Blackwood Farm Part 44

"He waited for me to back the car out and head down the road. I crossed in front of the house, turned right and went down the long pecan-tree drive.

" 'A witch to those of us in the Talamasca,' he explained, 'is a mortal man or woman who can see spirits and manipulate them, bring up spirits and exorcise them, communicate with them and control them, talk to them and hear their talk.'

" 'Then I'm a witch,' I said, 'on account of Goblin.'

" 'Very much more than likely,' he said. 'Though I don't think you've experienced all the aspects 229.

I just explained.'

" 'No, I haven't. But I think that I could. And if Rebecca comes back, my powers of exorcism may be taxed.'

" 'I'll be here for you if you need me. I don't think Rebecca will tempt you anyplace but here.'

" 'Is that the way it is with ghosts?'

" 'Some of the time,' he said. 'It depends on the type of haunting. Sometimes a person is haunted, sometimes a place. Do you yourself know whether Goblin's a spirit or a ghost?'

" 'Oh, most surely a spirit,' I said. 'He knows nothing of where he came from or where he goes when he leaves me. There's no life for him except in my consciousness. He's probably with us right now.'

"I made an attempt to feel his presence, and I felt the answering grip of his hand on my shoulder and saw his face in the rearview mirror. He was very near me, of course.

" 'I love you, old buddy,' I said to him.

"I saw his poker face break into a childish grin.

" 'You don't know how much I've needed you, old buddy,' I said to Goblin. 'These last twentyfour hours have been mad.' It was marvelous seeing that grin.

"Stirling smiled.

"During the rest of our time alone Stirling told me about the Talamasca, pretty much reinforcing what Mona had explained to me --that they had existed for centuries, that they had vast libraries pertaining to the supernatural, that they had a huge history of Mona's family --confidential of course.

" 'Ah, but you see, I am a Mayfair,' I said, 'am I not? Oncle Julien told me I was, remember?'

" 'You have a good point there. But you don't have time for Mayfair history right now. You have your own adventures. You're going off on an odyssey. Have you made up your mind about little Tommy?'

" 'I'm totally for it. Can't wait to ask Aunt Queen. But I have a question for you,' I said. 'What is your honest opinion of Nash?'

" 'A wonderful man, brilliant, very well-read, very refined. He'll be a marvelous teacher and guide for you in Europe. Don't you think so yourself?'

" 'Yes, but I sensed something between you, that you didn't like each other. Was I wrong?'

" 'You were right to sense something,' he said. 'He doesn't like me. He suspects my motives. He doesn't understand the nature of the Talamasca, and not understanding our rules and our role he thinks me guilty of a brand of self-interest. When you come home, if you and I become friends as I hope we will, maybe he'll change his mind. For now, please don't trouble yourself about it. He's an extraordinarily nice man.'

" 'I know what you're talking about,' I said. 'He feels a lot of insecurity about being attracted to men. I don't really.'

" 'You don't?' he asked.

" 'I thought you could read minds,' I said. 'I hope that sounded agreeable. I meant it to sound agreeable. I've had an unusual life is what I ought to have said. I lost my virginity with Rebecca, then had fun in the shower with Goblin, then fell in love with Mona, and I'm not certain what's next. If Mona will marry me I'll be happy to my dying day.'

"He didn't answer me.

" 'What's wrong?' I asked. 'Do I sound too cavalier for your taste?'

" 'No, you don't at all,' he said. 'I was just thinking about Mona, and whether or not to say what came into my mind.'

" 'Oh, please do say it. I wish I could read it.'

" 'If you marry her, it's likely to be until her dying day before yours.'

" 'No,' I said. 'No. That's not true. That's not true. Dr. Rowan Mayfair knows that's not true.

230.

They're working on it night and day. They'll reverse Mona's condition. I mean they'll halt it. They'll fix it. It's not going to be that bad. She'll probably even --' I broke off. 'I'm sorry,' I said.

" 'You owe me no apology. I owe one to you. I shouldn't have said what I did. I thought last night you'd understood what they were talking about.'

" 'I didn't want to understand,' I said. 'But I knew.'

"We talked some more about the Talamasca.

"Anytime I wanted to visit Oak Haven I was welcome. Now it was time for parting and I drove Stirling back to his car. It was a handsome brown Rolls-Royce with cream-colored upholstery. He said the Talamasca spoilt all its members with fine cars and fine furniture.

