In the Forest of Light and Dark (33 page)

     “You know, Tucker,” she said, keeping her eyes on me the entire time. “Cera could use a date for the homecoming dance this Friday.”
    
Fuckin’, Bitch. Oh, no you just didn't,
I thought.
     “Is that right?” Tucker then said back to her, or maybe he was talking to me but I couldn't tell at the moment. My mind was fully stuck on how I was going to pay Katelyn back for this one. You see, not only was I not the sort of girl who goes to dances. But, given the fact that Keri, Laurie, and Hallie would surely be at the dance along with their meatheads, and with Abellona out there somewhere plotting my demise, adding to that Tucker and Owens’s ability to find trouble. (Which Katelyn had no way of knowing given the fact that she’d just met them and I hadn't clued her in on any of the old stories from back home of their exploits.) If, I went to that dance, I was going to have my hands full that night, no doubt about it.
     “Well, I'd be much obliged to escort this pretty little lady to the ball this Friday evening if she'll have me.” Tucker then said to me as he held out a hand for me to take while he bowed like a Southern gentleman.
     “I... I don't know if goin' to the dance is such a good idea.” I stammered out.
     “Why not, you should go? It will do you some good to feel normal again if only for a little while. Besides, it'll be fun.” Katelyn said, chiming in and yet sounding somewhat chiding.
     “Do something normal? Oh, that's rich coming from the Queen of darkness herself.” I shot back at her jokingly. “Where's your date for the dance? If I have to go, you have to go too.”
     “I'll go with sugar tits here.” Owen then said, speaking up and sounding suddenly perky at the thought of hooking up with Katelyn.
     “I don't do dances.” Katelyn told him shaking her head dismissively.
     “You do now,
sugar tits!”
I told her.
     “Okay, fine. I'll go, but I'm only going for your sake, Cera.”
     “Whatever you gotta tell yourself, sugar tits... Whatever you gotta tell yourself.”
     I did end up agreeing to go to the dance with Tucker even though I had thought it was a really bad idea given the threat from Abellona and all. I guess deep down I really did want to go though, and I really did want to go with him. But, even more than that, I really wanted to go because I had a feeling that Katelyn had also wanted to go. She had said that she was willing to go because she had thought that secretly I wanted to go, pretending that she was doing me a favor. But, I saw the look on her face when Owen had said he’d go with her. I saw through that gothic exterior and all the witchcraft to where there was still a teenage girl buried in there who wanted to go to the ball.
     Homecoming was just three days away, though, which created a whole new set of problems for me because I had no idea as to how I was supposed to keep everybody safe from Abellona if she decided to strike. So after I had gotten a few more beers in me, I had come up with the not so bright idea to tell Tucker all about Abellona and what’s been going on up here in Mount Harrison since I'd moved here. I had figured that he and Owen should at least know of her existence just in case anything did happen. I knew he wouldn't believe me though, and would think I was just yanking his crank, but I thought I could persuade him if I tried my damnedest.
     Tucker and I had left, Katelyn and Owen behind so they could get better acquainted while we went for a walk down the river bank. As we strolled I had felt myself become really nervous the first time I tried to bring up Abellona, and I ended up choking my words and changing the subject. But I knew I had to somehow find a way to tell him though. I had to tell Owen too. I could never live with myself if she hurt them and I had done absolutely nothing to warn them beforehand because I had thought that they would think I’d gone crazy, or had become a freak practicing witchcraft like those nuts in New Orleans.
     We had walked a little further down the bank when Tucker had taken my hand in his. Figuring that it was now or never, I feverishly racked my brain for a way as to where I could seamlessly bring up what I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't come up with anything. But then thankfully he did it for me.
     “Look,” Tucker said as he pointed an outstretched finger across the Genesee. “There they are again. This place sure has a helluva lot of cats.”
