by Chris Keane
Angie knew what had to be done, but was unsure she could be successful given her current state. She kneeled over Dante’s grandmother and carefully placed her hands on her head. She closed her eyes and meditated over Gram, whispering an ancient healing invocation. Dante studied Angie curiously, as he watched Gram slowly come out of the effects of the anesthesia.
Suddenly, Gram’s eyes opened wide.
“Angie?” Gram asked.
“Hello there,” Angie replied, smiling.
“Gram!” Dante squealed, embracing her.
“Dante! I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been so worried about you.”
“I’m fine. Gram, I’m sorry I was a bad grandson,” he said, crying unabashedly.
“Nonsense! You are the best grandson.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I feel like I’ve come out of a fog.”
While Gram and Dante caught up, Angie moved her attention to Crystal passed out on the other table.
Angie closed her eyes and placed her hands onto the marked-up body of her father’s very naked girlfriend. She recited a different invocation this time, but the result was the same as with Gram.
Crystal sprang from the cot, wide-eyed and clear-headed. When she saw her boyfriend passed out on the floor, she panicked. “Oh my god! Is he dead?”
Angie knelt down next to her father, and picked up the hypodermic needle from the floor. Her head was about to explode. Jesus Christ, Dad! What the fuck were you thinking? She furrowed her brow, sniffing the residue on the needle. “No. But he’s gonna be out a while.”
Crystal knelt down onto the floor next to Angie’s father, waiting for him to wake up.
The minute Gram seemed less groggy, Dante covered her up with a blanket and gingerly placed her into an old wheelchair he had found in the sleeping quarters. “Let’s go!”
On the way toward the elevator Angie tugged on the rosary and garlic he had around his neck. Hey, what’s this all about?” she asked.
“Oh, we’ll talk about that later.”
The journey back did not get off to a good start. As the elevator made its ascent, dust and debris poured through its cracks, sending Gram into a coughing fit. And when they finally arrived back at the cave, they realized that the ground was not at all wheelchair friendly. Dante and Angie lifted Gram out of the wheelchair and guided her toward the light at the end of the tunnel.
As they emerged from the cave, Kurt sprinted toward them from down the hill where his Camaro rested under a canopy of trees. “Gram!” he exclaimed. “You’re safe!”
“Kurt?” Gram asked, confused.
“It’s me,” he replied, kissing her on the cheek.
“By God, you’re so handsome,” she said as he scooped her off the ground into his arms.
“Let’s get you home,” Angie said.
***
To Dante, sitting around the table drinking Coke and eating junk food with Angie and Kurt while Gram cooked seemed surprisingly normal. After all he had been through in the last few weeks, normal was a very welcomed state.
Kurt patted Dante on the back, “I’m taking you back to Jersey, bro.”
“Are Mom and Dad home?” Dante asked.
“No. But I got a postcard from Venice. Says they’ll be back by Labor Day. I wouldn’t mind looking out for you for a couple weeks.”
“You know, I think I’ll hang around here a little longer.”
Kurt looked back at Dante, confused. “Are you sure?
“Yup,” Dante said casually, as he felt Angie squeeze his thigh with approval under the table.
“What about you?” Dante asked. “Did you find a place to live?”
“On the way up, I joined the Army.”
“Really? Wow. Wait ‘til Mom and Dad hear that…”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what they think at this point.”
Dante took a long swig of Coke and then stared out the window for a minute, pensively. “You know what, Kurt. Maybe it will be good for you.”
“Well, I for one am very proud to have a grandson defending this great nation,” Gram gushed.
“Hell yeah!” Kurt yelled. “I’ll get to play with all kinds of cool shit. Besides, I’d love to kill someone and not get in any trouble for it.”
“I can’t believe you’re brothers” Angie said, dryly.
23
Upward
Dante and Angie walked hand-in-hand down a trail in the morning dew as the sun poked through the trees. The morning walk with Angie was a ritual Dante was sure he would miss. But it was just the tip of iceberg. There were hundreds of things about Angie and their relationship that Dante would long for once he was back in Jersey under his parents’ roof. His summer-end departure home and its impact on their relationship had been talked about ad nauseam ever since that fateful night they had rescued Gram from Angie’s father. But now, with September’s arrival, the topic had become taboo, leaving Dante suffocating under the weight of it all.
As much as he wanted to discuss their future further, Dante stayed silent. Somehow words seemed inadequate for such a monumental change.
“The leaves are starting to change,” Dante remarked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” Angie replied, softly. “It happens earlier up here.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Normally, I love fall, but this year feels different.”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
“So how’s Gram?”
“She’s great. Thanks to you. Hey, I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah?”
Dante took a deep breath, and cleared his dry throat. “How did you do it?”
“I don’t know really. As a little girl, I was raised in the shadow of what happened in Salem. I mean it was a part of our family history, and my dad’s obsession. So, one day, I just tried it…”
“Tried what? You mean broke out a Ouija board?”
