Nora smiled out at the pond in front of her. Soon, she was joined by Steven, her husband, and he grabbed her hand to hold it lovingly in his own.
“It’s still so hard to believe,” Nora said.
“It’s surreal,” Steven said. “I always thought the world would end if something like this happened. But it’s been a couple weeks and the sun is still shining.”
“He would be so happy to be out here today,” Nora said. “It’s cool and the leaves are turning. He loved the fall.”
They sat silently for a moment. Nora wiped a tear from her cheek and leaned her head onto Steven’s shoulder. The couple’s son, Noah, had died under mysterious circumstances and after a police investigation and autopsy, it was determined that his death had been an accident. They’d found him at the foot of their patio stairs, his head turned all the way around to the correct position, though his neck had been so severely broken that the skin around his neck was a twisted sack of blood and mangled muscle. The stairs from their backdoor patio were steep because the house was on a hill and the backyard sloped steeply down.
“Let’s walk by his grave before we go,” Steven said, and the two walked hand in hand along the pond, and toward the street where they had parked their car. The street was walking distance from their son’s grave and they arrived there in no time. As they approached, they heard hooting, and then saw an owl perched on the headstone.
“I didn’t know owls came out in the daytime,” Steven said. He seemed angry as he watched the owl. “This is the second time there’s been an owl out here, and I’m not counting the funeral.”
The owl’s eyes were wide and Nora held the bird’s stern gaze. She was sure it was the same owl from each of the incidents her husband had recounted. She recognized the long feathers that came to horns on its head and it was big, about two feet long, with mostly brown feathers.
“It’s strange,” Nora said. “I’ve never seen an owl before Noah died.”
Nora walked toward the headstone of her son, and her husband followed reluctantly behind her. She screamed at the bird and waved her hands around to shoo it away, but it just sat firm, undisturbed by the woman. It tilted its head and hooted up at her when Nora was standing over it, close enough to swat it away.
She felt Steven’s hand gently grab her arm.
“Come on, honey, don’t get too close to the thing, they have those sharp talons. It’s not disturbing anything. Let’s go home.”
Nora eyed the bird as Steven led her away, and the bird never took its eyes off of her.
Nora busied herself with preparation for the neighborhood Halloween block party. She found it helpful to keep occupied after Noah’s death, and met regularly with a group of mostly female neighbors to coordinate food for the party. Nora loved carnival foods and she corresponded with a vendor to arrange a food truck for the event. She looked forward to the event, and she developed deeper connections with her neighbors.
Greg was the sole male member of the food organization group and the two of them made a regular appointment to have coffee in the afternoon at the cafe that was on the campus of the COHH Inc headquarters, but was regularly attended by members of the neighborhood who didn’t work for COHH. Nora worked part time as a computer programmer and Greg stayed home to care for his children while his wife worked in human resources for COHH.
“You look exhausted,” Nora said to Greg one afternoon as they sat for coffee.
“My mother is a saint,” he said. “Thank God she loves the kids. I don’t know if I could do it without her. Three boys under the age of five can be a handful, but my mother is so good at discipline. They don’t listen to me or my wife like they do their grandmother, and I’m so grateful that she moved in with us. It seems like the older the kids get, the more difficult it is to manage them. But listen at me going on, how are you Nora?”
“Oh I’m fine,” she said genuinely and touched Greg’s hand lovingly. “I do appreciate getting out of the house. Steven’s been working a lot, it’s just good to talk. Young boys can be a handful, I’m glad you have your mother.”
“Yes. She’s excited about the block party, I think everyone is. The whole neighborhood seems really festive this year. I think it’s going to be exactly what we all need to really get back to normal. I hope it’s the first of many block parties.”
“I agree with you,” Nora nodded. “It really feels like the season this year.”
That night, Nora went to bed alone. Her husband was working late on an important project, and she knew that meant he would probably fall asleep at the office and she would wake up to him cooking breakfast downstairs. She didn’t worry that Steven was unfaithful, she knew how dedicated he was to his job and he often asked her to bring him dinner at his office. They had been married for nearly twenty years and they never seemed to tire of each other, or desire anyone else.
As she lay in bed waiting for sleep, she thought about Greg and his three young boys, and she couldn’t keep her thoughts from her own son. Noah had been such a beautiful boy, average height and well built like his father and a boyish face that was reminiscent of his mother.
“Mama…”
She heard Noah’s voice and she sat up straight in her bed. The room was dark and she couldn’t make out anything, but she was sure that she had heard Noah’s voice.
“Mama I’m sorry,” the voice said again and Nora reached for the light on the nightstand, knocking it over in her panic. She picked it up from the floor and clicked it on, then brandished it with one hand like a flashlight.
Noah stood in the doorway wearing the same clothes he’d been buried in. Nora’s mouth moved, but she couldn’t make a sound. She didn’t believe her eyes but she couldn’t deny what was in front of her. Her teenage son was back and he was calling out to her.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” he said wearily. “She told me it would just hurt you, but I had to see you again. One more time. I should go,” he said and turned to leave.
“Don’t!” Nora managed to say and she watched her son stop and look back at her. “Just…you just got here…” Tears streamed from her eyes. She hadn’t moved from beside her bed, she was still very frightened as well as so many other emotions that swirled inside of her. “What happened to you, baby? I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe.”
Noah turned all the way around to face his mother and he suddenly looked angry.
“Don’t cry, ma. It ain’t your fault, it’s the witches…” he said and then his body started to disappear.
Nora cried out loud when Noah was gone and she dropped to her knees. She sobbed on the floor until her husband knelt down to help her off the floor. It was early the next day and even though she had been crying for hours, the tears just kept coming. Steven hugged her and rocked her in his arms, tears of his own streaming his cheeks.
“What wrong,” he asked soothingly. “What happened to you?”
Nora eventually told him about seeing Noah, what he’d said about the witches, but that morning, she just lay in Steven’s arms.
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