WILFRED

(A letter from the Parish Priest) She hated the family cat because it was always scratching her. The cat became the first real test of her powers. She inflicted the cat with a small tumor on the side of its head. Within minutes, it grew to be the size of an egg. Swelling even more, the tumor quickly became the same size as the cat’s head. Then it burst, spewing out puss and part of the cat’s brain. The family pet died an agonizingly slow death. Because of her early age Sylvia found herself having two distinct feelings. The first one was to look at the cat dying and feel not compassion but pleasure. The second was that she did something very wrong. The second prevailed. Panicking she ran to the sanctity of the church for protection. Merely by chance, when she came in to the church I was hearing confessions. Entering the confessional booth she blurted out to me what she had done. Although I had absolutely no reason to believe her, I knew who the little girl was and did not want to offend her or her adoptive parents. The Deschenes were more than generous in their cash gifts to the church. Stepping out of the confessional, I opened her door and asked Sylvia to follow me. As we left the church and went down onto the street, a stray dog ran by. I told her to do something bad to the dog. I wanted to prove to her that she had no special powers and that she was not responsible for the cat. She took a few steps toward the dog and it suddenly turned on her growling and showing all its teeth. The dog tried to advance but was unable to move. It was like his paws were glued to the pavement. It was trying frantically to free its self, when out of nowhere a swarm of black flies appeared. They attacked the dog unmercifully, inflicting stinging bites along its head, neck, and back. The pain from the bites put the dog in such agony that he started chewing on his own legs trying to get free. Sylvia seemed to be elated! All of a sudden the dog’s four legs disappeared and its body collapsed to the ground. Yelping in pain, all it could do was to roll back and fourth while the black flies kept feasting on its bloody neck and back. I never saw the likes of one before, but a large black bird landed on the ground in front of the dog’s head. The dog tried furiously to nip at the bird, but the bird was much quicker and very hungry. Within seconds it had plucked out one of the dog’s eyeballs and swallowed it. I remember glancing down at Sylvia, I was shocked to see her grinning and that she actually laughed when the dog was in the most pain. I just couldn’t witness the dog’s misery any longer. Taking her hand we went back inside the church. Once back, inside the first thing she asked me if it was mean enough? I knew then that I was in the presence of something very evil. I knew that any creation of Satan or even Satan himself could not harm me as long as I was inside the church. There was no way I could hold her in the church by force. I decided to take a chance. I told her that it had been a long time since I had enjoyed anything so much. I pleaded for her to return in the morning, and that after mass she would have to promise me that she would show me one more use of her powers. In exchange I would inform her parents that she had nothing to do with the cats death. She was very pleased with the offer and agreed to see me after morning mass. I watched her go out through the large wooden door and skip down the steps. Once on the sidewalk, she stopped to look at the dog, it was close to death. Both eyeballs were missing and blood was bleeding from the empty sockets. It had lost control of its bowels and the black flies were busy feeding on the rest of its flesh. I stepped out of the church so she could see that I was very much interested in what she had done. She looked up at me smiling; I’ll never forget what she said. The words were chilling. “Father, doesn’t he look so silly?”