Page 28
. . .
After I made dinner, I called in everyone from the parlor, insisting on Ray and Donny staying to eat with the rest of us.
Sage gave me a fake smile before she went back to glowering at her low-carb lasagna. Edamame noodles. Her favorite.
Donny and Ray ate like they were starving, but before I could offer them seconds, they stood up at Ray’s signal.
“Thanks,” Ray said with his usual cheerful glower. “We’ll be back tomorrow if you want.”
“Yes,” I said while Sage shot me an evil look. “If that’s okay. Donny, I’ll pay you for your time.”
He looked horrified, glancing between Ray and me. “It’s fine.”
I gave him a firm smile. “Ten an hour. You don’t think I’d take advantage of a younger person, would you?” And then I remembered that I was a predator and grabbed the lasagna pan, holding it up between us. “Do you want to take any leftovers?”
“We’re being paid enough,” Ray of Sunshine said, grabbing Donny’s shoulder and hauling him out the nearest door, which let out into the kitchen garden, which was mostly just weeds.
“Mom, that was so awkward,” Sage moaned as soon as they were gone. “Are you trying to drive me to kill him?”
“Ray can keep you from killing him. That’s why he’s there.”
“He just reads his little books and lets Miller torture me.”
I smiled at my daughter. “So he’s good at math and makes you learn? You can’t talk your way around him? That is torture.”
She wrinkled her nose then sighed heavily. “Fine. I deserve all the torture because I’m an evil, black-hearted witch.”
I ruffled her dyed blonde hair. And Scilla dyed hers black. “Why did you go blonde?”
She froze, looking up at me. “Honestly? When I had dark hair, I looked like a witch. People whispered about me in elementary school, and you… Well people thought you were kind of cold and terrifying, and there I was, looking like a little mini-you.”
“Your father is all the warmth and humanity. And I’m all the dark magic.”
She gave me a look. “Apparently, but who wants warmth and humanity if it comes with cheating? Give me a cold, sadistic monster with loyalty, you know?”
I shook my head. That was me, a cold, sadistic monster. “In elementary school, you were manipulating people?”
“Maybe. Not intentionally at first. It crept up on me.”
“Can you stop?”
She blinked at me, and tears rose in her eyes. “I’m trying. It’s so hard because no one really likes me without me making them. Isn’t that pathetic? That I want people to like me?”
I pulled her into a hug while she sniffed. “I’m so proud of you. And you know what? I like you.”
“Thanks, Mom. Maybe if I’m not trying to make people like me, I can focus on school.”
I squeezed her tight, holding on while my heart beat too fast. I wanted warmth and humanity. I wanted Clark to wrap his arms around mine on the other side of her. We’d stood like that so many times, when she lost her soccer championship, when her pet turtle died. Now, it was just me, the cold, sadistic monster. But I was loyal, and I loved her.
At midnight, I found myself standing in the cemetery in a pair of pointy lace-up black boots that matched the black velvet dress and cape I’d taken from the closet. It was witch garb to be sure, and I felt ridiculous standing in front of a crumbling gravestone holding the grimoire in one hand and my phone in the other.
I was searching the dark grass for something dead, a bird or squirrel, something like that, but no luck so far. Probably because I didn’t want to move. What was I thinking, coming to a creepy cemetery at midnight? Was it the Courage tea?
Sure, let’s blame the tea.
But I’d really liked dead things when I was young, and I was trying to find my passion. Death wasn’t a passion. But here I was, anyway.
I sighed and stepped forward, squinting into the darkness. There was something there, behind that grave, buried in leaves. I moved closer, crouching, the long black velvet cloak dragging over the damp ground. I’d have to wash it out in the sink when I got back.
