In the Forest of Light and Dark (31 page)

wild cucumber
. At first, I let her go on with what she was doing out of sheer curiosity on my part. I had thought she might have  gathered these things for her magic, yet another pathetic attempt to create a spell or a potion that could get rid of me. But after a while… I realized that she wasn’t collecting these things for her witchcraft at all. She was actually gathering food for herself. To think, she had thought that she was going to get away with trying to use my forest,
My
Mountain, as her own personal grocery store right under my nose. What a fool she was to think that I wouldn’t find out about it. That I wouldn’t make whatever she took as virulent as possible. Even the witch in Snow White had poisoned the apple, you know. Your mother, Lyanna, such a powerful witch, and in the end, done in by such a harmless little vegetable. Quite funny when you think about it?”
     By the time Abellona had finished speaking her arm had completely healed, and my mama stood completely speechless—frozen like a statue. I looked into my mama’s saturated eyes all welled up with unshed tears and I wasn’t sure if they existed because of finding out that Abellona had indeed killed my Grandmother Lyanna, or because she was just in shock and horrified over seeing a three hundred-year-old dead bitch burst into flames before her. But I imagined it was probably a little of both, I guess.
     When I looked back at Abellona, she was gone, having suddenly disappeared. Casper still lay dead on the sloping hillside not far from the broken pine that I had found him standing on earlier. I went for him and my mama no longer tight-lipped grabbed me by the arm, saying, “Cera, No! Leave him be. Stay in the yard.” I then pulled away, telling her that I wasn’t going to just leave him there. She then said that Abellona may have put some of her witchcraft on him, insisting that I don’t touch him. I then acceded to her wishes only because I was in no mood to be fighting with my mama, not at that time anyway.
     We then hurried back into the house where she sat me down at the kitchen table pouring me a glass of sweet tea—she then told me everything. Not only about Mount Harrison and Abellona Abbott which was almost verbatim of what Terra had told Katelyn and me just yesterday, but she also told me all about my Grandmother Lyanna’s life as a witch and protector of the village. Then, she told me the truth about her childhood growing up in the village.
     We had spent the better part of two hours talking as my mama filled me in on all of our family’s secrets. As well as all the accidents and illnesses that had befallen the villagers, including members of our own family, even herself as a child. She recalled cases of scarlet fever, mumps, measles, and rubella to have hit the village, killing scores. She even told me that there was once a bout with Ecoli that had swept through the school killing seven students back in the early 1990’s when she was still a student there. Then, she told me about how she was relentlessly teased and attacked by her classmates whenever the teacher’s back been turned, and even sometimes when their backs weren’t turned. She told me about how every pet she’d ever owned had either got sick and died, or been run over by a car, or was found mysteriously mutilated out in the forest.  (I can vouch for how she must have felt on two out of three of those.)
She even told me in detail about how each one of her family dogs Trixie, Dolly, and Lucky had died violently. (
Lucky,
you would’ve thought that after her first two dogs had died in such horrible deaths, she would’ve been a little smarter to name the third one that.)
     My mama, then told me how she had lost her daddy—my Grandpa Randolph—when five tons worth of steel girders had fallen on him after a chain being used to hoist them up to the newly built third floor of Saint Christopher’s hospital, the very same hospital that my Step Daddy Cade lays in now, had broken during construction of the addition. The girders having managed to slip their way out of several nylon belts that had bound them all together only to come crashing down on my grandfather after he had dropped off a sick kid he’d found lying in the street when he was on patrol.
     She even told me how Savannah—forget that—Abellona, had first confronted her back when she was just six-years-old. My mama having said that Abellona had looked exactly the same back then as she did today when we had seen her. She went on telling me that Abellona had a habit of always showing up when she was alone and there wasn’t anybody around to protect her. And, at first Abellona had pretended to be her friend just like she had done with me, but ultimately she was just toying with her, also like she had done with me.
