Time of the Witch (6 page)

"Oh, it was just too hot in Harrisburg. I had to get away from the shop for a while, so I thought I'd drive out here and see how you all were doing."

"Well, you sure are a nice surprise, isn't she, Wanda?" Annabelle smiled.

Wanda nodded, still grinning. "This here's my friend Laura Adams and her brother Jason. They're staying down at Miss Randall's house."

Twyla smiled at me. "You must be Grace's niece. You can always tell a Randall by that red hair. Are you staying long?"

"All summer," I said, as if it were a prison sentence.

"You don't sound too happy about it." Twyla shifted the baby from one hip to the other, setting her bracelets jingling. "Are you homesick?"

I shrugged. "Sort of."

"Why don't you give the baby back to Wanda and come on inside?" Annabelle asked. "You look like you could use a nice cold glass of iced tea."

Handing Tanya Marie to Wanda, Twyla said, "Nice meeting you, Laura and Jason. Be sure and say hello to Grace for me. Tell her I'll be happy to display some of her pictures in my shop if she's got any to sell. The last batch sold fast."

She looked at me as if she were about to say something else, but she turned to Wanda instead. "Take good care of my favorite baby," she said. "Don't take her too deep into the woods."

"Don't worry." Wanda swung Tanya Marie up and down till she squealed. "See how good I treat her?"

As Wanda led us into the backyard, I thought I heard Twyla asking Annabelle about Maude. I turned around, hoping to hear more, but their voices were too low. For a second, though, Twyla's eyes met mine, and I had a feeling she was concerned about me. She actually looked worried and I thought she was going to call me back, but Annabelle took Twyla's arm and drew her up the steps into the house.

Taking a path through the woods, Wanda led us down to the creek. She plopped Tanya Marie down on the sand, then waded out into the water. I splashed in behind her.

"Will she be okay?" I looked back at Tanya Marie crawling along the sand, poking at twigs and pebbles and chuckling to herself.

"Sure, she's a real good baby, but she weighs about two tons." Wanda groaned. "She was a year old last week and I sure wish she'd start walking. She's just too fat to get her fanny off the ground."

"She's so cute." I smiled at the baby. She had pretty pink cheeks and blonde curls and two little dimples when she smiled.

"She looks just like Eddie. There's no way he could lie about being her daddy," Wanda said.

"That reminds me." I dropped my voice so Jason wouldn't hear us. "Remember what you told me about Charlene getting the love potion from Maude?"

Wanda nodded. "Yeah, but I told you it didn't do her no good."

"I'd still like to talk to her about it." I paused. Jason and Tanya Marie were laughing and a breeze was sighing in the leaves over our heads. "I want to go see Maude myself."

Wanda stared at me. "Are you crazy?"

I shook my head. "It's on account of my mother and father. I want to stop them from getting a divorce. Maude could cast a spell or something, I'm sure she could."

Wanda swung one leg back and forth in the water. "Maude can't do anything about a divorce. I told you she didn't bring Eddie back. It won't do no good to go see her, Laura."

"Well, maybe not—but do you think Charlene would tell me about her?"

"Sure, she'll tell you all about her and anything else you'd like to hear about. The problem is getting her to shut up. I've seen her keep customers talking at the Dairy Queen till their ice cream starts running down their arms."

"When does she get home?"

"Oh, round six-thirty. But you better wait till seven-thirty or eight before you come over. Charlene likes to lie down after she gets home. Says she's tired from standing on her feet all day, but I think it's working her jaws that tires her out." Wanda glanced at Tanya Marie. "Hey, get that out of your mouth!" she shouted as Tanya Marie started chewing on a stick. "Get that away from her, Jason!"

Jason looked up from his sand castle and grabbed the stick. Tanya Marie immediately burst into tears.

"Sometimes I wish I was old enough to get a job," Wanda said. "Seems to me I work harder doing nothing than Charlene does at the Dairy Queen, and she gets paid for it. It just ain't fair." Wanda waded out of the water and scooped up Tanya Marie. "Oh, what's the matter, baby?" she crooned. "Did that mean old boy take your best stick away?"

Squatting next to Jason, Wanda tried to interest Tanya Marie in building a castle. But she seemed more interested in wrecking Jason's than in building one of her own. Every time Wanda turned her back, the baby picked up a stone or a stick and put it in her mouth.

