Scary Mary (6 page)

“
Come on, Mary. You do this all the time
don’t you?” She looked at Vicky and almost told the truth. No, she
didn’t do this regularly, and she didn’t do it willingly. She sat
on the floor at the end of the coffee table opposite her with Kyle
and Carolyn on either side of her.

“
What we have to do is put our hands on
this heart-shaped thingy here.” Vicky pointed at the planchette,
the proper name for the Ouija board piece, though Vicky didn’t seem
to know that, which meant she probably wasn’t the best person to
instruct everyone on how the Ouija board worked. “Okay, now don’t
move it. When we ask the spirits questions, they’ll answer us by
moving it. Simple, huh? Mary, I don’t know why people pay your
grandmother money to contact spirits when they can do it for
themselves.” Mary frowned at her. They just didn’t get it because
they didn’t know. There were things that went bump in the night.
The monster underneath the bed was real. Fear was real, but she
couldn’t tell them that. They’d think she was crazy. They wouldn’t
know until they found out for themselves.

“
Now everyone put your hands on the
pointer thingy.” They did as Vicky instructed, and she threw her
head back and closed her eyes. In her best dramatic voice, she
said, “Are there any spirits nearby tonight? All famous people are
welcome, especially movie stars.” The planchette shot to ‘Yes’, but
Vicky seemed far too perky for it to have been spirit
induced.

“
Oh goody. We have someone. Okay, who are
you?” she asked. Mary waited for the planchette to move to the ‘R’.
It did. She settled back and got ready for it to go from ‘I’ to ‘V’
to ‘E’ and so on. It did go to ‘I’, and Vicky gave a girlish
giggle, but then the planchette stopped. Mary rolled her eyes.
What? Had they forgotten how to spell River? She waited for it to
go to ‘V’, but it didn’t shoot to ‘V’. The hairs on the back of her
neck started to rise. The planchette slowly crawled to ‘C’ as if it
was fighting against a group of unwilling hands.

“
What’s going on, Vicky? I thought we were
going to talk to River Phoenix,” Carolyn said.

“
Um, well I guess he’s giving us his real
name. I mean who would really name their kid River?” Vicky said
with a huff. The planchette went to ‘K’ next, then as if in an
afterthought, it went to ‘Y’.

With a laugh, Kyle said, “Ricky? I see why he
changed it to River.”

“
Well, Ricky, when did you die?” asked
Vicky, trying to get control of the show again. The planchette
moved to the numbers: 1, 9, 9, 4.

“
That isn’t River Phoenix, he died in
1993,” Carolyn said.

“
Maybe he can’t count,” Kyle quipped. He
must’ve thought he was hilarious.

Vicky shot him a glance spiked with daggers.
Kyle had the presence of mind to look sheepish, but when she turned
to Mary, her eyes were laced with full-fledged swords. “Mary, do
you know who this is?” She stared back at her dumbfounded. She was
accusing her? It wasn’t even her Ouija board. How was she supposed
to have rigged this?

“
No, I don’t,” she stammered.

Mary didn’t like the way the séance was going.
The hairs on the back of her neck were ramrod straight now. Then
she heard it.

“
I want you all to leave. Don’t want you
here. Julie can tell you what happens to people who don’t listen to
me,” the man’s voice growled. Mary didn’t want to find
out.

“
Let’s ask it another question,” Carolyn
said.

Vicky nodded, but she put a cruel little twist
to it. “Why don’t you ask it a question, Mary?”

Her body broke out into a cold sweat at the
request. She didn’t want to open her mouth. She knew that if she
spoke, the ghost would answer, and she didn’t want to hear anything
else he might have to say. She clenched her jaw and shook her
head.

Cy spoke up, “Come on Vicky, this is freaking
all of us out. Why’d you bring it?”

She looked at Mary with narrowed eyes. “The same
reason Mary’s faking this whole thing. She’s the one making the
thing move. She’s trying to scare us. Leave it to the freak to
freak everyone out.”

Mary’s eyes snapped to Vicky in outrage. None of
them were as scared as she was. All they had were the jitters. She
was clenching every muscle in her body as she tried to keep from
bolting. She lifted her hands off the planchette. She decided to
share her fear.

