“Tess, I would never tell anybody. It’s our secret.” As she responded I could see visages of the golden aura moving around her.
“Miss Cassie, how do you know all this about me?”
She leaned toward me and answered in a gentle tone, “I have the Sight, too, my dear. I always know when I’m around others of similar abilities.”
I was starting to freak out. This was getting to be too much for me, so I changed the subject. "So, Miss Cassie, uh…. how old is your house?"
She lifted up her teacup to take a sip before she answered, "The older part of the house was built in 1659. A couple of rooms were added on later. Do you know anything about the history of this town? Did you know that one of the condemned witches lived in this house?"
Hearing that was shocking. "For real? A condemned witch lived here in this house? What happened to her?"
"Unfortunately, she was hung. That's what happened to most of the condemned witches. She was the first one to be hung as a witch around here."
Hearing that was kind of unsettling, but I still wanted to know more. "Who was she?"
"Her name was Alice Casey. She was one of the village healers,” answered Miss Cassie.
“What was wrong with those people? Why would they want to hang a person who heals others?” I asked indignantly.
Miss Cassie sighed before she replied, “She was known as a pious woman but she was also an independent thinker. In those days, that was very dangerous. Most people back then were superstitious because they didn’t have control over many aspects of their lives. When things went wrong, they often had to blame someone. Alice was very vocal about the witch hunts that were going on. She didn't believe that the accused were 'in league with the devil'. People who took a stand against the witch hunts were often accused themselves.”
"Could you tell me more about what happened to Alice and some of the others who were accused?" I have to admit, this was fascinating to me. I didn’t know much about the witch hunts in New England.
She smiled and settled in before responding, "A number of people who were initially accused were considered to be outcasts of the village. Maybe they lived on the outskirts of town and didn't socialize with the villagers, so they aroused suspicion. Some of those people practiced the old way of curing sickness, by use of herbs and the laying of the hands. That was frowned upon even though it was often more successful than what doctors could do in those days. Alice was not an outcast, though. She had been very active in village affairs and was known for her charity.”
I smiled at Miss Cassie. "Witchcraft, how nuts were people back then? Like there were witches flying around on broomsticks!”
Miss Cassie tilted her head and studied me before answering, “Actually, they weren't so crazy. A number of those women actually were witches. In fact, I believe that Alice Casey was a witch."
"What? How could you say that? That’s crazy. You mean like witches with special powers? I’d never heard of such a thing.” I was shaking my head.
Miss Cassie raised her eyebrow. "Yes, witches with power. However, most witches utilized their powers for the good. If anything, it was the accusers who used their power for evil."
I sat back and thought for a minute. Who was this woman? Was she mad or did she know what she was talking about? First, she called me Elsa. Then she claimed I have ‘special abilities’ and that I can see future events. Somehow she knew that I could read auras. I didn’t know what to think.
I glanced at my watch. "Miss Cassie, I better go. Thanks so much for the tea and showing me your house. Your stories were intriguing to say the least."
"It was very nice to see you, dear. I knew you would come by here sooner or later. If you ever have any questions or need to talk to me, please, just come over.” As we got up to walk to the front door Miss Cassie mysteriously added, “I expect I’ll see you in the near future.”
As I was going down her walkway, I turned back to wave and saw her staring at me absently. She abruptly snapped out of her reverie and called out, "Elsa, please be careful. There are some people who wish you did not come back here.” I felt a shiver down my spine. Why would she call me Elsa? I didn't know how to respond to her so I just kept on going. I had a feeling that she was staring at me the entire time I walked to my bike and rode down the street.
As I was riding home, my mind went over my visit with her. What was going on? That old lady knew things about me. How could that be?
Perhaps I'll go and see her again when I’m ready. It’s just too weird that her house was so familiar to me. There’s no explanation for that and there's no real explanation for my premonitions. I don’t care what she says. I have no desire to predict the future. Things will happen when things will happen. That's the way life is supposed to be. We don't have control over things. Do we?
12. Get Through Monday
Before I knew it, the weekend was over and we were on our way to school Monday morning. I wasn’t looking forward to being gaped at today. Annie and Eve weren't doing too badly because they spent some time with Rainy on the weekend and met some other kids at the game. That probably would have been a more productive use of my time, but it’s too late to worry about it. Besides, I needed time to recover from my bout with Tonya.
Rainy and another girl met us as we got off the bus in front of the school. She walked right up to me and announced, "Hi, I'm Karen. You must be Annie and Eve’s cousin." I started to respond when she got a second look at my face. Her mouth flew open and she blurted out, "You're the one that got Tonya!"l
OK, here we go again. "Yep, that's me, unfortunately."
"Why would you say that? You were great! I was just coming out of class when the action started. You know, Tonya's always bothering Mercy, and Mercy just isn't the fighting type. I don't know why she hates her so much. I felt like doing something but I'm a big fat chicken, plus, Tonya scares the wits out of me."
Oh, great. Tonya scares her, too. "Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't make a big mistake," I remarked with a rueful smile.
"Just stay away from Tonya and her friends and you'll be fine," she asserted with a friendly grin. Oh great, I was thinking, just stay away from her. That sounds easy, considering I didn’t know the school or who any of her friends were, nor do I have any friends that can help me.
