by Geof Johnson
A brown-haired woman approached them from the direction of the restrooms. She was shorter than Cassandra, but still tall for a woman, and broad in the hips.
“Looks like Geraldine’s comin’ this way,” Rita said. When the woman reached them, Rita said, “Hey, Sugar. Did that potion we made work for you?”
Geraldine gave a little shrug. “Worked okay.” She put her hand on Cassandra’s shoulder and leaned closer. “Cass, I couldn’t help noticing when you came out of the bathroom….” Her voice got lower. “You got a big spider vein on your left leg, right behind the knee. You probably can’t see it, so I thought you might want to know.”
“No!” Cassandra leaned down and tried to look at the back side of her leg. “Rita, is that true?”
“Haven’t looked lately. Stand up and let’s see.” Cassandra stood and turned. “Yep.” Rita reached over and touched the spot with one finger. “Right there.” Cassandra sat quickly and scowled.
“Sorry to be the one to tell, you Cass,” Geraldine said. She patted Cassandra’s shoulder. “I gotta run, girls.” She walked off.
Cassandra looked at Rita with her mouth partly open, eyes narrowed.
“Sorry, Cass. Guess you’re getting old.”
“I’m only forty-three.”
“You’re forty-nine.”
“Well, you should talk.” She pointed at Rita’s red hair. “Your gray roots are showin’ big time.”
“You lie!” Rita’s hand involuntarily shot to her scalp. “I just died it last week.”
Cassandra shook her head grimly.
“How come I didn’t notice?”
Cassandra picked up her cigarette from the ashtray on the bar and took a drag. “Because we still haven’t replaced that burnt-out light bulb in our bathroom. Can’t see squat in there with only one light.”
Rita ground her teeth for a moment before saying, “We need to stop on the way home and get a new light bulb.”
“Rita.” Cassandra jabbed one finger at her. “We need to get a new witch, and soon.”
“I’ll get started on it this week.”
* * *
Jamie stood next to his car in the morning sunlight, watching Fred cross the street toward him, their gazes locked as she neared. There was no other movement in the known world except for her. No cars drove by. No birds flew. No leaves swayed in the breeze. There was only Fred, coming closer with each graceful step.
I love the way she walks, he thought. When she reached him, she gave him a quick kiss and looked at him with a whimsical smile. Then she brushed one hand through his curly blond hair and said, “Hey.”
“Hey,” he replied, and they continued to look into each other’s eyes. “You know what that reminds me of? That time I had mono. Remember? I was lying on the couch with my head in your lap?”
“Of course I remember,” she said.
“I was having terrible dreams and I woke up and you were there, rubbing my head and smiling at me. Then you said ‘Hey’, just like that.”
“And you said ‘Hey’ back.”
“And then I fell asleep again, but I stopped having bad dreams.” He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”
“You’d better not. I know I —”
“Hey Lovebirds.” They both turned to see Rollie jogging up the driveway with his bulky backpack hanging from one hand. “Let’s hit the road, or we’re gonna be late.”
Fred patted Jamie’s face and they got in the car.
Rollie clicked his seat belt and said, “You guys gonna be ready for the show comin’ up?”
Jamie shrugged and put the car in reverse. “I’m just doing my same old stuff. Nothing special.”
“I’ve been working on a new routine.” Fred pulled the visor down and checked her makeup in the mirror. “I’ve been practicing at the dance studio.”
“Jamie, why are you even bothering to go if you’re not trying to win,” Rollie said.
“I think it’ll be kinda fun…bigger stage, lights and all. And I want to support you guys. It takes all three of us to make the Crew.”
“We can’t be beat,” Rollie said. “Everybody smell our feet.”
Fred lifted one foot, wearing an open-toed ankle strap sandal, and set it on the dashboard. “I don’t think you want to smell my feet. I just painted my toenails.”