     I had found out that when my mama was fourteen Abellona had tried to kill her along with my Grandmother Lyanna in a house fire. It had started when the logs that were already burning in the fireplace roared suddenly into an out-of-control inferno. Pure white flames had erupted spontaneously then leaped from the fireplace to the nearby furniture and walls.
     At the time of this happening my mama said my Grandmother Lyanna was upstairs, but when she’d heard my mama screaming for her she came running back down. Then when she saw the house burning, she quickly managed to put out the flames with a blast of intense winds that had swept through the living room after the gales had blown out the windows and ripped open the front door. My mama told me that she had believed my grandmother had seemingly summoned the rushing air current from out of nowhere.
     Right before we had finished talking I’d asked my mama, “So, what are we gonna do now?” and she looked at me with an expression that I will never forget. It was one of pure sadness and heartbreak as she said to me, “I’m sorry, Cera. There’s nothing we can do, but leave. We’ll have to give back what’s left of your grandmother’s money and move back to Saraland. I’ll see if I can find work again cutting hair, and once your step daddy’s up and back on his feet again, I’m sure he can find work doing something.”
     “No!” I snapped as I shot up from my spot at the table. “We can’t leave.”
     Now, I’m not quite sure what it was I was thinking or feeling when I began protesting to my mama about not going back home to Saraland. I mean, Mount Harrison hadn’t been all that welcoming to us so far. My step daddy was in the hospital, kids at school want to kick my ass on a daily basis, and a three hundred-year-old witch, who up until now I had held out on being pure fiction, had a real desire to kill me and my family if any one of us so much as even steps off the property. But there was still that part of me that didn’t want to go back home to Alabama, back to being poor, back to Ray Boone’s Pizzeria and his wandering hands. There was also a part of me—call it my Southern rebel side—that wanted to stay and fight, not just Abellona, but all of them, Abellona, Keri, Laurie, Hallie, their meatheads, the villagers, Mr. McLaren, and anyone else who’d ever looked at me like I was beneath them.
     “Cera, we can’t stay here, and even if we try we’ll never last another ten months until we satisfy my mother’s will and we get to keep the rest of the money.” My mama said pleading to me with a tone of desperation in her voice. “She’ll never stop, and without my mother being here anymore to help us we don’t stand a chance against her.”
     I felt sick. I wasn’t going back to Saraland. I wasn’t going back there to live in a run-down house the size of a shoebox. There had to be a way. I’d been determined to find a way.
     “Together we have to be powerful enough to do something?” I asked, searching for a glimmer of hope. “I mean, why would Grandma Lyanna put that stipulation in her will that we had to live here for an entire year if she knew we couldn’t defend ourselves against Abellona?”
     “I don’t know, Cera.” My mama answered me raising her hands into the air, dejectedly. “Maybe, she was just beginning to lose her mind. Maybe, she thought that by bringing us,
me,
back here; I would continue with the training and the honing of my skills that she had tried teaching me all those years ago. Maybe, she had thought that I would be ready to take on Abellona by now. That I’d be willing to pick up where she’d left off, saving this village time-and-time again.”
     “So you do know some magic then? You can do things?”
     “Yes, but Cera… You saw how powerful she is. She almost killed you. Without my mother’s protection and guidance we’ll never be able to improve our powers fast enough before she finishes the job.”
     “Well, just because Grandma Lyanna isn’t here any longer doesn’t mean that she and Abellona were the only witches in town.”
     “What do you mean, Cera. What other witches?” my mama then asked as she looked at me puzzled.
     “I mean there are others… They can help us.”
     “What are you talking about, Cera. Who are these other witches?”
     “Like my friend, Katelyn. She’s a witch. Not like us, but in practice. And, Terra Reich, down at the historical society. She’s also a witch, and she told me about some other witches—her sister witches.”
     “Oh, Cera.” my mama responded dismissively. “They’re not real witches, their just a cult of women with nothing better to do. They don’t have any powers or abilities at all that can help us.”
     “Yes, I think they do, Mama. Abellona… her arm burst into flames when she had reached into the yard for me. Katelyn did that. It was her spell. She had put a protection spell on our house and had encircled the yard in a ring of salt. I thought it was nuts at the time, but it worked, you saw it.”
