Authors: June Ahern
A tear rolled out of June
’s eye. She missed Mrs. G so much. Everyone in her family was too enthralled with the new house to mourn when Mrs. G had passed on in her sleep a month ago. Only June grieved openly for her old friend.
Tesia had asked Jimmy and Cathy to join her, her husband and a small group of Polish friends to say their final goodbyes at a gravesite ceremony. The girls stayed home with Annie. They
had gone down to the garden to say a prayer for Mrs. G. June had felt a bit of comfort, being in the garden where the two had shared so many happy times together. After the funeral Tesia invited the MacDonald family downstairs for refreshments. When a guest remarked that Mrs. G’s passing was for the best, since she was so sad, June yelled at him, “No! We were happy!” Jimmy quickly scooped her up in his muscular arms and apologized for the outburst by explaining that it was way past her bedtime.
June had been inconsolable for days, until Mrs. G appeared next to her bed one night.
“We’re not apart,” Mrs. G reminded her. “At new house, go to the garden, out to the biggest tree. There I will be smiling at you.”
June had stopped crying although
she still missed her friend.
“
Oh, Jimmy, the color is perfect. You’ve done good,” Cathy said, admiring the new house and giving her husband a kiss on the cheek. He turned from her and hid a pleased smile.
“
Holy mackerel! It’s like the movies,” Mary said as she looked up at the house.
“
Gee, Daddy, this house is so big,” Annie said, taking in the long broad stairs leading up to the two-storied house.
“
Look, a garage,” Maggie said, pointing.
“And there’s
a big basement. That’s where I’ll put my new washing machine,” said Cathy, merrily.
In a rare moment of Cathy being deeply fulfilled
, June caught a glimpse of her mother’s bright yellow aura like the rays of the sun.
The sisters all chattered about their beautiful new house. Only June stayed quiet. She was overwhelmed and couldn
’t say anything.
“
Alright girls, everyone grab a box,” their father said.
“
I’ll go on up and unlock the door,” Cathy said, taking a suitcase with her.
June followed her mother carrying a small box that she had held onto in the car.
Maggie moved to pick up a little box, but Annie got to it first. She tucked it under one arm and took hold of a suitcase.
As a result, Maggie was stuck helping Mary with a larger heavy box. After s
ome effort, the girls lifted it and strained to keep it aloft between them. Then Maggie dropped her end.
“
Jeez. Pick it up, sissy,” Mary said laughing at her sister. When they lifted the box again Maggie let out a whiny “huff” as she struggled with it.
“
That’s too heavy for you, hen,” their father said to Maggie. “Annie, give that smaller box to Maggie then come and grab that end.”
Maggie dropped her end sharply
and gave Mary a satisfied look. The box fell on Mary’s toes. She stifled a yelp, swallowing her anger at her sister. Her father slapped her shoulder playfully.
“You’re
like a strong, wee laddie,” Jimmy said to Mary, laughing as he headed up the stairs with the chairs in hand.
“
I’m not a boy. I hate him,” Mary said, glaring at her father’s back as she and Annie picked up the heavy box.
“
Mother Superior says ‘hate’ is a strong word. Don’t say it. Come on, let’s go,” Annie said, taking steps toward the house. Mary scowled at her.
Near the top of the ten broad stairs leading up to the front door, June began to daydream about the room she
’d be sharing with Mary. Neither the stairs nor the box she carried was on her mind. All she could see were pictures of her own bed and her altar floating through her head. Even though her box was small, it was large enough to keep her from seeing over the top of it. She stumbled when her toe got caught on a step. She regained her balance and readjusted her grip on the box.
“Watch where you’re
going,” Jimmy said, coming up behind her.
Her foot caught again on the last step
, causing her to drop the box. The contents of the box sprayed across the front porch as she fell onto her knees. Her mother turned around and what she saw stunned her.
Standing on the step behind her, Jimmy stared at a crimson silk scarf and tarot ca
rds scattered across the porch––lying on the threshold of their new home, mocking him.
“
What the bloody hell are those?” he asked glaring at his little girl.
His powerful arm swooped down and grabbed a few cards in his fist, holding them close to her face.
Her frightened eyes slowly looked up at him.
“
Where’d you get these, you wee pagan?” he snarled at June.
“
They’re mine!” Annie and Mary called out in unison from behind.
“
Lying wee bitches!” Jimmy shouted over his shoulder in their direction.
He turned around and found his wife standing frozen in the doorway.
“You, Cathy, did you know about these––these bloody devil things?”
Cathy looked back and forth from the girls to him. She swallowed hard.
“I think those were left behind when Mrs. G died. June must have…um…must have made a mistake. How’s she to know what they are? She’s only a wee girl.”
“
Aye, a wee girl that’ll grow up a lying, thieving, bloody tinker! Get these things out of my sight. Here you two, take them out back to the bin,” Jimmy said shoving the cards at Mary and Annie.
They hurriedly dropped their box on the porch and began to scoop up the cards.
It wasn’t a mistake, June wanted to say to her parents, but her father was so angry she knew better than to speak. She had heard Tesia tell her mother that Mrs. G wanted June to have the tarot cards.
Nervously, Annie and Mary rushed to the backyard to find a metal drum. Their father stormed out behind them. According to Jimmy, it was June
’s destiny to burn in hell. He ranted on about the evil of his pagan daughter as he dragged her by the arm to the backyard.
“And any of you
girls who go along with this will burn in hell, too,” he said, spitting out the words.
He threw June forward, forcing her to stumble onto her knees. Trembling, she didn
’t know if it was the beating or losing her cards that scared her most. Either way, she was filled with fear. She saw an angry, blood-red energy exploding around her father.
