E. Godz (19 page)

The full beauty of a New England springtime was upon Salem, Massachusetts, when
Dov came driving into town. The purpose of his visit, like Peez's before him, was to seek
out the self-proclaimed witch-queen Fiorella and secure her backing for the corporate
takeover. Given the number of dues-paying followers she commanded, her approval was
key to determining the final outcome of the great brother/sister competition. Securing it
should have been a matter of the utmost urgency, but one would never know it by
watching Dov in action. Instead of seeking out Fiorella immediately, he headed for his
bed-and-breakfast lodgings, telling himself that it would be best to check in before he did
anything else.

"Got to get organized," he muttered to himself as he steered the snappy red
convertible through the city streets. "Got to get my ducks in a row."

"Now you're into ducks?" Ammi piped up. "Dov, Dov, Dov, you have got to start
dating women."

Dov paid no mind to the amulet's sally. Ever since leaving Chicago he had been more
than usually quiet and self-contained. Normally he viewed all airplane flights as golden
opportunities for applied schmoozing. It was like getting an unexpected present: Either
his seatmate would turn out to be someone attractive he could court (and, in some cases,
seduce), someone with business or social connections he could exploit later on, or
someone unbearable on whom he could practice the art of diplomatically telling a creep
to bugger off. You could never get too much practice doing that!

This time, on the flight from Chicago to Boston, he had kept himself to himself,
burying his nose in a book and behaving as if his seatmate—a highly attractive redhead—
were invisible. When her perfume insinuated itself past his first line of defense, he
clapped on a sleep mask and forced himself to nap, even though the flight was over too
quickly for such a short rest to do anything but leave him logy and cranky.

His original plans had not included staying overnight in Salem, but he thought it
would be wise to be in top form when he finally spoke with the witch-queen. For that he
needed a base of operations, a way station where he could shake off his travel fatigue
while he smartened up his appearance, his mental acuity, and his attitude. Despite the
last-minute nature of his lodging quest, he managed to secure a charming suite in one of
the better places in town. The innkeeper took real pride in showing off her lovingly
decorated home-turned-hostel, particularly the working fireplace in Dov's room.

"You're very lucky that it's not the high tourist season yet," she told him. "We're
booked months in advance for that time of year. You wouldn't be able to get a room here
for love or money then. I'm not bragging; I'm just giving you fair warning, in case you
want to come back some time."

"Maybe I will," said Dov, who knew he would not. As soon as she left, he flopped
down on the bed and stared up at the spiderweb-lace canopy. He intended to do no more
than stretch his drive-cramped legs, organize his thoughts, unpack his things, and maybe
catch a quick shower before giving Fiorella a call to let her know he'd arrived and wanted
to see her tomorrow. Then he'd make reservations for lunch at the best place Salem had to
offer, give her the time of her little life, pour on the charm along with the champagne, and
have her support all wrapped up like a fortune cookie before dessert.

Instead he fell fast asleep.

It was dark by the time he woke up, nine o'clock by the bedside clock. His dreams
had not been pleasant ones.

In sleep, he wandered across an endless plain that shifted from sand to scarp to soil
underfoot. He was trying to catch up with something or someone that was moving away
from him in the distance, but he didn't know what or who it might be, only that it was
essential for him to overtake it. There was no sky. The curve of space above his head was
filled with masks: the garish pasteboard faces of Mardi Gras, the enameled gold funerary
masks of ancient Egypt, the carved wood images of Bear and Raven and Wolf, all these
and more. They leered down at Dov as he ran, and they laughed at him. The one that
laughed the loudest was a silver mask with the perfect features of a Greek god: Ammi.

He ran faster, trying to escape the faces, and suddenly found himself climbing a sand
dune that had not been there before. The higher he climbed, the steeper it grew, until he
was on hands and knees, crawling and clawing and kicking in a desperate attempt to
reach the crest. At last he made it to the summit and gazed down at what awaited him on
the other side.

