Neal Pollack

For the next few days, Mary couldn'’t be budged from her home. She claimed she had housework to do but we knew she was keeping an eye on that strange man’s house. I assumed she still believed what they had told us in Sunday School, that black magic was the devil’s work, and she would keep the devil locked out of the house.

Ginny rushed over one day. “You won’t believe it,” she said, and before I had a chance to respond, she told me.

“My second cousin Ruth was downtown yesterday and she ran into her friend Sophia, who told her that she heard something unusual from Emma Vzral. Seems like Mary’s gentleman friend is even stranger than we thought. Emma’s father was delivering the milk to Billik and Billik stops him and gives him a strange look, and then says, ‘Your enemy is trying to destroy you.’”

“So the seer has seen something!” I said. “I hope the Vzrals got a good laugh out of it.”

“No,” said Ginny. “Apparently they'’re quite frightened. You know how superstitious they are.”

“But I didn'’t think they’d fall for a shyster. I wonder if Mary knows more about this,” I said, and we went to her house. When we told her, we realized that she hadn'’t heard the news, and was quite peeved that we’d found out information about him before she did.

She was still infuriated a few days later. “I have walked back and forth in front of that house several times and even said hello, as new neighbors, and I don’t know what is wrong with that man or that family,” she said. “He won’t acknowledge me at all.” Apparently she was more intrigued by the magician than afraid.

“So you have no enemy, let alone one that’s trying to destroy you?” I asked.

“No,” said Mary, ignoring my joke. “But did you smell that foul odor yesterday?”

“Was it Billik?” Ginny asked.

“It was coming from Henry Reynolds’s house, I found out. I just followed my nose,” she said, proudly. “But do you know what Reynolds does for a living?”

We looked at her blankly.

“He’'s a milkman. Like Vzral! That’s his enemy!”

“So?”

“I asked around, and one of the neighbors said that they saw Billik stride up to the Reynolds’s house and pour a pail of some mysterious liquid on the front steps. He was cursing them!”

“Mary, it doesn'’t seem terribly magical to me. A foul-smelling house is certainly a curse, but I don’t think it’s a mysterious one. What’s wrong with you? I think you’re a bit too caught up with this Billik person. Forget about him. Why don’t you—”

“No, thank you,” Mary cut me off.

A week later, Mary came over, looking smug. “Have you seen Mrs. Vzral lately?”

“No, I haven'’t,” I said, wanting to point out that I had better things to do than keep a watchful eye on all my neighbors.

“Well, she’'s worn new dresses three days so far this week. And you know what that means.”

“Time for laundry?”

“No, it means that the milk business is doing well. And you know why.”

“More cows?”

“It was Billik! I told you, that man had powers!”

I stared at Mary. “Have you spoken with this lunatic?”

“Yes, I have,” she said firmly. “And he was quite a gentleman. Anyway, he told me he had nothing to say to me.”

“So there you have it,” I replied. “He’'s a charlatan, Mary, He’'s practically admitting it. Why don’t you come back to us in the real world? Aren’t you concerned at all about his intentions? Maybe this business is just a lure for gullible young women.”

Her face reddened and briefly crumpled.

“Are you in love with him?”

She was silent.

“Mary, He’'s married. He’'s an immigrant. He’'s old. He’'s insane. He’'s ugly. Come on. You’re almost twenty. Don’t you want a man your own age?”

“I have to go, I’m sorry,” said Mary.

And Mary didn'’t speak to us for several months. I'’d see her in church, and she’d ignore me, but she’d stare venomously at the Vzral family, who appeared to Mass less and less frequently, looking worse and worse for the wear each time.

Eventually curiosity got the better of me as well, and since Mary wasn'’t speaking to me, in spring I went up to Emma, the oldest of the Vzral children, after services one day. She and I had been in class together in elementary school, so it wasn'’t completely inappropriate, even though it was admittedly none of my business.

“Is everything all right?” I asked, trying to seem casual. I couldn'’t tell if Emma recognized me or not but she looked pale and very thin, very tired.

“My sisters Catherine, Elizabeth, and June are all working for that man,” she said bitterly.

“Billik?”

“It’s not enough that my parents have paid for his trips, new clothes, but now my sisters are working as maids and giving the money to him,” she spat out.

“But why?”

“I see your friend creeping around him,” she said, ignoring my questions. “You tell her to stay away from him.”

“Mary?”

“Tell her to stay away,” Emma said, and walked off.

I went straight to Mary’s house after Mass. She looked at me coolly when I answered the door but I ignored her expression.

“Mary, have you been talking to Billik?”

“Why do you care?”

“Mary, I spoke with Emma Vzral at church—”