by Isobel Bird
“You remembered the buttercream frosting,” Annie said as she took a bite of the cake.
“Anything for your special day,” Cooper said sweetly. “Now eat.”
After Cooper had handed out cake to everyone Kate picked up a wrapped gift and put it in front of Annie. “Happy birthday,” she said.
Annie tore off the paper and looked at what was inside. “A moon calendar for next year!” she said. “Very cool. Now I can keep track of when it’s waxing and waning.”
“I had Cooper pick it up at the bookstore for me,” Kate said.
“So that’s what was in the package you had last night after class,” said Annie.
“I had Archer get it while Julia was explaining candle magic to us,” said Cooper. “Luckily you were way too into it to notice.”
“This is from me and Jess,” Tara said as she handed Annie a second present.
“Thanks!” Annie said, genuinely surprised and happy that Tara and Jessica had gotten her something.
She opened their gift and gasped. “I was just looking at this at the store,” she exclaimed as she held up a beautiful pale blue sweater. “Thanks, you guys.”
T.J. took a small gift out of his pocket and slid it across the table to her. “This isn’t quite as fancy,” he said, “but maybe you’ll like it anyway.”
Annie opened the present and examined it. “It’s a tape of Schroedinger’s Cat songs,” she told everyone.
T.J. blushed slightly. “It’s our first real recording,” he said.
“Even if we did just record it in the garage,” added Cooper. “Still, it’ll be worth something someday when we’re on the cover of Rolling Stone.”
She took an envelope and handed it to Annie. “And this is from Sasha and me,” she said.
Annie opened the envelope and pulled out a card. As she opened it something fluttered out and landed on the table. It was a piece of paper. Annie picked it up and looked at it closely.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Just read it,” Cooper replied.
“ ‘This coupon entitles you to one evening of fun and surprises with two of your very best friends in the whole world,’ ” Annie read. “ ‘The adventure begins at six o’ clock P.M. with dinner at El Burrito.’ ”
“Mexican food,” Annie said. “Very yummy. But what’s the surprise part?”
“That’s for us to know and you to find out,” said Sasha. “But I think you’ll like it.”
Annie tried to get them to tell her what they had planned, but no matter how much she begged they wouldn’t say a word. She wasn’t any better at getting anything out of Kate, so finally she gave up. Besides, there was cake to enjoy for the moment, as well as the fact that her friends were all there with her. It made her forget about the frightening events of the preceding evening.
“Did your aunt do anything for your birthday?” Jessica asked her as they were scraping the last of the cake off their plates.
“She made blueberry pancakes for breakfast,” Annie said. “Everyone seems to think I need to be fed now that I’m sixteen. Her big present is the trip to San Francisco this weekend.”
“That’s going to be so much fun,” Kate said. “I wish I could go.”
“I hope it’s fun,” said Annie. “I’m a little nervous about it. I haven’t been there in almost ten years. I’m afraid nothing will be the way I remember it.”
“It probably won’t be,” said T.J. “Things usually aren’t exactly the way you remember them. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun.”
Annie nodded. She hadn’t let herself think too much about the San Francisco trip. She was really excited about going, but she was also apprehensive. She didn’t know what she was going to find there, or even what she was looking for, really. She just knew she had to go back for something. But worrying about that could wait. Right now she was having a good time.
“This is the best birthday ever,” she told her friends as she looked around at their faces.
“Well, mine is next,” Kate reminded them. “And it’s only eighty days away, so start planning now.”
They finished lunch and then went to their classes. For the rest of the day Annie wondered what Cooper and Sasha had planned for her after dinner. She tried once more, on the walk home, to get some information out of them, but they wouldn’t crack. By the time five thirty came and Cooper arrived at her door in the Nash to pick her up, she was nearly bursting with anticipation.
They picked up Sasha at Thea’s house and drove to the restaurant. Inside, they were led to a table in the back and sat down.
“Okay,” Annie said. “Now will you tell me what’s happening after dinner?”
“What do you think is happening?” asked Cooper as she munched on some nachos from the bowl on the table.
“I’ve narrowed it down to either roller skating or karaoke,” Annie replied.
“Wrong on both counts,” Sasha said. “It’s even better than hearing Cooper do ‘Hound Dog.’ ”
“We’re not going to tell you,” Cooper said. “So you might as well just stop trying to figure it out.”
Momentarily defeated, Annie opened her menu and looked over the choices. It all looked good, and she had a difficult time deciding what she wanted. But she narrowed it down to two things, and when the waiter came she ordered chicken enchiladas with mole sauce.
“How’s it feel to be all grown up?” Sasha asked when their food came and they were all chewing.
“Pretty much the same as it did yesterday,” said Annie. “Besides, I won’t feel grown up until I can vote.”
“Not me,” Sasha said. “When I turn sixteen in March I’ll feel like I’ve gotten there. I mean, hey, you can quit school when you’re sixteen, right?”
“I didn’t say I was going to,” she said when the other two stopped eating and glared at her. “I’m just saying you can. Anyway, there’s something kind of magical about sixteen, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, acne and real breasts,” Cooper said. “Big fun.”
