by June Ahern
“How come I gotta buy your stuff?” Mary said cheekily, knowing full well she had agreed beforehand to buy incense and candles for her sister’s hidden altar.
A dark sullen look crossed June’s face.
“You owe me,” she answered strongly. “Because of me, you didn’t get your butt kicked by Daddy for cutting school––again.” June knew Mary understood how influential she had been in helping her stay clear of their father’s wrath.
Ever since Mary had been warned about expulsion from Girls Convent if she was truant again, her father had become ruthless, trying to catch her doing anything out of order. When he did, the punishment was usually a solid beating with the belt, which Mary endured. She hated going to the Catholic high school and planned to join Jeannie at Mission High, a public school, by flunking out of her present situation. June pleaded with her to finish her junior year, which was only months away. “Mommy’s getting sick again from all the fighting,” she had told Mary.
The need to protect her sister and mother drew forth June’s strong telepathic ability, which had become increasingly effortless over the years. She employed it often and chose to ignore Sister Noel’s sage advice; never use it for selfish purposes. With great concentration, she would scramble her father’s thoughts by bombarding him with images of unfinished work projects so that he would forget about Mary. As stubborn a man as Jimmy was, June was equally so. Her telepathic thoughts won out.
Mary didn’t offer more money, so June didn’t budge from the sidewalk. The sisters continued to stare across to the head shop’s large window display of pot pipes, candles, incense and hippy adornments. Also, there was occult paraphernalia like tarot cards and talismans; religious statues of Our Lady sat next to idols of the Santeria, and Voodoo religions.
“The same stuff we use at Mass. Incense, candles, statues, flowers. All that stuff. Occult and Catholics, it’s like a big old magical mystery trip, man,” Mary laughed ironically.
“The mystical part of Catholicism is what I’ve always liked about it. It’s the other stuff that got to me,” June said seriously.
“Yeah, like don’t question anything,” Mary added.
A self-proclaimed atheist, Mary would still pray a “Hail Mary” when feeling needy. June often reminded her, praying to Our Lady and having faith She would help, was the mystical part of Catholicism. Still, she understood why Mary didn’t want to be a Catholic any longer. Like her sister, June was also irked by the memories of Sister St. Pius, as well as Jimmy’s warnings whenever she committed some infraction. He would say things like, “God doesn’t like bad girls,” or “Good Catholic girls don’t behave like that.” Yet she yearned for spiritual practice to support her psychic gifts in a positive way. As little as she knew about it, witchcraft was fulfilling that need.
“Yeah, I guess it’s true. Catholic girls can make good witches,” June admitted.
“Of course you’d think that way, you heathen pagan,” Mary snickered teasingly, knowing it annoyed June to be called the name their father called her. Before June could retaliate, Mary jumped up and threw her bag over her shoulder just as the bus rolled to a stop in front of them. June hurried on after her.
The girls sat down in the warm bus, happy to be out of the cold. Twilight was beginning to fall. Unsure if they’d make their curfew, the girls agreed to say they had been studying at the library, which was the only excuse their father was likely to accept to pardon their tardiness. With their fib settled upon, they sat quietly watching the lights from the cars and street lamps moving past them.
“Hey! Let’s go up to Twin Peaks and trip out on the city lights,” Mary said dreamily.
June slumped into the seat, depleted of energy and sick of Mary’s stupid jabbering. She yanked off the ribbon holding her wild curls in place. Tears sprang to her eyes. Fear for Mary’s growing substance abuse interfered more and more with her psychic ability to keep her sister out of trouble. She looked down at the bright orange ribbon and twirled it around her fingers. She felt utterly alone.
“Hey, cool, there’s Jeannie,” Mary said pointing to the front of the bus.
Jeannie Callaghan coming down the aisle of the bus with an armful of books and her head bobbing to the music blasting through the headphones of her transistor radio. Her heavy black, Cleopatra eye make-up dramatized her bleached blonde bouffant hair.