     It was Midnight and standing next to her was Popsicle, I was sure of her this time. They’d been accompanied by about two dozen of their friends, and I knew that this was my moment, my opportunity to tell him. So, I turned and looked at him soulfully before saying hesitantly, “Tucker.”
     “Yeah,” he said—his attention still on the cats.
     “There are things goin' on here that you need to know about. Things about me, and this village, and the stuff that’s been happenin' here lately since I moved up here.”
     Tucker turned his gaze to me and said, “Yeah, I know. Some of the kids at your school have been messin' with you and Katelyn. I already told you that’s one of the reasons why Owen and I came up here. We'll take care of it before we leave. You know a few punk-ass Yankees are no match for us.”
     “No, it's not that.” I said again, not knowing how to bring up Abellona, so I decide to talk about me. “There are things you need to know about me, about my family... We have a history here, my mama and I do. I… I don't know how to say this, but...”
     “Cera, what?”
     I didn't have the words to explain everything that had happened to me since I moved to Mount Harrison so I took a deep breath and just said whatever came from my mouth.
     “Tucker, my mama and I are... My mama and I are witches.”
     He just looked at me and then he cracked a smirk from around the corners of his mouth.
     “You and your mama are witches, huh?” he said, looking somewhat perplexed at first, but then he quickly became dismissive and said, “Sure, and I'm Superman and Owen is the Incredible Hulk.”
     “Tucker, I'm serious.”
     Again, he just looked at me like I was messing with him, and I could tell that he was becoming a little annoyed. I could have just imagined what he was beginning to think. Like he had nothing better to do than to come up here from halfway across the country only for me to try to make him look stupid.
     “Come on, Cera. Let's get back to Owen and Katelyn.” he then said turning away from me.
     “Tucker, wait... Look at those cats over there. They’ve been following me around since I moved here. They're not just cats though. They’re the trapped souls of people imprisoned by this other witch. A girl named Abellona. She's been killin' all of the children of this village and puttin’ their souls in those cats for almost three hundred years.”
     “Cera, knock it off already.” Tucker said, sounding exasperated and then he finished the last of his beer before chucking the empty can in the river. “If you didn't want to see me and Owen anymore than all you had to do was just not answer your phone when we called, like a normal person would’ve done.”
     “That's the thing, I'm not normal.” I said pleading with him, but also not knowing what else to say.
     I knew I could’ve just ended his incredulousness by looking him in the eye like a vampire and hypnotizing him, but I didn't want to do that to him. I wanted him to truly, believe me. I didn’t want him to believe me because I had put some spell or hold over him.
     He began to walk off from me in a huff, and I began to panic.
     “Tucker, wait!” I called out.
     “Whatever, Cera,”
     “Tucker, wait. Look.”
     He stopped, turned around and looked at me. I didn't know what I was going to do next, but I had to do something quick. My mind raced as I stared at him intently wishing that he would just believe me, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I didn't know what to do. What to say. He was going to leave, and I wanted him to stay here. I wanted him to take me to homecoming. I wanted him to…
     “Cera,”
     “Tucker, you have to believe me.” I said, feeling myself beginning to get choked up, my chest starting to hitch and convulse.
     “Cera...”
     “I know how I must sound, but I'm tellin' you the truth. There are things goin' on that you just have to trust me on, and I know—”
     “Cera, I believe you.”
     “You need to believe me. You need to...” I said feeling completely bewildered on how I was going to explain everything to him. I then spun myself into babbling more and more, and then… “Wait, you believe me?”
     “Cera, you’re floating,” he said to me softly, his voice fading.
     I looked down, and indeed I was levitating. How? I had no idea, but there I was hovering about eighteen inches off the ground.
     “Cera, give me your hand.” he said hesitantly, and I reached out for him. When he had a hold of me he was able to pull me back down to Earth as easily as pulling down a balloon stuck to the ceiling.
