by Isobel Bird
“And you just quit drinking?” Cooper asked.
Mrs. McAllister got up to get more coffee for both of them. “Well, it wasn’t quite that easy,” she said. “I had some help. I went to AA meetings.”
“Alcoholics Anonymous?” Cooper said.
“You sound a little shocked,” remarked Mrs. McAllister.
Cooper shrugged. “It’s just that I always thought AA was for, you know—”
“Winos and hard-core drunks?” asked T.J.’s mother, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, yeah,” admitted Cooper. She felt horrible, as if she’d somehow offended Mrs. McAllister.
Mrs. McAllister smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “That’s what most people think. I met a lot of wonderful people there, people who are still friends of mine. And going to those meetings helped me see that alcohol wasn’t the problem, it was the symptom of the problem. What I really feared was becoming like my parents and hurting my family the way they had hurt us.”
“My mother would never go to an AA meeting,” said Cooper. “Not in a million years.”
“Maybe not,” agreed Mrs. McAllister. “But maybe she’d have coffee with me.”
“You’d do that?” asked Cooper.
“For the girl who puts up with my son? Anything,” Mrs. McAllister answered.
The two of them were laughing when T.J. walked in, sleepily rubbing his eyes. When he saw Cooper sitting at the kitchen table with his mother he looked at her as if he thought he was dreaming. He kept looking from his mother to his girlfriend and back again.
“I don’t even want to know,” he said. “Do I?”
“I was just giving Cooper my muffin recipe,” Mrs. McAllister said seriously, sending both her and Cooper into a new round of laughter.
“I was right,” said T.J., taking a muffin from the plate on the counter and turning and walking out of the kitchen. “I don’t want to know.”
CHAPTER 6
“You’re putting too much dirt in.”
Kate shot Sherrie a glance. Kate was putting dirt into little planting pots, and Sherrie was watching her. She hadn’t made a move to help, claiming that she didn’t want to ruin the manicure she’d gotten the day before, but she’d taken every possible opportunity to inform Kate that she was doing it all wrong.
“It’s not too much dirt,” said Kate evenly. “It’s fine.”
“There’s no room for the seeds to grow,” Sherrie said, as if she knew everything in the world there was to know about plants and was graciously sharing her knowledge with Kate. “They’ll smother in all that dirt.”
“Sherrie, when was the last time you planted anything?” asked Kate, setting the pot on the lab table and reaching for the package of seeds.
“I helped my mother with our garden last year, for your information,” Sherrie said haughtily. “And we took first prize in her garden club competition.”
“For your roses, Sherrie,” Kate said moodily. “Which you didn’t grow from seeds—your mother had shrubs planted, and she has a gardener who comes in every week.”
Sherrie didn’t respond. She just looked at her nails, as if somehow a tiny piece of dirt had managed to get onto one of them and completely ruined her entire life.
Kate looked at the seed packet. They were going to grow marigolds, and Kate wanted to see how deep the seeds needed to be buried in the dirt.
“These need to go a quarter inch into the soil,” she informed Sherrie, who seemed about as interested in this piece of information as she might be about hearing that the stock market was up or down.
“So?” Sherrie said. “I am not putting my fingers in dirt. Didn’t I already explain that?” She let out an exasperated sigh, as if Kate were some kind of very slow child to whom she had explained a simple concept three hundred times without success.
“You don’t need to use your fingers,” said Kate. She picked up a pencil and handed it to Sherrie. “Start poking,” she ordered.
Holding the pencil as if it were a live snake, Sherrie halfheartedly began making indentations in the twenty-four little pots of soil that Kate had filled. Kate, meanwhile, took as long as possible to rip the top off the package of marigold seeds. She was thinking about the black candle she’d done the ritual around. It was sitting on her altar at home. Every night, while she did homework or read, she burned it and imagined her dislike of Sherrie burning away into the ether. The candle was about a third of the way gone now.
But the spell wasn’t working. The candle was getting shorter and shorter, but it didn’t seem to be taking any of Kate’s negative feelings with it. Every night she tried dutifully to let go of the anger she felt, and for a while it seemed that she did have a more positive outlook on having to work with Sherrie on the experiment.
Then, however, she would see Sherrie live and in person and be filled once again with the almost overwhelming desire to kick her in the shins. All Sherrie had to do was look at her sideways and all of Kate’s Wiccan-white-light-positive-energy feelings evaporated like drops of water on a hot stove. The old familiar animosity returned, shoving the good stuff out of the way and settling down for a long stay.
Kate wasn’t sure what to do about this. On the one hand, she didn’t care if she and Sherrie ever got along again. But she needed to get a good grade on the project, which meant that she had to at least refrain from totally alienating Sherrie until they were done, which wouldn’t be for another month. Besides, she really did want to see if she could learn how to get rid of any negative feelings she might have about someone. She knew that the exercise was a good one for her to attempt. It was another challenge on her path.
But why couldn’t I have had something easier? she asked herself. Like turning straw into gold.
