A Home of Mothers

Tuxedo

After a flickering white flash, I'm my mother again.

The dog has since been put down. It started with recurring, violent behavior around Brother, but quickly escalated- I remember crying over the dog's corpse, I remember how it wasn't its fault, how something else made it do it. I pleaded to my mother to bring the dog back, it wasn't its fault, but she only shook her head. Now, brother and I are on the swing-sets, a day or two after the funeral. Brother twists on his swing, laughing, but I only stare at him coldly. He looks over to me though, and his smile fades, and then he looks confused. But even though he stops the swing keeps twisting, back and forth, back and forth.

The swing twists faster and faster without his accord and he starts to scream, struggling and shaking and trying to get off, and I fall off of my swing, whipping up my head. "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TOUCHED THE WELL!" I scream as my father's footsteps come pounding towards us, "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TOUCHED THE-"

"WELL!" My eyes fling open as I gasp, the branch around my arm tightening as I see who shrilly screams at me. It's Olivia, and her eyes are crazed as she lunges at me like a feral animal, pushing me to the ground. I spit out the hair that falls in my mouth.

"No, Livvie!" a new voice calls from behind the cornfields, "She didn't know!" and then as I stare into Olivia's- Livvie's- wild eyes, her downturned brows, her wrinkled nose and her rage-red face, footsteps run from the corn and towards the well. "Livvie!"

The girl turns her head, then swivels it back. She slowly backs away from me, eyes trained on mine, and as the grip of the branch slowly loosens from my arm she backs into the tuxedo boy's arms. Oh, I think vaguely, fear numbing my thoughts, it's him. The kid with the tuxedo and tie, the kid who woke me up.

The kid closes his arms around the girl and she struggles for a moment, but then she goes still and sighs. He hugs her, all along staring at me, me just a girl on the dirt-and-weed ground and him a savior. The branch wriggles under my sleeve, and I try not to flinch, but he doesn't seem to notice, and I let my eyes drift to him. His hair is rustled from hiding in the cornfield, and Olivia's sniffing and snuffling in his shirt, but after a moment I finally see the resemblance. They must be siblings. But so much different than earlier. Only minutes ago, Olivia was sane and helping me find my sister... Or was she? And how much time has passed?! I look up.

Go, Tuxedo boy mouths, and after glancing down at Olivia's face buried in his shirt, he nods his head towards the parking lot in the front. It's set next to the darkened forest that borders the property, and as I squint, I can see a blackened car. The branch clenches and I feel a memory coming, but I suppress it, nod worriedly towards Tuxedo, and back into the cornfield. As soon as I'm shrouded and they're out of my sight, I collapse to the ground, head in my hands. What is going on here?

Tuxedo hushes Olivia as she tries to sob something out, and I sigh, rising to my feet. Dusting myself off, I look up, and not for the first time this night, I run.

Cornstalks, weeds and green on the border of the darkened sky flicker and flash by my open eyes. The sky's faded to a darker black, now, but the moon still shines above and glows with little light. The plants whip by my face as I run, faster and further than I'd hope, but to my surprise, whenever something gets in the way, the bark around my arm pulses. On the third time I realized it's warning me, pulsing each time before something happens.

Pulse. I reach the border of the crop, pass the looming barn, and run free, hurrying over the empty plain of green and towards the parking lot as fast as my legs and lungs can bear. I can hear some mumbling and scuffling as the last partiers renter the mansion- it's hazy and active once again, so I can assume they finished cleaning up.

When I finally reach the lot the branch pulses painfully and I cry out, falling to the grass. When I look up, breathing heavy, I catch a good look of the scene.

Ahead of me's an old, black car, with tinted windows and a growling engine. The parking lot is overshadowed by a massive oak tree, much like the one at the barn, and the branch pulses as my eyes drift to the doghouse. Torn, it reads on the gravestone before it, and I shudder. But then I see the footprints leading away and I walk towards them, my hand brushing against the side of the car. When I pull it away hurriedly I see a spiral melted into the metal, but then it unknots again and it's just a glint in the moonlight, and as I back away the window rolls down. As the darkened glass descends I go still, eventually meeting the man behind its eyes. Fedora man. He glances at my arm, at the wrinkles in my sleeve where the oak branch squirms, and he frowns.

"Go," he says, nodding to the footprints that lead into the forest, "I can wait." And then the purr of the engine dies and he falls back in his seat. A faint, pulling tune drifts into the night, and as I take a step towards the forest, I freeze. He whistles slowly along to it.

Hmm, hmm, hm.

Hm, hm hm, hm.

Hm, hmm, him, hm, hmn..

Hm, hm hm, Hm.

"...What is that?" I whisper, and he raises his head. His whistling ceases.

"An old song. Your lullaby, and your uncle's," he says, and without a word he rolls up the window. But the tune stays with me, and as I follow the footsteps towards the faint sound of rushing water, I hum it to myself. I now know why Tuxedo asked me about it- it was in my dream.

Hmm, hmm, hm...