Spiritus Dirus
 

FROHIKE:

My insides are shaking like the trees were the other day when the tornadoes blew through. In fact, it's safe to say, I'm having my own internal storm.

I've got to calm down.

Everyone has taken off to who knows where. I know that Allison and Langly will go to the shore to scatter his brother's ashes tonight. Michael and Kelly are going to dinner with Jan and Carl. They asked me to join them, but I declined. Somehow, I'm not ready (and not in the mood) for that sort of intimacy tonight. At least not with them. Jo has a meeting with a woman who has been through the same experience she is now enduring. Juliet and Byers are probably hashing out their next move as to where they will live. Mulder and Scully have children to get home to, and I'm assuming that at least some of Dana's lab rats have lives.

I could go back to the apartment. Chances are it will be quiet there for a while.

But I don't want to be alone.   Ironic. I turned down a dinner invitation because I was not up for company, yet the idea of being alone for the next few hours leaves me empty and terrified.

I need a friend. Singular. Just someone to talk to. To reflect with. To drink with.

Time to visit an old friend.
 

It's Tuesday night. I'm hoping that Genie will not be full up; when she has guests, that's her priority. I'm praying for a quiet night.

I mechanically drive into Maryland. Getting there is murder at this hour, yet I find myself in sort of a trance, not even acknowledging the godawful traffic that litters every thoroughfare major and minor.

The traffic is still dense when I reach the county road where Genie's B&B is located. It's tourist time, and everyone is booked.

My heart sinks when I see that the driveway of the B&B is littered with minivans and sport utility vehicles. Genie will probably not have time for me this evening.

I decide I'll try anyway. She will probably have to turn me out, but perhaps there is the possibility she'll allow me to stay for a short time. I think that would be all I needed, anyway.

I go around to the back door where the kitchen is. Wonderful aromas emanate from the open windows. Mingled with the seabreeze that is only about five miles off, I feel a sort of calm enveloping me.

"Malvin! C'mon in!" I didn't even knock, and she didn't look up, but she knows I'm there. She's busying herself with preparing what looks to be barbecue. I've had no appetite lately, but suddenly, my mouth waters.

"Don't you worry, there's plenty," she tells me. "Tell you what. Lemme serve the guests, and we'll eat out here."

"Don't you usually eat with your guests, Genie?"

She shoots me a Look. "Not with them ruffians of young'uns that these folks has. I gots three families in house, all with the most rotten young'uns I ever seen. I ain't eating in the dining room with 'em." She carries several hot plates in her arms, opens the door to the dining room, and I'm greeted by a blast of noise.

No wonder she doesn't want to eat with this crowd.

I hear Genie chide the children-gently, so as not to alienate her paying guests-but the noise level, at least temporarily, diminishes. She comes back to the kitchen, pulls two Buds from the fridge, and serves up two plates of barbecued chicken, cornbread, baked beans, and her homemade cole slaw, which, even I, as a person who normally detests cole slaw, will devour with abandon.

Genie has cooked for presidents and kings and emperors and diplomats and ambassadors. And she cooks for friends, too.

"How's the girl doin'?" she asks as she lights a Camel and pulls on her Bud longneck. I'm sure she means Kelly. We don't have to call Genie with the news. She always knows.

"Considering what's happened to her, reasonably well." At least in Jan's estimation she was holding up nicely.

"She's gonna be fine. Don't you worry none 'bout her. Gonna be hard, and she's gonna be mighty sad for a time, but she's gotta go through that, you know that. And she's got your boy. He ain't much of a boy these days, from what's I sees."

"I worry about them."

"Course you do. Only nat'ral. The Lord couldn't be everywhere every minute, so he made daddies and mommies to do the worryin' for him."

"I'm...worried that this...will throw them into a situation they're not prepared to handle."

She shrugs. "Could be. Could be. But you gotta lets them do it, Malvin. Only way they's gonna find their way. Find their love is true."

"I wish my boy would figure out what he wants to do with his life. I might feel better if I felt he had some direction."

"He's gotta find his way, you knows. You cain't do it for him. Nobody can do that."

"I realize that."

"I'm tellin' ya, he's so good with the young'uns, ain't he, he oughta do somethin' with 'em."

"I don't know that he'd be interested in that. It's one thing to play with people's children, quite another to work with them, day in, day out."

"And he's just the one to do it."

