The Same Stuff as Stars

“Once upon a time,” she began, remembering as she went along that the evil mother made the father take the children deep into the woods, where they met a witch. She prayed her mother would call up the stairs and interrupt. Soon.

“So the children had to spend the night in the woods.”

Bernie pulled his thumb out of his mouth. “Were they scared?”

“Well, sure, but Hansel was very brave.”

“That was the brother, right?”

“The big brother. He didn’t suck his thumb. He was too brave, and besides, all these angels came and watched over them so none of the wild animals could eat them up.”

“I’m hungry.”

She hurried on. “In the morning they began to try to find their way home.”

“I want to go home, Angel. I don’t like it here.”

“We hardly got here, Bernie. You might like it after a while. When you’re used to it.”

“I won’t never get used to it. Never. Never. Never.”

“You’re always saying ‘never,’ Bernie. How do you know? This might be the best place we’ve ever lived.”

“It’ll be the worst. I know.” He got up and went over to the small window in the eaves. He was quiet for a while. Then she could see his little body tensing up. “Angel,” he whispered. “There’s a robber out there.”

“Oh, Bernie, you know there’s not!”

“Come here and see if you don’t believe me.”

She got up and went over to the window. “Where?” she asked.

He pointed to the left. There was a dark figure moving toward the corner of the house. “See? I told you,” he said. “Now do you believe me?”

She put her arm around his shoulders. They were both shivering.

SIX

Santy Claus

You better call the police,” said Bernie.

A picture flashed through Angel’s head. It was night. Angel was suddenly awake, her heart pounding. Bang Bang Bang. Someone was banging on the front door. Police! Open up! When no one opened the door that night, they crashed it in and took Daddy away. “No,” she said, “not the police, Bernie.”

“You got to. See that gun?” The figure had something in his hands, something huge, like the biggest gun Angel had ever seen outside a war movie on TV. A bazooka—that’s what they called them.

“Angel. What if he’s coming to kill us dead?”

She tightened her grip around his shoulders. “Of course he’s not, silly.” She couldn’t stand to see him so afraid. “It’s nothing, I’m sure. But if you like, I’ll just go down and tell Mama, okay?”

“Don’t leave me up here by myself!”

“Okay, but you got to be quiet. Let me do the talking. Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.” He didn’t object when she took his hand.

As they sidled down the narrow staircase, the voices from the kitchen grew louder. Verna’s voice came through clearly. “Just for a few days, I swear,” she was saying. “No more than a week.”

Angel froze on the next-to-bottom step. She strained to make out the words of the reply, but they were muffled and impossible to understand.