"Do you think it really happened?"
"Yes."
"All of it?"
"Yes."
"How do you explain — "
She shook her head. "I can't explain any of it. That's why I would've freaked out if it'd happened to me. I think Benny's fortunate, in a way, that he can blame the curse. It gives him a frame of reference that lets him deal with it. In terms of curses and magic, anything can happen, nothing is illogical."
"You don't believe in that stuff?"
"The important thing is that Benny does. It's part of his reality. So this business in the library makes sense to him. Otherwise, God knows how he might've reacted."
"Look, we don't believe in that nonsense. I don't, anyway. How am I supposed to figure out what happened?"
Karen grinned mischievously. "Just keep telling yourself there's got to be a logical explanation. Write it fifty times on the blackboard."
"What do you think?"
"There's got to be a logical explanation."
"Like what?"
"Damned if I know."
Scott laughed. "You're a lot of help."
She drained the last of her Bloody Mary.
"Refill?" Scott asked.
"Sure. Why not? While you're gone, maybe I can dream up a theory."
"Try," he said. "Try very hard. I would appreciate a good, solid, down-to-earth explanation."
"Right. I'll work on it."
He took Karen's glass. Bending over her, he kissed her gently on the lips. Then he went into the house. Instead of turning toward the kitchen, he walked down the hall to Julie's room. Her door was open. She was lying on her bed under a Bruce Springsteen poster, staring at the ceiling, wearing her earphones. When she saw him enter, she pulled off the headset. "Hey," Scott said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
She answered with a shrug.
"I guess we're all kind of edgy."
"It's okay," she muttered.
"Why don't you give Nick a call, see if he'd like to come over early and have dinner with us? Say around five? I'll be doing steaks on the barbecue."
"Okay," she said, smiling slightly. "That'd be nice. I'll check with him."
"Fine."
In the kitchen, Scott took an extra steak from the freezer. Then he prepared the Bloody Marys. He carried them outside. After the air conditioning of the house, the hot sun felt good. Karen was standing, taking off her shirt as he walked up behind her. She wore the same skimpy black swimsuit she'd taken camping. Except for crisscrossing straps, her back was bare to the waist.
"Ready for a dip?" Scott asked.
She grinned over her shoulder at him. "Ready for a sip," she said. She draped her shirt over the back of the chair.
Scott handed a drink to her, and they both sat down. "I dig your outfit," he said.
"Does it flatter my contusions?"
The bruises were yellow-green blotches on the tanned skin of her shoulders and breasts and arms. The teeth marks were darker than the discolored skin surrounding them. Looking at them brought back the horrible night — finding her motionless in the tent, the dread when he didn't know whether she was alive or . . .
"Do you have to stare?"
"Can't help myself," he said, managing a smile. "You're damn near naked."
"You're staring at the bruises."
"Nope, at your full, firm breasts."
She laughed and took a sip of her drink, shutting her eyes as her face tilted toward the sun.
"I talked to Julie. She's inviting Nick over to have dinner with us."
"Oh, that'll be nice."
"Even nicer that they're going out tonight. Now, if I can just get Tanya to take Benny to a movie or something . . ."
"Do you think that'd be a good idea?"
"Sure. We'd have the house to ourselves for a few hours."
"He might be better off staying home."
"Ah, you don't want to be alone with me."
"I'm serious, Scott. He went through a hellish experience this morning. If I were him, I wouldn't want to go out tonight. I'd want to stay here safe with my dad."
"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't push it. With you here, he wouldn't want to leave anyway. In fact, when he found out you'd be coming over, he almost didn't go to the library." Scott raised his hand, forefinger and thumb a quarter inch apart. "He was that close to staying home. If I'd just — "
Karen shook her head, stopping him. "There are always those ifs when something goes wrong. We can't blame ourselves. It's just a bunch of little choices that don't mean anything till the shit hits the fan, and then you look back and see how you got there. And you find a whole string of ifs going back forever."
"I suppose. But if Benny'd stayed home this morning — "
"He wouldn't have needed to go looking for a witch-
craft book at all if we'd never gone camping. And we wouldn't have gone if you and I hadn't met."
