Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [47]
Nena’s voice kept on, slightly hysterical, high and insistent. Gabriela answered back, her replies cold and low, unfazed.
A door banged shut within.
Then silence.
I pressed my ear against the mosquito screen, cursing the curtains that prevented me from seeing what was going on inside. Had they left the room?
Suddenly the curtains opened wide.
I was so shocked I didn’t even try to move away.
There was a flicker of surprise in Gabriela’s eyes. But only a flicker.
She stared down at me coolly as I finally stumbled backwards from the window. I forced myself to glare at her, pretending a courage that I hoped would harden into some semblance of real nerve.
But my defiance shrivelled in her unblinking stare. My muscles tensed into knots. Run, Nardo, they said. RUN!
But I couldn’t move.
Her gaze locked me in a thrall. I couldn’t look away.
‘Gabriela, did I hear you open the curtains?’ Nena’s voice was muffled. She was elsewhere, in another room. ‘How many times have I told you to keep those curtains shut?’
A smile played on her lips. Run, run, my body screamed. But still I couldn’t move. It was as if my feet had suddenly grown long roots that tethered me to the ground under her window.
‘Putris!’ Her mother’s harsh voice rang from the next room. ‘I said shut those curtains!’
‘Yes, Mother.’
But instead of drawing the curtains shut, Gabriela pushed the mosquito screens wide open and reached out. Before I could move away, she grabbed me by the shirt and dragged me over the low sill into the room.
I struggled, but she was stronger and bigger than me. She flung me to the floor, and as I knelt there, dazed, she quickly shut the screens and drew the curtains. Then she held me by the shoulders, a malicious smile on her face.
‘Let me go!’ I whispered.
Gabriela shoved me so hard that I tumbled backwards onto the floor. When I tried to get up, she slapped me on the cheek, contempt etched on her face. ‘Stupid boy!’
She was whispering, which was a small comfort. She clearly had no intention of alerting her mother.
There was a thick odour.
Perfume?
No, incense.
An elaborately carved altar leaned against one wall, with fat candles burning on either side of a massive statue of Christ with one hand outstretched, on his bosom a heart wrapped in thorns. This Christ did not wear the tragic expression so customary of the statues that lined the walls of any parish church. This was an angry Christ – his eyebrows drawn together in a scowl, a snarl twisting the aquiline nose and a sneer curling his lips. The cold blue glass eyes embedded in the plaster face gleamed.
Hanging from the ceiling and along the walls were braids of garlic and all manner of herbs. There were whips woven from abaca and jars filled with multi-coloured powders, seeds and liquids.
A cold finger traced a path down the back of my neck.
These were the tools in trade of a witch.
‘Yes, Bernardo, as you can see you’re in big trouble.’ Gabriela simpered.
Frantically I looked around for a way out. As if she could read my mind, Gabriela let go of my arm and closed the window latch.
Trapped! I edged away from Gabriela, who loomed over me like an evil shadow.
‘Did you want those shells back?’ She continued to advance as I backed away.
‘Let me out of here.’
‘I thought I fancied them but then I realized that I didn’t.’
‘Please.’ My head bumped on the edge of a table and I realized that I had backed into the altar. The angry Christ scowled at me from above.
‘I threw them away!’
She threw them away? I should have exploded with anger but I was too terrified.
In the distance, I heard a sharp yelp.
‘Bernardo, Bernardo. I wonder why you have come.’ She clenched her fists and, without warning, drew back an arm to hit me.
I cowered and shut my eyes, raising my arms to block her blows. But they never came.
‘Ah, maybe you’re here to make a wish? Is that it?’
Slowly I opened my eyes.
‘Is this what you want?’ Gabriela stood there, swaying her hips, like a girl flirting with a boy. She toyed with the wishing stone