"Maybe she's hungry," Jason said, shoving her away from the tower he'd just built.

"Could be." Wanda picked up Tanya Marie. "You want to go home? See Annabelle? Have lunch?"

"Annabelle! Bye-bye! Bye-bye!" Tanya Marie bounced around on Wanda's hip, grabbing at her hair for balance.

"Maybe Twyla will still be there. You'd like to see her, wouldn't you?" Wanda asked Tanya Marie.

As the baby shifted her interest to my hair, I said, "Twyla's really beautiful, isn't she? She looks like a gypsy or a princess. Wouldn't you love to look just like her?"

Wanda snorted. "Even if I dyed my hair black, I wouldn't have a chance in this world of looking like Twyla. Would you believe she's my cousin? Once or twice removed, of course, which must be why she's so beautiful and I'm not. But you know something? As pretty as she is, she's not married or nothing. Isn't that peculiar?"

"Look at my Aunt Grace. She's not married either and she's really pretty too. Maybe neither one of them met the right man."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Wanda agreed. "Both of them are kind of strange, though, don't you think? I mean your aunt's always up at her house drawing or working in her garden and Twyla spends all her time in her little craft shop, sewing up pillows and skirts and dolls bigger than she is with weird faces made out of old nylon stockings. Seems like they both live kind of funny lives."

"Well, at least they'll never have to worry about getting divorced."

"That's true."

"Bye-bye! Bye-bye!" Tanya Marie bounced up and down and yanked hard on Wanda's hair.

"Okay, okay." Wanda gave her a big kiss. "You come on over around eight o'clock, Laura, if you want to see Charlene. Your vocal cords will get a good rest, but your ears will just shrivel up and fall off your head."

After Wanda had gone, I sat on the sand watching the creek ripple over the stones, sparkling as it flowed from sunlight into shadow and back into sunlight. Overhead a crow cawed harshly, and I jumped, startled. Just as before, the crow was perched right over my head and regarded me with yellow eyes. Reaching for a stone, I threw it as hard as I could. The crow shifted its weight on the branch, spread its wings, and slowly lifted itself into the air.

Jason and I watched it land on another limb only a few feet away. He looked at me. "I don't like that bird," he said. "It's ugly."

"I know," I picked up another stone and threw it at the crow, missing again. This time it didn't bother to change its perch. It stayed where it was, its shoulders hunched, and opened its beak wide. "Krrrrk?" it said.

"Let's go home," Jason said.

As we started up the path, a figure stepped out of the underbrush. "You children should know better than to throw stones at birds," Maude said, glaring at us. "How can a poor helpless crow possibly harm you? You should be ashamed." Standing there with her walking stick raised, she looked as if she planned to attack us.

Jason scurried behind me, burying his face in the small of my back, his arms wrapped around me. "I didn't hurt it," I said, trying to control the shaking in my voice.

"You could have put his eye out, you careless, thoughtless girl." Looking up into the branches, Maude called, "Soot, Soot, my pretty, my precious, come here and let me comfort you." The crow flapped down from the tree and settled on her shoulder, fixing its eyes on me.

As Maude crooned over the crow, I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know he was your pet." I hoped she'd forgive me. Otherwise I hadn't a chance of getting her to reconcile my parents.

She looked at me, her face thoughtful. "Never throw a stone at a bird again, Laura Adams," she said, her voice still angry.

I shook my head, hoping she didn't think I was the kind of person who threw stones at birds habitually. "I won't," I whispered. I felt so ashamed I could barely look at her.

Stepping closer to me, she smiled. "I'm sure you won't, Laura. Now, when are you coming to visit me? It makes me so happy to see you and think of Margaret. You would like to make an old lady happy, wouldn't you? Come sit with me and talk, tell me about yourself
and your aunt and your mother, and I'll tell you about your grandmother, all the things I remember from our girlhood. It's such a pity you never knew Margaret, such a pity." Her eyes glittered as she spoke and one wrinkled hand crept up and down my arm, keeping me there close to her.

"I'll come soon," I promised, aware of Jason whimpering behind me. "We have to go home for lunch now," I added, moving away from her.

"Yes, your little brother isn't too sure of me, is he?" Maude peered around at Jason and he moved to my other side, trying to keep me between him and Maude. "Such a fine-looking little boy, so strong and healthy," she said.

