Sorrow's Point (23 page)

“What do you mean?” Tabby asked.

“She threw him against the wall without even touching him.”

“So the restraints are still in place?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s possessed, but I have to see the signs.”

I nodded. Will and Tor came downstairs. Will was holding a towel to his nose.

“Want to watch the footage?” I asked Father John. He nodded. “The Father wants to watch the tapes,” I said to Will.

Will held up his finger for me to wait. He and Tor went down the hallway toward the kitchen. We were quiet for several minutes, just waiting. When Will and Tor returned, Will had tape on his nose and it had stopped bleeding.

“She broke my nose,” Will said.

“It could have been worse,” I replied.

“Yeah, at least Tor could fix this one.”

I nodded.

Will led us into the living room. Tabby walked with Tor back to the kitchen. I knew Tor didn’t want to see it again, but I had a feeling Tabby was kind of glad she had Tor as an excuse to get out of watching it a second time.

Will cued the DVD’s. Father John gasped at Lucy’s language prowess. The rest, he just watched in silence.

“This is very bad,” he said when we’d watched all there was.

“When do we hear if she gets an exorcism?” Will asked.

“Sometime soon,” the priest said. “I have to let the bishop see the evidence. After that, I should have some sort of answer for you.”

Will gave Father John the copies of the DVD’s. “Call anytime. We don’t care what time it is. Lucy needs help.”

The priest scratched his head. “I’ll do the best I can.”

With that, he left, scurrying out of the house like a mouse. The man was deeply scared, but it was enough. If he was scared, then the powers that be would pay attention.

###

We settled ourselves back into the kitchen. Tabby and Tor were eating cookies.

“Well, that was interesting,” Tabby said.

I laughed. “You’d be surprised. Priests are just like regular people. Many of them are scared easily, that’s why they don’t want to learn about exorcism. Believe me, most priests are happy and relish in the fact that they will never have to deal with anything like that.”

“You’re so different,” Tor said.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You’re brave.”

“Well, bravery has nothing to do with the priesthood.”

Tabby smiled. “Jimmy has always been special,” Tabby said to Tor. “I saw that the moment I spotted him.”

“Why aren’t you together?” Tor asked.

Tabby smiled at her, then smiled at me. “We were too young, I guess. It just didn’t work out.”

I blushed. I hated it when I blushed. I hated talking about my love life.

Will was pretending to look at the newspaper. I didn’t need this on my mind on top of everything else.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. I’m sure there are better things to talk about than my love life or the lack thereof.”

Tabby laughed. “Jimmy, they were asking me, not you. If I want to talk about my love life, I can. You are just involved.”

I slunk down in my chair. I noticed Will still hadn’t turned the page of his newspaper.

“Okay, I admit it. I’m sunk. Talk about what you want, but I’m not sitting here listening to it.” I tapped Will on the arm. “Want to get out of here?”

He nodded, and we left.

###

We didn’t go anywhere special, just went for a walk outside. The gardens really were beautiful. They stretched down over the hills and around the house.

We walked for several minutes in silence. Then, Will stopped in front of a great fountain with what looked like a nude nymph in the center.

“How long do you think it will take the priest to get back to us?”

“I don’t know.” I scratched my head and looked at Will. “It could be sometime today, tomorrow, or sometime this week. I’m sure the bishop is busy, and it will take time for him to review the evidence. Then, he’ll decide if an exorcism is a good option for Lucy. Finally, we’ll get told when the exorcism will take place.”

“I don’t know how many more nights like last night I can take,” he said.

“You’ll just have to deal, Will. I don’t know what to tell you.”

What I really wanted to say to him was: Grow up! Was all of this scary as Hell? Most definitely, but he was letting his fear keep him from doing what needed to be done. I’d seen into his kind before, and in normal circumstances, it wasn’t such a big deal. But this was anything but normal.

“Is there anything I can do?” Will asked.

I nodded. “You can support your wife. You can be strong for your daughter, and you can keep yourself together. I’m getting tired, Will. Know what that means?”

“What?”

“It means that I need you to pull your own weight. Don’t forget, Tabby and I might still have to participate in Lucy’s exorcism. I’m going to need all the strength I can get.”

Will led us back into the house. I left Will with Tabby and Tor and went into the library to catch up on my e-mail. I jotted a quick note off to my boss in terms of an update on the situation, then I caught up on the rest of the e-mail. Most of it was spam and stuff left over from work. I hoped that by the time all of this was over, I would still have a job. Right now, Sorensen was being understanding— a few days from now might be different.

