This Changes Everything (2 page)

“Where?”

She shrugged. “At
Fort Raleigh, probably.”

Claire gave her
head a little shake. “Will the colonists be dressed like they were when they
disappeared?” Her eyes widened. “They’re sure gonna be surprised when they see
cars and TVs.”

Ellie shook her
head. “No, they won’t. Daddy told me that no living person could go to hell and
come back alive.”

“So they’ll be a
bunch of dead bodies? Will they be skeletons?”

Ellie shrugged
again. “I guess.” She’d never given that part too much thought. She didn’t want
to think about a bunch of skeletons, but she wasn’t surprised that Claire did.
She was fascinated with ghost stories. Abnormally so. “But the curse is over
four hundred years old and it’s never broken. It probably won’t break when I’m
the Keeper.”

“That is so
cool!” Claire squealed. “Maybe you’ll be lucky and it
will
break.
Then what do you do?”

“Then the other
Keeper and I will have to close the gate. And I’ll have to find a ladder to get
the cup off the shelf.”

“That part’s
easy!” Claire grabbed a shelf and began to climb. “I’ll get it for you.”

Ellie started to
protest and tell Claire to leave the cup alone, but after talking about it she
was surprised to discover that she actually
wanted
to
see it and touch it. Daddy had taken it down once, but whenever she asked to
see it since, he told her it was precious and not something to be “mauled.”
She’d never understood that part. She knew bears mauled animals and people, but
Ellie only wanted to look at it. And now she reasoned that if she were really
the Keeper and needed the cup to close the gate someday, she should look at it
so she’d be ready.

Claire loved to
climb things—trees, ladders, the sand dunes at Jockey’s Ridge State Park—so
climbing a ten-foot-tall bookcase was easy. She grabbed the cup and quickly
descended, landing in front of Ellie. “This is
it
?”

“That’s what
Daddy says.” Ellie understood her disappointment. For something that was supposed
to be so important, it looked so boring. She took it from Claire’s outstretched
hand and turned it upside down, looking for some sign of its specialness. There
was nothing. Maybe Daddy had gotten it wrong.

“So what do you
do with it?”

Ellie wondered
how much she should tell. There was a ceremony with rules to be followed. The
first had been led by Manteo. Ananias had gone along, not understanding that
he’d been tricked. Daddy told her that Manteo had stolen Ananias’s family from
him. He warned her that the Keepers had to perform the next ceremony as equals.
He’d gone through the ceremony with her, making her repeat it all so she didn’t
forget. They were to set up the site by etching symbols of the gods and spirits
as well as the forces of nature, asking Ahone to grant his mercy on the
children of the land and the sea. They were to cleanse their souls, and then
they could ask the ancient magic, as old as time itself, to help them protect
humanity by closing the gate. But her father had warned her that Manteo had
used blood in the first ceremony, and she needed to use something stronger this
time. Only she couldn’t remember what it was . . .

She paused,
scratching at her burning palm. That was weird. Why couldn’t she remember? She
knew what it was yesterday.

“Ellie!” Momma
called from the back of house. “Are you in here?”

Startled, both
girls jumped.

Ellie shoved the
cup back at Claire. “Quick! Put it back!”

Claire scrambled
back up the case, while Ellie stood guard at the door.

“Ellie? Claire?
Where are you girls?”

Claire jumped
down and ran next to Ellie as her mother opened the door, her eyes narrowing as
she studied the girls.

“What are you two
up to?”

“Nothing,” they said
in unison. Ellie clasped her hands in front of her in an attempt to look
innocent.

“Nothing, huh?” She
looked around the room and Ellie held her breath.

“Miss Amanda, can
I have a cookie?” Claire asked, smiling sweetly. “Ellie said you made some last
night.”

Ellie’s mother’s
gaze swept around the room one more time before shaking her head and muttering to
herself under her breath, “All this Ricardo Estate secrecy has made me
paranoid.” She smiled down at them, lifting an eyebrow with a mischievous grin.
“How many cookies have you girls had already?”

“None,” they both
said.

Momma laughed.
“Some days I think you both share a brain the way you answer like that. I swear
you two could be taken for sisters if you didn’t look like such opposites.” She
ruffled their hair. “Come on my redheaded hellion and my raven-haired beauty.
Let’s go get you a snack.”

