“I’m tryin’ to tell you a thing, if you’ll close your lid a second.” Delpha wiped her sweaty palms on her shorts, heart pounding. “Clement is … my father.” The word “father” dropped out like lead. Not Daddy. Not Dad. Father.
Tyler’s jaw dropped. “What? Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t know until he showed up at Spring Fling.”
“But how—”
Delpha’s chest tightened. “I can’t talk about it. I’m only tellin’ you this because I can see you’re hurtin’, and there ain’t a point to it. I like you fine. You’re a good person. Bein’ a Yow is cool. I just—Your uncle …”
Tyler blushed, then grinned. “Whoa. But we’re, like, cousins!”
Delpha studied Tyler’s face. Behind his smudged glasses, the stormy hurt had faded, replaced by his usual goofy wonder. How do you forgive folks that easily? she wondered. Delpha smiled a little. Tyler’s mouth twitched with a thousand questions. Finally, it settled into a grin. “Do you want a hug?”
“Nope. Back to work.”
“Okeydokey. How will we fix the zombies, if we’re not waking Katy?”
Delpha reached for her spellbook. Her heart hitched as she studied Katybird’s pale lips and Tyler’s red-streaked leg.
They’ll keep tryin’ to help me until it kills them, Delpha realized. All the fight withered inside Delpha. What was worse? Folks causing your plans to fail, or losing folks for the sake of your plans? She suspected this must be what dying felt like. There was no way to keep from getting hurt. But if she had to choose …
“I’m going to use the phone.”
Delpha started walking and didn’t look back. She checked door after door until she found the church office. She located the phone, yanked up the receiver, and dialed her mama’s cell phone number. No answer. She punched in her home number, and after two quick rings, her mama’s voice spoke in an urgent whisper.
“Delpha McGill, this better be you, calling to say you’re safe!”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Delpha blurted, voice cracking. “I … I lied before, an’ I’m in a mess. I found Mamaw’s spellbook, an’ I used it, an’ the zombies downtown are all my fault.” Delpha held the phone away from her ear, bracing for yelling. But Mama’s voice stayed deadly low and quiet.
“Oh, Delpha. Please tell me that’s not true.”
Delpha felt a flare of annoyance. “I could tell you that, but that won’t help me, now will it? Truth is, Mama, I need you to come help me do this spell right. Katy can’t—”
Mama wasn’t about to move on yet. “After everything I’ve done! After everything I’ve given up, Delpha. I did it all to keep that nonsense out of our lives!” Mama was shouting now, voice boiling with rage.
Delpha ground her molars, angry tears pricking her throat. If Mama had her druthers, blackberries wouldn’t thorn, baby birds would stay bald forever, and the summer clouds would never scatter hail. But you can’t control the nature of a thing. “This is part of me. You can’t just … hack everything out of your life that makes you scared!”
There was a long, long pause on the other end of the phone. Then, finally:
“Baby girl, I can’t even get out of the house. You stay safe! There’s zombies outside, trying to break into the cabin. I’ll figure out somethin’—” The line went to static for a second, and Delpha yelped in panic.
“Mama?”
Her mother’s voice broke back in. “—can’t get the police. If you’re safe, you stay put, you hear?” Delpha could hear muffled shrieks over the phone line.
The world stopped spinning for Delpha. She dropped the phone. There were zombies up at her cabin. Her mama couldn’t get out. Her mama. Delpha started for the back door to get Puppet, but her knees buckled, and the walls whirled. She wasn’t strong enough to work the puppet magic again, not yet. There was only one person left to ask. Her heart hammered. She steadied herself against the wall panels, then doubled back down the hallway.
“CLEMENT!”
She stumbled into the foyer as Clement whirled from the window in alarm, his face craggy with worried shadows cast from the orange streetlight outside. Delpha choked back a sob. She had one last piece of her pride to give up, and her mama was the only person in the world she was willing to trade it for.
“I need your help.” Delpha clenched her teeth to stop herself from angry-crying.