I was tired, so tired. I wanted to be over and done with this, but I couldn’t shake the fact that I felt like God wanted me to be a part of this somehow. I didn’t know if it was a test, or if there was some reason that my presence might help Lucy. I just didn’t know.

Finally, I shut down the computer and went back to the others. Being alone wasn’t a good idea in this house.

Just before I reached the kitchen, my phone rang. I just about jumped out of my skin. I scrambled for it, trying to dig it out of my pocket. I almost dropped it and  managed to answer it before I was sure that it was going to voice mail.

I pressed the button without looking at the phone “Hello.”

“Mr. Holiday, I’m calling… I have some bad news,” The voice said. It sounded like the priest.

“Father?” I asked.

He coughed. “Yes, and please, call me John.”

I walked into the kitchen. The conversation that Tabby, Tor and Will were having ceased immediately.

“Okay, John. Is it okay that I put you on speaker phone?”

I sat down in the empty chair at the table.

“Yes, that’s fine,” he said.

I hit the button. “What’s going on?”

“The news I have, it isn’t good.”

I waited for him to say something else. He didn’t.  “What’s the bad news, John?”

I heard him clear his throat through the phone. “Well, the exorcism’s been granted,” he said.

Tor gasped, then clasped her hands over her mouth.

“That doesn’t sound like bad news,” I said.

“No. I’m sorry.” He paused. “It’s going to be awhile before there is an exorcism.”

“But why?” Tor asked in a voice that was not unlike a squeak.

I heard him sigh. “Right now, in America, we only have about twenty-three exorcists. There’s supposed to be one for each diocese, but we just don’t have them.”

“Uh huh,” I said. “And how does this affect Lucy’s exorcism?”

“There’s a waiting list… I’m afraid the earliest I can think that Lucy will get her exorcism will be in about six months.”

“She won’t last that long!” Tor started to cry.

“Mrs. Andersen, please,” Father John said. “I’m doing everything in my power to change that. Times are… just that hard.”

“Is there any way you could do the exorcism yourself, Father?” I asked.

“No, Mr. Holiday. I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes.”

I got angry then. This paper pusher was standing in the way. A little girl’s life was at stake for crying out loud. “What do you propose we do for six months?”

“Well, if you could take her to Rome…”

“Father, can you imagine Lucy on a plane? She’d attack everyone in sight. Possibly end up getting shot.”

“It was a thought,” he said. “In Rome, all you need to do is make an appointment with an exorcist. It’s almost like going to the doctor.”

“None of that does Lucy any good,” I said.

I looked up from the phone. Will was holding Tor; her head lay on his shoulder.

“Well, Mr. Holiday. You could check with other religions.”

“Other religions? Like what?” I asked.

“I believe the Jews have their own form of exorcism. How well it works, I don’t know.”

I was really frustrated, but I didn’t know what else to do. Father John had tried, I guess. It wasn’t his fault that the best he could do was get Lucy on a waiting list, as ridiculous as that sounded.

“Well, keep her on the list,” I said. “Maybe God will work a miracle.”

“Maybe so,” he said.

I hung up the phone and looked up. They all were staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

It was Will who first spoke. “You have to do it.”

“I have to do what?”

“You have to do the exorcism,” Will said. He reached over and wiped tears away from Tor’s eyes. “You know Lucy won’t make it six months. Hell, I don’t even know if she’ll make one month.”

I knew it was true. There was no avoiding it now. The demon was doing something to Lucy, something I couldn’t quite understand, but whatever it was, it was making her sick. If I didn’t intervene, she could die; the demon could make sure of that.

“I’m not even a priest,” I said.

Tor looked at me. The waterworks hadn’t stopped. “The church said that. I don’t know anyone with as good a heart as you have, Jimmy. Please, save my little girl.”

What was I going to say to that? She’d made this plea. Free will could really be a bitch sometimes. I wished that I could just be told what to do at times, but it never worked out that way. I wasn’t that lucky.

“All right, Tor. I’ll do my best,” I said, hoping I just hadn’t made the worst mistake of my entire life.

###

I walked out the back door. I just needed a break. Tabby followed me for some reason.

I walked around the house to the driveway and leaned against Tabby’s car. I looked up at her.

“What do you think would happen if I just up and left?” I asked.

Tabby stared at me and crossed her arms. “To you or to Lucy?”

“Both, I guess.”

She sighed. “Jimmy, you’ve seen Lucy as much as I have. She’s not well. Modern medicine is holding off what seems to be the inevitable. What happens if her organs fail again?”

I rubbed at my arms. Leave it to stupid me to go outside without my coat with snow on the ground. “Yeah, that isn’t something I want to think about.”

