The Headless Cupid

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

  “And Leah never did give you any of the money?”

  “No,” Amanda said. “It was just that she needed a lot of money to buy all our supplies, and it was hard for her to get any with a deadbeat father and a mother she wasn’t speaking to. And we didn’t make any money on some of the magic we did. Like the time we broke Mr. Fitzmaurice’s leg. We didn’t do that for money, at all.”

  “What did you break his leg for?”

  “Revenge,” Amanda said.

  “Revenge?”

  Amanda nodded. She pulled her dark eyebrows together in an expression that made David think of the way the crow looked at Amanda. “To get even with Mr. Fitzmaurice for being an unfair and prejudiced person. See, Leah had a paper to write about the Aztec Indians for history class, and Leah got this very good student named Millicent Endicott to let her copy hers. Millicent had a different teacher for history, so no one could have known about the copying. Then”—Amanda paused and made her face say you-won’t-believe-this-and-it-will-make-you-furious—“then, Millicent got an A on the Aztec Indians and Mr. Fitzmaurice only gave Leah a C-. On the very same paper! Leah was furious. I mean, after all the time it took to convince Millicent about the evil eye and what it could do to you, and then on top of that all the work of copying the paper, which was very long, and then to only get a C-! It really proved that Mr. Fitz-maurice was a very prejudiced person.”

  “Why was he prejudiced against Leah?”

  “Who knows?” Amanda said. “Except that the only people he wasn’t prejudiced against were a few types who did all their homework and laughed at his corny jokes. Anyway, we got a hair off the shoulder of his jacket, and we put it on a clay doll, and then we stuck pins in the doll, and very soon afterwards Mr. Fitzmaurice went skiing and broke his leg.”

  David couldn’t help being impressed. Amanda could look you right in the eye and start telling you something that sounded impossible, and by the time she got through telling it, it didn’t seem impossible at all.

  “Wow!” David said when Amanda got through telling him about Mr. Fitzmaurice.

  Amanda looked pleased. “Hey,” she said, “how’d you like to take some lessons in the supernatural? The little kids could, too, even. You could all be my neophytes.”

  “What’s a neophyte?” David asked.

  “A learner. Somebody who’s new at something. I was Leah’s neophyte until I passed the initiation, so now all you kids could be mine.”

  David was really surprised when Amanda invited him and the kids to become her neophytes. He’d been hoping she’d tell him some more about the supernatural, and maybe let him read some of her books, but he certainly hadn’t expected to be a part of any of her supernatural ceremonies.

  Actually David hadn’t made any very positive decisions concerning Amanda and her magic. He hadn’t decided just how supernatural he thought it really was, for instance, and he really hadn’t tried to decide. He wasn’t sure why, but he remembered once he’d asked his mother if she believed in ghosts, and she’d said that she didn’t disbelieve in anything that made the world more exciting. David decided now that he felt the same way. And there was one thing you had to say for Amanda—she usually made the world more exciting, one way or another.

  That night, as they were going to bed, David told the kids about Amanda’s invitation, and they were all enthusiastic. Janie talked about learning to be a witch, and David told her he thought she had a pretty good start already. Esther kept chattering about rabbits. At first David couldn’t figure out what she was talking about, until he realized that he’d said Amanda was going to teach them how to do magic. Apparently Esther had gotten the idea from somewhere—TV probably—that magic consisted mostly of pulling rabbits out of tall black hats. And Esther had always been crazy about rabbits.

  Blair didn’t say very much, as usual, but David could tell he was interested. Finally he said, “David?” and when David looked at him he said, “David, what is magic?”

  David hadn’t realized before how hard it was to explain magic with nothing but words. “Well,” he said, “it’s when you do things other people can’t do, by using powers that other people don’t have.”

  Blair nodded, smiling his Christmas card smile. “Oh,” he said. “Is that magic?”

  “But you have to study for a long time and do all sorts of ceremonies and spells to get the powers.”

