Briar Rose (2 page)

Instead of gulping the water down immediately, Briar held the chilled plastic against her forehead. It felt glorious as the condensation ran down her face. She screwed off the cap and took a
long drink.
That’s better.

‘Did you see me bite the dust?’ she asked.

‘Sure did. Better than yesterday’s run. Practice makes perfect.’

‘I didn’t look too fakey?’ Briar asked.

‘No. The twitching was a nice touch.’

‘Good, I wasn’t sure how far to push it.’

As a few tourists wandered by, Briar could tell she and Reena were attracting attention. It wasn’t often you saw a tall, athletic African American girl in running shorts and bright red
tennis shoes chatting with a shorter, sweaty white girl in Confederate garb. It couldn’t get any more anachronistic than that.

‘Is that it?’ her friend asked, looking around at the milling bystanders. Some were talking to the re-enactors while others bought souvenirs or snow cones. In the distance, the heat
shimmered above ground like an undulating serpent.

‘Yup, let’s get out of here,’ Briar replied. ‘Can you drive me home and turn the air conditioner down to Arctic? The heat is killing me.’

‘I would if I had a car,’ Reena replied as they drifted across the field to the changing tent. ‘The littlest bro has a toothache so Mom had to haul him to a dentist in
Savannah. I’m on foot today.’

‘I swear, my parents are never going to let me get my driver’s licence,’ Briar complained. ‘Every time I mention taking driver’s ed, my mom freaks out.’

‘I don’t mind hauling you around,’ her friend replied.

‘I know, but still. My parents act like I’m ten or something. It’s getting old.’

A few minutes later Briar had stripped down to her shorts and tank top, her tennis shoes replacing the cracked and weathered brogues. Usually she wore her curly blonde hair in a ponytail during
the summer, but it was so long it still cloaked on her shoulders. Today she’d pinned it up to fit under the uniform cap, which meant the sun had permission to do its worst to her neck and
back.

As re-enactors and their families scattered to the picnic benches for a late lunch, Briar adjusted her tattered backpack to allow for the additional weight of the uniform and shoes.

‘OK, I’m ready. Let’s get out of here.’

‘Here, drink,’ her friend insisted, handing her another full bottle of water she’d bought from one of the vendors. ‘I am not carrying your butt back to town.’

Briar knew better than to argue, having grown accustomed to Reena’s take-no-prisoners attitude. Somehow they’d become friends, despite being total opposites: Reena was tall and thin,
loved knitting, movie marathons and NASCAR racing. Briar wasn’t that good with sports, tended to be more rounded than svelte, and was never keen about getting all sweaty. Reena was a realist
and was convinced daydreaming was for little kids. Briar was a hopeless romantic. Still, somehow they’d built a solid friendship, one she hoped would never end.

As they cut across the field and on to the gravelled path that led towards Bliss, a couple of young boys on bikes flew by them, kicking up dust in their wake. In the pine woods to their right
the jewelweed was blooming, bright yellow flowers against the rich green foliage. The birdsong tried to compete with the sounds from the field behind them, and failed. In the distance Briar could
see one of the cotton fields, though the bolls hadn’t headed out yet. Soon it’d be a sea of white.

‘What did folks do before AC?’ she grumbled, wiping sweat and grime off her neck. A long shower was in her future.

Her friend smirked. ‘They roasted and got eaten by the bugs.’

‘Ugh.’ Georgia had a lot of good things to its credit, but the midges and the deer flies were pure torture.

‘That’s why I’m not into that dress-up thing you guys do,’ Reena continued. ‘You have to be ten kinds of fool running around in wool or hoop skirts when it’s
ninety-eight in the shade.’

‘You’re just lucky you’re not a Rose. If you were, you’d be out there like I was.’

‘You could have refused,’ Reena countered.

‘And get guilted forever? You know my relatives. Thirty years from now one of them will be sure to remind me that I didn’t uphold “the family tradition”.’

‘Some tradition. Running around and playing dead.’

Briar shrugged. ‘It was our big moment in history.’

‘Which failed, but the town still worships Elmer like he was a saint.’

‘Don’t remind me.’

Briar sucked down more of the water, pleased that her head was clearer now.

‘I’m getting nailed with the same family tradition guilt,’ her friend admitted.

‘Gran Lily after you again?’

