“I made a list of ones with body parts that might look like eels. And...” She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.
Charles gave her an expectant look, and she gestured for him to pass her the book in front of him. She turned to an illustration of Medusa. “My mom is making J.J. and me do yard work for Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith wrote a note, telling us to start in the backyard. I’ve never seen what’s back there before, but I guess there used to be a garden. There’s a bunch of brick paths that come together in a circle. The circle is actually a woman’s face. She looks really pissed off, and there are scales carved around the edge of her face.”
Charles held out the scale from Jill’s jewelry box. “Like this?”
“Yeah. They’re the same shape without the little teeth around the sides. I guess that would be kind of hard to carve.”
“So, do you think she’s, like, a monster? Like, something from one of these books?”
Jill knew he understood that she wasn’t referring to the stone face. Neither of them wanted to say Mrs. Smith’s name.
“This face in her garden is weird. Her house is weird.Youknow. You see it every day, same as me. Those skinny windows on the bottom. That creepy octopus in the attic windows. The way the air feels colder when you get close to the place. All the wasps and flies and pricker bushes and poison ivy. Those vines that have spread from her house all through the woods. And it always feels like someone inside is watching.”
“That happens to you, too?”
Jill nodded. “We’re not the only ones, either. I think Una feels it, too. Something’s wrong with that house. Because ofher.”
Charles gazed down at the illustration of Medusa and her two sisters. “Maybe sheisa witch. Maybe she, like, controls something in the water.”
Jill waited a moment to see if he was being serious, but she could tell by his deep frown and frightened eyes that he was.
“Maybe. I’ve mostly read about Greek myths, but I also found this woman called Lamia. She was, like, a combo of witch, demon, and sea monster. And she ate kids.”
Charles muttered something in a language Jill didn’t understand.
“Is that Hebrew?” she asked.
“Yiddish. It’s something my bubbe used to say to ward off evil spirits. It means, ‘In the balcony there are three cracks. Go there, Evil Eye, and hide yourself.’”
Charles’s cheeks were scarlet with embarrassment, but Jill wished she knew a charm to protect her from demons.
“Is this the grandma who comes over all the time?”
“No, it’s the one who died when I was ten. She was really cool. She was in the circus when she was young. She always told the best stories. She was kind of my best friend.” He swallowed hard and tried to distract himself by looking around Jill’s room. Then he pointed at the book in Jill’s hand. “Does that have a picture of Lamia?”
Jill sighed. “No. There are photos of Greek vases showing almost all of the other monsters. The vases are super old. Like this amphora of Scylla? It’s from 450 BC. If Lamia is Scylla’s mother, then she’s even older. I need to look up monsters in other myths. Like from China and Norway. Because if other people wrote about a monster like Lamia...”
“Then she might be real,” Charles whispered. “What are we gonna do?”
“Tell Una. She—”
A crash came from Justin’s room followed by a squawk of dismay. Something thumped against the wall behind Jill’s bookcase and Justin let out a wail. Jill heard J.J. trying to placate their baby brother.
“Stop crying!” J.J. barked. “I’ll fix it.Look!I’m fixing it!”
“What’s going on in there?” their dad bellowed from down the hall.
“Nothing! One of Justin’s LEGO towers collapsed, but I’m fixing it!” J.J. shouted back.
I bet you knocked it over with Mr. Potato Head. Or your foot, thought Jill.
She heard unintelligible murmuring from J.J. and a few sniffles from Justin. As soon as the house grew quiet again, the carousel music box with the creepy horse began to spin. The twang of an off-key note echoed in the air. After two or three seconds, another dissonant note played. Then another. Every pluck of the metal comb inside the belly of the music box caused Jill’s hand to vibrate with pain.
Charles got to his feet and stood in front of the shelf of music boxes. Glancing down at Jill, he said, “Is it hurting you?”
Jill whispered, “Yeah.”
Charles grabbed the carousel horse and held it by the base so that it couldn’t turn anymore. “I have to go to temple now. Do you want me to take this?”
