by Rachel Wells
“Whatever,” the guy shrugged his shoulders, not even bothering to look up from his comic book. He reached for his soda sitting there and took a long noisy swig from the straw, completely ignoring Lucas and Mandy.
Lucas gently grabbed Mandy by the elbow and led her outside. “So, I ran into Ally yesterday,” Lucas started.
“Yeah? So?” Mandy asked, raising her eyebrows expectantly at Lucas.
“Well, she told me you went out with that Steve kid,” Lucas said.
“Um, yeah, we had dinner and played some skee-ball,” Mandy admitted.
“So what, are you guys like seeing each other now? What about us?” Lucas asked, looking hurt. “You barely gave me a chance.”
“Lucas, first of all, I’m not really sure who I’m seeing, or not seeing, is your business. And I wasn’t aware there was an us,” Mandy had a feeling she wasn’t disguising the disgust in her voice very well.
“Don’t be like that Mandy,” Lucas said. “Didn’t you have fun when I took you out? It must have been more fun than that date with that Steve kid, if you can even call it a date.” Lucas smirked.
“Steve and I had tons of fun together, if you really want to know. And yes, I had fun with you, but let’s be honest Lucas. You and I aren’t really right for each other. I think you know that. You must see that,” Mandy tried to sound nicer this time.
“What do you mean by that?” Lucas pushed.
“Well, you’re you, and I’m me. I mean look at us. We don’t match,” Mandy said assertively.
“What are you talking about?” Lucas persisted.
Mandy sighed. “Our personalities are totally different, Lucas. You’re sparkling water and like prom date material. I’m soda and like anti-social bookworm. It would never work.”
“Yeah, but,” Lucas started to insist.
“No. Lucas, listen, you seem like a nice guy and all, but that’s it. For me, anyway. Friends?” Mandy said seriously.
“Fine. But you should know I don’t give up easily,” Lucas said, a small grin working its way onto his mouth.
“Thanks for the warning,” Mandy said sarcastically. “I really gotta go, though.” She started to back up.
“See ya,” Lucas said, turning back into the sunglasses shop. Mandy headed down the street towards the coffee shop. She couldn’t go directly over to Ophelia’s for fear that Lucas would see her. She didn’t want to have to deal with Lucas asking questions about what she was doing at Ophelia’s. She decided she would go into the coffee shop and order something. She’d sit and drink it for a bit and then go up to Ophelia’s when enough time had passed that she should be in the clear.
Mandy ordered a white hot chocolate and took a little table by the window. She sat there and drank the cocoa and stared out the window vacantly. She couldn’t believe the way this summer had turned out. She couldn’t believe it was over and the first day of school was tomorrow. She picked up the Styrofoam cup for a sip and had to tip it upside down to get out the last of it. She hadn’t realized she had drunk it all. She looked down at her watch. It was almost 8 o’clock. How long had she been sitting here? At least forty-five minutes. The stores would be packing up for the night in a few minutes. If she was going to go get some answers from Ophelia she was going to have to go now.
Mandy threw her cup out in the waste can by the door and stepped out into the cool evening air. The sun was sinking, giving everything a rosy golden glow. Mandy crossed the street and walked up towards Ophelia’s. She hadn’t thought this through very well, actually not at all. She didn’t even know what she was going to say.
As Mandy approached the psychic, the little dog’s head flew up, his ears pointed up and alert. He whined and stood up, his little tail darting back and forth frantically, obviously excited for some company. Mandy hesitated in front of the store, unsure how to start.
There was suddenly a long low chuckle breaking the silence. “Back for more, Mandy?” Ophelia cackled, showing two gleaming gold teeth. She nodded knowingly. “Don’t be shy, sit.” She gestured to the chair opposite her. Mandy took a step towards the chair and the little dog jumped up on Mandy, looking like he might spontaneously combust at any moment, he was so excited. “Bobo, sit!” Ophelia commanded. Bobo sat, but his tail kept up its frenetic pace. “So?” Ophelia addressed Mandy. “What is it this time?”
“How did you know?” Mandy simply asked. She had a feeling Ophelia would know what she was talking about.
