By the time Maggy made it out the front door, Kelly was completely out of control. She had several of the woman’s rose bushes in her hands and was ripping them from the ground. She paid no attention to the thorns that cut their way into her hands. Hoover was at her side, digging up dirt and kicking it behind him through his hind legs. He was frenzied; happy his master had the good sense to join in the fun. Maggy noted the rope was still attached to his collar and a meager five feet of line attached him to the only tree in the Broden front yard.

“Kelly! You stop that this instant!” Maggy roared at her sister. Kelly looked up. Her face was red and tears traced a path down her cheeks.

Miss Celban also turned. Her own face flushed; she held a broom in her outstretched hand.

“You get this filthy child out of my garden, Miss Broden,” she yelled. “And do it now!”

“Kelly come here!” Maggy yelled. “And bring Hoover.”

Kelly dropped the plants and wiped her face with her hands. Mud and blood took the place of her tears. She resembled a young Indian brave on the warpath. She looked straight at the old woman and said through clenched teeth, “I hate you– you ugly old hag!”

“Kelly Marie!” Maggy screamed. She left the porch and crossed the yard. Taking Kelly by the arm, she dragged her from the garden. Hoover followed them out.

“You apologize right now, young lady,” Maggy said, shaking the child by the arm.

“No!”

“Kelly I mean it! Apologize to Miss Celban immediately!”

Kelly yanked her arm free. She looked straight at her sister and screamed, “No!”

“Chief will hear about this,” Maggy assured her.

“I don’t care! She started it!”

Maggy turned to the elderly woman. “I did nothing of the kind,” the woman refuted. “I heard noises in my yard. When I came out, there they were, tearing apart my beautiful garden.”

“That’s a lie!” Kelly informed her. “And you’re a liar!”

“Kelly go to your room,” Maggy told her.

Kelly turned to her sister, her sides heaving from exertion and anger. “Mike’s in it,” she answered quietly, in a tone barely above a whisper.

“Then go to the other one.”

“Yes’m,” Kelly muttered. She unhooked Hoover from his leash and led him up the porch steps and inside the house.

Both Maggy and Miss Celban watched her leave.

“If you or your father cannot control that child,” Miss Celban began, her eyes fixed angrily on Maggy, “I’ll be forced to enact a civil suit against her and I’ll call the pound on the dog. Is that clear?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Celban,” Maggy said to the irate old woman. “She’s been under a strain lately.”

Miss Celban stared at her, anger resided in her eyes. Through clenched teeth she answered the girl. “There is no excuse for that type of behavior, Miss Broden.”

Maggy took a deep breath. She tried to control her own rising temper, but only managed to keep in part of it. The rest escaped, “Well Miss Celban,” she said, “maybe there should be.” Then all her anger unleashed itself, “Don’t you think there ought to be?”

“Well! I never– Maggy if your mother were alive she’d put a stop to this!”

“Miss Celban, if my mother were alive, she’d punch you right in the nose. Good day, Miss Celban!”

Mike heard the muffled shouting out the window. It was followed by the slamming of the front door, pounding of the steps and a second slamming of the door to the room down the hall. A few minutes later, Mike heard the front door re-open and a quieter set of footsteps on the stairs.

“Maggy?” he called out.

She put her head into the room.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know it all yet, Mike, but I do know a little girl who is in a heap of trouble.”

“What did she do?”

“She completely tore apart the old woman’s flowerbeds and called her a ‘hag’ to boot.”

Mike cracked a smile.

“It’s not funny, Mike. I’m worried about her. It’s not like her to behave this way.”

“She’s been through a rough time, Mag. Sounds to me like she was just letting off a little steam.”

“That may be true, but she needs to be disciplined anyway.” Maggy shook her head and regarded Mike. “My heart’s just not in it.”

“Do you know what started it?”

“No. Kelly says Miss Celban did. But Miss Celban denies it.”

“I bet she does.”

“Even if Miss Celban did start it, Mike, Kelly had no business being disrespectful to her elders. Chief’s going to be furious.”

“I think he’ll look at the situation.”

“Maybe. I better go talk to her. I’ll pick up the dishes on my way back.”

Mike nodded.

Maggy knocked softly on the door to the guest room. She could hear nothing moving on the other side of the door. There was no answer.

Maggy knocked again. Nothing. “Kelly are you in there?”

“Go away!”

“I’m coming in,” Maggy said and turned the doorknob. She pushed open the door partway when it stopped. She shoved harder and realized a chair had been wedged in front of the door.

“Kelly open up!”

“I ain’t opening the door until Chief gets home.”

Maggy placed the voice close to the floor, near the window.