"There's an if I'd hate to change," Scott said.
She smiled at him. "Me, too. But you've got to admit it's one of the links in the chain. If we hadn't met, Benny wouldn't have been attacked this morning."
You wouldn't have been beaten and raped, he thought. From the somber look on Karen's face, he wondered if she were thinking the same thing. If we'd never met . . .
Frowning, she took a drink. Scott watched a drop of water fall from her glass, splash the glossy skin of her chest, and roll down between her breasts. She wiped it away. "Anyhow," she said, "it gets slightly ridiculous when you think about it too much. The ifs are endless."
"I suppose so," Scott admitted. "So, have you come up with any marvelous theories about what happened to Benny?"
"I thought of something. He said the lights went out a second after the hand grabbed him. Unless we want to accept magic as the explanation, there must've been another person involved — someone to turn off the lights while the other attacked him."
"I wonder if it might've been a practical joke," Scott said. "A couple of students figuring it'd be a kick to throw a scare into him. After he ran off, they hid themselves somewhere."
"That still doesn't explain the finger."
"Well, if it didn't actually break off . . . Benny must've been in a panic, disoriented. He could've just bent it back, maybe even broken it, but only imagined it came off."
"He sounded pretty sure."
Scott sighed. "I just don't — " He heard a door slide open behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Julie step out. She walked forward, frowning down at the concrete deck. She'd left the door open, but she seemed lost in thought, troubled, so Scott didn't tell her to shut it. She turned a deck chair toward him and Karen, and sat down without speaking.
"What is it?" Scott asked.
"I called Nick," she said in a distracted, barely audible voice. She was hunched over, elbows braced on the armrests of her chair, staring down with half-shut eyes.
"Can't he make it?" Scott asked.
"Maybe. He's not sure. He's . . . gotta stay home with Heather. His dad's at the hospital."
"Flash? My God, what happened to him?"
Julie shook her head. "Not him. They got a call, and he went over. It's Alice and Rose." She looked up at Scott with confusion in her eyes. "They were attacked by a dog. This morning. It was supposed to be dead, I guess. Alice hit it with the car, and she was driving it to a vet's to have it . . . taken care of. Then it attacked them. I guess it bit them."
"Jesus," Karen muttered.
"How bad are they?" Scott asked.
"Nick said they're operating on his mom's hand. It got her worse than Rose. They're in pretty good shape, I guess, except for bites on their hands and arms. Nick said they'd probably be home this afternoon."
"Alice is in surgery?"
"Just for her hand. Some tendons or muscles or something have to be fixed."
"Well . . ." Sighing, Scott gazed at the shiny surface of his drink. "Thank God it's nothing worse."
Julie rubbed her face with both hands, and leaned back in
her chair as if exhausted. "Maybe Benny's right," she mumbled.
"It's just coincidence, honey."
"Is it?"
"Of course. Come on, you don't actually believe that a curse — "
"I don't want to believe it," she said in a tired voice. "But Benny, and now this."
"I admit it's a bit weird, both things happening the same day, but it's just a freakish coincidence."
"Two is a coincidence," Karen said, frowning down at her Bloody Mary. "Three is ... I nearly died last night."
Scott gazed at her, stunned.
"I realize accidents happen all the time, people falling in the bathtub, but I've never done it before. Oh, I've slipped a couple of times, but last night I took a real header. If Meg hadn't pulled me out when she did ..." Karen smiled crookedly. She stirred her drink with a forefinger, the cubes clinking on the sides of the glass. "I was out cold under the water when she found me. A couple more minutes ..." She shrugged a bare shoulder. "I wonder if they really put a tag on your big toe. It seems so ludicrous, doesn't it? I suppose they do. Who's gonna object, right?"
"My God, Karen."
"Are you all right?" Julie asked.
"Well, I'm here to tell the tale. Yeah, I'm okay." Looking at Scott, she raised her eyebrows. "What do you think?"
He felt dazed. He could think of nothing to say. He shook his head.
