Jason looked at her intently. “Me too.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to her.
It was just a quick peck on the lips, but she was too stunned to say a word. She opened her eyes. Oh, God, she had closed her eyes!
Jason’s mouth quivered.
Her heart was pounding. From one little peck?
He cleared his throat. “I need to see my dad. I’ll call you later.”
“Okay,” she croaked, hoping the doctors came again soon because she needed her head examined now more than ever.
Chapter 26
Jackie spent another night in the hospital and was released the following afternoon. As soon as she stepped into the house, Babu dropped her needlepoint to her lap and crossed herself. Babbling in Russian, she hobbled over to Jackie in her slippered feet, grabbed Jackie’s head with both hands, and kissed her on each cheek.
“I’ll leave you to two to talk,” Mom said and then disappeared into the kitchen.
Babu put her arm around Jackie. “Prikhodi,” she said, leading Jackie to her room. She waved her hand at the bed. “Sidi.”
Jackie sat down. Babu opened the bottom dresser drawer and took out the photo album she had showed Jackie the day she had passed out in the haunted bathroom. Babu opened the album to the photo of the three young women dressed in black. She pointed to the second woman and then tapped her chest.
“Eto ya,” she said, and then, with a pitiful look in her eyes, she explained something to her.
“I’m sorry, Babu. I know that the woman in the picture is you, but I don’t understand what you’re telling me.”
Babu sighed, looking tired and frustrated.
She had never read Babu. The only vision she had ever picked up from her was pure white light, and the only emotion she had ever picked up from her was peace.
Jackie slid the photo album from Babu’s lap to her own and then held her fingers above the picture. “May I?”
“Da.”
Jackie touched the black-and-white photo and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye, she saw the three women, solemn and still. It was almost as if they were afraid to move, to even wriggle a nose or blink an eye—that, if they moved, evil would overtake them.
From the corner of her inner vision, a black mass floated into view, obscuring the three women. She waited for the darkness to pass, for the women to reappear, but the darkness hung in the center of her mind’s eye, expanding and shrinking as if it were breathing. Concentrating, she tried to reclaim the vision of the women, but something seized her chest. In the split second of opening her eyes, a dark voice whispered, “Witches.”
She stared at Babu, mouth hung open.
Babu, a frightened look on her face, took the chotki from her bed stand and pressed it into Jackie’s hand. “Molis’.”
The chotki was lightweight and tickled Jackie’s palm. It reminded her of the lock of hair she held after cutting her long tresses. She held it, knowing it had once belonged to her and thinking she could never reconnect it to her head. It was gone from her for forever.
“I understand, Babu. I know things aren’t right with me, but I can’t take your chotki.” She tried to give it back to her, but Babu kept shoving it into her hand.
Jackie showed her the chotki and then patted her chest. “I have one of my own. I’ll pray with my mine,” she lied. She made prayer hands and then gave the chotki back to Babu.
Her forehead and eyes creased with worry, Babu took the chotki.
Jackie thought about how Madam Sophie kept trying to get her to take the crystal. She couldn’t take that either. Somehow, it just felt wrong, as if she would be committing idolatry. How ironic. She couldn’t take the chotki because it was no longer a part of her, yet she couldn’t take the crystal because the teachings of the church were too ingrained in her. Madam Sophie was right. But she wasn’t going to go to her for help. She didn’t ask to be born this way. If all this misery was caused by the solar storm, she was sure the energy would eventually die, and everything would return to normal. Until then, she would just have to tough it out. Maybe, wear Mom’s rollerblading helmet.
Chapter 27
At school, Jackie’s locker was as good as new. It was chili-pepper red, like the other lockers around it, but slightly brighter because the paint was fresh. She tumbled the lock through its combination and took a deep breath before opening the door.
The only things inside were her own. She dumped her American History book and American Literature anthology inside, dug out her trig book, and slammed the locker shut before the pile of books and shit avalanched out the door.
Turning around, she found herself nearly face-to-face with Will. He didn’t look happy. His thumbs were hung in his front jeans pockets, and he was wearing a tie and button-up shirt because of tonight’s game.
He poked his index finger into her chest. “Stay away from Sandra.”
She raised her hand and stepped back. “Whoa, you don’t have to tell me. She’s a psycho.”
He glared at her.
He needed to know what a psycho Sandra really was, so she lifted the side of her shirt just enough to show him some of her bruises. “Courtesy of Sandra.”
“That’s nothing compared to what you did to her.”
“Unless I have total amnesia, I don’t recall doing anything, except rolling into a ball to protect myself. I didn’t even touch her.”
“You didn’t have to. Sandra said you went with Madam Sophie up to her apartment. I know what you did. Everyone knows.”
“Knows what? What did I do?”
“You put a curse on her.”
“Curse? Did someone burn our science books and hurl us back into the Dark Ages? I went upstairs with Madam Sophie to put an ice pack on my face and take two Tylenol.”
“John and Sean are afraid to leave their houses. Remove the curse.”
“First of all, you’re not my boss. Second of all, I didn’t put a curse on anyone. I wouldn’t do that; even if it could be done, I’m not like that.”
