Creepers (20 page)

 

My heart was pounding. The poor witch. She really loved Prudence and Christian and spent these last centuries striving to bring them together. Somehow she was able to bury Christian after the fire, as Margaret said in her letter. The witch was the one who led me to his grave. I thought about burning buildings I've seen on television news—how they collapse into themselves—trapping everything that is still inside.The witch could not get to Prudence, and so for all these years, the witch had struggled to bring them together. Margaret had known all along, known in her heart, that the witch was good. I felt honored that the witch had trusted me to help Christian and Prudence.
But what did I do to earn her trust?

My heart stopped when I heard the whinny of a horse coming from the direction of the trail that led deeper into the woods. The trail that I had seen the witch stroll down the last time that I had spied her at the Geyers' house.

I froze in the door's threshold as she suddenly came into view. She was sitting sidesaddle on top of that huge
black horse, her black skirt looking like its cloak. She road the magnificent creature slowly toward the house.The trees walled the path on both sides, their canopies thickly intertwined. She looked as if she were emerging from a forest portal.

She stopped where the path bled into the clearing, allowing her horse to tear hungrily at the green weeds within his reach. We stared at each other as I studied her face. Her dazzling green eyes stared right back at me. I whispered to myself as if I were reading a checklist—Margaret's black hair, green eyes, delicate nose, and stubborn chin.

“Where's Margaret?” I whispered. I wanted the witch to bring her back to me.

But the witch slowly shook her head and then placed her hand over her heart.

She nodded to me before she turned her horse around, to direct him back into the woods. She bent to whisper something in his ear, which made him shoot down the path as if a gun had fired. They soon disappeared, but I listened to his hooves hitting the path until the sound was swallowed by the woods.

Wait
, I wanted to yell, but no sound would come.“Please wait,” I finally did call and felt a breeze, like my mother's hand on my face. My heart was thumping again in those quick little beats, sharp and fast like the chiseling ivy. The
witch wanted me to do something, but I was unsure what.

I closed the Geyers' front door and walked to the path that would take me home. When I calmed down, it would come to me, I told myself. It is just like taking a test.You always know the answers when the pressure was no longer on. That is when the orange cat—Margaret's favorite—stepped from the scrubby plants along the path to block my way, its bright, hungry eyes demanding action. I crouched down to stroke it behind its ears and it purred approvingly. I felt the tension in my chest fade away. Perhaps Margaret would always be with me.

And then I remembered the ivy was still in the cemetery and that its presence meant there was still work to be done. Christian's and Prudence's spirits—and all of the spirits who are buried there—needed protection. The witch had chosen me. She somehow knew that I could be brave and strong long before I knew it. She trusted me to help Margaret and Mr. Geyer to bring Prudence and Christian together. Despite my disappointment and the hurt that I felt in losing Margaret, I needed to keep her memory alive until we did meet again. Right then, I had to talk to my mom about what we needed to do next to save the cemetery, and to add cat food, lots of it, to our shopping list.

Aldus Manutius, a highly influential Renaissance printer, designed
Bembo
over five hundred years ago in Venice, Italy. He first used the light, easy-to-read type in the late fifteenth century publishing an essay by Pietro Bembo, an Italian scholar. The typeface soon became extremely popular throughout the country.When
Bembo
reached France, famed Parisian publisher and type designer Claude Garamond tried to duplicate it. This caused
Bembo
's influence to spread throughout the rest of Europe. In 1929, the English Monotype company revived the
Bembo
design using books and materials set with Manutius' original fonts. By the 1980s, Monotype had created a digital version of
Bembo
, along with semi-bold and extra-bold weights and italics. This latest incarnation has solidified
Bembo
as one of the most prevalent typefaces today.

© 2008 by Joanne Dahme

 

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and
International Copyright Conventions

 

 

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007942766

 

eISBN : 978-0-786-74102-1