"Coincidence or the curse?" she prodded.
"I ... I just don't know."
"She said she'd get us," Julie muttered.
"On the bright side," Karen said, "at least nobody's been seriously hurt or killed."
"Not yet."
"Look," Scott said, "curse or no curse, sometimes you have bad luck and accidents. These things just happen. We'll only make matters worse if we start thinking that woman's causing it all."
"But what if she is?" Julie asked. "What if this is just the beginning?"
"I don't know," Scott said. "What's your answer? If you're so sure it is the curse, what do you suggest we do about it? Hide? Stop taking showers? Stay home the rest of our lives? Maybe you'd better forget about going to the movies with Nick tonight. The curse might get you."
"You don't have to get nasty."
"I mean it. Where does it take us? Do I quit my job? God knows, I'd damn well better not take up an L1011 with, three hundred passengers aboard if this gal's put a whammy on me."
"When's your next flight?" Karen asked. She looked serious.
"Come on, I was just — "
"When is it, next week?"
"Tuesday. I'm taking the eight-forty to Kennedy."
"This is Thursday. If things keep happening — "
"They won't."
"One way or the other," Karen continued, "we should have a pretty good idea where we stand by then."
"You sound like you're already convinced."
"I'm getting there fast."
"What about you, Julie?"
"I'm going on my date, no matter what."
Chapter Thirty-one__________
Benny finished his grilled-cheese sandwich and Coke in the kitchen with Tanya, then excused himself. He carried his book into the den. Through the sliding glass door he saw the others outside. His father and Karen were just beyond the door, Dad reading while Karen was stretched out on a lounge.
Her hands were folded under her head. Her eyes were shut. Her skin looked slick and shiny from her suntan oil. Benny stared at her breasts, only their middles covered by the taut fabric of her swimsuit, their glossy sloping sides clearly visible. They were beautiful except for the bruises. The bruises gave Benny a sick feeling. He wished they were gone.
The black suit dung like skin, showing the curves of her ribs, her flat belly, even the small depression of her navel. It left her hipbones bare, and slanted in sharply down to her groin. Benny stared at the smooth hollows where her legs joined her body. One of the hollows creased as she raised her knee.
He knew that if he watched much longer, he might lose control. So he turned away. He moved a chair so he could still see Karen, and sat down. The view wasn't very good from here. But he felt guilty about spying on her, especially about getting aroused. By crossing a leg, he eased the tight feeling. He opened the book.
Really lucky that the librarian had remembered the title. He'd thought she was nice, from the start, but it took a very special person to bring the book upstairs for him in spite of the way he'd run off leaving such a mess.
His mind returned to the attack. He felt his penis shrink as if trying to hide. As the fear tightened its grip, he forced himself to read the title page.
Witch's Spells and Potions: A Handbook for Witches and Warlocks by Jean Du Champes. He turned to the table of contents, and ran his eyes down the chapter headings:
1. Origins of the Black Arts
2. Journey's Start
3. Tools of the Trade
4. Divining
5. Love Spells
6. Attack Spells
7. Countermagic
8. Forming a Coven
Appendix 1 — Planetary Days and Hours
Appendix 2 — Glossary
Index
Chapter 7, on countermagic, sounded as if it might be what he wanted. Maybe he should start at the beginning, though, and work his way up to it. He riffled through the pages, glimpsing weird diagrams and charts, a strange drawing that looked like a tree woman, lists like recipes, all kinds of poems and chants. He flipped back to the page with the tree woman. It was labeled MANDRAGORE. A leafy bush seemed to grow out of her head. Her body, with outstretched arms and legs, was formed by the root. Benny gazed at the crudely drawn breasts and vagina. Then he was staring out the glass door at Karen, trying to imagine how she would look without her swimsuit. A couple of times he'd accidentally seen Julie naked. But that was different; she was his sister. To see Karen ... He forced himself to look away from her, and turned to the end of the book. The last page was numbered 264.