‘Yup. She says I need to learn a few more conjures before she crosses over.’ Reena rolled her eyes. ‘Like she’s ever going to die.’

Lily Foster wasn’t actually Reena’s grandmother – more like her great-grandmother. Depending on who you asked, she was somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty years
old. Briar had only been around her a few times, and each time Mrs Foster had spooked the crap out of her.

Though folks didn’t talk much about it, there was a rich hoodoo tradition in the South. Carried across the oceans with the first slaves, mixed with Christianity and Native American
traditions, it’d found a home in the backwoods of Georgia. Unlike voodoo, which was a religion, hoodoo was folk magic, pure and simple.

‘You doing more spells now?’ Briar asked, pleased that Reena was starting to open up about this. Usually her friend was reluctant to talk about that part of her life.

‘Yup. We’re getting deep into the rootwork.’ Reena looked around like she was about to confess to some sin. ‘It’s kinda cool, but don’t you tell anyone I said
that, OK? Not all my family is good with this.’

‘You mean like your Uncle Matt?’

‘Him in particular. He doesn’t seem to understand you can be Christian and a rootworker at the same time. He keeps confusing it with voodoo. I think he does it on purpose, just to
get a rise out of Gran.’

‘So what are you doing? Are you laying tricks on people?’

‘No, right now I’m working a conjure to protect folks from evil.’

‘Evil, in Bliss?’ Briar snorted. ‘Wasting your time there, my friend. Evil requires too much effort.’

Reena gave her long look. ‘Oh, you’d be surprised.’

Briar felt a shiver course up her spine. She shook it off. ‘OK, name one evil thing in Bliss, and you can’t count Mrs Quinn because she’s just nuts.’

‘All right,’ Reena said, rising to the challenge. ‘Remember Old Man Clayton, the guy who used to beat his wife every Sunday morning before he went to church because he thought
it made him more righteous in the sight of God? Lily put a trick on him so that every time he raised his hand to hit his missus, it’d go numb. Eventually he figured it out and stopped being a
douche.’

‘Really? That rocks,’ Briar exclaimed.

Reena reached into a pocket and tugged out a small fabric pouch. It was muted green with a subtle tapestry pattern to it. ‘Gran had me make up a
gris-gris
bag. Says I’m
supposed to carry it for protection.’

‘Seriously? What’s inside it?’

‘I’ve got a John the Conqueror root in there to draw away evil. I also have a Saint Michael’s sword to defeat any bad stuff that comes my way. And something for good
luck.’

‘Anything for love?’

‘No. Not going there.’

‘Oh, come on – if I could do some spell to make a handsome prince come my way, I’d be all over it.’

Reena sighed. ‘I’m too busy checking out colleges. Don’t need a boyfriend. Not right now.’

‘Your grades are good. You’ll get a scholarship, no sweat.’

‘Don’t know about that. What about you?’

‘Mom refuses to talk about college. Period. So my dad and I do when she’s not around.’ Briar shifted her backpack to keep it from rubbing against her shoulder. ‘My mom
went to see your gran a few times. She wouldn’t ever tell me why. I only found out about it because my grandmother mentioned it.’

‘Was Lily able to help her?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Briar replied, pushing aside a damp strand of hair. ‘Mom’s been getting weirder over the last few months. She was always protective, but now she
has to know where I am at all times or she freaks out, and all she does is bake stuff, twenty-four/seven. We have two big freezers full of cookies and brownies.’

‘If there’s a zombie apocalypse, I know whose house I’m hiding in.’

‘It’s not funny. She’s been crying a lot, when she thinks I don’t know. I asked my dad what was going on and he says it’s no big deal.’

‘Your dad always says that,’ Reena replied. ‘He’s got an ostrich personality. If he can’t see it, it’s not a problem.’

‘Yeah, I know. He seems so mellow about everything, especially when it comes to Mom. I’m really worried about her.’

‘I think you should be.’

That wasn’t comforting, not coming from her best friend. ‘There’s something else,’ Briar said, then hesitated.

‘Go on.’

‘I’ve been having this nightmare. It’s the same one over and over.’

Reena halted in the middle of the path. ‘What is it about?’

‘I’m walking on the old road at night then –
bang –
I get hit by a car. I wake up at two nineteen a.m. every time. Is that creepy or what?’

Her friend was frowning now. ‘Did you tell your parents about this?’