We turned the corner and entered the walkway when, lo and behold, there was Tonya just a few feet away with a group of people. My heart skipped a beat. Rainy said under her breath, "Don't look now, but speak of the devil." So, of course, I had to look. There were two guys and three girls with Tonya. They didn't look like nasty aliens or anything, but I felt bad vibes just being near them. I couldn't put my finger on it. It wasn’t like they were giving me the evil eye. They didn’t even notice me. I couldn’t see any sign of their auras at all. I would venture a guess that it was because I couldn’t see enough of them which was probably a good thing. Even though Tonya's face was turned away from me, I could tell she was animated about something. She’s the type to broadcast her feelings to everyone within earshot. We slunk past before she had a chance to notice me.
Once we got into the building I said to Annie and Eve, "By the way, don't wait for me after school. I decided that I'll be going to the Robotics club meeting today."
Eve looked surprised. "Robotics! What are you doing that for? Talk about meeting a bunch of geeks. "
I coolly responded, "Actually, I did learn something from working on all those cars with Frank. I learned that I really like putting mechanical things together. Plus, I don't mind geeks."
“Suite yourself, Tessie. You always were one to go your own way. Bet you’ll be the only girl there," Annie remarked as she waved me away.
Everything went pretty smoothly for most of the day. I noticed people looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but I just ignored them. A number of kids actually smiled at me. Maybe they were enemies of “you know who”. I was friendly with someone in my algebra II class so I ended up having lunch with her and her fr
iends.
At one point in time, Tonya suddenly appeared in front of me in the hallway. I could feel the blood rush to my face because I was so nervous, but I just stayed behind her until I got into class and she never saw me. You can’t miss Tonya because she’s a loud, tight dresser with big blond hair. I was thinking that if enough time goes by before I bump into her again, she may forget about me. After all, I’m not loud, or tight.
Last period was my gym class; not one of my favorites. We were playing volleyball today and because I’m a short person I’ve always hated volleyball. Tall people always have to lord it over us and it makes me feel so ineffectual. What’s their point? We know they’re tall. I try to let it go, but sometimes it really pisses me off. It tends to affect my game and not in a good way.
Here we go. One of Tonya's male friends was in this class. I saw him this morning hanging around her. He wasn’t a bad looking guy but something about him exudes creep. The creep, Jimmy, turned out to be a pretty good player. He was tall and aggressive, basically smashing back any ball within a six foot radius. Unfortunately, he was opposite a skinny, geeky looking guy so, you can picture the scenario. Jimmy kept on smashing the ball right on the little guy's head. You could tell he was whamming it with all of his might for kicks. Then, he would let out a loud guffaw like it was a big joke. I didn't care about the score, but did he have to be such a jerk? He was even making the other tall kids uncomfortable.
Finally, a guy from the back pushed the skinny kid aside and got the ball back over and we got to serve. Everyone took a turn and the team gradually shifted around, so here we were again at the same deadly lineup! Bully Boy started hammering on the geek again. Where was that guy with the fat head, the teacher? Couldn’t he blow his whistle or something?
By now, I knew the poor kid's name was Nathan. Someone yelled, "Come on, Nathan. Don't just stand there. What's wrong with you? Hit the ball." Nathan couldn’t help it. He just wasn't too coordinated. He was trying but when there was a big dope that's twice your size hammering at you it's tough. It wasn’t exactly a confidence builder.
FINALLY, the teacher, Fat Head, came out of his office and blew his whistle. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took off to the locker rooms.
13. Robotics
I almost changed my mind about going to the Robotics meeting at the end of the day. Surviving my classes today zapped me of energy. It was hard to relax when people viewed you as “the one who fought Tonya and lived”. As a new person, there’s not a lot of room for error, so the pressure was on. Everyone was watching me, waiting for it to happen. It was exhausting. I was looking forward to Robotics by the end of school so I figured, why not? Maybe I’ll make some friends.
I found myself in room E-4 after school. The first person I saw was the volleyball failure, Nathan. And Annie was right. I was the only girl in here, but that was OK. I'd always had plenty of guy friends. Everyone was working on a big contraption that was connected to a pulley and wench. It took a minute for them to realize that I was standing there, watching them. All action stopped and they just looked at me. I knew what they were thinking. They couldn’t figure out why a girl was standing there.
A short dumpy man abruptly cleared his throat and approached me. “Can I help you?"
I lifted my chin up and smiled broadly at him. "Oh, hi, my name is Tess. I just started school here a couple days ago. Thought I'd come by and check out what’s going on here.”
"Oh, REALLY?” His eyes lit up. What am I getting myself into? “We LOVE having new members. Please join us. I'm Mr. Kenney, the advisor to the Robotics Club.”
The boys weren’t as thrilled to see me. They looked at me like I was an alien invader. I knew I'd have to prove myself to them. That was fine. (Although why else would I be here? It's certainly not just for the GUYS.) One boy in particular looked at me suspiciously. He was the first one to speak. "So do you have any idea what we're putting together here?"
