Ivy cackled. “Dangerous? Honey, everything worth enjoying even a little bit in life is dangerous. Puttin’ your life at risk and reclaiming it over and over again is the pure definition of fun. You’ll be enjoyin’ yourself in no time. Just grab that Jesus Handle over your head and you’ll be all right.”
“Jesus handle?”
“Yeah, most folks grab it when they’re scared and scream, ‘Jesus!’ Funny little joke over in these parts.”
Aster didn’t quite get it, but she grabbed the handle anyway as the seatbelt dug into her neck. Her blood was zooming through her veins, and panic was close on its tail. “I don’t like this!”
A second later, Aster felt a hand on her shoulder and a sudden wave of calm soothed her nerves like a salve. “It’ll smooth out in a bit, hon. I promise,” said Ivy. Her words rolled out low and slow on a voice as sweet as warm caramel, and it carried away all of the worries and anxiety of not only the last day, but the last month or more. Aster understood that this was Ivy’s true gift, and right then she had never felt so grateful for it.
“Thank you for that.” Aster settled back into her seat. Her muscles felt looser and a euphoric grin was spreading across her face.
“Don’t mention it. You’ll find my girls are very laidback and friendly most of the time. Some of them come from real bad homes and are as timid as little babies. They have nightmares. Don’t wanna leave the house. But when Miss Ivy uses the touch, they settle right down. If you ever get a nervous feeling, you come and see me.”
Aster had a feeling she’d need to see Ivy a lot over the coming weeks. A few minutes later, Ivy guided the vehicle out onto a much smoother surface, which was illuminated by more of those fantastically bright lights. These were attached to poles that stretched high into the air. Other machine carriages passed them going in the opposite direction, and she wondered what it might be like to drive one.
Gigantic, brightly lit signs were posted along the side of the road featuring all sorts of smiling people and giant words she recognized in most cases but not all. “Abortion stops a beating heart? What does that mean?”
“I have three words that will make your time here a lot easier, Starflower. Ignorance is bliss.”
Aster grinned at the nickname. She’d never heard it before. “How long have you been here?”
“I’m comin’ up on my thirtieth year. Came over when I was a few years older than you.”
“Will you return to Ellemire one day?”
Ivy sighed. “No, I don’t think so, hon. It’s very hard to go back once you spend awhile over here.”
“How come?”
“It’s somethin’ bout how this world grabs hold of you. I don’t think it would let me go, even if I wanted it to. But more important, I’m not sure Ellemire would have me back. I might have been born there, but this has been my home so long now, that other place feels more like a dream. In a few years, my niece will be taking my place here, and I’ll likely retire somewhere nice and warm in the south, where the only magic I need will be mixed into the mojitos.” She laughed.
Aster tried to imagine what it would be like to become a permanent alien in this loud and smelly place with its bright lights and roaring motor carriages. The idea terrified her now, but people had a way of getting used to the things that frighten them. How else to explain how she’d tolerated Oleander all those years?
Ivy settled back into her seat but left one hand on the wheel. This made Aster a little nervous, but she didn’t say anything. “I’ve been very excited to get you over here. Aside from messages passed back and forth with a few folks back home, I don’t much get to talk with someone who gets it.”
Aster frowned. “Gets what?”
“What it’s like to be one of us, silly girl. Magic, the craft. Forced to live the lives our families carved out for us. Not having a choice in any of it, unless we’re dumb enough to just drop everything and run away. Though I guess for you it’s even worse. Falling in love and having a baby is hard enough on any woman. If the fate of the world rested on whether I’d be able to kill my own child, I’m not sure I could do it. I’d probably have to shoot myself or run away.”
The blunt truth hit Aster like a length of wood to the back of her head. Her eyes watered with tears and she sniffed them away before they could fall.
Ivy glanced over again. “Aw, hell. I’m sorry, hon. My damn mouth gets the best of me at the worst of times.”
“It’s okay. It’s crossed my mind more than once. Not shooting myself, but at least running away.”
