The Dark-Thirty (8 page)

“You don’t always get what you want,” Arthur Lee said. “Look at me.”

“When my mother goes to the hospital, I’m going along to make sure they choose a brother.”

Summer was passing quickly, and Mama was as thin as ever, snacking on carrot sticks. How could she get fat that way? Just when Josie was about to give up hope, she overheard Miz Annie and Miz Charlene talking about a conjure woman who had just moved to town.

“Reckon she could do something to change this streak of bad luck I been having?” Miz Annie asked.

Miz Charlene answered, “Yes, honey. I bet she could. She fixed me a salve that really helped my arthritis. And didn’t charge me but a dozen eggs.”

Their talk gave Josie an idea. Maybe the conjure woman could fix her up with a brother! That night Josie went to sleep thinking about what she and her new brother were going to do.

At first light Josie slipped out of her house. She gathered a basket of grapes to use as payment. Within the hour she was standing outside the conjure woman’s house. A sign said:
MADAM ZINNIA—SPELLS, POTIONS, AND SALVES—ALL WELCOME
.

What did it look like inside? Josie wondered.
Would there be bubbling pots and glowing bottles?

“Come in.” A very attractive woman opened the door before Josie could knock. “I’ve been expecting you,” she said, touching the side of Josie’s face. “I see you’ve got a problem? Come, Josie, let Madam Zinnia help you.”

Josie was impressed. Madam Zinnia knew her name and even knew she was coming. The girl stepped inside the house and looked around. There were no smoking skulls with cinder-hot eyes. No bats hanging from the ceiling, no bubbling jars of weird-looking stuff. In fact, the living room looked like a picture from a home magazine. It was a sunny room, cheerfully decorated with fresh-cut flowers and interesting whatnots.

Madam Zinnia matched her house in style and disposition. Dressed in a crisp yellow-and-white checked shirtwaist and white heels, she looked like one of the saleswomen down at Hopperman’s Dry Goods Store.

“Come have some fresh-squeezed orange juice and a just-from-the-oven biscuit,” the woman said, ushering Josie into the kitchen.

This is all so
normal
, Josie thought.

Madam Zinnia poured two glasses of juice and took a seat at the kitchen table. Josie asked,
“Would you please conjure me up a brother? I asked my mother to go to the hospital, but she’s still skinny.”

“Oh, chile, you can’t go round ordering brothers like you do hot dogs at the ballpark.”

“I know, but I’ve waited all summer.”

“I see,” Madam Zinnia said, giving an understanding nod. “A brother may not be what you really want. I know, because Madam has one. Oh, what a rascal,” she said, fanning her face with her pocket handkerchief. “Let Madam conjure you up a fine pet instead.”

“My brother will be different.”

“Well, a brother you shall have.” And closing her eyes tightly, Madam Zinnia said some words Josie didn’t know. Then she gave the girl a formula to conjure a brother. “You must do just as I say. Don’t change a thing. Find a peach tree twig. Don’t strip the leaves. Slide it under your bed from the left side. Then at exactly one minute after midnight, climb into bed from the right side and go to sleep saying whatever name you want to give your brother. Come morning, you’ll have a beautiful baby brother.”

Josie hurried home and followed the conjure instructions precisely—well, almost. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stay awake until midnight.
So she did the conjure spell at ten o’clock instead, and she fell asleep calling her brother’s name. “Adam … Adam … Adam!”

The next morning Josie woke to the smell of country ham and eggs, grits, and biscuits. She rushed into the kitchen. The table was set for four.

“Whose plate is that?” Josie asked, pointing to a place opposite her side of the table.

“Yours,” Mama answered, looking at the girl askance.

Josie was surprised, because she’d sat on the right side as long as she’d sat in a chair. “Then whose plate is that?”

“Don’t start something with your brother this morning,” Mama said, stirring the pot vigorously. “You know very well that’s Adam’s place.”

“My
brother
Adam?” Josie shouted. “It worked, Mama. I conjured up a brother for myself. Isn’t it wonderful? Where is he?”

Mama laughed. “You read too many of those fantasy books, Josie.”

But the girl didn’t hear. She had bounded out the back door. Mama shrugged and went back to cooking.