“Aah. That,” Ophelia began. “You do realize I’m a psychic?” Ophelia waved her hand in front of the sign announcing her title.
Mandy shrugged her shoulders. “Listen, I don’t want to sound rude, but I’ve never believed in that kind of thing, or any of this.”
“And now you do?” Ophelia’s voice had lost any sense of teasing.
“A lot has happened since I last saw you,” Mandy began. “I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
“What do you want to believe?” Ophelia urged. “Do you want everything to be in black and white…grey?” Ophelia’s eyes turned into the black marbles again. Mandy felt like they were boring holes through her brain. “Or do you want the sleepy town to open its eyes? Eyes you didn’t know it had? To be bathed in colors unimaginable? Awake and alive? Breathing, pulsing with life? The choice is yours Mandy. You can keep things how you’ve always perceived them to be, or you can open your mind to reality. A reality you never knew existed.” She began to cackle again, surely from the look of sheer horror on Mandy’s face.
Mandy didn’t know how Ophelia kept doing this, but it was like she could read her mind. How would Ophelia know that Mandy had always considered York to be grey? No one knew that, not even Nana. Bobo cocked his head at Mandy and whined, like he was waiting for an answer. Mandy looked up from the dog to Ophelia.
“I…” Mandy didn’t even bother finishing the sentence.
“What would Mary want you to do? She didn’t have a choice, but you do,” Ophelia knowingly said.
“How do you know about Mary? What do you know?” Mandy asked, realizing this is what she had come here for in the first place.
“My family stories were handed down the same way yours have been, the same way everyone’s are. My talents were handed down the same ways yours have been, as well,” Ophelia winked.
“What are you saying?” Mandy asked, hating that she sounded so thick and dumb to herself, but she needed clarification.
“Mary Nasson was your ancestor. She was a brave woman. I’m sure she would have wanted her future descendents to be brave as well,” Ophelia said.
Mandy took that in for a moment. “You said your talents were handed down…do you know anything about…”
“Our histories are entwined,” Ophelia replied simply. “I’m going to warn you the same way Mary was warned. Your road may be a bumpy one at present, full of twists and turns, and dark scary woods. But if you make the right choices you will come out in the sunshine, Mandy. Out of the unending grey.”
Mandy stared befuddled at Ophelia. “But what…”
“I can tell you more for ten dollars!” Ophelia snorted and began cackling again.
Mandy sighed, aggravated beyond belief. “I’ll just take my chances in the dark scary woods,” she said sarcastically. She stood up to leave but first gave Bobo a pet on the head. He was practically turning back flips in front of Mandy’s feet, trying to get her attention.
“Be careful out there then,” Ophelia cackled, somehow managing to make her voice sound ominous between the laughter. Mandy shook her head and walked back towards the parking lot, her car, and home.
* * *
Chapter 17
Mandy practically fell into bed that night. She was mentally exhausted from her life at the moment. Her eyelids closed, drawing a much needed black curtain against Mary Nasson, Nana, Lucas, and Ophelia. For the time being, Mandy was blissfully unaware.
Mandy awoke with a start. Her room was still black. It must be the middle of the night. Her pillow was soaking we
t and she realized she’d been drooling. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, which was still slobbery. She knew it was weird, but she loved when she woke up to drool. Those were always the nights she got the best sleep. She supposed it must mean that she was really out, hence the drool. She rolled over to find the glowing red numbers of her alarm clock. 3:03 a.m.
Mandy rolled over the other way and pulled the covers back over her head. She was suddenly freezing. She hated when she woke up at 3 in the morning. It had crept her out ever since she had watched some horror movie where they had referred to 3 in the morning as “the witching hour”. Supposedly all the ghosts were on the loose at this time. Mandy squeezed her eyes shut against the dark. She would not think about ghosts. She just wouldn’t do it.
