The Pantry Door by Julie Steimle (ebook reader online free .TXT) 📖

folded her arms, waiting for both Gibsons to face up to it. The clerk blinked and then crossed to stand in Lloyd and Trent’s way.

The bagger burst into a laugh and shouted out. “I knew the Gibsons were thieves! Bring him back in here. A slap on the wrist isn’t enough.”

Trent bolted.

Lloyd shouted after him, but the clerk had seized Lloyd’s arm firmly, shaking his elderly face at him.

“Get your hands off me, you old—” Lloyd then started to swear like nothing else. So much that Grandma Schmidt gasped aloud and walked over to Katy to cover her ears. Katy didn’t dare say that she had heard plenty worse at school from her old friends. They just watched Lloyd shout out at the store keeper and then dig into his pockets for his wallet in between curses to pay for the candy Trent stole, especially since the store keeper threatened to call both their folks and bring up the issue with the local sheriff.

“And you,” Lloyd pointed a finger at Katy, his pitiless eyes glaring like dark specks of a devil that hated her to the core, “you fink, if I see you anywhere near our house—” He then made the kill gesture, swiping his fingers under his chin across his throat with a guttural noise.

Grandma Schmidt pushed Katy behind her, puffing up her chest. “If you lay a finger on my granddaughter, you’ll be rotting in jail for the rest of your life.”

Lloyd only snorted at her, tossing back his head. “Yeah, right, old lady. Your creepy old man ain’t around to do nothin’.”

“I’ll ignore your improper grammar,” Grandma Schmidt replied, though Katy looked up as if it were insane for such an old, helpless woman to even be facing the lead demon of the Gibson clan, “And I will warn you again. I am not friendless. We have witnesses, and I have a secret weapon. If I ever choose to unleash it, you and all your nasty family had better watch out.”

For some reason, Lloyd went white. He swallowed and his chest heaved up and down, like he was remembering some ancient horror he had forgotten once, but now jumped out at him in full force. Whatever it was, he backed away from Grandma Schmidt. However, he still cast an angry look at Katy, one that promised death or at least torture of the worst kind if he ever caught her alone.

Lloyd Gibson shoved past the clerk and stomped out of the grocery store. Katy breathed easier when he was gone.

“Thank you, Miss Schmidt,” the clerk bent down and said to Katy. “I’m glad to have an honest customer like you around.”

Katy made a face at him for getting her name wrong, still glancing outside to where Lloyd was probably waiting to jump them in the parking lot.

“Do you want me to call the police and have them watch out for you?” the clerk asked Grandma Schmidt.

Grandma Schmidt gave a kindly glance outside and nodded. “Perhaps it might be best.”

The bagger joyfully hopped to the phone. Katy watched him, wondering if they had problems with the Gibsons stealing from their store before. As he dialed, Katy peeked over at her grandmother, wondering if her secret weapon was a particular police officer. She was now chatting with the clerk in lower voices about some trouble they had lately with mischief in the neighborhood. Cow tipping was one of the things they mentioned, though battered mailboxes were another. Katy could hear the grim tone as her Gran said, “Don’t they know meddling with mailboxes is a federal offense? Not just some stupid prank?”

With a shrug, the clerk glanced at Katy again, hitching up a smile. “I don’t know what goes on in their empty heads. Probably just bad air.”

“I called them.” The bagger came back, grinning like he was having the best day ever. “If you two hang around and give your witness, they’d much appreciate it.”

Katy watched Grandma Schmidt nod; though with the gurgle in her stomach, she wished they didn’t have to stay.

The sheriff came by, chatted with Grandma Schmidt first and then asked what Katy saw. Katy burned with embarrassment as she related how she saw Trent slip in where the clerk wasn’t looking and sneak the candy into his pockets. The sheriff didn’t ask much beyond that, noting it down. As the clerk informed him that Lloyd had paid for his cousin’s steal, he noted it, but gave He also noted down from the clerk that Lloyd paid for his cousin’s steal, giving it a tilt of his head and side nod since there wasn’t much he could do about the incident except talk with his parents. There was a tired heave of his shoulders that said this wasn’t the first time the Gibsons had been caught stealing from the market.

When Katy and her grandmother finally walked to the car with their groceries, they had a deputy with them who mostly chatted as though he didn’t think there was any reason to safeguard them except to assure the store clerk who still looked agitated. Katy hadn’t forgotten Lloyd’s threat, though Grandma Schmidt didn’t look at all bothered. With her shoulders up and her chin held justified, it was clear she didn’t think Lloyd able to hurt them anymore than with threats.

As soon as Katy reached her grandmother’s house and they had unpacked all the food, they ate lunch with haste as both Gran and Katy were tired from the ordeal. Afterwards, they both parted ways—Grandma Schmidt to her nap and Katy to the cupboard.

