The Old Ways (Part 2)

“Did you do a sacrifice Pop Pop?” Mavis asked

“I did.” Grandpa nodded his head sharply. “When I was a younger man.”

“What did you sacrifice Pop?” Billy asks.

Grandpa looks around again. What he was about to say, well, it just wouldn’t go over well with Lauren. No sir, it would right piss her off. But she was still doing dishes, paying them no mind.

“Oh, rabbits, pigs, occasionally a cat or dog.”

“Not a cat Pop Pop!” Mavis sang out.

He looked at the sadness in the little girl's eyes, she looked near to tears.

“No darling, Pop Pop was just kidding with you. We mostly sacrificed corn, wheat and crops we grew.” That calmed down Mavis but a look at Billy’s eyes showed he didn’t believe his Pop Pop. Smart boy. “But you understand, this was a long time ago, and we had to make Calliagh happy.”

“Are you kids ready for bed?” She asked. “Tomorrow is Halloween and you don’t want to be tired. You got trick or treats tomorrow night.”

“I’m ready Momma.” Mavis said. “Pop Pop is scaring me anyway.”

“What did he do darling?” Lauren asks.

“Oh I was telling her about the old Halloween days, and I guess I got a little too into it.” Grandpa laughs. “You go on to bed little girl.” He leans over and kisses her on the head. “Pop Pop loves you.”

Billy turns to his mother with pleading eyes.

“Can I stay up just a little longer momma?” He says. “I like Pop Pop’s stories.”

Lauren looks him in the eyes. He mouths “Please” at her.

“Just a little while darling, and Pop Pop will walk him to his bedroom.” Grandpa says. 

“Okay, just don’t be too late.” Lauren says.

“Cross my heart.” Grandpa crosses over his chest, followed quickly by Billy.  Lauren hugs her father, and kisses Billy on the cheek, before she ushers Mavis out of the living room and up the stairs to bed. Grandpa watches them exit the room, and once gone, he turns back to Billy.

His grandson is looking at him. Billy wears a weird stare, his eyes almost accusing his grandfather of being a liar.

“You’re a liar.” he finally says.

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“You didn’t sacrifice corn. You really did kill animals didn’t you?” 

“Yes Billy, I really did sacrifice animals, of all kinds.” Pop Pop says. “Now to start off, we really did sacrifice what we had grown. When I was a small boy my father would bundle up a large amount of our crops, and burn it in our fields. But just like in the good book, Calliagh didn’t care much for stuff born of the ground. No, she wanted life.”

“So we would sacrifice a pig, or a calf, or chickens, whatever we had, we would share with Calliagh. We learned, eventually, that special kinds of life meant more to her.”

“Human life.” Billy said and his Pop Pop grinned.

“That’s right, human life.”

Pop Pop sat silently for a few minutes, letting it sink in. He thought the boy might run upstairs, or scream, or some combination of the two. But he just sat there, staring at his grandfather, letting the information sink in, letting it roll around in his brain.

“It sounds like a bad thing to do Pop Pop, killing somebody.”

“It wasn’t a good thing Billy, but it was good to do. Because it brought a mild winter, and a good harvest the next year.” he said.

“Did you sacrifice someone?” Billy finally asks.

Pop Pop sits quietly for a few seconds. He could lie to the boy, but hadn’t he already gone too far? It was Halloween and maybe a well constructed lie would be enough, enough to let the child go to sleep, have his nightmares and wake up with a clean mind. That’s what he would do. He would set his mind to rest.

“Yes.” except he didn’t. He wanted his grandchild to know the truth, whatever he might think of him, no matter the consequences.

“Who? Who did you sacrifice?” Billy demanded to know.

“It wasn’t just one Billy.” Pop Pop said. “And I know what you’re getting at but, let me explain.

He shifted his weight on the couch, getting comfortable for what he’s about to tell the child.

“When your Pop Pop was a young man, about your age, maybe a bit younger, my parents sacrificed my sister, Lettie. I watched them kill her, and hang her up. Now don’t get me wrong. I love my sister, loved her to death. But she was given to Calliagh, and the winters were mild, and our crops flourished.”

“The year after that, I made my first sacrifice. Your friend, Tommy, Tommy Joiner. His grandad raised horses. He had given up the old ways, and had lost his faith. On Halloween night I sat his barn on fire. Most of the horses got out, but three of them burned up. Locals thought it was just a bad trick or treat, but it was a gift to Calliagh.”

“My dad, he knew. He saw my sooty clothes that smelled of fire. I woke up with him staring at me, and I expected to get my ass tanned. But he just hugged me. He said my sacrifice wasn’t perfect, but it was good and Calliagh was pleased.”

“The next Halloween, I hit little Nancy Horner on the head with a rock, then held her head under water while she drowned. I was all fit to be a trick or treater in my skeleton mask my mamma had made me. That mask was the last thing Nancy saw as I pushed her under. The winter was short that year. For the next five years, I sacrificed someone every Halloween if I could, and I could more than I couldn’t.”

“When I turned seventeen years old I married up with your grandma.” Pop Pop wiped away a tear. “I tell you boy, I loved that woman, as much as life itself. I gave up the old ways, just like most other people in the valley. I went clean as the kids today say.”

“We did okay for a while. We never had an abundance, but we had enough. Then we had a baby girl. She would have been your Aunt Rutha. She was a beautiful girl, and me and your grandma loved her. Calliagh however, she wasn’t done with us, and she wanted her sacrifice.”

“When harvest came the next year, your grandma, she got sick. A cough that wouldn’t go away, and started to come with blood.  The doctor’s couldn’t say what was wrong with her, but I knew she wouldn’t last long, and I’d be stuck trying to raise my little girl on my own.”

“Then the night before Halloween, I had a dream. Calliagh came to me. She said I could make sacrifices to her, or she would take her own sacrifice. The next night I took Rutha, and slit that baby's neck wide open and burned her corpse. Your grandma stopped coughing that very day. I fell back into the old ways, and I stayed there.”

“I took strangers, friends, townsfolk and whoever I could come across. Some years I took no one, and the winters were long. Ten years later, after two years of long, cold winters, when the crops failed, I pushed your Uncle Terry into a threshing machine. The winter was short, but your grandma. She couldn’t get over losing her oldest. She took to her bed and never came out. I turned away from the old ways again.”

“So you stopped killing people when Grandma died?” Billy asked.

“I did.”

“And you never sacrifice again? Never killed anyone else.” Billy asked. 

Pop Pop was afraid of where this was going. Afraid Billy was going to ask the question. He could lie, but this time, definitely, he had gone too far, and by damn the boy deserved to know the truth.

“Pop Pop?” He stared at him.

“Go ahead Billy. Ask me if you’re going too.”

“Did you do it? Did you sacrifice my daddy?”