Part 14 (1/2)
”Because of the crow in my locker?”
”I want you to take that seriously.”
”You don't mean that you think somebody's actually going to burn down our house!”
”We can't know what might happen,” Charlie said. ”There's something creepy about this town. It's like there's a boil beneath the surface, always ready to erupt. I've felt that ever since we came here.”
”You mean you weren't born here?”
”I was born in Arizona,” Charlie told her. ”My folks had a New Age bookstore in Sedona, a town that's supposed to be a hub of psychic vibrations. Everything was going great there, when suddenly about five years ago they got this feeling that we had to come here. By *here,' I mean exactly here-to this one particular town, this dot on the map that they'd never even heard of until they flipped through an atlas and found it. They were drawn here by some karmic force, the same way your mother was.”
”Rosemary wasn't drawn here by anything but Ted,” Sarah said.
”I'm sure that's what she believes.”
”Why else would she have come here?”
”I just told you, my parents think they were led here by karma. That's why they didn't move away from here after the arson. They feel that one of us made a commitment before birth to perform some duty in Pine Crest, to complete some business that was left unfinished in a former lifetime.”
”Your parents believe in reincarnation that strongly?” Sarah asked incredulously.
”They believe in it so strongly that my dad has forgiven the arsonists,” Charlie said. ”He figures that in a former lifetime he probably harmed them, and now the score's even. That's the reason he's able to joke around like he does. He doesn't feel bitter or hold grudges.”
”If we've lived before, why can't we remember it?” Sarah asked him.
”Mahatma Gandhi called that nature's kindness,” Charlie explained. ”His theory was that everyday life would be impossible if we carried such a tremendous load of memories around with us. I'm not asking you to buy this, just don't close your mind to it. Read those books and then see how you feel about it. Once you've done that, I've got a scenario I want to run past you.”
”I don't know that I want to hear it,” Sarah said nervously.
”You can decide that later,” Charlie said, bringing the station wagon to a stop in front of her house. ”For now, though, read those books. I think you'll find them interesting.”
”I will,” Sarah a.s.sured him. ”Thanks for lending them to me. And, please, thank your mother again for me for the great lunch.”
Ted and Rosemary had returned from their own lunch while she was at the Gormans' and were out in the yard with Brian. Ted was busily raking the last of the oak leaves into piles, and Brian was rolling around in them like a demented puppy. Rosemary was standing on the sidelines, watching but not partic.i.p.ating. To Sarah her mother looked a little bit lonely.
”So, there you are!” Rosemary called to her as Charlie drove off and Sarah started toward them across the yard. ”We couldn't imagine where you'd gone. From the looks of that armload, you must have been to the library. Are those for your witch-hunt report?”
”I decided to switch to another subject,” Sarah said. ”I borrowed these books from Charlie. His dad writes book reviews, so they've got a huge library.”
She saw no reason to add that the books she had borrowed from the Gormans had nothing to do with her history paper.
Ted paused to lean on his rake, seemingly undecided as to which part of her statement to attack first. It didn't take him long, though, to make up his mind. ”You've been over to the Gormans'? Frankly, Sarah, I don't think that's an appropriate place for you. Charlie's a nice enough kid, despite his weight problem, but his parents are-how shall I say it?-a little bit odd.”
”I liked them,” Sarah said. ”I think Rosemary would too.” She turned to her mother. ”Mrs. Gorman said she'd love to meet you. She works during the week, but she thought some weekend morning you might like to come over and have coffee. She's going to call you.”
”How nice!” Rosemary said, her face lighting up with pleasure. ”It's so ridiculously hard to make friends here. The neighbors all seem so busy. They didn't even invite me in when I stopped by to introduce myself.”
”I doubt that Mrs. Gorman is your type,” Ted said. ”Besides, don't you think our weekends should be devoted to family? Sarah, what's this about switching topics for your history paper? It seems pretty late in the game for you to do that. Isn't that paper due right after Thanksgiving?”
