Witch Hazel Chapter 5 Part 4

Witch Hazel 

Chapter 5 Part 4

“CLAW IS COMING TO GET YOU!” she mock attacked the baby, who screamed with laughter at being tickled.

Rosalinda has grown so much over the summer, it’s hard for Benita to wrap her mind around. Her tiny infant was twice her previous size. While Leonardo had warned her that wolf babies grow fast, she wasn’t quite prepared for this growth spurt. It was hard for her to adjust to this life in some ways. She was familiar with human pregnancies and human babies, but with wolves it was different. She was pregnant so much longer and the babies were… different. 

Leonardo had done his best to explain to her how things were going to change but he didn’t have as firm a grasp on an ordinary human’s cycle of life to really prepare her. He’d told her that wolf babies have more of their natural instinct than humans do. They don’t cry as much or as loud because they’re young and vulnerable. They eat a lot and grow very fast to get out of that dangerous defenseless stage of life. 

Reflecting on it as she held her daughter, Benita knew she should have spent more time around other infants of their kind before she’d given birth. Wolves didn’t have a lot of children, at least not in their village, but the Herluins had a son recently. Little Basil, she believed.

“Oh, look at the time,” Benita said. “Your auntie should be arriving soon. Mommy needs to get a bath and change before she gets here.” Regardless of the differences she’d noticed, Benita doted on her daughter and tried not to let the strangeness she was dealing with really get to her. She kissed her forehead and put her back in her crib with her teddy. 

“Leo?” Benita had heard the car pull in and headed out the door to meet them. She was nervous about meeting his older sister like this, but she ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath.

“Hey love,” Leo greeted her as he walked out from the carport. “We’re back.” He smiled at her but she could see the strain there. He was worried, she knew. 

“Come on Karisme, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Benita clasped her hands behind her back and peered around her tall mate to try to see the woman who’d accompanied him back. What she saw startled her. 

“Hi,” Benita tried to relax and inwardly kicked herself for such a terrible greeting. She was sure the woman had noticed her awkwardness and probably judged her for it. 

“H-hey,” Karisme gave a weak wave from behind her brother. “S-sorry to impose on you like this.”

“Karisme didn’t have any of her old clothing anymore,” Leo said. “I couldn’t believe the hospital lost all of her belongings. When I picked her up from the bus stop I didn’t expect to see her emaciated and still in their awful gown and slippers.”

Karisme had an odd look on her face but didn’t comment on the subject of her vanished belongings. Benita was trying to get a look at her without staring or embarrassing her. She was used to wolves having tattoos, that was nothing odd to her. What was odd and frankly a little alarming is that they looked like warding tattoos, not clan markings like the ones Leonardo and Diego wore. The fine hairs on the back of Benita’s neck prickled with foreboding.

“I’m so glad to finally meet you,” Benita told her sister in law. “Don’t worry about the clothing, you can borrow some of my things until we get a chance to take you shopping. My pre-pregnancy stuff might be a little short on you but it’ll do in a pinch.” With the efficiency of a practiced hostess, Benita pushed aside her worries and determined to try to help the woman with all her might. “I didn’t want to make you sleep on the couch so I called some of my family and had them bring a wagon ‘round.”

“A wagon?” echoed Karisme softly, sounding mystified. 

“Aye,” winked the younger woman. “My family are travelers. I asked them if they could spare a wagon for you until we get an addition built on the house and they very kindly agreed to it.”

“O-oh,” Karisme reached up and rubbed the back of her head, looking a little awkward. “Thank you. You need not have put yourself out like that for the likes of me.”

Benita noted the woman’s antiquated speech and wondered how long she’d been in that sanatorium. “It’s no trouble, I wanted to help you readjust. We’re your family, we’re here for you.” She saw the way the word family made the woman wince and avert her eyes. Feeling like she’d committed some horrible faux pas, she hurried to try to remedy it. “I’m sorry, I- would you like to see it?” she struggled with whether apologizing would humiliate her or smooth things over and only managed a mashed up apology and offer of a better subject instead.

Sensing her distress, Leo put a calming hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Yeah, let’s show her around,” he said. “Come on sis, me casa es su casa.” 

“I know it’s very, uh, colorful,” Benita said as they walked up to the wagon. She worried about what the woman would think of her, knowing where she came from. Travelers did not enjoy many a welcoming reaction.

Karisme looked over at her with an expression that had softened. “This was extremely kind of you. I owe you a great debt.” 

No negative comments? Benita relaxed a smidgen more. “No debts,” she said gently. “You’re my sister. Sisters have to stick together.” She noticed a thin and wobbly smile, it was fleeting but she had seen it. Good, sister was one word she could use safely without upsetting her. 

Leo watched as the girls bonded and hung back a small distance to give them room to acquaint themselves. Female wolves were sometimes worse about territory than the males and if they decided to fight, he had no desire to be caught between them. That said, he didn’t scent any aggression between them. Just discomfort, worry and that pungent underlying sickly smell that had haunted his sister since her first episode a few centuries before.

“It is quite colorful,” Leonardo commented as they walked inside. He hadn’t actually had time to check it out, leaving it to Benita and her family to set up while he worked and made the long drive to pick up Karisme. “Interesting wallpaper. I wonder if I can get something like that for the house,” he mused.

