The new housemaid re-entered the room at that moment with a large silver tray brimming with food . Elizabeth ran at her and smashed her fists upward into the bottom of the tray . Fried eggs were sent hurling across the room , and cereal oats splattered in a fanshape across the table , floor and walls . The tray hit the ceiling with a dull clank . Elizabeth kept running and left the house through the back door . Abby stood and motioned to go after her daughter but Isaac stopped her .
“ Leave her be ,” Isaac said , “ She ’ ll get over it soon enough .”
Elizabeth ran from the house and hid in the barn , away from her parents and the house of lies that her home had become . She fell asleep on a bed of hay for over an hour . When she awakened , she remembered her dolls . She retrieved them from their hiding space inside the wood panels of the barn wall and placed them upon the workbench . She scrutinized them with such anger as if scrutinizing the very souls of the people they represented . A fury grew within her until she could see nothing else but the fire in her mind ‘ s eye . She pulled a small hatchet from the tool wall behind the work bench . She plunged the axe into the doll of her mother , into its skull . In the distance , from the second story of the house , she heard her mother cry out .
In the house , Abby sat up in bed , disturbed from a rare afternoon nap . She touched her trembling hand to her forehead and pulled her fingers away feeling wetness . She gazed upon her bloody hand . Had she been struck by some invisible force ? Although she could not see the assailant , she felt its malevolent presence . It was coming closer , preparing to strike again . “ Lizzie , no !” she screamed . It was too late . The invisible weapon cut deep into her head and she fell back onto the bed . She felt herself being struck again and again . She felt the warmth of her own blood on the back of her neck and pooling on the bed under her body as her life ebbed from the wounds in her head . Then she was gone .
In the barn , Elizabeth had hit the doll more than a dozen times in the head before stopping . She gazed at her handiwork with some gratification but knew the job was not done . She placed the doll figure of her step-father into position on the bench . She stabbed the hatchet into the bench top so it stood erect in the wood . She climbed to the second story of the barn and sat by the window so she could see the front of her house clearly . She waited for her step-father to return home . Isaac returned from Providence in the early afternoon and discovered the house to be quiet and serene . Assuming his wife had gone to market with the new house-maid he decided to rest before tending to the afternoon chores . He had been ill for several days with a stomach virus and then with stabbing pains in his lower back near his kidneys . Too weak to venture upstairs , he reclined upon the day-bed in the main parlor and fell asleep .
Isaac awakened suddenly . From a lying position , he felt a hard strike upon his forehead . He reached up to feel blood running from his skull . In a daze , he looked at the blood upon his fingertips wondering how this could have happened . Without warning , he was struck again with tremendous force . His arm immediately dropped to his side and hung from the daybed uselessly . He could not move a muscle as he felt several more blows to his head by some invisible perpetrator . He thought he could actually feel an ax cleaving its way into his skull .
In the barn , Elizabeth plunged the ax into the head of the doll many more times , twenty-one times in all , until the head was no longer recognizable as round and the little bead used for the right eye dislodged and hung loosely in the deformed wax .
During the last few blows of the blade , Tichiban entered the barn screaming . “ No . No Elizabeth !” She ran to the young lady ’ s side and physically stopped her from swinging the ax .
“ This is not a game my child . This is forever ,” Tichiban hollered . “ You were not meant to do something like this . I gave you this as a diversion to take your anger out upon--not to destroy your life and the life of all around you .”
Elizabeth dropped the hatchet and grabbed Tichiban , wrapping her arms tight around her and exploding into a fit of tears .
“ Oh , Tichiban . They told me you had left , that I would never see you again .”
“ I am sorry my child . I do have to go . But I would not leave without saying goodbye to you .” “ Can I come with you , away from this place ?” “ What about your sister , she will be home from boarding school shortly . You must stay and take care of her … and this .”
Tichiban separated their hug and looked Elizabeth in the eyes .
“ You must be strong now ; you must ensure that your sister is in your care and that she lives a good life . You must make something good of this misfortune , so it is not in vain .”
Tichiban picked up the small hatchet . “ Go hide this , my child , in the floor boards of the barn attic ,” she said .
Tichiban stripped the two wax dolls of their meager clothing and personal possessions . She threw them onto the fading coals in the fireplace . After a few moments they burst into flame . Tichiban held the dolls near the burning embers making them warm . They softened . She rolled the raw wax in her hands while saying words in her native tongue . They were no longer dolls ; they were just balls of wax .
***
Standing at their parents final resting place , the two sisters locked arms . Elizabeth , the older sister , was to manage the estate . Her younger sibling , Emma , had been called home to attend the funeral . They were seen in the graveyard often thereafter , whispering to each other , sprinkling herbs and spices upon the burial plots . The townsfolk treated them like criminals , but when any of them spoke to the sisters in an unflattering tone , they would become mysteriously ill for days .
The sisters walked about the cemetery , in mourning black dress , under roiling storm clouds , gray and silver . Dead and blackened trees , like craggy monster fingers , threatening to rip the world asunder . The girls ,