" 'And what do we do in return for it?' he asked rhetorically. 'Live like celibates and work like dogs.'

" 'I like you very much,' I said. 'Thank you for coming to lunch and thank you for standing with me.'

" 'I had no choice,' he said. 'Please call me when you can. Let me know what's happening. Here's a card for your s.h.i.+rt pocket and one for your jacket and one for your inside pocket too, and here, put this somewhere also.'

" 'Don't worry about me, Stirling,' I said. 'I know I'm much better off on account of your advice. I'm never going back out there at night, and I'm going to do what I can to get everyone out of this house before nightfall.'

" 'Yes, and something else too, Quinn. It's very tricky, fighting a being like Petronia, but something tells me that you've been wise in putting up a fight, in using Goblin as you've done, and I wouldn't hesitate to do that in the future. I hope you enjoy your trip to Europe. I hope you enjoy it immensely.'

"Very reluctantly, I told him good-bye, and I watched until the car had made its long slow journey down the avenue of trees and turned towards the highway. He seemed a wise man. And I wonder now if everything would have been different if I had confided in him more, trusted him more, not gone against him and everybody else in my pride and impetuosity."

34.

"I HURRIED inside. There was much to do and I meant to do it quickly --and was overjoyed to discover Aunt Queen and Nash already making plans for our European adventure.

" 'Can Tommy go too?' I asked. 'I can have him back here in an hour with his birth certificate and all his clothes.'

"Aunt Queen appeared to give it instant and deep thought for a long moment, and then, before I could make my legal case, inquired: 'Is he worthy of such a trip, Tarquin?'

" 'Just the word,' I declared. 'You have chosen it perfectly. He's worthy, and it will be so very right for him. You'll find him to be a delightful boy, I swear it to you. And if you don't, we'll line up a nanny for him, and he can be off on a day-by-day regimen of his own, but that won't happen.'

" 'Well, then, I say, by all means, let's take him with us.'

" 'Petty cash,' I replied. 'In case Terry Sue puts up an argument.'

" 'You mean she'd sell the boy!'

" 'Aunt Queen,' I replied, 'it's to sweeten the deal. The boy's worth the ransom. Terry Sue is the 231.

merely practical mother of six hungry kids.'

"I was soon furnished with the cash and rus.h.i.+ng out the door. Goblin appeared at my side.

" 'We've got to win this one, old buddy,' I told him. 'You agree with me? The child's brilliant. I can't leave him behind.'

" 'You always know what to say, Tarquin,' said Goblin. 'But how can I go with you to Europe?

Tarquin, I am afraid.'

"I felt a sudden stab of sympathetic fear.

" 'You're very happy, Tarquin,' he said. 'Don't forget me. Don't forget that I love you. Don't forget that I'm here.'

" 'No, I haven't forgotten,' I pledged. 'I'll hold your hand; remember, I told you. All the way to Europe, I'll hold your hand. That's how we'll do it. You'll sit next to me on the plane.'

"I doubled back into the house to make sure Aunt Queen understood this need for the extra firstcla.s.s ticket for Goblin, to which she replied that she wouldn't dream of putting such an important member of our party in the coach section, and what sort of an aunt did I think she was?

"Once again I was headed for the trailer, but Goblin, riding beside me, was still insecure.

" 'Europe is far away, Tarquin,' he said.

" 'That doesn't matter, old buddy,' I said.

" 'Stirling said there were two kinds of hauntings,' said Goblin. 'Hauntings of a person and hauntings of a place.'

" 'G.o.d, you hear everything, don't you?' I asked him.

" 'Not everything, Tarquin,' he answered. 'I can't be in two places, and sometimes I wish that I could. I'd go to the Retreat House of the Talamasca, Tarquin, and learn from them about spirits, Tarquin, so that I'd be the finest spirit ever made. I know I need you to see me, Tarquin. I know that I love you. I know those things are true even when I hate you, Tarquin.'

" 'That's never, Goblin,' I said sharply. 'You have your moods, that's all. But be quiet for now. I have to do this all-important job.'

"I had reached the trailer and found that all was topsy-turvy, as Grady Breen's 'ladies' were moving 'everything' out to the new house in the Autumn Leaves development, on the outskirts of Ruby River City. How splendid that things were happening so fast! I had decreed it but not believed it. And who should come up to me but my nine-year-old self, with his black curly hair and in his navy blue Catholic school blazer?

