Initiation

by Isobel Bird

  She reached his building and parked. The front desk attendant called up to her father’s apartment to announce her arrival and Cooper got into the elevator. She’d only been to her father’s apartment on a few occasions, and never for dinner. As she rode the elevator to the nineteenth floor, she found herself wondering why he’d chosen to eat in instead of going to a restaurant. He wasn’t a particularly good cook, and Cooper wasn’t even sure he’d ever used the kitchen in his apartment. The few times she’d been there the only things in his refrigerator had been a couple of limes and a container of vanilla ice cream.

  When the elevator stopped she got out and walked to her father’s door. Pausing a moment, she rang the bell and waited. A moment later her father answered.

  “Hi,” Cooper said.

  Her father gave her a quick hug and showed her in, shutting the door behind her. Cooper made a quick scan of the apartment.

  “You got furniture,” she said, noticing a new couch and chairs and some other pieces she’d never seen before.

  “Yeah,” her father said. “Amanda helped me pick some things out.”

  Cooper felt a chill descend upon her at the mention of Amanda Barclay’s name. She’d been hoping that the dinner invitation didn’t include having to see Amanda again. Now she assumed that it would.

  “Don’t worry,” her father said. “She’s not joining us tonight.”

  Cooper relaxed a little. Not having to deal with Amanda Barclay was one less thing to worry about.

  “Shall we eat?” her father asked her.

  “Sure,” said Cooper, still curious about what they were having. The dining table was set with plates and silverware, but Cooper couldn’t smell anything cooking.

  “Sit down,” Mr. Rivers said. “I’ll bring the food.”

  Cooper sat down. A moment later her father came out carrying a big brown shopping bag. He placed it on the table and started lifting containers out.

  “Since you missed dinner at Shiva’s Garden last time, I thought I’d give you a second chance,” he said as he opened the containers and revealed several different Indian dishes. Then he took the seat across from Cooper. “I figured if I did takeout you couldn’t run out on me,” he said.

  Cooper rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry about that,” she said, spooning some vegetable curry onto her plate. “I just couldn’t sit across from her and eat at the same time.”

  Her father gave her a look. “Her name is Amanda,” he said. “And I happen to like her.”

  Cooper wasn’t sure how to respond. The only things she could think of to say about Amanda Barclay were all negative, and she didn’t want to hurt her father’s feelings by saying them. Even more, she didn’t want to make him angry. She still had to tell him about Betty Bangs and the opportunity the Bitter Pills had to play on her tour.

  “Cooper, I know you’ve had some run-ins with Amanda in the past. And yes, I think she made some mistakes. But she’s not a bad person.”

  Cooper simply smiled as she ate some lemon dal. Just keep stuffing your mouth and you won’t have to talk, she told herself.

  “You just have to get to know her,” her father continued. “You actually have a lot of the same interests. For instance, she’s really into music.”

  Here’s your chance, Cooper thought. “Speaking of music,” she said, “I have something to ask you.”

  She told her father about meeting Betty Bangs and about being offered a spot on the tour she was putting together. “It’s a really wonderful opportunity,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “And Mom said it’s okay with her if it’s okay with you.”

  She paused, watching her father’s face for some indication of what he was thinking. He chewed silently for a minute, as if his brain was processing the information he’d been given. With each passing second Cooper grew more and more tense. If he said no, she knew she would die on the spot.

  “Tell you what,” Mr. Rivers said finally, wiping his mouth on his napkin. “I’ll make you a deal.”

  “Yeah?” Cooper said warily. Her father was, after all, a lawyer, and she’d heard him use that same tone of voice with clients.

  “You can do it,” he said, making Cooper want to jump up in excitement. “On two conditions.”

  “What are they?” Cooper asked.

  “First, I get to be your manager,” her father said.

  Cooper thought about that. Maybe her father’s lawyer skills would come in handy after all. “Okay,” she said. “I have to ask Jane, but I think it will be okay.”