”I picked the wrong subject,” Sarah said. ”It's not working out. I'm going to do my paper on the Boston Tea Party.”
Before he could pressure her further, she hurried on past him into the house.
She expected to find Kyra in the living room watching television or jabbering on the telephone, but the room was empty. As Sarah started down the hall toward her bedroom, she began to allow herself to hope that Brian was the only one of Ted's children who had come back to the house with him. When she opened the door to her room, however, that hope was vanquished by the sight of Kyra, standing at the bureau rummaging through one of the top drawers.
”What do you think you're doing?” Sarah demanded. ”That happens to be my drawer.”
Kyra froze and then turned slowly to face her.
”I was looking for my rhinestone earrings,” she said. ”You know-the ones Eric gave me for my birthday.”
”What would they be doing in my drawer?” Sarah asked coldly.
”I couldn't find them anywhere at home,” Kyra said. ”Then I remembered that the last time I wore them was the night Dad took me out to dinner and I spent the night here afterward. So I thought that maybe I left them here and you found them.”
”If that had been the case, I would have dumped them into one of your drawers,” Sarah said. ”The last thing I'd ever do is steal a pair of junky earrings with gaudy fake diamonds.” Her gaze quickly took in the rest of the room. ”What's my closet door doing open? Did you think you'd find your earrings on a hanger?”
”It's my closet too,” Kyra shot back defensively.
”In name only! You've never kept anything in it.” Sarah walked over to the closet and peered inside. *You still don't have anything in it. You weren't hanging up stuff of your own, you were rooting through my stuff!” Her eyes flew to the shelf at the back of the closet where she kept her tote bag. ”You've been into my pack! It's unzipped!” She glanced down at the floor. ”And my shoes! You've even been into my shoes-they're all neatly in line!” She turned back to Kyra, her eyes blazing. ”If you've been into my bureau and closet, you've probably been into my locker at school! You must be the one who left the crow!”
”What crow?” Kyra asked innocently.
”Don't pretend you don't know about that!” Sarah said. ”You either did it or you got your girlfriends to do it!”
”I don't know anything about any crow,” Kyra insisted.
”Or the picture of the gallows that was shoved in my locker?” Sarah didn't bother to wait for a reaction. ”What have you done to turn everybody at school against me!”
”I didn't have to do anything,” Kyra said. ”This is my hometown! I was born here! You don't belong here! Everybody knows that your mother broke up my parents' marriage. There's no way Rosemary could have done that if you hadn't bewitched my father!”
”Get out of this room!” Sarah told her, shaking with fury.
”It's my room too!” Kyra said, crossing her arms in a gesture of defiance.
”I warn you, if you stay in this room one more minute, you're going to regret it!” Sarah gestured toward the paperweight on the desk. ”You know the damage I can do with that when I choose to! I can give you the kind of future people only know in nightmares!”
Kyra turned pale and began to back away from the bureau without even bothering to close the drawer.
”Make sure that you pa.s.s that message along to your friends,” Sarah told her ominously, fueled by the astonis.h.i.+ng effect of her ludicrous statement. ”Tell them that if they do anything more to Charlie or me, I'll see that they-that they-” She searched frantically for the ultimate threat. ”I'll see that they go up in flames and lose their legs exactly like poor Mr. Gorman!”
”It's true!” Kyra whispered, stumbling backward across the room. ”You are just what they say you are! You're an honest-to-G.o.d witch!”
”You'd better believe it!” Sarah snarled dramatically. Dropping the books on her bed, she stalked toward Kyra with arms extended and hands contorted into claws.
With a whimper of terror Kyra whirled and bolted from the room.
Sarah shoved the door closed and sagged against it, panting from exertion, as if she had been engaged in a physical battle. She could not believe the effect that her performance had had on Kyra! The girl had actually believed Sarah was capable of putting a curse on her!