thought crossed her mind. What if the thing decided to climb up her
nose or into her unprotected ear? The footsteps moved away just as
Mary felt a sneeze coming on. Carefully, at the sound of breaking
glass and things crashing to the floor, Mary reached up and swatted
the roach from her face. She knew it was there still, somewhere on
the floor with a bunch of his buddies, but she tried not to think
about that.

And then she smelled it…smoke.

“I don’t get it, the fire’s supposed to cover
up the fact we snatched the kid but she’s not even here.”

“We’ll find her eventually. Now come on lets
go. She likes to hang out at the library.”

***

Elle turned on
the shower and waited
for the water to get hot before pulling the curtain back and
stepping in. Closing her eyes she allowed the warm heat to run down
upon her head and tender shoulders, but little did it do to relieve
her tension. She felt sore all over and her stomach ached from the
dry heaves she had suffered all morning.

There wasn’t much to throw up when the only
thing she could keep down was crackers and water. She was sick, so
sick. Julio hadn’t come home again, but it wasn’t the first time he
had stayed away. It wasn’t the first time he had someone else. Elle
felt like screaming.

She wanted out more than ever.

She wanted to run away as far as possible,
some place where he would never find her, someplace where she would
be safe and taken care of, but just like she told Mea there was no
such place. Besides, she was far too weak to try and she wouldn’t
get far on what little money she had managed to tuck away. She put
her trembling hand on her flat stomach, knowing it wouldn’t remain
like that for long.

Oh God, she just wanted to drift away…so far
away.

Feeling dizzy, Elle quickly washed her body
and hair and got out. She didn’t care much about trying to beautify
herself when she felt like human garbage, besides Julio was always
saying she was ugly anyway so what did it matter. Wrapping a towel
around her head she pulled on a flannel robe and left the bathroom
a mess.

She staggered back to her bed and collapsed.
Closing her eyes she figured she should wait for the room to stop
spinning before she got dressed. She could feel it again that
greasy bile moving up her esophagus. She was going to get sick
again and real soon, but all she wanted was just a few seconds of
peace, of unhindered rest.

Somewhere a door slammed and Elle awoke. She
hadn’t meant to fall asleep. She had meant to pour over the
classifieds in search of a job. She sat up and eyed the clock on
the nightstand. Julio was home and there was no supper. Rushing to
her dresser she pulled out panties, bra, tee-shirt and jeans and
put them on. She heard the refrigerator door slam.

Julio was mad.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Her
honey blonde hair had dried in the towel and no amount of brushing
could free it of its lumps and bumps. She could wet it down later
once she saw to Julio’s dinner. The best she could do was brush it
back in a ponytail, but nothing could conceal her hollow unhealthy
eyes.

She looked bad and she knew it. Julio eyed
her coldly when she entered the kitchen. The disgust was apparent
as he sipped his last beer. She had looked to that last beer as a
hope that this night he wouldn’t get drunk, but by the smell and
look of him, he had several before coming home.

“Where have you been?” he demanded.

Elle looked at him in disbelief. “Shouldn’t I
be asking you that question?” The majority of their fights had
started because she didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, but the
question was ridiculous.

“The only business you need to be concerned
about is your own. The burger I sat out to thaw this morning is
still in the fridge and the newspaper hasn’t been touched. You got
to get a job. You got to be working. I’m tired of being the only
one paying bills.”

Elle went to the counter and started pulling
dirty dishes out of the sink. She hadn’t been out of the apartment
for two days and found his accusation ludicrous. He made it sound
like she was sneaking down to the neighbors every day. The smell of
rotting food assaulted her nose and Elle fought to remain in
control.

“I’ve been sick Julio. I’ve been in bed all
day.” Elle glanced over her shoulder figuring by the looks of her
it wouldn’t be too hard for him to believe.

She would never consider Julio a handsome
man. He had a broad nose, wide mouth and his dark almost black eyes
were often filled with hate. At one time he had claimed to care
about her. At one time he had offered her protection. Although
short, he had the stocky body of a fighter and she had clung to
that strength, only to learn the person she needed protection from
was him. She no longer cried when she thought of him holding some
other woman in his arms, and sometimes she even longed for it,
knowing that as long as he had someone else, he left her alone.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. You’ve just
gotten lazy,” he said. She started running water in the dishpan.
She squirted in dish soap. She was about to tell him to go watch
television while she fried him up a hamburger, but the next words
floored her. “You’ve gotten uglier too. You disgust me.”

And then Elle felt it, that hatred she’d
tried to suppress over the years. “How would you know?” She spun
around. “You don’t look at me anymore because you seldom come
home?”

“Maybe I would come home if I had something
to come home to.” Suddenly he was in her face, talking in his mean
way with the stench of beer and onions on his breath, which only
proceeded to turn her stomach. “I pay the bills here because I’m
the man and don’t you forget it!”

“Yes you’re the man.” Elle dared meeting his
angry glare. “Or then you used to be, before you started hitting on
a woman.” Instantly Julio’s hand was on her throat pulling her
toward him.

She felt the fingers of his other hand
grinding into her right arm as they fought and moved about the
floor in a strange sort of dance. Gasping for breath, Elle dug her
fingernails into his chest, arm and face, wherever she could get a
hold.

Julio had never tried to strangle her before
and the thought of dying in such a way caused Elle to fight all the
harder. She kicked and punched until Julio finally released her
sending her back against the kitchen sink so hard whatever breath
she had left escaped her lungs.

“You,” she spat sucking in air, “are no
man!”

Julio started forward with all intentions of
finishing the job when the sound of loud police sirens pulling into
the front parking lot made him abruptly turn away. He looked in the
direction of the window and the fire escape and then back at her,
and an evil smile crossed his thick lips.

“I’ll be back. You can count on it.”

Elle stood clinging to the counter as Julio
lowered the noisy metal ladder down to the alley. She dare not move
until she heard his footsteps fading farther and farther away, one
rung at a time. Only then once she was sure that he was gone did
she move. A deep severe pain tore at her back as she went to the
front window that looked down over the parking lot.