The Witch House of Persimmon Point (3 page)

“Just about,” said Eleanor.

Maj slid off her mother's lap, tucked the box of crayons under her arm, picked up her drawing, and left the kitchen.

Anthony and Eleanor listened for her to switch on the TV.

“I don't even know where to start,” Anthony said. “That child is getting stranger by the day. You have to say something to her when she says things like that. People will think she's … she's … I mean, people already think she's an oddball.”

“I know! Isn't it delicious?”

“Stop acting like it doesn't bother you. I'm not wrong about this, Elly. You can act like you're proud of it all you want, but at the end of the day, you wish she was—”

“What? What are you about to say? Because I know it wasn't normal. You wouldn't say that.”

“I can't say anything.”

“There's one thing you
can
say…”

“What?”

“Good-bye, farewell, see you next lifetime.”

“Very grown-up of you. No wonder she is the way she is.”

Eleanor tried (unsuccessfully) to hide the pain she was feeling as she fought with Anthony.

If she put all the events of the past two years in perspective, she'd have nothing to be upset about at all, except, of course, their impending divorce, and Maj's behavioral issues (which along with her move, was the current topic of debate, and which Eleanor believed weren't issues at all, because her daughter was simply stubborn. Not to mention born with a lot more of the Amore sight than anyone remembered any other member of the family ever having). Other than those two teeny tiny details, everything was, as Mimi would have said, dandy. Eleanor had found success as an artist, her paintings making a modest amount of money, and she'd repaired some damaged relationships (most notably with her mother, Carmen the Actress).

“Really, if I think about it, all emotions aside, I should thank you. I've come into my own, Anthony.”

“Well, I'm glad you're not screaming at me, but I'm going to disagree. When you came to the Bronx eight years ago, you were a lost soul. And now? You're even worse off.”

Eight years. Eight years since she'd come to the Bronx, pregnant and on the run. One year of falling madly in love, seven destroying that love bit by bit.

“Anthony, you've
got
to come to terms with the fact that you suffer from a hero complex. Think about it … you took care of your mother. Then when she died, you took care of Mimi and the rest of the old ones. And then I come back to the Bronx, all broken and pregnant and crazy. And you sweep me off my feet. Saving me. Only, I guess I didn't need you enough … was that it? Did you need me to stay weak and vacant?”

Is that why you left?
she finished silently.

“It makes me crazy when you start talking all that mumbo jumbo. Complexes and shit. You were the one who started all this, Elly. Don't forget, you kissed that art dealer, and when I was still willing to forgive you, you kicked me out. Don't forget, you brought this whole situation on yourself.”

Eleanor felt the anger and defensiveness rise.

“Yes. How could I forget? You won't let me forget. And you always leave out the part where you made living with you after that a complete misery. You wouldn't even look at me! You never even wanted to talk about
why
it happened. And look how it turned out. I'm lost again, packing up my life, and there you are living down the block happily with Josephine De'Fazio. Getting all hot and bothered over her perfect vacuum cleaner lines in her perfectly atrocious wall-to-wall carpet from
Sears
, no less, and probably chasing after her while she washes dishes in her apron, saying ‘It's so sexy when you clean, JoJo!' But I didn't think we were discussing this again. I
thought
we were discussing the new renters moving in and what time you were picking up the U-Haul and Maj wanting to be toast!”

“The ocean, Mama!” Maj called from the other room.

“Calm down,” Anthony said, glancing in Maj's direction. “You still look pretty when you're mad.… Is there any of Mimi's tea left? The one that calms you down? I'll look. Did you pack all the pots?”

Eleanor hated that he still had the ability to make her feel better. It was like her heart was betraying her head.

“I threw that tea away,” she lied. “Besides, there's no magic strong enough to turn me into Josephine De'Fazio.” She banged her fist down on the table. “And no magic I know of that can make this neighborhood, these schools, these other parents,
that priest
you like so much, accept Maj for who she is, not who everyone wants her to be. And that includes you, too. You and your idea of normal. Because if that woman is normal … I can't do this. Why don't you just leave, Anthony? I'm sure she misses you and is making you some new Jell-O mold as we speak.”

