“Let’s go downstairs,” said Josh, “and you can tell me exactly what’s going on, and then maybe we can work out what to do.” As he spoke, his mind was replaying events from last summer: things that had seemed inexplicable at the time, but suddenly made perfect sense if Callie was a witch. It made such perfect sense that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it himself. Of course, he hadn’t thought of it himself because it was impossible.
“Let’s go into the garden,” Callie said.
Sitting in the sun, she told Josh everything: Evie’s broken arm, Rose’s coven, her training and the escalating disturbances taking place around her.
“So now you know why it’s my fault.”
Josh didn’t reply. The more he heard, the harder it became to disbelieve.
“Josh?”
He tried to reason his way through what he’d just seen and heard. “Why now? Why would this suddenly start now? You’ve known you’re a witch for months, haven’t you?”
Callie nodded.
“And you’re getting better at controlling things?”
“Yes…”
“It doesn’t make sense. Surely this would have happened when you had the power but you didn’t know how to use it, if it was you causing it?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Has anything happened anywhere except your house?”
“No. Just in the house.”
“Well, if it was you, surely these things would happen wherever you were?”
Callie shrugged. “I haven’t really been anywhere else since it started. Not for more than a couple of hours at a time.”
Josh thought silently for a few minutes.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s try to clear up your room, then you call your parents and ask if you can stay with me and Mum at the cottages tonight. If nothing happens while you’re there, then it’s your house, not you, making these things happen.”
“But what if something does happen?”
“Then we’ll deal with it. But you’ve got to tell Rose what’s been happening.”
Callie nodded. “I know. I thought I could sort it out myself, but…” She gave a rueful smile. “I’ll go and see her on the way round to the cottages.”
Something else had occurred to Josh. “Do your parents know that you’re a witch? Wait – is your mum one too?”
Callie gave a mirthless laugh. “Dad doesn’t know and Mum’s mortified. She’s not a witch and she’s ashamed of me and of Rose. She definitely thinks I’m a freak.”
Josh wanted to protest that she couldn’t possibly, but something told him not to. Instead he stood up.
“Right. Let’s sort your room out.”
***
It took over an hour to get the bits of stone out and distribute them round the garden, mop up the puddle and clean the floor. At least water was no longer oozing from the wall. They moved a couple of posters and Callie’s desk to hide the wet patch, then stood back to inspect the result of their efforts.
“Well, it looks okay to me,” said Josh.
“You’re not my mother,” Callie pointed out unnecessarily. “She’s like someone from CSI. It’ll just take one bit of gravel and she’ll work everything out somehow.”
“They all do that, don’t they?” said Josh, still scrutinising the room. “You get the place immaculate and they come home and take one look round and they’re like, ‘I see you had six friends round and ordered pepperoni pizza – sixteen inch – and drank nine cans of Irn-Bru and talked about films.’ Honestly, mothers are a different species.”
Callie was laughing now.
“With any luck she won’t even come in here if I’m staying over at your place,” she said, holding up crossed fingers.
“Has she texted back yet?”
“I left my phone downstairs. Let’s go and check.” Callie picked up her sunglasses, closed her bedroom door and led the way down to find that there was a text from Julia.
“Yes, it’s fine,” she said as she read it. “Now, what about the beach? I’ve had more than enough of this house, and there’s a picnic that needs eating.”
***
Lying on the hot sand, stuffed with food, surrounded by the noise of holidaymakers enjoying the sun, the situation seemed a little less daunting than it had in Callie’s bedroom.
“So, tell me more about being a witch. Can you do lots of cool stuff? Do you have to meet with the rest of the coven at full moon?” Josh had been longing to ask, but he hadn’t wanted to earlier in case it upset Callie again.
“And dance naked round a cauldron?” Callie interjected acidly.
Josh went scarlet and choked on his drink. “Don’t do that,” he wheezed in between coughs.
“Anyway, I can assure you there’s no dancing, and no cauldron, and certainly no nakedness.”
“Please, don’t even make me think about that.”
“And they don’t worship the devil. Or have familiars,” she went on, ignoring him.
“What about Luath? And Chutney Mary?”
“They’re not familiars, you fool, they’re pets.”
“Well, what’s the difference?”
Callie opened and closed her mouth. “Actually, I must admit I’m not sure.”
“What about George?”
“I don’t think he’d be very pleased to be described as a pet or a familiar.”
Josh elbowed her in the ribs. “No, I mean what does he think about all this? I take it he does know?”
“Oh yes, he must know, but no one’s ever actually told him, so he doesn’t have to think anything about it. But I suppose the fact that he and Rose are still together speaks for itself.”
***
When they tired of the beach, Josh and Callie dropped the borrowed wetsuits off. They’d gone into the house with some trepidation, but everything was just as they’d left it, and Chutney Mary accompanied them from room to room, purring cheerfully, tail high.
Callie collected her overnight stuff. She looked hard at the scruffy t-shirt and shorts she’d worn the night before. Nope. She rummaged through the drawer. There was a brand new set of proper PJs, still in the wrapper. She picked it up, then put it down again. What was she thinking? This was Josh, just Josh.
