Black as Night: A Fairy Tale Retold (14 page)

But mostly, she was gone, and Blanche came and went from the Fairstons’ richly-appointed house unmolested. She read Emily Dickinson, Caryll Houselander, and other poetry to Mr. Fairston. They talked about life, death, religion, and the possibility of his living until Christmas. Mr. Fairston was skeptical as to whether or not he would see it, and the girl tried to keep his spirits up.

“Things might happen before then,” he said in an explanation the last time she had mentioned it, at the end of June.

“But if you look forward to it, you might just live to see it,” the girl pointed out.

“I just don’t look forward to Christmas,” Mr. Fairston said. His right eye was half-lowered permanently now, and with his gloomy expression, the other eye matched it. “I haven’t for years. After all, what is it except some kind of Winter Solstice celebration crossed with Madison Avenue Materialism?” He looked at her. “Of course you believe it’s more than that, don’t you?”

“You know that,” she said. He often remarked on her Catholicism, and she had a feeling he wanted to talk about religion without really talking about religion.

“Almost all holidays are disappointing for me. Father’s Day this Sunday,” he murmured.

“Will you be hearing from your children?”

“Not unless some catastrophe befalls them and they’re in trouble and need some of my money.” He attempted a smile, but it was weak, and not just because of his poor motor skills. “I suppose it’s better for me if they stay away. Talking to them only gets me upset. My wife’s said it’s not good for me. She’s taken over relating with them since I’ve gotten sick, so I don’t have the stress. I’m grateful to her for that.”

The girl made a mental note to send Mr. Fairston a card for Father’s Day, or perhaps to come by herself. After all, since her own dad was dead, her only plans for the day were to say some prayers for his soul, as she had promised him that she would. Checking her watch, she realized that she had to go.

“I’ll be back soon,” she promised, getting up and searching around. “I wonder where I left my purse.”

“I don’t think you brought it in,” he said, looking around his messy bedroom. “Did you leave it in the hall downstairs?”

“I think I must have. Well, I’ll see you next week.” She pressed his hand and left.

As she walked down the steps, she couldn’t help looking again at the huge smoky gray mirror trimmed with stained glass in the entranceway. She looked at her reflection with a trace of fascination. For some reason, her hair was looking unusually nice today. She ran her hand down her long black hair, which reached down almost to her waist now.

Why is it that I’m looking good even though I’m not feeling happy?
she wondered. Turning away, she saw her purse and backpack lying in the corner. She remembered now that she had put them there to help the nurse, who was bringing up a tea tray to Mr. Fairston.

Her purse seemed slightly disordered, and she wondered for a moment if someone had been going through it. But who would? The nurse might not be competent, but surely she was not so underpaid that she would be tempted to go through stray purses.

Caught by a strange sensation, she looked quickly through her purse. Her wallet, with five dollars in it, her makeup compact, her letter to Bear that needed airmail postage, and the usual odds and ends were all there. Puzzled, she closed the zipper of the purse and looked through her backpack, which had her work clothes inside, and closed that.

I’m being fearful
, she thought to herself. She glanced at the mirror, and had the oddest sensation that it was laughing at her paranoia. Berating herself, she gathered her belongings and hurried out of the house.

II

Following his novice meeting with Father Bernard after lunch, Leon poked his head in the vestibule, curious as to what Nora had been up to. Already, the change was significant: she had piled up all the bags against the walls so that there was a clear path through the room. There were stacks and stacks of folded shirts, pants, and sweaters in neat rows along one wall.

“Awesome!” Brother Leon exclaimed. “Nora, you’re a winner! I can’t believe how fast you’re sorting through this stuff!”

Nora, who looked hot and tired from her exertions, flushed rosy at the compliment. “Thanks,” she said. “It looks like most of the clothes will be usable for your homeless men, but there were a few women’s things. Like this dress,” Nora made a face, holding up a huge shiny pink satin dress, which looked like it could fit an elephant.

“Could you use it?” Leon asked.

She chuckled. “No occasions where I could wear it comes to mind.”

“Oh, almost forgot. Father Bernard said to tell you that he and Brother Herman are going out to do some work for the nearby parish, but they’ll be back in about an hour. I guess the rest of us are clearing out too. We usually do some kind of missionary work in the afternoons.”

“Should I answer the door or anything?”

“No. Actually, don’t answer the door when we’re away.”

“I suppose it might look bad,” Nora said, coloring again slightly.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that we get all sorts of weird characters showing up here, and it’s probably better, all things considered, that you don’t answer the door when you’re alone. Some of the people around here can be a little unstable. You probably shouldn’t be alone with any of them either.”

“Oh. Okay.” She wiped her forehead.

“Anything wrong?” He could have sworn he saw her shaking.

“I’m just a bit hot and tired. I’ll be fine.” She spoke convincingly.

“Okay,” Leon decided to take her word for it. “See you later, Nora.”

The friars had decided to make their particular neighborhood their immediate concern. Every afternoon a pair of friars would go out and walk the streets, following a routine that was so ordinary it could be called “ministry” only loosely. They visited any of the elderly or ill that were shut up in their homes. They talked to whomever they passed, sitting on doorsteps or hanging out on street corners. They played with the kids. They listened to people, and found out what was going on. Who had gotten arrested, who had lost a job, who was in danger of being deported, who was having a hard time. It was too easy as a religious to get “spread thin”—doing very little for many people whom you barely knew. By grounding themselves in their particular neighborhood they hoped to guard against that kind of thing.