  Her father nodded. “And second, you have to be nice to Amanda.”

  Cooper rolled her eyes.

  “I’m serious,” her father said. “You have to be nice. And not just polite. You have to actually talk to her and go places with us.”

  Cooper looked at him. It was time to negotiate. “I’ll agree to one conversation and two outings to be named later.”

  “Three conversations and five outings,” said Mr. Rivers. “All within a two-month period.”

  “Two conversations and three outings,” countered Cooper.

  Her father regarded her for a moment. “Done,” he said, reaching across the table and shaking her hand.

  “Nice doing business with you,” said Cooper.

  They both laughed.

  “Now let’s talk about college,” Mr. Rivers said.

  “Don’t push your luck,” Cooper said. “It’s your girlfriend or college, but not both.”

  CHAPTER 17

  “This has got to be the most fabulous tail ever,” Becka told Juliet. She was standing in front of the mirror in Annie’s bedroom, admiring the costume she’d just put on. Juliet had finished it just that afternoon, and they’d been waiting for Annie to get home from school to show it to her.

  “Don’t you love it, Annie?” Becka asked, twirling the tail around and cocking her head to look at the ears Juliet had made and attached to a plastic headband.

  “Annie?” Juliet said when her sister didn’t respond.

  “Oh,” Annie said, as if they’d startled her. “Yeah, it’s really cool.”

  Juliet looked at Becka, and the two of them eyed Annie.

  “What gives?” Becka asked. “You’re totally preoccupied.”

  Annie made a gesture of dismissal. “It’s not important,” she said.

  “It is if it means you’re not paying attention to my fabulous costumes!” exclaimed Juliet.

  Annie sighed. “Well, I was sort of thinking about something. But I don’t want to bother you guys.”

  “Bother,” Becka said, sitting on the edge of Annie’s bed.

  “Yeah,” Juliet said, sitting on the other side of her. “Spill it.”

  “It’s this whole initiation thing,” said Annie. “I’m having some doubts about it.”

  “You don’t want to be initiated?” asked Juliet. “I thought you were really looking forward to it.”

  “Oh, I am,” said Annie. “I still want to be initiated. I’m just not sure I picked the right coven.”

  “Not that I’m an expert on covens or anything,” said Becka, “but is there one you like better or something?”

  Annie shook her head. “That’s just it,” she replied. “I think I picked the best one. But I’m not sure it’s the right one.”

  Juliet nodded. “I get it,” she said. “You chose it because it was the least wrong, not because it was the most right.”

  “Yes,” Annie said. “I mean, I had to pick one, so I picked the one that seemed to make the most sense.”

  Juliet laughed. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that with boyfriends,” she said.

  “Amen,” said Becka, giving Juliet a high five over Annie’s head.

  “So how did you fix it?” asked Annie.

  “Dumped them,” Juliet said simply.

  “That’s all you can do,” Becka said, rubbing her face with one of the soft purple-and-pink gloves Juliet had created to look like paws. “Otherwise you just sit around hoping it w
ill eventually feel right.”

  “And it never does,” said Juliet. “Trust me on this, your first instinct is always right. If something feels wrong, chances are pretty high that it is.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” said Annie glumly. She threw herself back on the bed and groaned. “What am I going to do?”

  “Isn’t there some kind of ritual you could do to get some advice?” asked Juliet. “I don’t know, Tarot cards or something like that.”

  “I did the cards yesterday,” Annie replied. “They weren’t any help. All I got out of them was that I was going to have to make a choice and that some big change would come from it. Like I didn’t know that already.”

  “What about talking to someone?” Becka suggested. “I mean besides us. Isn’t there someone you can ask for help?”

  “Normally I’d say yes,” Annie said, thinking of Sophia and Archer. They had often helped her out with her problems. “But they’re sort of part of the problem,” she told Becka.

  “I think that pretty much wears out my suggestions,” Becka told her. “Sorry.”

  “What you need is a Caterpillar,” said Juliet thoughtfully.

