the haunted house... continued

to begin at the beginning, click here

by human being

illustrations by rhoda penmarq

vi she placed an empty plate in front of each of the portraits and one beside the suitcases in the middle of the hall for the two cats who were now sharpening their nails on the inner lining of the suitcases she decided not to disturb them whatever they did let's not listen to others this time, she whispered to herself as she climbed the stairs her soaked dress trailing behind her vii when she opened the door of the bedroom she was embraced by a gush of cold wind the window had been left open long enough to let a walnut tree spread out its branches into the room covering almost half of the bed the floor was carpeted with dead decaying leaves and broken twigs soon they were fed into the fireplace now a fire-breathing dragon battling with the cold air warming up the room so pleasantly the tree began to bud out she stood in front of the dusty mirror taking off her rain-soaked dress revealing her body densely covered with wounds old and new infected and gangrenous bleeding or healing she decided not to hide them anymore she lay down on the bed close to the budding tree let's not listen to others this time, she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes and fell asleep viii it was high noon when she woke up the buds on the walnut tree had grown into large green leaves she sat there watching them for a long while examinig the course of the veins in each leaf she smelled and caressed them then picked forty of them carefully piling them on top of one another she found a white robe in the closet put the leaves in one of its pockets and wore it then she went to the window and watched the world through the walnut branches and leaves she kissed the tree warmly and left the room while she was ascending the creaking spiral staircase to the attic she could hear the cats fighting in a dark corner of the attic she found an old writing desk invaded by spiders and dust she decided not to be a hero fighting a formidable foe she took back the writing desk in a bloodless battle very gently she swept all the dust and spiders into an empty box putting it away in the dark corner she pushed the desk into the column of light streaming down through the round attic window in its drawer she found a quill pen but no ink she spread out the leaves on the writing desk and held the quill pen in her excited hand after a long ponderous pause she started writing on the leaves dipping the quill in the blood oozing from her open wounds before writing each word let's not listen to others this time, she whispered to herself ix when she finished writing on the last leaf she looked up the spiders had been busy weaving webs all over the ceiling, walls and a few things stored there connecting all of them together she returned the quill pen to its place in the drawer of the writing desk collected the leaves and put them carefully in her pocket the column of light was traveling to some other spot leaving the desk in the dark she crawled out of the attic trying not to disturb the spiders and their webs when she was descending the stairs, she could see the cats in the suitcases in the middle of the hall licking their wounds she approached them very quietly smiling she sat by the suitcases and held the plate she'd left there for the cats in her hands she stared at the cats for a long time her eyelids dropping slowly she was walking on the plate the plate was in her hands empty she was in a restaurant on the plate the plate was in her hands empty the waiter brought her meal in a large lidded plate and put it on the table the table was on the plate the plate was in her hands empty she removed the lid there was a big roasted chicken on the plate steaming she inhaled the delicious smell and opened her eyes the plate was still in her hands heavy with a roasted chicken steaming she decided not to eat any of it thinking she had no right to eat the cats' share she got up and thoughtfully took the leaves out of the pocket of her blood-stained white robe the cats were devouring the chicken now so merrily she kneeled in front of the first portrait searched the pack of the leaves deliberately selected one leaf and put it on the plate in front of the portrait let's not listen to others this time, she whispered to herself as she looked into the kind eyes of the portrait x love is a wound: the child fell in love with the kind eyes flowing in her mouth the first leaf was gone with the river the plate was empty again the cats were chasing each other