Time of the Witch (7 page)

I shook my head, amazed. Nobody in my whole life had ever offered me a cigarette. "I don't smoke," I said, feeling very unsophisticated.

"Give me one." Wanda reached for the cigarettes, but Charlene put the pack back in her pocket.

"You're already too little and skinny and short, you know that. You want to grow up to be a midget or something?"

"Aw, come on, Charlene. You were going to give Laura one." Wanda tried to grab the cigarette Charlene was smoking.

"I said no, Wanda Louise, and I meant it!" Charlene slapped Wanda's hand. "Laura's company. And she's tall enough so it won't hurt her none." Charlene gestured at the back of Annabelle's head. "And you know what she'd do if she saw you with a cigarette in your mouth!" Charlene exhaled a pale cloud of smoke and watched it linger for a second in the air.

"Wanda says you're from Washington, D.C. Is that right?" Charlene looked at me.

I nodded. "Actually we live in the suburbs, sort of out in the country, not too far from Gaithersburg."

"Gaithersburg? Never heard of it. I wouldn't mind living in Washington, though, working for the government or something. A couple of my girlfriends got jobs there last summer. They have a little apartment somewhere and they just love it. I bet you find this a real dull place, just nothing to do at all."

"It's nice here," I said, not wanting to hurt Wanda's feelings. "It's different though. We don't have anybody like Maude where I live."

Charlene laughed. "You really want to hear about that old crackpot? I tell you the truth, honey, she didn't do a thing for me. It's been over half a year since she sold me that love potion and I ain't seen Eddie yet."

"Well, what happened? What was it like to go see her? Was it scary?" I stared at Charlene, wanting to hear every detail. The pink sky behind her turned the ends of her hair gold and she looked like a movie star sitting there enjoying all the attention I was giving her.

"Well, one day when Tanya Marie was about six months old, I was in Blue Hollow doing some errands. I was really feeling down, you know? Seeing all these places Eddie and me used to go, looking at all kinds of couples, teenagers and adults and everybody. Seemed like everybody had somebody but me. All I had was this cute little baby and a dumb job in the Dairy Queen. I mean, what kind of a life is that?" Charlene flicked her cigarette butt out across the yard and watched it burn itself out in the grass.

"Then I saw Maude, hobbling along with that crow on her shoulder, mumbling to herself like a crazy woman, and the thought came to me that maybe she could help me. I'd heard lots of talk about her doing stuff for people romantically, so I decided to ask her."

Charlene flipped her hair back and looked at me. "Now, Laura, I have never been a brave person and all my life I been scared to death of that old woman, but I was so desperate to get Eddie back that I walked right up to her and asked if she could help me. Well, she just stood there staring at me, she and that bird both, and my knees felt like they were turning to water. I thought I was going to faint dead away in the street when she reaches out and grabs my wrist like this."

Charlene grabbed my wrist so hard she scared me to death. I almost fell right off the railing.

"Then she says, 'What do you need? A love potion?' Just like she could read my mind, I swear."

Even though it was warm there on the porch, I shivered.

"'Yes,' I says in this squeaky little voice," Charlene continued. "'Come see me tonight, my dear, I'll give you what you need,' Maude said. And she laughed just like a witch in a fairy tale, I swear she did." Charlene raised her right hand.

"Then she walked away and that night I went to see her and I was so scared going through those dark woods I thought I'd die before I got there. I was shaking and crying and cussing Eddie 'cause it was all his fault I was out there all by myself where anybody could grab me and knock me on the side of the head or something. And it was even worse when I got to Maude's place. She was waiting for me and there wasn't a light anywhere. Just the moon shining down through the trees. She lit one candle and took me inside." Charlene took out another cigarette and busied herself lighting it.

"Everytime you tell this story it's different," Wanda said. "You just keep adding and adding till I get so bored I could fall asleep sitting here." Wanda yawned widely.

"You want to take flying lessons, Wanda Louise? You want to see how far I can throw you?" Charlene glared across me at Wanda.

"You just never said nothing bout her lighting one candle before, Charlene. That's new." Wanda slid down the railing, putting a. little distance between herself and Charlene.

"What happened next?" I whispered, giving Wanda a look that meant for her to be quiet.