‘No . . . Dad would just say it was something I ate and Mom, well, she doesn’t need any more hassles.’

They started walking again. ‘How long has this gone on?’

‘It started about a month ago. I tried waking up right before two nineteen. No go. It’s like I’m destined to have the nightmare every night.’ Her friend’s mouth was
a thin line now, the muscles in her jaw tight. ‘Do you think Lily could do some sort of magic that would stop it?’

‘Don’t know. I’ll tell her what’s going on,’ Reena replied quietly.

Briar could tell it was time to change the subject – her friend took this kind of stuff way too seriously. Cheers came from the field behind them – apparently the baseball game was
about to start.

‘You going to the lake tonight?’ Briar asked.

‘Are you?’

‘Definitely. It’s the closest thing to a sixteenth birthday party I’m going to get. Anyway,
he
might be there.’

‘He being Patterson Daniels?’ Reena asked, smirking.

‘Of course. Who else would it be?’

‘Someone who isn’t a jerk, maybe?’ At Briar’s glare, she added, ‘Oh, trust me, he’ll be there. Daniels wouldn’t miss an opportunity to flex his
planet-sized ego in front of an adoring audience.’

‘Whoa, that was a slap down.’

‘Damn right. God, you have the worst taste in boys,’ her friend replied, kicking a small stone down the path.

Pat and his family had moved to Bliss right after Christmas last year – his dad was in shipping or something – and they’d bought the Ashland Plantation. The old house
hadn’t been occupied for over twenty years, so Mrs Daniels was busily having it restored, which told everyone in town the family had a bucketload of money.

Pat had immediately made a mark for himself. A football star in his Ohio hometown, he’d proved to be just as talented on the basketball court here in Georgia. No ‘new kid’
awkwardness for him. Pat was smart and a total hunk with gorgeous brown eyes and if this were a fairy tale, he’d be cast for the role of Prince Charming in a heartbeat.

‘Daniels is too full of himself,’ Reena added. ‘Did you know he was hitting on your cousin the other day?’

‘No way. Saralyn is just making that up. He would never pay attention to her.’

‘You sure?’

‘Yeah. She’s just saying that to get to me. She knows I think he’s cool.’

Briar had no intention of letting her cousin steal away the most eligible boy in school. Not that Pat was hers, but maybe that would change tonight.

Since most of her classmates couldn’t drive yet, gathering at the lake had become the thing to do. They’d bring food, build a huge bonfire and there’d be tunes. Even some
making out, not that any of their parents knew about that. As long as they kept an eye out for the occasional alligator, they were golden.

Briar had her first kiss at the lake last summer with Teddy Jenkins. It had been seriously unimpressive. So blah that she made sure never to let Teddy kiss her again. There’d been more
fooling around at the lake during her short, but spectacularly doomed, relationship with Mike Roth. Which had led her to wonder why some boys were better at kissing than others. Just one of
life’s mysteries. She knew Pat would be a good kisser because anything he did, he did well. As she daydreamed about exactly how wonderful that might be, Reena jogged her elbow.

‘Helloooo? You still there? Let me guess, you were redecorating the castle, right?’

It was Reena’s way of poking fun at Briar’s ‘obsession’, as she called it. It was her father’s fault: when Briar was four, he’d read her ‘Little Red
Riding Hood’ at bedtime. She’d come away from that experience with a true love of fairy tales and a morbid fear of wolves. From there she’d gone through the Disney phase where all
fairy tales ended happily ever after. Now she was solidly in the Brothers Grimm camp, where happy endings usually required a few corpses just to even things out.

Then Patterson Daniels had moved to Bliss, every inch a Prince Charming.

Briar wasn’t about to admit to her friend she’d been daydreaming about him sweeping her off her feet, how they’d melt into each other’s arms as they left Bliss in the
dust.

‘No, I was just . . . thinking about—’ she began.

‘Give it up, girlfriend,’ her friend cut in. ‘You keep chasing after guys with big egos and you’re going to get burned. Trust me on this.’

Briar frowned, knowing this cold shower had nothing to do with her. This was fallout from Reena’s last big crush, a hunky guy from Savannah she’d met at a track-and-field meet.
Convinced he was the stuff of legend, she’d fallen for him hard, though he was a couple of years older than her. He’d made all the right moves at first, but it had ended badly when
he’d taken her for an unscheduled ride – in a stolen car.