She was getting as bad as her mother.
She settled on a white I HEART NY tee and shorts that weren’t too grotty or too smart. Good.
“See you tomorrow, puss,” Callie said as she shut the front door again.
***
“Do you want me to come in?” said Josh as they reached The Smithy.
“No, thanks. I think I’d rather do this on my own,” Callie replied. “I’ll be along in a bit.”
“Hello?” she called as she went in, but The Smithy was silent. There must be someone here, though; the front door hadn’t been shut, let alone locked. She looked out of one of the back windows and saw George in the greenhouse, Luath lying in front of the open door like a draught excluder.
“Hello, George. Is Rose around?”
George put down his secateurs. “I’m afraid not. She went round to Miss Rutherford’s a couple of hours ago with some flowers for her birthday – she’s 87 – and found she’d had a fall. Rose has gone in the ambulance with her to hospital in Dundee, so I’m not sure when she’ll be back.”
“Oh…”
“I take it it’s not something I can help with?”
“Not really,” Callie said, perplexed. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll catch her tomorrow or something.”
***
“That was quick,” said Josh, answering the door.
Callie explained.
“I think you might be right about it being the house,” she said, determined to be positive. “So tomorrow will do to tell her. It’ll be fine.”
Anna was working among a litter of papers in the sitting room.
“Some holiday,” said Callie, with a smile.
“It’s funny, it still feels like a holiday, even if I do some work, as long as I’
m somewhere different,” Anna replied. “Anyway, I’m not working every day. We had a lovely time in Falkland.”
Behind her, Josh rolled his eyes.
“I’m just going to call your parents, Callie,” Anna went on. “I’d better make sure they’re okay with you and Josh staying in the same room. It’s either that or one of you on the floor in here.”
As Anna went to phone, Josh said, “I told her you’d been having nightmares and were scared to sleep on your own. Sorry; I thought it might persuade them to let us share.”
“That’s all right. It’s a good idea. As long as you don’t mind?”
Anna came back in. “She said yes. Thought someone else in the room might stop these bad dreams you’ve been having. I promised I’d keep an eye on you too.”
“Please stop being embarrassing, Mum,” Josh begged.
“I’m your mum – that’s my job!” Anna said indignantly.
***
Later, when they’d had supper, Josh and Callie went for a walk. Not because they actually wanted a walk, but because Josh was desperate to see some of the things Callie could do with her nearly new-found powers.
“Honestly, though, there’s not much I can show you. This isn’t like magic on the television, you know,” she protested. “It’s not tricks and it’s not Harry Potter.”
“So you didn’t have a ‘Yer a wizard, Harry’ moment?” Josh grinned.
“Eh, no. Not exactly. I had an ‘Oh no, have I just killed someone?’ moment and a table-bursting-into-flames moment.”
“Whoa! What table? What happened?”
“When Rose and the others told me what I was, I accidentally set fire to the kitchen table in The Smithy.”
Josh was wide-eyed. “Did you have to call the fire brigade? How come the house didn’t burn down?”
“No fire brigade. Remember, I was in the same room as four proper witches. They put it out in a nanosecond. The wood wasn’t even scorched. It wasn’t normal fire, more like static, I think.”
“Did you know before they told you?”
Callie wrinkled her nose. “I knew there was something… but I kept trying to convince myself it was all my imagination. I never thought I might be a witch until Rose said it.”
“And you never knew that she was one?”
“No way! I thought she and Bessie and Barbara and Isobel were just four old dears who liked a gossip. I never noticed anything and I’ve known them all my life.”
“So, what can you do?”
“Not much yet,” said Callie, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “I can tell what the weather’s going to do, but I can’t control it.”
“Rose and her mates can control the weather?”
“Well, a bit. They could push a shower out of the way, but not a rainstorm.”
“Must come in handy.”
“Yeah.” Callie smiled.
“That fire thing you did – show me again.”
Callie looked round. “Better go somewhere it won’t be seen then.”
“There’s that ruined cottage down by the stream.”
Five minutes later they were there, pushing aside swags of ivy to get through the remains of the doorway.
Callie picked up a stick and looked at it. Obediently, it burst into flame immediately, all along its length. She waved it like a conductor’s baton.
Josh reached out to touch it.
“Careful!” Callie pulled it away from him. “You’ll get burned.”
“Why doesn’t it burn you?” Josh asked, fascinated.
“Because I made the fire, and it knows I’m the boss. I kept getting burned when I was learning this, though; I’d be so pleased I’d managed to set light to something that I’d forget to control it.”
She slid a hand along the length of the burning stick and the flames were gone.
“That’s so cool,” said Josh, shaking his head. “Show me something else.”
“Tomorrow,” Callie said. “I can’t give away all my secrets at once.” She was enjoying having something to show off about. It was an unfamiliar sensation.
“You might just be the most interesting person I’ve ever met. I’m definitely sticking around to see what else you can do.”
