The Stolen Child(47)

All of us watch and study him. From a distance, mind."

"It has to be somebody who isn't happy," Chavisory said.

Smaolach scowled at her. "Never mind that. We observe the child in teams. While certain people

take down his habits, others study his voice."

"Start with the name," said Speck. "Gather all the facts: age, birthday brothers and sisters."

Chavisory interrupted her. "I'd stay away from boys with dogs. Dogs are born suspicious."

"You have to know enough," Speck said, "so you can make people be-lieve you are one of them.

A child of their own."

Carefully rolling a cigarette, Luchóg said, "I've betimes thought that I'd look for a large family, with

lots of kids and so on, and then pick the one in the middle that nobody'll miss or notice they're gone for a

bit. Or if I forget some detail or am slightly off in my imitation, nobody is the wiser. Maybe number six of

thirteen, or four of seven. Not as easy as it once was, now that mums and dads aren't having so many

babies."

"I'd like to be a baby again," said Chavisory.

"Once you have made the choice," said Smaolach, "we go in and grab the child. He or she's got to

be alone, or you'll be found out. Have you ever heard the tale of them ones in Russia or thereabouts,

where they caught the lot of them stealing a tiny Cossack lad with pointy teeth, and them Cossacks took

all our boys of the woods and burnt them up to a crisp?"

"Fire is a devil of a way to go," said Luchóg. "Did I ever tell you of the faery changeling caught

snooping around the room of a girl she wished to replace? She hears the parents come in, and leaps in

the closet, making the change right there in the room. At first, the parents thought nothing of it, when they

opened the door and there she was, playing in the dark. Later that day, the real girl comes home, and

what do you think? There's the two of them side by side, and our friend would have made it, but she

hadn't yet learned how to speak like the little girl. So the mother says, 'Now which one of you is Lucy?'

and the real Lucy says, 'I am,' and the other Lucy lets out a squawk to raise the dead. She had to jump

out the second-floor window and start all over again."

Smaolach looked perplexed during his friend's story, scratching his head as if trying to recall an

important detail. "Ah, there's a bit of magic, of course. We bind up the child in a web and lead him to the

water."

Spinning on her heels, Chavisory shouted, "And there's the incantation. You mustn't forget that."

"In he goes like a baptism," Smaolach continued. "Out he comes, one of us. Never to leave except

by one of three ways, and I would not give you my shoes for the first two."

Chavisory drew a circle in the dust with her bare toe. "Remember the German boy who played the

piano? The one before Aniday."

With a short hiss, Speck grabbed Chavisory by the hair and pulled the poor creature to her. She

sat on her chest and threw her hands upon her face, massaging and kneading Chavisory's skin like so

much dough. The girl screamed and cried like a fox in a steel trap. When she had finished, Speck

revealed a reasonable copy of her own sweet face on the visage of Chavisory. They looked like twins.

"You put me back," Chavisory complained.

"You put me back." Speck imitated her perfectly.

I could not believe what I was seeing.

"There's your future, little treasure. Behold the changeling," laid Smaolach. "Going back to the past

as yourself is not an option. But when you return as a changed person to their world, you get to stay

there, grow up as one of them, live as one of them, more or less, grow old as time allows, and you'll do

that yet, when your turn comes."

"My turn? I want to go home right now. How do I do it?"

"You don't," Luchóg said. "You have to wait until the rest of us have gone. There's a natural order

to our world that mustn't be disturbed. One child for one changeling. When your time comes, you will

find another child from a different family than what you left behind. You cannot go back whence you

came."

"I'm afraid, Aniday, you're last in the line. You'll have to be patient."

Luchóg and Smaolach took Chavisory behind the honeysuckle and began to manipulate her face.

The three of them laughed and carried on through the whole process. "Just make me pretty again," and

"Let's get one of them magazines with the women's pictures," and "Hey, she looks like Audrey

Hepburn." Eventually, they fixed her face, and she flew from their clutches like a bat.

Speck was unusually kind to me for the rest of that day, perhaps out of misplaced guilt for my