Page 37 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part Two

“Did you?”

“Yes.” I waved my hand. “Never mind. What’s wrong with Lochlan? He can’t be sick. That much I know. I mean heliterallycan’t be sick.”

“No, Rita. He’s not sick.”

“Well, then?”

Keir took a deep breath. “He has a house guest whom he probably shouldn’t leave alone.”

“Why not?” I asked cautiously.

“For one thing, she doesn’t speak English.”

“Keir, I don’t think I’ve ever thought of you as tedious. Or annoying. Don’t make me start.”

He locked eyes with me. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until you’ve showered and put on real clothes? And had some English Breakfast tea?”

“I’m not moving from this spot until you spit it out.”

“It’s Medusa.”

I let go of the bedpost I’d been leaning against and sat down on the bed. “Has all the color left my face?” I asked.

“No. You’re as beautiful and colorful as ever. Maybe more so. Esme came by early and had a chat with Olivia to deliver the news without waking you.”

“Why didn’t I hear the bell?”

“I asked the same thing.”

“For once in her life she was trying to be considerate. She went around back, stood outside the kitchen window until she got Liv’s attention, then opened the mudroom door. Quietly.”

I nodded, impressed that Esme would go to such lengths to keep me asleep. One would think sleep was the last thing I’d need, but in a sense, I hadn’t slept for days. My mind was exhausted and needed the downtime.

“What did she say?”

“She was up late working in her studio when Jeff showed up with Medusa. Only, and this is the unbelievable part, Esme had given Jeff the idea that he could trap Medusa by looking and sounding like Athena and promising to turn her back to the way she was before.”

“Before? You mean before she became a monster?”

“Exactly. So, I guess Jeff, as Athena, had this off-the-wall idea that he might actually do it. I guess he thought it couldn’t hurt to try. So, he did. And, Jeff told Esme who told Olivia that he said ‘presto changeo’, she was the teenaged, Greek-speaking girl she’d been before she was a nightmare.”

As I sat on the bedside trying to process this, the only that came to mind was, “Wow.”

“So, what happened then?”

“Esme left Lochlan, Jeff, and Medusa in her studio and came by here. I scolded her for ringing in the middle of the night, but it didn’t wake you. She said Jeff had returned.”

“That was all?”

“Yes. She was headed across the lane when I closed the door. But she told Liv she insisted that Lochlan, in his robe and slippers, accompany her to the studio. As fortune would have it, Lochlan speaks Greek and was able to communicate with the girl.”

“Does she remember…?”

“Unclear. Esme said she looked lost and that she talked a long time in Greek, but Lochlan didn’t translate it all. Jeff went home. Lochlan took Medusa with him. Now you know what I know.”

“Good grief.”

Keir sighed. “Maybe if Lochlan can’t come to you, you could go to Lochlan?”

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