“
Ricky, how did Julie die?” Everyone
looked at her in shock.

Ricky’s answer made the planchette whiz around
the board. Carolyn shrieked and snatched her hands off it to clutch
them to her chest. Kyle and Cy also jerked their hands away. Cy
looked at the palms of his hands in disbelief as the planchette
continued to skitter around the board. Vicky tried to hold onto it
to show she still had command of the show, but soon her hands
slipped off too, and the planchette was left to spell out its
message alone.

“
What’s going on?” Kyle demanded. His
voice was an octave higher than normal.

Cy jerked open a drawer underneath the coffee
table and pulled out a pad and pencil. “What’s it spelled so
far?”

“
I don’t want to know,” Carolyn
cried.

“
What’s it spelled so far?” He demanded
again as he kept track of the current letters.

“
She’s not dead. I kept her here close,”
Mary answered, though she wasn’t looking at the Ouija board. She
didn’t need to. She was staring down the table at Vicky whose eyes
were huge. They looked like they could roll out at any
moment.

Cy copied down the letters as the planchette
indicated them. His writing was barely legible due to the shaking
in his hands. Kyle looked back and forth between the planchette and
his brother’s piece of paper. Carolyn had her hands over her mouth
as tears dribbled out of her eyes.

Now they were afraid.

When the planchette stopped, Cy read the message
aloud. His voice quavered a little bit. “She’s not dead. I kept her
here close to my heart where she can never ever get away to show
her just how much I love her.”

“
How did you do that, freak?” Vicky
said.

Mary stared back at her. If Vicky thought that
was scary, she hadn’t seen anything yet. “Ricky, how did you show
Julie that you loved her?”

The planchette flew off the board straight at
her head. She barely ducked it, and the planchette smashed a vase
across the room. Everyone looked at the planchette and the broken
vase in disbelief except Mary. She was looking at her hands. They
were clasped in her lap to keep them from shaking, but to everyone
else, she looked calm.

“
Mary, what did you do?” Cy shouted. She
twisted her hands but didn’t look up at him.

Carolyn picked up the Ouija board and slammed it
shut. “That’s it, Vicky. I don’t know what’s going on, but I am out
of here, and I’m taking my aunt’s board with me. Kyle, drive me
home.” She ran and snatched up the fallen planchette and dashed for
the door. Kyle lumbered up. His face was so red; it was bordering
on purple.

“
I don’t want to find you here when I get
back, freak,” he said to her. He followed Carolyn.

Mary looked down the table at her nemesis. Vicky
didn’t look so good. Her whole body was rigid, and her eyes were
locked on her. She stared back. Did the cheerleader still wonder
why people paid her grandmother to do this type of stuff instead of
doing it themselves? Was talking to the dead still ‘fun’? Vicky
didn’t answer any of her silent questions, instead the cheerleader
slowly climbed to her feet. Her legs were a little wobbly.

In a low menacing voice, Vicky told her, “You
wait till I get to school. Everyone’s going to know how big a freak
you really are. You just wait!” She ran to catch up with Kyle and
Carolyn, but in her haste, she fell on her face at the doorway.

“
Vicky, are you all right?” Cy leapt up to
check on her. She brushed off his help and dashed out of the house.
Seconds later, the SUV screeched out of the driveway. He closed the
front door with a soft click. He looked really jangled. He stopped
at the other end of the coffee table and stared down it at Mary.
She tried to give him a smile but smothered it when it became
apparent that he was not going to smile back. In fact, it looked
like he might not ever smile at her again. The thought made her
want to cry. She may have really screwed up.

“
How did you do that?” She blinked as she
stared up at him. She had hardly done anything. The Ouija board had
done most of it. It wasn’t her fault. Right?

“
Vicky told me to ask a question, so I
did,” she said as she got up. “I can’t help it if you didn’t
contact River ‘freaking’ Phoenix.”

“
Mary, how did you do that?” he
repeated.

“
It wasn’t my fault,” she said more to
herself than in answer to Cy.

