Southern Magic Thanksgiving

by Amy Boyles

  “No. I didn’t because I don’t think of you as human.”

  Wow. That was so mean. Rufus had started out as a horrible person, but he’d gotten better. Or at least our interactions had reached more of a civilized nature.

  “You realize I do have feelings,” Rufus said.

  I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve been stressed.”

  “I can tell, which is why I’m saying that if you need me, I’m here. My mother may have something in her house that will stop all this. Or at least get everyone through the withdrawals so that the giving spell is broken.”

  I nibbled my bottom lip. “I’ll call you back.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “And Rufus?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Pepper, you are very welcome.”

  I pushed down my bag of jumbled feelings and marched to the police station. When I entered, Farinas Harrell, the woman who ruined my morning, was talking to Carmen. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Must’ve been some sort of magic to shield their attorney/client privilege.

  I found Garrick in his office. His gaze lifted to me, and I could see regret immediately fill his eyes.

  “Where are the cookies?”

  He tipped his head, avoiding me. “In evidence.”

  “What does Farinas think she’s going to do with them? Be Nancy Drew as well as Nancy Grace?”

  He ground his teeth. “Pepper, I couldn’t do anything. There was a warrant.”

  “Betty is ill.”

  “So is half the town.”

  I sank against the wall. “They are?”

  Garrick rubbed his jaw. “I’m getting reports. People are sick in bed. Fevers, chills.”

  “We need those cookies.”

  He opened his drawer and pulled out something wrapped in a napkin. “I’ve got two. That’s it.”

  “How’s that going to help?”

  He glared at me as if I was denser than a rock. “One for Betty. One for Cordelia.”

  I sank into a chair. “Thank goodness. I may be able to help with the others. I’ve been in touch with—” I didn’t want to say Rufus because Garrick disliked him as much as the next person.

  “You’ve been in touch with…?” He was waiting.

  “A wizard. Someone who might be able to assist. I don’t know how long it will take.”

  “Get on it,” Garrick said.

  I rose.

  “Pepper, if there’s anything you need from me, don’t hesitate.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  I left with the cookies stashed in my purse. Thank goodness. Two people down, only a hundred or so left to go. Let’s hope Rufus was right and the answers could be found in his mother’s old house.

  Betty was delirious. She gazed at me with bright, glassy eyes and kept mumbling about the purple dragon. His flesh was scorching.

  “Give me a cookie.”

  Amelia unwrapped the napkin and handed one to me. I raised Betty in my arms. She fought but I cooed to her.

  “Just take a few bites of this.”

  Her head tipped back. “Is it the purple dragon?”

  “Yes.” What else was I going to say?

  She munched hungrily. Amelia handed me a glass of water. Betty drank like she’d been lost in the desert for days. When I was convinced the little bit of cookie had reached her stomach, I lowered her back to the pillow.

  “Every time she wakes, make her eat some cookie until it’s all gone.”

  Amelia nodded. “I’ll give it to Cordelia. She’s not nearly as bad off.”

  “Good.” I shrank. “I wonder.”

  “What?”

  I studied Amelia. No fever, no delirium. “Why didn’t you get sick?”

  She shrugged. “Could be natural immunity. I’ve been given a potion before.”

  “You have? When?”

  The usual light in her eyes faded. “Never mind.”

  I took the hint that our conversation was finished. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I want to stay.”

  Amelia tugged her hair. “Don’t worry. I’ve got someone coming over to help.”

  “Who?”

  She swatted the air. “Just a friend. No big deal.”

  Which meant it was a big deal, but I wasn’t about to ask. It wasn’t my business. But I still wanted to know. I shot Amelia a questioning look.

  “It’s Dicky Downy, but don’t tell anyone.” She huffed in annoyance. “People have opinions about him.”

  “That’s what I’d gathered, but he has a thing for you.”

  “We were always friends in high school. The timing never worked out.”

  I clicked my tongue. “Well, I hope this time it does work.”

