“Mama, please, don’t be mad,” Kate begged. “I know it was wrong, but I really cared–care about him. I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid. I didn’t want you to take him away. But none of it matters now.” She faced the window again and wiped at her tears.
“Why doesn’t it matter?”
“Because I’m me.” Kate covered her face and spoke into her hands. “I hate being me. Why can’t I be someone else, someone better, someone who’s enough, who’s not crazy?” Kate whirled around, gripping Martha’s borrowed dress in her hands. “Why, Mama?”
Her mama exhaled. “Did he tell you there was something wrong with you?”
“No. But look at me–”
“I’m looking at you, Kate.”
“But you don’t see what they see,” Kate cried. A terrible emotion unleased inside her, clawing, ripping her apart. Her breaths shuddered. Self-loathing nearly choked her where she stood.
Her mama’s voice was calm, but tears shined in her eyes. “I see a beautiful girl in a dress. What do they see?”
“An Indian in someone else’s clothes. A crazy witch.” Kate sobbed. Her knees buckled and she slumped against the window, sliding down to the floor where she covered her face.
She felt her mama kneel beside her. “That’s not what they see, Little Blackbird. That’s what you see.” Her mama stroked her head. “Yes, you’re wearing someone else’s dress, but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful on you.”
Kate dropped her hands. “Geoffrey thought I looked pretty. He said so, but he still doesn’t want me. He wants a version of me.” Kate’s voice trembled. “I could do all that. I could change for him. I could pretend I’m not different, that I don’t have the curse, couldn’t I? Then maybe he’d want me.”
“Is that what you want?”
Kate shrugged.
Her mama grabbed her hands and pulled Kate to her feet. She hugged her tight before letting go. “It’s a lot to think about. You won’t find all the answers tonight. Why don’t you wash your face and change your clothes. I’ll make us both a cup of peppermint tea. Would you like that?”
Kate nodded. “Thanks for not being mad.”
“Oh, I’m mad, but I’m saving it for another time. I’m not going to tell your dad that you’ve been sneaking around with a boy. He’d lose it, you know that. He still thinks you’re ten, but don’t think I’m happy with it. You should have talked to me about him.”
Kate wiped at her cheeks and nodded. “I’m sorry.”
When her mama was gone, Kate grabbed her pajamas from the drawer and went into the bathroom. She scrubbed her face and pulled the brush through her hair. Her red-rimmed eyes stared back at her in the mirror, and she sighed. She pulled on her pajamas and dropped the dress in the laundry basket.
Kate sat on her bed and watched the rain hammer against the window. She rested her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. Images formed in her mind. A shoe kicking against the window. A knee pressed into the steering wheel. Hot tears sliding down. Red beads scattered across the car floor. Kate jerked upright. Her heart pounded. Even if Martha and Geoffrey didn’t believe her, that didn’t mean that something terrible wasn’t going to happen.
Kate looked at the photograph she kept on her desk. The picture had been taken by the river the year before Evan died. His arm looped around her shoulder, and he smiled at the camera while she leaned into him laughing at something he’d said. “I can’t just sit by again and do nothing. I can’t let Martha get hurt. Do you think I should do something?”
Evan’s smile faded, and he seemed to nod at her from behind the glass. Kate’s eyes burned with tears. “You think I should help her?” He nodded again.
Kate blinked in the silence. She slipped off her bed and stood in her bedroom doorway. She heard her mama moving around in the kitchen preparing the tea. Her daddy spoke from the living room, his voice muffled by the wind and rain. Kate glanced over her shoulder at the window. Would her parents believe her if she told them the truth? Would her mama tell her that altering the future was forbidden? Would they drive her up to Look-Off Pointe so she could help Martha? Thunder rumbled the floorboards.
Kate snatched a sheet of paper from her notebook and scribbled, I’m sorry. There’s something I have to do. I’ll be back, I promise. She changed out of her pajama pants and yanked on a pair of jeans. Then she slipped on an old pair of shoes in record time. She ran to the window, unlatched it, and pushed up the sash. Slanted rain slashed through the open window and wet the front of her shirt. Kate hesitated for a moment. Should I? she wondered. Just go! She slipped one leg out the window and then the other. Rain soaked her clothes in seconds.
