Isabella's Basil

Abstract

Isabella's Basil Lynda Sexson (bio) A girl lived with her mother and three brothers in a rundown house of Italianate lines. While the daughter tended pots of dainty herbs, the mother lay down, pale upon her bed. Her daughter lay down beside her. They were like a botanical engraving, two stems in two variants, blown and budding. The house, too, desired to die: A ceiling cracked. A window shattered. A door unhinged. ________ The brothers knew just how to plant their mother's remains, but were at a loss over the girl left alive. The eldest brother said, "She's not yet ripe for marriage." The middle brother said, "She needs meat and manners." The youngest brother said, "I'm making a list of bachelors with arable land and ready cash. Maybe horses. Houses. Boats. Lakes." After tucking their mother into the earth, the first brother caught his sister in his arms, saying, "Sit on my lap and weep on my neck." To her last breath their mother had reproached him, "Let her go." The walls of the house remembered, murmuring, "Let her go." The second brother socked his sister until her flesh looked like plums in a porcelain bowl. The third brother called his sister ugly and poked her with his fork. The girl hid beneath the stairs and under the impression that she could make herself invisible. ________ Their land spread in two directions from the house, requiring the brothers to travel great distances for hunting and making speeches. They hired a strong and clever boy with eyes like a fawn to patch up the house in their absence. The eldest brother told the hired boy, "There's a gosling loose in the house. When it flutters, you might mistake it for a girl. If you approach, it will take out your eye." The middle brother instructed, "If you see the ghost of our mother resembling a gawky girl do not disturb her mourning or she will snatch out your soul." The youngest brother said, "Go near our sister and die." [End Page 65] And before they left, the first brother warned their sister, "Do not let him see you." The second said, "Stay hidden." But the third brother said to her, "Do not look at him." ________ As soon as they departed, the handsome boy came to mend cornices and brackets. He searched attic to eaves, pantry to parlor, even calling down the well for the gosling. The girl stealthily observed his skills with his grandfather's tools. Lathe. Chisel. Clamps. Brushes. A brass teardrop plumb bob. She watched him repair the gate so it could swing again. When the boy left she tested it. He stayed at a distance and watched her. The next day he pulled out the bishop's weed overtaking her mother's bleeding hearts. The girl came close enough to study his eyes like a fawn. Hair like a lamb. Nose like a hawk. He wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt, sloughing it off in the garden. Snatching the damp shirt, she folded and folded it, then set it by the door. She crouched among the bleeding hearts, laying plump, heart-shaped blossoms one by one upon her tongue until she was trembling and could hear her mother's voice again. "Inedible, Darling." The boy had turned back, coming up behind her. Did he say, "Poison, Darling"? She ran into the house. He picked up his shirt, folded like a gift. That night a litter of seven kittens appeared on her mother's old quilt. The girl kept them hidden up in the cupola, fearing the brothers' burlap bag. Heavy stones. Swelling creek. ________ Returning home, the brothers looked hard at their sister to find out if she had disobeyed them. She turned away and twisted her hair. The first brother said, "We'll marry her off soon, but no one wants a frail or sulky bride." The second brother climbed to the cupola and found the litter of kittens. The third brother rushed for a burlap bag. The first brother gave the order. In the sack of dead cats the girl found one still alive, dried him...