June was glad to see Jeannie because Sadie and Bernice had talked about moving out of San Francisco. They were worried about the safety of the family. On Jeannie’s insistence Sadie agreed to have June give her a tarot reading about the move. It revealed a positive financial raise for Sadie and that The Valley would soon become a safer place for the women. With those predictions and a promise from Jeannie and Brian to come straight home after school, and stay there until the women returned from work, the women decided to stay.
“Cowabunga!” Jeannie greeted the sisters as she plopped down on the seat across from them. Her recent interest in the surfer crowd at Kelly’s Cove, a popular area of San Francisco’s beach for surfing, added new spice to her vocabulary and fodder for her wild stories.
The colorful tales had enticed June to start spending time at the ocean. It wasn’t since she was very young that she had spent much time at the beach. The family had often gone there together. June recalled the first time she and her sisters put a message into a bottle and sent it off to sea to Helen. They were always eager to return to the beach to send more messages to their departed sister. And June had always sent one to her angel, too. The last time she had done that was during the summer of her ninth birthday, when the MacDonalds had stopped going to the beach as a family. For her upcoming fourteenth birthday, June thought she’d send another one.
“Guys, don’t forget to wipe off your face paint,” Jeannie said and handed them a package of Kleenex from her pocket. “Oh, and here. Brian got this for you from Bernice’s library.” Jeannie handed June a heavy black book.
On the cover of the book was a picture of a woman standing on top of a mountain with her arms outstretched over a gray churning sea. A sense of familiarity pestered June’s mind. Then it dawned on her. The picture reminded her of a recent vision, one she hadn’t enjoyed receiving.
When June was a young girl, they had generally been fun visions, like the one of her dancing on a hilltop with her sisters and a red-haired teen, or traveling with her angel to a grassy meadow full of golden-yellow daisies. But now they were foreboding and disturbing. The week before, she had dreamt of Sister Noel being hunted by snarling lions. Sister Noel had been cornered on the edge of a cliff. The nun’s panicked breathing had caused June to jerk awake with her heart beating wildly. Shortly after the dream she had an urgent feeling to flee. She didn’t know exactly what she was to escape, although the fear that something bad is brewing, troubled her. The disturbing feeling grew stronger each day. Soon she became disoriented in its wave of fright.
One day after school, as she plowed up the hills toward home, she discovered she had strayed from her usual route. She had been distracted by an image of her mother wailing and collapsing on a hillcrest. She covered her ears to stop the sound of the piteous cries, causing her books to clamor to the pavement and dispelling the vision. Standing breathlessly at the top of Diamond Street, she stared down the hill toward Holy Savior and cried a plea to Our Lady to help her get away, far away, from the school and her father.
Feeling desperate to hide, she began to walk aimlessly in the opposite direction of home. Her oxford-clad feet carried her out of The Valley and on a hike up to Twin Peaks. She arrived red-cheeked. Quickly she settled onto a grassy patch in the bosom of the Peaks’ twin hills. There, away from the world, she rested and soon became lost in the panoramic view of San Francisco. The late winter’s darkness had come swiftly and the lights of the city twinkled brighter than the stars as June raced up Liberty Street. The family was finishing dinner by the time she had arrived home. “Sorry I’m late, but Sister asked me to do a special report on Mary Magdalene,”
she lied.
“Man, check this out,” Jeannie said flipping open the black book to a photo of a naked woman kneeling in front of an altar and waving a wand across three candles. “It says she’s doing a spell sky-clad. It makes her energy more powerful.”
They looked at the aging woman with sagging breasts and rounded belly.
“Sky-clad. Must mean naked,” Jeannie said shrugging.
“Mmm. Brian would love to see June sky-clad,” Mary joked.
Jeannie and June ignored her smart aleck comment.
“Banishing? What’s that?” June pointed to the heading above the spell.
“Get rid of. Blow away,” Jeannie said.
“I’ll start with Maggie,” June said with an impish grin.
“Amen,” Mary piped in.
“Hey, dig this. You’re supposed to do this spell nine nights in a row,” Jeannie said.