" 'Do you want to go to Europe tomorrow night?' I asked. 'I'm not kidding you!'

"He was speechless. And then in a white-faced stammer he shook his head and said, 'I can't leave Brittany.'

" 'I'll make it up to her, I swear. And I'll tell her that myself. Okay? I can't take her from Terry Sue right now. You know that.'

"I caught Brittany's arm as she drew close. She had heard what we had to say. 'I will make it up to you, sugar plum, I promise,' I said. 'Let me take him now on this trip, and I swear by G.o.d I'll see you get to go too sometime real soon. Cross my heart. I'll see that good things happen.'

" 'Oh, that's okay,' she said. 'Tommy, you go on, you're the one that's always talking about books and things.'

" 'Brittany, you're going to have fun in the new house,' I went on. 'You're going to have new playmates and a new school, and there's going to be a maid to do the work and a nanny to help with the children.'

"She couldn't absorb it. I could see that plainly. But she was fascinated.

"Terry Sue was headed our way with the baby on her hip. She was dressed up in a pink polyester suit and pumps, and her hair was washed and combed, and she was sporting a brand-new set of drugstore fingernails.

232.

" 'Why are you doing all this for us?' she asked. 'Pops never did it.'

" 'Never mind. Just let me take Tommy to Europe. Let me take him now. All I need is his clothes and his birth certificate. I have to make it to the federal pa.s.sport office in New Orleans before it closes.'

" 'I don't have no birth certificate,' she said. 'Tommy, go get your clothes. Did you say "Europe," you mean, like in Europe?'

" 'Hurry up, Tommy,' I said. He ran for the trailer. 'I can get the birth certificate at the courthouse. Thank you, Terry Sue. Here's five thousand dollars.'

"She stared at the envelope. 'What's that for?' she asked.

" 'I was going to give you this if you argued. Seems you ought to get it since you didn't.'

" 'You're crazy, Quinn Blackwood, just as Pops always said you was. He said you'd never come to nothing, but I tell you, you're sure somebody in my book!'

" 'Well, thank you, Terry Sue,' I said. 'That's really consoling. Someday you'll have to tell me everything else Pops said. By the way, that's not his baby, is it?'

" 'You're not getting any complaints from me, are you?' she answered. 'I don't know whose baby it is, hush your mouth.'

"Tommy flew at me at a dead run, with all his books in one arm and a pillowcase of clothes over his shoulder. I backed up, laughing, and threw my arm around him.

" 'You mind Tarquin now, Tommy Harrison, you hear what I say,' said Terry Sue. 'And you do your homework, too.'

"I put my right arm around her and kissed her forehead. 'I'll take good care of him,' I said. 'I'll write the school board. Grady Breen will take care of everything just the way he said.'

"Off we went.

"Of course it was too late to make the pa.s.sport office in New Orleans, but I did get the birth certificate from the courthouse in Ruby River City.

"Then it was back to the house where I sat down with Allen and went over all the renovations that would be done to the Hermitage while I was gone. There was no doubt in my mind that I was doing this for myself. I loathed and despised the mysterious stranger! The vision of the Hermitage was mine.

"Thanks to last night's written request, Allen had already gotten me paint chips and samples of marble, and I was able to choose the most appealing colors and tile for the new floors. As to the bronze stairs, I drew pictures, and we agreed on a 'baroque' look to things and that he would call the local architects Busby, Bagot and Greene, who presided over all the antebellum restorations, and they could advise on the design of the windows and the construction of the bathroom, which was something I really couldn't do.

" 'Be fearless,' I said. 'You know my tastes, you see my drawings and my requests. Don't wait for my approval. It's more important to complete the task. And remember I'll be calling to talk to you. Forge ahead.'

"I could see that he was delighted to have something so interesting to do. Nevertheless, he shook his head and said it would be difficult, he wanted me to know that, hauling all that marble out there, but he did know how to lay it and he wouldn't trust anybody but himself. As to painting, well, the hard work was the preparation, and again, that was hard, really hard, but he didn't trust anybody but himself.

" 'You're my hero,' I said. 'You can get it done. Now comes the final warning: Never be there after dark.'

" 'Oh, you don't have to tell me that,' he said. 'We'll be out of there by three o'clock.'