  She nodded. For having a guy coming over, she didn’t look excited about it. Strange. “Maybe so.”

  Collinsworth hopped in. He’d pinned a yellow dish towel over his shoulders.

  “Who are you supposed to be, Super Bunny? No, wait. I’ve got it, you’re Bunnicula.”

  “I am naked thanks to you, so I had to do what I could to regain some decency.”

  “Not sure that’s decent, but come on, you can redeem yourself by coming with me.”

  “To do what?”

  “See how we can minimize the effects of the spell. All the best witches and wizards are either sick or missing in action. It’s up to us.”

  “I’ve always wanted to be a hero,” he said proudly.

  “Great. Now’s your chance.”

  I grabbed Mattie from my bedroom. I gave Hugo a pat on the head. “Watch the family. I need you to stay here and protect them.”

  “From what, sugar?” Mattie said.

  “I don’t know. Becky Ray. Someone else? You okay with that, Hugo?”

  In my head the answer popped with clarity, Yes, Mama.

  Great. We were all set. The three of us tromped downstairs and out the front door, where we were met by Licky and Mint.

  “Pepper, where are y’all going?” Mint said, gazing at my animal caravan.

  Oh no. Tricky. Should I tell them? Doing so would almost certainly mean they would want to come along. They were my aunts, after all. I loved them, and honestly, they’d known my mother all their lives and could probably tell me anything I wanted about her.

  But at the same time they exhaled chaos. It followed them everywhere. The cooked turkey was case in point. If I brought them with me to Melbalean Mayes’s house, the place would probably explode—with me in it.

  “Um. Well.”

  “People are sick, Pepper,” Licky said, throwing a long strand of silky hair over her shoulder.

  “So sick,” Mint said. “I’m beginning to feel like us healthy folks need to stick together so we don’t catch it.”

  “My throat keeps threatening to tickle,” Licky said.

  Mint pulled a pill from her pocket. “Take this. It’s an antihistamine.”

  “That should help. Post-nasal drip is terrible.”

  “All the leaves in the air,” Mint said.

  I frowned. “They’ve fallen and are off the trees.”

  “Well, it’s something,” Mint said.

  The three of us stared at one another. Mint rocked on her heels while Licky picked at a fingernail.

  “You look like you’re going someplace important,” Mint said.

  “We want to help,” Licky said.

  I heaved out a large breath. “Look, I know you want to help. It’s just…” My throat constricted. I couldn’t say it. The words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t tell my aunts that I was afraid they’d totally screw up what I was doing and that they’d make the mess a thousand times worse.

  It was just so impolite. With everything else that had happened, I didn’t want to alienate anyone. Let’s face it, I needed all the allies I could get.

  I pulled my hair over one shoulder. “I’m going to Melbalean Mayes’s house.”

  Their eyes widened. “Whatever for?” Mint said.

  “Th
e house may hold something that will help us cure everyone. I’ve got to take the chance. Betty and Cordelia are going to get better; I’ve already made sure of that. But I can’t say the same for everyone else.”

  Mint and Licky exchanged a look. Finally Licky smacked her lips. “Well, what’re we waiting for then? Let’s go break into an abandoned home.”

  SIXTEEN

  We reached Melbalean Mayes’s house. The place looked part haunted house, part condemned building.

  This was going to be awesome.

  “So what do we do now?” Mint said.

  My stomach sank. I’d been dreading this part. “I have to call Rufus. He’s going to walk me through it.”

  The glance Mint and Licky exchanged was priceless. It looked like atomic bombs had exploded in both their brains.

  All I had to do was wait for it.

  Licky wrung a finger in her ear. “Did you say Rufus?”

  I sighed. “Yes, ma’am, I did. He’s been— I almost hate to say it, but he’s been helping me.”

  “Of course he has,” Mint said.

  I stopped. “What’s that mean?”

  My aunts exchanged another look. Finally Mint said, “It doesn’t mean anything other than he thinks you’re his friend.”

