A Head Full of Ghosts

by Paul Tremblay

“He’ll ask to deliver us from an unprovided death and deliver us from earthquakes and storms and plague and famine and war. Those prayers have never worked, have never stopped those things from happening. They won’t now and they never will. And I don’t see what any of these prayers have to do with helping me. These prayers are designed for you, Merry. To make you think his God controls all things, especially you.”

Marjorie said, “Yes, I’ve made my lips turn blue, willed goose bumps to appear on my skin, and I’m fake shivering. Just like all those women the church had drowned and burned as witches were trying to trick the faithful with their screams.”

Mom and Dad used to tell me, and instead of witches putting kids in ovens and evil queens conjuring poisoned apples, the fathers and husbands were the monsters doing the unspeakable things to their families, and these stories all ended without anyone saving anybody. No one was saved.