Lily by Michael Thomas Ford

Author:Michael Thomas Ford [Ford, Michael Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Lethe Press
Published: 2016-11-13T21:00:00+00:00

E I G H T E E N

BABA YAGA STOOD looking down at the bodies of the Blithe family.

“I’ll give you this, you’re very thorough,” she said to Mr. Scratch. “What did he do?”

“Unpaid debt,” Mr. Scratch replied. “The usual thing.”

Baba Yaga poked the body of the boy with her toe. “Seems a waste of good food,” she remarked.

Mr. Scratch bent and plucked the stuffed rabbit from the little girl’s hand. He slipped it into his pocket. “You’re a long way from home,” he said to Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga grunted. “It’s the girl,” she said. “She intrigues me.” She looked at her old acquaintance out of the side of her eye. “As I think she does you.”

Mr. Scratch shrugged, which told Baba Yaga that she was right. He’ll never admit finding someone else interesting, she thought to herself. He’s too much of a narcissist.

“Tell me about this God,” she said, emphasizing the capital in an attempt to provoke him.

Another shrug. “Someone they invented,” he said.

“Then he’s not real?”

“Who’s to say?” said Mr. Scratch. “By now he might be. They’ve been talking about him for a long time, perhaps long enough to make him real. I don’t know. I’ve never met him.”

Baba Yaga glanced at the bodies again. “They seem to credit you with rather a lot of things I suspect you haven’t done,” she remarked.

Mr. Scratch laughed. “I think blame would be a more accurate word,” he said. “But it’s been this way for centuries. I’m used to it.” He winked. “Besides, I’ve done enough. I’m really not terribly nice, you know.”

“An affectation,” Baba Yaga said. “I’ve always found you delightful company.”

“Only because you don’t want anything from me,” said Mr. Scratch. “I’ve yet to discover your weakness.”

“I haven’t any,” Baba Yaga insisted. “I am perfectly content.”

“And yet you left your forest to follow a child.”

“That’s merely boredom,” Baba Yaga told him. “Besides, I haven’t traveled in many years. One should travel. It’s broadening. So, you’re going to help the girl?”

“You’re changing the subject,” Mr. Scratch said.

“Only slightly,” said Baba Yaga. “Well, are you?”

“I’m going to vouch for her, yes,” Mr. Scratch said. “Spread the word of her abilities.”

“To what end?”

“Because it entertains me.”

Mr. Scratch turned and left the clearing, disappearing into the green of the woods without a farewell. Baba Yaga wasn’t offended. It was just his way. Also, she knew she had vexed him, if only slightly. She cackled lowly, lest he hear her.

“He’s lying,” she informed the Blithe family. “You can always tell when he’s lying. His left eye dims a bit. It’s why he never bests me at cards.”

The question on her mind was, why was he involving himself in this matter of the girl? There was something he wasn’t telling her. Well, there were many things he wasn’t telling her. But something about the girl in particular. She could understand him becoming mixed up in the game of life and death that the preacher was playing, in particular the spectator sport of watching people wrestle with their obsession over their own ends and finding ways to escape oblivion.

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