The Curse of Crow Hollow (10 page)

He said, “You need to tell me what happened, Cordelia, and you can't hold back. Not a thing.”

Angela scurried around to the other side of the bed, where she sat and took Cordy's hand. She looked into her daughter's
eyes with a pain and fear that Cordelia could take only as love, and what could Cordy do then, friend? What could any of us do?

She started with stealing the bracelet.

-7-

It was Chessie who gathered them later that afternoon.

She and Briar went to check on Naomi first, knowing the Reverend and Belle's help would be needed to convince the others. It wouldn't be easy. Chessie and David Ramsay had never agreed on most things. He didn't approve of what Chessie did to make her money, she didn't like the way the Reverend could use God as a wedge to divide the town, but they'd managed to live somewhat peaceably over the years. Chessie counted on their shaky truce to last just a while longer. She didn't know how much if anything Naomi and Cordelia had told their parents of the past night and morning, but she guessed it was some. No child could keep such secrets for long, as evidenced by what Scarlett had written down for her daddy. And Scarlett had written it all. Much had come out in a mad rush of words strung together in sentences that never ended, scrawls on sheet after sheet of paper. But Chessie had understood enough. The horror on the mayor's face said he'd understood things too.

Turned out, the others had confessed much the same. What parts Naomi and Cordelia had left out got filled in by Hays, who'd confessed everything to Landis, Kayann, and both of the Hodges. David and Belle went along well enough with what Chessie wanted, but only after she promised it wouldn't take long. John David would stay with Naomi, who was jerking her head like it'd gotten tangled in an electric wire.

Chessie took them both along with Medric to check on
Cordelia. They found an empty bowl by the bed. Half of the chicken noodle soup had spilled down the dead side of Cordelia's face, leaving Angela in tears and Bucky nearly so.

The mayor came along last. He agreed a meeting was needed, but I think Wilson Bickford did that only because he knew that would be the only way for Scarlett to feel better. Her arms were under the covers now, hidden once more, and she had made the mayor swear never to tell a soul what he'd seen of them.

Maris remained behind to watch over Scarlett. Hays sat with Cordelia. The Reverend said the hospital's chapel would be best. And so that's where they gathered, inside that little room one floor down and beneath a shiny gold cross that hung from the front wall. They all held hands as the Reverend opened with a prayer no one felt much comforted by. After his amen was said and echoed, Chessie lifted her chin to speak.

“Kids shoulda never been to the mines. They know better. Mountain's fenced for a reason.”

“No use dwelling on that now,” Belle said. “Damage is done. What we need to focus on is getting our girls better.”

Her voice cracked. No doubt Belle Ramsay was thinking about her daughter just then, twitching like a nervous Nellie for the rest of her days. Her faith said that wouldn't be so. But then again, Belle Ramsay's faith also said John David would one day turn from his wicked ways and run back to his momma's bosom. That hadn't worked out so well either.

Medric must've sensed the same, because he asked, “What if they don't? What if they all stay as they are?” And when they all glared, he whispered, “Just sayin'. Sure it won't come to that.”

“If they don't,” Angela said, “if my daughter looks like that for the rest of her life, it'll be square on your shoulders, Kayann Foster.”

Landis took a step toward Angela. Kayann beat him there. “What did you just say to me?”

Bucky rubbed the front of his head, like he felt a headache coming on.

“Your son was supposed to be there watching Cordelia, watching them
all
. He talked Cordy and Naomi and Scarlett into following those tracks, and then he stood there and did
nothing
.” She hit that last word hard, near shouted it, and then fell silent.

Landis shot back, “Our boy did the best he could. Hays would've never been out there if you woulda had the sense to keep Cordelia at home instead of letting her run around Campbell's Mountain.”

“I didn't
know
she was going to Campbell's Mountain, Landis,” Angela said. “None of us did.”

“That's right,” Kayann said. She turned to the mayor. “If it's anybody's fault, it's Scarlett's. She was the one who came up with the idea of going up there in the first place.”