Cathy came to the back door, praying the situation wouldn
’t worsen. She saw Jimmy’s face flush a deep red and knew he was seething with anger. He would be blind to any reason. Recently, when June had said that Mrs. G visited her in a dream the night of her death, Jimmy had demanded that June stop all the malarkey about seeing dead people and talking to angels. Cathy had reminded him that some people were fey. That was superstitious, he had told her.
“
I’ll have no disrespect against our Church. You’re a disgrace. All of you,” he ranted.
He rummaged through his jacket and found matches. June tried desperately to grab at the cards still on the ground.
“No,” she whimpered. Through her sobs, she looked up at him helplessly as he grabbed the few cards in her hands. She silently prayed to Our Lady to stop him.
He struck a match and tossed it into the metal drum. The tarot cards easily caught fire, one by one. Devastated, the crying child watched the brilliant colors burst into flames. In a moment of final desperation, she reached out a hand toward the drum in hopes of saving some. Instead, her father caught her hand
and pushed her to her knees. He held her down by the scruff of her neck.
“
I’ll no have you bring the Devil into my house,” he told her. “You better pray, girl, before the Devil takes you away to burn in hell!”
June cried louder.
Maggie clung to her mother’s waist, whimpering, witnessing the vicious act. Cathy pushed Maggie away and rushed down the back steps “Jimmy! JIMMY! Please. Oh Mother of God! Please. She’s only a wean!”
“
Yeah? Well, wait ‘til the nuns get hold of her. She’ll grow up right fast.”
He thrust June down toward the ground and slapped her head fiercely before stomping back toward the house. At the edge of the steps he abruptly stopped and stared into his wife
’s face. “You’re turning them against me, aren’t you? You’re teaching the girls how to keep secrets, aren’t you? Well, you’re good at that, eh?”
He pushed past his wife into the house and yelled,
“Doomed to hell, every last one of you!”
Stunned into silence, Cathy moved slowly toward June. Jimmy roared from inside the house,
“CATHY!” In mid-stride toward June, she stopped and turned to the house leaving her daughters in the backyard of their new home.
The sisters stood frozen in place around the bin, eyes glued to the blaze feeding upon itself. The fire burst into a sudden spark, crackling loudly, awaking everyone from the nightmare. Annie rushed over to June to put a protective arm around her.
Maggie found a stick in the yard. She flipped a couple of cards out of the bin. The smoldering cards cooled on the cement.
“Boy, oh boy, June. Daddy’s right, wait ‘til Sister St. Pius bangs your head with a ruler. You’ll cry like a baby,” said Mary, who now had the nun as her third grade teacher.
“
Shut up,” Annie ordered, holding June tighter. “She isn’t as bad as you.”
“
They won’t like me. Daddy said so,” the youngest sister said between sobs.
Brushing off the salvaged, singed cards, Maggie advised June,
“You’ll have to learn to be quiet about certain things. Just smile at them like this.” She demonstrated a coy smile. “That’s all you have to do.”
June pressed her head against Annie
’s chest, muttering, “I hate him.”
“
He’s the Big, Bad Wolf,” said Maggie, her eyes flickering. She snarled at her sisters.
Mary glowered at the bin.
“We could kill him, then Mommy’ll let us go to public school.”
“
Can we, Annie? Kill him?” said June, who trusted her eldest sister to have all the answers.
“
We could. With my baseball bat,” said Mary staring into the fire.
“
Poison,” said Maggie.
“
Where’d we get poison?” asked Annie, shaking her head at her sisters’ sinful suggestions.
“
We have poison. DDT. I’ve put it on flowers,” Mary said, fiddling with her back pocket.
“
Well then, we could put it in his tea,” Annie contributed to the conspiracy.
The girls huddled in a circle while the last of the fire hissed behind them. Maggie held the cards up toward the sun, looking at each side carefully.
“I can draw cards like this for you, June. Even better,” she said with a sly smile.
June perked up at the solution to her loss.
“You will?” she said, pushing herself away from Annie’s tight hug. It was the first glimmer of hope the sad girl had after seeing her precious tarot cards go up in smoke. She wiped the last of her tears from her face.
Maggie looked at the five-
year-old tenderly holding a burnt card. “Happy Birthday, June.”
“
You’ll need this, too,” Mary said pulling the crimson silk scarf out from her back pocket.
“
Oh, thank you.” A smile returned to June’s red-spotted face, her puffy eyes now crinkling from happy relief. Annie put out her arms to draw in close all of her sisters.
* * * * *
W
ICKED BEHAVIOR AT HOLY SAVIOR
February
1959
SISTER ST. PIUS stood beneath a large, plain wooden cross. The elderly nun was a bit crotchety because her students took so long to settle down after the music teacher had left. As though to lengthen her small stature, the short nun had a rigid backbone and a sharp chin that jutted out, lifting her head up and back. From this vantage point, she scrutinized the preciseness of the rows of boys and girls seated at their desks. Finally, satisfied that the rows were aligned properly, she opened the religion book.
Adjusting her round
, wire-framed glasses, she began, “Praise be to the Lord. You are to love, honor and serve Him. It is your Catholic duty to always be good boys and girls. That is the only way you can enter into Heaven. Even when you are alone, God knows if you are thinking of being bad. God sees everything that you do. Now, let’s open the religion books to page thirty-five.” She suddenly stopped and snapped, “June MacDonald, what
are
you talking about?”
June immediately stopped whispering to the boy next to her and jerked up with a gasp. She looked up at the nun, guiltily. She tried to shrink deeply into her seat. Sister St. Pius, arms akimbo, moved from behind the podium to stand and stare ominously down the aisle at the frightened girl. June opened her mouth and a few incoherent words spilled out.