Sera Ch. 25

"One account of particular interest told of a man doing business with her, concluding said business and then tumbling from his boat and into the river where he simply drowned. The observer, he who told the story, claimed he'd been bewitched by her beauty and could only watch as his employer drowned without as much as an effort to save himself.

"Also of note are a total of fifty-seven unexplained disappearances in the river region during these approximately ninety years when the River Witch was active.

One story related to this fact has an immigrant family of four- a man with his wife and two children- coming across her on their way to one of the many secluded, post war Acadian settlements all over New Brunswick. They asked the 'alluringly beautiful young woman' for directions, after which they entered some state of delirium. For a time, they had trouble remembering simple things such as each other's name, where they were and why, so on and so forth. Then their confusion lifted and they found themselves exactly at their destination. Although they didn't remember any actual directions from the mysterious young woman, they'd apparently been rowing there the entire time this strange delirium lasted."

"Well, that was a pretty cool thing for her to do," my retarded cousin observed.

"Yes, it was," Ashleigh agreed, adding with a raised brow, "but both their children, their son and daughter, are among those fifty-seven unexplained disappearances. They went missing years later in their late teens and were never seen or heard from again."

"'Varying degrees of result'" Sheila noted almost to herself as she listened with her eyes on the darkness beyond the open window.

"Like I said," her older sister elaborated while shifting and crossing her legs in the chair beside Kitten's, "were it not for certain key details, I could never have taken this as seriously as I did based on just how varying these results are. Although it wasn't just the description of her with that black hair and bedazzling, hazel eyes that convinced me otherwise, but so many subtle qualities that each account did have in common. For example, those who'd seen her and lived to tell about it had different degrees of memory regarding their experience, but all of them stated that there was a sort of leftover 'vibe' from her. Obviously, that wasn't the collective terminology of the day, but that's how it translates. Anyway, this vibe that people would be left with was one of evil, or wrongness in one sense or another. One account described her, based on this vibe as, 'not of God'."

"Sooo..." Mum asked with a brow furrowed in thought, "what was she actually doing out on the river all the time?"

"My theory is that she had a little commune hidden away somewhere, probably in some backwater tributary that nobody knew about, and she was out looking to trade goods and collect people of interest. Just like the historical interactions with her suggest."

"Something like in pre Markham," Mum concluded.

"I'd think so, yes. She may have been aware of the vibe she left others with and preferred to be secluded away from society, surrounded by only a small group that she controlled. Again, this is only a theory."

"A pretty likely one, I'd say," Mum replied. "Complete self sufficiency for any small settlement probably wouldn't have been possible back then, and the need for trade in itself may have forced her to the waterways rather than some trading port where she could never control... Yes, it would have been much more comfortable for her, especially if she was also looking for, um... personnel."

"Precisely," Ashleigh confirmed. "Plus, back in pre Markham, she would have already learned the value of a controlled community that she could use to surround, support and protect herself, much like my little bike gang did for me. It's likely that she'd continue and even fine tune that mode of survival, even possible that she showed up there with her pre Markham crew."

"But, why would she do mean stuff to people?" Kitten wondered. "Like that guy who drowned?"

Ashleigh answered this with, "It's possible they meant her harm. The long arm of the law wasn't quite as long back then as it is today, at least not in the backwaters of the Miramichi. A young, scantily clad woman would be quite a lure for some less than honourable men. She may have actually been preying on the type."

"Like a vigilante?" Sheila asked doubtfully.

"Maybe," Ashleigh offered with a shrug. "It's hard to say, but a lot of people have no problem with profiting at the expense of criminals."

"I don't," Mum admitted with a shrug, "but why let the other guy go to run and tell? Why not kill him too, or at least take him home to use for... whatever? (Giggle)"

"I don't know," Ashleigh again admitted with a grin at Mum's giggle, "but I'd assume that she had no fear of reprisal out there in the backwaters. Then again, maybe she'd become aware of the legend and enjoyed the infamy, adding to it here and there for her own entertainment. The legend itself actually lived on in some of the smaller, outlying areas of the Miramichi for some years after the encounters with her stopped. She became the focal point of children's cautionary tales that warned of how lazy boys and girls would be taken by her."

