The Lady Next Door
All the kids who lived in Little Willow knew better than to scream, play, or roughhouse anywhere near Miss Kathy’s house. Once, Roger Spinnet kicked a soccer ball over the fence into her yard. We told him it wasn’t worth it and that anyway, Angela Carrow had a soccer ball we could use instead, plus we had lost other stuff over there and no one had ever gone to get it. But Roger insisted that he had just got the soccer ball for his birthday and that his parents would be really mad if he lost it, so he went over into the yard to get the ball. The rest of us hung around across the street, silently waiting and trying to catch a glimpse of him between the fence boards and watching the windows of Miss Kathy’s house really closely so we could shout at Roger to get out if we saw her. Forever later, Roger came back outside of Miss Kathy’s yard. He didn’t have the soccer ball and he was shaking his head really hard and his face was super white like he’d seen a ghost. All of us were too scared to ask what happened and besides, Roger didn’t seem like he could talk about it, but we always used Angela Carrow’s soccer ball after that.
I would sometimes hear my mom talking to Marcy Davis’ mom about Miss Kathy, but it was in the different way that grown-ups talk about things, like instead of being scary Miss Kathy was Just a Bother and Kind of Weird. “The yard is a wreck” – she’d say to Mrs. Davis, shaking her head – “and the fence is falling down. It’s a blight on the neighborhood. I swear she gets off on tanking our property values.” I didn’t know what a blight was but the yard was a wreck, that was for sure. The grass was like two feet tall and covered in dandelions and the front picket fence was kind of tipped over, with paint peeling down the few boards that were still nailed up.
Mom was also mad that Miss Kathy never came to neighborhood meetings or barbecues, but we kids were glad she didn’t come because we knew better. Rumor was there used to be a Mister Kathy, years ago before any of us came to the neighborhood. Apparently everyone loved Mister Kathy and he came to all the barbecues and the grass in their yard was always short and green, and Miss Kathy even came out of the house sometimes, but by the time we moved in, the yard was dead and Mister Kathy was gone, and all we saw of Miss Kathy was the curtains in her upstairs windows moving sometimes and a hand quickly disappearing behind them. According to Marcy, Miss Kathy was a real honest-to-goodness witch, and she cooked Mister Kathy up like soup in one of her spells. Marcy thinks Miss Kathy tried to get Roger Spinnet too, but he got away – super lucky.
There was one person in Little Willow who wasn’t afraid of Miss Kathy at all, and that was Jason, the mailman. Miss Kathy didn’t get that much mail, but when she did, Jason would walk right up to her porch and slide the mail through the slot in the door, even though we yelled at him not to. We worried about Jason because he was extra nice and would always play soccer with us when he passed by and we didn’t want Miss Kathy to get him, but Jason laughed a big belly laugh when we told him Miss Kathy was a witch, and even when we told him about Mister Kathy. “She’s not a witch, you dopes,” he said, kicking the soccer ball between Angela’s legs. “Kath’s the sweetest, she just has agoraphobia. And you kids don’t do her any favors by runnin’ away from her house with fires under your asses like you’ve just seen a ghost.” (Which wasn’t just a random example, because we’d all seen Roger Spinnet’s face that day with the soccer ball)
After Jason said that, we kids started thinking that maybe Miss Kathy had somehow been able to cast a spell on him, and sure enough, just a few weeks later something terrible happened. Like normal, Jason walked up to Miss Kathy’s door to deliver her mail while we yelled at him to stay away, but not like normal, this time the DOOR OPENED, and just like that Jason walked into Miss Kathy’s house, and we saw her shadow for just a minute and her fingers around the doorknob, and then the door closed and Jason disappeared inside.
“He can’t go in there!!” shrieked Angela, covering her face, “The Goraphobia’s bound to get him!” Roger Spinnet had turned just as white as he had that day with the soccer ball, and I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my mouth. We all stood there waiting and staring at the house, not even talking, until Jason finally came out of the house WAY later and we all breathed a giant sigh of relief and Angela basically passed out. We ran towards Jason, thinking we’d hug him and tell him we were glad he was safe, but at the last minute Marcy whispered, “The Goraphobia!” and we all stopped a few feet away from him, just in case he was on Miss Kathy’s side now.
After that, Jason started coming around a lot more, and even though we were afraid he might be different now that Miss Kathy had got him, he always seemed like the same old Jason and he always still played soccer with us, although we made sure to stay a few feet away from him just in case. Each time he came, Jason would disappear into Miss Kathy’s house, and each time he stayed longer and longer, until finally he would be there for a few days at a time. Angela would freak out every time this happened, but Jason always came back out eventually, looking maybe more happy than he ever had before.
Even though Mom didn’t know about Jason, she and Mrs. Davis noticed something was different, too. “Did you see the fence has been fixed up??” Mom exclaimed one day after a few months, “And the grass is a respectable length. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I’ll take it. The Marshalls are putting their house on the market next month and I believe they may finally have a chance of selling.” Now that she mentioned it, the grass did seem shorter and the paint looked fresh and bright, like Jason was bringing all his sunshine with him when he went to visit.
Before we knew it, more time went by and Miss Kathy’s grass stayed short and the weather got hot and my favorite day of the year, the big summer barbecue on the 4th of July, finally came. We were having the best time running through the big clouds of blue and pink smoke and waving sparklers in the air when suddenly, Roger gasped and pointed at Miss Kathy’s house with his jaw dropped down to his chest.
We all spun around and Angela almost fell over in shock. Miss Kathy’s front door was wide open and coming out of it was Jason, beaming widely, and, walking slightly behind him, clinging tightly to his arm and smiling shyly, her whole face surrounded in golden sunlight and looking as kind and happy as I’ve ever seen a person look, was Miss Kathy, who, it turns out, wasn’t a witch at all and had never even cooked her husband, but was actually just a really nice lady who stayed inside pretty much all of the time, but now Jason stayed with her and the house was sunny instead of scary, and Roger Spinnet actually got his soccer ball back, which it turns out Miss Kathy was keeping safe for him all along.
