Page 103 of The Witch's Orchard
I have another picture of her and Nicole together when they were little. It’s Christmas and Nicole is playing with a set of light-up plastic blocks. Olivia is watching, wide-eyed. I show it to Olivia.
Olivia’s mouth twitches again but otherwise she just keeps rocking. The song changes but the meter stays the same and she rocks and taps.
“When you were little, someone took you away and then, a few days later, they brought you back. Do you remember any of that?”
She jerks her head. I glance at Nicole. She’s biting her lips together, looking a little nervous.
I reach over, fish in my bag, and get out the pictures Nicole gave to me the day before. I open them and spread them on the table.
Olivia’s eyes dart from page to page, spiral to spiral. Her rocking goes off time. Her tapping stutters.
“Can you help me understand what these are?”
Rock. Rock, rock. Tap tap tap tap.
I get my notebook and pens from the bag. I open the notebook to a fresh page.
“She won’t use a pen,” Nicole says.
“Okay,” I say. I look through the bag and find a fat yellow highlighter. I uncap it and hold it out to Olivia.
“Can you draw for me anything that you saw when you were taken away?”
Olivia holds the highlighter. She sniffs it. She scrunches up her nose.
Rock. Rock, rock, rock.
Her taps come one-handed.Tap. Tap.
“Okay,” I say. “How about I show you some pictures?”
I open my phone and scroll through the files I’ve saved. Olivia rocks faster.
“She um…” Nicole starts.
“What?”
“I’ve seen Uncle Cole try this with her. Twice before. She um… did not react well. But—”
“What?” I say, holding my phone close to me, away from Olivia.
“I think you should try it anyway.”
“Are you sure?”
“Everyone’s always trying to protect her. But Olivia is strong. Aren’t you, Liv? And you want to help Miss Annie find Shiloh’s little girl, right? Remember when Shiloh made you that pretty cake and brought it to the house with her little girl? You want to help find little Lucy, right? Remember how cute she is? Remember how she sang ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ for you?”
Olivia gives her sister an irritated growl, and Nicole laughs.
“Okay, maybe I’m laying it on a little thick, but you do want to help, right, Liv?”
Oliva breathes out a huff of air through her nose and her rocking slows a little.
I look at both of them and ask again, “Are you sure?”
Nicole looks at Olivia and then back at me and nods.
“Just go slow,” she says. And then, to Olivia, “You can stop if you want to, okay? We can go home whenever you want. Just wave at me, okay?”