Before she could close the window, her mama appeared in the doorway holding a tray with two cups of tea. Steam rose from the cups. She lowered the tray onto Kate’s bed.
“Kate…what are you doing?”
Kate’s wide eyes were wild and panicked. “I have to, Mama. I’m sorry.” Kate slammed the window shut.
Her mama rushed to the window, lifted it, and shouted her name into the rain. Kate sprinted toward the forest. Before she reached the trees, Kate heard the rumble of her daddy’s voice shouting her name from the backdoor. Then the rain and the wind swallowed everything and Kate ran.
RAIN POURED THROUGH the tree canopy and saturated the ground. Kate splashed through ankle-deep puddles, inhaling half air and half water into her burning lungs. If she hadn’t taken this path so often this summer to see Geoffrey, she never would have been able to navigate the forest in the darkness.
In less than ten minutes, she hustled up the last hill that flattened on top to create Look-Off Pointe. Half a dozen cars were parked twenty yards or more from the edge of the drop off. One car was parked off to the far right, backed against the tree line in the distance. Kate heard voices, and her eyes strayed to the covered picnic shelter. Through the rain, she saw the tiny flare of a lighter and the glow of a cigarette. The feeble light illuminated John Kane’s face and a girl standing near him. Charlotte.
Car tires had created deep, muddy ruts in the soggy earth, and Kate stumbled across the grooved ground as she ran and her shoes squelched through the mud. She slowed as she approached the shelter. Thunder rolled across the valley and rumbled in Kate’s chest.
She stepped onto the concrete slab and recognized the shadows in the darkness. Charlotte sat on one side of the picnic table between John and Matthias. Geoffrey leaned against one of the wooden posts that held up the roof, and Mikey sat on the opposite side of the picnic table with Martha.
Kate gasped. “Martha?”
The group shifted, and Geoffrey pushed off the post. Matthias slid off the end of the bench and stood.
“Kate?” he responded.
Someone switched on a flashlight and shined it right onto Kate’s face. She squinted in the harsh light and lifted her hand to shield her eyes. The flashlight lowered and created a halo of light around Kate’s feet.
“Good Lord,” Martha said, “you look like a pig in a sty. What are you doing here?”
Kate frowned. “No,” she mumbled. “This isn’t what I saw happen.” Her gaze darted across the faces in the group. “Where’s Ted?”
Martha scoffed. “Still worried about Ted?” She glanced over at Geoffrey as he passed her. “Geoffrey, I told you Kate was no good for you. She’s already moving on to your friends.”
“Where’s Ted?” Kate demanded.
Geoffrey stood in front of her. “He went to his car for more cigarettes. What are you doing here?”
Kate shook her head. Had her premonitions about Martha been wrong? Were Martha and Geoffrey right to think she was crazy? Charlotte placed the flashlight on the table, and the beam spotlighted Martha.
Kate pointed. “Martha, where’s your necklace?”
Martha reached her hand up to her neck. “What’s it to you?”
Kate pushed Geoffrey out of the way and grabbed Martha’s arm. “Where is it?”
Martha blue eyes widened, and sh
e glanced nervously around at the others. “I–I gave it to Sally.”
Kate’s stomach fell toward the concrete. “Where is she?”
Geoffrey grabbed Kate and pulled her away from Martha. “What’s this about, Kate? What are you doing here?”
“Where is Sally?” Kate shouted. She knew she sounded irrational. She felt wild and cracked open. Her insides were vibrating so badly that she shook the ground beneath her feet. Rain pounded against the shelter’s tin roof.
Matthias stepped toward them. “She went with Ted.”
No. Kate could barely see the cars through the lashing rain. “Where is his car?”
Matthias pointed to the only car backed against the trees a few hundred yards away. “It’s the Oldsmobile. Kate, what’s going on–”
Kate dashed from the shelter. Someone shouted her name. Her body reacted faster than her mind could think. She approached the Oldsmobile too quickly, and when she tried to stop, she fell and slipped through the mud like a runner stealing second base. She scrambled to her feet and wrenched open the driver’s side door. The dome light on the car’s ceiling turned on.