Suddenly Josie stopped in her tracks. Something wasn’t quite right. Adam was supposed to be a baby. But he was old enough to have a place at the table. Oh, well, she thought. A brother is a brother.

Josie looked behind the garage. “Adam,” she called. “Oh, Adam.”

All at once someone grabbed her from behind. “You thought you’d catch me off guard. But I gotcha.”

Josie tried to turn so she could see her brother, but he held on fast. “Is that you, Adam?” she yelled. “Adam?”

“I won’t let you go unless you play In My Power.”

“Okay,” Josie said, letting him hook his baby finger in hers. “I’m in your power.”

Adam let her go immediately. “Okay, who are you? You aren’t Josie Hudson. My real sister wouldn’t play In My Power without a big fight.”

Josie smiled and looked at Adam with wide wondering eyes. He was a shorter version of Daddy, minus a mustache. And though he was frowning at her, the light in his eyes sparkled like sunlight on Mama’s chandelier. “But you’re my
real
brother,” she said. “And we’re going to
have fun together. I’d love to play In My Power with you, honest. We’ll play whatever you want to play.”

Adam backed away humming the
Twilight Zone
theme music. “Earth to Josie. Earth to Josie. Tune in, girl.”

Mama called for breakfast, and Adam hurried away. Josie skipped behind, making plans for all the wonderful things she was going to do with her conjure brother.

By the end of the week Josie’s joy had turned sour. Nobody seemed to notice that Adam was a conjured brother. It was like he had
always been
. And what made it worse, Adam was the oldest.

Mama and Daddy looked at Adam as if he were something very, very special. He got to ride up front and sit next to Daddy in church. Adam got to cross the pike all by himself and stay up half an hour later at night. How come?

“ ’Cause I was here first,” he teased. Then, snatching the last cookie from the cookie jar, he ran out the door.

“But I didn’t ask for an older brother,” she complained to Madam Zinnia. “I thought my brother was supposed to be a little baby. What happened?”

The conjure woman stopped weeding her garden, stood, and took off her sunbonnet. “Ahhh, flowers take time and lots of care to grow so pretty,” she said, wiping her brow. “Okay, now what’s this about the conjure not working? Did you do exactly as I told you?”

Josie looked down at her feet. “Not quite. I couldn’t stay awake until midnight, so I did it all at ten o’clock.”

Madam Zinnia shook her head. “Why do people mess with my stuff? That’s what happened,” she said, snipping roses. “If you had done the conjure at one minute past midnight, the beginning of a new day, you would have gotten a new life, a baby. But you went to sleep at ten, so you got a ten-year-old brother. Sorry, but Madam cannot guarantee a conjure unless it is done properly. I’m afraid you have to live with your big brother.”

Josie helped Madam Zinnia plant a beautiful yellow rosebush. “Yellow roses are my favorite,” the woman said later, pouring Josie a glass of lemonade. “It takes patience to grow them, lots and lots of patience.”

All the next week Josie tried to make the best of a bad situation. No matter what Adam did, Josie
went along with it. But the harder she tried, the worse Adam got. “What’s wrong with you, silly girl?” he shouted angrily. “You’re not acting right. You’re so—stupid!”

“I try to get along with him,” Josie told JoBeth at the swings.

“Stop trying so hard,” said JoBeth. “Fight back.”

So that’s what Josie did. That same evening Adam wanted to watch an old movie, but she’d waited all day for her favorite comedy show. She turned the channel, and he pushed her out of the way and flipped it back. Josie fired off a punch to Adam’s chin. He hit her back—hard.

“I hate you,” she said, wiping away angry tears. “I wish it was just me again.”

“Just you,” Adam snapped back. “It was great around here until we found you on the railroad tracks and brought you home.”

“That’s not true!” Josie cried harder. Adam smiled. Daddy broke up the fight and sent them both to bed early with no television. Josie cried herself to sleep.

Arthur Lee and JoBeth came by first thing the next morning. “We haven’t gone over to the pike to watch the big trucks go by in weeks.”

“Want to go with us?”

Josie ran to get her bicycle out of the garage. It wasn’t there. “Mama, where’s my bicycle?”