"I don't know."

"Not your choice to be makin', Malvin. Only the Lord can decide that."

Well, I think only Michael can decide that...but I will not affront this deeply religious woman.

"Lord'll send him where he's needed."

This makes my insides ache. What if what she says is true, and what if where he's needed is so far away...I can't think about this. I can't lose my little boy.

"He's not lookin' to be away from you's, Malvin."

I relax a little.

"He's a good boy, loves his daddy. He ain't lookin' to get outta Dodge."

I can sit back and enjoy now. I think.

"But it ain't your boy all that's worryin' you. You's in love again, Malvin."

Am I that goddamned transparent? Jan saw it. Genie saw it. I'm not sure about Byers, but at least he's had the grace (or shame) not to bring it up again.

Once again, my guts clench, and I feel the blood rushing to my ears. I almost feel faint.

"Malvin, don't be lookin' so s'prised. You 'members the storm the other day, don't ya?"

Little hard to forget. I down the rest of my beer. It's forming a huge pool of acid in my gut.

"Well, that storm, when it was comin', I gots the worstest headache I ever gots, and I gets some bad ones, you know that. And when it come, I got so many sights, my head was just swimmin'. But you know, that was the Lord workin', tellin' me things, and I paid 'tention."

I suspect the migraine might have been due to a sharp drop in barometric pressure...but this is Genie. I listen.

"And he shows me you with this here woman."

I'm really listening now.

"She's a purty little thing, ain't she? I mean, when you first sees her, you don't think nothin' 'bout her, she's like so plain in a way, but then you sees her 'gain, and you says, how could I ever a thought that?"

"She's married, Genie."

"I knows that! And she's a good wife to him. Always has been. But right now, the thoughts she's havin', well, they ain't too wifely, know what I mean?"

Oh. My. God. She IS thinking about me.

"All's I can say is, be her friend. The Lord'll provide."

I'd love to have Genie's faith in a Supreme Being, and her patience with him.

I don't. I'm not even convinced of the existence of a supreme being.

I am, however, a firm believer in Genie.

"What about her husband?"

"He ain't gonna live forever...but don't you be jumpin' in on her moment he's dead'n'gone. She ain't gonna be ready for that. You ain't no teenager no more, Malvin, so don't goes and acts like it."

I could seriously die of embarrassment at this very moment. Anyone other than Genie, and it would have occurred already.

"How's the little boy?" I think she means Patrick.

"Langly's little boy?"

"Yep. He doing okay? He's havin' a hard row to hoe there, what with him bein' so little and all, not knowin' where his daddy is."

"Allison and Langly, I believe, have told him that his father won't be coming back."

"I's sure they have, but he's just a little thing, he don't understand it yet. He's lucky, though, they's takin' good care a him."

"That they are."

"They's best be careful. Somebody's lookin' for that boy."

My blood runs cold. Anyone else could have told me this, and I would likely have blown them off.

Fact is, Genie's track record is too damn good. She talks, you damn well better listen.

"Somebody's wantin' that child. And the wife, Langly's wife, she's a Jewess." A word I haven't heard in a while. "That's gonna be causin' trouble for them. And same with Mulder. Somebody's wantin' a child of his. They's wantin' the first one."

"Who?" I demand.

She shakes her head, closes her eyes. "Cain't gets me a clear sight. I tries to see, gets all muddy."

"The...Consortium?"

She frowns. "I don't know nothin' 'bout no consort'yum or whatever you calls it...I only sees people. And right now, I don't see their faces."

"With the administration in power, there is a lot of...anti-Jewish sentiment."

"Lot more'n'senti-ment. Getting' ugly. Jews they ain't finding work. I told you this, long time 'go."

"And now it's coming."

"Ain't comin'. It's here."

"Genie, I know you are among the...faithful."

"Amen."

"Do you ever watch...any of the...people on TV?"

This gets a hard, sharp, but deeply bemused laugh-for a minute. Then she goes serious. "Malvin, I ain't got that kinda time to be wastin'. And they's devils. They says they does the Lord's work, but I knows better. They's poison. They ain't no more Christian than I'm a Jew or a boy. You knows that Lucifer was a fallen angel, don't yous?"

"I remember hearing that."

"Well, these men, the ones you see, they ain't the ones that you really gots to be scared of. It's them you don't see. They's the ones with the power. The devil's power. And you don't never underestimate the devil, Malvin. If you believes in the Lord, you believes in the devil, and you gives him respect."

