And so, it came to this: as far as Stanley could tell – and the thought seemed absurd even to him – his pony-loving, three-year-old daughter was somehow manipulating time and space around her, sometimes showing the future, as she did with Marie, and sometimes showing the past, based on the fact that the forest she mustered had been cut down decades ago. The hypothesis was sound, at least in Stanley’s mind, but certain details were still unclear to him. For example, why had Marie gotten caught in Lilah’s temporal anomaly, whereas he hadn’t been affected? Was it a simple matter of proximity, since she was closer to the baby when it happened? Furthermore, if Lilah did indeed show the future, why did his wife never lose her hair or become sick and skeletal at the end of her life, as the seizure seemed to indicate would happen?
The baby showed me what was yet to come, my love. She showed me my future. And in doing so, she gave me a tremendous gift.
Stanley glanced at Marie’s photo on the mantle. With every fiber of her being, his wife had believed those words to be true, so much so that she bet her life on them. It was her belief that having knowledge of her fate empowered her to change and take control of it. If that were true – and, in Stanley’s mind, everything his wife had ever uttered was true – it meant that Lilah had only revealed the future as it was projected to be, based solely on the events leading up to that moment. When Marie changed course, having seen a glimpse of what was to come, she changed her future… which meant the future itself wasn’t set in stone.
Stanley rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. If the future wasn’t concrete, and Lilah had the ability to revive the past, that meant there was only one thing he needed to do in order to prove his hypothesis. If only he could work up the nerve to do it.
“Hi, Daddy,” Lilah yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she plodded into the living room. Her feathery auburn hair, which had been left in disarray by her pillow, seemed to form a static halo around her head.
“Good afternoon, sunshine!” Stanley smiled. He quickly tucked the bottle of medicine in his shirt pocket before rising to give her a hug. “Did you have a good nap?”
“Uh-huh,” she replied, taking his hand as they walked to the kitchen together. “Crackers an’ juice?”
“Yep, right here,” he answered, lifting her into her chair. He took a seat beside her, where his own snack – an apple from the backyard tree – was waiting. He took a big bite out of it, flicking chunks of fruit from his scruffy whiskers as he chewed.
“Yummy,” Lilah mumbled appreciatively through a mouthful of graham cracker. After a moment, she looked around the table. “Daddy, where’s my medicine?”
“Oh, yeah, about that… We have to go to the pharmacy to get more. We’ll do that right after your snack.” Stanley fiddled with a thread at the bottom of his shirt, which only made the fabric unravel further. “We just, uh, have to make a quick stop first.”
“Where we going?” Lilah asked, taking a sip from her juice box.
“We’re going to go visit Mommy.”
Chapter 11
Karma
Willow picked at a hangnail on her thumb, tugging at it until it bled. The pain barely registered in her mind. There hadn’t been a single day in the last year when her cuticles hadn’t been torn and bleeding. She glanced over at her mother, who was gripping the steering wheel with two white-knuckled fists as they sped along the highway, well above the posted speed limit. Yellow light from the overhead freeway lamps streaked across Celeste’s face every so often, highlighting the harsh wrinkles permanently etched between her brows. She hadn’t said a word since the two of them left – or rather, fled – the fire station. Though they both checked the rearview mirror every few minutes, it appeared that no one had followed them. The highway was all but deserted and the lights from the town were far behind them now, just a faint orange glow on the dark horizon.
As the light from the very last streetlamp streaked past, Celeste peered behind them one last time. The rearview mirror was completely dark now. No one was following them. No one would even know that they had driven through there. She finally released the breath she had been holding for what felt like the last hour and eased up on the accelerator. She had done it; the child – or whatever it was – would be someone else’s problem now. And she would sleep soundly, knowing there was no blood on her hands. It might not have been Shaman Mike’s first choice, Celeste reasoned to herself, but he’ll be so proud when he hears. And with it gone, I’ll finally be able to invite him over for dinner. Maybe even “dessert”! The thought sent a happy shiver down her spine. She had to compose herself before speaking again, lest Willow hear the giddiness in her voice.
“When we get back, I’m going to enroll you at the high school in town.”
“Really?” Willow gasped. “You mean it?”
Her mother nodded tersely. “You are to tell them that I’ve been homeschooling you for the past year. And under no circumstance are you to mention anything about the… well, you know. To anyone. Am I clear?”
Willow nodded, feeling the lump in her throat slowly begin to shrink. “Mama… what do you think is going to happen to her? Will she be—”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to know. And after we get home, I never want to hear the subject raised again. I knew that boy in Scarville was no good, putting all sorts of strange ideas in your head so he could take advantage of you. And look at what he did to you! What he put in you! There will be no consorting with boys at this new school, Willow – do you understand me? The universe saw fit to punish you for your idiocy but I’ll be damned if I continue to be punished by proxy!”
“I’m sorry, Mama,” Willow whispered. “I promise I’ll never make the same mistake again. Thank you for helping me fix everything. And thank you for letting me go back to school. I promise I’ll be good this time. And I won’t tell anyone about… anything.”
“Good,” Celeste replied, gritting her teeth. A hot soaking bath with lavender salts had been calling her name for some time. “Now, you’re sure you dumped everything in the dumpster back there? The crib, the bottles, everything? We can’t have anyone back home asking questions.”
“All of it’s in there.”
“The clothes and toys too?”
A small knot formed in Willow’s stomach. She’d thrown everything in the fire station dumpster, just like her mother instructed – everything, save for a small, wooden rattle that had the name “Lilah” hand-painted on the side. For some reason, she couldn’t bear to part with that. Her hand went to her back pocket, where it was safely hidden.
“All of it’s gone, Mama. I–I promise.”
Celeste smiled to herself. Soon enough, she and her daughter would be home, and everything would finally be back to normal. The universe had seen fit to send her its greatest challenge yet, and she knew she had passed with flying colors. Life would be easier from here on out, she just knew it. Heck, she might even stop at the Corner Market on the way home and buy a lottery ticket – after all, good things were coming her way. She could feel it.