“Aren’t you worried what might happen if you did?”
“Why do you think I’m still here?”
“Good point.”
“I have no idea what I’m doing. I can already tell I am not going to fit in here.”
“Don’t judge too soon, now. You been cooped up your whole life. Naturally, you’re gonna feel like a fish outta water, especially in a world that moves as fast as this one does. Now, I know I’m supposed to help keep you on the straight and narrow and make sure you do what you was sent over here to do, but I’m gonna make sure you ain’t sittin’ here miserable either. Girl your age, pretty as you, should be out with friends, goin’ on dates, livin’ life.”
This all sounded great, of course, but it also made her feel even more depressed and afraid of the duty that lay beyond it. None of the good could possibly last. Any friendships she made would be temporary. Say nothing of any boy she would meet.
As she ruminated on this, they rounded a curve in the road and towers and strings of light appeared in the distance. Aster sat forward, her unpleasant thoughts pushed aside, temporarily at least. “What in the world is that?”
Miss Ivy giggled. “I sometimes forget how surprising it can be to people from the other side to see the city. That, my dear, is the unpolished gem of the American Midwest. On the scale of cities, it ain’t much, but I guess that don’t mean much to someone who’s never seen a real city before.”
Aster didn’t think there was anything unpolished about it. Buildings taller than any she had ever seen jabbed up into the sky for what must have been hundreds of feet. Their lights were so bright they washed out the stars above. She couldn’t fathom the magic it must have taken to raise such structures or create such illumination. “The wizards and witches here must be very powerful.”
“Yes and no. They wouldn’t take kindly to be called that, but they have their own special brand of magic called technology. Folks don’t appreciate it much, and they misuse a lot of it.”
“That doesn’t sound much different from Ellemire, really.”
“True, but Ellemire hasn’t seen much by way of war in many centuries. Here, it’s about as common as a garden weed.”
“War? Here?” She looked around.
“Not here specifically, but in this world, yep. Lots of it.”
“Is that where we’re going?” She gestured toward the towering buildings ahead.
“Oh no, I don’t do the urban thing. Too crazy. It’s all move move move and it stinks to high heaven. Especially to someone whose nose is new to this place. You also can’t see the stars, and you’re crammed in like sardines. A lot of the girls at the shelter come from troubled homes in that very city. Miller’s Glenn isn’t exactly paradise, but it’s quiet and homey and a good distance away from that nonsense.”
Twenty minutes later, they turned onto a quiet tree-lined avenue. So many houses squished close together. Aster didn’t know how the people could stand not having a wide expanse of land separating them from their neighbors. Ivy parked in front of what looked like the biggest house on the street and turned off the motor. “Welcome to Oasis Shelter, home to eleven troubled teen girls. You’re the twelfth.” Ivy got out and Aster followed, after a few moments spent wrestling with the seatbelt and figuring out how the door handle worked.
She gazed at the sprawling structure that looked to be about five times the size of her family’s house back home, only far grander in its craftsmanship wit
h spires and peaks on its roof and beautiful scrolled detail around its windows. In Ellemire, this would be considered the house of royalty, or at least nobility of some sort. It sat behind a tall iron fence decorated with twists of ivy and purple wisteria. Bright yellow lights illuminated the windows, making it look inviting and warm. “It’s the biggest, most beautiful house I’ve ever seen,” said Aster.
“It wasn’t always so nice. The place was an abandoned dump when I bought it, but it cleaned up real well. You can thank my girls for that. They do all the landscaping and make sure the paint stays nice. We all take turns cooking the meals, and we keep a big garden out back. It’s all part and parcel of living here. I keep them safe and make sure they have a place to stay, but they still have to do for themselves. They’ll sure like having another hand or two around.” They gathered Aster’s bags and Larkspur hopped out and followed them through the gate and up the flagstone walk toward the front door.
“Will Larkspur be okay here?”