"Well, it was dark in her house, even with the candle. I could hardly see my hand before my face. And it smelled funny too. Not bad exactly, just strange, like maybe she was burning herbs or something. She sat me down near the fire and she asked me all these questions about Eddie and she kept staring at me all the time. The crow was sitting up on the mantelpiece and he was staring at me, too. I was so scared I could hardly talk."

"Hmmmph!" Wanda snorted. "Wish I could hire Maude to keep you scared."

Charlene rolled her eyes and ignored Wanda. "She took all these herbs and things and mixed them together and she chanted a lot of mumbo jumbo and wrote things down on paper and burned things. I never saw anything like it. I mean she just carried on, worse than a preacher at a revival."

"And then what?"

Charlene shook her head. "She charged me ten dollars and I left and that was six months ago and I ain't seen Eddie yet." Charlene sighed and tossed the second cigarette butt after the first one. "I guess she's just a crazy old lady like everybody says. She ain't no more a witch than you or me or Wanda. She just knows how to put on a good show."

The light from the sunset had dwindled to a narrow band of pink sky just above the mountains, but even in the twilight I could see the disappointment in Charlene's face. "There's still time for it to work," I said. "Maybe Eddie's too far away for the spell to reach him."

Charlene shrugged. "I used to tell myself that, but
six months, shoot. That's a long time, honey." She gazed past Wanda and me at the mountains. "It sure would be nice if he came back, though, it really would. I get so tired of slaving away at the Dairy Queen. If Eddie came back we could go away to someplace like California or Hawaii where it's always sunny and I'd never have to see a Dairy Queen again."

"They got Dairy Queens in California and Hawaii, Charlene. I hate to tell you, but they got Dairy Queens all over the world," Wanda said.

"Well, I wouldn't be working in one, Wanda. I could just look the other way and keep on going whenever I saw one."

"Hey, Charlene," Annabelle called from the living room, dark now except for the television's blue glow. "What are you telling those girls?" Then Annabelle appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, nothing. They just wanted to hear about Maude and that dumb love potion." Charlene yawned and stretched, seeming bored with the whole subject.

Annabelle looked at us. "What do you want to know about Maude for? She hasn't been bothering you, has she?"

"Course not," Wanda said. "She couldn't bother me if she tried."

Annabelle turned to me. "You sure she hasn't pestered you none?"

I shook my head. "She's talked to me a few times. She told me about my grandmother and her, how they were friends and all." I tried to picture Maude and my grandmother as young women, girls like Wanda and me, but I'd never seen my grandmother and I couldn't imagine someone as old as Maude ever being young.

Annabelle frowned. "I've heard they were friends once." Shifting her weight from one hip to the other, she stared at me as if she wanted to tell me something but didn't have the words for it. "You stay away from her, both of you. I don't want either one of you going near that old woman. You hear?"

We nodded to show we heard her, but I knew I had no intention of staying away from Maude. I needed her too badly. After all, what did I have to lose? Even if she couldn't help me, she couldn't make my life any worse than it already was.

"What are you trying to do, Annabelle? Scare the poor kids to death?" Charlene brushed her hair back from her forehead. "You know that old woman's a fake. All she done for me was make me ten dollars poorer."

"Talk to Twyla about Maude someday," Annabelle said. "She'll tell you an earful." Annabelle frowned at Charlene. "You ain't as smart as you think you are, girl. There's lots you don't know about."

Charlene shrugged. "Twyla don't know everything either. She's just as phony as Maude, if you ask me. Sweeping around like some kind of princess in her long skirts, running that dumb little shop with all those expensive things, telling fortunes like a carnival gypsy. You wait, by the time she's Maude's age, Twyla'll be walking around with a crow on her shoulder, talking to herself and casting spells."

Charlene jumped down from the railing, causing it to sway, and tossed her cigarette out into the darkness. "You all want to watch a movie with Annabelle and me? It's the one where this girl gets possessed by the devil and does all these weird things. Her head turns around backwards and she throws up green slime and
she floats over the bed. You all want to come in and watch it?"

"I already saw it," Wanda said. "It was all fake. You could tell the fake stuff without half looking."