Kate saw a man’s back hovering over someone. Between his legs she saw a pair of saddle shoes and snatches of green fabric—the same color dress Sally had been wearing at the carnival. Kate grabbed one of the man’s legs and yanked. She continued to yank until she’d pulled him from the car. He landed in the mud and rolled onto his back. Ted’s belt was undone and his pants were unbuttoned but still sitting on his hips. He stared up at Kate, cursing and trying to shield his face from the rain.
Kate leapt over him and leaned through the open door. Sally had pressed herself against the passenger side door. Her makeup was smeared and her nose ran onto her swollen top lip. She trembled so hard that the car rocked. Kate climbed inside and held out her muddy hand.
“It’s okay, Sally. You’re going to be okay.”
Sally sobbed. Kate saw the small, round cigarette burn that had burned through the top of Sally’s dress and seared the skin beneath. Red plastic beads were scattered all over the front seat and in both floorboards. Kate slid toward Sally and tugged the skirt of Sally’s dress down over her knees. Sally looked at a point over Kate’s shoulder and gasped. Before Kate could turn around, she was snatched out of the car and thrown onto the ground.
A shadowed silhouette leaned over her. “Who do you think you are, witch?” Ted reached down and lifted Kate by both shoulders and slammed her against the side of the car. The rear door handle buried itself in Kate’s back. Sally screamed. Four shadows stepped through the sheets of rain and stood beside the car.
“Let her go, Ted. You’re drunk, and you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Get out of here, Geoffrey. I can handle this,” Ted said.
Geoffrey jerked Ted off Kate, and she slumped against the car. Ted fought back, but he couldn’t defend himself against Geoffrey, Matthias, John, and Mikey. John and Mikey pinned Ted’s arms behind his back, and when he wouldn’t stop fighting them, Geoffrey punched Ted in the jaw. Ted collapsed as easy as a house of cards.
Kate shivered and wiped her muddy hands down the front of her soiled clothes. She climbed back into the driver’s seat. “It’s okay. They have him. There’s a picnic shelter where Martha and Charlotte are. Do you want to go there?”
Rather than opening the passenger side door, Sally slid across the seat toward Kate. Sally gripped Kate’s hand and didn’t let go even as they hurried through the rain toward the shelter. Charlotte and Martha stood on the edge of the concrete slab, still out of the rain, but waiting. They reached for Sally and pulled her out of the storm.
Charlotte grabbed Sally’s hand and sat her down on the bench. “Are you okay? What happened?”
A pool of water formed beneath Sally. Kate stepped onto the concrete, dripping mud and rainwater. Sally shook her head and started crying again. Martha narrowed her eyes at Kate.
“You knew,” she said. “You knew this was going to happen.” Martha sat beside Sally and put her arm around Sally’s shoulders. “You really are a witch.”
Sally looked at Martha and then she glanced at Kate. “You knew? How did you know he was–what was happening? We left you at the carnival. How did you end up here?”
“She had a premonition.” Martha said the word premonition as though it was synonymous with Satan or witchcraft.
Charlotte laughed. “What? That’s ridiculous.” But Charlotte’s laughter stopped abruptly. “How did you know to look for Sally and Ted?”
Kate exhaled and used the back of her hand to wipe mud from her cheek. What did it matter now if they all knew? “I thought it was going to be Martha and Ted. I tried to warn Martha, but she didn’t believe me.”
Charlotte’s forehead wrinkled. “Warn her of what?”
“Of what Ted was going to do. Because I saw the red necklace in my vision, and I thought it was Martha because she was wearing it at the carnival.”
Sally’s face scrunched in confusion. “Your vision? You mean, you have premonitions? You see the future? You saw what was going to happen to me?” She shuddered, and the three girls huddled together. “That gives me the creeps.”
Kate’s fists clenched at her sides. A tiny spark of anger flared inside her. “But…but I helped you. I ran all the way from my house to stop it.”
Thunder shook the ground, and the girls flinched. Sally cowered against Charlotte.
Geoffrey and John stepped onto the slab out of the rain. Their clothes were mud splattered and drenched. Matthias and Mikey dragged Ted between them as though he was a knocked-out boxer who needed to be carted from the ring.
Mikey grunted and adjusted his grip. “Where are we going to put him?”
“Throw me your keys,” Matthias said to Geoffrey.
“No way are you putting that mess in my car.”
