by Ellie Moses
She glanced at Ray on her parting words hoping she’d upset him. Instead of the cold blast of air I expected, Ray came to stand behind me. “Get out,” he told her and Sissy Prather stumbled forward as I pushed the door closed and locked it.
12
Saturday morning, I woke up in the bedroom Granny Mack still kept at her place for me. The last time I’d slept there was the night of Ray’s funeral. When I woke up the morning after we’d laid him to rest, he’d been right there at the foot of the bed waiting for me in his ghost form.
Now, he was beside me in the bed, his eyes closed as though he was sleeping. Ghosts didn’t sleep, but Ray wanted to mimic what our life together would have been like if he hadn’t died. I figured he might be restoring himself after our run in with Harlan and Marleen Covey and the visit from Sissy.
He and Granny had swept me away from Value Vintage that night after Sissy came by with her threats. I was only allowed in my shop during the day and with Deputy Carter keeping an eye on things in the back. He’d told Sheriff Quinn that the Covey brothers might come to town seeking revenge since their cousin was in a jail cell in Devil’s Elbow.
I got up, happy that at least the sun was shining bright outside. It would be another hot one. Great day for a barbecue. Delilah scratched at the closed bedroom door so I let her in and bent down to stroke her gently from the top of her neck down her back, stopping as I got to her tail. She didn’t like anyone messing with her tail.
Knowing she had come to find me out of concern rather than hunger, I sat cross-legged on the floor and let her settle into my lap while I undid the long braid I put my hair up in every night. I knew Granny Mack was already up by the smell of bacon and coffee drifting into my room, and I also knew she’d fed my familiar by the contented way Delilah licked her chops.
Moving into Granny’s for a while didn’t faze my feline friend in the least. The funniest thing was the way Old Blue followed Delilah around like a love-sick pup. She tolerated him only so long before she’d swipe at him here and there until Granny caught her in the act. When my grandmother fussed at my familiar and threatened not to give her anymore special treats, Delilah put up with Old Blue like an older sibling enduring the irritation of the baby of the family.
“Don’t worry, girl,” I crooned to her as she rose and stretched out to her full length, “we’ll be back home where we belong soon and so will Billy Jack.”
I said it with more conviction than I felt and Ray spoke up behind me. “He will Jolene, he will. I’m going to do some spooking around Devil’s Elbow so to speak and see what shakes loose.”
Standing, I ran my fingers through my hair as Ray placed the whisper of a kiss on my forehead before floating away towards the door. “Wait,” I called, wondering what he had in mind, “you’re going to spy on folks without their knowledge? Isn’t that illegal?”
Ray turned and gave me that look. The one that meant since he wasn’t a living lawman it was okay for him to use his particular magick gained in the afterlife if it could help someone. “It’s not like I just pop in on anybody, and certainly not while they’re in the shower or in compromisin’ positions, but listening in while they chat over breakfast or confide in coworkers is technically all right.”
It was still dubious, but I stopped questioning him about the legalities just this once. “I’ll be here all day with Granny unless she sends me into town for something. I told Genie not to bother with the shop since the festival is over and all the tourists have gone anyway.”
Watching him turn and leave with Delilah following after him, I got my things together for a quick hot shower. My cell phone buzzed to life on the bedside table and I picked it up. I didn’t recognize the number, but since plenty of people had taken the calling cards I’d left on the counter all during the Mountain Laurel Festival, I answered anyway. One of these days, I’d get a landline for Value Vintage instead of using my personal number.
A gravelly, scary voice on the other end laughed like an unhinged lunatic and I threw the phone on the bed, the evil that emanated from it startling me, out of place as it was in the sunny, pastel environs of my safe haven at Granny’s house.
Before I could push the button to end the call, my hands shaking with anger and real fear I knew the caller likely sensed, I heard a voice. “We’re not done with you yet, Joleeeeeen!”