“I was at the coffee shop when Madam Sophie drove you home. John, Sean, and I saw her take the wheel. They were spooked before the accident. Now they’re really shitting bricks.”
“Wait. Sandra had some kind of accident, and you think it’s my fault?”
“It wasn’t just an accident. It was a freaky accident like in the Omen.”
Her shoulders tensed. “Is she alive?”
“Yeah. She’s alive. But if I were her, I’d rather be dead.”
She was afraid to ask, but she did. “Why?”
“Her car flew off the bridge and crashed into the bank. She was pinned at the waist. The steering wheel would have cut her in half if it budged another inch. She’s paralyzed from her waist down.”
Jackie’s body grew cold. “I’d never wish something like that on my worst enemy. How could you think I would?”
“You’re like one of those Wiccans or something. Everyone knows it. You read minds. You hang around that, that fortune-telling old bag.”
“I don’t hang around her. She helped me after Sandra beat the shit out of me. She’s a nice person, you know. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
Will grabbed her arm.
“Ow! Let go of me.”
“You take that curse off now! I don’t care what you do to me, just leave Sandra alone.”
She jerked her arm away from him. Crowds parted as she stormed down the hall.
“You’re going to go to hell for this,” Will shouted.
***
In the lunchroom, the three girls and one guy at Jackie’s table, all which fell into the dork category, looked at her like she had some kind of disease. They whispered among themselves and then picked up their books and lunches and found other seats at the table by the stage.
Zeta sniffed her armpits. “I put on deodorant this morning. How about you?”
“Yep. Sure did.”
“What do you think crawled into their lunch bags?”
“Me.
They think I put a curse on Sandra.”
“And not that Sandra’s a dingbat who can’t drive? She was probably texting at the time. That’s not your fault.”
“You knew about the accident?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to tell you. I figured you had enough to deal with, being in the hospital and all.”
Jackie took a tiny bite of her Devilwood-spread sandwich. She wasn’t even hungry. The bite of sandwich clung to the roof of her mouth. Trying to wedge it free, she wondered if any of her thoughts had created Sandra’s accident. Madam Sophie said that she had the power to heal. What if she also had the power to throw curses?
Jackie thought through the things she was thinking at the time she and Sandra had their run in. Did she wish her ill, or dead? She wanted her to stop kicking, that’s for sure. She also wanted to punch Sandra’s face in, but she was sure that was Sandra’s anger she was feeling and wanting to act out, not her own. And when Madam Sophie came to her rescue and threatened to curse all of them, how did she feel? She was glad, but only that it scared them away. She only enjoyed the power of Madam Sophie’s words, not their intention.
Zeta waved her hand in front of Jackie’s face. “Hey, Jackie. Hello. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I was just thinking about Sandra.”
“Don’t let it get to you. You wanted people to stay away from you, and they are. There’s a silver lining in every cloud.”
“I don’t want them to be afraid of me. Why can’t anything just be in the middle? Everything in my life is always so extreme.”
***
After school, Jackie drove to Mercy Hospital. If she could convince Sandra she wasn’t a curse-casting witch, then maybe Sandra could convince everyone else, and they would stop being so afraid of her.
Sandra was sitting up in a Stryker frame, her eyes staring aimlessly at the wall. The curtain divider was drawn. The room, dim.
“Sandra,” Jackie said.
Sandra jumped at the sound of her voice. “Get away,” she spouted and then reached for the pager.
Jackie rushed to the bed and wrestled it from her hand. “No, just listen to me. I came to tell you that I didn’t do it. I didn’t put a curse on you.”
“Then Madam Sophie did.”
“That’s ridiculous. Madam Sophie is a good woman. She would never do that.”
“Nurse,” Sandra yelled.
Jackie pressed her hand to Sandra’s mouth to silence her. Sandra’s eyes were about to bug out of her head. “Just stop,” Jackie said. “I completely forgive you for what you did to me. I just want to be friends. Well, maybe not friends. Can we just stop being enemies?”
Sandra moved her head up and down.
“And I can take my hand off your mouth, and you won’t scream?”
She nodded again.
Jackie removed her hand, but she was ready to put it back in case Sandra screamed. “So, you have no feeling from your waist down?”
Sandra shook her head.
“I’m really sorry this happened,” Jackie said. “I’ll definitely have Babu include you in her prayers. You’ll be in my thoughts too.”
Sandra pulled the covers to her chin.
“I’m going to go now. Can you tell John and Sean they have nothing to worry about? Maybe you can convince Will too. You know I don’t like him. Maybe when I was thirteen, I did. Now, he’s not my type. And I’m certainly not his type either. Having a conversation with his mother’s thoughts at the Thanksgiving table put an end to our puppy love. Well, you take care.” She wiggled her fingers and left Sandra to her silence. Jackie wondered if anything she had said to Sandra sank in.
Chapter 28
The hooks in the track rattled as Trish brushed back the divider curtain in Sandra’s hospital room.
Sandra startled.
Trish leaned over the rail of Sandra’s Stryker frame. “Don’t listen to a word Jackie tells you. She’s not the goody-two-shoes she wants you to think she is. I’ve seen her dabble with spells and work the Ouija board. Now she and Madam Sophie are like this.” She entwined her index and middle finger. “She doesn’t talk to me anymore. Not since she stole Jason.”