  “Remember when he was here on Halloween?” Licky said.

  “He went to you, Pepper,” Mint said.

  “Because he wants to be your friend,” Licky said.

  I examined their expressions for a hint they were hiding something, but I didn’t see anything. Something unsaid filled the air. It bothered me.

  I shot Collinsworth and Mattie a look. “Stay with my aunts. I’ll be right back.”

  I gave myself some distance and dialed the number. Licky and Mint’s reactions to my relationship with Rufus had been loaded with tension, and I completely understood why.

  “I’m here,” was all I said when Rufus answered.

  “At the house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, once you’re inside, go to the basement.”

  Why did it always have to be the basement? Couldn’t anything of magic be found in another room? But no, for some reason it always had to be the creepiest room ever that magical objects were stashed and stored in.

  “Okay, what happens when I’m in there?”

  “There will be a rack filled with jars and bottles.”

  Sounded easy. Maybe this would be a piece of cake. “Will I find what I need there?”

  “No.”

  Crap. “Let me get to the basement.”

  Licky was zapping the back door when I walked up. She pushed it open with a finger. “We’re in, Pepper.”

  “Officially breaking and entering,” Mint said proudly.

  “With our niece,” Licky added enthusiastically.

  They switched on some lights. The home was decorated with doilies and velvet furniture. Little boy figurines were perched on most of the surfaces. Sometimes the boy sat, sometimes he fished. At other times he reached for something.

  I never understood people’s fascination with figurines. Especially since we were talking about Melbalean Mayes. She’d been into some really dark stuff. The fact that she’d sprinkled sweet little boys around her house managed to creep me out.

  I shivered. “Okay, we’re in. I’m heading to the basement.”

  Mint and Licky moved ahead. The place was eerie, y’all. It wouldn’t have surprised me if a skeleton jumped from a closet and grabbed me. My aunts didn’t notice my unease. They walked around flipping lights and making a ton of noise.

  “Pretty dusty here,” Mint said.

  “Let me clean these cobwebs,” Licky said.

  By the time I reached the bottom of the basement stairs, Licky had a broom in her hand and was clearing the ceiling of webs, while Mint was dusting surfaces with an old rag.

  It certainly paid to have aunts who were witches. Finally, Licky said, “Oh, let’s just do this the old-fashioned way.”

  My aunts smiled at each other. They placed an arm atop the other like genies, bobbed their heads and in a flash of light, the place was sparkling.

  “Hopefully the dust wasn’t magical and we needed it,” I said.

  Mint squeezed my arms. “Don’t worry, if we have to get it back, it’s no problem.”

  “Great,” I said without enthusiasm. I pressed the phone to my ear. “I’m in the basement. Oh, I see the rack of potions.”

  “Good,” Rufus said. “Do you see the third rack down?”

  “Yes.”

  “Push the potions aside. Behind them there should be a joint in the wall. Press it.”

  “What will happen?”

  “A skeleton hand will pop out and grab you.”

  “I knew it! The place is booby-trapped.”

  Rufus chuckled softly. “That’s not going to happen. The wall will open to a small hole. There should be a box inside.”

  “Okay. Hold on.”

  Mattie and Collinsworth approached. “Sugar, you need us to do anything?” the cat said.

  I shook my head. “Just stand back.”

  I parted the bottles. Glass clinked. Thick liquids gurgled in the glass. The faint smell of earth trickled up my nose. I hoped that was the worst smell I encountered in this mess.

  I saw an outline in the wall as if the plaster had been cut. I pressed it, and sure enough, a small portion of the surface was hinged. A square sprang open. I pulled a small porcelain boy from the hideaway.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” The boy wore a blue coat and shorts and was holding a ukulele. His strawberry-colored mouth was shaped in a perfect bow.

  There wasn’t a box with some sort of ingredient aside. This must’ve been Rufus’s idea of a joke.