"Or..."

They seemed almost startled at the sound of my voice, as though they'd forgotten I was there. Beyond their mild surprise, Mum and Sheila regarded me with curiosity while Kitten's unmistakable interest was held down by her intense dislike of all that was me. Ashleigh held an almost pleading expression of warning, or dread. I was suddenly sorry I spoke up in the first place, but took a quick drink and got started anyway.

"First... Let's not forget the uncomfortable fact of Marie's mental illness. At this end of time, we'll probably never know if it was actually schizophrenia or not but, as Ashleigh does, I tend to think it was, based on the account itself and what I've learned about the disease. The thing about schizophrenia, like some other mental illnesses, is that it tends to run in families. We know Seraphine got her mother's face, if not her hair and eye colour, and we've all seen that little trick played out time and again in this family, so it's quite possible that 'Sera', as you call it, also downloaded Marie's mental disease from her genetic code without even knowing it.

"Second, as Sheila and I have already said, there was... there was nobody in Seraphine when it took over her body in Marie's womb. Y'see, Seraphine wasn't like us. She was the pure version of what's in us, but without the other, rightful and original inhabitant of her body."

Their cautious curiosity well rewarded, the Burchell women only blinked silently at me and my chain of logic. Even Ashleigh remained silent, though probably more out of forced interest than anything as her lips tightened in further, silent warning.

"What we've got here," I began as I rose from my increasingly uncomfortable chair, "is a spiritual presence, or... whatever that's taken over a human and brought a few un-human party favours along with it. Let me stress here that this thing was not human and was without even a parallel human persona within the body it inhabited to impress any humanity upon it. In addition, it's now a schizoid, but how does that come through in... it? Is it still schizophrenia as we'd recognize it in the mindset of something that is utterly un-human apart from the vessel it gets around in?"

Now behind Ashleigh's desk, I unthinkingly took her seat, a much more comfortable one than the upholstered cup in the corner. I ignored their reactions to this, as varied as the encounters with the River Witch as I summed up.

"My theory as to why she did some of the things she did is very simple. Seraphine, by normal human standards, was a fuckin' monster."

Silence followed this summation as they stared, taking in that and all the ongoing genetic ramifications that went with it. I was actually glad when Ashleigh finally broke it, regardless of how.

"Once again, you've managed to offend and disturb. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this and really mean it, but you're worse- yes, actually worse- than your mother."

"Hey!" Mum objected.

"Well, he is a big jerk, Auntie."

"Exactly where do you think my appraisal breaks down?" I challenged. "Should I have rehashed what you told us about how things went in pre-Markham, followed up by speculation over what kind of demented personality could potentially have been maturing at the Larouche farm all those years? As I've said, it's all pretty chilling, but this is something that has to be looked at for what it is."

"Well, maybe you can have a little more respect when you do?" Ashleigh irritably requested.

"Actually," Mum threw in, "she's got a point there. I've asked you to be a little more respectful to me where that's concerned in the past."

While I still faced Ashleigh, my eyes rolled to Mum and I briefly regarded her before taking a sip from my glass. In front of Kitten, I didn't feel comfortable with calling them out on exactly why it was that they'd be offended, partly because I knew both of them would be furious if I did, but also because I knew it would make things so much worse between me and the tard. If Ashleigh didn't intend to broach the subject of our eventual dilution in her own way, I'd have to make sure that information got to Kitten in a more viable and timely manner.

"Yes, well..." I finally offered with a heavy sigh, "I suppose life really is a study in different perspectives. I don't mean to offend, but if my viewpoints are worthless because they're disturbing and inconvenient, I may as well just sit here with my mouth closed, learn what I need for my own purposes and leave."