Ellie felt
relieved that her mother said the girls were just like sisters. See? Telling
Claire about the curse wasn’t bad.

So why couldn’t
she now remember the name of the god who was supposed to help her close the
gate?

Chapter Two

The girls sat
down at the kitchen counter as Ellie’s mother opened the lid to the plastic
container. “What were you girls up to?” Momma used her “all-knowing” voice.
Somehow she always knew when Ellie was doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

They turned to
each other, trying to look innocent. “Nothing.”

Ellie’s mother
gave them each a cookie. “Nothing, hmm?” She poured glasses of milk and set
them in front of the girls. “I’d quiz you more, but I have to make an important
phone call in Daddy’s office. You girls stay in here and eat your cookies.”

They nodded,
their mouths too full to answer.

Ellie watched her
mother walk out of the kitchen. “Momma never goes in Daddy’s office. She uses
the phone in here.”

“Maybe she
doesn’t want you to hear it. She said it was important.”

“Yeah.” Ellie
took another nibble. Momma had been acting strange the last few days after
she’d gone to Charlotte. Ellie sucked in her breath. Claire was acting strange.
Fear flooded Ellie’s body.

Were Momma and
Daddy getting a divorce too?

She wasn’t going
to sit around waiting to find out. “I’m gonna go see what she’s saying.” She
hopped off the stool and headed for the door.

Claire grabbed
her arm. “Your mom went to the office so you
wouldn’t
hear it.”

“I know. But I
have
to know what she’s saying. Come on.” She tugged on Claire’s hand.

Claire shook her
head, pulling out of Ellie’s grasp. “No way. I’m not getting in trouble.”

Ellie wanted to
tell her she’d done something even worse minutes ago, but if her mother was
talking to someone about getting a divorce, she didn’t want Claire to hear it
anyway. “You stay here and watch for Miss Marney. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Claire
mumbled, her lips twisting with worry.

Slipping down the
hall, Ellie hugged the wall, stopping outside the office door when she heard
Momma’s muffled voice through the glass. She placed her back to the wall and
slid down until her butt hit the wood, her knees tucked under her chin, as she
strained to make the muffled sounds into intelligible words.

“I need to come
to Chapel Hill and access the archives. Can you help me arrange it?” Her mother
sounded upset. “Steven,
please
. You know I can’t tell him.”

Ellie tried to
think of someone she knew named Steven but came up with nothing.

“
No
.
You know how he’ll react if he finds out I did this without telling him. And
then if he finds out what I saw . . .”

The cookie and
milk in Ellie’s stomach tumbled in revolt. Was Momma talking about Daddy? What
hadn’t she told him? That she was getting a divorce?

“Okay.” She sniffed
and sounded relieved. “Okay, that’s a good idea.”

There was silence
for several long seconds and Ellie thought she’d hung up until her mother’s
tearful voice spoke again. “Maybe I should go to the police.” Her voice trailed
off with a pause. “Okay, you’re right. I’ll tell him first.” Ellie heard another
long pause. “
Tonight
. I’ll tell him tonight.”

There was a
rustling in the room and Ellie hopped up and ran into the kitchen, sliding onto
the stool.

Claire took one
look at Ellie and her face paled. “What happened?”

Ellie didn’t
answer. She wasn’t sure what happened. But she knew that her mother had kept a
secret from her father and that she thought he would be upset about it. Her
parents never got mad at each other except when Daddy talked about Curse Keeper
stuff, so this had to be big.

Or was this
about
the curse?

Ellie’s mother
stood in the kitchen doorway and cleared her throat. “How are you girls doing?”
As she moved in front of the sink, Ellie saw her eyes were red and glassy.

Momma had been
crying.

Claire noticed
too and turned to her friend, worry pinching her mouth. Ellie had never seen
Momma cry. Not once. The fact that two important people in her life had cried
in such a short period of time rattled Ellie’s nerves. She pushed her half-eaten
cookie to the center of the counter and slid off her stool. “I’m not hungry
anymore.”

Her mother
ignored her, staring out the window for several seconds before she turned at
the waist toward her, looking distracted. “Okay.”