I hung up and immediately blocked the number after writing it down on the notepad I found on my old writing desk under the window. Silencing the phone’s ringtone, I placed it in the desk drawer and pulled myself together. I hadn’t recognized the voice on the phone. But I would give the number to Deputy Carter and tell him what happened later.
For now, I scooped up my clothes for the day, a pair of old cut-offs, a pink tie-dye tank, and tube socks, and went to take my shower hoping the threatening call was only a prank. Trouble was, none of my friends would do such a thing and the only enemies I had would fight me to the death.
I stood in Granny Mack’s backyard and spread the plastic red gingham tablecloths over the three picnic tables Granny had pushed together and pulled out two more that were mismatched. One had huckleberries in pretty bunches all over it and the other boasted autumn leaves along the border.
Granny didn’t mind, she said she could fill the huckleberry table with dessert and the other would be for all the sides for the pork, beef, and hotdogs she was assembling for the grill.
I’d been in the kitchen all day sweatin’ and makin’ all those sides while Granny made desserts. The run I’d made down to Bodean’s for a dozen bags of ice had been a blessing instead of a chore.
I recalled the delicious feel of the artificial deep chill of the air-conditioned bait and tackle shop as I watched for the sun to sink lower in the sky. “Baby girl,” Granny called pulling me out of my daydreams, “bring out the lemonade and get the sun tea off the front steps, won’t you?”
Hoping for a big crowd to eat all this food, and knowing they would come once word got out, I wiped my forehead with an old bandana I’d forgotten was in my pocket. I went around front to get the sun tea first.
Granny made the best sun tea, but Aunt Dixie’s came in a close second. I hoped she would come over tonight. I’d been worried about her since her run-in with Melba Hoskins at PJ’s beauty shop.
I bent down to pick up the two gallon jugs of tea when something across the road in the weeds sparkled and blinded me for a minute. Covering my eyes, I glanced over in the general direction and peered closely where I thought I’d seen the glint.
Nothing there. Must have been a trick of the sun. Picking up the jugs, I cradled one under each arm. Their warmth and amber glow brought a smile to my lips. As I rounded the corner of the house, Old Blue ran past me barking for all he was worth. That crazy dog bolted right across the lane and into the weeds.
“Blue!” I called and turned to go get him. I set the tea down in the grass and stood up to chase after the old dog. The two jugs of tea exploded and I hit the ground faster than a flea-flickin’ hound. I yelled for Granny and she was around the corner of the house in a second with a shotgun in her hands blasting double aught buckshot as she came.
Old Blue came outta those weeds howling and barking up a storm with something in his mouth. Granny stopped shooting once she caught sight of him and hollered for whoever was snooping to get off her land. Even though the lane that ran past her house was owned by the county, Granny had forty acres on either side.
I tried to see what Blue had in his mouth but my vision was blurred by tears of frustration and fear. The tea that Granny had made was ruined and it was all my fault.
“Jolene, get up child. Whoever it was is long gone, I can tell you that. I hope they caught some lead in their britches for shooting up my sun tea.”
Standing, my knees weak from how close I’d come to being shot, I went to pick up the broken glass. Granny Mack beat me to it with the snap of her fingers. The glass reformed itself into two gallon jugs but the tea was a goner.
“I�
�m sorry, Granny. Maybe I ought to go back to Value Vintage right now.”
“Nonsense! At least here, me and Blue was able to protect you, child. Pick up them jugs and follow me. I’ll make more lemonade while you call Deputy Carter and tell him someone was out here messing around and likely caught some buckshot.” Her voice was firm but I knew she had to be as shook as me.
I reached for my cell phone in my back pocket, my hands shaking, and then remembered I’d left it in the desk upstairs. I hadn’t told Granny about the threatening call this morning and looking back, maybe I should have. Then we could have had Deputy Carter out here patrolling through the day.
“Granny, I’ll go call him in a minute. There’s something I didn’t tell you.”