  Blair looked puzzled. “You have to do spells?” he asked.

  David nodded.

  “Does Amanda do spells?”

  “Sure. Lots of them.”

  “David,” Blair said, “when Amanda has a spell, does she kick the crow?”

  “Kick the crow?” David said, but then he laughed, because he remembered that one of the housekeepers had called Janie’s tantrums “having a spell.”

  “Not that kind of a spell, Blair,” he said. “And Amanda doesn’t kick the crow.”

  Blair shook his head. “She does,” he said.

  Esther interrupted them with another question about rabbits, and David went back to explaining that there might not be any, at least not right away.

  Early the next day Molly went to the village to do some shopping, and as soon as she was gone Amanda called all the Stanleys into her room. The room looked very different from the way it had looked when David had seen it last. There were bright colored posters all over the walls, and in several places strange looking objects hung from the ceiling. One of the things looked like a huge eye painted on cardboard, and some others seemed to be made of sticks and yarn. There were long strings of beads hanging in front of the window, and curtains hanging in several places inside the room. There was a curtain over the door to the closet and another one draped down the front of the bookcase. In the center of the room was a card table with a shawl over it and a deck of cards in the center. Amanda was wearing her black dress and shawl, and she had the shiny triangle glued on her forehead, but her hair wasn’t braided. As soon as they were all inside, Amanda shut the door and sat down at the table. There was one other chair, on the other side of the table. David and Esther and Janie sat down on the edge of the bed, and Blair went over and sat on the floor near the crow’s cage.

  Amanda picked up the cards and began shuffling them. “I’ve decided,” she said, “that before I can start teaching you, I have to give you some tests.”

  “Like I.Q. tests?” Janie said. “I have a very high I.Q.”

  “No, not like I.Q. I’m going to test you for supernatural aptitude. I’m going to find out if any of you have any natural psychic talents. Some people are just naturally born with telepathy and things like that, and there are tests that are done in laboratories to find out who’s got it. Leah and I read all about it. I don’t really think any of you guys have any, or not much, at least. But this way we can find out for sure. You’re first, David. Sit down in the chair.”

  The test was to find out how good you were at reading other people’s minds. Amanda held the cards one at a time so that David couldn’t see them, and David was supposed to say whether she was looking at a red card or a black one. Amanda explained that an ordinary person could be expected to guess correctly about half the time, or about ten right out of twenty cards. If you got as many as fourteen or fifteen right you were pretty psychic. When Leah had given Amanda the test, Amanda had had fourteen right, the first time.

  So Amanda held up the cards with their backs to David and David guessed red or black. When he was finished, Amanda said he’d gotten eleven right, which wasn’t very good, but not quite hopeless. Janie was next.

  Janie insisted on taking a long long time to guess each card. Each time she put her forefingers against her forehead on each side and rocked back and forth with her eyes shut, murmuring, “red or black, red or black.” Then when she got one wrong, she went into a long argument about how she had meant to say the other color only it had come out wrong when she said it, so she ought to get another chance. Once while David was waiting for Janie and Amanda to stop arguing over w
hether a mistake ought to count, he happened to notice what Blair was doing.

  Blair was feeding something to the crow. It looked like liver-wurst and it probably was, because Blair loved liverwurst and he was always carrying pieces of it around in his pockets. David thought of warning Blair to be careful, but the crow didn’t seem to be interested in biting anything but the liverwurst, so he didn’t bother. Besides, Blair was usually able to take care of himself where animals were concerned.

  When Janie was finally finished, her score was thirteen, only she kept saying it was really fifteen, except Amanda didn’t count it right. Esther was next. She climbed up into the chair and got all settled with her fat legs sticking out in front of her and her hands folded in her lap. She closed her eyes as Janie had, and then she opened them again and said, “If I win do I get to make the first rabbit?”

  “Rabbit?” Amanda said. “What’s she talking about?”

