Me and My Ghoulfriends (29 page)

I scanned down the page. “Hmm. That does pose a problem,” I said. Maybe I
was
completely clueless.

“What is it?” Mindy asked. I pointed at the paragraph. Mindy scanned down the page. “Oh. Yeah, that does pose a problem doesn’t it?”

There in print at the bottom of the page, in black and white, was the reason why the spell hadn’t worked.

It was supposed to be three days before a full moon when we mixed the ingredients and then we had to wait until the full moon before performing the spell. Why hadn’t I read the entire page?

“When is the next full moon?”

“I have no idea.”

“I’ll get my calendar and check.” Mindy offered.

“What’s the point? Nothing is going to work,” I said. I felt defeated. Like a deflated balloon that had been popped with a pin, and sent whirling to the ground, losing all my air.

249

             
Me and My Ghoulfriends

Chapter 26

The next morning I stood at the counter of
Book Nook
with my chin propped on my hands. I was staring out into the open space of the room when Mrs. Williams popped up next to me. I didn’t acknowledge her; I was in no mood to deal with her cynicism.

“Why don’t you contact the local coven?” she said, casually, as she leaned against a shelf.

“What?” I looked at her, furrowing my brows. “What are you talking about?” Typically, I tried not to listen to much of anything she said. Usually all she ever said was some form of a complaint.

“There’s a coven in Magnolia. Didn’t you know that?” She gave me a duh-look.

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t know that. Is this supposed to be common knowledge or something?”

“I just figured everyone knew about it. And you do tend to act like you know everything,” she said, leafing through one of the books next to her.

One day someone was going to walk through the door and freak out when they saw a book moving by itself. I would never be able to explain it.

Without saying another word to Mrs. Williams, I grabbed my cellphone and dashed over to look out the front window. Feverishly, I punched in Mindy’s number while I scanned the street in search of the spiky-haired blonde.

“Mindy, there’s a coven in Magnolia,” I said when she picked up. I didn’t even bother to say hello. “Were you aware of this?”

“What? Who is this?”

“Stop trying to be funny. This is really serious. Did you know there was a coven in town?”

“Of course I didn’t know. Don’t you think I would have said something to you about it? You do mean like a witch’s coven, right?”

I stared out the front window, once again trying to spot Brianna. Too bad I didn’t have Mindy’s binoculars. Brianna was nowhere in sight. She was probably off somewhere turning someone into a frog.

“Yes, a witch’s coven. I didn’t think you would have known about it, but I had to ask to make sure.”

“So it’s a coven, with witches and everything?

“Yes, that’s what it is.”

“Why didn’t we know anything about this? I can’t believe they could keep something like that hidden from me,” Mindy quipped.

“I guess they don’t exactly advertise that kind of stuff. It’s not like they take out a front page ad in the
Yellow Pages
.”

“Touché.”

“Exactly,” I said.

“Can you get in touch with them? How can you find them? Can they help you? I have no idea about this witchcraft stuff. Sorry I have so many questions. I’m just so confused.”

I paused, contemplating the situation and my options.

“I have someone I can ask, hold on.”

I covered the phone with my hand. “Mrs. Williams, I need your help.”

In one swift motion she turned her back to me and made a humph noise. I was being snubbed.

“You know what you need to do in order for me to help you,” she grumbled.

“I promise I will talk to your husband. I won’t leave until he talks to me, but right now I need your help. It’s extremely important.”

“Go to him first. After that I will help you.”

“No way. I’ll go to him and then you’ll vanish. I need you to tell me first how to get in touch with the coven, and then I’ll help you. Tit for tat.”

“No.”

“All right, suit yourself. I’ll never talk to him then. Poor Robert will have to suffer with his broken heart.”

Mrs. Williams was like a stubborn mule. She was the most hard-headed person I’d ever known.

“I’ll run off all your business. What little business you have. No customers will ever set foot in this place again.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” I could not believe I was bickering with a ghost. She was impossible to deal with. Every time Mrs. Williams spoke to me, I felt like a scolded ten-year-old. She was a ghost, for heaven’s sake. Why was I putting up with that behavior from her? I should be the one in control.

Clearly, my attempts at negotiating were not getting me anywhere. I had to think of something else to say.

Fortunately, a second idea popped into my head.

“Listen, Mrs. Williams,” I said gently.