Shaking her head, Granny took my arm and pulled me towards the back of the house. “Come on, let’s get outta sight first. Just in case buckshot didn’t scare ‘em off.”
Once we were inside the sun porch out back, I spilled the beans. “I got a threatening call first thing this morning. I couldn’t tell who it was, but I reckon it has to be somebody with the last name Covey.”
Granny’s brow creased and a frown pulled at the corners of her mouth. “I knew I should have put up a shield over the house and land before today, but Deputy Carter said he ain’t seen hide nor hair of any Coveys since Harlan and Marleen were locked up.”
I put my arm around her. “You’ve protected me my whole life, Granny. I’m a big girl now, remember? It’s time I take things seriously and be on my guard. Life in these hills has been a cakewalk up until now. You said I’m a powerful witch, well it’s time to act like one.”
“Alrighty,” she said before kissing my cheek, the light touch of her lips making me smile, “let’s see you put up a shield and then go upstairs and call Deputy Carter and invite him to our little shindig. We’ve still got a lot to do. Ain’t no coward hidin’ in the trees shootin’ at womenfolk gonna mess up our evening.”
She let loose of me and I took a deep breath, centering myself. Delilah came into the sun porch, in her painter form no less, and wound around my legs. I drew on her comfort and imagined a giant bubble over Granny’s house. My mind’s eye soared above over the house and trees. Everywhere I could see, I stretched the bubble to close it all in. When I was done, my eyes snapped open and Granny led me to one of the gliding chairs and helped me to sit.
“Good girl,” she crooned as Delilah sat at my feet, still on guard. “You sit here for a hot second and let me bring you some tea, baby girl. I’ve got the restorative kind that’ll help you come back to yourself quicker. And I’ll call the deputy too.”
I pulled my knees up to my chin and hugged myself tightly trying to hold on to what felt like two pieces of myself trying to knit back together. It was a sensation I’d never felt and I wondered why I hadn’t felt it when we were up against Harlan Covey and his wife.
Granny came back onto the porch, a mug in hand. “You didn’t feel the parts of yourself like they were scattered then cause you had that piece of the summoning stone in your pocket. It lends enough power to your own to keep you together in hard times.”
I groaned and took the mug she offered. “It’s always the hardest thing to keep my thoughts to myself!”
“Since our run-in with Harlan Covey, you’ve been much better at it. When it comes to me and you, or you and Ray, the love makes it harder to hide your thoughts, especially those from your heart.”
I took a long drink of her special tea and wiped my mouth. “So if I loved ya’ll less, I could hide more from you?”
“No, baby. If we loved you less, it’d be harder to hear you.” She laughed at my confusion and lured Delilah back inside.
“Come on you big overgrown kitten! You gotta change back or Old Blue is gonna keel over from fright. And I gotta get that cell phone and call Deputy Carter.”
Delilah licked my hand with her raspy painter tongue, the feeling of it grounding me. I sipped on the tea for the better part of an hour as Granny came and went setting up her shindig. Every time I tried to get up and lend a hand, she asked me if I’d finished my tea.
“I’ve been drinking it for an hour, Granny. This mug never gets empty. What’d you do to it anyway?”
“Hush child. Just drink until it’s all gone. When you’ve had enough, you’ll get to the bottom.”
She walked off leaving me with my magic mug of mojo tea.
The barbecue was in full swing once the lightning bugs came out and the Bodean children, the older ones anyway, were given mason jars to go with Genie and catch as many as they could.
Granny grabbed their attention with the cupcakes she held on a platter before they took off. “The one with the most lightning bugs gets to choose their cupcake first. On your mark,” she said, her hand up in the air commanding them all to toe up to the line, “get set,” they jostled each other eager to get going. “Go!” she hollered at last and they set off into the darkness of the backyard chasing the bugs as they blinked on and off in the shadows.