Callie flushed with pleasure, turning away to hide it. “Better wait and see what happens tonight,” she said, sobering. “Your mum might have forbidden you to see me again by tomorrow, or you might not want to.”
8. SLEEPOVERS
Josh lay awake for a long time that night. Long after Callie’s breathing told him that she was asleep in the other bed, he lay looking at the dim grey square of the window, his mind racing as he tried to sort out the day’s events.
That Callie was a witch was actually crazily easy to accept, given her ancestry and her undeniable oddness. The stuff with the fire would have convinced him anyway, if he’d had any real doubts.
As to what was happening in her house… He was far less confident about that than he’d made himself sound. If something weird did happen during the night he hadn’t a clue what he was going to do. Run away yelling, probably; if lumps of rock started falling out of the ceiling and the wall sprang a leak, definitely. Cool, logical explanations didn’t seem quite so convincing, lying here in the dark.
He closed his eyes and tried to think of safe, dull, ordinary things that had nothing to do with witchcraft.
***
Something hit him in the face. With a sharp intake of breath he opened his eyes to find Callie, tousle-headed, sitting up in the other bed. It was broad daylight. Morning.
“Did you just throw something at me?”
“You were snoring. I had to stop you somehow. Anyway, it was just one of your socks.”
“Yuk. I’m surprised you even wanted to touch it.”
“Wanted? No. But it was the only thing I could reach without getting out of bed.”
“Sleep okay?” Josh asked.
“Yeah. A perfectly ordinary night’s sleep.” A smile lit Callie’s face. “Maybe you’re right and this isn’t my fault.”
“So now all we have to do is work out what is going on and how to stop it. Simple. Breakfast first, though. I could murder a bacon roll.”
“Ooh, yes please.”
Anna was reading the local paper in the sitting room.
“Bacon roll, Mum?”
She looked up briefly. “No thanks.”
Callie and Josh sat on the sofa and flicked absently through the TV channels as they ate.
“Well, here’s an opportunity you don’t get every day,” said Anna, reading from the paper. “‘Ever cuddled a lemur or stroked a skunk? Now’s your chance! Fife Animal Park will be visiting St Andrews with some of our furry, feathery and scaly friends.’”
“Let’s see,” said Josh, cramming the last of his roll into his mouth. “Skunk stroking… Don’t they make you smell terrible?”
Callie craned to see what Josh was reading. “Only if they’re frightened, I think. Very gentle skunk stroking, maybe? A lemur, though… I’ve never seen one close up, and they look really cute on TV. Oh, it’s today that they’re in town!”
“Wanna go?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“Okay, Mum?”
“Of course. I can even drive you in. I want to do some shopping.” Anna reached over the back of the sofa. “Now give me back my paper. I’ve still to read about the Scout jumble sale.” She paused. “What did you do to your wrist, Callie? That’s a nasty bruise.”
“Nothing,” said Callie, self-consciously hiding the black mark on her wrist with her hand. “It’s fine.”
Anna went back to her paper without further comment. Josh looked curiously at Callie, but she pretended she hadn’t noticed he was watching her, finished her roll and went to get dressed.
“What about going to tell Rose?” Josh asked when she came back.
“Let’s go and see the animals first. It’ll be a nice break from all this. I’ll tell her when we get back.”
***
&
nbsp; When Anna dropped them at Kinburn Park in St Andrews, the animals hadn’t arrived yet, so they strolled along Market Street to the sweet shop to stock up on trash, then walked slowly towards the park.
“Jelly snakes, mmnn…”
“You can’t possibly think jelly snakes are better than white mice.”
“Ten times better.”
“Must be some weird witch thing.”
Callie made a face at Josh. “I could turn you into a white mouse.”
“No you couldn’t.”
“Maybe one day…”
“I can imagine Bessie turning someone into something.”
Callie laughed. “I know what you mean, but she’s all right, just a bit crazy. And, honestly, we can’t turn people into anything.”
Josh gave a theatrical sigh. “Another let down,” he said morosely. “To change the subject,” he went on, “we should be trying to work out what’s happening at your house. We know now it isn’t you making things happen, so why there and why now? When did it start?”
“It was two nights ago: the first day we went body boarding and then I went for my lesson with Rose and the coven. I heard hammering in my room that night, but no one else heard it.
“Then the next night.” She shivered. “Same but worse, and a figure under the desk. It all stopped when my dad came into the room. The cat was going mental – that was what Dad heard, not the hammering. At least if Chutney Mary hears it, it’s not just my imagination,” she added thoughtfully.
“What sort of figure?” Josh asked, trying to sound matter of fact, though the hair was standing up on the back of his neck.
“I couldn’t see it clearly. It was as if it was made out of darkness, darker than everything else around it. It was human, though – well, human shape. I saw arms reaching up just before it disappeared… Can we stop talking about it for a bit?” Callie asked as they arrived back at the park. “Anyway, look; the animals are here.”
They joined a queue of excited children and curious adults.
“Wow, look at that,” Josh said as they got nearer. “It really is a skunk.” He sniffed. “And I can’t smell anything.”
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