Interesting idea. I have to keep in mind that I am talking to a Kentucky hillfolk woman, eighth-grade education, raised on tent revivals in the Pentecostal tradition.

"I knows you doesn't believe me, Malvin. You thinks the devil ain't real. Well, believe you me, he's real. And he's strong. That's why you got to treat him with respect."

"I think...I believe in the presence of evil."

"You better, cause it's right here. Around us, in us, among us. You gots to be careful. Yous all gots to be careful. I pray for y'all, the Lord keep you safe."

Even if I'm not sure I believe in the ability of divine power to intervene on our behalf, I am deeply appreciative of the gesture. My belief is not what's important here; what is important is hers.

"So when's I'm gonna hear from Byers and his lady? I's cooking for their wedding, y'know."

That she has decided this, and they haven't, doesn't surprise me in the least.

"I don't think...they have a date yet."

"They's gonna have one soon. And good thing, too. They's been makin' babies."

I shudder. Byers? Juliet? Two of the most well-organized, carefully laid out, totally anal humans I am acquainted with...well, it does confirm my suspicions that they're not being perhaps as careful as they should.

"She's not...yet?"

"Not yet. But mark my words, come the wedding, they's gonna find out they's got a bun in the oven."

"I can have them call you tomorrow, if you'd like."

"No need. I knows what I's makin' for the feast."

That doesn't surprise me, either.

"Prob'ly be in early fall. Purty time a year. Good time for a weddin.'"

At least we shouldn't be dying of heat prostration by then. I hope.

"My ex-wife came down for the funeral. To be with Michael and Kelly."

"Your boy's getting' on better with his mama. That's good. He needs his mama. And his girl does, too."

"She's...mellowed."

"Comes a time, you just cain't waste all your time hatin.' I think she started seein' that, and that's how come she's got a love in her life 'gain, and her boy's talkin' to her."

I rather figured it for the other way around myself.

"Hard for ya, ain't it?" She opens her eyes, lights another Camel, and stares at me.

"It is...strange."

"You kinda wants the boy to be good with his mama, but you sorta feel strange 'bout it, dontcha?"

"I do." And more than a little jealous. Michael will apparently tell her things he will not confide in me about. I am somewhat puzzled and injured, because I was rather under the impression that I was far closer to him than his mother was.

"Maybe yous just got to get over worryin' 'bout him and the girl so much. They's gonna have some hard times, they's already been havin' hard times, but they's all right. He ain't no boy no more, Malvin. You gots to let go a little."

"They're just so young, that's all."

"No, that ain't it. Well, yeah, they's young, sure, but you's afraid they's not gonna need ya no more. And that just ain't so. They's always gonna need ya, Malvin."

I nod. This isn't the first time I've been told I'm hanging on to my son too hard. Not by Genie, or by anyone, for that matter.

"And y'know, when the time comes, and yous got it together with the lady, how's you think he's gonna feel? You's got to show him a little faith, you want him to show it to you."

"You said to be her friend, not her lover."

"I didn't say nothin' of the sort. I says you gots to give her time. But we's all gonna need each other. And you know why?"

Other than the obvious reasons?

"Cause these people, these people whose faces I cain't see, they's gonna make it look like it's gonna be in the book a John the Revelator. They's gonna make it look like the end a the world's comin', like the Rapture's on the way. But you know what? It ain't gonna be so."

That's comforting to know. After a fashion.

"But times is gonna be bad, Malvin. You gots to keep on speakin' the truth, the truth as you know it, and get it to people. Lots a people. Cause this is the devil's work, the great deceptor. Mark my words, this winter, you watch. The plague's comin'. But it ain't no work a the Lord. This is the devil's work, and you gotta help stop it."

I nod, mute. Genie has always told me this is my role. To spread the truth.

In our own, tiny way, we have always tried.

"But you gots to be real careful. Specially with the young'uns. That's how they tries to gets to ya. Just like in the Exodus."

"Killing the firstborn?"

She shakes her head. "It ain't just gonna be firstborns this time. Or boys. It's gonna be all the young'uns. Particularly them young'uns who gots parents that's Jews."

I shudder.