* * *
I must be dreaming, Jamie realized. He was lying on the couch, head in Fred’s lap, like when he had mono, only he felt fine. He and Fred were talking about love.
“Fred, how much do you love me?”
She stroked his head. “Let’s see…if I told you every day, it would take me from now until one day after the end of time to finish telling you all the ways that I love you.” She ran one finger under his lip. “How about you?”
“Well….” He scrunched his mouth in thought. “If I tried to put all of my love for you in my heart at once, it would burst. There’s just too much.”
“Good answer.” She patted his head. “No go back and have the best dreams ever.”
“I already am having the best dream ever.”
* * *
The next morning, Jamie walked out of his front door right as Fred arrived, setting her book bag on top of the Buick. “I dreamed about you last night,” she said.
“Huh,” Jamie said. “I dreamed about you, too. It was nice. We were on the couch like when I had mono.”
Fred wrinkled her brow as she put her arms around his waist. “That’s funny. That was my dream, too.”
“I guess we were both thinking about it when we went to bed, after we talked about it yesterday.”
“We should do that more often.” She smiled impishly.
Jamie looked across the street. “Here comes Rollie. We need to get going.”
* * *
Fred was walking down the hall when Melanie caught up with her near the front of the school.
She matched Fred’s stride and said, “Mind if I walk with you?”
“No, ’course not.” Fred had decided that Melanie wasn’t so bad after all. “How’s Michael?”
“Good.” Melanie smiled. “We’re having our two-year anniversary next week.”
“Congratulations. That’s amazing.” They passed the cafeteria and walked on; throngs of kids streamed by, some in groups, some alone.
“I know you and Jamie have been together for only a month or so, but it doesn’t seem like it. Seems like you’ve always been a couple.”
“We’ve been friends since kindergarten, and we met before we were born.” Melanie gave her a puzzled look and Fred continued. “Our Moms met at Lamaze class, and they said we were both kicking like crazy, so they touched bellies. We’ve been —”
“Yo’, ladies,” came a voice from behind them.
Melanie glanced over her shoulder and turned back with a scowl.
“Who’s that?” Fred asked.
“Logan Perkins,” she said in a low voice. “He just moved here from Florida, and he thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”
A tall boy caught up with them, walking beside Melanie. He had a cocky smile and spiked hair with frosted tips. “I’m new here and thought I should introduce myself,” he said. “I’m Logan.” He held out his hand but neither girl took it.
“That’s nice,” Melanie said without looking at him.
“And you are?”
“Busy.” They continued to walk and Fred had to suppress a smile.
“Somebody told me your name,” he said. “It’s Michelle or something.”
“It’s Melanie.”
“Oh, well, hey Melanie. Nice to meet you.” He walked faster to try to get in front of them, but Fred and Melanie picked up their pace. “Tell me, Melanie, do you have a boyfriend.”
Without turning her head, Melanie said tersely, “Yes, his name is Michael, and he’s on the football team.”
He laughed. “I don’t know if I’d admit that, if I were you. They’re not a very good team.” When she didn’t respond
he said, “Well, how ’bout you, Red? What’s your name?”
Melanie turned on him and stopped him dead in his tracks with a vicious poke of her finger in his chest. “Her name is Fred, and she’s Jamie Sikes’s girlfriend! Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re trying to get to class.”
She turned away, and she and Fred walked on, leaving Logan standing in the hall, looking dumbfounded. Melanie glanced at Fred and winked. Fred put her hand over her mouth and laughed.
* * *
That night, Jamie dreamed he was lying on the couch with Fred again. I like this dream, he thought. It’s so real. I can smell Fred. She always smells nice.
She was describing what had happened in the hall with Melanie and Logan that morning. He laughed as he pictured Melanie attacking the boy with her finger and setting him straight.
“I’ve decided I like her,” Fred said. “She’s actually a nice person.”
“She hasn’t tried to kiss me lately,” Jamie said.