“I want to talk to you, Kelly.”

“I don’t want to talk to you!”

Maggy tried shoving her way through, but still the door held.

“Damn it, Kelly, open this door!”

“No!”

“Maggy.” Mike’s deep baritone flowed into the hallway. She went to him. “She won’t let you in?” he asked from the bed.

“Has a chair propped up under the door handle; it’s tightly wedged.”

“Tell her I want to talk to her.”

“She won’t come out, Mike. Not until Chief get here, and god only knows when that will be.”

“What the hell did that old woman say to her to bring this on, anyway?” Mike asked the empty room.

“I don’t know.”

“Go ahead and ask her to come here. All she can do is refuse.”

Maggy left the room and again made her way down the hall. Once at the door to the guest room she knocked again.

“I tol’ you–” Kelly started from behind the door.

“Mike wants to see you, honey. He can’t come to you, so you’ll have to go to him.”

“What’s he want?”

“He wants to talk to you. Please, Kelly, it’s important to him.”

Maggy heard wood screeching against wood behind the door as the chair was pulled across the floor. Then the doorknob turned and the door was quietly pulled open. Kelly stood behind it. Her eyes were red from crying. Her cheeks were puffy. But her expression was watchful, wary.

Mike sat up in bed and waited as Maggy led Kelly into the room. 

“Hey, Squirt,” he said, nodding to the rocker placed next to the bed. 

Kelly crossed the room, her eyes watching Mike. She didn’t remove them as she sat. She regarded Mike with fear and distrust, not answering his reassuring smile. At her failure to do so, Mike’s smile faltered. He let it drop and regarded the child in the rocker.

“Maggy said you wanted to talk?” she said, her voice soft with a sharp note of resignation.

Mike nodded, still contemplating the child’s features. Her expression worried him. He had never seen her so resolute. He looked up at Maggy who stood watch at the door. She, too, noticed the change– the overall dejection, a state so unnatural to Kelly it broke Mike’s heart. Kelly had always been a child with the ability to rise above. Did the tiger win after all?

“I think I’ll leave you two,” Maggy stated. She retreated back down the stairs and hoped Mike would be able to break through.

“Are you okay, Mike?” Kelly asked when Mike remained silent.

“I’m fine, Squirt,” Mike answered still intent on her eyes. They reminded him of the day she near drowned in the creek, the day Mary Lou was killed. They had the dull expression of oxygen deprivation. It unnerved Mike. “Are you?”

She turned away, “Uh-huh.”

After a brief deliberation Mike said, “That’s not what I hear.”

Kelly was still intent on the floor.

“You want to talk about it?”

Mike was answered by a shaking of the child’s head.

“How about if I start?”

Kelly looked up.

“I heard you had a little disagreement with your neighbor next door?”

Again Kelly answered him with a resolute stare.

“You’re going to have to help me out here, Squirt. What did she do?”

“Nothin’,” Kelly whispered, her throat tightening around the word.

“You tore apart her garden.”

Kelly looked at him. Her eyes locked on his, again he saw the irises flash as they did in the car, weeks earlier. “Now she doesn’t have to worry about them no longer. Does she?” Kelly answered calmly and deliberately.

“That’s an interesting approach,” Mike answered not wavering. “I guess she doesn’t at that. But then, worrying over those flowers was basically her whole life.”

“Well Hoove’s mine,” she answered, despite her expression the voice was quiet, controlled. A little too controlled, thought Mike. “And he’s a lot more important than just a bunch of dead sticks in the ground.”

“Don’t you think that’s just an opinion?” Mike baited.

“Well it’s my opinion.” Kelly glared at him.

“I see,” Mike sighed. He rubbed his temple then continued. “So you tore apart her garden for Hoove.... Sorry, Squirt. I still don’t get the connection. I can see that situation worked out- without your display.”

“What do you want?” Kelly asked, the severe expression, now gone from her face.

“I want the whole story, Kelly. From the beginning.”

Kelly stared at him. He could see the redness in her eyes- she was holding it in. Holding back her tears.

“Please, Squirt.”

Her eyes began to fill and she wiped them off with the back of her arm. “It’s the only place in the front we can tie him up at.”

“The tree out there?”

Kelly nodded. “It’s not even a very long rope, but Hoove can reach her yard. He likes to dig, Mike.”

This time Mike nodded.

Kelly continued. “She caught him digging in her flowers and got out that stick and hit him on the head with it… I heard him cry from the kitchen...”

“Go on.”

“When I got out there she was trying to hit him again. He was tied so he couldn’t get away ... so I ran over to him to try and pull him away but she kept swingin’.” Kelly pulled her hair from her forehead. A bruise was just starting at the hairline. “She did that when I tried to get Hoove away.”