     “Cera, it’s just too much. People are going to get hurt. People are going to get killed, and we’re at the top of that list. It’s better for everyone if we just go. Give Abellona what she wants and she’ll leave everybody alone.”
     At that point I had heard just about enough of my mama’s cowardice and I stormed off to my room yelling like a brat and throwing a tantrum that I wasn’t leaving. Later that evening I went against my mama’s wishes and I had buried Casper in our backyard next to the deck. I really didn’t care what my mama had said about not touching him. I wasn’t leaving him there to rot. And, as for Abellona, Fuck Her!

A Witch in Training
 

The rest of the weekend went by with me and my mama for the most part staying indoors. And, when I went back to school on Monday I met up with Katelyn who I had already told by then what had happened, and she suggested that we go see Terra after school.
   I had insisted to my mama that I wanted to continue walking to-and-from school by myself even though she had insisted otherwise. I had told her that I wasn’t going to live in fear. But, unfortunately for me, I could’ve used a ride home that day because it was a tad chilly (Autumn having rapidly snuck up on me and having been noticeable by the leaves swiftly beginning to change color.) and I had to walk home wearing my gym clothes. (Gym class for me been moved to Mondays after my fight with Keri and Hallie.) After somebody had stolen my clothes that I had worn to school that day from my locker in the girls’ changing room. Fucking Bitches!
     I really didn’t let it bother me too much though, because Keri, Laurie, and Hallie were no longer the only ones I had to worry about and constantly keep looking over my shoulder for.
     After school, when Katelyn and I had informed Terra about my run in with Abellona. It had seemed to terrify her to the point that, to me, she had started to sound like my mama believing that the best thing for us would be to just leave Mt. Harrison. Her response had upset and annoyed me because although I can definitely understand her being somewhat shocked by my altercation with Abellona. At this point, though, it would have been nice to talk to somebody,
anybody,
with a little backbone and who was willing to go after the bitch.
     Terra intuitive to my irritation said that she would contact her fellow sisters and that they would work together at casting a spell of protection over me and my parents. That had made me feel a little better even though I wasn’t really sure just how well it was going to work. Like my mama had said, these witches weren’t real witches like me, her, and Abellona. Their abilities were limited.
     While we went on talking Terra served Katelyn and me some tea, and then soon afterwards she began to work with me on the development of my skills.
     We had started off small with her giving me a lesson in the art of persuasion. It wasn’t the bat my eyelashes and stick my perky tits in some poor guys face form of persuasion, as much as it was the, I can seriously get in your head and force you to see things my way or even convince you to do things out-of-character if need be type of brainwashing.
     At first, I didn’t believe Terra when she said I could do it. I mean, nobody has ever really listened to me before, but Terra had insisted that my grandmother had this ability, so I gave it a shot.
     Starting out, I felt a little self-conscious about what Terra said I needed to do to make it work. Which was to look people dead in the eyes and become somewhat forceful with them, not rude, just insistent, much like the Jedi mind trick.
     On my first attempt, which was on Katelyn, I didn’t think I was getting it right, and her giving me the middle finger when I had asked her to sing, “I’m a little teapot.” suggested that I wasn’t. But, when I went outside to try it on an unsuspecting victim I caught on fast.
     I had walked up to a man who was walking down the sidewalk, approaching me. He was middle-aged, looked well-to-do, and I had said to him, “Excuse me, sir.” which had gotten his attention. “Do you think I could have a moment of your time?” I had asked him this sincerely, and he replied, “Sure, what can I do for you?” with a smile. I then went on giving him a complete line-of-crap about how I was on my way home to Queens, when my boyfriend, Aaron, who had recently impregnated me and then subsequently slapped me up upon hearing the news, had taken all my money and then ditched me here in Mount Harrison. I then asked the man if he could give me a hundred dollars so I could buy something to eat and pay for bus fare to get home.
