Lemon Street

"He'll kill me, or he'll try to."

Her brother, Tom, answered the door, "Howdy, little lady. What can I do for you?"

"Hi, Tom. Um, some strange things are happening over at my house, and I was wondering if I could hang out with you and Rose until my dad gets home?"

"Well, sure! You know you're always welcome if things get strange. I'll tell Rose to put some coffee on. I think she was also going to bake a few cakes for some of the teachers at the school if you'd like to help."

"I'd love to. Rose is an excellent baker."

Rose's house was very different from ours. She had pictures and interesting objects all around her living room and kitchen from the various countries they'd been to. Most of the objects were rumored to be cursed or even kill people, but they had a priest bless their house every month. The one thing in their house that freaked me out the most was a large, human-sized statue of an Indian demon in their living room. Their kitchen had smaller trinkets and strange strings of shells around the cabinets. There were strange masks hanging on each of the cabinet doors, which was clever but odd. Rose was in the kitchen baking, just as Tom said.

"Well, hello Kali! What brings you over to our strange little setup? Aren't you still supposed to be in school?"

"I went home early today, Rose. I got into a fight with someone. And some strange things are happening over at my house, so Tom said I could stay here until my dad or Jamie gets home."

"Well I can see you got into a brawl with someone. Your face is all bruised up, hon. Who hit you? It wasn't Andy Melnitz, was it?"

"No, no. It was, uh- It was Seth. He hit me." I could never lie to Rose about anything. She was like the aunt I never knew I needed. I knew she would scold me about hanging around with Seth and Andy, but maybe I deserved to get straightened out for some of the stupid things I do. Rose let out a heavy sigh, and I knew what was coming after that.

"Seth? Is that one of the sheriff's boys?" She tossed a wooden spoon at me and pushed a bowl full of unmixed ingredients my way, "As long as you're here, you might as well tell me the whole story."

"Seth and I were hanging out in the locker room, and we started getting a little heated. We pulled our knives on each other, he hit me, and I hit him back. Nothing else happened."

She stayed silent for a moment, contemplating what I'd told her. Both cake batters were done by then, so we put them in the oven. Tom came over to us and poured himself a cup of coffee. Picking up on the silence, he sat in a chair and read the newspaper. After all three cakes were baking, Rose finally spoke.

"Kali, I'm going to tell you something. Something that my mother told me. She said 'Roseanna, if you love someone, you'll do insane things for them. Those things won't always be good for you, but you'll do them anyway. Why? Because you're in love, and love makes you do crazy things. But there's a point where those crazy things turn into insanity. Make sure that whatever you do, always make sure it won't hurt your mind.' I never knew what my mother meant by that last part, but the first part is good advice. By the look in your eyes, I can tell that you love him. You would've killed him if he hit you and you hated him."

Before I could say anything else, a knock on the door echoed through the large foyer. On the other side of the door was Jamie, who I happily went home with after helping Rose a bit more. The footprints were still there. I didn't imagine it.

Jamie pestered me with questions about what happened for hours. Why were there muddy footprints leading up to my room? Why were the footprints leading to the back door, and how was it still locked? Was Seth here? I don't know, I don't know, and I really don't know, Jame. One minute I was lying in my bed and the next thing I knew my door was being pounded on and a woman was screaming 'let me in.' There was nothing and no one on the other side of the door– and for the love of everything, Jamie, will you please stop looking at me like I'm crazy! I know what I heard, okay? I know what I heard, Jamie. This isn't something I can make up. How could I fake those muddy footprints? There's no mud in the backyard and no mud in the front. How could I possibly fake this? I'm– I'm not crazy, Jamie. I'm. Not. Crazy.