I met Sheila, beautiful, clever, smart, fearless, my first job after college. I didn't dare ask her out, but when she invited me to go with her to a play she got tickets for and then broke up with her boyfriend, I couldn't resist her warm brown eyes and cheerful good nature or my own feelings and said yes. By the end of the play we were holding hands and I was in love.

Apparently she was in love, too. We kept seeing each other. On Valentine's Day she told me she'd broken up with the old boyfriend before she bought the tickets for the play. We moved in together, and things only got better.  

Then she wanted to know why I refused to ever get married. My tongue stuck in my throat. Here it comes. How do I explain? I was ready to leave rather than put my beloved in danger, but she wouldn't let me go. I knew I'd have to tell her.

I got my kid brother, Larry, to come over, for he lived through what I lived through, and believed what I believed. We shared the same tragedies, and he wouldn't marry his darling Linda either. Together, we'd explain why I had to leave.

We sat at the table in our tiny kitchen. "So, Derek," Sheila said to me, "tell me what you have to say. I need to know if we have a future." She took my hand in hers.

I started. "When I was ten and Larry was eight, Dad died. Mom and us boys moved in with her mother. Mom got a job and Grammy took care of us. We missed Dad something awful, but we were adjusting and things were getting better.

"Grammy had a neighbor, Carrie Trefissi, disliked and feared by all who knew her. She found something to argue with about everyone, and when she lost the argument, or even if she won, bad things would happen to the people she argued with. Grammy avoided her and told us to do the same, so we did.

"One day Carrie came to the house and told Grammy her fence was seven inches on her property and Grammy would have to move it. Grammy proved it was on the property line, but Carrie kept on about it. When she started threatening us, Grammy took her to Court and won the case. Grammy didn't want damages, but got a restraining order against Carrie Trefissi. We thought that ended the matter."

Larry spoke next. "A few weeks later, a 'For Sale' sign went up on Carrie's lawn. A month later the house sold, and the movers came. The guys were hauling boxes and stuff out, when Carrie came to the door and knocked. Grammy answered, and almost shut it in her face. Larry and I were in the hall, watching. We could see and hear everything."

Larry continued. "First off, Mrs. Trefissi apologized for her behavior. She claimed she was upset from her divorce and was moving to be near her parents. We could almost feel Grammy's relief. She said, "Let's forget it ever happened. I hope your new place works out good for you."

I said,  "Carrie smiled. You'd think she was happy, but I thought then and still do, that she actually sneered. There was a glee in her  eyes, a feeling that she had won something. I didn't understand it, and I didn't like it."

"'I'd like you to have this," she said, handing Grandma an old box. "I don't have room for a big Christmas tree in my new place, and I want to think of you and your little family using it." Again that sneer. "She brings good luck. She did a lot for me. There's a condition: you, the matriarch of the family, the mother, have to put it on the top of the tree every year. If you don't put it up, you will all have very, very, bad luck.'

"They talked for another minute, and she left. She looked over her shoulder at Grammy, made some gesture with her hand, and sneered again. She almost skipped home. We never saw her again, but we heard about her from time to time as her life got better.

"Grammy gave Larry the box to open. Inside was a beautiful angel, dressed in blue and silver, with white fur and wings. I looked at it closely. It looked just like Carrie Trefissi would if she were dressed that way. And sneering."

I stopped talking. I looked at Larry. He nodded and told the next part. "A few days later we decorated the tree. The last thing to go on was the angel. Grammy took it out of the box. The topper had no legs, just a cylinder to slide over the top branches and hold it in place. "Good luck if I put this thing on the tree. Bad luck if I don't." Grammy laughed. She put a footstool by the tree and stepped up on it. She reached for the top branch, and tugged it close to her, leaning so far over the stool wobbled. "Careful, Momma," said Mom. Grammy wiggled the angel's cylinder over the branch, and let it spring back. She lost her balance, yelped, grabbed for something to hold on and caught a string of lights. She fell hard, breaking the bulbs. Somehow, the string electrocuted her.

Mom and her brother, our uncle Martin, decided to sell the house and split the money. Mom bought a two-bedroom condo on the second story of a new complex near her job. We could walk to school and church.

When we packed to move, Larry and I threw the blue angel in the trash. We watched as the garbage truck groaned and growled, dumping the contents of the trash can in its compactor. The back blade crushed the trash and lifted again. The truck moved on to the next yard.

"That thing's gone for good, right? It's just little pieces now, right, Derek?

"I hope so," I said, but I could see the matching sneers on the faces of Mrs. Trefissi and the angel.

"The next summer Mom mentioned that Mrs. Trefissi had remarried. Her husband was a partner in a big successful law firm. They lived in a mansion in one of the best parts of town.

"We spent the next Christmas with Uncle Martin's family. Nothing bad happened, except we all got the flu. The year passed with more than the usual number of problems. Mom's car broke down a couple times, Larry knocked out a tooth (baby) and on Thanksgiving I broke my leg.

