Chapter 74 The dinner

After Dana’s visit I became more wary about what people said and thought about me, I never trusted anyone apart from my Johnnie, I managed the vamscren she gave me to make appearances in many parts of the town during the day. It worked, and after a while, all the witch rumors about me stopped, people just assumed that I was heliophobic or something.

Johnnie decided that it was now time for me to meet his parents, we were going over to their house for dinner tonight. I was excited at the thought of going to meet them, I only hoped that the fact that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything wouldn’t pose as a problem.

We went to their house in the evening after he came home from work. Their house wasn’t in the same neighborhood as Johnnie’s and in this area, there were entirely different faces, they lived in the outskirts of the town. I made sure to look my best before we left and soon, we reached the house. It was bigger than Johnnies and there were a few other relatives that lived with them. When we entered, we met John’s mother, Agatha, preparing the dinner table.

“Johnnie!!!” She said, embracing her son. “Why haven’t you come to see us since? It’s been more than a while.”

“I’m sorry mother, you know I would have, but my girlfriend here just moved in with me and I wanted to spend a lot of time with her and help her settle.”

“Welcome my dear, what’s your name?” She turned and asked me.

“My name is Marylin, it’s so nice to meet you ma’am. Johnnie has told me a lot about you.”

“Of course, he has, and you must be very special for Johnnie to bring you here, he never brings any ladies here.”

“That’s ok mother,” Johnnie said. He was clearly not comfortable with what his mother said.

Agatha took me over to meet Johnnie’s dad, Stephen, his uncle and aunt and a few of his other cousins. It felt good to meet them, but his family’s countenance towards me began to change when we all sat at the dinner table to dine. I was hoping that Johnnie would make things easier for me by telling his parents that I wasn’t going to eat, but he didn’t. And it made them wonder why I didn’t touch the food that was served in front of me while the other family members ate. Agatha was surprised and began to talk to me.

“What’s the matter Marylin? Don’t you like the food? Or aren’t you hungry?”

“Oh no,” I said, “I’m sorry I had a heavy dinner before I came here. I’m afraid I might throw up.”

“If she doesn’t want to eat, then I think there’s no need to force her,” Jasper, one of John’s hungry cousins said. He was more than happy to take the untouched plate of food I had in front of me.

Agatha convinced her son to spend the weekend with us since it was a Friday, I could not believe that Johnnie agreed knowing fully well about my food and sun predicaments. I had only lived with him and he was used to my strangeness, but his family was not.

I talked to Johnnie when we were finally alone and he apologized. He told me that he didn’t want to upset his parents by refusing to stay and when I told him that I wanted to go home, he told me that would upset his parents too and that I needed their approval if I wanted him in my life.

I wanted to keep on arguing, but I decided to just play along since he agreed that he would lie to them that I was sick and I wouldn’t be able to eat and would have to stay indoors. It was just one weekend and after this, I would make sure never to follow him here again. after all, what could possibly go wrong?

***

The whole weekend turned out to be a disaster as they knew John was lying right after he refused to take me to the doctor. They began to have the same suspicions that the people in his neighborhood did; that I was probably a witch. I heard Agatha and her sister discussing in the other room before it was time for us to leave that Sunday evening.

“If she’s sick then why doesn’t he take her to a doctor? I even offered to bring the family doctor here to check her but he refused. I know my Johnnie, and I know very well when he’s lying.”

“Then if she isn’t sick, then why doesn’t she eat anything? And why does she never come outside in the day?”

“I think it strange too, do you think maybe she’s a witch? At least that could explain why she doesn’t come out in the sun, because she knows that people will see that her beauty was just a mask. And maybe she doesn’t eat human food, I always heard that witches always preferred froggy toes.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Agatha said. “But if it’s true, then she’d better not bewitch my Johnnie because with the way he was lying, I almost wanted to believe that she had him under her control, because I will not hesitate to report her to king Roland!!!”

“We have to be sure before we make any accusations, we don’t want to upset Johnnie if it all turns out to be lie.”

I placed my hand on my mouth after hearing them, I was once more in a fix and I didn’t know what to do again. I just had to wait for my Johnnie, who had gone out hunting with his father, to return back so we could get on our way. I did not want to spend a second more here.