“Oh sure. I don’t normally allow pets, but I’ll of course make an exception for your familiar. They’ll like having an animal around, I bet. I know all about having one myself long ago when I came here. They’re like a little bit of home, which is real nice in the beginning when you’re feelin’ like this place is gonna swallow you up whole.”
“What happened to it?”
“Buckeye died a very long time ago. He was a beautiful blue parrot, but he had the foulest tongue you ever heard. He choked on a peanut shell and that was that.”
“That’s really sad,” Aster murmured. She couldn’t imagine losing Larkspur in such a way.
“Yeah, it was damn sad. And it still hurts. The bonds with these animals are deep and you feel it forever when they’re cut.” She unlocked the door and stepped inside. “Girls! Front and center!”
Aster found herself shrinking back as an army of footsteps thundered down the stairs and on the wood floors from all around the house. The girls filed into the room, first looking at Miss Ivy. Then all eyes went to Aster. She suddenly wished a hole would open up in the air behind her so she could run home.
-6-
The girls of Oasis Shelter observed her with a combination of smiles, ambivalence, and raised eyebrows—the latter directed mostly at Aster’s pink hair. Aster tried to convince her mother to let her change the color to something more natural, but she had refused. “It’s a waste of good magic to cover up your most unique feature. People will like it. You’ll see.”
Aster guessed this was the moment of truth.
Ivy stepped forward to make introductions. “Girls, this is Aster. She’ll be stayin’ with us for awhile. Treat her as one of us, because that’s exactly what she is.”
Most of the girls waved and murmured hellos, except one. “She doesn’t look like one of us.” The others parted and turned to look at the one who spoke. She was pale-faced waif with a bony, lanky body and short, spiky black hair. Her arms, which were crossed in front of her and completely uncovered by the sleeveless shirt she wore, were covered in pink and white scars. One or two were still in the scab stage. Eyeliner rimmed her eyes in thick, black smudges, making her look as if someone had beaten her up. The girl seemed to study every inch of Aster, starting with her shoes and ending at her hair. “Looks like one of the Amish girls got off the reservation and met up with a jar of Manic Panic.”
A pink bubble escaped from her grin and popped. She then sucked it back in and kept chewing in slow chomps. Aster was familiar with gum, but none that made bubbles quite like that. It was just another interesting bit of magic she hadn’t expected.
A few of the other girls snickered, but Ivy hushed them up. “Ruby, you don’t look much like any of us either. Seems you two have somethin’ in common. In fact, you can share rooms.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Great.”
Aster felt her stomach drop. This girl seemed about as friendly as Aunt Oleander.
“I like your hair,” said another girl, who barely spoke above a whisper. This one had stringy blonde locks and a very timid posture, with shoulders that practically touched her ears. There was a faded but still very visible bruise beneath one eye. Aster was immediately reminded of Aunt Holly.
Aster smiled and searched for something on the poor girl she could compliment as well. “Thanks. I like your shirt.” It was plain black and nothing special, but it was the best she could think of on the spot.
“That’s Mary,” said another girl, a tall red-head with a short ponytail. “She’s new here too. Well, maybe not new new. She’s been in and out. I’m Tonya. I like your hair too. Kinda punky for the ‘burbs, though. But it’s cool.”
“We’ll finish up with the introductions over dinner,” said Ivy. “And by the way it smells in here, I’d say we’re having pizza.”
A plump girl in a blue apron raised her hand. “But I made pancakes, Miss Ivy.”
Everyone burst out laughing, and with that, Aster felt the energy in the room change. She let out a breath she felt like she’d been holding since she stepped through the Tree of Doors.
“All right then, you girls get the table set. Except you, Ruby. Show Aster your room.” Ivy handed her one of Aster’s bags while Aster carried the other.
Ruby shouldered it and made for the stairs. “Let’s get this over with quick. I’m dying to wrap my lips around one of Cynthia’s hockey puck pancakes.”
“Be nice!” hollered Ivy after them.