"Aunt Grace is waiting for us. We really have to go." I sidled around Maude, aware that the crow was watching me. This close, it looked enormous, its beak long and sharp and deadly.

"Yes, yes, run along then, children, run along. I'll be here when you need me, Laura. Don't forget that I can help you."

"I won't. Good-bye, Miss Blackthorne." Trying to keep Jason from running, I walked away from Maude, but until the path curved sharply around a tree, I could feel her eyes following me.

"Why don't you stay here while I go over to Wanda's?" I asked Jason.

It was evening and we were sitting out on the front steps eating cherry Popsicles. Aunt Grace was lying in the rope hammock she'd hung at one end of the porch. It was warm and soft outside, calm with birdsong and sweet with the smell of cut grass. I wanted to be by myself for a while, free of Jason and his sticky little hand.

"I want to meet Charlene too." Jason stood up and wiped his hands on his shorts, obviously ready to go, bright red mouth and all.

Aunt Grace looked up from her book. "Why don't you stay here, Jason? It's almost your bedtime and you haven't had your bath yet."

"I want to go with Laurie." Jason stuck out his lower lip, a sure sign he was getting ready to cry.

"Not this evening, Jason." Aunt Grace stirred awkwardly in the hammock and got up. "Come on. I'll read you the next chapter of
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
and then I'll pop you into the tub."

"You'll read it right now?" Jason's lower lip retreated.

"I'll go right in and get it. You and I can cuddle up in the hammock together and find out what the White Witch plans to do with Edmund."

"She's going to give him candy, isn't she?" I heard Jason say as I jumped off the porch and over the chinaberry bush. Landing on the soft grass, I sprang to my feet, turned three cartwheels and ran down the hill to the road. It was the first time I'd gone anywhere without Jason for days and I felt wonderful.

As the road dipped down into a grove of trees, I walked more slowly, thinking about Stoneleigh. At this time on a summer evening, my friends would be at the park, sitting around the fountain, talking and laughing and watching the boys cruise by on their ten-speeds. For a minute, I closed my eyes and imagined myself sitting next to Kim, laughing at one of Lisa Weinstein's jokes. I could almost hear the fountain and the shouts of kids on the playground and I wanted to go home so badly I felt like crying.

Then I thought about Maude. All I needed to do was let her help me. Why was I so afraid? I saw the park again, only this time I let Maude walk into the picture. Down one of the sandy paths she came, striding along in her rags, Soot on her shoulder, stepping around mothers pushing strollers and little kids on big wheels. Right up to the fountain she came and Lisa made a crack about her appearance. While we laughed, Maude brandished her stick at us, but she couldn't scare us. Back home in Stoneleigh no one believed in witches. At least not in broad daylight.

But it was different here in the mountains, miles
away from shopping centers and housing developments and superhighways. Things I would have laughed at in Stoneleigh seemed real here. In this grove of trees, already filling with shadows, Maude was more than a weird old lady to laugh at. Here she was a witch, and here I was afraid of her.

Shivering, I glanced around me at the trees crowding silently together, casting long shadows from the setting sun across the road. Afraid that Maude was near, watching me silently, I ran out of the grove and up the hill toward Wanda's house.

By the time I got there, I was hot and out of breath. Giving the yard a quick survey for dogs, I sprinted up the driveway. Wanda was sitting on the front porch railing waiting for me. "Come on up," she yelled. "Don't pay the dogs no mind. They're tied up out back."

Sitting down next to her, I took a handful of peanuts from the jar she handed me. Inside the living room, I could see the back of Annabelle's head. She was watching a game show on television. "Mississippi!" she yelled at a contestant. "Mississippi, you dummy!"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "She just loves watching those greedy fools jumping up and down like idiots cause they won a refrigerator or something."

Just then the screen door opened and a girl stepped out onto the porch. She had long blonde hair and eyes as big and blue as Tanya Marie's. Although she didn't look old enough to be anybody's mother, I knew she must be Charlene.

"You must be Laura," she said. When she smiled she had dimples like Tanya Marie's and a gap between her teeth like Wanda's. "I'm Charlene." She flipped her hair out of her eyes and sat down beside me. Taking a pack
of cigarettes out of her back pocket, she lit one and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Want one?" she asked me.