Vaggie's mother was working a double shift that Saturday and as you already know, Charlie had plans, so Vaggie decided to just spend the day at home and try to work on a new painting. But try as she might, she wasn't really getting any inspiration that day. All she could do was just paint lines and splats on the canvas, she couldn't really make anything with them. She couldn't really see anything she could create in her mind. It was like she had painter's block.
She decided to take a walk outside and look around to see if there was anything that could spark inspiration. On a lovely day like this, there was bound to be something, She looked at the sun and the trees, and the sky and the birds. But nothing got her creativity working.
"Hey Vaggie!" Angel was outside too. Vaggie saw him bending down by trees and bushes, picking something apparently.
"What are you doing?" Vaggie asked as she approached him.
"Collecting." He answered.
"Collecting what? Rocks?"
"No. Pest control." In one hand he held a Wolf Spider and in the other a Preying Mantis.
"Ewww!" Vaggie cried out. "Put those down!"
"Relax babe, they're perfectly harmless."
Next he produced two containers with vents from his bag and dropped each creature into one.
"What the hell do you want those nasty things for?" Vaggie said.
"We got ants in the house and Grandma isn't comfortable spraying poison around, so I'm using Leonardo and Giuditta here to take care of the problem. They should be able to eat em all up."
"Leonardo and Giuditta?"
"Grandma loves Italian artists and Italian opera singers."
"How does she feel about spiders and mantises?"
"She doesn't mind them. They don't steal our food like ants do. Really, Grandma doesn't mind any creature as long as it doesn't bother us."
"You know it's funny, in all the months I've known you, I've never once met your grandmother."
"Would you like to meet her?"
"I've got nothing better to do."
With that said, the two teenagers started to head up to the old Victorian style, apartment house where Angel lived with his cousin and grandmother, and where Charlie lived with her foster family.
"Now I gotta warn ya babe, my grandma's a little eccentric." Angel said.
"How eccentric?" Vaggie asked.
Vaggie had heard a lot of rumors about the old woman who lived the lower apartment. Most people said that she was crazy and belonged in a home somewhere, others say she practiced witchcraft or devil worship. Vaggie wasn't sure if any of it was real but she figured Angel would say so if it was. Her mother had told her to avoid the old woman if possible, not that she viewed her as any threat but she feared that she was easily distressed and might go into a rant if you said the wrong words.
"Nothing to be afraid of." Angel said. "She just has weird beliefs."
"What, is she a wicca or a buddhist, or something?"
"No. Not like that. She's Catholic like everyone else in the family, except for Blitzo, actually we're not entirely sure what his beliefs are. Anyway, by strange beliefs I mean she actually believes in things like ghosts and witches and demons and fairies and elves and magic. That sort of thing."
"Oh..."
"But don't worry, she's harmless. I swear."
Angel knocked on the door of the building and Gina answered it, and gave her usual sweet smile to her grandson.
"Hello Anthony." She said. "Did you find anything to take care of those ants?"
"One male Wolf Spider and one female Preying Mantis." Angel said holding up the containers. "That colony won't stand a chance."
Gina looked over Angel's shoulder and when she saw Vaggie, her smile and face became sweeter.
"Who's this?"
"Grandma this is my friend Vaggie." Angel introduced.
Her eyes suddenly twinkled with enthusiasm.
"So you're the famous Vagatha whom I've heard so much about."
"Grandma." Angel warned.
"Angel's told you about me?" Vaggie asked while looking at him.
"Oh he talks about you all the time and I must say you're a lot prettier than he said you were."
Vaggie blushed.
"Grandma!" Angel shouted, also blushing.
"He says that I'm pretty?" Vaggie replied.
"Not only pretty but brainy and refined." Gina added.
"Grandma shut up!" Angel said embarrassed.
Gina grabbed him by the ear.
"Don't you tell me to shut up! I did not raise a grandson to speak to his grandmother that way!"
"Ow! Okay Grandma, I'm sorry!"
She released his ear.
"Now then dear." She said sweetly to Vaggie. "Would you like to come in for some tea?"
"Yes. Thank you."
Gina wasn't at all what Vaggie was expecting. She was very smart, sweet, and witty. She knew a lot about art, especially works by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. The two discussed different color shades and painting styles, and the different meanings behind a piece.
"I would very much love to see one of your paintings sometime Vagatha." Gina said dropping a sugar lump into her cup.
"Really?" Vaggie asked. "Because you know they're not anything special."
"Well that's not what Anthony says. He says your paintings are gorgeous and that you're meant for better things."