That afternoon, Charley and Leon had quite a few conversations on their walk. It was a hot, hot summer, and the only people not inside were those without air conditioners, and they were willing to talk to distract themselves from the heat.

As the friars turned back towards the friary for Evening Prayer, three kids shouting in Spanish waylaid them on their homeward walk.

Brother Leon answered them in Jamaican, which made them laugh, and Brother Charley, who was learning Spanish in seminary training, said with studied casualness, “
Hola, amigos. Comme’sta
?”

They horsed around with the kids for a few minutes, and then just as Brother Leon said, “Okay,
chicos
, we got to scoot,” one girl held out a charm to them. “
Hermano
Leon, you need this.”

Leon looked at it. He recognized it as a Santeria charm—the token of a superstitious religion widespread among parts of the New York ghettos. “Where’d you get that from,
hermana
?”

The little girl, who had dozens of black beaded braids sprouting over a blue headband, said solemnly in Spanish, “From my grandmother, to protect me. But you need it, because there’s a scary witch in the neighborhood.”

The kids all looked solemn, nodding. Brother Leon exchanged a brief glance with Brother Charley. The big friar looked quizzical. He wasn’t following the conversation in Spanish.

Brother Leon squatted down in front of the little girl. “Hey,
pequeña hermana
, thank you for wanting me to be safe. But I don’t need this. I belong to Jesus and Mary, and they keep me safe. But I will take it, just the same.” He pocketed it.

“But the witch is driving around here.”

“Who was the witch,
hermana
?”

“I didn’t know her. But she looked like a witch.”

“Ugly!” chimed in one of the boys.

“What, did you see her too?” Brother Leon asked the pudgy little boy in the oversized t-shirt, who nodded. “When did you see her?”

“Last night, on the streets, in a white car.”

“That’s why you need a charm, in case you meet her. We’re all wearing them. She was scary. She might put curses on you.” The little girl was worried.

Brother Leon patted her hand. “I’m not afraid of curses. Do you know a lady who is stronger than any witch?”

“Who?” the kids chorused.

“Mary. Because she is Jesus’ mother. And Jesus is God.” He crossed himself, and kissed his crossed thumb and finger. The kids all did the same, “Can I give you something special to protect you?” he asked, and they nodded eagerly.

He pulled out a silver medal with an image of the Virgin Mary on it. “This medal has a blessing on it. And the blessing will protect you, but what will protect you more is if you learn to love God with all your heart and soul, and love each other. Would you each like one of these medals?”

He distributed them to eager hands and the two friars said goodbye to the children, who scattered to their various homes.

“What were they talking about—a broohaha?” Brother Charley asked him.

“
Una bruja
. A witch. They said they saw a witch driving a white car on the streets last night. Angelita wanted to protect me—she gave me her charm.”

He pulled it out and looked at it, murmuring a brief prayer as he did so. Having grown up in a Hispanic-Caribbean culture, he disliked Santeria, which often confused the ignorant by melding Catholic tradition with pagan and occult superstition. “It’s a protection charm. She was pretty worried about me. You see, the protection charm is made for one particular person, and if you allow anyone else to touch the charm, the spell is supposedly broken. But it says a lot that she wanted me to have it. As they say, it’s the thought that counts.”

Brother Charley shook his head. “That stuff gives me the creeps.”

“Likewise,” Brother Leon put the charm back inside his pocket to dispose of later. “You heard of any
brujas feas
—ugly witches—in this neighborhood before?”

“No. Did she mean one of the Santeria people?”

“I doubt it. The kids know who the Santeria people are, but they didn’t recognize this woman.”

“Maybe they were making things up,” Brother Charley suggested. “An ugly witch in a white car?”

“No, I saw a white car driving around this place too a few days ago. Something tells me they saw something strange—and described it the only way they knew how.” Brother Leon mused. He didn’t like the feeling he was getting.

III

“Mr. Denniston, and Mr. Denniston,” the lawyer began, setting his briefcase on the table in the conference room of the jail.

Bear stared at Charles Russell, outlined against a barred window in a jail meeting room. The lawyer was a tall, aging man, whose smoothed-back hair remained remarkably red. The first time Bear had had substantial contact with him was at the age of seventeen, when the lawyer had been hired by his father to defend the brothers in court against the drug charges—unsuccessfully. They had been sentenced to juvenile prison for the maximum first-time offenders’ sentence.

Bear suspected that Mr. Russell resented them for that fact—it was possibly the first case the high-paid lawyer had lost in years. He had been chewed out in front of the judge, too.

But he had been helping them through the reversal, once the drug charges were found, three years later, to be false. Now once again, he was here, at the prison, arranging for them to be bailed out of jail, a bit more grimly than last time.

“I am, of course, prepared to assist you in any way I can,” the lawyer began, and paused, averting his eyes to his papers, “but there’s a certain circumstance my firm and I need to be clear on. Up until now, I have been working for you because your father retained me. However, your father has made it clear to me on several occasions, and no doubt to you as well, that he would pay no legal fees for a second drug charge against you. In fact, he said he would cut off all monetary help or any posthumous share of his assets to you if there were a second charge. I wanted to make certain you were apprised of that.”

Bear stared at him. “In other words, Dad’s just been sitting around waiting for us to get charged again?” he said in disgust. “Guess he wasn’t even convinced by Father Raymond’s murderer admitting to framing us? That’s just too—”

         Fish shot a look at his brother that clearly said,
Calm down.
“Of course, Mr. Russell, we understand that,” he said cordially. “If this is a matter of who’s going to pay your fees, you can be assured that my brother and I will pay for this ourselves. Tell me what we’re facing, Mr. Russell,” he said.