she knew something the rest of the world didn't. "I doubt it," she said. "I know they're there. They can sit and wait till Jesus comes again and they won't get my boy. Of course, even if they do, they won't keep him long. "
"Yes, he rather has a gift for escape, it seems. "
"A gift. That's a good way to put it. " She was pensive now, or the alcohol was finally seeping its narcotic way into her bloodstream. "It was a gift, though I can't make him understand it. I believe Indians think madness is a gift, too. His mother . . . his mother, she . . . " Eliza took the drink and wandered back to her chair.
"Did she write letters to Pine Breeze? I found one I think she might have sent. "
"Probably. I don't rightly know. God knows she wouldn't have told me about it, but she probably did. It sounds like something she'd do. "
"The letter kept calling Leslie's baby 'he. ' She thought I was going to be a boy?"
"I guess. " She shut her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. I didn't trust her fatigue, but then she was over a hundred years old and apparently drank like a camel.
I didn't have to ask it. I already knew. "She thought I was Avery. She's the one who convinced Malachi of it. "
Eliza was instantly awake again. It was that name, Avery. It stirred her every time I said it. "She was crazy. Crazy to think that. "
"Why did she think that?"
"I don't know," she said, but I felt like she was being stubbornly untruthful. "I don't know how she got it in her head. I told you, she liked to dig in things that weren't her business. Arthur told her his family history, and she took it and went crazy with it. I suppose Louise told you the story, or you would've asked by now. "
"Yes, she told me. "
She closed her eyes again. "People used to frown on me because I never married or had children, but I've seen what mothers do, and I want no part of it. Avery, he . . . Avery might not have been so bad if his mother hadn't been a witch. She did it to him. She made him what he was because she hated us, and she wanted him to hate us too. She wanted him to hurt us, because she hadn't been able to. She made him into a monster. A sorko. That's what they called him. It's what he called himself, too. Wore it like a badge of honor. Lord, but he hated us all, and she's the one who inspired it. "
Can't hardly blame her, I thought, but I kept it to myself. "And Malachi's mother wasn't any better. You've seen a lot of bad mothering in your time. I don't guess I blame you for not caring to have offspring. "
"Don't you ever have children either. You've got it too, you know. I can smell it on you. "
"Excuse me?"
"I said, girl, I can smell it on you. You're a witch like he was, and his mother. "
"I'm certainly not. "
"You are. I can smell it. An' I don't need Avery's damned book to divine it. I smelled it on your mother too. All the women in your family, just about. There's a smell to them, and once you've whiffed it, you never mistake it for anything else. Witches, every last one of you. "
"Look," I insisted, sitting forward in the chair again. "I don't know the first thing about Wicca, or voodoo, or anything like that. I wasn't even raised with any of the more ordinary kind of churchgoing, so I sure don't know what you're saying. "
"I don't mean a religious witch, you silly child. I mean that you've got shining. Everyone knows you talk to ghosts. You and Leslie both. Probably Louise too. All of you. And there's a smell to you. Avery told me, he said, 'You can always know one by her smell. ' And boy, was he right. "
I tried not to sound too interested when I pounced on the implications, but it was hard to keep the curiosity out of my voice. "I didn't know you ever actually met Avery. Why don't you tell me about his book. Lulu said something to me once about a book, but I don't remember what it had to do with anything. "
She ignored me, or she didn't hear me anymore. "I might think that's why Rachel settled on you so hard. She knew your mother was a witch. And Malachi'd heard about you and the ghosts and he figured the worst. That might be it, right there. It's not such a far jump for a mixed-up head to make. Hey—do you hear him?"
"What?"
"I asked you, 'Do you hear him?' He's coming up now. He'll be here soon. "
"Tatie?" I asked, using the title again because I didn't know what else to refer to her by.
Despite her prior admonition, she didn't object.
"Huh?" Her eyes were still closed, as if she were on the very verge of sleep. I'd never reclaimed my chair, but was still standing by my father's photograph. I left it on the shelf and approached her, crouching down almost as close as she'd first come to me. This sad bundle of wrinkles and bones was my only real link to the truth, and she was passing out before my eyes. But there were things I still needed to know. The aerosol smell of her Aqua Net hairspray made my nose itch, but I drew even closer, until my mouth was almost at her ear.
"It's not true, is it?" I asked, balancing on my toes and listening hard.
She sighed and shook her head just slightly. "Sure it's true. He killed them all three, and the baby girl with them. His boy, by one of the other women, that was your granddaddy. That's why there's still this whole line of you, coming after my money. But your other aunt, she's got no children, does she?" Eliza cracked an eye open and stared at me from it.