She shook her head ‘no’ to let me know she wasn’t willing to listen.

“Listen to me!” I said sternly. “Do you have children?”

“Yes, I have children,” she hissed. Why couldn’t she ever answer without a nasty demeanor?

“Then maybe you can sympathize with my mother. Can’t you do this for my mother? As a mother yourself? Wouldn’t you want someone to help your children if they could? What if they needed someone to help them? Callahan is a nice person, and he doesn’t deserve this.” I knew I was grasping at straws, but I had to try anyway.

After a long pause, she sighed. “All right. The lady’s name is Karyn Bentley. Her number is in the phonebook.”

I could not believe my plea had worked, and she’d shared the information with me. I would have to remember that trick in case I needed to use it against her again in the future, although I prayed my future with Mrs. Williams would be a short one. I was determined to finally get through to her husband. Deep down, she was not as tough as she led people to believe.

“Thank you, Mrs. Williams. I promise I won’t let you down.”

She ignored me.

I uncovered the phone and chirped into it, “I got it. I got the lady’s name.”

“Find her immediately,” Mindy commanded.

“Don’t you want to know how I got it?” I asked.

“There’s time for that later. Right now time is of the essence. Just find her.”

“Gotcha. I’m looking for her right now.”

“Bye,” Mindy snapped.

I fished out the phone book from the drawer under the counter and scanned the alphabet for her name.

“Thank God, there she is,” I muttered aloud.

Nervously, I dialed her number; I had no idea what I was even going to say.
Hello, is this the witch?

The phone rang several times as my heart thumped.

“Hello,” the soft voice said. Hmm, I was expecting a more crackly-like voice. I think I expected her to say something like
I’ll get you my pretty
, and then laugh in a wicked cackle.

“Hi, is this Karyn Bentley?”

“Yes, this is Karyn.”

“Hi, Karyn. My name is Larue Donavan. I own
Book Nook
here in town.”

“Oh, hi Miss Donavan. How are you today?”

“Just fine, thank you. The reason I’m calling is…” I paused.

“Yes,” she said, waiting for me to sputter out the rest of the sentence.

“I was told you were a part of the coven here in town. I didn’t even know there was such a thing here in Magnolia,” I said nervously.

“Why do you ask?” she questioned guardedly.

“Right, well, I have reason to believe someone has placed a bad spell on someone I know. I was told you might be able to help. I tried to break the spell myself with some books I have here in the store.”

She laughed. “But it didn’t work.”

“No, I’m afraid not. I’m not sure what I did wrong. Although the book said it had to be done on a full moon and I didn’t do that part. After I tried it once I don’t have the energy to try again.”

“Well, it could have been that. But, honestly, it could be any one of many things. More than likely, it wouldn’t have worked even on the full moon simply because, deep down, you don’t believe it will work. Magic is a powerful thing, and so is the mind. They go together you know?”

“Well, um, no, I didn’t know, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“So, who is this person?”

“Well, my friend is Callahan Weiss. Or, at least, I thought we were friends until…” I trailed off.

“Go ahead.” She pushed.

“Until Brianna Garret came into the picture.”

I could hear her exhale deeply into the phone.

“And you think Brianna has cast a spell on him?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What makes you think she has cast a bad spell?”

“My friend and I saw her working her magic, I guess you would say. One day, she had this strange-looking bowl, she waved her hands around, and a puff of smoke came billowing into the air.” I sounded like an excited child as I described it. I gestured with my hands as if she could see me.

“A strange looking bowl, you say?”

“Yes, it was wooden with strange symbols on it.”

“Uh huh. Okay and then what happened?”

“Well, after that. My
friend
began acting very strange. He stopped talking to me and he had this strange far-off look in his eyes.”

“That is not good,” she said with trepidation.

I wasn’t truly expecting her to agree with me, so when she did I was shocked. Relieved, but still shocked.

“It isn’t?” I said.

“No. Not good at all. So you want to help your friend?”

“Yes, I do. If it is possible I would like to. I think he would want my help. I really feel like he would. The way he is acting is not natural.”

“I realize that,” she offered. “Can you meet with me?

“Sure,” I said, nervously. The thought ran through my mind in that maybe she was in cahoots with Brianna and it was all a trick. Maybe they would turn me into a frog. Somehow Mrs. Williams was involved, too. I really was becoming paranoid.