Aster followed Ruby up the narrow stairway to the house’s second floor and then up an even narrower stairway to the third, which was really a giant open room with three beds along the wall and windows between each one. Larkspur claimed a windowsill and immediately set about observing the outside world.
“That’s the biggest cat I’ve ever seen. What’s he doing here? Ivy doesn’t let us have animals.” Ruby tossed the bag on the bed farthest from her own.
Aster hesitated to find a properly vague answer. “He’s very special to me. I’m afraid we can’t be separated.”
“He got a name?”
“Larkspur.”
Ruby looked at her. “Aster and Larkspur. Got any other family named after plants?”
Aster burst out laughing. “Actually yeah. All of them.”
A ghost of a grin passed over Ruby’s face. “Families are strange. My mom named all her kids after their birthstones. Sister is Amber. Brother is Onyx. Terrible name, if you ask me. It’s a Wiccan thing, I guess.”
Aster frowned. “Wiccan?”
“Oh you know, witchcraft. Pagan shit. Worshipping trees and wind and rocks or whatever. She was heavy into that stuff.”
“She isn’t anymore?” Aster was rapt at the idea of real witches in this world.
“She started worshipping a different kind of rock. Ended up shooting a cop and a teenage boy during a liquor store holdup, trying to get a few bucks for another hit. She’s sitting on death row now.”
Aster thought of her aunt Holly’s salvia addiction. It seemed that both of their worlds were full of people trying to escape. Maybe they had been born on the wrong side and were just trying to find their ways back. “I can relate. Where I come from, people also take substances.”
Ruby grinned. “Yeah yeah, drugs are bad, crack is whack. But not all drugs are bad.” She crossed the room to the window and pushed it open. “Keep an ear out for the Great Mistress, will ya?” She pulled a small silver case from between the mattress. Inside was a small baggie with crumbled green leaf and little white papers to roll it with.
“What sort of leaf is that?”
“No worries. It’s just some good old American Spirit tobacco. I only do the wacky stuff occasionally, and only when my brother is feeling generous in doling it out. Besides, I can’t afford to get sent back to juvie. But if Ivy sees me doing this, she’ll have me on toilet duty for the next month.”
Juvie? That wasn’t a word that came through in translation, but Aster made an easy enough assumption. Ruby must have been a girl who’d had trouble with
authorities in the past. “Your secret’s safe with me. I have no desire to create enemies here.”
“Then you and I should get along just fine.” Ruby lit her cigarette and offered it to Aster. “Want some?”
Aster thought about it for a moment. Why not? Sure, her mother expressly forbade it, saying the smell would turn off any man who might otherwise give her a second look, but Dahlia and her stern warnings seemed another world away now. Still, maybe it was best to avoid falling in step with someone who appeared to be the house troublemaker. “Thanks, but maybe next time?”
“Suit yourself.” Ruby leaned back and took a deeper drag while Aster set about unpacking.
She undid the buckles and ties on her bags and began pulling out her pants and shirts to put in the dresser next to her bed. “Does anyone else sleep in this other bed?”
“As of now, no. But Ivy’s like a crazy cat lady. When she sees a stray, she has to bring it home with her and feed it. Is that how she found you?”
Aster remembered Nanny Lily’s admonition about telling no one where she was really from. “I was… an arranged pick-up.”
The other girl blew tendrils of smoke out through her nose. “Your accent’s a little strange. Where are you from?”
“I’m from… all over.”
“I guess I can believe that. You couldn’t look or sound like more of an alien if you tried.”
Aster looked down at the array of bright and tight clothing brimming from her drawers and thought of her mother’s tireless work making them in some other universe. She fought back more tears. “Tell me about it.”
“Hey, you know what? That was meant to be a compliment. Fuck normal.” Ruby shut the window and grabbed a perfume bottle from her bedside table. Soon the room smelled like warm cinnamon. “Now let’s go grub it up before Ivy sends a search party.”
Ivy’s face lit up when the two girls took their seats at the table. “All settled in?”
The Stargazers Page 5