“She won’t do that again. She’s too nice. I think we’re going to be friends.”
“That’s good.” He reached up and caught his fingers in her red curls, smiling as he did. “You can’t have too many friends.”
“No.” She stroked his head. “And you and I have a lot of friends, Jamie. Try to remember that.”
* * *
When Jamie met Fred at his car the next morning, they both tried to talk at the same time. Jamie gestured and said, “You first.”
“I dreamed we were on the couch again.”
“Me too! Were we talking about Melanie and some jerky guy named Logan.”
“Yes!” She clapped her hands. “Isn’t that amazing?”
“What’s amazing?” Rollie asked as he walked up, backpack slung over his shoulder.
Jamie opened the driver’s door. “We’ve been having the same dream.”
Rollie slid into the back seat. “Sounds spooky,” he said without a trace of surprise in his voice.
“It’s great,” Fred said as she sat in the passenger seat and closed the door. “I remember thinking about Jamie in my dream, and the next thing I know, we’re on his family room couch, talking.”
“And Melanie poked that guy in the chest, right?” Jamie said as he started the car.
“Yes. How did you do that, Jamie?”
“Do what?”
“Make that dream and have both of us in it?”
Jamie shook his head and backed the car out of the driveway. “I didn’t do it. I definitely don’t have that power. That’s not something a sorcerer could do.”
“Then somebody else must’ve sent it to us somehow.”
“No. It had to be one of us, and it wasn’t me.” He winked at her. “So it had to be you.” He grinned and shifted the car into drive. “Maybe you really are the Dream Fairy.”
“Wait a minute!” Rollie said. “Are you saying Fred’s got some magic, too?”
Jamie shrugged. “Maybe some has rubbed off from me, or she picked some up from being in my backyard so much.”
Rollie frowned. “Well I’d better not have any. My dad wouldn’t like that.”
“Maybe you do and you don’t know it.”
“This is dumb,” Fred said. “I don’t have any magic power.”
Jamie steered the car around the first corner. “You might.”
“Hey, Fred,” Rollie said. “That means you’re a witch!”
Fred scowled. “I’m not a witch.”
“Technically, you are, if you really do have some power,” Jamie said.
Rollie grinned. “That means you’re not the Red Queen like we thought. You’re the Red Witch!”
Chapter 8
Rita was sitting at the bar with Cassandra when her bleached-blonde friend poked her thigh. “Look what the cat just dragged in.”
Rita turned to look at the front door, where she saw a medium-built serious-faced man in a dark blue police uniform, standing with his hands on his hips, surveying the room. He walked toward them and Rita whispered to Cassandra, “You don’t have anything illegal on you, do you?”
Cassandra shook her head as they watched the officer approach. He nodded to them when he reached the bar and Rita said, “Well, if it isn’t Deputy Fife himself. What brings you out here tonight? Lookin’ for some bad guys? Some wicked jaywalker, maybe?”
The uniformed man frowned. “It’s Sergeant Lambeau, ladies.” He held his hand up for the bartender.
Alphonse came over and said, “Hey, John Paul. What’s up?”
“Have you seen Ramon in here tonight?”
Alphonse shook his head. “Why.”
“He missed his court date today.”
“What’d he do?” Cassandra snickered. “Forget to pay his parking ticket?”
John Paul’s jaw muscles twitched and he said, “You know I’m not at liberty to discuss that.”
“At liberty!” Cassandra snorted. “Tell you what: why don’t you and I go out to your cruiser and have a little liberty in the back seat?”
Rita shook her head. “Watch it, Cass. He might try to charge you with prostitution again.”
“He can’t. I’m giving it away.” She slapped Rita on the shoulder and guffawed.
John Paul’s eyes were narrow. “That’s very amusing.” He looked at Alphonse. “If you see Ramon, tell him I’m looking for him.” John Paul turned on his heel without another word.
“My, how rude,” Cassandra said in a haughty, fake British accent. “He didn’t offer a proper goodbye.”