There you are, Dov, said his sister. She waved at him from the shade of a willow tree.
What took you so long? We've been waiting for you.

The willow grew beside a brook, the brook threaded its way between grassy green
banks and sweet, cool meadows starred with tender flowers. The wasteland was less than
a memory. Dov stumbled down into the lovely valley where Peez had spread a picnic on
the grass. She was dressed like a refugee from a Jane Austen novel, but that wasn't the
oddest thing about her: She was smiling. She was smiling at him. As soon as he came
within reach she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a sisterly kiss of welcome.

She was actually happy to see him!

This is definitely a dream, thought Dov.

The dream-Peez shepherded him over to the picnic blanket and sat him down, putting
a glass of iced tea in one of his hands and a plate full of his favorite finger-foods in the
other. She began to talk with him about his travels, listening sympathetically to all that he
had to say, telling him about her own adventures in return. Her dream-self confirmed that
yes, she had slept with Martin Agparak and weren't his new-style totem poles the
strangest things Dov had ever seen? Then she made a surprisingly naughty pun in which
the word "pole" figured prominently (as well as the word "prominent"), setting the two of
them off into gales of laughter.

Wow, I'm actually having a good time talking with my sister, Dov thought. This
really must be a dream!

As they continued to eat and drink and talk, he noticed something: Peez was growing
younger. Before his eyes, the years flowed off her face and body while she chattered on,
oblivious. He was frightened, wondering what this meant, what he could do to stop it,
whether she would continue growing younger and younger indefinitely until she became
toddler, infant, newborn, fetus, embryo, and then vanished altogether. He reached out as
if to halt the process and saw that his own hand had grown smaller, softer, a child's hand.

Seeing him reach out to her that way, his sister jumped up happily, grabbed him by
the wrist, and hauled him after her, dashing off into the meadow. In the logicless way of
dreams, the grassy field transformed itself into an idyllic playground, with slides and
swings and seesaws and toys strewn everywhere. The siblings ran like young fawns, spun
around until they got dizzy and fell over, climbed everything in sight, played leapfrog and
hopscotch and can't-catch-me, hung upside down by their knees from anything that could
bear their weight. Peez's fancy dress went inside-out over her head and Dov teased her
mercilessly about the color of her underpants. She dropped to the earth and when she
stood up again, a water balloon had materialized in her hand. He was soaked to the skin
before he could say another word. The two of them fell over laughing again.

Hello, kids, keeping busy?

The two of them looked up into Edwina's face. She was smiling down at them from
the great height of adulthood. She was not only older than they were, and smarter, and
taller, but in the dream she had become a veritable giantess. She bent over and scooped
the two of them into the palm of her enormous hand, lifting them high into the sky so fast
that Dov's cheeks burned in the rushing wind of their passage. Terrified and exhilarated,
Dov and Peez clung to Edwina's fingers the way a drowning man clings to a floating log.
The beautiful valley, the trees, the stream, the playground, even the clouds lay far below
them. For an instant Dov wondered what would happen if he let go of his mother's hand
and tried to fly.

Don't be stupid, Edwina said, reading his mind the way all mothers can. You're much
too young to fly. You'll only fall.

And then: You don't see your sister trying anything as dumb as that, do you?

Her words made Dov angry, but he didn't dare let Edwina know that he was mad at
her. She might let him drop through her fingers and then where would he be? Instead he
glared at Peez.

Hey! What did I do? Peez implored him.

Like you don't know! Dov sneered at her, and felt tainted inside for having said that,
and for not having the courage to tell Edwina straight out that she was the object of his
hostility. For some reason, knowing that he'd never find the courage to confront his
mother, he became even angrier at his sister and decided to make her sorry.

But how?

A glitter of gold caught his eye. Something besides the sun was shining in the sky. He
looked up and saw that in Edwina's other hand she held an old-fashioned weighing
device, a pair of glittering pans swinging from a balance like the Scales of Justice. The
giantess brought the scales level with the hand that held her children and gave them an
encouraging look.