Claire glanced
between her friend and Ellie’s mother, her eyebrows lowered in confusion. She
drank the last of her milk and grabbed the rest of her cookie before hopping
off her stool, following Ellie out the front door. The screen door hinges
squeaked and Claire let it bang closed as Ellie sought out the puppy who still
romped in the adjacent yard. She opened the gate and dropped to her knees. The
puppy jumped onto her lap, licking her hand.

“What did you
hear, Ellie?” Claire asked.

She wanted to
tell Claire. She was tired of secrets, but she worried that telling her friend
her mother had a bad secret would make it even more real. So she told her a
simplified version.

“Momma was
talking to someone about Daddy. But I wasn’t sure what it was about.” All true.
Kind of.

“Your mom was crying.”

Ellie inhaled
deeply and then exhaled before answering. “I know.”

Claire reached
over and rubbed Chip’s head. “Since you told me your big secret, I want to tell
you mine.”

Ellie froze
momentarily before she lifted her face to Claire’s. She suspected Claire had
been hiding something, but she thought that her parents’ possible divorce might
be it. Apparently, she’d been wrong.

Claire’s gaze
dropped to the dog on Ellie’s lap. “You know how I like ghost stories?”

Ellie nodded,
then realized her friend couldn’t see her. “Yeah.”

“Sometimes . . .”
She sighed and her voice broke. “Sometimes I hear things I shouldn’t.”

“You mean
inappropriate things? Like rated R movies your parents watch when they think
you’re asleep?” Ellie had done that a couple of times. But she’d gotten into
big trouble when she’d said a word she’d heard, not knowing it was bad.

Claire bit her
lower lip and shook her head. “No.”

Ellie waited for
her to continue.

“Nobody here
knows except Mommy and Daddy, because they made me promise not to tell anyone. And
Melanie knows too, but Melanie hates me for it.”

“Is that why
Melanie is so mean to you?”

She nodded. “Part
of the reason we moved here was because of Daddy’s job, but part of it was
because of me.” She looked up into Ellie’s face. “I hear voices no one else can
hear.”

“What are they?”
Ellie whispered.

“I don’t know,”
Claire whispered in response. “I think they might be ghosts. They talk to me,
but I can never see them. But I feel them.”

Ellie’s mouth
dropped open. “What do they feel like?”

“Cold.” She
shivered. “Very cold.” She looked at Ellie and, with a tremor in her voice,
said, “Are you going to be mean to me too now?”

Ellie’s mouth
gaped. “Why would I be mean to you?”

“The kids at my
old school thought I was weird. Mommy and Daddy took me to a special doctor,
and he wanted me to take medicine. But I hate pills so I spit them in the trash
and pretended I didn’t hear the voices anymore. But the kids still made fun of
me. So when Daddy lost his job, Mommy said we should move away for a
fresh start
.
Now Melanie hates me for making us move.”

Ellie pulled her
friend into a tight hug. “I’m your friend forever, Claire. No matter what.”

Claire leaned back
and searched Ellie’s face. “I don’t hear them as much anymore. When they call
me I ignore them. They got upset at first, and then they stopped trying so
much.”

Ellie shivered at
the thought of ghosts visiting her friend, but she meant what she said. She was
her friend regardless. “You said they were upset. Are
they
mean to
you?”

“Sometimes they
help me. Sometimes I’m missing something and they’ll tell me where it is.” She
shook her head with a scowl. “Sometimes I think they took it themselves and
they’re just playing tricks on me. So I guess that’s kind of mean. But before
they leave, they almost always say the same thing.”

“What?”

“‘You have to
help her.’”

“Who are you
supposed to help? Melanie?”

“I don’t know. I
hope not.” Claire shrugged. “When we moved they used to be with me all the
time, but I haven’t heard them in days.”

Just as Ellie was
about to ask another question, Melanie’s head popped out the front door of a
house across the street and several doors down. “Get home right now, Claire!
Mom’s gonna be home in a half hour and you have to do your chores!”

Claire climbed to
her feet and Ellie stood with her, unsure what to say. The afternoon had been
full of too many secrets for her to process. “I guess I’ll see you at the bus
stop tomorrow.”

Claire nodded but
didn’t move.

“Your mom and dad
will be okay,” Ellie added. She’d almost forgotten what started the whole
snowball of revelations.