  “What?” Annie said.

  “A Caterpillar,” repeated Juliet. “You know, like the one Alice asked for advice. He was very helpful.”

  Annie laughed. “Yeah, but I’m supposed to be the Caterpillar, remember? I can’t very well ask myself for advice. I’m the one who got me into this situation in the first place.”

  She sat up again and stared at the wall, thinking. It would have helped if she’d had a Caterpillar to go to, someone who could give her a push in the right direction. But she wasn’t in Wonderland, and there was no Caterpillar to be found.

  Then an image popped into her mind—the image of a face. It didn’t belong to a Caterpillar, but it belonged to someone almost as mysterious.

  “Eulalie,” Annie said.

  “Who?” asked Becka.

  “Eulalie,” Annie repeated. “She’s a friend of mine. I need to go see her.”

  She got up and grabbed her coat from the chair. “I’ll be back in a little while,” she said.

  “Where are you going?” asked Juliet.

  Annie grinned. “Down the rabbit hole,” she said as she left the room.

  She asked her aunt if she could borrow the car for an errand. Aunt Sarah was so frazzled with trying to organize all the last-minute details of the wedding that she simply tossed her niece the car keys and mumbled something unintelligible. Before she could realize what Annie had asked, Annie ran out of the house and got in the car.

  Fifteen minutes later she drove into the parking lot of Shady Hills, the nursing home where she had been a volunteer for a time. Getting out of the car, she walked up the sidewalk to the front door and went inside. A few minutes later she was standing outside the room of Eulalie Parsons.

  “Knock, knock,” she said, peering inside.

  Eulalie was sitting in her favorite chair, reading a book. She didn’t even look up when Annie spoke to her, she simply said, “ ’Bout time you got here. I was expecting you two days ago.”

  Annie laughed. She entered the room and approached Eulalie, who put down her book and looked up, smiling. Annie leaned down and gave the old woman a big hug and a kiss.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been so bad about coming to see you,” said Annie. “Things have been really crazy lately.”

  “Like they’re not exciting around here?” asked Eulalie, looking at Annie sternly. “Why, just last week Annabelle Morrow lost her false teeth and it took three volunteers to find them.”

  “Wow,” Annie said, pretending to be impressed. “That is something. I don’t know how you get any sleep with all that carrying-on.”

  Eulalie cackled. “Sit down,” she said. “Tell me why you came.”

  Annie perched on the edge of Eulalie’s bed and folded her hands in her lap. “I need some advice,” she said.

  “Good thing I’ve got some,” said Eulalie.

  “Wait a minute,” Annie said. “If you knew I was coming, how come you don’t know what I want?”

  Eulalie fixed her with a stern eye. “Just because I know someone is coming don’t mean I know why,” she said. She looked up in the air above her head. “When is this child going to learn?” she asked.

  “Still talking to Ben?” inquired Annie. Eulalie had moved into Ben Rowe’s room after the old man died. That’s how she and Annie had met. It had soon become clear to Annie that Eulalie had some kind of powers, and this had been confirmed when she’d caught Eulalie speaking to Ben’s spirit one day.

  “From time to time,” Eulalie answered. “He’s got some other business occupying him these days, so we don’t talk as much as we used to.”

  “Other business,” Annie repeated. She didn’t ask what business Ben’s ghost might have to take care of. She knew Eulalie wouldn’t tell her anyway. The old woman was very secretive about her abilities, and Annie suspected she didn’t know even half of what Eulalie could do if she put her mind to it. “Well, you tell him hello from me,” she told her.

  Eulalie nodded. “Now what about you?” she asked.

  Annie sighed. “I’m getting initiated next week,” she said. “My class is over, and it’s time for us to officially become witches. We all had to pick a coven we wanted to join, and I picked one. The problem is, I don’t think I picked the right one.”

  Eulalie listened, her dark eyes bright as she watched Annie’s face. Annie knew that one of the things Eulalie could do was see energy around people. Depending on the color and shape of it, she could also often tell how that person was feeling and what kind of problem she was having. Annie wondered what Eulalie saw around her.