"Nobody wants that," Ashleigh assured, actually having pulled her horns in a little. "Speaking-"

"I do," Kitten reported.

"Kitten, please," Ashleigh told her, actually irritated with her before getting back to me with, "Speaking for myself, I'm very interested in hearing your input, I'm just saying it'd be nice if you tried to put things a little less offensively."

"Exactly," Mum seconded.

I nodded my silent agreement to the Titanic's band as they played on, giving the assorted documents on Ashleigh's desk a tight smile to back up the near empty gesture.

Kitten

As disturbing as they were, I got the impression from Stevie's attitude that his insights didn't stop where he did. Also, I wasn't quite sure why my aunts would be personally offended by them but, in some vague sense, I was even more disturbed by his agreeable, yet grim expression than the picture he painted of our mysterious ancestor, Seraphine. I found myself suddenly wishing we were getting along well enough for me to ask him what else he knew later on, but my mind was soon enough taken up again with the slightly discomforted voice of Auntie Ashleigh.

"Ooh-keey. Uh, so that's pretty much the (ahem) pretty much the end of Seraphine's part in our heritage, apart from some other details and minutia that you're all welcome to look over at your convenience. It's all in this room and properly organized for easy retrieval on the computer but, for the purposes of telling you who we are, where we're from and about those who've gone before us, those details aren't necessary and would probably keep us here throughout my retirement. Obviously, I have better things to do with the rest of my life."

The little smile that accompanied her joke actually did seem to lighten the mood on our side of the desk, and she went on.

"The timescale suggests a long lifespan, but it's also possible that Seraphine had a daughter who looked exactly like her, and that it was actually two different women the locals were sighting. This is only speculation on my part, however, while the timeline and location do support the possibility that Seraphine was Coby's mother, this scenario would put Seraphine in her mid forties when Coby was born, which I somehow can't see. This is another reason I tend to believe that the River Witch was actually two separate women and that Coby is actually Seraphine's granddaughter. In any case, the sightings slowed and finally dropped off in the late eighteen sixties, survived only by the legend from there on. And Coby, of course."

"Her story, at least what of it that we have, begins and ends in Newcastle, New Brunswick, a settlement on the Miramichi River We don't know when she was born or when she arrived, but we do know that she gave birth to Eleonore there in eighteen-twenty-nine, and most of what Rebecca wrote of Coby comes originally from Eleonore. The few official records and other informational sources that both Rebecca and I have managed to dig up regarding Coby confirm the parts of the story they relate to, so I tend to trust both Eleonore's account and Rebecca's documentation.

"Let me say first off that Coby, the name itself meaning, 'supplanter', was quite insane. Eleonore's childhood memories of her mother describe a 'silly woman', but she would later describe her as 'stark raving mad'. Others described her as frightening and dangerous. For this essential reason, she doesn't have much to do with the overall story, but I'll hit the few highlights before we move on to Eleonore while reminding you that non essential details are available here if you care to look at them.

"Coby, following the family tradition, was a remarkably beautiful, well endowed blonde of average height and with bright blue eyes that people tended to be drawn to. This, her youth and the fact that her illness was still in its infancy is probably how she was able to take a husband, a somewhat successful forester by the name of Alvere Leger who was known as a hard worker.

"According to what Alvere's family told Eleonore, Coby's troubles started shortly after Eleonore was born. In addition to drinking more and more alcohol, her sexual appetite gradually went into overdrive and, with her husband working much of the time, she developed an unfortunate tendency to be overly friendly with almost any man that came across her path. She soon became quite overly friendly. From the accounts, I'd describe her as blatantly flirtatious. Understand, this is the late eighteen-thirties we're talking about here and, even if she were single, this behaviour would have been frowned upon and certainly was. What bewildered people though, was her ability to draw men, both married and single, even after her behaviour made a pariah of her.

