Jessy and Karma had mentioned the Orange and Black Book to the other girls, when they were over at Corey's house. They were all especially interested in the fortune telling, so they came over after school, stopping to call their moms, and then gathering in Jessy's room.
“Have you ever done the apple thing?” Corey asked, looking up from the Orange and Black Book's description of throwing nuts into the fireplace, while you recited letters of the alphabet. “We did it once in Brownies.”
Jessy shook her head. “I've read about it,” she said.
“You're supposed to peel the apple in a big long string, and then throw it over your right shoulder. It's supposed to fall in the shape of a letter, and that's the initial of your one true love,” Corey said. “But the peels kept breaking off so short, there wasn’t much to make a letter out of.”
“There’s also a thing where you put something on your pillow,” Jessy said. “And you dream about the man you’re going to marry.”
“I don’t know,” Karma said. “A dream doesn’t seem like real evidence.”
“Not like an apple peel.”
“You know what I mean. I think you’re more likely to dream about who you want to dream about. It’s not – objective.”
“You have a Ouija board, don't you?” Corey asked. So before long they were sitting around it, asking who Corey was going to marry. It spelled out Terry Anderson, who was in their grade, but had a different teacher this year.
“I didn’t move it, did you move it?” they all asked each other.
Corey just muttered that she didn’t believe in the Ouija board anyway, so they couldn’t really tell what she thought of Terry. Then they asked who Karma's future husband was going to be.
“Chris Dole,” the board told them.
Everybody laughed.
“That's not so bad,” Jessy said. “He's kind of cute.”
“Not cute enough to get married to.”
“I could feel someone pushing on it,” Allison said.
“Well, it wasn't me!”
Nobody would admit to it, and they were almost arguing. They didn't notice that Twyla had come out of her room, and was watching them from the doorway.
“You guys all think you’re going to marry kids in your class?”
They looked up at her. “What do you mean?” Jessy said.
“You’re going to live in the same town forever, you’re never going to meet anybody new?” Twyla asked.
She turned to go down the stairs, and they all looked at each other. When they did another round, asking who Jessy was going to marry, it said she’d marry someone named Rick. Nobody could think of a Rick that they knew personally.
“So what are you doing for trick or treating?” Karma asked.
Allison made a face. “I have to go out with my little sister, and a bunch of little cousins. It's like baby-sitting, without getting paid.”
“What about you?” Karma asked Corey. “You're still coming trick or treating with us, aren't you?”
“Are you still going to go to the cemetery?” she asked.
Jessy and Karma exchanged glances.
“Yeah, we are,” Jessy said. Corey got the slightest excited-looking expression, like she was glad they were, but didn’t want to admit it.
“Okay,” she said.
****
The Jack-o-Lantern Box Page 30
