Enchanted Forests (56 page)

Terry lifted one of her candles. Matt watched as the dividing

line between light and dark moved across Terry's face. "Well,

I've done my devotions," she said after a moment. The light just

touched Lewis's form. He stood near me edge of the forest, like

the dim dream of a god. "I'm ready to go. Matt?"

"I'm more than ready to go." The night was finally cooling,

and she had given up her extra shirt. She scratched a mosquito

bite on her arm.

"Jump down and I'll give you a candle."

Matt slid down off the rock. Terry said a spell over the candle

she held and handed it to Matt. "It will bum steady, but not set

anything else alight," she said. "Lewis? Would you like a light?"

"No."

Terry pinched one of the candles out and spelled the other

one, then packed up everything except the lit candle, the roses,

and the ashes. She shouldered her backpack and drifted down

from the rock with the candle in her hand. She kissed the rock,

then set out across the meadow.

The wax felt warm and soft inside Matt's hand, and its melting

smell reassured her as though it were the essence of safety. She

TREES PERPETUAL OF SLEEP       361

glanced around at the dark meadow and the star-shot sky, then

trailed Terry, conscious that this time it was by choice. Matt's

boots slapped sound from the marshy ground; Terry walked si-

lently. And Lewis, when he fell in behind Matt, made no sound

other than soft breathing. The back of her neck prickled.

The footing was firmer on the path. Matt listened to the path:

"You are walking away from me you are walking toward me you

are walking on me you are making and destroying me." She

liked its song better than the unknown mutters of the forest,

louder now mat it was night. The way back to the car went faster

than the hike out from it had. Twigs and branches didn't grab at

her as much, either. Maybe me forest was glad to see her go.

Matt crawled into the back seat of the Terry's white Fiat. She

stroked the seat, touched the window and the carpeting, relieved

to be in me wide worid of home again. "Who's that?" asked the

car as Lewis climbed into it. "It tastes like change."

"Don't know," Matt muttered.

"Not sure I want it inside me."

Terry tossed her pack in back and climbed into the car, started

it, and drove away.

"It doesn't feel right," Lewis said.

"What?" asked Teny.

"Not only does this car look freakish, and the dashboard looks

like something from a rocketship, and the engine doesn't make

half the sound it should, but this—this moving away from a

place—it feels wrong."

Terry said, "Do you want me to take you back?"

They were twisting and turning down a mountain road in the

darkness. Matt was leaning sleepily against the back of the seat,

which had shaped itself to cradle her. She closed her eyes and

waited for Lewis's answer.

"Part of me wants you to," he said after time had gone by.

"Being rooted felt... right. All this movement is confusing me.

Yet for ages and ages, I longed for nothing but freedom."

"Come down to the valley and look around. If you don't like

it, I'll take you back."

"You are very kind."

"Not really," Terry said, glancing toward him. Matt saw dash-

board light glinting on Terry's teem as she smiled.

They completed the drive in silence. "First off." Terry said, as

she pulled up in front of the house she shared with her mother,

and for now with Matt, "you need a few more clothes. There's

Nina Kirifei Hoffman

362

some things of my dad's still in the house. Could you use a

shower? Though you don't really smell like a guy who's been

locked in a tree for years and years."

"A shower would be great," said Lewis. "I'm not really here

yet. I mean ..."

"I know. Changing shape, it takes a while to get used to the

new one," Terry said.

"You've done it?"

"Oh, sure. My sister Tasha and I used to have spell fights. I

turned her a lot more often than she turned me; she wasn't a very

good student. But she was really good with this one spell. She

liked turning people into Pekingeses. That is, until she got reli-

gion. So I know what it's like. Before you get out of the car,

would you wrap something around your waist? Our neighbors

are always watching our house. They've seen enough weird

things already."

Lewis shifted around and took off the shirt Matt had given

him, did something with it "Best I can do," he said.

"It's pretty dark," Terry said. She snapped her fingers, and the

light over the front door went out. "Okay, door's unlocked. Go

for it," she said.

Lewis dashed across the lawn and managed not to drop the

shirt until he had the front door open. He ducked inside. Matt

and Terry followed more sedately, at least until Terry's mother

screamed-

Lighls switched on across the street and next door.

"Damn!" said Terry. She snapped her fingers. "Phone lines ...

Mom, I can explain... .'*

In the front hall, Lewis stood with his back to the wall, one

hand covering his genitals, the other his mouth, his eyes wide.

Terry's mother Rebecca stood backed up against the sofa, both

hands over her mouth, her eyes as wide as Lewis*.

"I can explain," Terry said again, but then she burst out laugh-

ing.

Terry's mom started breathing again. Her hands came down

from her mouth. "Better be a good one," she said.

With effort, Terry smothered her laughter. "Well, we went up

to the forest. You know why. And we found this guy, Lewis, up

there, and he didn't have any clothes, so I thought maybe some

of Dad's castoffs might still be in the basement and 1 invited him

home."

"Not good enough," said Rebecca. "What was he doing up

there naked in the woods?"

TREES PERPETUAL OF SLEEP       363

4

"He was under a wicked enchantment."

Rebecca's cheeks lost color. "Terry ... I don't appreciate that

kind of humor. I don't like the—I'm not comfortable with you

bringing strangers into my house."

"I'll take him out again as soon as he showers and has some

clothes. Mom. And it wasn't a joke. And I thought this was my

house, too."

"She's talking about me," Matt said.

"Oh, I am not. Matt," said Rebecca, irritation in her tone. "I'm

glad you're here, and I hope you stay as long as you want"

"I only want to stay as long as it's okay," Matt said.

"It's okay, dammit."

Matt sighed. "Mrs. Dane, this is my friend, Lewis. Lewis, this

is Mrs. Rebecca Dane."