Vaggie looked at him with a slight smirk, Angel just sipped his tea quietly. After another hour of friendly chatting, Vaggie politely excused herself to go home. She thanked Gina for the tea and Gina said that she enjoyed her company and hoped to see her again sometime. Angel was relieved, this visit seemed to be going rather well. His grandmother had not said or done anything strange. Vaggie would leave here not thinking his family was psychotic and she still continue to be his friend.
But then Gina looked out the window and saw that it was sundown.
"Anthony, she's not walking home alone is she?" Gina asked him.
"Yeah she is."
"But it's almost dark. She shouldn't be walking home alone in the dark. I'll call Blitzo and have him drive you home."
"Oh no that isn't necessary." Vaggie said.
"I must insist."
"Grandma don't." Angel said. "Vaggie is a tough girl. She can take care of herself."
"I'm not taking that risk." She said picking up a phone and dialing a number. "It's Autumn Anthony. You know what could happen here after dark in the Autumn."
"Grandma please, not this again."
But the old woman couldn't be persuaded. She called Blitzo and then pleaded with Vaggie to wait with Angel until he arrived. It was a little odd for Vaggie but not so unreasonable and not without understanding. But Angel was humiliated.
"I'm sorry." He told her as they stood outside the door waiting for Blitzo's car to pull up. "She just refuses to allow anyone under twenty go out after dark without an adult. She's terrified that something is going to happen."
"Well that's not so strange." Vaggie said. "Lots of older people are like that. Is there anything that she's specifically afraid will happen?"
"It's like this, remember when I told you that she believes in all those creatures of fantasy and lore? Well that's what she's afraid of. She's afraid that some supernatural monster is going to come out at night and take children away."
"Like in that story you told me? The one about the bridge?"
"Exactly."
"But why would she believe that?"
"I..." He paused, taking a moment to think things over before continuing. "I really shouldn't be telling you this. I don't want you to think my family are a bunch of freaks or something, but I trust that you're the understanding type. The type that doesn't judge. "
Angel lowered his head, thoughtful for another moment,then he glanced up at Vaggie and spoke in a very sad tone.
"When Grandma first moved in, I wasn't the only one living with her. I...I used to have a sister."
"Sister?"
"A twin sister. Her name was Molly, we were about twelve when we first moved here. Mom had just been killed and Dad had gone to prison, I started to act out because I couldn't understand any of it. But Molly took it well, or so we thought. She kept all her pain inside and focused on helping Grandma deal with me. We never knew how scared and guilty and ashamed Mom's murder and Dad's abuse had made her. Then one day, a year after we moved in, Grandma gets a call from Dad saying he's motioning for an appeal on the murder case and once he gets out he's taking custody of us. Molly snapped when she found out, she believed that there was a chance Dad could get out and get us and she couldn't bear to go back to living with him. So she ran away."
"What do you mean she ran away?"
"I mean one night I woke up and saw Molly sneaking out and that was the last time I ever saw her. The police searched for weeks but they never found her. It was like she had completely vanished off the face of the earth."
"Are you sure she ran away?"
"That's what everybody says. Except for Grandma. She lost it when Molly disappeared, she had just lost our mother and now she had lost her granddaughter too. Blitzo and the cops had to keep her restrained form going out at night to find her, and she kept saying that Molly would never just leave without saying goodbye. She said that she was stolen by a demon."
"Do you believe that?"
"I did when Molly first went missing. Grandma was right, leaving without saying goodbye was very unlike Molly. She'd never just up and leave without a word and break our grandmother's heart like that. But after reading her diary, reading about how secretly miserable and unhappy she was, I realized that she definitely left. She left because she was scared that she was going to have to go back to Dad. But the bastard had only been bluffing, no court would have ever given us to him after seeing our mother's corpse."
A pensive, pained, and guilt-ridden look appeared on his face.
"God if I had just stopped her from leaving that night...If I had just paid more attention to how she was feeling...If I could have just stopped being a trouble-maker so she wouldn't have to worry about me...She'd still be here."
"You don't know that."
"Yes I do."
"No you don't. Angel, you were a kid just like she was. How could you be expected to know what her issues were? How could you be expected to do something?"
"That doesn't change the fact that if I had just said something, called for Grandma that night instead of just laying in bed watching her, she wouldn't have gone that night."
Vaggie had never seen him like this before. So vulnerable and devasted, internally scarred from a tragedy he suffered in the past. A tragedy so horrible that he blamed himself for it, when there was any need to. It hurt Vaggie terribly to see him like this and she wanted to make him feel better.
So she hugged him.
It surprised him. He never thought she'd actually touch him with just her finger, let alone give him an embrace. But he wasn't complaining. Not at all. He just smiled softly to himself and enjoyed her comfort.