"Ah, now, I wouldn't want to worry your aunt." She reached out and stroked my hair back from my face. "Such a pretty girl," she crooned, "such a pretty, pretty girl. How proud Margaret would have been of you, Laura."
I stood still, letting her stroke my hair, afraid to move, afraid to ask her to help me.
"Charlene told you all about me, didn't she?" Maude asked softly. "You'd like to ask me to use my power to help you, too, wouldn't you? You needn't be afraid of me, Laura." Maude smiled at me as she bent nearer, her voice soft and low.
"How do you know I need any help?" I whispered.
"I have ways of knowing things, my dear. I have the power to know and help."
"But Eddie hasn't come back to Charlene, he didn't marry her, you didn't help her." I tried again to back away from her, but her grip on my arm was tight.
"He hasn't yet, Laura, but he will, he will. Everything comes in time, everything." Maude continued to stroke my hair, harder and harder, her fingers raking through it like a comb.
"You're hurting me," I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. It felt as if she were actually yanking hairs from my head.
Maude's face softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to
hurt you. Your hair was tangled and I wanted to smooth it, that's all." She smiled, splitting her face into millions of crisscrossing wrinkles. "Now, shall I help you? Will you let me?"
"Could you really stop the divorce?" I asked.
Maude nodded and gestured up at the sky, hidden by the dense leaves of the trees. "Yes, I can stop it. Come to me tomorrow night, Laura, if you want my help." She smiled again and Soot shifted restlessly, his strong taloned feet digging into Maude's shoulder. "But don't tell your aunt. Grace Randall doesn't believe in witchcraft. She'd never allow you to seek my help. It must be our secret, Laura, ours alone."
I stared into her eyes, still afraid of her, not sure whether I should trust her or not.
"You will need to bring a few things with you if I'm to help you," Maude said softly. "You must bring something that belongs to your parents; a picture of the two of them together will do. I will also need something that belongs to. Jason and something of Grace's too. One of her brushes would do nicely. To make a binding spell I must have things from the whole family."
"Should I bring something of mine?"
"Yours?" Maude chuckled. "No, no. Just being there will be enough for you, my dear child."
"How much will it cost? I've got thirty dollars left from my summer spending money."
"No, no, Laura. I've known your family for a long time, a very long time. Let's say I'm doing this in memory of my friendship with Margaret." She smiled into the darkness behind me and Soot stirred again, ruffling his wings. "Now go on home, Laura dear. I shall expect
you tomorrow night. If you're frightened of walking through the woods in the dark, you may bring Wanda with you, but no one else is to know, not even Annabelle." Maude stepped off the road onto a narrow path I hadn't noticed before and waved her stick at me. "Good night, my dear. I shall look forward to your visit tomorrow night."
As the shadows closed around Maude, I ran up the road toward home, my heart pounding with fear.
When I got home, Aunt Grace was sitting on the front steps waiting for me.
"Where have you been Laura? I expected you back over an hour ago." She smiled at me. "I was afraid something had snatched you away."
I stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up at her, feeling uncomfortable about the promise I'd made to Maude. "I'm sorry. I forgot all about the time. We were watching TV and talking and stuff, you know." I edged up the steps, wanting to get past her and into the house, then upstairs to the privacy of my room.
Aunt Grace patted the step next to her. "Why don't you sit down and join me for a while? It's such a lovely night. Just smell the honeysuckle, Laura, and look at all those stars." Aunt Grace hugged her knees, her face soft and young in the moonlight.
"I was thinking of going up to bed," I said hesitantly. "I'm kind of tired tonight. But I guess I could sit for a little while." Uneasily I dropped down on the step next to her, wishing I could just run upstairs and pull the covers over my head.
"Did you run all the way home? You're out ot breath." Aunt Grace smoothed my hair, and I flinched, remembering the touch of Maude's bony hand. "You weren't scared, were you?"
I shook my head and we sat quietly for a while, listening to the crickets and gazing across the valley at the mountains, silvery and unreal in the moonlight.
"How's Annabelle?" Aunt Grace asked.
"Oh, she's okay. She and Charlene were getting set to watch a horror film."
"I hate scary movies," Aunt Grace said.
"Some of them aren't so bad. And most of them are too dumb to be scary."