Sherrie had finished making holes in the dirt. Not surprisingly, she had done a terrible job of it. Glancing at the pots, Kate could see that in some of them Sherrie had barely made an indentation in the dirt, while in others she appeared to have been trying to dig a hole to China, pushing the pencil practically to the bottom of the pot.
Deep breaths, Kate told herself. White light in, black light out.
She began to place the marigold seeds in the holes, repairing the damage Sherrie had done to the dirt as she did so. She put a few seeds in each pot.
“That’s too many seeds,” said Sherrie critically. “How are they all supposed to grow in those little pots?”
“They won’t all grow,” Kate explained as patiently as she could. “Only some of them will. And if more than one does, we just pluck out the weakest one and throw it away.” She looked meaningfully at Sherrie as she said the last part of her statement. I’d love to just pluck her and throw her away, she thought.
“Why couldn’t we use prettier plants?” Sherrie asked. “Marigolds are so common.”
“They’re easy to grow,” said Kate. “And they grow quickly. This way we can get our results faster and we won’t have to drag this out any longer than we have to.” She emphasized her last words so that Sherrie would know what she was really saying. The sooner they were finished, the sooner they could stop being nice to one another.
“Well, in that case,” said Sherrie, as if she had decided out of the goodness of her heart to allow Kate to use marigolds after all.
Kate covered the seeds with dirt and tapped it down to fill in any little air pockets that might have formed. Then she took a beaker, filled it with water, and watered half the plants. Six of these she set onto a tray. The other six went onto another tray. The unwatered plants were also divided into two groups of six and placed on their own trays.
“What’s that about?” asked Sherrie.
“Didn’t you even read the instructions?” Kate asked her, irritated.
“Of course I read them,” Sherrie snapped. “Plant seeds.”
Kate huffed angrily. “The point of this experiment is to try growing plants under different conditions,” she said. “Six of them will get lots of water and lots of light. Six will get lots of water and v
ery little light. Six will get very little water and lots of light. And the last six will get very little water and very little light. Every day we’ll record their progress and see which conditions produce the best plants.”
“Who cares?” asked Sherrie. “You can just buy marigolds at the nursery. They’re like a hundred for a dollar or something.”
Kate closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She counted backward from ten. She imagined a whole ocean of white light filling her up and pushing her black, negative feelings out. The feelings exploded like a huge nuclear mushroom cloud. She imagined it wiping Sherrie off the face of the earth. She knew this was the wrong approach to take, but it made her feel better.
“It doesn’t matter how stupid the experiment is or isn’t,” she said slowly, trying not to let her voice rise. “We just have to do it.”
“Whatever,” said Sherrie. “Are we done?”
“Yes,” Kate said. “We’re done for now. But we have to make a schedule for monitoring how the plants are doing and for watering them and turning on the grow light.”
Sherrie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m really, really busy with stuff right now, so don’t expect me to do all the work.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” replied Kate. “I’ll make up a schedule and give it to you tomorrow. And I promise not to make it too taxing. I know you have a busy social life to worry about.”
“Gee,” Sherrie said. “I’m really sorry you decided to stop being popular and all, but that’s no reason to get nasty about it. I’m trying to make the best of this. I would think you would, too.”
The best of this would be if I crammed all twenty-four pots of dirt down your throat, thought Kate, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she picked up two of the trays and headed for the grow lights. When she turned around, Sherrie was gone.
“I wish it was always that easy to get rid of her,” said Kate out loud.
“Trouble in paradise?”
Kate turned around to see Sasha standing in the doorway to the science lab. “I was just on my way to Spanish,” she explained. “I saw Sherrie storm out of here and thought I’d see if you were okay.”
“Yeah,” Kate said as she put away the remaining two trays of plants and grabbed her books. “I’m okay.”
She walked with Sasha as they headed for their next classes. Kate hadn’t seen Sasha since Saturday afternoon. She hadn’t been in any of their shared classes that morning, and Kate had wondered where she was. Now she asked.
“Oh,” Sasha replied in answer to the question. “I had a dentist appointment this morning.” She chomped her teeth together noisily. “All clean,” she said.
They reached Sasha’s Spanish class and Kate said good-bye. As she continued on to the gym she thought about what had happened over the weekend. She, Annie, and Cooper had gone over and over it, and the three of them had a suspicion that somehow Sasha had been involved in the break-in at Crones’ Circle. They didn’t know why, but the evidence sure pointed in her direction: the way she’d left them all so suddenly on Friday night, her inability to give them a straight answer about where she was, and especially the meeting with the weird girl in the park on Saturday. It all added up to trouble for Sasha.
The girls hadn’t said anything to her, or to Sophia and the others at the bookstore. They were trying to figure out the best way to handle things. Sasha had been through a lot in her life. No one knew the full story behind why she’d run away or what had happened to her while she lived on the streets. She’d really turned her life around since coming to Beecher Falls, and particularly since becoming involved with the Wiccan community and being adopted by Thea. None of her friends wanted to believe that she was falling into her old ways again. But maybe she was. After all, it was hard to ignore what they’d seen with their own eyes.
“Hey.”
Kate looked around. Cooper and Annie were waving to her from the side hallway.
“Come here,” Cooper said.
