Family Connections
They had been invited over for dinner on Saturday by the Proctors, Harold and Sarah. They had decided to hold out on the pineapple upside down cake so that they had something to bring over for dessert.
Ralph was a bit nervous to introduce his fake wife, who was slightly crazy, to normal people and have to pretend that was happening was normal. He could only hope and pray that they would assume him and Agnes were together before the whole magic thing happened and therefore wouldn’t question her sudden appearance. It was only after Sarah had noticed Agnes gardening in his front lawn when she had offered the two of them an invitation, after all.
He fidgeted with the sleeve cuffs of one of the two good shirts that he owned, the other one was currently being worn by Agnes as she got ready in their bathroom.
He looked into his mirror and at his reflection. His shirt was slightly wrinkled, but it wasn’t terrible. It being blue was nice, it reminded him of Agnes’ eyes. His hair was brushed back, still frizzy in some places. His dark brown roots were coming in, a stark contrast of the silver Agnes had dyed it while he was under her spell.
While he was staring at his reflection and analyzing who he was Agnes waltzed out the bathroom, humming a song and fluffing her hair.
“Hello, darling,” she purred.
She twirled around slowly, making him look at what she was wearing.
“What do you think?”
Ralph smiled. She had tucked his button up into her pair of black slacks that was wearing when she came home with him. Her face was still bear of makeup, her hair down and loose in messy curls, and her bright painful smile was still stuck on her face. She was pretty.
“You look great,” he said.
She brought her hands up to her face, “oh, Ralph, you know how to make a girl blush.”
He laughed softly, “alright well let’s go now, don’t wanna be late.”
“I’ll grab the cake!”
—
They made their way over to the Proctor’s house, the sun already set, streetlight lights illuminating their sidewalk path, with the pineapple upside down cake being carried by Agnes while Ralph still fidgeted with his sleeve cuffs. Agnes’ kitten heals clacked along the wild walk like a piano melody.
Once they had arrived at their, Ralph’s, neighbor’s door they rang the doorbell and as they waited Agnes made small comments about the family’s garden. The door was opened by a young girl who looked to be about eight or nine years old. Ralph couldn’t remember seeing her before.
“Hello,” the little girl said.
Agnes smiled, “well hello there. Are you Sarah and Harold’s daughter?”
The little girl looked up at her with alarm in her eyes, “yes,” she replied hesitantly.
“Well, it’s so nice to meet you, I wasn’t aware they had a little girl.”
“I’m eight, I’m not little.”
Agnes laughed, “oh of course not. Why you’re practically an adult.”
Agnes looked back and forth between Ralph and the little girl before violently elbowing Ralph in the ribs to say something.
“Ow!” He rubbed his side. Agnes just deadpanned stared.
Ralph snapped his fingers, “oh, right, uhm.” He turned towards the girl. “We’re here to-“
“To have dinner, I know, you were invited over. My parents are in the kitchen. Come on in.”
Agnes shimmied her shoulders, “alrighty then.”
The girl let them inside and she shut the door behind them then started walking off towards where they guessed the kitchen was.
The house smelled like vanilla and whatever was coming from the kitchen. It was a charming home with cream coloured walls and lovely hardwood floors. The foyer was small and quaint, there were cute little knick-knacks all over side tables, a small bowl with keys, and a few pictures of Sarah and Harold with the little girl.
As Agnes was looking around Ralph placed a his hand on the small of her back and began to lead her to where the little girl walked off to.
They heard some muffled talking coming from the kitchen as well as the sounds of plate wear being moved around.
“I’m telling you, it’s weird, Mom,” Ralph heard the little girl say.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” the voice of Mrs. Proctor replied.
Before the little girl could say anything else she heard the sounds of Agnes’ heels approaching and cut herself off.
Once they entered the kitchen they saw Harold Proctor, a man who made the very bold choice of looking exactly like a man named Harold would look like, dumping pasta into a plating bowl. The little girl was now partially hiding behind her mother, who looked extremely tired. Her blonde hair had been styled poorly, her dress was heavily wrinkled, and her natural makeup was not a touch out of place, but underneath her eyes were dark circles. She played with her nails, she tilted her head like it hurt, and she put on a smile even though it would immediately fall if she forgot to keep it up.
“Hello,” she greeted them.
“Hi,” replied Ralph, suddenly regretting coming over at all.
“Hello!” Jumped in Agnes. “You have a lovely home, can I just say! I’m Agnes, I don’t think we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”
Sarah stared at her for a second, taking it all in. The little girl gave a look of ‘I told you so’.
After the second she laughed and smiled, “I guess we haven’t. I’m Mrs. Proctor, please call me Sarah. This is my husband, Harold.”
“Hello,” he said, still preoccupied by putting foot into different bowls.
“And this is our daughter, Alice,” she continued, pointing to the little girl behind her. Alice waved uncomfortably at the two of them.
“Here, let me take that off your hands,” Sarah said referring to the cake Agnes was carrying.
Agnes shrugged, “oh here you go, it’s pineapple upside down cake, I hope that’s okay.”
“That sounds delightful.”
She placed it on the countertop. “Now come on, sit down in the dining room, places have already been set.”
She took a bowl of salad and handed a plate of bread to Alice then led them all towards the dining room, and Harold trailed behind them with the large bowl of pasta.
“We’re having Italian,” declared Sarah as they all sat down, “I was told no allergies, so I-“
“It sounds wonderful,” said Ralph.
And Agnes interjected with, “it smells great.”
“Good, I’m so glad.”
There was an awkward, steady silence.
“Do either of you pray?” Asked Harold.
Ralph looked at Agnes whose smile was becoming even more forced and painful.