Mama sighed. “Josie, what are you talking about?” she asked impatiently. “You’re the one who made the decision. Adam got the bicycle and you got the chemistry set and the doll dishes.”

Josie was shattered. Last Christmas she’d gotten it all—the bicycle, the chemistry set, and the doll dishes.

She rode double on Arthur Lee’s bike, feeling awful. The three friends sat on the retaining wall and watched the big wheelers roll past, moving at high speeds. Sometimes the truckers tooted their horns and waved. Usually Josie liked to imitate the sound the trucks made as they passed—“Whoosh! Whoosh!” But she didn’t feel like having fun this morning.

“Are big brothers always so awful?” Josie asked.

“Not always,” Arthur Lee answered.

“I can’t beat Adam up. What should I do?”

“Get even. That’s what I do,” said JoBeth.

“Good idea,” Josie replied.

Josie put her plan into motion.

Adam had a crush on Lillie, JoBeth’s big sister. Josie asked Adam to go with her and JoBeth
to the movies. Of course he said no. “JoBeth’s big sister is taking her.” Adam took the bait—hook, line, and sinker. He agreed to go before he knew it was a horror movie,
Return of the Vampire Mummy
. Adam hated horror movies, but he wouldn’t dare admit it. Everything was working perfectly.

At last Saturday came. JoBeth, Lillie, Josie, and Adam met in front of the Ritz. Josie could hardly keep a straight face. During the movie, Josie saw Adam close his eyes when the vampire mummy pushed open the tomb or bit somebody on the neck. And at the end, when the monster shriveled away to dust, Adam slunk down in his seat. Josie knew he was scared to death. Wonderful!

All the kids who lived on Harrison walked home together after the show. It wasn’t dark yet, but the sun had set and lengthy shadows flickered in the last golden light. Josie knew Adam was thinking about vampires that rose at sunset.

As they approached a stretch of vacant property strewn with weeds and trash, Adam moved up to walk with Lillie. Suddenly a caped figure leaped out of nowhere. In the waning light they saw the hideously deformed creature with horrible vampire teeth confronting them.

All eyes were on Adam. The creature reached out to him. He gasped, his face turned green, and he ran away screaming in terror. Arthur Lee took off his Halloween mask and they all laughed. “He’s not so tough and mean now. That’ll teach him,” said Josie.

But she didn’t get the last laugh after all. Adam had gotten home and told his side of the story first. Mama was plenty mad. “What a mean thing to do, Josie Marie Hudson.”

“I can’t help it if Adam is a scaredy-cat.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being frightened, but there
is
something wrong with being mean. Embarrassing your brother in front of his friends was unkind and you owe him an apology.”

“I won’t apologize,” Josie said defiantly.

“Don’t sass me, girl. What’s wrong with you, anyway? For the past few weeks the two of you have been at each other’s throats. I’ve had enough and I want it to stop!”

“I do too,” Josie sobbed, and hurried to her room.

Morning came. Josie picked a basket of ripe tomatoes from Mama’s garden and went to see Madam Zinnia. “Adam is a conjure brother
and I don’t want him anymore. Will you give me a spell to make him go away?” she begged, presenting Madam Zinnia with the tomatoes.

“What did that wretched boy do?” Madam Zinnia asked.

“He teases me all the time.”

“I have just the thing for a teaser. Madam will put him in a cage and call forth nasty little gremlins to poke at him all day with sticks.” And with a wink she raised her hand. “That will fix him good.”

“Stop!” the girl shouted. “He’s not that bad. He’s just bossy.”

“Bossy big brothers! I know about that. Yes, Madam will make him the servant of a terrible beast who lives between the pages of a book.” And she raised her hand as if to send him there.

“No,” Josie stopped her. “Don’t do that. He’s not
that
bossy. He just wants his way all the time.”

“Yes. I’ll turn him into a big rock sitting in the middle of nowhere. Rocks never get their way about anything.”

Josie thought about Adam being a rock. She shook her head. “No, he’s not really so bad. We did have some fun times together. And sometimes I did things to him that weren’t so nice either. Oh, I’m all confused.”