She went for her coat. He grabbed her arm,
stopping her. Their eyes locked. She searched for any glimmer that
he believed her, but all she found was anger, anxiety, and
something else that made her flinch. She lowered her eyes and
murmured in a small voice, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to
happen.”

He dropped her arm. “How can you lie like that?”
Her mouth fell open. “I admit I wasn’t thrilled when I those three
showed up, but you didn’t have to scare the begeesus out of them
like that!”

Mary picked up her fallen coat and shrugged it
on. “Like I said, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I’m
sorry.”

“
What?” he snapped. She winced. “How did
you do it anyway? Is it some trick your grandma taught you? Is this
how you and Rachel get your kicks on a Saturday night? You go and
scare people out of their wits? Huh?”

She didn’t answer. She was too angry to answer.
She was mad that the evening had happened. She was mad that Vicky
had appeared. She was mad about the séance. She was mad that she’d
opened her big fat mouth. She was mad that he was mad at her. She
was mad that he’d found out the truth about her and like everyone
else hated her for it. She was mad that she was a freak.

“
Mary!” he yelled. He wanted an
answer.

She looked back at him. She wasn’t crying. That
was a small relief.

“
Do you have anything to say for
yourself?”

“
I’m sorry,” she repeated and slipped out
the front door.

Chapter 6

Dealing

When she got home, Mary went straight to her
room. Gran was asleep in front of the TV, so it was easy for her to
tiptoe by and not have to explain why she had tear tracks down her
face.

Gran tapped on her door the next morning. "Are
you feeling all right, dear?" Mary groaned and burrowed deeper into
her covers. It was late in the morning, well past when she usually
got up. She’d been hiding in hope that the day would go by without
having to deal with anything. Gran let herself in and stood at the
end of the bed. Mary blocked her out until the old woman grabbed
the comforter and jerked it off.

Mary sat up and tried to grab the comforter
back. "I’m not feeling well."

Gran held onto the bedding with a vice like
grip. "Maybe if you got up, you’d feel better."

"Nuhuh," she said. She gave up on the tug-of-war
for the comforter and curled up tight in the bed sheet.

"Get up."

"Don’t wanna."

"Get up."

Mary cracked open one eye and looked down at the
end of her bed. Grand stood there with legs splayed and fists on
hips. Her steel hair was pulled back it a sloppy bun, and she had
her apron on. Sunday was not a day of rest for the Dubont/Hellick
household. Gran did most of her housework on Sunday and expected
Mary to help. Mary just wanted to wallow. She didn’t want to deal
with her grandmother.

"What time is it?"

"Eleven o’clock."

Mary shot out of bed and started scrambling for
clothes. "Oh man, I’m late. I’ve got to go."

"Go where?" Mary glanced at her. She knew Rachel
was out of town. She had to think of something fast.

"I have to go to Cy’s. We’re partners on an
English project."

"I’ll drive you over." She froze with one shoe
halfway on.

"It’s okay. I can walk."

"That’ll just make you later. I’ll drive you
over." She risked another look at her grandmother to see if she
knew she was lying, but Gran had turned her back to begin picking
up things around her room. She finished putting her shoe on and
stood up.

"Okay, thanks." She grabbed her book bag and
stood.

"I’ll get my keys." Mary nodded and made her way
to the station wagon. This was what happened when she lied to Gran.
She felt awful and got into trouble, even when she wasn’t caught.
The drive over was quiet. She was scrambling for a plan, but
nothing was coming to her. It was going to be bad. All she could do
was brace herself.

"I’ll walk home," she said as she got out of the
car.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded and closed the car door. She waited
for her to pull away, but the car stayed there idling. She was
waiting for her to go up to the house. To see her safely
inside.

She walked across the yard up to the door. She
felt cold, and she was sweating. This was bad. What had she been
thinking? She went up to the door and knocked. What if Kyle
answered the door? Mary glanced back at the station wagon still at
the curb.

The door opened while her head was still turned.
"What are you doing here?"

Mary turned back. "Hi." With a few jaunty beeps,
the station wagon pulled away. Mary turned and waved. She was
smiling, but it was another lie.