"You were scared to death and you know it, Wanda Louise Orton. You wouldn't go to sleep without a light on for at least two weeks after you saw it."

"Bull." Wanda hopped down from the railing, glaring at Charlene as if she were about to attack her.

Charlene snorted, swung her hair out of her face and opened the screen door. "Nice meeting you, Laura. Come on over sometime and I'll do your hair. I just love fooling around with hairstyles. I'm thinking of going to beauty school if I can ever save up enough money."

Annabelle lingered by the door, still staring at Wanda and me. "I'm not fooling about Maude. She's a mean old woman, full of spite, and she don't care who she hurts." She looked hard at me, but I just looked down at my feet. I didn't like the worry I saw on Annabelle's face.

"I'm walking Laura part way home, okay?" Wanda slid off the railing and I hopped off too.

"Be careful. That road's got some dark places," Annabelle said.

Charlene looked out the window at us. "Bye, Laura. Wanda, you be sure and run all the way home, so nothing'll grab you in the dark. Course they'd let you go as soon as it got light, but don't take no chances."

Wanda made a face at Charlene, but she'd already turned her attention to the television screen. "Come on." Wanda ran down the steps and I followed her.

The night air was cool and sweet with the smell of
honeysuckle, and the sky was dusted all over with stars, more stars than I could ever remember seeing at Stoneleigh. Standing still for a moment, I tipped my head back, staring up at the sky, finding the Big Dipper, the Milky Way, and what I thought might be Orion.

"Come on, Laura." Wanda stood in the middle of the road, her shadow black against the moon-washed dirt. "Quit poking along like a snail."

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" I walked slowly, listening to the crickets chirping in the Held and a mockingbird singing in the woods somewhere.

Wanda nodded, looking uneasily at the grove of trees lying in shadow at the foot of the hill. "What do you think Annabelle was trying to do?"

I shrugged. "You mean all that stuff about Maude? Maybe she just doesn't like her." I looked at Wanda, wondering if Annabelle had scared her as much as she'd scared me. Not that I planned to admit it. I was sure that if I told Wanda how afraid I was, she'd never go near Maude.

"Suppose she's right, though?"

"I don't care what Annabelle says. Or Charlene either. I'm going to ask Maude to make my parents stay married." I frowned at Wanda. "And if you won't come with me, I'll go by myself."

"I think I better get on back home. It's late," Wanda said.

"But we're not even halfway to Aunt Grace's house. Aren't you at least going to walk me through the woods?" I stared at her, feeling betrayed.

Wanda shook her head. "If I walk through the woods with you, then I got to walk back by myself."

"How about halfway through the woods? Will you walk that far?" I pleaded, aware that my voice was rising to a Jason-like whine.

But Wanda was already inching backwards up the road. "Just run," she said. "Just run as fast as you can toward your house and I'll run toward mine."

"Please come with me, just a little way?" The more we talked, the darker those woods got.

"I'll come to your house tomorrow, okay?" Wanda called from the top of the hill.

"Don't bother!" I shouted. "If you can't come with me now, don't come tomorrow either! Don't come ever!"

Taking a deep breath, I turned and ran toward home, wincing when my bare feet struck against loose stones. As I plunged into the darkness under the trees, I saw something move in the shadows at the side of the road. Before I could dodge aside, Maude stepped into my path, blocking my way.

"Well, well, Laura Adams, where are you going in such a hurry in the dark? You almost knocked me down, child." Maude smiled at me, but the hand that grasped my arm was cold and strong.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you," I stammered, my lips stiff.

"Well, now, I saw you coming, Laura Adams, and I heard you too, but then these old eyes and ears of mine are sharp as a cat's. They work better in the dark than they do in the daylight." Maude peered at me, her eyes searching my face. "Now I've gone and frightened you, haven't I?"

Turning her eyes to Soot, who was riding her shoulder like a small demon of the night, she said, "We are
a frightening pair, aren't we? The two of us roaming the woods day and night, as we have for years, shunning the company of other human beings. But we mean no harm to this child, do we?" Maude chuckled and stared at me, her eyes glittering in the moonlight.

"My aunt is expecting me home. She'll be worrying," I whispered, backing away from Maude.