“Wicca. At first I thought it was a game, you know, I just tried it for fun. From my bedroom, I would cast spells on mean girls from school, or a teacher that belittled other kids. Nothing much happened, so I forgot about it. But then everything changed the night of my twenty-first birthday up in Lake Placid. My ex got bombed and I wouldn’t get the car with him drunk, and he refused to let me drive. So, I was walking home and I came across a really old woman collapsed on the side of the road. I checked her pulse, like I had seen my dad do hundreds of time. She was still breathing, but unconscious. We were really far from town, and I didn’t want to leave her to get help, so I tried a Wiccan prayer on her for healing. It was a last-ditch effort, and I really was just biding my time until a car came along-but it worked!”
Dante stood wide-eyed, mouth ajar as he struggled to absorb everything. “So, who knows?”
“Just you…and my father,” Angie replied, tentatively.
“You told your father?!?” Dante snapped.
“He figured it out. What else would explain Gram’s and Crystal’s recovery? Like I said, this supernatural stuff runs in my family. One of my ancestors, Abigail Sewall, was even burned at the stake during the Salem Witch trials for concocting magic potions to cure polio. But there are many more accounts of paranormal events throughout our family history. And my father has searching for proof his entire life.”
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll tell someone? Or make you do something you don’t want to?”
“Let’s just say now he knows my secrets. And I know his.”
There was a long pause, and then all the questions that had rattled around Dante’s brain about Angie, and her supernatural powers, and her father, just died on the vine. It just didn’t matter anymore. “So, what now?” Dante asked.
“Well, the doctor’s office is closing its doors. He knows that if even breathes on a patient, I’ll turn him in.”
“Sorry things got so insane that night in the lab.”
“I’m the one who should apologize…for not believing you.”
“Nah. No nee
d. I don’t believe myself half the time.”
“Still, you took on my father, and that took balls. And I know he could be sitting in jail right now if you weren’t so cool about everything with Gram.”
“Well, it’s a scary feeling when you’re losing someone you love…”
Angie turned to Dante. Her eyes asked him to elaborate but instead of pressing further, she changed the subject, “How’s Gram?”
“She’s fine. I know she’ll miss me. But other than that, she’s recovered remarkably well.”
“That’s so great to hear!”
“Thanks.”
Angie stopped abruptly, and turned to Dante with a serious expression on her face. “Hey, I’m going back to school. There’s a community college not far from Albany. I want you to come with me.”
“Wow. That’s great. I’m happy for you. My parents will never pay for a community college though.”
“But I will.”
“Huh?” Dante asked, not sure he could trust his own ears.
“I’ve been squirreling cash away for years for when I finally could go. I can cover both of our tuitions. I figured we could commute together.”
Dante grabbed her hips and pulled her body to his. He locked her mouth with his in a deep kiss.
“Is that a yes?” Angie asked, coming up for air.
Later that evening, in a rustic lodge nestled on the edge of Lake Placid, Dante and Angie shared a cozy table for two. Through large panoramic windows, they watched lights from the town dancing across the water like ballerinas.
Dante adjusted his neck tie as he gazed at Angie in her stunning red sequined cocktail dress. He carefully fixed his hair. He stared across the table with a confident smile beaming from his face.
“You clean up well!” Angie exclaimed.
“You too. Love the red dress!”
“So this is Lake Placid?” Dante asked, leadingly.
“You’re looking at it.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It can be,” Angie said, looking around.
“So, do you have any idea what you’ll major in? I mean sign-ups are Monday.”
“Nursing. It’s the best match for my…ah, abilities. I want to be someone’s miracle. How about you?”
“I think I’m going to take some criminal justice classes.”
“You want to be a cop?” Angie asked.
“I was thinking more of a private investigator.”
“Ooh. That sounds kinda sexy.”
“I’m already sexy,” Dante boasted.
“My, how far you’ve come this summer.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You were pretty green coming up here.”
“Alright, that’s fair.”
“I loved driving you wild with skimpy outfits. The look on your face was priceless. And that time at the lake…classic.”
“Okay. So, I may have gotten a little overexcited seeing your body for the first time.”
“So, I can’t drive you wild anymore?”
“No. It’s just different, because we’ve been together a bunch of times already.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of this.”
“You know what, babe, I’m gonna grab us a couple of Cokes from the bar. The waiter is taking forever.”
“Ok, babe.” Angie replied, sarcastically. “You go do that.”
When Dante stood up from the table and started walking by her seat, Angie motioned him over to her.
“Hey Dante…”
“Yeah,” he replied, leaning in closely.
“I’m not wearing any underwear,” she whispered.
“Oh crap,” he mumbled, retreating back to his seat and quickly placing a napkin on his lap.
“I thought so,” Angie quipped, as Dante turned the color of her dress.
Early the next morning, Dante watched as Angie slept peacefully beside him in her bed. Streams of blue light shot from the tips of her fingers. Through the sheets, he could see a deep purple glow illuminating her perfectly sinuous hips. This time, Dante was awake.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris graduated from Rutgers University and studied the art of storytelling at Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He wrote the bestselling Kindle e-book, “Loot,” in the spirit of The Goonies and Stand by Me. Chris is currently a contributing writer for Pennant Collective and lives in New Jersey with his wife, Laura, and their two children. For news on upcoming books and events, follow Chris @KeaneFiction on Twitter and keane.fiction.llc on Instagram.