I did a cursory exam before answering, "I think so. It looks to me like you've built a mechanism for lifting and moving objects. Is it working OK?"
Mr. Skeptic loudly explained (like I have bad hearing!), "We're having some problems with it. It's just moving too slowly. We plan on entering it in the State Robotics Competition but it'll have to speed up.”
Mr. Kenney looked at me, smiling. I knew he was trying to be inclusive. “What do you think? Have any ideas?"
Thirteen pairs of eyes watched me while I studied the structure up and down. Actually, it wasn't too bad. Mr. Skeptic turned it on and I watched it pick up a book and carry it across the room. I finally answered while pointing at the back of the contraption, "Could it have anything to do with the mechanism down here? Are the gears the right size? It looks like it’s working too hard."
"Will, I think she has a good point." Mr. Kenney directed at Mr. Skeptic.
Mr. Skeptic/Will responded with a twinge of irritation in his voice, "She doesn't know what she's talking about. We've already tried a different gear ratio there."
"Yes, but we haven't tried two sizes up," said Mr. Kenney. "Let's do it. After all, nothing else has worked."
"Uh . . . I guess so." Will didn’t look too happy, being upstaged by a girl. "We'll have to take apart the whole thing though. What a pain."
They worked on disassembling for the next hour. The boys and Mr. Kenney were OK with me. I worked on part of it with Nathan and Pete, a major geek, but an OK guy once you got over the dumb jokes. I’ve always liked these kinds of guys. They’re very smart. They’re just not people smart. That means they’ll be straight up with you.
After the meeting was over, Will made a point to walk with me out of school. I wondered why. Did he just want to see if I had a brain in my head or was he actually being nice? I had to admit that he was a pretty cute guy in a brainy glasses kinda way. Will was obviously confident. I could see a clear blue aura with yellow flares around him. I see honesty, intelligence, independence, and a big stubborn streak. I still don’t have any idea if my assessments of the auras are true, but it is what I sense.
He finally asked the question I was waiting for. "So, Tess, how do you know so much about mechanics? We've never had a girl so much as stick her head into the door during our meetings."
"My uncle had me working on old cars from the time I was young. I didn't really like it at the time, but I've come to realize that I’ve learned something from him. It interests me now,” I answered with a wry smile.
"Are you still working on cars with your uncle?" He asked.
"No, my uncle died since then," I answered.
Will looked over at me. Was that concern on his face? "That must’ve been rough. Was that why you moved here?”
"Yeah, I was living with my aunt, uncle and cousins in Colorado. We couldn't stay there for financial reasons after he died, so we moved here to my grandmother's house." I shrugged. I’m uncomfortable with shows of sympathy.
Will suddenly stopped walking. "Hey, are you the new student who gave it to Tonya?"
I answered, feeling irate, "How did that dumb rumor get around the whole school? God, I'm sick of hearing about it. And, by the way, I didn't ‘give it’ to Tonya. I just stopped her from hurting that other girl."
"Not a smart move, if you ask me," he answered. He was smiling, like he knew he got under my skin.
"Well, maybe you didn't notice that you weren't asked." I glared at him.
"Sorry, just trying to help a new girl get along here," he countered, still smiling.
"It's not too helpful. It already happened!” I exhorted.
"I was just saying that you might want to keep your nose out of those situations in the future so you don't end up asking for trouble,” he replied.
I guess I was right when I saw that stubborn streak in his aura. I answered back, "Well, thanks for the advice but I think I’ll pass. I guess I don't like to see someone who's smaller get the crap beat out of them."
"You're not exactly what I'd call a giant. And you're not that tough lo
oking either,” he argued.
Man, he was starting to piss me off. "Like I said: You can just butt out, Will."
I was so absorbed in my own self-righteous rant that I wasn't looking at his face. Was he pulling my leg? I narrowed my eyes at him. He was fooling with me! I felt like tripping him so I could watch him lose that smile as he fell flat on his face!
We stopped at the bench in front of the school where my grandma was picking me up. Will questioned, "So, how long has your grandma lived here?"
"I think Grandma Edwina has lived here for most of her life. I’d never been here myself until last week. I really like this town, though. The old homes are so cool. Where I come from the oldest houses are around 150 years old, at the most, but around here they can be at least twice as old.”
“Huh, I never thought about it. Living in New England, you just get used to it. Anyway, I gotta go. See you at Robotics Club meeting next week. That is, if you decide to come again. Meanwhile, try and stay out of trouble, OK?" He grinned at me.
"Don't worry, I'll be at Robotics. There are a few things I think can teach you guys. And as for trouble, don’t you worry; I can take care of myself," I shot back.
I watched Will make his way down the sidewalk. He definitely is a cute guy, but I don't know if he's my type. He has an irritating streak. He might make an OK friend, though.
14. Tonya Again!
Things at school were all right this week, until Friday that is. I was hurrying to biology when I found myself pushing through a crowd of noisy students waiting for their teachers to show up. My mind was not on school. I was contemplating the possibilities of the upcoming weekend when I bumped into someone. I emerged from dreamland to see big bad Tonya looking down at me. Of all people to bang into!
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 6