  David tried to explain, and Amanda snorted and went on with the test. When she had finished, Esther’s score was exactly ten.

  “Did I do good?” Esther asked Amanda.

  “You did just ordinary. Nothing special,” Amanda said.

  Esther came over and leaned against David.

  “David?” she said, looking very sad.

  “Look, Tesser,” David whispered. “If there are ever any rabbits, you’ll get one. I promise.”

  Esther grinned and climbed back up beside him on the edge of the bed. David noticed that Amanda was putting the cards away.

  “What about Blair?” he asked.

  Amanda looked surprised. “How can he do it?” she said. “He doesn’t even talk.”

  “He talks!” David said. “I told you he talks. Just not very often.”

  “Well, I’ve never heard him,” Amanda said.

  Blair went over to the table and looked at Amanda.

  “Well, all right,” she said. “Get in the chair.” She pulled out a card and stared at it.

  Blair climbed up into the chair and sat very still, looking at Amanda and smiling.

  “Well, what is it?” she said at last. “Is it red or black?”

  “It’s valentines,” Blair said in a very soft voice. “It’s lots of little valentines.”

  Amanda threw the card down. “See,” she said to David, “what did I tell you. He just doesn’t get it.”

  David went over and picked up the card. It was the nine of hearts. Just at that moment Amanda gave a little scream, and for a split second David thought she was just surprised because Blair knew what the card was. Obviously Blair had not only known that the card was red—he had known it was hearts and that there were a lot of them. He would probably have known it was nine if he had known how to count that far. David was just opening his mouth to explain that Blair had always been a little strange about things like that, when he noticed what Amanda was really screaming about. The crow was out of the cage.

  The crow was hopping across the floor on its big black feet, and its wings were spreading out wider and wider. As they all stood frozen, watching, it jumped into the air, and Amanda screamed again. It flapped madly around the room, with its huge wings making an awful racket. It lit once for a second on the dresser and knocked over a bunch of bottles and jars, then took off again. When it finally lit on the middle of the bed, Janie and David and Esther and Amanda were all lying on the floor. Amanda had her arms over her head. They all sat up slowly and cautiously.

  Blair walked over to the bed. When the crow saw him, it bobbed its head up and down and came towards him in two big floppy jumps. Blair put his round babyish arms around the crow and lifted it off the bed. It was so big for him that he had to walk leaning backwards. The crow hung limp, with its head bobbling and its huge curled-up claws hanging almost to the floor. Blair walked slowly to the cage and put the crow inside.

  Amanda jumped to her feet. “Wow!” she said. “It’s tame. All of a sudden it’s tame. You know what it must be? It must be because it got a chance to get out and fly a little. It probably was mad because it never got to fly anymore. That must have been what made it so mean.” She went over to the cage and opened the door and stepped back. The crow came out.

  It came out with a rush and took off. It flapped and beat its way around the room several times, making a feathery roar and brief but violent little windstorms. Everyone began ducking and squealing. Finally it lit again on the bed. Amanda walked towards it.

  “Rolor,” Amanda said. “Rolor—obufo—luaul—ofubo—rolor.” The crow edged away from her.

  She walked around to the other side of the bed and moved slowly towards it, saying the strange words very softly. The crow started to sidestep back across the bed.

  All of a sudden Amanda lunged and grabbed with both arms. There was a loud squawk and an explosion of arms and claws and feathers. The crow seemed to be clawing and flapping its way right up the front of Amanda, while Amanda ran towards the cage, grabbing and hitting at the crow. When she got to the cage, the crow was on top of her head with its claws all tangled up in her hair. She jerked it off and threw it into the cage so hard it hit the other side. Then she hauled off and kicked the cage as hard as she could. The metal wires went twa-ang-ang-angg and every one of the crow’s feathers seemed to stand on end and vibrate. The crow squawked, and Amanda said, “It serves you right you—mutter—mutter—mutter!”

