October 2023 Fiction Project: The Witch House – Oct 14

I don’t know what to do.

I thought this week I would be able to hang out with Lola. I thought she would be interested in being my friend for a few days, and then she would get bored and she wouldn’t be interested in me anymore.

Do I like her?

I don’t know her very well.

I went to the library again yesterday. She wasn’t there. Miss Emma said she hadn’t seen her.

Then I walked to her house. It’s yellow with a lot of Halloween flags hanging off the front porch: black cat dressed as a jester with an upside-down candy corn hat, a witch riding a broom in front of a giant pumpkin, a row of triangle flags that say TRICK OR TREAT and LET’S GET SPOOKY! There are black cats and gravestones in the front yard.

STELLA LIVE.

DEE KAIN.

IZZY DEAD.

ANITA SHOVEL.

A black plastic garbage bag with some leaves in it and rake on top lay beside one of the gravestones.

The front porch was only few steps up but it felt like a million. A skeleton sitting in a rocking chair turned its head toward me, eye sockets turned red, jaw opened and shut as it laughed creepily.

I pushed the doorbell and waited.

Then I opened the screen door and knocked on the wood door. I did that for so long that the skeleton in the rocking chair went back to sleep.

Then I turned the doorknob.

The door wasn’t locked. I opened the door a crack and yelled “Hello?”

Nobody answered. I listened but I didn’t hear any noises, except for the refrigerator.

I closed the door and went home. I didn’t want to get in trouble for going inside.

The skeleton laughed at me as I walked away, very fast.

After that I read comic books from the library for a long time, lying on my back and then on my stomach on the floor in my bedroom, on top of the rug.

Then it got dark.

Mom came home first. She was gone when I woke up that morning. When she came home it was already six thirty. I made supper, macaroni noodles, spaghetti sauce, and meatballs in one big pot, and it wasn’t good but also not too bad. I was eating at the table by the window in the breakfast nook when she came home, because it was bright and creepy in the dining room with the lights on, like the chairs around the table were waiting for people to come and sit in them.

She said, “Don’t—”

And then she stopped. She was wearing a blue and orange headband that I had never seen before, to hold back her hair, which was in a big pouf around her head. She had new makeup on and looked different.

I suddenly remembered that they were giving away free makeovers at the mall.

“Jayla,” she said. “Come here.”

I stood up.

She said, “Bring your supper. I have something to show you.”

I brought my plate and my fork and my glass with me, but I left my napkin behind.

In the dining room was a lamp. It was the shape of a brass pill capsule, round on the top and bottom, glass in the middle, a floating green alien baby in the middle with its hands floating. The liquid looked like green jelly.

Yellow-green light glowed from underneath the alien baby.

It looked gross. I hated it.

Mom sat down at the table with a serious look on her face. She still had her jacket on.

“I’ve been sick and sad since your dad died. I need to know what you think about Dave. What you really think of him.”

I swallowed. Suddenly my noodles and meatballs didn’t taste good at all. They wanted to come back up and be vomit.

“I don’t like him,” I said. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

She pressed her lips together. “I don’t think I like him, either.”

Stepdad Dave’s big truck made engine noises in the driveway.

Mom said, “We’ll talk about this later. I found this lamp while I was out shopping. It’s for you.”

I ducked my head. “It’s too creepy for me.”

“Then we’ll put it in the basement.”

The engine noises stopped and the truck door slammed.

Stepdad Dave’s footsteps walked up the driveway to the front door. Mom kissed me on the head and said, “I’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Then she left. The front door opened at the same time Mom’s room door closed.

I carried the dishes into the kitchen and put them down beside the sink.

Stepdad Dave came inside the front door, saying nothing.

I drank the last of the water in my glass and put it in the sink. I was going to put all the noodles in a big plaster container in the refrigerator, and put plastic over my plate and eat it later, when my stomach wasn’t upset.

Stepdad Dave came into the kitchen and I thought, He’s going to ask me about Mom. He’s going to ask me if I like Mom.

He still had his jacket on. His eyes were red. So was the tip of his nose.

He pointed at the pot of macaroni on the stove. “Did you make that?”

“Yes, sir.”

He nodded. “Good job. Put some on a plate for me and I’ll eat it later. Please and thank you.”

I was so surprised that I couldn’t say anything.

He looked past me, squinting. “You ate supper in here?”

“I started to. Then I moved to the dining room.”

He paused, the ends of his lips tucking under themselves. “Anything weird happen?”

“No. I just…Mom came home and said to come with her to the dining room. She got me a present.”

He turned around and walked into the dining room, then came right back.

“Don’t put it in your bedroom.” He bent down and started taking off his boots. “And don’t forget about that plate.”