Sandra, eyes wide, gripped the covers and shrank back, her head buried deep within the pillow.
“Don’t worry,” Trish said. “I’ll do everything I can to stop her.”
The curtain behind Trish ruffled against Trish’s leg just above her knee-high sock. She turned to see the curtain blowing as if from an eerie breeze. The pitcher of water on the bed stand slid to the edge and crashed to the floor.
Sandra screamed.
Trish smiled and leaned closer to her. “You see? The evil follows her.”
Chapter 29
Mom was at the kitchen table, on the phone, when Jackie came home. She glanced at Jackie and shielded the phone. “Jackie just got in,” she whispered. “I’ll call you later. Me too.”
Jackie wished Mom would just quit and tell her exactly what was going on. Didn’t Mom know she couldn’t hide her emotions from her?
At the stove, Jackie lifted the lid on a pot. “I’m starving.”
“You don’t look well,” Mom said. “You should have taken another day off. Where were you?”
“At the hospital.”
Mom rushed toward her.
Jackie dodged the hand that was going for her forehead. “Mom, I’m okay. I went to visit a friend.”
“You’re as white as a sheet.”
“I haven’t eaten since lunch, and I barely ate then.”
“Sit down. I’ll fix you a plate.”
She slumped into a chair and laid her head on the table. Her body was trembling.
Mom managed to wrap her hand around Jackie’s forehead. “Hmm,” she said. “Cool as a cucumber. Is everything okay at school?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but the emotional weight of everything that went on that day—Will’s accusations, people avoiding her like the plague, and the fear in Sandra’s eyes—collapsed her chest. She fought back the urge to scream. She didn’t want Mom to know how bad everything was.
“Can you eat?”
She wobbled her head to say yes.
Mom slapped some food onto a plate and warmed it in the microwave. Jackie took the plate to her room.
The food helped her regain a little energy, but her nerves were maxed out. She barely had enough strength to lift the fork to her mouth.
She was halfway through her mashed potatoes when her cell phone rang. She checked the display before answering. She didn’t need to deal with anymore negativity today. But it was Jason, so she answered.
“Jas,” she said, weakly.
“Hey. How’d it go at the hospital?”
“I don’t know. Sandra wouldn’t say a word, except to yell for help.”
“I know you’re having a rough day, but there’s something I have to tell you.”
She rolled her eyes. “What?”
“It’s my ma, I think she’s lost it, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Call your dad.”
“I did. He’s afraid if he comes home, he’ll make matters worse.”
“What’s going on?”
“For the past hour, she’s been sitting on the fireplace hearth in the basement, holding her head and rocking back and forth. At first, she was crying that Dad doesn’t love her anymore. Something’s not right about the basement. I’m scared, Jackie.”
Chapter 30
Jackie knocked on Madam Sophie’s door. She kept telling herself that she was doing this to learn how to protect herself so she could help Jason.
Madam Sophie opened the door, startling Jackie with her fortune-telling attire—her long Haitian dress, cornflower blue shawl, and crystal necklace. “Welcome, my child,” she said and smiled, exposing her crooked teeth.
Jackie cautiously stepped inside. Her apartment, lit only with candles, reeked with incense, and the chairs at her fortune-telling table were pulled away as if she had been giving readings all
day. Jackie’s fingers trembled as she unbuttoned her trench coat.
“You’re still not certain you want to be here,” Madam Sophie said.
“I’m sure enough.”
She took Jackie’s coat and hung it on a quarter-moon hook. “Let’s sit on the sofa.”
Jackie had a feeling Madam Sophie wasn’t happy with her answer.
On the couch, Madam Sophie took Jackie’s hands in hers. A quiver ran down Jackie’s spine. It reminded her of when Madam Sophie locked hands with her at the carnival. Back then she thought Madam Sophie was out to get her. She never would have believed that she’d be coming to Madam Sophie for help.
“You’re a strong girl, yet vulnerable because of your ignorance,” Madam Sophie said, dryly.
Jackie wished Madam Sophie would quit telling her how spiritually stupid she was. “I’m here now.”
“Then, let me first tell you a little about your psychic ability. Through your senses and your unconscious mind, you can read more than the average person. We all have some psychic ability, but because most people brush off these sensations and revelations as coincidence and other things, they never develop their power. But your senses are very strong. You get these abilities from your great-grandmother.”
She thought about Babu’s light and shook her head. “I’m not like her at all.”
“Shush,” Madam Sophie said. “Like your great-grandmother, you have the power to heal. You can absorb and read incoming energy, and you can emit energy, healing energy. People sense this. They’re drawn to you. That’s why so many people were coming to you years ago. It wasn’t the fact that you saw the Virgin that attracted them. It just made them notice you and invite the idea that you were special in this way.”
“But I didn’t see the Virgin.”
Madam Sophie patted the top of Jackie’s hand. “Yes, dear, I know.”
Jackie’s eyes grew wide. “How long have you known?”
Possessed (Pagan Light Book 1) Page 13