“Nissa?” Katy climbed up, sticking her head into the attic room.

No answer.

Heaving herself inside the room, Katy crawled to the window and looked out. Nissa was nowhere to be found. Their origami books were still there, and so were the myth books. Sitting back, Katy flipped the pages open to the illustrated mythology book and continued to read where they had left off. On the page was a fine illustration of a sprite. It looked half human, half insect, its long spindly wings extending over most of the page. Its legs and arms were spidery. The sprite was dressed in dry leaves, worn like a skirt, with a dainty acorn on top for a hat. Gazing on it, for a moment, Katy felt like this one creature could be real somewhere, like that little gnome Nissa had seen in her garden.

She turned a page.

Here was an elegantly painted image of a water sprite. Gills and fins, her face and hair looked scaly, but Katy blinked as the woman also looked like she had no clothes on. Rolling her eyes, Katy turned the page to read up about Sirens who were famous for drowning men in an old story called the Odyssey. These looked more sinister and sexier. They also had chicken legs and wings. Katy cringed, ready to turn the page again, but as she did, she heard an eerie wind-like moan coming from behind.

She stiffened then slowly turned to look.

But there was no ghost behind her. Instead, Katy saw hanging out from the wallpaper in ceiling, one of the grapevines. The grapevine looked real, rather than paper. And in the vine it dangled her grandfather’s old wood instrument on the end of a curled stem. A slight wind rocked the woodwind, causing that faint moan.

Her book slid off her lap. Katy closed it, blinking at the instrument. The vine from the wallpaper twisted and extended the instrument out further practically offering it to her. For one heart-pounding moment, Katy imagined this vine as some sort of wicked plant tempting her so it could strangle her. But she reached to it and snatched her grandfather’s pipe away, watching the grape vine immediately roll back and lay flat back onto the wallpaper. Rushing to it, Katy touched the wall. She felt it, patted it—but the vine was no more real than a sketch. Gazing down at the instrument with the worn beads on the neck, Katy set one hand over her mouth. Why was this here? Wasn’t it supposed to be in the glass case? How come it was here now? And what was that vine?

But she heard shouts, and Katy turned again, first to the window. But the shouts were not coming from outside. Katy then crawled to the cupboard. The shouts came down from the kitchen.

“Come on out, you little sh—” Lloyd stomped around in her kitchen, bringing something down with a loud boom.

Katy’s heart jumped. She clenched the woodwind in her hands. Her mind raced, hearing bangs and booms down below. At first she pulled away from the cupboard door, but the door opened wider, almost calling her to go down. Then Katy remembered Grandma Schmidt.

She was alone. She could get hurt.

Jumping down the dark cupboard space, Katy dropped to the bottom shelf. She pushed open the door and hopped out into the kitchen. As she saw Lloyd spin around, his eyes were lit with a fire of vengeance. Her grandmother’s glass things all around were smashed, including one window and the center of their kitchen table. She could hear her grandmother pounding behind a locked door, screaming for help. The surging impulse to play a tune she had not played in years rushed through her. It didn’t seem right. She ought to call the police. But as Katy glanced to the bashed in telephone and Lloyd advancing on her, she lifted the wooden pipe to her lips and played.

At first the tune started in like a call. It trumpeted and shouted, then proceeded into a tune for a dance. And as she played, Katy noticed fluttering first then zipping in, tiny winged things with spidery legs. One winked at her before it whipped through the air straight at Lloyd, gathering with others like irritated hornets, swarming. Their buzz filled the room the same time his bat came up. Then down went his bat.

But not on Katy.

Lloyd yowled, swatting, flailing his arms, staggering then running like a man on fire. “Hornets!”

Katy followed him right out of the kitchen in a marching stride, still playing that tune as the little sprites dived on Lloyd and another intruder, driving them straight out of the house like bees from a nest. When they had all gone from the yard, she lowered the pipe and stared at it.

The sprites were gone. For a long moment Katy wished they could have stayed. However, Nissa’s words came back to her that things like that ought not to be dealt with lightly. That, and she heard her grandma pounding on the door behind her.

Turning round, Katy walked back inside the house to her grandmother’s room. A chair had been jammed under the doorknob to keep her in. Katy removed the chair. As soon as Katy opened the door, Gran tumbled out. The old woman took one look at the kitchen, then another at Katy and Grandpa Schmidt’s pipe.

She extended her hand to Katy. “I’ll take that.”

Passing the pipe over, Katy sighed, wondering if she would ever see a sprite again. Despite all the warnings Nissa had given her, seeing magical things made her heart race with excitement. She only wanted to see more.

The Witch

Grandma Schmidt went over to the neighbors to telephone the