“Oh yeah! Sounds like making a novena, huh? Another Catholic-like witch thing,” June said. She read aloud from the page. “The secret to a successful spell is to keep your mind clean and thoughts simple and always create spells with harm to none. So mote it be.” She remembered how Mrs. G and Sister Noel both had spoken about simple, direct messages.
“Look up what mote means,” Jeannie said.
The girls huddled together, excitedly pouring over the book.
* * * * *
Chapter 29
BANISHED
A SMALL WHITE statue of Our Lady with Baby Jesus in her arms graced Mother Superior’s large oak desk. The image reminded Cathy of a mother’s duty to protect her child. She chastised herself for not always doing that. With her hands clasped on her lap, she said a silent “Hail Mary,” and prayed the issue at hand wouldn’t be too serious. She peeped up at the large round clock on the wall, hoping Mother Superior would come soon and bring an end to her torturous wait.
Jimmy, perched stiffly on a wooden chair, sat next to Cathy. She could tell he was stewing with anger. Not only did he miss work to deal with June’s misbehavior at school, but also he was left waiting. Several times he blew out long hot breaths, gritting his teeth with each inhalation.
He sounds like a steam engine idling at the station, Cathy thought, irritated by the noise. Warily, she glanced his way. She reflected on how he had always been a controlling man and lately his temper flared out of control. For the sake of peace, she had kept their daughters’ mishaps from him, not wanting to see them cruelly punished for every little infraction he deemed inexcusable. With great sadness, she watched as Jimmy destroyed the power of their daughters. Little by little, each girl waned and ebbed, until, in exhaustion, they became their father’s prophecy. Cathy thought of Annie and wondered if she would ever stretch beyond her father’s constraints that had ended her dreams of going to college.
Rapid footsteps on the highly polished marble flooring grew louder, announcing the arrival of the principal. Jimmy stood up when the Mother Superior entered the office. The tall nun sat behind her wide desk and gestured for him to sit.
“Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald, thank you for coming,” she pleasantly greeted June’s parents. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Monsignor asked me to meet with him first.”
Cathy noted the nun’s face, never an attractive one, had become thinner and sharper with age, giving her a rather severe look.
Mother continued speaking. “First of all, I want to congratulate you. I understand Anne was offered a scholarship at a prestigious Catholic university. She’ll make a fine doctor. But I heard she has taken a full-time position at Hibernia Bank?”
Jimmy squirmed in his seat, sensing Mother Superior was questioning his decision about their oldest daughter.
“Well, she’ll need money if she’s to go away to school. I told her to work for a year first,” he replied defensively.
The Mother Superior dropped her hooded eyes. “I see,” she said, tapping the desk ever so slightly with her long fingers.
The prolonged silence became awkward enough to make Cathy flustered.
“She wanted to go to work, Mother. Annie’s like that, always doing the right thing for the family,” Cathy lied, recalling how Annie had cried when her father decided college had to wait.
“You must be very proud of her. And of Margaret, too, receiving the lead in the school play!” Mother clapped her hands with glee and smiled broadly.
Jimmy returned her grin. Cathy’s lips twitched nervously. She wrung her hands and waited for the purpose of the summons. After years of meetings with the principal, Cathy knew the nun was usually fair, in spite of her strict discipline. She especially supported female students to excel beyond their expectations.
“Alas, all this good news makes it difficult to tell you why I asked you here. What I must say is not good,” Mother Superior said, dropping an octave on the last word.
Her pause was followed by a deep sigh. The nun slumped her shoulders before resuming her straight-back position. It was as though she herself was about to face the music. It would have been comical if her deep-hooded eyes were not filled with such concern.
The principal pushed a book across the desk to the MacDonalds and said, “This was found in June’s desk.”
They leaned forward. Jimmy pulled it closer to read the title aloud, “‘Holy Witchcraft: The Path to a Woman’s Power.’ Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” he exclaimed.
Cathy put a hand on his arm to quiet him.