  When Amanda turned around, her hair was standing on end, her face was red, and there was a long scratch down one cheek. She just stood looking at David and the kids for a minute, breathing hard. Then she brushed at her hair and gave a little shrug. “Crazy crow,” she said coolly. “Something must have scared it.” She walked over to the table, picked up the cards and started putting them away. “You can go now,” she said. “That’s all we’re going to do today. We’ll do some more tomorrow.”

  David and Blair and Esther started for the door, but as usual, Janie had to argue.

  “Can’t we stay?” she asked. “Can’t we stay and learn some more. I want to stay and learn some more about taming the crow.”

  “Get out!” Amanda said.

  Chapter Six

  AMANDA DIDN’T LET THEM BACK INTO HER ROOM UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. When she did, the card table had been put away and instead there was a candle and a metal bowl full of burning incense in the middle of the floor. The windows were closed and the drapes pulled and the sweetish smoke swirled in the dim light. Amanda had them all sit down on the floor around the candle and incense.

  “Today we’re going to begin the initiation rites,” she said.

  “The what?” Janie asked.

  “The rites of initiation,” Amanda said slowly and distinctly.

  All three of the little kids still looked blank. “Look,” David said, “it’s like in that fairy tale I read you about the prince who had to do all sorts of trials and tests before he got to marry the princess. In an initiation you have to do trials to prove you’re good enough to do—whatever you’re getting ready to do.”

  “Dibs on David,” Esther said.

  “What do you mean dibs on me?” David asked.

  “To marry. I get to marry David.”

  Amanda and Janie laughed. “You dope,” Janie said. “You can’t marry your own brother. You aren’t even old enough.”

  “Besides it’s not that kind of an initiation,” David explained. “We’re being initiated into the supernatural.” He looked at Amanda for confirmation.

  Amanda nodded. “Into the world of the occult,” she said.

  “Into magic!” Janie said.

  “Ooooh!” Esther said in a now-I-get-it tone of voice. “Dibs on the first rabbit.”

  Amanda ignored her and went on with the explanation. It seemed that there were going to be nine tests. Amanda called them ordeals. Each ordeal would last for a whole day. If you passed one ordeal, you got to go on to the next one; and if you didn’t pass, you had to do it over again on the next day. When they had all passed all the ordeals, there would be a ceremony of initiatio
n. The final rite of initiation would be very complicated and difficult, and when it was over they would be members of the occult world.

  “There are some things you’ll have to start doing right away in order to be ready for the rites,” Amanda said. “I mean, besides the ordeals. For one thing, you all have to start right away collecting things for your ceremonial clothing. Because that’s something you can’t do at the last minute. It took me weeks and weeks to get all my things together. I’ll tell you about it now, so you can get started. First of all, every thing has to be very old, the older the better. Like my black dress. I found it in a junk store, and the clerk said it was a real antique. Besides that, at least one of the things you wear has to have belonged to a dead person. And one of them has to be stolen.”

  “Stolen?” David said. “Who has to steal them?”

  “You do. Each one has to steal his own.”

  “We have to steal?” Janie asked, looking amazed. David knew why. His father had a lot of very firm ideas about stealing, and Janie had heard all of them, many times.

  Amanda nodded.

  “You have to steal so you can be in the rite of initiation?” Janie asked.

  “Yes!”

  Janie thought about that for a while and then she asked, “Do you ever have to be in a wrong of initiation?”

  “Look kid,” Amanda said. “Do you want to hear about this or don’t you? There’s one more thing about your robes. You can’t wear anything white.”

  “Not even your underpants?” Janie asked.

  “Not any of it,” Amanda said, glaring first at Janie and then at David. “If you don’t shut her up, we’re never going to get started.”

  “Shut up, Janie,” David said.

  After that Amanda explained the first ordeal. The first one was that for a whole day they couldn’t wear or let anything made of metal touch their skin. It was going to start at midnight that night and last until the next midnight.