"The second Christmas after Grammy died, I was still hopping around on crutches when we decorated the tree. At our insistence, Mom had gotten a small artificial tree, which she placed on a table in front of the window in our condo's living room. She put the new topper, a sparkling light, on top of the tree. Larry and I looked at each other, relieved. I sat down and rested my leg. Larry took the trash to the kitchen.

"Mom picked up a box and shook it. She looked inside and reached in to touch something. "I thought we lost this," she said. "Momma got it that last year."

"She walked behind the tree and sat on the window, which was open because the day was so warm. I watched as she took the sparkling star down. She tilted the tree towards her and reached up to place an angel in a blue dress with white wings in its place. At first, I was too scared to move when I recognized the angel. Mom thought Grammy bought that Hell's angel. She didn't know Carrie Trefissi had given it to her. The one Larry and I had seen crushed in the garbage truck.

"I got to my feet and hobbled towards her. I reached for the angel, but the tree slipped on the table, fell, and hit Mom in the face. She said, "Ouch," and jerked back against the screen. It tore against her weight. I watched helplessly as she fell out the second story window. I heard her scream as she disappeared.

"After Mom's funeral, Larry and I tore the angel apart, limb from limb. We cut up its clothes and wings. We burned the pieces to ash. It was the worst stink."

"Uncle Martin raised us," said Larry, continuing the story. "A few weeks after we moved in with his family, he came home and told us he got a big commission for the sale of a lakefront home. The sale was to Carrie and her husband.

"Larry and I saw a therapist for a long time. He wouldn't believe our story of a cursed angel. He told Uncle Martin that was our way of coping. Otherwise, the therapist said we were doing well in the circumstances, and adapting to our new lives, thanks to Uncle Martin's support.

"Derek and I agreed never to marry, because of the curse. The matriarch, the mother in our family will die. So." Larry was crushed, for he was very much in love with Linda.

Sheila squeezed my hand. "So you two guys have a promise not to marry or have kids because you think there's a curse on you?"

"We don't know what it is, but after Grammy and Mom, we don't want to risk another woman we love," said Larry. Sheila handed him a napkin to wipe his eyes.

"Derek, I love you. I understand you're afraid of this thing you think is going to happen if we marry and have children."

"The curse on the matriarch," said Larry. I nodded, too choked up to speak.

"I love you, Derek. I have since you came to work your first day and put pictures or your family on your desk. I'm not afraid. I love you. Love is stronger than hate. Than this "curse" you believe in. I trust in my love for you and your love for me. Let's not live in fear. Anything can happen. Let's live for love."

"Sheila," I said, looking into her eyes, "Will you marry me?" She smiled her beautiful smile, and I fell in love with her all over again.

"Yes."

We married in January with Larry as my best man. In October, Sheila gave birth to our son, Tommy. Things were going so well, I thought the curse was only in our imaginations, Larry's and mine.

That Christmas we put up our Christmas tree. It was complete but for the star light for the top.  Sheila picked up the box of ornaments Uncle Martin had sent us. He'd downsized and had no room for them so we got them. 

"Oooh," said Sheila. "There's a lovely tree topper in here. We'll use this instead of the star." She pulled out the blue angel that Grammy and Mom had died placing on the tree.

 "That angel wasn't in the box when it came," I said. I had looked at the items in the box when we got it. The angel wasn't in it a few minutes ago when I took out the last ornaments. Now here it was again.

Sheila looked puzzled. "Of course it was. How else would it get here?"

"No," I said. "That's the one...the one...Grammy and Mom put on the tree...the cursed angel."

Sheila looked confused. "What? You told me you and Larry destroyed that angel."

"We did," I said. Twice. I swallowed hard, trying to moisten my mouth. "It keeps coming back and won't stop."

"Is this the angel you and Larry think curses the women in your family? That story you told me."

I nodded. "Put it down. I'll destroy it again. Please, my love. Tom and I need you."

Sheila's eyes narrowed. She examined the angel. "I'll fix you," she said. Before I could move and take it from her, she went to the tree, knelt, and shoved the angel into the water bowl holding the trunk.

The stench that filled the room drove us from the house, little Tom in Sheila's arms. When we got the place aired out, we returned home. Everything seemed normal, if a little dusty. We approached the tree carefully. I unscrewed the tree trunk and lifted it out of the bowl holding the water. I laid it aside.

The angel was sodden rags and blackened bits. Completely destroyed. I poured the slop into a plastic bag, double bagged it, and built a fire using the tree. I placed the angel remnants on it. It burned without a stench, any more smell than would have been expected from trash and a fir tree.

Christmas passed happily. We went to Uncle Martin's with Larry and his fiancee, Linda. I felt confident about next Christmas. All our Christmases. Sheila and I could and would live for love.

That night I watched the local news. The anchor reported that the police found no evidence of foul play in the death of the former Carrie Trefissi and the coroner ruled her death an accident. She was found floating in the lake beside her house.