Half of Devil’s Elbow was in Granny’s backyard in various states of stupor, either from all the good food or from lemonade they’d spiked from their own flasks, or a combination of the two. With Deputy Carter present, there wasn’t a soul pondering any misbehavior. It would be the first time no fights broke out or jealous spouses got a bee in their bonnet.
The only person, well former person, with an axe to grind was my Ray. He kept close to Genie and the young men who dared work up the gumption to approach her. I truly felt sorry for him. His protective big brother style was seriously cramped by the fact that he was a ghost among the living. He and I would need to talk about Genie later. Shaking my head, I made a beeline for an open seat next to Nadean and her youngest sitting on her shrinking lap.
The baby cooed at me, her words garbled as they fell from drooly little lips. She gnawed on her little fist like a dog with a bone. My heart sank a bit when I thought about how I’d never have a little one since Ray was never gonna be able to help me in that department.
“You okay, Jo?” Nadean asked as she released the wiggling baby into my arms.
Swallowing the knot in my throat, I smiled. “I’m fine as frog hair split three ways with this little darlin’ in my lap.”
“One day, you’ll have a passel of your own, in your own time.” She said it like she was foreseeing the future.
I knew she meant well and only wanted to reassure me, but like everyone else in town, she couldn’t know how the spirit of Ray Dang Davis haunted me. And not against my will either, I chose to keep him near. I looked at her with a peace in my heart all of a sudden. My life was one I chose, not one chosen for me. “Till then, I’ll just get my OJT with your babies. Being Auntie Jo suits me just fine.”
She laughed with me and took her youngest back as the darling reached out for her mama. We were lost in a game of peek-a-boo when shots rang out. Deputy Carter, Granny Mack, and I were the first ones on our feet shouting for everyone to get down.
Genie corralled the Bodean children without a thought for her own safety while Ray moved to stand in front of her as she pushed the frightened littles to the ground and tried to cover them as best she could.
Anger boiled in my veins and I ran headlong into the forest where the shots had come from. It had been a quick volley, and then silence. Well, except for the crying of the children as Genie and their mama hurried them inside under Granny’s commands.
Delilah came tearing into the foliage beside me, her growl menacing. “Oh girl,” I said, “go back and help Granny protect the Bodeans.”
Her eyes glittered in the darkness. I knew she wouldn’t leave my side no matter the stakes. Ray passed in front of me, his arms out as he came to stand beside me. “Don’t you take another step Jolene. Go back. Let me, Deputy Carter, and Walker Bodean handle this.”
“Ray, they were after me. I can’t back down. They brought this fight to my family. I’m done hiding out. This ends tonight one way or the other.” I stood my ground.
Deputy Carter appeared and Delilah snarled, her senses on high alert. I pulled her back with little effort and we regrouped. The deputy spoke low as we sunk down in the brush using it as cover. “Whoever it was, they’ve run off now. But picking up their trail, my warlock powers detected a magickal being and a mortal working together.”
Ray and I looked at one another. “I can’t imagine there’s a mortal in this town that wants me dead, but we’ll have to hunt them down anyway. Granny’s property runs forty acres each side of the road. Should we split up?”
“You stay with Deputy Carter and Delilah. I’ll go scouting this side of the road.”
Granny came up on us then, her silent approach scaring the daylights out of me. “Delilah can go with Ray, that way you can see what he sees. Deputy Carter is powerful enough to patrol this side with them. You and me can cover the other side of the road.”
“Is everyone safe, Granny? All the children?” I’d been worried to death about our friends and neighbors.
“Yes dear. They’ve all gone home safe and sound. All that’s left is the hunters and the prey.”
13
Every leaf that rustled in the darkness of the forest across the road from Granny Mack’s house caught my ears as we searched the area. I hated to admit it, but I was distracted by trying to figure out which of my mortal friends and neighbors would wish me dead.
There was Melba Hoskins to consider, but her fight was with Aunt Dixie. Of course, targeting me and Billy Jack was a fine way to get back at my aunt. But that seemed extreme payback for the little catfights she and Melba had over baking competitions.