  I gritted my teeth and plucked the phone from the table. “What am I supposed to do with a blue boy?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. There isn’t a box. It’s a porcelain figurine. Are you kidding me? I’ve got an entire town that needs help and you’re giving me this?”

  “The boy is made of the powder.”

  “What’s he saying?” Mint said.

  I palmed the microphone. “He says the ingredient is the boy.”

  “Give me the phone.”

  I dropped it into my aunt’s extended hand. “Rufus, this is Mint Craple. What do I need to do?”

  While she spoke to him, my aunt walked around grabbing this bottle and that. She found three different sizes of mortars and pestles and set them out. After about five minutes she said, “And that’s it? That should do it?”

  Mint listened. Finally she spoke. “Okay. We’ve got it. We’ll call you back if we have any more questions. Thank you.”

  She thumbed off the phone and handed it to me. I dropped it in my purse.

  “All hands on deck,” she said. We circled her. Mint inspected us from head to toe—yes, even the rabbit.

  “Y’all, we have a lot of work to do. I’m going to give each of you specific tasks. Rabbit, I need you at the smallest mortar and pestle. Mattie, I’m going to have you adding ingredients to the cauldron as I hand them off while the three of us witches mix and grind.”

  Never had I seen one of my aunts take such amazing initiative. Personally I didn’t know what to think. It was pretty impressive.

  Mint broke the blue boy in half and dumped the parts in two separate bowls. Licky and I started grinding while Mint found a cauldron, filled it with water and got it heating over her witch’s fire.

  “What did Rufus tell you?” I said.

  She read labels and measured ingredients. “He told me this wasn’t any different from a basic curing spell.”

  “Oh,” Licky said, “we’ve performed tons of those.”

  We stood lined up at the counter. “You have? You’ve worked curing spells before?”

  Mint laughed. “Yep. When our mother owned the town pharmacy, she made us come in and learn every day after school. We had to mix, grind, measure.”

  “All that go
od stuff,” Licky said.

  “I forget that Betty is a healer,” I said.

  Licky snorted. “No one could blame you there. If she was warm and cuddly, it might be easier to remember.”

  “Hard as nails,” Mint said.

  My gaze darted between them. “But you two…” I stopped. What was about to expel from my mouth sounded so rude.

  “But we’re what?” Mint said, surprise in her voice.

  “Chaos witches?” Licky said. “We’d end up breaking someone’s leg before we had a chance to cure them?”

  “Something like that,” I mumbled. See? It sounded plain old rude.

  “For your information, when we worked with Betty, our powers were better,” Mint said.

  “More controllable,” Licky added. “Is that a word? Controllable?”

  “Yes,” I said, embarrassed. “But don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I think things explode everywhere you go.”

  “But they do,” Mint said.

  I eyed the potion we were working on.

  Licky patted my shoulder. “Curing is different for us. For some reason it keeps the chaos in check.”

  “Yes,” Mint said. “So much that it was at Betty’s shop when we met our husbands.”

  The bottom fell out. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “Our husbands? You know, Amelia’s and Cordelia’s fathers?” Licky said.

  “I just figured they were test-tube babies.”

  My aunts laughed. “No. Hardly,” Mint said. “We got them the hard way. Wait. I mean we had them the hard way.”

  “It sounds sexual either way,” Licky said.

  My cheeks burned. I did not need to be having an uncomfortable birds-and-bees discussion with my aunts.

  Mint waved dismissively. “I remember the first time Bean walked in the room.” She noticed my confusion and smiled. “We all called him Bean because he was so tall—and so funny.”

  “He was,” Licky said.

  “We had such fun together. And of course Licky dated Morgan.”

  Her gaze flashed to me. “He didn’t have a cool nickname like Bean. Just Morgan.” Licky shot me a conspiratorial look. “The four of us used to have fun. Those were the best times, when we would double date.”

  The wistful expression on both their faces reminded me of my own great times with Axel.

  “Why don’t you talk about them? Cordelia and Amelia never mention their dads.”