“Uhm, no, I don’t think,” he said.
Agnes shook her head stiltedly, “oh no, Ralphie and I don’t do that.”
She looked like she wanted to die behind her eyes, yet her body language said that she was having a wonderful time as her shoulders relaxed and her face tilted towards Ralph.
Sarah shifted in her seat nervously. Her daughter slouched in her’s, trying to make herself as small as possible, and her hair shielded her eyes.
Ralph bit his lip, “so why don’t we start?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” jumped in Harold, clearly trying to break the tension.
Everyone piled food onto their plates and started eating in silence, eyes shifting at each other.
“Agnes?” Harold asked.
She hummed in response.
“So, uh, what do you do for work?”
She paused, her head twitched to the side, “no, no, no, I don’t work.” She smiled.
“Do you want to?” Asked Sarah.
Agatha’s head twitched again, her smile stretching, her eyes screamed on the brink of tears, “nope,” she said with a soft forced laugh.
“Oh, okay, that’s fine.”
“Why yes it is.”
They went back to eating in silence. Occasionally Ralph and Harold would say something meaningless. Sarah would give very curt responses when asked a question. They all but avoided asking Agnes or the little girl anything.
“Oh!” Cried out Agnes as she dropped her fork. She looked underneath the table.
“Oh, that’s just George,” said Sarah, “sorry that we didn’t warn you about him.”
A small cat was circling and rubbing up against Agatha’s leg, leaving fur behind all over her pants.
“Aww,” Agnes let him sniff her hand. “Aren’t you just adorable!”
“Do you like cats, Agnes?” Harold asked.
She laughed, “I’m not really specifically a cat person, I love all animals. In fact I actually have a pet rabbit, Senor Scratchy.”
“How cute,” replied Sarah.
Ralph looked at her confused, “you have a p- oh! Oh yeah el senor, he’s great!” He lied.
He had no idea what she was talking about. They didn’t have a rabbit, at least not one that he knew of. He had pretty much checked every room in the house for anything weird when him and Agatha were going through the unopened boxes of stuff. Well, there was one room he hadn’t checked, the basement, mainly because he was too afraid to look.
“Oh, he’s just a delight. Ralph positively adores him,” Agnes said.
“Aww, did you guys get him together?” Sarah asked.
George the cat sniffed Ralph’s leg but went back to rubbing up against Agatha’s.
“Oh no, I had him since before we met.”
“That’s fun.”
“You sure you two get along?” Harold asked Ralph.
Ralph hesitated, “uhm, yeah, sure I like him. He’s more inclined towards Ags but we’re chill; he’s family.” He found it easy to lie.
“Family sure is important,” Harold said, “even the non human ones.”
“Definitely.”
“I sure can agree with that,” Agnes added.
—
Ralph practically ran home with Agnes slowly and confusedly trailing behind him down the sidewalk.
He slammed open their front door and looked around then shot his eyes towards the direction of the basement door.
“Hi, hun!”
“Oh Jesus!” Ralph jumped to the side and nearly fell over. He clutched a fist to his chest.
Agnes stood there in front of the door in shock.
“Are you alright, darling?”
Ralph put his hands on his knees and breathed, “yes, but please never do that again.”
“Okay.”
She smiled softly and it met her eyes.
“Why don’t you go on ahead and get ready for bed,” he suggested.
“I’ll be there, waiting for you,” she said and left towards the stairs with a wink.
Ralph sighed and stared at nothing for a second.
He slowly made his way to the basement, feeling like a zombie being pulled to his death, his second death that is.
The door was looming. It cast shadows where secrets hid. It haunted a home of peace with terror. Whatever lurked down there was the stuff of nightmares. Ralph couldn’t even imagine the possibilities of what there was, human flesh walls, torture chambers, giant mutated bugs, coulerons made of human bones, or those demon boxes that he knew existed.
But he was there for a reason and he was only looking for one thing, something he wasn’t even sure was there.
Before he could start debating over whether or not it was worth it he found his hand on the knob and suddenly the door was open in front of him.
It was dark. The stairs sloping downward were foreboding. The unlit walls seemed to cave in around the stairs.
There was a thump on the floor right below him.
Ralph looked down and saw an angry looking bunny staring back up at him.
It thumped its back legs again.
He looked over and saw that at the bunny’s level there were scratch and teeth marks on the door that shredded a chunk of it. It was pretty damaged to the point where if Ralph hadn’t gotten there in time the bunny would have made a hole and escaped by his own strength.
“Sorry it took me so long,” he said to the bunny, “bud.”
It still stared at him like it was waiting for something.
“I didn’t know you were there, honestly.”
It didn’t move.
He sighed. “You want me to take you to Agnes?”
It didn’t seem to object so Ralph picked it up and he carefully carried it under his arm like a football up to the bedroom.
Agatha was already tucked under the covers, sitting against the headrest. She had her hands in her lap as she twiddled with her thumbs.
She perked up when Ralph came in.
“Darling, I’ve been wait-!” She gasped and cut herself off when she saw the bunny.
Ralph moved it around to pass it over to her.
“Look what I found,” he said.
She looked as if she was about to cry. The sparkles of her eyes were highlighted with a matching smile. Her body moved with love and excitement as she took him from Ralph’s hands.
“Senor Scratchy!” Her voice was soft and breaking like a spider’s web. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.
She clutched him close to her chest and held on to him like he was everything she ever had. She ran her fingers through the fur of his neck and kissed the top of his head.
His ears twitched.
“Ralph, can he sleep with us tonight?”
When he looked at her, with the way she was now, he couldn’t say no.
“Sure, babe.”
Agatha payed no mind to the new nickname which Ralph was thankful for because he didn’t even know why he said it.