“Jesus,” whispered Mike. “Let me see, Squirt.” 

Kelly moved closer. 

“Does it hurt?” 

“No, sir.”

“What about your vision. Is it blurry?”

“No, sir. I’m fine, but Mike… I...”

“You what?”

“I lost my temper ... she said she was gonna make Chief tie him up in the back.”

“That might not be such a bad idea, Squirt. Considering.”

“But Mike!” Kelly’s tears had their way a second time. “The tiger will get him. It will come out of the woods and get him!”

“So that’s why you destroyed the rose bushes?”

Kelly was silent. She searched Mike’s face then again returned her attention to the floor. There was unmistakable pain in her eyes.

“So she wouldn’t have to worry about them any longer,” Mike continued. “So Hoove could stay in the front, now that the bushes were out of the way?”

Kelly nodded without looking up.

“Don’t you think that once the tiger realizes he can’t get to you through your dog, he’ll back off?" 

“No, sir. It ain’t ever backin’ off.”

“I see.” Again Mike sighed. He had the feeling the child was hiding something. Holding back information, and the real cause of her distress. “So that’s why you called her a hag?” 

Mike regarded the child. Kelly glanced up. Her eyes stared up from a head that was angled down, through a thick crop of blond bangs.

“No sir,” she said in an overly controlled voice, as if she lost the control, the emotion may slip in. “I called her a ugly old hag because she is one and I’m plum sick of her.”

“I see.” Mike was silent for a long time. He leaned again into his pillows and contemplated the ceiling. He felt the child’s presence in the room, even though she made no sound.

“I’m sorry Squirt, but I don’t buy it,” he finally said.

Kelly looked up, failing to hide her surprise.

“What did she say to you? Before you wrecked her garden?”

“Nothin’,” Kelly insisted. “I tol’ you–”

Mike stared at her. “C’mon Squirt. We’re friends, remember? I know you. Wrecking flowerbeds is too impulsive an act. You already admitted that she started it. What did she say?”

Kelly started to fidget. She looked away from Mike and back at the floor.

“Stop protecting us, Kelly. Maybe we can help. There’s no reason for you to deal with this on your own.”

When Kelly returned to him her eyes were wet with tears. She looked at his arm, then back into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Mike. I’m so sorry,” she choked out between thick sobs.

“Hold up. You saying she told you this,” Mike indicated his arm, “was your fault?”

Kelly nodded.

“I thought we settled that?”

“But she’s right... everything she said– it’s all true.”

“What else did she say?”

“I don’t want to–”

“Kelly,” Mike forcefully cut her off. Kelly could tell he was becoming angry, but she knew the anger was not directed at her. “Let’s have it. All of it.”

“She said...” the child broke off. There was pain in her eyes. She took a deep breath and continued, “She said I was Devil born– a bad seed. I destroy everything and everyone... I killed my mother in birth... Cuz I was never meant to walk on god’s green earth...All this... what’s been going on,” tears filled the child’s eyes and her nose ran. She wiped the water aside and concluded, “is because I’m evil, Devil touched and attract it. She said I was the death of my mother ... and before I’m through I’ll be the death of my father too... Then she said I almost got you killed. I’m no good, Mike. I’m evil and attract trouble– Mike it’s true. I brought the bird to Sam- he died cuz o’ it. And the Preacher too. I was there– then the bird. Then he died. Devil seed,” Kelly added and looked at Mike who was melting in a wave of salty tears. “That’s what I am, Mike. I kill people... cuz I’m evil.”

“My God, Kelly. She said that?”

Kelly nodded.

“She brought up the bird?”

“No. But I can see how I must control it, Mike. It’s always there! And then people die! I’m always there when they do it, Mike! Can’t you see that she’s right? The bird was in the woods when Hoove ran in there. I heard it. Then you got hurt.”

“But were you there? When I got hurt?”

“I saw–in my dream. My dream made it happen, Mike.”

“How can you say that?”

“I saw the tiger get Hank in a dream, Mike. And he did.”

“But you weren’t there.”

“No, sir.”

“So it’s not the same thing as Sam and the Preacher.”

“Sam and the Preacher are in the Dead Place, Mike! I dream them there all the time! It’s cuz o’ me. Can’t you see?  She was right. I’m ... Devil-seed. Like she said.”

“Kelly, I want you to listen to me, very carefully.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Your dreams ... we don't know why you have them. But they are premonitions. Not curses.”

“What’s a prem- premonit– What’s that?”