     At first, I had felt really foolish because I could tell that he wasn’t buying it, but after I had grabbed him by his forearm and had looked him in his eyes, saying, “Sir, I
really
need the money.” I could suddenly see it happen. It was like a fog that came over him making his eyes vacuous, and then from that point on it was like reeling in a fish. He just nodded at me and then pointed across the street at the bank saying, “I just need to go to the ATM.” I said, “Okay,” and then I waited there for him to return, which I figured he would do with the cops. But five-minutes later he came back and handed me five twenty-dollar bills and said, “You go get yourself home, okay.”
     I couldn’t believe it. I was beside myself. I went back into the historical society beaming. Katelyn and Terra of course had watched me through the windows, and when I made it back up to the second floor where they both were, I’d been greeted with applause and, “Way-to-go, witch.” from Katelyn.
     But since I had swindled that poor man out of a hundred dollars and probably would never be able to find him again to return the money, Terra made me donate it to the historical society. I did however; get the wink-and-nod from Katelyn which meant,
We’re definitely going to use this little trick to score some booze this weekend
.
     Mind fucking people wasn’t the only trick I had learned that day though. I also found out that in me was the ability to move objects, albeit not very good. If I concentrated real hard, and got close enough, I could move things like pens and paperclips across a desk. Terra had told me that now that I knew I could do it, all I needed was lots-and-lots of practice. The ability did remind me though of the time when I had sent Keri flying across the gymnasium. So, maybe Terra was right, with a little practice, then all I’ll really need to do was get myself super pissed off and then I could move Mt. Harrison if need be.
     Still, even though my power to move things was sporadic at best I had found that it worked better when I used it as a force, an energy, which I could then use as a form of protection. That is, I could move objects out-of-the-way if it they coming towards me, somewhat like a force field, or a shield.
     At first, it had to be small things, but by the time Katelyn and I had left the historical society that evening. I had worked my way all the way up from pebbles and small rocks that Katelyn and Terra gently tossed at me, to larger things like softballs that Katelyn—gladly—gunned at my face. In fact, I had caught on so quickly that the only reason we had eventually ended up stopping practice was because, at one point, I had lost my concentration when a car that was going down the road had laid on its horn. It happened just at the precise moment that Katelyn had thrown a softball earmarked squarely for the center of my chest. The impact having knocked the wind out of me.
     Later on, when I had gotten home, I couldn't wait to show my mama what I had learned, but instead of coming right out and showing her, I had decided to wait and surprise it on her at dinner. Pork chops, mashed potatoes, and Mac-n-cheese was what we were having, and when we sat down at the table together, my mama told me that when she’d visited my step daddy at St. Christopher's today, Dr. Roberts had told her that they’d be releasing him as early as tomorrow pending the results of a final couple of tests having gone right.
     “That's great.” I told her.
     “Yes, it is,” she said happily agreeing but then began her next words with a worried sigh, “But, I'm dreading the discussion I'm going to have with him about leaving Mt. Harrison and this house. I mean, what am I supposed to tell him? That we need to throw away a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar home because there’s this old legend around here, that’s actually true, about a little girl witch who is planning to kill us if we don't leave town immediately. Oh, and that accident you had, that was really her doing, but you can't possibly remember having seen her there right before you struck that red oak on account of the blow you took to your noggin when your head hit the steering column. But trust me that was her who did that to you.”
    “Well, maybe we don't
have
to leave after all?” I said with a little upward inflection of optimism.
     “Cera, you saw her with your own eyes. You saw what she can do. There’s no-way we’ll be able to make it here another ten months so that we can officially own this house and be able to sell it. Let alone try to live here permanently.”
     I then picked around at my mashed potatoes with my fork for a bit before saying, “Can you please pass me the salt?” which was on the far side of the kitchen table. When my mama went to reach for it, I told her, “Never mind, I got it.” and with that, I drew it near me, the shaker bouncing its way across the table to my hand and giving off a series of light tapping sounds as it danced.
