Tall Story - Candy Gourlay [50]
It was Nena.
I tried to speak. ‘Good … good afternoon …’
Her eyes stared into mine without any recognition. She was covered with a greasy-looking filth, like she’d been rolling around in the motor oil that dripped from the engines of the tricycles on the street. She smelled like she had not bathed for weeks. I took a tiny step back and resisted the urge to cover my nose.
‘M-Ma’am?’
But the woman did not seem to see me. She squatted down on her haunches, muttering to herself. She might have been praying but I wasn’t sure.
A hand touched my shoulder and I whirled around.
‘Bernardo!’ It was Sister Lydia, who lived down the road. ‘My, how you’ve grown!’
‘Sister Lydia,’ I said. And then I couldn’t go on. What is wrong with Nena? I wanted to ask. But my old fears locked the question in my throat.
Sister Lydia seemed unafraid. She stepped past me and bent down, gently helping the witch up to her feet. She spoke slowly to Sister Nena, like she was speaking to a child. ‘There, there, darling. Go back inside.’ She put a hand on Nena’s elbow and tried to usher her back into the house but the woman just turned and pressed her face against the door.
Sister Lydia turned to me. ‘She is sick. She’s been very sick since the dog bit Gabriela. You heard about it, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, I heard.’
‘And what did you want from Nena?’
I bowed my head. How could Nena free me from the curse in this state? What was I to do now? Perhaps Gabriela would know. ‘Gabriela, is she here?’
As if in answer to my question, the dog began to howl inside the house, like a wolf at the moon. Goose pimples rose on my arms and I shuffled uncomfortably. ‘Oh, that Judas. He scares me.’
Sister Lydia’s eyes widened. ‘Nardo, that isn’t Judas.’
I squinted at her. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Judas was rabid. Dangerous. After he bit Gabriela, he went wild in the streets. We had to call the police. They caught him and destroyed him.’
‘Destroyed him? Then …’
The dog’s howls became louder. They were coming from the room above our heads.
Sister Lydia covered her face with her hands. ‘The dog is dead. That sound …!’
There was a banging above our heads and a window swung open. The dog’s howls resonated from deep inside the upstairs room. They subsided for a moment and then a shrieking began, unearthly and high and sharp.
Nena suddenly began to scream. ‘Gabriela! Oh save her, Lord! Gabriela!’
She threw her head back and held both arms out at the window as if someone was going to leap into her embrace.
Only then did I notice the small face staring down at us from the window. The hair was matted in long unkempt strands. If Gabriela had ever been a beauty, it was hard to see. Her expression was contorted with pain and madness. She strained towards the window, grunting like an animal. And then she opened her mouth and gave another bloodcurdling howl.
‘The dog infected Gabriela with rabies,’ Sister Lydia said, gently putting an arm around Nena, who was sobbing into the wall. ‘For a month, her mother tried to cure the illness with her spells and potions but nothing worked. By the time she took Gabriela to a doctor, it was too late. Nobody can help her now.’
29
Andi
Everything pales into insignificance.
I’ve heard that said; read it in books.
But when it fits something you know in real life. Well. Everything pales into insignificance. All our troubles. The shoebox house. The workaholic parents. The basketball, or lack of it. Everything paled in the face of what Bernardo had been through.
I am the blame. Bernardo’s soft, sad voice echoed in my head like my brain had somehow vanished and the sentence was just bouncing around in my big empty skull.
Yesterday’s Andi might have sniggered to herself – I mean, giants and witches and curses. I don’t go for Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings or … but what Bernardo’s been through – it wasn’t just about magic, was it?
It took Gabriela a month to die of rabies.
After her death, her mother became obsessed with Saint