“Claire!” Melanie
shouted. “If you don’t have your chores done before Mom gets home, we’re both
gonna get in trouble!”

Claire ignored
her but took a few steps toward her own house, giving Ellie a half wave as she
crossed the street.

Ellie stayed
outside with the puppy for a little while longer, not ready to go back inside
and face her distraught mother. However, her neighbor soon came out to take
Chip inside and Ellie considered swinging again, but she didn’t feel good, like
she was getting sick. She went inside and started on her homework, working on
her math problems at the kitchen counter while her mother cooked dinner. It was
a familiar routine, but tonight it felt all wrong. Her mother was distracted and
the pasta boiled over onto the stove.

Daddy came home
soon after, his laughter filling the house and Ellie’s hollow heart. She ran
off the stool and into his arms, squeezing his neck as he bent down to give her
a hug.

“Hey, Elliphant.
What’s wrong?”

Ellie continued
to hold on to him for dear life. Daddy picked her up and she wrapped her legs
around his waist. He held her like he used to when she was little. She always
felt safe when he held her like this.

“Ellie,” he said,
sounding concerned. “What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t tell
him about Momma, and she couldn’t tell him about sharing the curse secret with
Claire. Instead, she said, “I had a bad day.”

He cupped the
back of her head and held her close. “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her
head in the crook of his neck.

He moved past the
kitchen and carried her into the living room, sitting on the sofa and shifting
her legs so she sat sideways on his lap. Looking down into her face, he tucked
her hair behind her ear. “Ellie, I’m going ask you some questions and I want
you to be honest with me, okay?”

Did Daddy know
she told Claire about the curse? The air squeezed out of her lungs, but she
nodded.

“Has anyone
scared you?”

Her eyes widened
in surprise. “No, Daddy.”

“Has a man you
don’t know tried to talk to you?”

She nodded yes
and her father sucked in a breath, fear in his eyes.

“Tell me what
happened.”

“I was with Momma
at the inn yesterday morning eating breakfast and I talked to a man who is
staying there.”

Daddy wrapped an
arm around her back and hugged her side against his chest. “Not someone from
the inn. A stranger.”

“You mean like
stranger danger?”

“Yes, just like
that.”

Ellie shook her
head, biting her lip. “No, Daddy.”

His face lowered
to hers. “For the next few days, I want you to stay inside, okay? I don’t want
you to talk to anyone you don’t know.”

“Why?”

His fingertip
rubbed her cheek, then he touched the tip of her nose. “Because Daddy’s
overprotective. Just promise me, okay?”

“I promise.” She squeezed
his neck again. When he held her, she believed that everything would be okay. That
nothing bad could ever happen.

He hugged her tight
for several seconds before the phone rang. He pulled back to look into her face
again. “And you still can’t answer the phone.”

She scowled. “I’m
not a baby. I know how to answer the phone, Daddy.”

He set her on her
feet and stood. “I know you do, Elliphant, but it’s one of those overprotective
daddy things. Why don’t you go wash your hands for dinner.” He left her to go
into the kitchen, and Ellie hung back before following him and hiding in the
hallway.

“Was it another
hang-up call?” Daddy asked.

“Yes,” her mother
mumbled.

“Why was Ellie
upset? Did something happen at school?”

“I don’t know.
She was playing with Claire when I got home and I gave them a cookie. She
seemed fine to me.”

“Something upset
her. She was nearly in tears when I walked in, and she hugged me and wouldn’t
let go. I asked her if someone had approached her or tried to talk to her, but
she said no.” His voice lowered. “I know the weather has been unusually nice
for January, but I don’t want her playing outside.”

“John, we haven’t
had any threatening calls for weeks.”

“Then what’s up
with the hang-up calls the last two days?”

She didn’t
answer.

“Exactly. I’d
rather be safe, Amanda. He threatened to hurt her. We can’t take any chances.”

“You’re right,
but he’s been missing for weeks. Since the calls stopped. The police think he’s
gone.”

“I hope he is,
but I couldn’t bear it if something happened to her. Especially if he did it
because he was upset with me over some ridiculous zoning issue.”

Ellie peeked
around the corner and saw her parents hugging and she breathed a sigh of
relief. Momma and Daddy wouldn’t be hugging if they were getting a divorce.
Momma had to be worried about something else.