"Real life is scary enough for me."
I stared at her, surprised. "What are you scared of?"
Aunt Grace smiled. "I've got my share of little fears hidden away, Laura. Everybody does."
I knew I did and I knew Jason did. He never even tried to hide his. And Wanda was scared of the dark and Maude and horror movies and who knew what else? But it was hard to imagine Aunt Grace afraid. Unlike Mom, she seemed brave, ready to face anything.
"I thought Mom was the coward of the family," I said, "not you. She was nervous every single night here. She kept locking the doors and closing the curtains and turning on lights. You never even bother with stuff like that."
Aunt Grace got up and I followed her into the house. "Your Mom got married and she had you and Jason," she said as I paused at the foot of the stairs. "That's something."
I stared at her, puzzled. "What's brave about that? The way it turned out, it was just plain stupid, not brave."
Kissing my cheek, Aunt Grace sent me upstairs. "It's more than I ever did," she said softly.
I looked back at her, but she had already turned away. I stood still for a moment, listening to her footsteps, and then I went upstairs quietly, taking care not to wake Jason.
As soon as I was in bed, I curled up into a tight ball under the covers and tried not to think about Maude and my promise to visit her. I was glad she'd said I could bring Wanda with me, but I wasn't sure Wanda would come. She hadn't shown much courage walking me home and it was hard to imagine her actually going to Maude's house.
I fell asleep worrying about Wanda and when I woke up the sun was shining in my eyes, a sure sign that it was after ten o'clock already. As usual, I could hear Jason chattering away in the kitchen, and I smiled, thinking how happy he would be when Mom and Dad came to get us.
Looking at the dresser, I saw the picture I needed. I'd taken it last summer at Ocean City with the little Instamatic camera Daddy had given me for my tenth birthday. In it, Mom and Dad, dressed in bathing suits, smiled at me, a little out of focus, the sun in their eyes, but looking as happy as anyone on a vacation should look. If the truth were known, they'd been quarreling about something before I'd gotten out my camera, but they'd smiled for the picture. Dad had even put his arm around Mom, making them look like a honeymoon couple instead of the parents of two kids, one of whom was pouting in the background, his back turned, his head bent over his sand bucket.
After I got dressed, I went into Jason's room. Although he hadn't been here very long, he'd already duplicated his room at home. Clothes on the floor, toys and books scattered everywhere, Lego pieces cleverly strewn about in places most likely to injure your bare feet, the bed as rumpled as if an elephant had slept in it.
Selecting a Matchbox car from one of many parked in and around a Lego garage, I went back to my room and hid it in my underwear drawer, next to the photograph of Mom and Dad. Now all I needed was one of Aunt Grace's brushes.
Downstairs, Aunt Grace and Jason were washing the dishes. "Laura," Aunt Grace asked, "do you want to go into Blue Hollow with Jason and me? I have to do some grocery shopping."
"No, not today." I sat down at the table to drink a glass of orange jurice. "I promised Wanda I'd come over and help her with Tanya Marie."
"Is that Charlene's baby?" Aunt Grace asked.
I nodded. "She's really cute, but she's kind of a pain. Wanda gets stuck with her all the time, which doesn't seem too fair to me."
"Poor Charlene doesn't have much choice. She has to work. Annabelle's got some kind of a pension, but I don't think it amounts to much."
"When Charlene and Eddie get married, things'll be a lot better," I said.
"Is Charlene getting married? I thought the baby's father disappeared." Aunt Grace stared at me, surprised.
"Maude's bringing him back," Jason said.
"Maude?" Aunt Grace said. "Did Charlene go to Maude? I thought she had more sense than that."
"That's what Wanda told us," I said, thinking fast. Taking my glass to the sink, I gave Jason a quick pinch
on the arm to remind him to keep his mouth shut. "She says lots of people go to Maude for help with stuff like that."
Aunt Grace shook her head. "I had no idea people still believed in that nonsense. What's the matter, Jason?"
Jason was rubbing his arm and whimpering. "Nothing," he whined, edging away from me.
"Well, you have a nice time at Wanda's, Laura. We'll be back sometime after lunch." After gathering her purse and her car keys, Aunt Grace herded Jason out the door.