Mandy swallowed and her mouth was so dry. She really needed some water. She peeked her head out cautiously from under the blanket and rolled back towards the night stand. Damn, she thought. The glass she always kept there was empty. Mandy rolled onto her back and tried to figure out how badly she wanted that water. Dry mouth all night or risk running across a lost soul…what to do, what to do…
Mandy rolled back towards the clock. 3:07. She reasoned with herself that she was already wide awake now, she might as well go get the stupid water. Besides it was 7 minutes past the hour, if there was a lost soul after her, surely it would have already started its haunting by now. Mandy sighed as she realized how ridiculous she was being. She pushed back the covers and got out of bed. She walked to the bathroom and turned on the tap and gulped down a glass. Then she filled it again, just in case, and brought it back to her room with her. She placed it on the nightstand and crawled back in bed. That wasn’t so bad, she thought to herself as she dropped back into unconsciousness.
The next time Mandy woke it was bright and sunny. That’s a change for the better, Mandy thought. Maybe it’s going to be a good day. She yawned and stretched her hands above her head. Her joints popped. I’m getting old, she thought to herself morosely. She sat up and looked at the clock. Shoot! She had school today. How could she have forgotten?! She flung open her closet looking for something to wear. She was standing there, staring at her clothes, still kind of lost in that bewildering morning fog when she heard two voices that sounded too loud. Like they were arguing. Definitely a male and female voice, but it didn’t sound like her parents.
Mandy turned from the closet to look at the window, thinking maybe she had left it open last night and the voices were drifting in from the beach, but it appeared to be sealed shut. Mandy stopped and tried to listen more closely. The woman’s tone of voice rose higher, she sounded like she was pleading and upset. Mandy heard the man’s gruff monotone interrupt her. What was going on here?
Mandy took the few steps to her door and was out it in a flash. She looked to the right towards her parents’ room. The door stood open and their bed was made up neatly, same as always. She put one hand on the banister by the stairs, but hesitated as the man’s voice traveled clearly up the stairwell, sounding agitated and angry. “Watch your back, Goody!” What the hell? Mandy spun a little half circle looking behind her, but saw nothing out of ordinary.
Mandy took the steps two at a time and was on the landing as she heard the woman’s voice break as if she were on the verge of tears. “Please…” she begged. Mandy took three more steps towards the kitchen until she was able to peer in standing next to the doorway.
Mandy wasn’t sure what or who she had been expecting to find, but this took her totally by surprise. A man and woman, she had gathered that it must be that much, but they stood angrily facing each other in what could only be described as old fashioned costumes. It was not her mother and father, they were nowhere to be seen. The woman had on a drab looking brown dress, a handful of tiny blue flowers were speckled here and there over the fabric. A full apron covered the garment and what appeared to be a muslin hair covering or bonnet was tied under her thin chin. Her auburn hair was coiled neatly at the nape of her neck in a bun. The man work a suit of some sort of dark brown wool, with a lacy tie cascading down from his throat. He had black boots on that came up to right under his knees covering his pants. They had globs of brown mud clinging to them.
Something else was amiss here. Mandy’s mouth dropped as she realized it was her kitchen, the shape of it anyway. That was where the window went, and the table. But it was not her table. And where the oven should be was a brick hearth with a recession in the wall which held a black…cauldron? There was really no other word for it. In the window hung strands of what appeared to be drying herbs, tied into bundles with twine. Intricately braided ropes of garlic hung adjacent to them. On the windowsill itself was something that looked familiar. One of Nana’s round glass jars, filled with sand and ocean water, stood gleaming, catching bits of the morning sunshine and bouncing them about the room. The fridge was completely gone. In its corner an old and tired looking broom was leaning against the wall.
“There is no alternative, Goody. Trouble is brewing, and it was thee who brewed it!” The man looked at the woman, Goody, with a fierce look in his narrowed eyes.
“Doctor, I plead, have mercy. I meant no harm. I mean no harm still. I only want to help the townsfolk,” the woman choked out.
“He died. And I warned thee,” the doctor said smugly, folding his arms across his chest.
“But surely, thou being a man of medicine, know that there was no cure for such a disease as Elias had. How can thou expect that the outcome would be any other than what t’was?” The woman raised her arms out, palms up, expectantly at the doctor.
