Bad Moon

chapter three

Next morning, Ma woke me same as always, 'Wake up honey, time to make hay while the sun's shinin'.'

   I loved Ma and I didn't care what folk said about her. Trouble was, Ma had more love in her than she knew what to do with. We had more broken wings, cut and broken paws from traps than Ma had the time to tend them with. So let them say what they liked, Ma was the best. I hoped their tongues would rot and fall out and if I knew how to make it happen, I would've done it.

   I'd heard stories about old folk being able to do weird things. When I asked Ma about it, she said, 'Time comes you need to know, knowledge will be in your blood.'

   I wish Ma didn't always talk in riddles. How was I gonna know something that way? I stayed under my covers, hoping Ma would see for herself that I looked real sick. I couldn't tell if she weren't taking notice on purpose. In the end, I had to tell her I didn't want to go to school 'cause I was feeling real bad. Ma asked if I had a pain. I said my head hurt and my belly felt like I'd been on the swing too long. She laughed and said she had just the thing to put my belly back in the right place.

   When she came back in my room with that horrid green liquid, I could tell she knew I was trying to hogwash her.

   She watched until I drank every last drop and it didn't taste none too good. I reckon Ma enjoyed it a lot more than I did, but I got to stay home. I needed time to think how I could keep an eye on Pa. There weren't too many good spots real close to the house and the field weren't no good, Pa had eyes like a hawk and the ears of a bat.

   The big old tree at the back of our barn was pretty good for climbing, but I wouldn't be able to see what Pa was doing from there. Maybe I could make a hole in the back of the barn.  Pa might be back tomorrow, so I'd have to make my spy hole tonight.

   Ma looked quite odd when I told her about my dream and when she laughed there was no music in her voice. I figured my dream must have taken her by surprise, but it still made me feel funny, like some part of Ma was missing. She went on laughing so long I thought she weren't never gonna stop.

   'Wait 'til I tell your Pa. He'd probably get twice the money if a story like that got around.'

   I asked her not to tell Pa. She was still laughing gently, like it was a secret and didn't want no one to hear, when Nathan came in. He looked first at Ma then at me, 'What's goin' on? What you crying for Annie, and what's wrong with Ma?'

   Ma was holding her belly, she had made it hurt from laughing so much. She told Nathan to go chop some wood.

   'I just chopped a pile, I'm hungry.'

   'Nathan, go chop some more!' Ma said, in a way I'd never heard her speak before.

   Poor Nathan's face said more than I could put in words. Ma sat down at the table, looking like she weren't going to say no more about it until she heard Nathan close the door. Then she held her hand out to me. 'Come here, Annie.'

   I sat down beside her, feeling about seven years old again.

   She kept holding my hand while she asked me what I thought Pa did with the bodies. My throat was dry and I felt my hand tremble in Ma's before she held it tighter. I couldn't think, there weren't nothing in my dream. 'I don't know Ma.'

   'Annie honey, you've been in the barn many times, have you ever seen your Pa with anythin' but his rubbish?'

   I didn't have to think too hard about that, I knew Ma was right. There weren't nothing in the barn that shouldn't be there. 'No Ma, but why don't Pa want me in there no more?'