“First of all, I'm staying in her guest room. Nothing more, nothing less. A man needs somewhere to lay his head, and when you threw me out on my rear end, Josephine was kind enough to offer.”

I never thought you'd actually leave
, she thought for the millionth time.

“And second,” he continued, “I suppose this conversation is a good example of you … what was that you said a minute ago? Coming into your own?”

“Mama, come quick! They said the story is coming up next!” Maj yelled from the living room.

6:30 P.M.

Eleanor sat on the couch in apartment 1A at 1313 170th street in the Bronx and tried not to look at Mimi's lonely crochet basket at her feet. All the unfinished things that dead hands leave … She did her best to watch the screen instead of waiting for Anthony to put his arm around her, to tell her how sorry he was and how everything that happened since they were married was his fault.

Maj was stretched out on the floor, waiting for the news to resume.

In silence they watched two commercials for pharmaceuticals while staring straight at the television. No one could avoid eye contact the way Anthony could. It was the most aggravating thing.

“Who buys this stuff anyway,” he mumbled.

“Daddy!
Shhh
!” shushed Maj as the interview began.

*   *   *

“We are speaking today with our very own Johnny Colder from
Sunday, Today, Tomorrow
about his much anticipated special airing right here on WBDM on … well, John, I don't want to steal your thunder, do you have an air date yet?”

“First, Brad, I want to thank you for having me today, I never get to mix with the weekday news crowd here at the station! And, as a matter of fact, we do have an air date. To be honest, the amount of interest the public has in watching my exposé of the Witch House—and the family that owned it—has taken me by surprise.”

“Do you suppose that man knows how ridiculous he sounds?” asked Eleanor.

“Do you realize that everyone but
you
sounds ridiculous and stupid?” asked Anthony.

“Shhhh!”
said Maj.

“So, don't keep us in suspense, John. When is the big reveal?”

“As you know, there's a lot of planning that goes into a live show like this. We all remember the fiasco with Al Capone's tomb, right?”

(Shared laughter.)

“So, in order to make sure we didn't have similar results, I've done extensive research on the house, the property, and the women. I've also enlisted the support of the team from the hit show
Present and Paranormal
. It took a lot of work, but we're finally ready to dive in. The air date is this Sunday, September sixth.”

“Labor Day weekend. Fantastic! You heard it here first, folks. Tune in this Sunday and watch as Johnny Colder uncovers the Witch House of Persimmon Point. Ah, Persimmon Point—it sounds so sweet for a location with this dark history. Now, John, for those viewers who've been living under a rock the past year, what is it you are trying to find?”

“Well, besides investigating the myriad of urban legends associated, the main focus is whether or not these women were, perhaps, the most prominent uncaught serial killers in the history of the United States. We have at least a hundred disappearances from up and down the East Coast, spanning almost a hundred years, that can all be linked, in one way or another, to that area. To put it frankly, Brad, we're looking for bones.”

“There you have it. It's a must-watch, that's for sure. Thanks for joining us, Johnny. And good luck.”

*   *   *

“Sunday?” said Eleanor. That only gave her three full days to move into a house that hadn't been lived in since 1999 before it was on the national news.

“Do you want me to come down with you so you're not alone when all those people come? I could make sure everything is running good.”

“No thank you, Mr. Hero. I can handle it. I'm sure I'll feel right at home with the chaos.”

“I can't believe you signed the papers letting them go dig around there. Once that place is on TV, it'll bring all the crazies out,” said Anthony, frowning.