Fire leapt up in Tabby’s eyes. Her face was flushed. I’d just pissed her off.

“That’s just great, Jimmy. If you don’t do this, if you didn’t try, do you really think you could live with yourself by going back on your word? Let alone if you walked away and you found out Lucy died, waiting for that exorcism.”

“What if I make things worse, Tabby?  I know absolutely nothing about doing this.”

Tabby snatched me by the arm and jerked me off her car. “You know what?”

“What?”

“Neither did the first exorcists. They laid their hands on the possessed and spoke to the demons until they got tired. Possession has to do with strength of will. You told me that. Your will just has to be stronger than the demon’s.”

“It’s a shame Lucy’s ‘Will’ isn’t strong enough to protect her,” I said. I was being a prick and I knew it, but I didn’t like being cornered.

Tabby shook her head. “Not everyone can be you, Jimmy. Believe it or not, you’re unique.”

“I don’t know how… So I have to do this thing?”

She nodded. “Yep.”

“And you’ll help?”

“If I can.”

I sighed. “Alright then, sounds like I better start studying the ritual. Try to think of spells you can cast on Lucy and her room for light, health and honesty. Who knows, it might help.”

“Any spells you’d like me to cast for you?” she asked.

“Yeah. Luck. It looks like I’m going to need it.”

###

We went back inside and sat down at the table. Tor was futzing at the counter, making God knows what. Will sat across from me, nursing a cup of coffee.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.

I thought for a moment. What I needed him to do and what he was capable of were two different things.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said. “I’m going to need vestments and the rest. Tabby knows what she needs. Mostly, I need something that no one can help me with.”

“And what’s that?”

“Bravery, hope, strength and luck.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I can’t promise this is going to turn out okay, Will. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want Lucy’s death on my hands.”

Will smiled. He looked tired. “You know, Jimmy. Without you, Lucy would have no chance at all.” He pushed his coffee cup off to the side and clasped his hands together. “Okay, you don’t know what you’re doing, but more important is that you care about that. You care about making Lucy worse.”

I sighed. He believed in me too much. “I just don’t want you to put me on a pedestal or anything. I really just want you to understand. Once I start this, I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what Lucy is going to do. I don’t know what Lucy will do to hurt herself. I know there’s a camera. I just don’t want you to blame me if something goes wrong.”

“Jimmy,” he said. “Tor and I have talked about this. Lucy has no other choice. If she dies anyway, well, at least we did all we could, including having you try to get this thing out of her.”

“And what if you change your mind? What’s going to happen then?” I asked.

Will grabbed me by the shoulder. I stared at him.

“We will never blame you, Jimmy. Never.”

I jerked my hand away. “You say that now, but people never really know how they are going to react.”

Will shook his head. “I’m going to be in the room, Jimmy. I’m going to help. How can I blame you if I’m in there doing the same work?”

I had no response to that. He wasn’t exactly reliable. I couldn’t help but think that this was going to be one huge fiasco.

“Maybe we should put this in writing,” I said.

Will laughed. “Nah, we’ll record it, give both Tabby and Tor a copy.”

I smiled. “That works for me.”

He grabbed his coffee cup and took a sip. “Good.”

###

Before the others came to bed, Tabby and I were in the library early. There was just too much to do. I didn’t know if I should study the ritual until I had it memorized, or if I should just wing it. I’ll admit it that I was scared. I didn’t have the church backing me up; I didn’t have the knowledge. Believe me, now I wished I had gone to school to be an exorcist, but how was I to know I’d ever need to know how to do it?

I tapped my pencil against my lips, staring at a blank piece of notebook paper.

“Are you going to need holy water?” Tabby asked.

I looked up. She was amazingly astute at times. “Actually, yeah. I do need some.”

“Does it have to be your type of holy water, or can it be any type of holy water?”

I thought for a bit. It wasn’t like I was going to be doing this completely by the book. “Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, you always hear about it the Catholic way with the holy water I’m used to, but I have no reason to believe it wouldn’t work with any other type of holy water. Why?”

She smiled. “Well, you can’t get holy water from Father John cause he’ll suspect something. Isn’t there something where you can’t make holy water now?”

I nodded. “Because I’m not a priest, I can’t make ‘Catholic holy water.’ I’m not supposed to be saying any rituals or masses at all, really.”

“I can make holy water,” she said.

I stared at her. It seemed lately that Tabby was the answer to everything, but there was still so much about her I didn’t understand. “How can you make holy water?”

“Witches and the Voudou do it all the time to cleanse areas and to fight bad things,” she said.

“What do you need to make it?”