Free The Weird Company by Pete Rawlik Page B

thrown, and I was suddenly free, and more brilliant than any child Ephraim had ever seen. I and my father were only ever happy when we were together, and although I tired easily, I did my best to stay by his side. By the time I was five I was Ephraim’s constant companion, and he returned to his studies and laboratory with me as an assistant. I proved more capable than he would have ever thought. We travelled to Arkham and Kingsport and even distant and secret locations in Maine, and never could a parent have been prouder of a child.
    The only activities for which I had no taste were the regular visits to the imprisoned Zulieka. Her madness had abated somewhat, for she had gained some sense of control, but her mind was little more than that of a child, and she would fly into tantrums at the strangest of things, particularly when Ephraim mentioned my well-being. Despite my apparent reluctance to visit my mother, I volunteered to help prepare her meals. Even when in November of 1912 she fell ill, I did my best to keep food and tea supplied to the poor woman, going so far as to order our own cook out of the kitchen. It was a relief when she succumbed to some strange malady that left her body cramped and convulsing while her hair fell out. Yet I, who had not seen the woman in years, still shed a tear for her loss.
    It had not occurred to Ephraim that those tears could have been generated for some other reason, at least not until months later. As the spring rains caused the Manuxet to swell, there came another unwelcome flood, one of vermin. The house was suddenly infested with mice that were fleeing the drowned fields and making homes where they could. Frustrated, Ephraim took it upon himself to go down to the local store for some rat poison. The shopkeeper, Davis Phillips, was surprised that he would place such an order, for surely he had not yet exhausted the supply that had been bought the previous October. My father was startled, but quickly explained that he had broken the bottle and was in need of more. At home, it did not take him long to discover the jar of rat poison hidden in the cabinet of the pantry, and he stared perplexed, trying to determine the meaning behind the jar being halfway empty.
    Despite his fears and suspicions, he still loved me and continued my apprenticeship in the arts and secret sciences. He could not have known that our skills in chemistry and pharmacology would be put to the test when in the summer of 1914 the last pharmacy in Innsmouth closed, and he and I were left to concoct the various elixirs and powders prescribed by the few doctors who had remained. Things went from bad to worse when both bus companies that served Innsmouth ceased operation just a year later. Thankfully, Joe Sargent with a little funding from the Marsh family began operating his own, albeit limited, bus service in and out of Innsmouth.
    It was shortly after that a review of the pantry left Ephraim disappointed and in a somber mood, causing him one day to board Sargent’s bus and travel to Kingsport. There he met with the administrator of the Hall School and made certain arrangements concerning my education and care. When he returned home, he found me waiting for him, angry beyond belief. He would not have thought a girl of my age capable of such language, or vehement. He laughed and said that when I was angry, screaming and shouting that it reminded him of the arguments and bouts that he had had with Zulieka. That is when I apparently threw up my hands and called Ephraim senile, for I recalled no such arguments. After this, according to Ephraim, I suddenly blanched and skulked away. Ephraim said nothing, but secretly monitored the jar in the pantry, and took appropriate precautions.
    It took a year, much longer than it had taken with Zulieka, but by the winter of 1917–1918 Ephraim was sick. His insides burned and his muscles cramped. His hair slowly fell out, and his fingernails changed color. He knew what was happening,