“Yes, Dahling,” Rita said in the same bad accent. “He should’ve at least kissed our hands and bowed.
“Or kissed something else,” Cassandra said, and they both howled.
* * *
Fred lay in bed, tossing and turning. I’m not a witch. I’m not. Witches are hags with bad teeth and big noses and…something.
But what if Jamie’s right? Do I really have some magic power? All day she’d tried little things, like moving her pencil with only her willpower or reading her teacher’s mind, but nothing had worked. But I definitely talked to Jamie in a dream. That feeling had been wonderful. I wonder if I can do it again tonight. We could have a special thing, like nobody else has ever had. She sighed and tried to imagine it, then she fluffed her pillow and rolled over.
But first I have to go to sleep!
* * *
Fred’s brain was humming from lack of sleep the next morning when she met Jamie at his car. Her eyelids felt like sandpaper and her head throbbed at her temples.
“You don’t look so good,” he said.
“Thanks a lot,” she huffed. “You’re not supposed to notice.” She opened the car door and dropped her purse on the seat, but didn’t get in. “I had trouble sleeping ’cause I kept trying to send my thoughts to you all night. Did you notice anything?”
“Not a thing.”
She made a smug face. “Maybe I’m not a witch after all.”
“Maybe not.”
“But right now I feel like one. A mean one.”
* * *
Fred and Melanie walked past the tenth grade lockers and a familiar voice called out, “Yo’, ladies! Wait up.”
“Not him again,” Melanie muttered.
Logan caught up with them and walked beside Fred, who barely glanced at him before turning her eyes straight ahead.
“How you ladies doing?” He got no answer. Fred and Melanie walked faster.
“I’m trying to talk to you.” He grabbed Fred’s arm but she jerked it free. “Don’t do that,” she said in a level voice, eyes hard. She started walking away, but he grabbed her arm again.
Fred stopped and turned, then stepped into him and drove her knee into his groin. He dropped to the hall floor like he’d been shot, holding his crotch with both hands, face turning deep red. Fred leaned over him and pointed one finger. “You’d better hold ’em, ’cause if you ever touch me again, I’ll kick ’em all the way up to your throat.”
Then she turned and strode away; M
elanie walked with her, wide eyed. “Wow,” Melanie said. “That was awesome!”
“Sorry about that,” Fred said without looking at her. “I lost control. I just don’t feel like being messed with today.”
“No, that was perfect. I don’t think we have to worry about him bothering us anymore. I couldn’t have done that.”
“Yeah, well just so you know, my nickname used to be Fred the Firecracker.”
“I can see why.”
Fred scowled. “And to make matters worse, I have to ride the bus home today.”
“How do you usually get home?”
“I get a ride with Donna Fitzpatrick, but she’s got a doctor’s appointment, and Jamie has cross country practice.”
“I can give you a ride. I don’t have cheerleading practice today.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s no trouble. As long as you don’t mind being seen in my old clunker of a car.”
Red fingered her chin for a moment while she regarded her new friend. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”
* * *
“That’s Jamie’s house.” Fred pointed to her right as Melanie drove down the road. “Rollie’s is right across the street. Mine is two houses down from his.” She pointed to her left. “The orange brick one with the white trim.”
Melanie pulled her old car into Fred’s driveway and stopped. “I can see why you guys are such good friends. How long have you lived here?”
“I moved here when I was five. Rollie moved here when he was four, but Jamie’s been here since he was born. Rollie and Jamie were already best friends when I showed up.”
“Do you remember the first time you met Jamie?”
“Uh huh. I tried to kick him.”
Melanie laughed. “You don’t still do that, I hope.”
“No, but I give him a pinch every now and then to keep him in line.”
Melanie looked at her and shook her head. “You are the funniest person.” She put her hand on the gear shift. “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Wanna go inside for a minute and get something to drink?”