“No, Mother, this isn’t June’s,” she said, pushing the book toward the principal. She swiftly recoiled her hand as though the book burned her skin.
Mother’s eagle-like eyes fixed on her. “Yes, I’m sorry, it is.”
Cathy opened her mouth to argue a mistake had been made, but bit her tongue because of the nun’s intense stare. Her woman’s intuition told her a message was being sent. She felt she was being warned to keep quiet in order to not bring attention to June’s other violations at Holy Savior.
Sunrays coming through the window behind the Mother Superior created a halo around her. Mother’s face was a shadow hidden in the beam of light. It only added to her aura of omnipotence.
“June has had a troubled history here and quite frankly, I’ve had my concerns about her beliefs in Catholicism for quite some time,” Mother said.
Jimmy squinted into the light, his thin lips tightening as his face flushed hotly. In a voice too loud for the small office he sputtered, “What do you mean?”
“I truly have my doubts whether June is committed to her faith. As you know, her confirmation is only a week away. That’s an important time for a Catholic child to become a true advocate, a soldier of Christ, Our Lord and become a perfect Christian by accepting the Holy Ghost into her life. From my observation, your daughter is not a good candidate for this holy sacrament.”
In defense of her daughter, Cathy spoke up strongly, “She’s too young to really know what she thinks about religion. June’s got a very active imagination. Besides, you know young girls. Even Mary had a few hard years.” She didn’t share that June already believed she had ghosts in her life.
Mother waved her hand, interrupting further comments.
“No, no,” Mother replied. “It’s not the same. Mary was just, well, hadn’t grown out of her tomboy stage. I understand how difficult this news is for you.”
Returning to the severity of the situation, she spoke with authority. “June refuses to adhere to the school’s religious policies. We have had much trouble with her. Surely you two have discussed her problems outside of school when I, or one of the nuns, notified you?”
“Are you saying June is a bad girl?” Cathy asked, annoyed by the nun’s evaluation.
“Wait a minute. When did we get notified about June misbehaving?” Jimmy asked incredulously.
Cathy ducked her head, knowing she should not have tried to defend her daughter against the Mother Superior. She was uncertain about what to say now the secret about June’s troubles at school had been exposed to her father.
“The bottom line is June
is difficult to manage,” said Mother. “We at Holy Savior have decided she must leave the school immediately.”
“Sister Noel managed her well enough. Besides, June has a mind of her own,” Cathy said volleying a quick response back to Mother.
Mother said sternly, “Sister Noel is no longer with us, is she? The other nuns do not have time for June’s special needs. She will not be graduating from Holy Savior.”
“Please be reasonable, Mother. It’s only a month to graduation. Then she’ll be off to Girls Convent with her sister Mary,” Cathy pleaded.
The principal responded with a cool finality. “Have you not received a letter from Girls Convent? I spoke with them recently. June was not accepted. I doubt any Catholic school will have her.”
Cathy speculated as to which of her daughters would hide the mail from her. She offered no suggestions about who the culprit might be.
Jimmy’s beady eyes widened and he glared at Mother Superior as though ready to pounce on her authority. Instead, he blew out a loud sharp breath, shook his head and stood up. He picked up the book, and in a surprisingly patient voice said, “You tell me one of my girls is no good enough to be in a Catholic school? It’s no right. I worked hard for that. I’ll take the matter to the Monsignor. We’ll see then.”
The Mother Superior rose sharply from her seat. She informed them she and the Monsignor had already discussed the matter and agreed upon the solution. June must leave Holy Savior at once. With a curt nod and a short, “Thank you for coming in,” they were dismissed.
The couple, stunned into silence, obeyed Mother Superior and shuffled out of the office and into the bright spring sunlight. Before they were scarcely through the front doors, Jimmy spun to face his wife.
“You happy now?” he said angrily. “See the trouble you’ve caused, letting her mind run wild with that damn imaginary friend shit? Well, there’s your wee pagan baby grown up to be a bloody heathen witch, excommunicated from the Church! It’s all your fault, Cathy.”