Read Online The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli - Free Book Online Page A

the warm morning sun, the serpent devil slithered up behind me and licked my ears. Instantly I could hear the loving encouragement the vixen gave her kits. I fled, full of the pain of loss. From that moment on, I have understood the language of every animal, large and small. Yet I never talk with them. I know their company would only make the forbidden idea of human company more attractive. I learned that lesson from the vixen. I do not even allow myself to eavesdrop. I must shut my ears now so that I cannot hear this doe’s anguish.
    A flock of starlings is startled. They rise into the air in a noisy cloud of black and yellow. I hate starlings, of course.
    And a family of squirrels is racing by. The younger ones are curious, running back to the source of the fear, disappearing for many minutes, then racing on ahead again.
    I am not curious myself. Curiosity is an innocent emotion. I am only anxious. I shut myself in my candy house and build a fire. Most living creatures are afraid of fire. I grab my witch-hazel broom and hold it ready to thrust into the fire. I can use it like a torch if I must defend myself. I wish I could light a starling afire.
    Suddenly my window breaks. That window of spun-sugar glass. The pink shards melt in the heat from the burning bird. A starling lies on my floor enveloped in a red and yellow sphere. My ears hurt from its silent shriek. Before my eyes the flaming wings turn to ash and nothing is left but smoke.
    Oh, why did I allow myself a wish? Oh, dreadful wish. I fall to my knees and lean over what isn’t there any longer. I have exercised an evil power without meaning to. The very fact that the devils have left me alone for so long is a type of seduction. I have been seduced into killing this bird. After nine long years I am still vulnerable.Oh, misery that owns my heart. I must stay on guard always, even if the devils are distant. For the evil power is mine always. It is a task not to use that power. A wearisome, difficult task. I must be vigilant.
    I leave the safety of the hearth and walk to my bed. I lie down and shut my eyes. I will not sleep.
    And yet I feel the sleep overtaking me. My eyelids are thick and wet as lily pads. I tell myself I could easily open them, but I don’t want to right now. It is by choice that I lie here with shut eyes. My choice. Yes.
    I don’t know if I slept. It is possible, for as the voices come to me, I feel that I am awakening. But the voices are not within my head. My body freezes. The voices are outside my home.
    “Throw me down some gumdrops, Hansel,” says a light, high voice. The sound is musical, but the words cut me as deeply as any sword. A child is outside my home. A human child!
    “Here, Gretel.”
    I hear the sound of something breaking from my roof.
    The child named Gretel laughs. “Maybe we won’t starve, after all.” Her laughter is not totally gleeful. A hint of panic whets her voice.
    I am totally alert. I am scanning my deepest thoughts. I find nothing to be afraid of. Yet I must not let downmy guard. I remember how my mouth watered at the vision of my own grandchildren. I am not trustworthy.
    “Candy is good, Gretel,” says the child Hansel. “All the time they’ve been lying to us. Candy is wonderful.”
    “Hush. Don’t say wicked thoughts. We are eating this candy only because we need to,” says Gretel with a full mouth. “Recall the pastor’s words. We must deny pleasures of the flesh. We are not eating this candy by choice. We are not sinners.” There is fear in her voice. Her pastor is a powerful force.
    “I’m eating it because I like it,” says Hansel.
    A smacking sound comes from Gretel’s mouth. I know her tongue is working at the sticky gumdrop in her teeth. “It is sweet, I admit.” She gives a small, childlike laugh. “Very sweet. And the cottage is so beautiful. I cannot believe how beautiful it is. It is like heaven itself.”
    Her voice is full of awe. These children are agog at my home. The girl