     I watched my mama's eyes widen, and she sucked in a deep breath, holding it in a frozen pause.
     “Where did you learn that?” she asked.
     “From Terra, she runs the historical society in the village. She's one of the witches I told you about. She was friends with Grandma Lyanna, and she says she knew you when you were just a little girl.”
     “
Did
she?” my mama said sounding skeptical.
     “Yeah, and there are other witches just like her in this village. It's like a
secret society
they have. I had also learned other things from her today too, like the power to deflect things, and I can persuade people to do things for me.”
     “Cera, I know what you’re thinking, so just stop thinking it right now. We
can't
stop her. Our powers will never be strong enough, at least not before someone is dead.”
     That wasn't what I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear was,
Oh my God, Cera, that's amazing! Where did you learn how to do that? Do you think if we both worked at our powers together we could kill Abellona, or at least keep her at bay and isolated to the forest like Grandma Lyanna had done so we could coexist and live normal lives?
Yeah, I’m being facetious, but you get my point.
     “But if you just come with me to see Terra, she could help the two of us become stronger and maybe together we can keep Abellona bottled up like grandma did all those years. You saw what I can do, and I just learned how to do that today. Who knows all the different things we're capable of doing?” I said all this pleadingly to my mama, and at the time, I was thinking that if I could just keep talking I would
somehow
be able to
convince her to stay and fight. Not just for the house—which we'll have to give up if we run, but for all the Barretts. For what Abellona had done to our family for centuries. For what she had done to my step daddy, for what she had done to my mama when she was young, making her life so miserable—chasing her from her home. And, you know what? For me too. That bitch killed my kitten and tried to kill me too, so again, Fuck Her!
     I took a long sip from my sweet tea and then went on with my pitch to mama. I reiterated to her that there were other witches willing to help us, but she then cut me off mid-sentence when she had dropped her fork down onto her plate, waved her hands dismissively before me, and yelled, “Enough, Cera!” But, as a result of the sudden, emotion-filled movements of her arms, the empty chair that my Step Daddy Cade would have normally been sitting in abruptly shot across the kitchen floor where it slammed into the oven before toppling over on its side. I stared at the chair and then her in awe. I had no idea that she could do
that. She was clearly a lot more powerful than I had thought, and I wondered just what else she could do.
     “I was hoping I had more time before you found out about us having powers.” my mama then said while cutting up the meat on her plate and pretending what had just happened, didn’t happen. “And, I should have known better... I’ve should have known that the story of Abellona and her curse on this village, our reputation around here, along with our family’s past, would never just
stay
in the past. I know you think we can do something, Cera, but I'm telling you, we can't. We'll never be able to stop her. Our family hasn't been able to stop her for almost three hundred years, and all trying has ever done was put us in early graves.
     “If we stay you’re eventually going to discover all kinds of things you can do, whether it be moving things, persuading people, making it rain. Hell, you'll probably be able to shape-shift or be able to travel at an incredible rate of speed like your grandmother could do. But, I'm telling you, Cera, it won't be good enough. It will never be good enough. In the end she will always win, and we will always die.”
     Now honestly, I still didn't fully understand my feelings on why I wanted to stay anyhow. I mean, I had only one friend here, and not to mention that I desperately missed Tucker and my friends back in Saraland. There were kids at school out to get me. Our neighbors are rude and nasty to us, and I have an evil witch who lives out in the forest behind my house that’s trying to kill me. Any normal person would have been glad to just pack up their shit and go back home, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. I was sick of running, sick of being poor white trash from Alabama, and sick of being afraid all the time and of having no hope that things will eventually get better.
     “Well, I'm not goin' back.” I said defiantly. “There’s nothing there for me back in Saraland. I’m not goin' back to a life where all I'm ever goin’ to have is dead-end jobs that have me livin' in a trailer while I’m drinkin' myself to death because that’s all that there is in Saraland and you know it.”
     “Cera, we can't stay.”
     “I don't care. I'm not goin' back!” I again yelled at my mama like a child before storming off to my room