Wilson Bickford only stood there. He kept his voice low and even and said, “Landis, you better shut your wife up. Scarlett may've wanted to go up to the mines, that don't make no difference. She didn't have the key. Hays did.” And now he turned to Medric. “My question is, how in the world did Hays get that key?”

“Must've snuck it,” Medric said. “I didn't give it to him, Wilson. I'd never do such a thing.”

“You wouldn't?” Kayann asked. “What exactly is it you and my son do shut up in that funeral parlor of yours, Medric?”

“Now what's that mean?” He looked at them all, saw their hard faces. “You blaming me for this? I never wanted them keys. It's the mayor's job to hold the keys to the gate and everybody knows it, but Wilson didn't want'm. Bucky didn't want'm. Said they're cursed like the mountain itself, and y'all think whoever
holds the keys carries a stain on themselves. So you give'm to me. Say since the mountain means death, then the man who holds the keys should be the man who deals in it. Y'all think anyone should be stained round here, might as well be me. Well I have you know them keys stay locked tight. And Kayann Foster, I'll have you know your boy spoke of them something awful. He was drawn to the mountain long before he met me.”

Kayann grit her teeth. “You are a vile creature, Medric Johnston.”

Bucky said, “Shut up, Kayann.”

Yessir, that's
exactly
what he said. And I guess he figured that since he'd gone on and said it, he might as well go on and say the rest.

“We can all stand around here laying blame till we're blue in the face, there's plenty to go around. Hays or Scarlett or Cordy or Medric, it don't matter. But wasn't none a them kids laid those footprints. Didn't none a them take that bracelet. It was Alvaretta. She made our girls sick. That's what we need to be talking about, and we need to be talking about how that woman knew your names just from looking on your kids. Wilson? David? Landis. Alvaretta knew your kids. She knew
you
. How is that?”

Friend, if you could've seen the way the Reverend and the mayor looked at each other just then, you'd have understood there was plenty they knew on how that was. But now wasn't the time to be getting into the past, not then and not after the two of them had taken such care to keep it all buried. I guess even then, they all thought there was still a way to keep their sins hidden. Fear sure can make you think some crazy things, can't it?

“She's a witch,” Briar said. “That's how Alvaretta knew.”

Medric shook his head. “Alvaretta ain't no witch. Just a lonely old woman is all. Only power she holds sits in her own broken mind.”

“You say that, Medric?” Chessie asked. “That what you really think? You the one put Stu Graves in the ground all those years ago. You buried that man's body and you heard Alvaretta herself say a reckoning would come. You remember Wally Cork? How he hooked up Stu's old truck to his wrecker and took it back to Alvaretta? You remember what he said after?”

“Said he tried going in her house,” Briar reminded them. “Said something come over him.”

Chessie nodded. “Was Alvaretta's
grief
come over 'im. Alvaretta's
rage
. A woman's heartache can overcome a man. And when Wally tried to force hisself on Alvaretta and she beat him back, what happened? Found Wally dead a week after, that's what happened. Spread-eagled out in his backyard with the maggots eatin' what was left of his flesh. Or should we talk on the drought after? Huh? You remember that, Medric? Landis? You remember the fire at the grocery a day after your daddy said he'd give Alvaretta no credit on her supplies cause she didn't have no money?”

Landis couldn't help but shudder at that. He held that memory just as well as he did every other occurrence of the witch. That fire had nearly cost his daddy all he had in the world, and he made sure Alvaretta Graves had all the credit she needed after that, which turned out to be none at all. Alvaretta was seen in town no more, much to the relief of those in the Holler. She remained alone on the mountain, left to fend for herself. There was nothing the grocery could provide that the woods couldn't provide better, whether food or medicine or clothing. And what the mountain couldn't give her, the devil certainly could. Everything got quiet again.

After a while the Reverend said, “This world ain't all there is, Medric. You need to keep that in mind. There's a war we can't see being fought around us every day. There's light and
there's the dark, and in that dark are things no man could bear knowing.”