Matthias grunted and leveled his gaze at Geoffrey. “Give them to me.”
Geoffrey shoved his dirty hand into his pocket and pulled out the keys. Two sets of black and white prints fell onto the concrete, and Kate stared down at their smiling faces, now ruined with mud and water. Geoffrey’s knuckles were bloody, and his eyes strayed to the pictures from the photo booth. He glanced at Kate. Neither one of them made a move to pick up the photographs. Geoffrey threw the keys at Matthias, and they bounced off Matthias’ chest and landed in the mud.
Matthias propped Ted against Mikey and searched for the keys. “I was going to help you clean the car afterward, but you can forget that. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t puke.”
Matthias lifted the keys from a mud puddle and shook them around to free most of the muck from the metal. Together, he and Mikey dragged Ted toward Geoffrey’s car near the cliff. John walked over and knelt in front of Sally. He asked her if she was okay and if Ted had hurt her in any way.
Geoffrey looked at Kate, but he didn’t approach her. Martha stood abruptly and she marched over, planting her shoes on the photographs. She wrung her hands together. “You can’t be with her, Geoffrey.”
Kate stared at Martha with her clean dress and perfect makeup. In comparison, Kate knew she looked like the creature from the black lagoon while Martha could have been a high-class store window mannequin. Never were there two girls who were more different, and yet Geoffrey had been interested in both of them. How was that even possible? Why would anyone choose the outcast over the homecoming queen? But still Kate held out hope that Geoffrey was different too. He’d choose me, wouldn’t he?
Martha stepped forward. “You just can’t. She’s not…normal. She sees things.” Martha latched onto his arm with both hands and spoke to him as if Kate wasn’t even there. “She’s a witch. Somehow she knows things, things nobody should know. She’ll hurt you, and I don’t want that.”
Kate’s hands fell open at her sides. “I’d never hurt you.”
Geoffrey glanced between Martha and Kate. “But you saw this was going to happen.”
Kate nodded. “Yes.”
Mar
tha pointed at Kate. “See, she admits it. She’s evil.”
“I’m not evil!” Kate yelled.
Thunder shook the entire hill, and the pine trees trembled. Winds whipped across Look-Off Pointe, and rain slammed the ground more furiously than before. The group staggered beneath the quaking ground. Martha stared open-mouthed at Kate. Charlotte and Sally clutched onto each other, and John stood protectively beside them. Geoffrey watched the rain pummel the earth. A car door slammed.
Kate’s eyes filled with tears. “Geoffrey, you know me. I would never hurt you. I came here to help.” She moved toward him, but he stepped backward. “Please. It’s just me.”
He wouldn’t even look at her. In his silence, she crumbled like a fragile leaf. He’d made his choice. What was left of her heart couldn’t function anymore. Take it. I don’t need it. Kate stepped off the concrete into the storm. Geoffrey turned his gaze toward her. Martha pressed herself against Geoffrey’s side. Rain pelted Kate’s face, washing away her tears as soon as they fell. She turned and stumbled into the darkness with the wind and the rain wailing for her.
RAIN FELL FROM the sky for the next two days, and through her tears, Kate watched the world drown from her bedroom window. Mystic Water flooded, or so her parents told her. Kate wasn’t allowed out of her room unless it was to use the bathroom. At all other times, her bedroom was her prison, and that was fine with her. Everything outside—the trees, the flowers, the river—reminded her of Geoffrey. Her chest ached where her heart used to beat; her swollen eyes drooped. She felt like a wind-up doll that’d lost its key.
Kate’s parents hadn’t asked for specifics on why she had decided to sneak out of the house the night of the carnival. They assumed she’d run off in order to see Geoffrey, which was only somewhat true. Mostly she’d run off to help Martha in ways she hadn’t helped Evan, but in the process, she’d lost every friend she’d ever had and her heart.
Every day during her banishment, Kate’s mama brought her updates about town when she brought Kate food. While she ate a grilled cheese with tomato soup, Kate learned everything around Jordan Pond had flooded. Over a plate of baked chicken and potatoes, her mama told her that people were traveling around in boats and Mystic Water had become the Venice of the South. “Did gondoliers sing to their patrons?” Kate had asked. “With banjos and mason jars,” her mama joked.
Little Blackbird Page 14