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His leg looked so white and skinny when Mommy cut and peeled the cast off. She rubbed in creams and lotions she had concocted with her herbs, and then she had Noble stand and walk very slowly and carefully. He was stiff and moved with a little limp. I don't think he realized it himself, but Mommy's eyes grew small and full of concern.

"Just take it easy for a few days," she told him. "Definitely no jumping. Noble."

He promised to be good, and then we all went outside and gathered the wood for our fire. Noble said he wanted it to be so big it singed the stars. Mommy got it started by throwing some gasoline on the wood. It flamed up almost immediately and threw off so much heat, we had to step back.

"Okay, Noble," Mommy said without a smile, "toss in your cast."

He looked at me. Now that he was about to do it, he was a little timid, especially of getting too close to the fire. He seized the cast and then he threw it at the fire. It dropped in and immediately flamed up. Mommy stepped closer to Noble and put her arm around his shoulders.

"This is good," she said, watching the smoke twirl into the night and disappear. "We burn away the evil that has touched us. This is good,"

We watched the fire until Noble became bored. Mommy sent us into the house and turned on the hose to be sure the fire was out and no danger.

"We should have had marshmallows," was Noble's comment about it all.

After that our lives returned to the schedule we had always followed. Noble's leg grew stronger until his limp was hardly discernible. He put on weight, and because he was permitted to run about outside again, regained his healthy, slightly crimson complexion. Too often, however, the weather kept us indoors. Winter was particularly severe this particular year. We had some major snowstorms, and it was left to Noble and me to plow the driveway out, using our rider mower, which had a plow attachment. Noble wanted to be the one who drove it most of the time. I had to wait until he grew bored, and then I would take over.

When he was alive and visiting regularly. Mr. Kotes had suggested that Mommy hire one of the local men who went around plowing out people's driveways, especially because ours was so long and wide, but Mommy wanted as few strangers on our property as possible.

"We've taken care of it ourselves up until now she told him. "We'll continue as long as we can."

I didn't mind the winter and the cold weather so much, and even enjoyed building the snow forts and snowmen with Noble on sunny days. We had a nice Christmas. Mommy kept to her vow never to shop in our community, so all of our presents and decorations came from the stores miles and miles away, Neither Noble nor I minded it, because it gave us an opportunity to take long rides.

The spring thaw was late in coming, but when it did, the earth was so soggy we had to wait an extra few weeks to begin our garden. Between doing that, our schoolwork, and performing some minor repairs about the house, we three seemed constantly busy. Noble took advantage of Mommy's leniency during his recuperation and wormed his way into more and more television time. too.

When the warmer spring days started and the trees began flowering again, Mommy seemed more at ease. Her periods of tension and suspicion dwindled, and her moods became lighter. happier. She even talked about taking us to a movie or perhaps to a fun park this year.

I helped her plant more flowers, weed the small cemetery, and spring-clean the house. Noble volunteered to whitewash the old barn, and for a while we were the happiest we had ever been since Daddy's death. In fact. I began to have high hopes that Mommy would indeed permit us to go to the public school the following year , Her "We'll see" when Noble asked her periodically sounded less hollow. I knew Noble was the happiest he had been for months and months, especially after Mommy gave him permission to go farther into the woods to build his fort. As long as I tagged along, of course. I didn't mind. Noble was very creative and skilled when it came to constructing the fort, and when Mommy saw it, she even considered permitting us to sleep out one night during the summer. All of the darkness seemed to be lifting from our lives. The beautiful idyllic world our great-great-grandfather had seen the day he set foot on this property was once again within our reach.

And then, one twilight when Noble and I were walking back to the house from the barn after we had cut some lawn and raked up the grass. I saw them. They began as shadows, shifted into confusing twisted shapes with distinct legs and feet, and then returned to shadows, one of which passed right through Noble before they both disappeared around the corner of the house. I was sure of it, and for the moment, the sight staked my feet to the earthen floor. My heart thumped and echoed down my spine. Noble, who saw and felt nothing, kept walking until he realized I had stopped.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I looked about, hoping for sight of Daddy to reassure me, but there was nothing but darkness crawling in everywhere behind us like globs of ink.

I was choked up and baffled to swallow a throat lump.

"I'm going into the house," he said, frustrated when I still hadn't responded, and he kept walking,

After a moment I followed quickly. Noble had already run up the stairs when I entered. Mommy was in the kitchen. I walked down the hallway and stopped in the kitchen doorway. She looked like she was talking to herself, but I knew it was one of her chants. Suddenly, she stopped what she was doing. I didn't have to call to her. She spun around and looked at me, her eyes small and dark.

"What is it. Celeste?" she asked. "I saw something, I think," I said.

She wiped her hands quickly on a dishcloth and walked toward me, nodding slightly.

"Go on, tell me," she said after taking a deep breath.

I hated

to say anything. I knew it was going to bring doom and gloom back into our lives. but I described it all.

"Maybe it was just a shadow from the sun falling below the free line." I suggested hopefully.

"Moving that fast? I doubt it," she said and looked up as if she could see through the ceiling into Noble's and my room. "No." she said shaking her head. "I have had some bad vibrations, too. lately."

She returned to preparing dinner. Afterward, when we were all sitting at the dinner table. Mommy paused and looked at Noble.

"Celeste has seen an evil thing tonight, Noble. I don't want you going into the woods anymore."