Kate went over to the two of them. “What are you guys doing here?” she asked. “You’re supposed to be in class.”
“We decided to do some investigating,” said Annie.
“Investigating?” Kate said. “What? Is this some article you’re working on for the school paper?”
“No,” Annie said. “It’s a little closer to home. Come on.”
She and Cooper turned and walked away. Kate glanced back toward the gym, where she was supposed to be suiting up to play basketball with Jessica and Tara, and then followed her friends. They walked down the hall and turned, heading for the lockers.
“This had better be good,” said Kate as they walked. “Tara and Jess aren’t going to be thrilled that I skipped on them.”
“Oh, it’s good,” Cooper told her.
“Or bad, depending how you look at it,” Annie said.
They turned into the bays and Cooper began fumbling with the combination lock on one of the lockers.
“Hey,” Kate said. “That’s Sasha’s locker.”
“We know,” Annie said, watching Cooper.
“How do you know the combination?” Kate asked, looking over Cooper’s shoulder.
“She gave it to me once when she was out sick and needed me to bring her some books,” Cooper explained, giving the lock a final turn and pulling up on the handle. The locker slid open easily. “I just happened to remember it,” she added, giving Kate a wink.
“But why are we looking in here at all?” Kate asked. “That’s so an invasion of privacy.”
“We had probable cause,” Annie said. “And we turned out to be right.”
Cooper reached into Sasha’s locker and pulled out a small zippered bag. She handed it to Kate. “Go on,” she said. “Take a look.”
Kate looked at the bag in her hand. It was heavy, and when she shook it there was a soft jingling sound from inside. “What is it?” she asked her friends.
“Look,” Cooper said again.
Kate unzipped the bag and peered into it. Then she reached in and pulled out a handful of rings and pendants. “These are from the bookstore!” she said, looking at the pentacles and goddesses in her hand.
“Bingo,” Annie said. “That’s the missing jewelry.”
“Well, some of it,” said Cooper. “And there’s something else.” She reached into the bag and pulled out a wad of cash. “There’s this.”
Kate groaned and leaned against the lockers. She handed Cooper the bag. Holding it made her feel even worse. “What are we going to do?” she asked.
“We’re going to have to tell somebody,” Cooper answered.
“Shouldn’t we talk to her first?” said Kate. “Maybe she’s in trouble.”
“I’ll say she’s in trouble,” Annie remarked. “Big trouble.”
None of them said anything for a minute as they all stared at the bag in Cooper’s hand. It was as if they were trying to make it disappear so that they wouldn’t have to deal with it. Finally, Cooper broke the silence. “I’m sure there’s an explanation,” she said. “Even if it isn’t one we want to hear.”
“Yes,” said a voice behind them. “There is an explanation. Whether or not you want to hear it is up to you.”
They turned and saw Sasha watching them. Her eyes blazed with fury as she looked from the bag in Cooper’s hand to Annie and then Kate.
“I forgot my notebook,” Sasha said as she stepped forward and grabbed the bag from Cooper. No one made a move to take it back from her. “I didn’t think I’d find my three best friends going through my locker looking for stuff,” she added.
“We can explain,” Annie said.
“So start explaining,” said Sasha.
“It’s just that—” Kate began, stopping when she didn’t know how to proceed. “Friday night—”
“We followed you on Saturday,” Cooper said, saving Kate from having to say anything else. “We saw you talk to that girl at the park. We assumed—”
“You assumed that I must have had
something to do with the break-in,” Sasha said, finishing the thought for her. She looked down. When she looked up some of the anger had faded fromher eyes. “I guess that makes sense,” she said. “Although I wish you had just asked me instead of following me.”
Kate, Annie, and Cooper looked at each other sheepishly.
“Just so you know, I didn’t have anything to do with the robbery,” Sasha said.
“Then how—” asked Cooper, nodding at the bag.
“And who—” Annie began simultaneously. They both stopped, their questions unfinished, and looked at Sasha.
Sasha looked at her friends. She pulled her backpack from her locker, put the bag of jewelry and money into it, and shut the locker again.
“Come on,” she said. “There’s someone I think you guys should meet.”
CHAPTER 7
“I can’t believe we’re skipping school,” said Annie as Sasha led her, Kate, and Cooper into the park. She’d been repeating variations of the same phrase ever since Sasha had convinced them to skip their last two periods and come with her. Cooper had had no reservations at all about simply walking out of school, but Kate and Annie had been a little more hesitant. Finally, though, their curiosity had won out and they’d followed along behind the others, nervously waiting for a teacher or other authority figure to confront them. No one had, however, and the girls had taken the bus downtown to the park without incident.
Now they were walking back toward the fountain where they’d seen Sasha talking to the unfamiliar girl. But instead of stopping there, Sasha led them past it and into a stand of trees that sat about a hundred yards away from the fountain area. She walked in among them, making sure the others were following, and walked down a narrow footpath.
“Where does this go?” Cooper asked as she pushed aside the branches of an overgrown tree to keep from being hit in the face by them.
“You’ll see in a minute,” Sasha replied cryptically.
