II.
“What did he do to you?” Bobby asked as I walked up the road near our houses.“Nothing.” I didn’t think it would be smart to mention that Jay had touched my head, and that he had smiled at me. Bobby’s mother would catch wind of it and then I’d have to have a consultation with the priest.
“Surely he did something!” he continued.
“No, he just went back inside.” He could see that I had no interest in talking about it, so he wisely dropped the subject. I looked back at Jay’s house. The smoke continued to spill out of the chimney, but there was no activity inside.
I watched his house all night, trying to see if the evil spirits truly did convene there. Bobby had been wrong before, and I was hoping that was the case this time. Some forms moved in the road, their shadows stretching out into gross demonic forms, gargoyles of the night, but as they neared the lights of her house they revealed themselves as men. I recognized a few of them, the miller, the tinker who came every few months, the blacksmith. My father snorted in his sleep and started to move around. At least I knew that he wasn’t visiting her.Saw the brief glimmer of light as the curtain over her door parted. I could see her shape welcoming them inside. Wondered where Jay was while all this went on. I didn’t see any trace of him the entire night, and there didn’t seem to be any evil spirits outside of the ones that dwell in man.
The next day I was sitting outside my house spinning wool. Ever since my mother died, I’d gradually started to take over her duties. Some had made fun of me for it, but I hadn’t made it this far being weak. Tried to forget about my younger sister who had perished five years before.Then there was a form standing above me. I looked up slowly, hoping that it might be Jay.
It was Amir.
He said nothing. Rumors circulated that he was some creature of the night that Lord Ryan had overpowered while on crusade and was now indebted to him. I was starting to believe it. No one I knew had hair of two colors. Bobby’s mother thought that he had probably seen a demon and that was why his hair was growing out blonde instead of the black that lingered level with his eyes.
“Yes m’lord?” I asked, keeping my eyes downcast.
“You were in the wood during the hunt yesterday. You heard the order that Lord Ryan gave and yet you were there anyway. I would like to know why.” he said.
“It was through my own stupidity. I forgot m’lord.” I said, dropping to my knees in front of him. Sometimes that worked with elders.
His foot prodded at my chin. “Stand up boy.” he snapped. “I don’t rescue just anyone from death. There is a reason, you’re just not telling me. If I don’t get an answer from you, I guess I’ll have to talk to your companion.” Finger on his temple as he pretended to think. “Bobby, is it? Yes, that’s his name. I think his mother would be quite happy to hear about what you were doing.”
“Bobby wanted to watch.”
“And you, being the good friend that you are, decided to accompany him in disobeying Lord Ryan?”
“I didn’t think we would see anything! It sounded like the hunt was going the other way!” I said. Amir smiled smugly.
“You owe me,” was all he said before he walked away. I sighed. That could mean anything from mucking out the stalls to serving him at table when someone important came. Or worse...but I doubted that he would ever dally with a peasant when Lord Ryan was around.
Bobby and I were walking back from the mill when we saw Jay walking towards it with a small bag of grain on his shoulder. Bobby elbowed me in the side. I glared at him. We didn’t have to be mean to Jay. He sighed and blocked the path. Jay stopped and eyed him coldly. Where was the emotion of yesterday?“How many men visited your mother last night? Enough to earn her a lower spot in hell?” Bobby sneered. Jay said nothing and tried to pass. Bobby moved in front of him. “Don’t ignore me.” he growled.
“Bobby, leave him alone!” I yelled, pushing him out of the way. Jay glanced at me and a spark of interest shone in his eyes. But his facial expression didn’t change at all.
“What’s the matter with you! Are you mute?!” Bobby screamed, sticking his face in Jay’s.
Jay shook his head slowly and moved Bobby to the side of the road gently. Hazel turned and pierced my heart one last time before he continued on his way.
Bobby returned to my side. “I’ll bet that he is. My mother says that that’s one of the ways you can tell if they’re children of the devil.”
“Will you forget about that?! You were acting like a pompous ass. If you were talking to me like that I wouldn’t speak either.” I snapped.
“Why are you defending him all of a sudden? I’ll bet he put a spell on you yesterday, and that’s why you won’t tell me what happened!”
“Nothing happened! I just think it’s wrong to...” Stopped as I saw Bobby’s disbelieving eyes. “Yes, he touched my forehead. But that’s all!”
Bobby’s fingers were cold on my skin. He moved them all over my forehead, trying to detect if an evil spirit laid there dormant. “I can’t feel anything. You should really tell Lord Ryan though.”
“But if the devil touches you, doesn’t it leave a mark that you can feel?”
“I don’t know. Anyway, the May Festival is tomorrow. Are you going to take any of the girls into the woods?” Of course, the whole point of the festival was to get laid, and that explained the many marriages that took place in June.
I sighed. There was such an array of options. Horse-faced, buck- toothed, dumb as a rock, none of them were in any way what I considered appealing. Took another look back at Jay. “I don’t know if I like anyone enough to do that.”
Bobby snorted in derision. “You’ve got it all wrong. Who cares what they look like as long as you’re getting something?”
I shrugged. “I guess I expect a little more out of it than you. I hope you have fun then. I don’t know if I’ll even go.”
“Your father’s going. I’ll bet that he goes out into the forest with the whore.” Ignored that. Bobby’s mother was staring out the window, and fighting was punished with a vicious beating.
Music expanded and filled the village as night fell the next day. I stayed inside, monkeying around with the butterfly wings that I had made for the Festival a few months before. Bonfires made cruel shadows on the walls of our hut. My father had drunk himself into a stupor. He had met my mother at the Festival. Laughter, crude jokes, and raised voices were all I could hear, but then I picked out a song. The voice was pure unadulterated lust crammed into one small package. Ran to the window and looked outside. At first all I could see were bat wings swooping out from a figure draped in white. Had the devil truly come to corrupt us all? As if in reply the figure turned.It was Jay. His eyes gleamed in the firelight and he smiled at me again, the smile of corruption, decadence, decay. I put on my Festival clothes and went outside.