He was not a fast reader. At about twenty-five pages an hour, it would take him at least ten hours to wade through the whole volume. He'd better start with the important chapter. Later, if he had time, he would go back and read it all. That part about love spells. Maybe he could . . . No! This is bad stuff. It's wrong to mess with it. Dangerous, too. It's okay to use magic to fight the curse, but to put a spell on Karen . . . The idea excited him, but gave him a heavy, disgusted feeling.
I won't! No matter what!
He flipped back to the table of contents, checked the page number for the countermagic chapter, and quickly turned to it. He found the end of the section. Thirty pages long. With a sigh, he began to read:
Beware! Sooner or later, as you tread through the dark passages of magic, you are bound to arouse the enmity of practitioners unfriendly to your art, who will use their powers to foil you. Taken unaware, you will be totally at the mercy of your adversary, open to potent attacks that might prove injurious, even fatal. To insure your safety, you must take precautions that will throw a curtain of safety around yourself, your loved ones, and your home.
The protective spell required that he walk around the outside of the house during a new moon carrying a chalice of purified water, chanting about an earth goddess named Habondia. On completing the circle, he was to sprinkle some of the water in each room of the house. He should see chapter 3 for instructions on how to purify water. But there would be some moon tonight, so he didn't bother checking on that. He kept on reading.
He could hang a holystone on the hearth. If he had one. Or he could protect himself with a lodestone or a cross-stone. But where was he supposed to find such things?
The more he read, the more frustrated he grew. Every spell, every amulet or talisman or potion, called for strange rocks, herbs he'd never heard of, or planetary positions that made no sense to him. He slammed the book shut.
Then he opened it again. He'd only read ten pages of the countermagic chapter. He would read the rest of it. There had to be something in it that would help. Had to be.<
br />
Chapter Thirty-two__________
When Julie woke up, the towel beneath her was sodden. She used a corner to wipe her face, and lifted her head. Down at the end of the pool, Karen was stretched out on a chaise lounge, apparently asleep. Her father, sitting nearby, was reading a book.
Julie reached down at her sides, found the dangling cords of her bikini top, and tied them behind her back. Sweat streamed down her hot skin as she sat up. The concrete apron of the pool seared her feet. She slipped into thongs, and walked toward her dad. In a soft voice, so she wouldn't wake Karen, she asked the time.
Dad checked his wristwatch. "A little after three. Nick phoned while you were asleep."
"Oh, no! Jeez, why didn't somebody wake me up?"
"He just left a message with Tanya, said he'll be here at five."
"How's his mom?"
"He didn't say. Things must be going all right, though, or I doubt if he'd be coming."
"Yeah, I guess so." She sighed, disappointed about missing the call. "Anyway, are you gonna be sticking around for a while?"
"Yep. Why?"
"Nothing. Just thought I'd go in for a dip to cool off." With a casual shrug, she added, "Don't let me drown, huh?"
Dad raised his eyebrows. "If you're so concerned, maybe you should stay out of the pool."
The remark hurt. "Jeez, I was just kidding, for God's sake."
As she walked away, he said, "I'll keep an eye on you."
"Thanks," she muttered. At the edge of the pool, she kicked off her thongs and stepped down the stairs into the shallow end. The water felt cool and refreshing as it wrapped around her legs. She waded forward, sucking in her breath when the water touched her groin, wondering how she'd managed to stand the icy lake in the mountains. When the level reached her belly, she eased forward and left her feet. The chill water closed over her. After the first mild shock, it felt good. She swam beneath the surface to the far end, came up for air in the shadow of the diving board, and glanced at her father as she made her turn. The book was closed on his lap. He was watching her.
She backstroked slowly, keeping an eye on the pool side, trying to judge her distance so she wouldn't bump her head when she reached the end. Stopping, she glanced over her shoulder and found the wall two yards away. She sighed, annoyed with herself for being overly cautious, and plunged forward. Her muscles, sore from hiking, ached as they flexed and stretched. It was a good feeling. When she reached the deep end, she thrust herself away from the wall with such force that the water tugged her bikini pants down a couple of inches. She pulled them up and kept on swimming. When she reached the shallow end, she pushed off more gently.
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