“I guess there is something sort of magical about it,” Annie said. “It’s like this weird twilight time between being a kid and being totally grown up.”
It was true, when she thought about it. She did feel sort of different. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on, but something inside her had changed. Or maybe it had been slowly changing for a long time and she was just now noticing it. And it wasn’t just the changes that had occurred in her since she’d invoked the goddess Freya. Those were changes she could definitely identify. This was something else, a subtle shift in the way she looked at things and felt about things, a change in the way she saw the world. She just didn’t have a name for it.
They finished eating, and after Cooper and Sasha paid the bill, Cooper looked at Annie. “Ready for the rest of the night to begin?” she asked.
Annie was more than ready, and she eagerly followed Cooper and Sasha back to the car and got in. As they pulled out of El Burrito’s parking lot and started driving she tried to figure out where they were taking her. But they drove right by all of the places she’d thought they might be going. Finally, when they pulled up in front of a house she’d never seen before, she was puzzled.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Your surprise,” said Cooper, getting out. “Come on.”
Annie followed her friends as they walked up to the door of the house and rang the bell. A moment later the door opened and she was looking into the face of a tall woman with long, curly brown hair. She was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, and when she saw the girls she smiled kindly.
“Come in,” she said, stepping back and motioning for them to enter the house.
They stepped inside, and the woman shut the door behind them. “You must be Annie,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Jace Myers.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” said Annie, shaking the woman’s hand while looking at her friends with a confused expression. “I hope this doesn’t sou
nd rude, but why are we here?” she asked.
“Jace is a psychic,” Cooper told her.
Annie looked at Jace again. “You are?” she said, surprised.
Jace laughed. “I know,” she said. “I don’t look the part.”
Annie blushed. “It’s not that,” she said. “It’s just that I was expecting roller skating.”
“We thought this would be fun,” Sasha said. “Jace can tell your future.”
“Well, not quite,” said Jace. “What I do is see what’s going on around you on a psychic level. Come on in and sit down.”
She led them into a living room and indicated a comfortable-looking couch and armchairs for them to sit in. Annie sat in the chair and looked around. Jace’s house was really beautiful. The wood floors were covered with soft carpets, there were paintings on the walls, and in the fireplace a small fire crackled merrily. There were several candles on the coffee table around which they sat, and they gave off the scent of vanilla as they burned.
Jace reappeared a few minutes later with a tray on which there were four mugs and a teapot. She set the tray on the table and then poured tea into the mugs.
“Mmm, mint,” Annie said as the steam from the mugs rose up and filled the air.
“I find it helps people relax,” Jace told her as she handed her a mug. “There’s milk and honey if you want it.”
“What exactly are we going to do?” Annie asked, taking a sip from her mug.
“Cooper told me it was your birthday,” Jace said.
Annie nodded. “I’m sixteen,” she said.
Jace smiled. “A big year, if I remember. It was a while ago. Well, birthdays are good times to do readings. Sometimes the energies around you are stronger then. I’m just going to do my usual thing and see what comes up.”
“Your usual thing?” Annie said. “So, are you a witch?”
“No,” said Jace. “I’m actually a rabbi.”
Annie was surprised to hear this. “A rabbi?” she asked. “I’ve never met a rabbi who was a psychic.”
Jace laughed. “Most people haven’t,” she said. “Then again, most people have never met a woman who was a rabbi, so I guess I’m just a mystery all around. But I’ve been very psychic ever since I was a child. My father, who is also a rabbi, recognized my abilities at an early age. He helped me nurture them.”
“That doesn’t really go with the whole rabbi thing, does it?” Cooper asked.
“Some people might say it doesn’t,” Jace said. “I see it as just another way of exploring the universe.” She put her tea down. “So, shall we get started?”
“What do we need to do?” asked Annie.
“Nothing,” Jace said. She stood up and walked to a dimmer switch on the wall. Turning it, she lowered the lights before returning to her seat. “You can all sit just where you are. What I’m going to do is go into a kind of trance. Shortly after that I’ll begin speaking. I’ll tell you what I see. All you have to do is listen.”
Annie watched as Jace leaned back in the chair, closed her eyes, and took several deep breaths. She seemed to relax, almost as if she were going to sleep. Then Annie saw her give a little start. Annie waited for her to speak.
“Dark,” she said. “It’s so dark.” Her eyebrows knitted up as if she were confused. Then the lines of her face smoothed out again and she seemed less tense. “Someone is here,” said Jace. “Someone is close by me. I can’t see who it is, but I feel a presence. It’s very strong, and it’s trying to communicate.”
Annie leaned forward in her chair. Who was Jace sensing? Who might want to get a message to her? Then she had a thought. “Ben,” she said, thinking about her friend from the nursing home, the old man who had died suddenly over the summer. “Is it Ben? Ben Rowe?”
Jace’s brow wrinkled again. “No,” she said. “That’s not the name. It’s too strong. I hear too many voices at once. I can’t make out what’s being said. They’re pushing at me.”
All of a sudden the candles on the table blew out, casting the room into a web of shadows from the fireplace and what little light came from the lamps. Annie saw Jace jolt back in her chair, as if a great force had either slammed into her chest or had pulled her from behind, pinning her to the chair.