“They paid me, Anthony. Real money. So I didn't have to sell this building. So instead, you could rent it out and I could try and get Maj out of here. I didn't know it would be a circus. Honestly, I'm sick to death of you making me feel bad. If you want me to stay, ask me to stay. But I'm the person you get. Messy me. Paint-in-the-hair me. No vacuum required. And this kid here? She's the one you get. The one your friend Sal down at the Sunoco called ‘the Bad Seed.' Besides, Mimi willed it to me.”

“That's unfair. Mimi left this building to you as well. You don't even know if she wanted you to go there. Wouldn't she have told you about it when she was alive if she was hot on the idea of leaving?”

“That's low. I mean it. Don't use my dead grandmother against me. She's been gone six months, but I'm still in shock, and you're using her to make me second-guess myself. I don't know why she didn't tell us. But I
do
know this family, and it could have been her simply hiding it from us because she didn't want me to leave
her
, not
here.
”

“That's not it, Mama. She was hiding it from us because it scared her,” Maj piped up.

“See, even the kid knows this is a stupid move.”

“Mama, I—”

“Maj, go on upstairs to our apartment,” Eleanor interrupted Maj. “I'll be up in a minute. I need to talk to Daddy. Alone.”

She waited until the door was shut to say, “It's stupid? So, what's the smart move, then? I'm completely out of options. Anthony, I have to get Maj out of the city. We're on a first-name basis with the school guidance counselors at the public and parochial schools in a ten-mile radius. The way to make her life less about becoming who she isn't and more about being a wild redheaded impertinent child is to get her out of here. And you aren't helping. Because you agree with them. Because at the end of the day, she isn't yours. Not your blood. And you think she's like
him
.”

For a second, Eleanor thought he was going to hit her. But then he bit his knuckles and took a breath.

“You are not out of options. You want to run. To put distance between me and you and whatever it is that's wrong with Maj. You don't want to face anything. So you deserve what you get. But Maj doesn't. Think about that, Elly. Maj deserves better.”

“Maj deserves a mortgage-free estate on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with wild ponies and an art deco in-ground swimming pool. And a wraparound porch where her mother can paint. In a state that will let me homeschool her with far less restrictions than New York. That's what Maj deserves. And that's what she'll get. Now, did you fix the faucet upstairs yet or what? And when you're done, hide the wrench so I'm not tempted to kill you in your sleep and then take apart Josephine's Electrolux.”

9:00 P.M.

“Mama, what were you and Mimi talking about when I was making my picture under the table?” Maj asked as Eleanor tucked her in. The nightlight glowed.

“Maj, sweetheart, remember what I said. I'm not absolutely sure that the energy we see is Mimi. It might just be my wanting so badly to see her. We can project things, you know. And even if it is some lingering bit of Mimi … it's still not her. Not really.”

“I don't think that's very nice. It really, really is her. Really. Just because it makes you sad, it doesn't mean it isn't true.”

“I'm not going to argue with you about this,” said Eleanor.

Maj snuggled against her. “Tell me again, Mama. Tell me what you know about the house.”

“Well, let's see. The documentation in the will said that my great-grandfather, Vincent Amore, was Nan Amore's brother. She was the woman who built the house that stands there now. And, my love, that was very unusual in those days.”

“That's boring. Tell me about the photographs.”

“I can go get them if you want to look at them again.”

“No, I want you to tell me so I can imagine it. It's realer that way.”

“We'll be there tomorrow.”

“Mama…”

“Okay … The house sits on a little peninsula called Persimmon Point. Persimmons are a lovely orange fruit. Sour, I think. It has the bay on one side, and the wide Atlantic on the other.”

“And the ponies?”

“Yes. Wild ponies on the beach, beautiful wild gardens, even a pool. Very fancy, with hand-painted tiles from long before it was ordinary for people to have swimming pools. I can't imagine it's the same, though. No one has lived there for a very long time.”

“Why didn't Mimi and her family move there?”

“I don't really know, baby.”

“Why doesn't she want us to go? She won't tell me. Or even show me in my drawings.”

Eleanor considered the argument she'd decided not to have and instead asked a question she knew she was asking for both of them.