  “No, you didn’t pick the right one,” Eulalie told her. “But that’s because your right one wasn’t offered to you.”

  “But I had to pick one of them,” said Annie.

  Eulalie nodded. “That’s right,” she said. “I know that. All I’m saying is that none of them would have been the right one.”

  “Then where does that leave me?” Annie asked, slapping her hands against her knees in frustration.

  “Can’t tell you that,” said Eulalie.

  “Can’t or won’t?” Annie asked her.

  Eulalie smiled, her teeth flashing. “You know me too well,” she said. “You’re right—sometimes I can but won’t. But this time I just can’t.”

  “You mean you don’t know the answer?” asked Annie.

  “I know part of the answer,” replied Eulalie. “You’ve got to get out of the choice you made. After that, I don’t know.”

  Annie snorted unhappily. “No one seems to know,” she said.

  “There is one thing I do know,” said Eulalie.

  Annie looked at her. “What’s that?”

  Eulalie pointed to the painting hanging on her wall. It was one Annie had done, and it depicted herself, Kate, and Cooper standing with their hands held up and joined together. Annie had given it to Eulalie as a gift. “I know that you’re going to find the answer there,” she said.

  Annie looked at the image she’d painted. To her it represented the friendship and the magic that came together when she, Cooper, and Kate joined together in a circle. But how was that the answer to her problem? Cooper had already suggested forming their own coven, and they had decided against it. Besides, Kate and Cooper had chosen their covens already. Annie didn’t see how they could help with her situation.

  She looked back at Eulalie. “Thanks,” she said.

  “You just keep thinking about that picture,” Eulalie said. “It will come to you.”

  “Maybe,” said Annie. She stood up. “I have to get back home,” she said. “But I’ll come see you in a week or so, okay?”

  Eulalie nodded. “I’ll still be here,” she said. She got a peculiar look on her face for a minute, and then she smiled broadly. “Oh, and Ben says he’ll see you at your initiation.”

  Annie nodded. “Bye,” she said
, waving as she left the room.

  As she walked back to her car, Annie pondered her encounter with Eulalie. Just like the Caterpillar with Alice, the old woman had said some things that didn’t make sense. Really she had just confirmed what Annie already knew—that she had to get out of joining the Daughters of the Cauldron. But apart from that, Eulalie hadn’t really told her anything. And as far as Ben being with her at initiation, Annie wasn’t sure she herself would even be there.

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Annie said, repeating one of Alice’s famous lines as she left Shady Hills and returned to her car. She really was starting to feel like Alice, lost in Wonderland, trying to navigate her way through a world that kept throwing new challenges at her and people who answered her questions with even more questions. She had accepted that she was going to have to tell Sophia she wasn’t joining the Daughters of the Cauldron after all. But she didn’t know what would happen after that. If there was no coven for her to join, would they just decide not to initiate her at all? That seemed the only likely response. But she couldn’t worry about that, not yet.

  First things first, Annie told herself as she turned the car away from the direction of home and drove toward the wharf area. It was time for her to talk to Sophia, and she wanted to do it face-to-face.

  By the time she actually walked into Crones’ Circle, she’d almost convinced herself not to do it. Even while driving around looking for a spot she’d been tempted to just go home, to simply call Sophia. Or maybe send her an e-mail, she’d even thought at one point. She just couldn’t stand the idea of facing her teacher, friend, and almost coven mate and telling her that she’d made a mistake.

  Too late now, Annie thought sadly as she saw Sophia emerge from the back of the store.

  “Hello there,” Sophia said cheerfully. “To what do we owe this visit? I didn’t expect to see you until next Thursday.”

  “I know,” Annie said. “I just wanted to talk to you about something.” She looked around the store. There were a couple of customers browsing around, and Robin, one of the store workers, was showing somebody the different candles they had for sale. “Could we go in back?” Annie asked Sophia.