All aboard, she said. We might as well get this started.

No! Peez shouted, throwing her arms around Dov. We won't! You can't make us!

Oh, please. Edwina rolled her eyes over the silly notions of children. You know very
well that I can. Anyhow, what's wrong with a little healthy competition?

I wonder if "healthy" is the right word for this? Dov thought.

Stop it! Peez said, hugging her baby brother more closely to her. Leave us alone! We
were having fun before you came along and spoiled it.

"Came along"? The giantess was amused. You silly nit, can't you see that I've been
here all the time? Who do you think gave you this wonderful place without even asking if
you deserved it? Who's got the power to take it all away from you in the blink of an eye?
You're a very bad little girl, Peez. I don't see your brother behaving like that. He's
smiling!

Dov was puzzled. He knew the giantess was lying: He wasn't smiling, and yet ...
maybe he'd better do as she said. He slapped on Smile #1, the simple, sunny basic model
on which his entire subsequent repertoire of artificially cheery grimaces was built. Peez
saw him do it and looked betrayed.

Dov is a good child. One point for Dov, said the giantess.

Peez turned angrily on her brother. Why are you helping her? she demanded.

Dov tried to explain. Edwina was just so big, so powerful. She had the unassailable
ability to control everything in their lives; didn't Peez see that? Wasn't it better to win her
over rather than fight her? They were so small that they'd only lose.

He tried, but he couldn't find the words, so instead he created Smile #2 and tried to
use it to win his sister's understanding. He needed it badly, that and her continued support
and protection. She was stronger than he was, and smarter too, and he loved—

I love her? I love Peez?

Dov was so shocked by this realization that the smile dropped right off his face and
over the edge of Edwina's huge hand. Down and down he watched it fall until it struck
the ground and shattered. He clapped his hands to where his mouth had been and felt only
smooth, featureless skin. A scream rose from the bottom of his soul but could not escape.
It echoed inside his head, thudding against the inside of his skull, wildly searching for a
way out and finding none.

Through the panic and the pain, he heard his mother's voice: Just see how good your
baby brother is being, how nice and quiet. Quiet equals obedient. Why can't you be more
like him? He's not angry all the time; he's cheerful. No wonder he has friends and you
don't! And you never will until you become exactly like he is.

Just before his head exploded, he heard Edwina say: Two points for Dov.

The idyllic meadow of his dream world vanished. In its place was only a land of
swirling mists and shadows. Dov could see nothing, but he could hear the sound of chains
creaking and knew they were the ones attached to the titanic set of scales in his mother's
hand. They groaned and clanked somewhere out of sight. Though the noise they made
was almost deafening, somehow he could still make out a different sound as well, a softer
sound, the sound of someone else's footsteps besides his own. He couldn't explain why he
knew that they belonged to Peez, but he did. That too was part of the dream's insane
logic.

He wished that his eyes were as clever as his ears so that he might catch sight of his
sister. She didn't sound as if she were far away. He realized that he missed her, that he
wouldn't mind the darkness so much if only he could make his way through it with her
beside him. Together they could form a plan, find a way to help one another escape this
terrible place, if only—!

But that was impossible. That wasn't playing by the rules of the competition. Edwina
wouldn't like that. He didn't dare do anything that Edwina wouldn't like. He walked on
alone, and in the metallic complaints of the unseen chains he heard the twin pans of
Edwina's golden balances rising and falling as she watched over him and Peez, always
adding or subtracting those precious points that she awarded to her children.

It doesn't really matter, Dov thought as he slogged his way through the darkness. Just
a little longer and she won't be able to do that to us any more. Soon she'll be dead.

As soon as he thought them, the words knocked him off his feet. He was sitting in a
puddle of slimy, ice-cold water, alone with those words: Soon she'll be dead.

And then ... what?

What will I have left? Playing her game, fighting with my sister because I was too
scared to fight with my mother, scoring points off Peez because I thought it was the best
way to keep Edwina on my side, that's all my life's become! That's all it is!