Page 58 of Demon and the Raven

Amanda had been very smart. She’d gone to counseling and worked hard to heal herself before she became a parent so she wouldn’t put any of her past trauma onto her kids. “Your mother’s a very wise woman.”

Toby nodded, and I looked over at JJ, who was picking things for me in the yard—dandelions, St. John’s wort, sprigs of lemon balm, mint, and a few petals from a rose.

“I don’t like Brick in my class,” Toby said, “but if he died, I might be sad. I’m not sure.”

“Why don’t you like him?”

“He always says I’m the teacher’s pet, but I can’t help it if Mr. Ingraham calls on me and I know the answers. You’re supposed to know them because you have to read stuff the night before. It’s all written down on the board.”

Toby was both a curious and logical child. It made perfect sense to him to be prepared for the next day’s lesson. “And lemme guess, when your teacher picks Brick, he never knows the answer.”

His eyes got big as he stared at me. “How did you know?”

I was going to say been there, but instead I said, “Lucky guess.”

“At recess, he’s always mad and tries to hit me in the head when we play dodgeball.”

“For starters, dodgeball shouldn’t be a thing anymore, but maybe Brick is having trouble learning or reading. Maybe he needs a tutor.”

“I don’t know, but he’s mad all the time.”

“Have you offered to help him study?”

“No,” he answered like I was insane. “Why would I do that?”

“Well, since you’re smart, and it sounds like he’s having trouble, you could see if he’d accept some help, and maybe you two could become friends.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” I said, smiling at him.

“I have a question,” he said after several minutes of us listening to the wind, which was something we did.

“You know you can always simply ask whatever it is,” I told him as JJ started dropping daisies off for me and I started weaving them into a chain.

“Missy Campbell said magic is evil.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think magic is evil?”

He shook his head.

“You won’t hurt my feelings, I promise.”

JJ sat down beside me in the grass, having carried many daisies with them in their shirt. They rained down on me as Toby seemed to ponder what to say.

“Tell me,” I prodded the seven-year-old before turning quickly to JJ. “Are you wanting a crown, or a lei like you had when you went to Hawai'i?”

“Crown, please.”

“Okay.” I smiled at them before returning my attention to Toby. “Sorry. I’m listening.”

“You’re magic, and you’re not bad. You help people.”

“Thank you, Toby. I try.”