“Annie.” A voice emerged from Jace’s mouth. But it wasn’t her voice. It was someone else. It was the voice that Annie had first heard on the beach. Hearing it now, she was instantly terrified.
“Annie,” the voice said again.
“Who are you?” Annie said, her voice almost a whisper.
There was no answer for a moment. Then Jace replied in her own voice, “It’s cold. There’s so much confusion. I can’t—”
“Annie.” Jace’s voice was cut off as the other voice spoke again. “Come home.”
Home. The word rang in Annie’s ears like a bell. Suddenly she knew who was speaking to her.
“Mom?” she said hesitantly. “Dad?”
“Come home,” the voice said again, and this time it seemed to be two voices speaking at once.
“Is that you?” Annie asked, shaking. “Mom? Dad? Is that you?”
“They’re gone,” said Jace in her own voice. “They couldn’t stay.”
“Who was it?” asked Annie. “Was it my mother and father?” She was almost crying, and her hands were trembling.
Suddenly Jace opened her eyes. It was so sudden, and so unexpected, that all three girls screamed simultaneously. Jace looked at them and blinked.
“I’ve never felt anything quite like that,” she said.
“What was it?” asked Annie. “Was it my parents?”
Jace shook her head. “I can’t tell you for sure what was happening. There was such a rush of emotion that it was like being pulled under by a wave and not being able to come up for air. Whoever it was, they were really trying to reach you. I got the feeling that they’ve been trying for a long time.”
“Why couldn’t they stay?” Annie asked. “Why did they go?”
“They seemed almost lost,” Jace said sadly. “They didn’t know where to go.”
Annie put her face in her hands. She was afraid she was going to start weeping, and she didn’t want to.
Jace went to the light switch and turned the lamps up so that the room was once more filled with warmth. “Have you felt them around you before?” Jace asked Annie.
Annie nodded. “I heard someone calling me on the beach the other day,” she said. “But I couldn’t see who it was and I got scared. I ran away.”
“I don’t blame you,” said Jace. “If what you felt was anything like what I just felt, it would be very frightening.”
“But why would Annie’s parents want to scare her?” asked Cooper.
Jace sighed. “Sometimes spirits want so badly to reach someone that they get a little, shall we say, pushy. They try to break through the veil between their world and ours. They’re not trying to scare anyone deliberately. They’re just trying to make contact.”
Cooper nodded. “I remember that from when Elizabeth was trying to get through to me,” she said, referring to the spirit of the dead girl who had asked her for help in solving her murder. “I thought I was having nightmares.”
“Is there some reason your parents might want to contact you?” asked Jace.
Annie sighed. Yes, she thought. There’s one really big reason.
“They told you to come home,” Jace said. “Do you know what that means?”
Annie looked at her and nodded. “I think I might,” she said, thinking about her upcoming trip to San Francisco and suddenly wondering if it was a good idea after all.
CHAPTER 7
“What do you mean you don’t want to do it?”
Cooper stared at T.J., Jed, and Mouse in disbelief. They were in T.J.’s garage, about to start rehearsing. Cooper had her guitar around her neck and a pick in her hand. Right before she had been about to suggest that they start working on “Dancing in Her Hand,” T.J. had told her that he and the others had decided no
t to play at the Samhain party.
“We just don’t think it’s the right kind of gig for the band,” said Mouse nervously.
“It’s a gig,” Cooper said, “which is more than what we have right now.”
“Actually, it’s not,” Jed replied. “I gave our tape to a DJ friend of mine over at the college radio station. He really liked it and played it for some people there. They’ve asked us to play at a Halloween dance there.”
“I get it,” Cooper said. “You’d rather play for a bunch of college jerks than a bunch of witches.”
“They’re the audience we’re trying to reach, Cooper,” T.J. said.
“So now witches don’t listen to cool music?” she snapped. “Have you guys listened to the lyrics of my songs? They’re perfect for the Samhain dance.”
“That’s just it,” Jed told her. “We don’t want to do that kind of music. We like your old stuff better.”
Cooper looked at T.J. “What did you guys do, have a listening party to decide whether my new stuff is good enough?”
“No one said it isn’t good,” T.J. answered. “We just don’t think it’s what the band should be doing.”
Cooper was so mad that she couldn’t speak for a moment. She just stood there, glaring at her bandmates. How could they tell her they didn’t want to do her songs? They’d always loved her music. Plus, she knew it was good. Not just good. The new songs were great. “Dancing in Her Hand” was a fantastic song, and she knew that they knew it.
“The band can’t just be about one person,” T.J. said. “Before it was always about what we all wanted to do. Now it’s turning into what you want to do.”
“Maybe because I write the songs,” Cooper shot back.
“You’re not the only one,” he said. “And even if you were, it’s not fair to the rest of us to only do what you want to do.”
“Why can’t we just do our old stuff?” Mouse asked.
“Because I’m tired of it,” Cooper told her. “I want to do this new material. That’s what songwriting is about—your life. When your life changes, your music changes.”