"And you gots to know what's really the work a the Lord, and what's the work a the devil. Like that there storm couple days back, they's goin' on and on 'bout how the Lord sends it down to us as a signal to repent. Well, I got news for them all. That ain't no sign from the Lord. That's bad weather. Nothin' more. Bad weather and bad luck."

Interesting how, even for a spiritualist like Genie, sometimes a cigar is just a smoke.

"But it ain't all bad weather and bad luck. I ain't felt this much evil since back when the world war was on, when I was just a girl. Course, talkin' 'bout it then, people thinks I was crazy. Thought I was bein' possessed by the devil. Didn't unnerstand that this is a gift. And like I always says, I gots two gifts from the Lord. One's I can cook, other's I got the sight. And Langly's girl, the girl from his wife? She gots the sight too. And your friend there Mulder. He gots it as well. He don't control it real well, though. But his little girl, the first one? One that looks just like him? She gots it, too. She don't know it, a course. She's just a babe still. It'll be strong in her, though. So long's nobody gets near that little one."

I am freezing inside. Rebecca Mulder. Miranda Gerstein-Langly. I know these children. I love them.

I fear for them.

"You said something about the little boy...Patrick is his name."

"Cute little feller, ain't he? You gots to look out for him. You gots to be real careful, his mama and daddy gots to be real careful."

"His parents are dead. That's why he's with them."

"I know that. But he's startin' to be thinkin' that they's his mama and daddy. And he should Cause they loves him."

"What should they do? If in fact someone is looking to...harm these children?"

"No if 'bout it. They just gotta watch 'em, all the time. Be real careful. Don't know what elses they's can do for 'em. I gets another sight, I know more, I tell ya. You know that."

I came here looking for comfort. I should know better than to seek that in talking to Genie.

Yet in an odd sense, there is comfort. Something surrounding her home, not unlike a force field, is a calm sense that all can go well. Genie does not believe that everything is preordained. She believes some things are. She also believes we have the power to change things-or, in her interpretation, to work with the power of the Lord to change things.

"Your friend. Mulder. You talk to him much last few days?"

"No, not since the day after the storm, and to e-mail him regarding the funeral."

"He's havin' headaches. Lots a headaches. And he cain't take no med-caishun for 'em. Cause his wife's finding somethin' wrong in the med-caishun. Poisons. Poisons for the mind. She tell you 'bout that?"

"I know she's been working on it for nearly a month."

"She might be still workin'. She's a real careful one, that wife a his. And she ain't gonna go sayin' nothin' 'less she knows what she gots. I hope they's got themselves some helping at home, though. Cause he took somethin' when he had a real bad one, time you bringed him here, and it can tip his mind over 'gain. Make him feel crazy."

The kids. Oh Christ. I think of the day Michael was watching the girls...

"Me, I don't never take nothin' for these. They's bad, but they's the Lord's way a lettin' me know he's workin'. Ain't no way somethin' good come without no pain. So's I just 'cept it and it always goes 'way. But one thing, I gets one, I knows better than bein' round anybody. I goes to my room, I waits for it to pass. He gots to do the same. He cain't be takin' care a no babies right now."

"I need to tell his wife, then."

"'Zackly."

"I don't seriously think...he'd ever harm those kids. He adores them to the point of spoiling them."

"But when he gots that kind a pain, his judgment, it can get bad, and he might just let anybody be watchin' the babies. No. He cain't do that. You gots to tell him."

"How'm I going to do that?"

She opens her eyes again and smiles. "You tell the lady you gots work for him to be doin'. That she unnerstands. Then when she gets to findin' someone she wants to be with them there babes, you check 'em out, you check 'em out so good, so she don't have to be havin' no worries. And it's gotta be someone special. Cause they's gonna have more little girls real soon."

"More daughters?" I confess to being amused.

"'Taint their fate to have no sons."

I nod. I think, if Mulder knew this, he might be somewhat disappointed. Much as he loves his daughters, I get the impression he would like it if he and the lovely Dana Scully could try for a son.

Which I can understand. I have a son. And a daughter. And it's good to have both.

Still, I consider it unlikely, in view of her experiences bringing her two daughters into the world, that she would consent to another pregnancy.

"Malvin, you needs to be on your way now." She clasps my hand gently.

"Thank you for your...counsel."

"Taint my counsel. I just leaves myself open to the Lord, try to be a clean vessel, speak the truth he tells me."

As I have said before, you ignore this woman at your peril.

END OF PART 92