“It is cozy,” remarked Karisme, who looked around her, taking it all in. “I… I do not think I have seen this much color in a few centuries.”

“I’m sorry if it’s overwhelming-” Benita rushed.

“No,” Karisme shook her head hastily. Her voice was gravelly, as if she were sorely out of practice using it. “It is refreshing and…. holds no sour memories.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that.” Benita pulled out a chair and beckoned to her. “Take a seat. You look worn down.”

Karisme settled onto the couch, a look of anxiety or perhaps misery on her face. “I feel so guilty for becoming such a burden,” she said, looking down at her hands on her lap. “How can I possibly repay you?”

“Stop worrying about repaying me, for one,” Leo said. “This trailer is only temporary. I’m going to see about building a few additional rooms on the house or maybe moving us to a larger estate. I should know which is more feasible by winter. You just take it easy. Explore the town, get caught up on the times. We’ll take you shopping for new clothing.”

“You and Leonardo have a lovely home,” murmured Karisme. She’d been bundled into some of Benita’s older clothing. Thankfully it fit well enough to pass for a week or two, until she felt comfortable enough to leave the house for shopping. Benita expected that would take some time. She had been locked away from society for a horribly long time, likely she wouldn’t know how to react to most of modern life.

“Thank you,” Benita smiled as she prepared dinner. “Though it’s your home too, for as long as you’d like.”

“I… I feel a bit like a mooch as it is.” Shifting on her feet, Karisme looked around the kitchen, taking in the room and considering her predicament. “I will help you however I can. I am unsure yet, what I can do to earn a living.”

“We’ll get to that,” Benita said. “There’s plenty of time. This is your first night here, so just relax and let us take care of you.”

“Leonardo is lucky to have such a good hearted woman in his life,” Karisme said. “And now so am I. I wonder what my father has told you about me?”

Benita hesitated. “All I know is that you’re older than Leo,” she said. “That you were apparently institutionalized and other than that, I don’t know anything. Leonardo was very vague about the whole ordeal and I don’t trust his father to give an honest account of anything. Your mother is… she’s nice enough but she lives under his thumb. So I just took the situation and decided that I couldn’t let you be turned out on the street so I told Leonardo to bring you here.”

“I see,” she mused. “Interesting. Father hasn’t mentioned it at all?”

“Frankly, he’s not welcome here.” The younger wolf looked over at Karisme. “Have you seen Diego? What he did to that boy is unforgivable. Leonardo somehow made it out mostly sane but he still suffers from how the man treated his children.”

Karisme seemed to mull this over and after a moment, nodded slightly. “Thank you,” she said. “Again.” No more about the details of her stay at the sanatorium were forthcoming and Benita was not going to ask.

Leonardo came downstairs carrying Rosalinda in his arms. “How are you two getting along?” he asked, smiling. “Talking about me, probably.”

“I was telling your mate about the time you showed all the girls at church your fun pepper,” Karisme gave him a mischievous and somewhat devious grin.

“Leo, did you really?” Benita gave him a look of horror. 

“Hey now,” Leo settled the baby into her highchair. “I was only seven. It only happened because the stupid pastor gave that sermon about sins of the flesh and I wanted to know how to tell if my penis was evil.”

“An evil penis?” laughed Benita. “Is there such a thing? Are there ones that bite?”

Leonardo shuddered. “I’m still scarred by Teeth I don’t want to think about a biting penis.”

The odd subject had at least served to lighten the mood and there was a ghost of a smile on Karisme’s face. The more Benita looked at her the more she thought the woman looked haunted, both by foul memories and the exhaustion that comes with debilitating mental illness. More and more she was doubting the woman was cured, but her house would burn down with her in it before she let them put Karisme back in that sanatorium.

The fish and chips was delicious and Karisme complimented Benita’s cooking with honest enthusiasm. “It has been frightfully long since I had freshly fried fish!” she shoveled it into her face, eyes rolling back in heady delight.

“Take it slow,” chuckled Benita. “You’ll choke, shoving it all in at once like that.”

Leo glanced at his daughter with her bottle and smiled at the little tyke. She was adorable. “I’m sure the institute didn’t have much in the way of food choices,” he commented. He was realizing how little he really knew about her… incarceration. Only on rare occasion had he been allowed visitation and they’d been terribly brief. His father was closemouthed on the matter and his mother either ignorant of the details or compliant. 

“I know the two of you have your curiosities about the matter,” she paused, both to breathe and let the food settle and to consider how to put this. “I need time to put distance between me and the pain before I speak of it.”

Leonardo struggled to maintain his composure. Certainly his sister had needed help when she started having seizures and fits as a child, but he was seriously doubting this facility had done anything to actually help her. Benita sensed his distress across their bond and almost reached for him but thought better of it. Settling for giving him a calming look, she said to his sister, “We can wait as long as you need.”

“You just relax, we’ll take care of the dishes,” Leo told Karisme. “Go settle in, get some rest. You had a long bus ride and I’m sure you’d love a comfortable pillow.”

“Thank you,” Karisme yawned. “For the fantastic food and the understanding. I think I will get some rest.”