After closing the case on the female killer, my captain was so happy, that he let me take more vacation time. I sidetracked to the Forest of Lost Souls on the way back to Grandmother’s house. While waiting for the Gatekeeper to appear, I glanced around the forest. What would happen if I walked past the gate into the compound? Do I instantly die and become one of the lost souls?
“No that won’t happen. The only result is extreme dizziness and nausea. You might pass out, even. Strangers that wander this way always stagger out and throw up.”
The Gatekeeper read my mind. That was scary!
“Only when you are close to me. At a distance, no I can’t. Don’t know why. Could be so people won’t think you’re crazy. Wandering around the forest, talking to yourself.”
“That was before cell phones with earpieces. Now we walk around and talk out loud seemingly to no one. But I came to hear more stories. Tell me another one about some past Catchers.”
The Gatekeeper’s form again darkened; the birds went still. I sat on the tree trunk and waited to start his tale.
*****
Your grandmother’s mother was a hog caller. Sadie won all sorts of awards at county fairs. In our current time, she would have been a tremendous opera singer. Sadie was content to use her voice in the church choir and for calling hogs. A beautiful, petite woman, she appeared to be a child working alongside her husband on the farm.
Her songs were intense and beguiling, even if only calling the hogs to come to eat. No, ‘Sooouie!’ for her. At the fairs, people came, not to compete, but to hear her magnificent voice. Funny part, all the hogs there for show would break from their pens and come searching for her. It was kind of like the Pied Piper in the children’s story.
He paused for a moment, lost in his memories. After a sigh, the Gatekeeper started again.
*****
She was only ten when her father passed her the knife. He must have had a premonition. The next day a storm blew through. Destroyed their house, killed her parents, and deposited Sadie in a tree. The preacher and his wife took her in. People commented she was a miracle child, because of never growing much taller than when she was ten plus her startling voice in such a small person. She blended in with their five boys and was treated like a baby sister.
When Sadie married Jacob, he was seventeen, she was sixteen. By that time, she had already sent two lost souls to me. The couple rebuilt her destroyed house and farmed the property.
A few years later, she had to kill another assailant. Realizing that her husband would hear from the townspeople about the poor man falling from a window at her feet, Sadie explained to Jacob about the knife. “My father passed it to me the day before he died. I don’t understand how, but if there is an evil person around, he finds me.”
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He gave her a ‘what kind of crazy woman did I marry’ stare.
“He told me that the knife was passed from generation to generation through our family.”
She lifted her skirt and released the knife from its sheath. Tossing the blade into the air, the light shone on the silver metal as it spun around the room above their heads. As if tired of the game, it dropped and hung suspended above her open hand. She clicked her fingers and pointed. The knife flew toward the wall. It hit so hard that their house shook. After a few seconds of quivering and shaking loose from the wood, it extracted itself, and in a slow float, returned to her hand.
Sadie explained, “Father passed it to me and said it only worked against the Lost Souls with evil inside them. I used it on three instances, including the one today. Each time, the men rushed at me screaming with intent to kill. Not sure how they know, but one of them said something about the ‘scent.”
In those days, it wasn’t because there was less evil, but simply because people were not as mobile. Seven years passed before she had to use it one last time. A traveling man rode up in his shiny 1938 van. In large letters it declared, GENERAL HANDYMAN. Printing on the sides offered to sharpen knives, repair tools, and fix wagons. He swung open his car door and stepped to the ground. The traveler appeared normal, tall, and lanky with a charming smile, but the hogs started squealing.
Annabelle, who was six at the time, came running out of the house. The man’s long arms caught her. Swinging her around so that she faced Sadie. His eyes gleamed with a dark intensity. With one big hand, he pinned the child against him. His other hand wrapped around her neck. He smiled and squeezed tighter. The child kicked and struggled, her face turning bright red. “I smell a Catcher.”
Jacob came running from the barn with a shotgun. He yelled, “Hey!”
The man turned to him. “Is it you?”
“No, wrong one.” Sadie released the knife from her leg and pointed.
It sunk deep into the man’s forehead. He fell backward and landed spread-eagle on the ground. His face froze in a shocked expression as life left him. Sadie walked over and held her hand out. The knife quivered and then floated toward it. She slipped the weapon back into its sheath.
“While Jacob cuddled his crying child, he glanced down at the dead attacker. “The wound has disappeared. Is he alive?”
“No, he’s dead. The disappearance is part of the knife’s mysticism. Another wound will surface. See that bruise forming on his forehead? The man slipped climbing out of his automobile and hit his head on the doorframe as he fell.”
Jacob stared up at the sky as if searching for answers. After a few moments, he said in a controlled voice, “I’ll take him and the van to the sheriff. He can deal with it.”
“Don’t mention the knife.”
“Wasn’t planning to. You stay here with Annabelle, I’ll handle this. I wish I knew about this from the beginning.”
“Would it have made a difference?” She took Annabelle from him and hugged the child.
Jacob hefted the dead man into the passenger’s side of the van. After slamming the door shut, he turned to her and stood confused, struggling for words.
Sadie gave him a sad smile. “Later we’ll talk.”
*****
“There were never any more episodes. They lived their days in peace working on the farm. Sadie had two boys; Annabelle’s brother Seth died young. Thaddeus, well he had a restless spirit and wandered from place to place. He died before you turned twelve. Sadie, as you know, passed the knife on to Annabelle when she turned twelve.”
Something the way he said, before you were twelve, caught my attention. I started to ask him about his phrasing when the Gatekeeper gave an enigmatic smile and faded into the mist.