Briar snorted. “That's good, David. You gonna ask to pass a plate next? Bucky's right. We can stand here jawing or we can figure out what we gotta do. Ain't just that Alvaretta knows y'all's names, ain't even that the girls are sick. Them kids are being truthful, there's something loose from the mountain. Scarlett told us a demon's what leveled the curse, not Alvaretta. And Alvaretta's got it keeping her comp'ny.”

Wilson fiddled with his mustache. He'd managed to keep things together in hisself so far—the Reverend too—which was a feat considering all that must've been going through his mind. I'm betting Stu Graves was hanging over both their heads like that big old cross hung up on the wall.

“What Alvaretta is or isn't giving shelter to ain't important right now,” Wilson said. “We all been lied to, every single one of us. I don't even know what those kids say is truth and what's false. But I know if word gets out Alvaretta did this, we're gonna have a storm on our hands. We gotta keep this quiet. Let Crow Holler think it's a sickness what struck them girls. I'll call Raleigh and let him know it's a flu bug or something in the water. That's what you'll all say to anyone who asks. Nothing of what we know. Y'all understand?”

They each nodded one by one. And I think they all really did understand the danger of word getting out. At least for a little while.

-8-

Medric was first to leave that day, and he didn't take no time to do it. Never said a word to nobody, neither. Didn't tell Scarlett or Cordelia he hoped they'd be fine, didn't tell Wilson he'd be
back in the morning. Now you can just imagine how worked up they all were, not only with what all had happened to the girls but how it had happened and by whose hand it had come. Oh friend, they was
all
worked up. But Medric? That man looked downright scared. You can bet Hays Foster made a note of it, no matter how much he liked Medric and appreciated all the time the two of them had spent together. That boy never missed much. The quiet ones seldom do.

The Fosters went home after dark. What with Angela still fuming over Hays and Hays acting like he was a million miles away, both Kayann and Landis felt it was time for them to go. Hays left without kissing either of Cordy's cheeks, the good one or the bad. She watched him close the door and laid her hands over her belly.

The Hodges left soon after visiting hours were called. John David went with them, having grown too weary of being so near his daddy. Chessie said there was a delivery out to Stanley. She acted like she felt bad, sending John David out while Naomi was laid up under Alvaretta's witchery. But business was business. Sooner John David learned that, the better off he'd be.

A nurse brought in a chair for Bucky. Angela took the one already by the bed. The two of them remained at Cordy's side until she fell asleep. Angela followed soon after. Bucky sat up for most of the night, staring out the window toward the mountains and wondering if Alvaretta and her demon were watching.

Belle and Naomi were near settling when David left the room. To pray is what he told them, and maybe the Reverend did do some of that before he called back here to the Holler, I don't know. Tell no one, the mayor had said, and David Ramsay had nodded along with all the rest. But sitting there watching Naomi struggle to keep her own body under control had changed the preacher's thinking on that. Wasn't no sickness,
what had struck his child. Wasn't no flu. Wasn't anything in the godforsaken water.

It was the witch. And Alvaretta
knew
him.

How that could be—how it was even possible—David did not know. Maybe Briar had been right when he said it was Alvaretta's powers at work, but hearing Naomi wail in fear as she'd told him and Belle of Alvaretta calling out
Ramsay
and then spitting (as though the mere taste of that word was unbearable) had frightened David just as much as it had the mayor. Frightened him more, even.

He fished the phone out of his pocket and dialed a number, turned to see if anyone was watching. The line rang twice before Raleigh Jennings's voice came through.

“Naomi any better?”

“No,” David said. “It's not good up here, Raleigh. Not good at all.”

“Wilson called a little bit ago, filled me in.”

“What'd he tell you?”

“Told me he thought it's either the flu or something in the water. I guess that's all he's got to go on, but that's what I've been telling the people who're calling. And plenty are, David. Folks is going nuts down here. You think it really is the water? Lord have mercy, I drink that water. Every—”

“It ain't the water, Raleigh.”