     When I’d reached the ground, Tucker gently let me go, but kept his hands open and ready to pounce on me if I decided to float away again. He didn't need to bother though because the natural order of reality seemed to come back to Mount Harrison when my feet had touched the ground again.
     On our slow walk back to the bridge I told him all about my family and about Abellona Abbott and what has been happening to me over the past two months. He had listened to me attentively never taking his eyes off me or saying a word in response.
     After arriving back at the bridge we were both greeted by Katelyn shouting, “Hey, love birds! Did you two
officially
get reacquainted again?”
     “No, sugar tits, you’re the only harlot around here.” I said, giving her a smirk as I walked up to her, then taking the cigarette out of her hand, giving it a long pull.
     “I told him.” I then said to her in a whisper as I exhaled the smoke from my lungs.
     “Told him what?” she asked.
     “Everything,”
     “Everything, what do you mean everything?”
     “Just that, everything,”
     “Oh, so when he didn't believe you. Did you flashy-thing his brain like in
Men in Black?
”
     “Didn't have too, I just proved it to him.”
     “How?”
     “Apparently I can fly. Well... at least float.”
     “No shit,
really?”
Katelyn then whispered as she tried to keep her astonishment from reaching Tucker and Owen who were now chucking stones into the Genesee.
     “Yeah, I was telling him, and of course he didn’t believe a word of it at first. I mean, who
would? But when I couldn't articulate myself and he started to get upset with me, it just sort of happened.”
     “What just happened?” Owen asked having snuck up on us.
     Katelyn looked at me for approval, and when I didn't tell her
no
right away, that little coy look came over her face again and I knew she was going to have her fun messing with him. I have to admit though, deep down I wanted to screw with Owen a bit too.
     “Oh,
nothing,
” She said as she tilted her head to one side while twisting a strand of her auburn hair around her index finger like a valley girl. “Cera was just telling me about how she had just told Tucker all about her being a witch is all.”
     “Her being a witch or a bitch?” Owen responded in typical Owen fashion.
     “Hey, pig fucker.” I said, slapping him on the arm.
     “Seriously,” Katelyn then said, her smile continuing to grow. “Cera and I are both witches. But, Cera here is a bonafide black cat and cauldrons, flying on a broomstick, don’t fuck with me or I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass type of witch.”
     “Yeah, okay.” Owen then said before going over to the cooler to grab another beer.
     “She is.” Tucker then said, speaking up in a straight and serious tone. “And, she's in trouble.”
     “Yeah, sure, and I'm Gandalf the great. And Tucker you can be Harry Potter and sugar tits here can be the little cute one. What's her name? You kinda look like her, anyways.”
     “Hermione,” Katelyn said, answering him, and then she picked up a stone about the size of a baseball and marched over to him. “Here, go ahead and throw this at her. Go on! Hit her right between the eyes as hard as you can.”
     “What?” responded Owen offhandedly. “I'm not throwing that at Cera. Are you nuts?”
     “No, I'm a witch. I already told you that. And, if you don't throw this at her, I will.”
     “Don't be stupid.” Owen then said now sounding irritated.
     “Okay, then.” Katelyn responded, shrugging her shoulders, and then she threw the stone at me with everything she could muster.
     I quickly put up my hand and as the rock closed to within feet of hitting me an energy field formed, invisible until the very moment when the stone came in contact with it, deflecting it off into the distance. It was somewhat just like with the softballs... Only different this time, somehow. This time I could see the energy field before me and I could feel it too. We all could. Well, at least see it, that is. It was light crimson and passed in front and over me like a wave. I could feel it flow from me in a pulse. And, when the stone had struck it, it’d been sent bouncing off its curvature only to go sailing through the air into the forest. Eventually, being heard cracking off of trees that stood a ways behind me.
     “Holy Shit!” Tucker exclaimed. Owen just stared at me, his mouth agape. Then, after a long moment that I had thought was going to last forever had finally passed, Owen said to me, “So, what else can you do?”