“Enough. The noose is nearly fastened on thy neck. I only came to remind thou to heed my warning that I once graciously gave. If not thou, I take thee sister,” the doctor snarled an inch from the woman’s face. Mandy could see spittle fly from his grotesquely shaped mouth and hit the woman’s skin. Mandy’s blood was practically boiling at how the man was treating the woman, but she was frozen in place, too scared to move, and too in awe of what she thought she was witnessing to want to.
“Doctor, art thou aware that would be mortal sin, t’were thou to take my sister down in cold blooded murder? Thou must not want that black mark staining thee soul?” the woman tried to reason with the madman.
“I care not what happens to my soul! I want my just payment, or revenge!” At this the man turned with a flourish and stomped out the door. Mandy was biting her nails down to the quick but she didn’t care. She watched as the woman stared at the door for a moment where the doctor had vanished, and then the sobs began to come. The woman’s shoulders shook. She turned away from the door and went to the table, collapsing onto its solid surface. She folded her face into her arms and wept, her whole body fairly convulsing by the violent sobs.
Mandy knew she could stay hidden no longer. She pried her fingers from her mouth and wiped them on her pajama pants. Slowly she crept towards where the woman sat crying. There must be something they could do. She would go after the man with the woman and she would help her reason with him. Mandy cleared her throat hoping to get the woman’s attention, but she was too engulfed in her sadness to hear.
Mandy touched the woman on the shoulder gently. No response. She patted, hesitantly, and then rubbed her upper back a little. “It will be okay, we’ll make it okay,” Mandy said consolingly.
“No it won’t,” the woman sobbed without looking up. Mandy jumped a bit, shocked by the response.
“It will. Come with me, we’ll find that guy. He can’t talk to you like that!” Mandy said, suddenly mad again.
“It’s too late,” the woman said, muffled and hidden in her arms still.
“It’s not. My Nana has always told me never say never,” Mandy said, grasping at anything to give the woman some hope.
The woman stopped convulsing with sobs suddenly and the room seemed to take on an eerie chill. Her head snapped up and it was no longer the woman’s face, but Mandy’s. Mandy felt her mouth drop open and as suddenly as she had recognized herself it
was gone. The face suddenly morphed into a gray skeletal face and stared back at Mandy, its eye sockets looming black and large and empty. The mouth was hanging open in a horrible grimace, and a wail as shrill as a banshee was pouring forth, drenched in agony. Her bony, skeletal hands were suddenly outstretched towards Mandy. The long fingers uncurled, releasing a hundred black, shiny marbles at Mandy. They bounced and clattered around Mandy’s feet.
Mandy managed one step backwards before her mouth fell open mirroring the skeleton’s with a wail to match. She began flailing her arms wildly at the thing, trying to make it disappear when she hit herself in the face accidentally.
Mandy’s eyes flew open and she heard a weird noise. She realized she was panting, like a dog, like Bobo. Her cheeks were wet, not from drool. She had been crying. She had been asleep. It was just a dream.
Mandy tried to get a grip on her breathing and wiped at her eyes. God, that was horrible. But it was just a dream, she kept telling herself. Mandy found she was almost scared to get out of bed, or to even move for that matter. She couldn’t shake the image from her mind of the skeletal woman wailing. But she had to move. Today was the first day of school. Mandy forced herself to sit up and was happy to see the glass of water. She drank it down in a few chugs and went to get ready for school.
* * *
Chapter 18
Mandy took a steaming hot shower, trying to clear the images of the dream from her head. It was so hot it almost scalding her. When she stepped out from the water to grab a towel her skin had a red tint to it from the heat. The dream was taking up so much space in her brain that she was having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that it was the first day of school. The dreaded day had finally arrived. It would have been bad enough after a normal summer. Generally most kids returned to school reluctantly. But this was a new school, full of new people. She wouldn’t know where any of her classes were, which meant she would be forced to actually talk to some of the intimidating students to ask directions, or stumble around lost all day. She also had those stupid articles her grandmother had commissioned hanging over her head. Suddenly, she remembered she had a shred of hope. Stephen. Stephen was coming to pick her up. She wouldn’t be facing the horror of today alone at least.