As soon as I heard the station wagon pull away from the house, I darted across the room to Aunt Grace's drawing table. Barely glancing at the unfinished painting of a fern lying there, I grabbed a small brush from an earthenware jar and took it upstairs. I shoved it into the drawer with the photograph and the Matchbox car, then went back downstairs.
I ran all the way to the grove of trees where I'd seen Maude last night. Then I stopped, almost afraid to go on. Suppose she was hiding there in the shade, waiting for me? Squinting ahead, I saw no one on the road. A mourning dove called sadly from the green shade, a gentle breeze ruffled the leaves, and sunlight instead of moonlight dappled the road. Of course, she could be on the path or behind a tree and Soot could be anywhere, his yellow eyes watching me. But there was no sound, no sign of either one of them, just the trees and the mourning dove and the sun.
Telling myself I had nothing to fear from Maude, that she wanted to help me out of kindness, that she wasn't about to ask me for my soul or anything like that, I ran through the grove without looking to the right or the
left. Out again in the sunlight, I slowed to a walk, trying to get my breath back before I got to Wanda's.
As soon as I was in sight of the house, the dogs set up their usual chorus of barks and growls. I figured it was safe, though, because I could see Wanda sitting on the front porch, bouncing Tanya Marie on her lap. When she saw me, she shouted at the dogs and, with the baby on her hip, staggered down the hill to meet me. Even at a distance I could tell she was excited about something.
"Guess who's here?" She pointed at a small blue pickup truck parked in front of the house.
"How should I know?" If Wanda couldn't even apologize for not walking me home last night, why should I care who was visiting her?
"Eddie's here. That's his brand-new truck."
"Car go! Car go!" Tanya Marie cried, bouncing harder on Wanda's hip.
"He drove up to the Dairy Queen this morning and he and Charlene had a long talk," Wanda said. "Then Charlene's boss started yelling at her for talking to the customers, and Eddie told him to shut up. Then her boss fired her and right now she's inside packing her stuff. They're going off together, all three of them." Wanda hugged Tanya Marie. "Oh, I'm going to miss you!" She gave the baby a big slobbery kiss and Tanya Marie laughed and made a face.
"Miss you! Miss you!" Tanya Marie crowed.
"He came back just like that?" I stared at Wanda, forgetting to be mad.
Wanda nodded. "Charlene said she like to have fainted when she looked up and saw him standing there, all squinty-eyed in the sun."
"Do you think Maude's spell worked after all?" I felt kind of watery-kneed just thinking about it.
Wanda shrugged. "Don't know," she said. "Might have though."
"I saw her in the grove last night, Wanda," I said. "After you ran off and left me there all by myself."
Wanda's eyes widened and she gripped Tanya Marie tighter. "What did she do?"
"She could've killed me for all you knew." I stared coldly at Wanda. "But she didn't. She said she could stop my parents from getting a divorce. She also said that Eddie would come back to Charlene. She said all things come in time."
Wanda shook her head and looked around uneasily. Shifting Tanya Marie to her other hip, she said, "Just look at my arms. All the hairs are sticking straight up. I got goose bumps all over."
"She wants me to come to her house tonight, Wanda. Will you come with me? She said you could."
"Me? I wouldn't go near that old woman's house for nothing! Are you crazy?"
"Please, Wanda. Just think what she's done for Charlene. If she were really horrible, she wouldn't have helped her. If you help people with love, you must be a good witch, don't you think?"
Wanda jiggled Tanya Marie. "I don't know." She shook her head. "I just don't know, Laura. I always been scared of her, all my life." She thrust Tanya Marie at me. "Here. You hold this ton of bricks for a while. She's wearing me out."
"Ton of bricks, ton of bricks," Tanya Marie said and grabbed a handful of my hair.
"Wanda?" Charlene called from the front porch.
"Bring Tanya Marie up here. I got to get her dressed."
Just as I handed Tanya Marie to Charlene, Eddie shoved the screen door open and stepped outside. Although he wasn't as handsome as I'd hoped he'd be, he was kind of good-looking in a tough way. He wore his hair shoulder-length and sort of shaggy, and he had a scraggly little mustache and beard. His eyes were close-set and small and both his nose and his teeth were crooked. Although he was wearing high-heeled cowboy boots, he wasn't quite as tall as Charlene, maybe because her sandals had very high heels.