"Because she wasn't actually doing anything with the men she flirted with, she saw nothing wrong with her actions and nobody, not even her exasperated husband, could make her see sense. He wasn't even sure if it was that she'd become habitually too drunk to see sense, or if she honestly couldn't grasp the social principals of not acting the way she was. In time, the repeated social embarrassments and the trouble she caused in the community forced Alvere to actually confine her to their home. His public explanation was that poor Coby was ill and that this was the reason for her shameful behaviour. People more or less accepted this because... well, to this day, people in that region are a very unique breed. The word 'community' actually means something there and people tend to be a lot more real than what you'll find running up and down Yonge Street. Other than the women whose husbands had been sorely tempted by Coby's very unique charms, they offered every form of understanding and support.

"Because Eleonore was still too young and because Coby and Alvere's family didn't get along, he was forced to hire attendants to ensure Coby couldn't get out while he was about his business. Out of necessity, these attendants were female. In the past, Coby didn't pay much attention to anything that didn't swing its genetalia, and she was far from pleased about being confined to her house, so one must assume that all this made for a very unhappy household. Eleonore herself, in her early teens at this point, remembered her mother screaming in rage at the locks that had been installed on the insides of the doors, the locked shutters on the insides of the windows and being completely surrounded by no men."

"Oh my god," Sheila muttered, obviously imagining herself in Coby's position.

"I know," Auntie Ashleigh laughed, "its hard not to feel for her, isn't it? So as you can imagine, she wasn't very pleased with her husband and she never could accept the reasons why she had to be locked away from society. In her mind, she still wasn't doing anything wrong and there was absolutely no convincing her otherwise. At the same time, she was happy to see him at the end of his long workday to satisfy a sex drive of which we have a unique understanding.

"It was a tumultuous relationship for them both and, through the necessity of Coby's attendants, the entire small community knew much of what Alvere endured in private. Early on, Eleonore had been conveniently sent off, away from her mother and to live with Alvere's brother. Also somewhat successful, he had a well educated wife and two small children, a family who could better educate her in a healthier environment for a young girl while she helped out with their day to day chores. She did get back to visit from time to time though, and I think this actually gave her a better sense of her mother's rapid deterioration.

"She was seeing it in stages," the big ruiner needlessly clarified.

"Yes," Ashleigh confirmed, looking at him as she went on. "Through stories handed down, we know that she and her mother were never particularly close, but neither did they share any specific animosities so, at this point in time, Eleonore's observations during these visits are assumedly open minded.

"She told of how her mother would sometimes jump and scream, claiming she'd seen a mouse. This wouldn't be altogether unusual in itself, but these mouse sightings would persist to the point of irrationality, long after it became clear that her imagination was playing tricks on her. She would also repeat the same word or phrase over and over. Often it would be a defensive statement; something like, "I'm not whore. I'm not a whore. I'm not a whore. I'm not a whore." She would go on like this for as long as she was allowed, either trying to convince her daughter, or herself I imagine.

"As time went on, Coby became paranoid and increasingly imaginative. Her memory, as handed down, was 'creative at best, delusional at worst'. She often remembered events or conversations in ways that they didn't actually happen and wouldn't accept the truth in these matters. Sometimes she would recall events or conversations that never happened at all. There were times when she'd be in the middle of conversation, and then start talking to somebody who wasn't there.

"The servants told of these things too, but also of how she started making claims that a man, sometimes men, were out to get her, that they were from the village she came from and would take her back there if they ever got into the house. At times, she sat staring off into space, sometimes frowning, sometimes giggling happily, but they learned not to bother her when she was giggling because she'd react with a violent outburst. She'd also been seen whispering to... well, to the root cellar."

This information had an immediate effect on both Sheila and Auntie Kathleen. Their faces seemed to go a little pale as they slowly looked at one another, listening further as Auntie Ashleigh explained.

"Apparently, she'd be just standing there with the trap door open and... whispering. I suppose she thought there was somebody down there. Meanwhile, what neither Eleonore or her mother's attendants knew, what Alvere only revealed to his brother, was that Coby liked to slash and cut him during the ever increasing sex she demanded."