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Dane," Lewis said, red staining his

cheeks. He didn't hold out a hand.

"I apologize for my lack of manners, Mr. Lewis," said Re-

becca.

"I understand. It's enough to turn anyone's hair white, a naked

stranger running in your front door. I didn't know there'd be

anybody home."

"Well," she said. "Well ... welcome to my home. Let me

show you to the shower. And you may drop your hand. You

don't have anything I haven't seen before, and if I hadn't seen it

before, I wouldn't know what it was, as my grandmother used to

say. Obviously the kids have already gotten an eyeful."

"I'll go hunt up some clothes," Terry said as Lewis followed

Rebecca down the left-hand hallway.

"What sort of enchantment was it?" Rebecca asked.

"I was trapped inside a tree for fifty years, more or less," said

Lewis as their voices faded.

Matt went to the kitchen while Terry searched the basement.

She was starving after all those hours in the wild. Part of Terry's

intense discipline involved regulating what she ate and when,

and while Matt was tethered to her. Matt had followed Terry's

eating habits. It had been nutritious, but not much fun- She

opened her arms to the kitchen and said, 'Talk to me, food."

A cupboard popped open and a bag of pretzels jumped into her

arms. "Oh, thank you!" she said, and sat at the table to eat some.

Lewis stayed in the shower a long, long time. Listening to the

sound of water in pipes, the three women sat in the kitchen, talk-

364 Nina Kiriki Homnan

ing in murmurs, Rebecca and Matt sharing pretzels, Terry taking

tiny sip-bites of unflavored yogurt. At last Terry said, "Matt,

what the hell is he doing in there?"

Matt asked the house. "Uh-oh," she said when she heard the

answer.

"What is it?" asked Rebecca.

"Putting down roots."

Terry knocked on the bathroom door. "Lewis? Get your toes

out of the drain or I'll turn you into a porcupine!"

"Wha-a-a-at?" His voice sounded sleepy and slow.

"Turn off the water and get out of the plumbing."

"What? Oh ... just a minute."

Matt leaned against the wall and listened to what the 'house

had to tell her. The invasion of its systems by this stranger had

worried it, and it was glad that he was withdrawing parts of him-

self that had gone where people parts weren't supposed to go.

"I've got clothes for you." Terry said in a less cross voice.

"Anytime you're ready."

The door opened a crack and steam billowed out, carrying

scents of soap, shampoo, and—green? "I'm sorry. I don't know

what got into me," said Lewis. Terry handed the clothes to him

and he shut the door again.

"It's what got out of him that's interesting," Terry muttered to

Matt.

The waitress brought a still-steaming steak on a platter and set

it in front of Lewis. She set down Terry's lemon herbed chicken

and Rebecca's garlic shrimp, and then gave Matt her hamburger.

Matt picked up a French fry and bit it It was nice to finally or-

der just what she wanted, instead of picking the same thing Terry

ordered, or something else she thought might stay in her stomach

even if she got too far from Terry and felt sick. Lewis' steak

smelled good. Matt wondered if she should have ordered that in-

stead.

Lewis picked up his steak knife and fork and cut into his meat.

Red welled up behind the knife, and the flesh was still pink in-

side, rare, the way he'd ordered it. He stared at it a moment. He

lifted his fork, with the morsel of steak on it, and studied it. He

licked his upper lip. He blinked several times. He paled.

He shook his head. "I can't eat this," he said, setting the fork

down. He swallowed. "I can't... I can't even stay here. Excuse

TREES PERPETUAL OF SLEEP       365

me." Jumping up, he dropped his napkin over the platter and its

cargo and dashed from the restaurant.

"Nuts," said Terry.

Matt picked up her hamburger. If they were leaving, she was

taking it with her.

"You want to check on him, see if he'll wait while we eat?**

Terry asked Matt.

Matt sighed and put her hamburger down.

"Why don't you do it?" Rebecca said suddenly. "Why this

lady-of-the-manor delegation thing? It's really getting on my

nerves. Matt's not your servant."

"What?" said Terry.

"Just because you can turn people into pinecones, it doesn't

give you the right to order them around as though they were less

important than you are."

"Mom, what's gotten into you?"

"Nothing's gotten into me. I'm just letting a little of what was

always there out. I love you, and I'll always love you; that

doesn't mean I approve of everything you're doing. And yes, I

dam well expect immunity from your powers."

Terry stared at her mother for a moment, then set her napkin

beside her plate, rose, and walked out.

"That wasn't too harsh, was it?" Rebecca asked Matt.

Matt shook her head. She had never had a conversation alone

with Rebecca, and she felt shy. "If you're going to live with

somebody, I guess you need rules," Matt said. "I usually move

on before I get to that stage."

"She's been walking all over you."

"People do, sometimes. Usually I leave when they start, but

Terry wouldn't let me."

Rebecca blinked. "Oh. I don't like that at all."

"Got her to let me go today."

"You're still here."

Matt nodded. "You said it was okay. Lewis is kind of my re-

sponsibility, since I let him out of the tree."

"You let him out?"

"Yeah. I'm not a witch, but I talk to things."

"Ah. Yes. I noticed."

Matt smiled. "He said people had been coming to that stone

where Terry did her ceremony for years, but nobody noticed him

before. I haven't run into other people who can talk to things like

I can. When he was a tree, I could hear him talk, but Terry

couldn't."

366

Nina KinRi Homnan

"Hmmm," said Rebecca. She ate a shrimp. "While watching

Terry operate since I found out she was a witch, it occurred to

me that it would be very difficult to let go of all the advantages

you gain when you have these special abilities. Do you ever not

talk to things?"

"Lots of times," Matt said. "I usually only ask questions when

I feel like something's coming at me. When I need help or I need

to know something to survive. I don't know anything about you,