“It’s a forethought, basically. Your dreams warn us of what might happen. We haven’t been listening. We’ve discounted them, wrongfully so. That was our mistake, not yours. Your dreams do not make what happens eventually, happen. Those instances will happen whether you dream them or not, but by listening to your dreams, we are warned. We can prevent those occurrences. Like with my arm–”

“You got hurt cuz o’ me, Mike. I never listen. I never do what I’m told... If I’d have gone home like Joe told me to … instead of going to the depot, none of this would have happened. If I hadn’t made the train in the first place... If I hadn’t left the porch ... you ... you’d still be okay. And I almost got Chief killed twice– first by that Mr. Lewis, and again by the tiger. Don’t you see? It’s because I’m part of the Dead Place. Devil seed!”

“Kelly, that’s all nonsense. It wouldn’t have made a difference if you went to the depot that day or not. It’s not revenge he’s after... He’d come after you sooner or later, as his sickness became worse. But because you did go and the circumstances that did take place, at least your father expected his actions instead of being surprised by them. You’re also forgetting that if you hadn’t gone to the depot, Billy would have been convicted in Mary Lou Crawford’s murder. Kelly, you saved his life. As far as Sam– he’d be the first to admit he was already dead. You gave him his life back. It was an accident that took it away. An accident that had nothing to do with you, or any bird for that matter. We can’t sit around second-guessing our own actions. We have to do what feels right at the time, and then live with the consequences. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I think so. Mike?”

“Yes.”

“Why does it want me. I mean the tiger. If it ain’t cuz o’ revenge?”

Mike stared at her for a while. Then answered. “We’re not entirely sure, Squirt. We think he sees something in you.”

“What?”

“He calls it Power.”

“I’m scared, Mike.”

“I know you are. And you have every right to be. But don’t you dare think that what’s happening now is in any way your fault. I was hurt in the line of duty, Kelly. It’s a risk you take in my line of work. The same risk your father takes doing his job. We battle the law of averages. It was thanks to your warning that I was able to avert a catastrophe. I owe my life to your warning, Kelly. Not the injury itself. As far as your mother, well, Chief could tell you more about that than I. I do know she loved you a great deal before you were born. She had high hopes for you, Squirt. So far, I can say, you haven’t let her down. How can two fine people, such as your mother and your father give birth to Devil seed anyway?”

Kelly looked at Mike and shrugged. “She sacrificed herself for me,” she said quietly. “I heard Chief and Maggy talkin’ once. That’s what Chief said. Mike?”

“Yes, Squirt?”

“I don’t want anybody else to ever do that. I don’t want anybody else to get hurt cuz o’ me. I don’t want to be a bad seed or evil or even Devil touched.”

“Squirt, you’re not any of those things. If anything, you’re blessed. You’ve already come back from the dead twice. If God didn’t want you to walk on his green earth, then why would He keep sending you back to us?” Mike smiled and this time Kelly smiled back, but her smile was a sad one.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Well, I do. It’s because you were a gift from your mother to your father. He’d be devastated if anything ever happened to you. I want you to put whatever that narrow-minded superstitious old hag said completely out of your head, because quite frankly, I don’t think she knows what she’s talking about. And I want you to forget taking blame in all this mess. And...” Mike emphasized. “I want you to be very careful from now on because I think if anything happened to you, I’d be just about as devastated as Chief would be.”

“You would?”

“Yes, I sure would.”

Kelly smiled. The resolution in her eyes was gone, replaced by relief. And Mike once again saw the trust in him return to her.

“One more thing,” he said.

“Sir?”

Mike pointed to his cheek. Kelly smiled and rose from the chair. She carefully hugged his neck and kissed him on the cheek. He kissed her the same way before she pulled loose.

“So is everything settled?” Mike asked.

“Yes.”

Mike smiled. “Good.” Mike looked at her torn hands. "You’d better let your sister take care of those cuts.”

“They ain’t no big deal. Don’t even hurt.”

“Just the same–”

“All right, Mike,” Kelly said and left the room. She stopped at the doorway and turned. “Thank you, Mike.”

He answered her with a smile. “Don’t mention it, Squirt. You just take care of you, all right? Let us figure out the rest.”

“Okay.”

After Kelly left the room, Mike settled back into his pillows. He thought about what the woman next door had told the child and became angry all over again. What could have possessed the woman to be so cruel? And how that cruelty played on the child’s own suppressed fears. A sharp bladed knife could not have been more painful, or damaging. Mike contemplated this for almost the six minutes it took for his exhaustion to reclaim him. He was sleeping fitfully by the time Maggy returned for his tray.

© Copyright 2025 C J Driftwood. All rights reserved.