Clement nodded, eyes wide.
“Drive to my cabin and bring my mama here. Some zombies have got her trapped, and I can’t do this spell without her.”
Clement’s shoulders sagged. “Delpha, I can’t,” he whispered hoarsely.
Flames erupted in Delpha’s heart. “What do you mean, you can’t? You danged well better! You get in your truck, you drive up the pass, and you be a decent human being for once in your life!” she yelled, brandishing her wand without thinking.
Clement flinched. “I wish I could!”
Delpha shook from head to toe, filled with anger. Couldn’t he see how difficult this was, just asking for his help in the first place? “You’re not talkin’ sense! It’s not hard! Just do it!”
Clement’s face crumpled, and he sank to the floor with his head between his hands. “Don’t you see?” he wept, sides heaving. “I’ve tried to go back. I’ve tried over and over, but every time I do, I get turned around. It’s like home moves. I’ve charted maps and trails. I’ve tried to remember the address. I’ve even tried to ask for help, but every time I do, I can’t remember what I’m asking for.”
Delpha curled her lip, not understanding, not wanting to understand. But something tickled the back of her mind, and she had to ask it. She had to know.
“It was my birthday,” Delpha whispered. “We were supposed to make cake.”
Clement’s face contorted again. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Why, then?” Delpha choked.
“Your mama and I were out picking blackberries. Your mamaw was mindin’ you while you napped. We startled a bear and her cubs out in the woods, and it started chargin’ your mama. I’d never used Yow magic in front of her, and when I did—she was like a different person. She was scared t’ death. We argued. When I wouldn’t promise to never do it again, she hexed me. My body had a mind of its own, and I couldn’t stop it from drivin’ away. Then when I tried to come home—”
“Mama doesn’t do magic,” Delpha broke in icily. “She hates it. She’s scared of it.” But her heart pounded, because she’d seen the hex Clement was describing in her own spellbook. It was the “Getteth Lost” hex. It thwarted all the hexed person’s attempts to contact someone. She’d seen the “Forgit a Face” charm that could wipe a person’s face from your thoughts, too.
“Yeah,” Clement chuckled sadly, rubbing his whiskers. “She don’t use it. But she did that day. And she’s a danged good witch, turns out. She’d do ’bout anything to protect you, Delpha. I couldn’t even go into town and ask about y’all. I’d try to write letters, and my hands plumb forgot how to write. But it wasn’t enough. I shoulda found my way back, Delpha. I shoulda found a way.”
Delpha stared. Cold wind whistled through the hollow of her heart. All those years, wasted. She’d thought magic would protect her from ever getting hurt again. But here was Clement, telling her it was much, much more complicated than that. Now what?
Now nothing. Delpha felt numb inside, and she hoped her feelings wouldn’t come knocking again anytime soon. Her mama was in danger, and Delpha had problems to solve.
With a mechanical wave, she told Clement, “Follow me.”
In the church office, the receiver still dangled and swayed, and her mama’s voice yelled her name. Delpha snatched it up and pressed it to her ear. She talked fast. “Mama, I know what you did to Clement. He’s here with me, and he’s comin’ to get you.”
Mama hollered something that made the phone speaker buzz. She was upset, but there was nothing for it. “First, you gotta undo that danged ‘Getteth Lost’ hex, and don’t tell me you didn’t do
one, ’cause I saw it in the book.”
Delpha squeezed one eye shut as her mama protested loudly on the other end of the line.
“Calm down, Mama,” Delpha pleaded.
“Don’t you see, Delpha? You come by trouble honest. Magic’s our family’s curse. First the feuds, then my own flesh and bone when I was a girl, and now this. I cut my own heart out when I hexed your daddy. To keep you safe. Because the magic can’t have you. I can’t stand to lose you, too,” Mama’s tinny voice pleaded.
Delpha’s pulse hammered. Her daddy leaving had always been a can of worms Delpha was terrified to touch, but now that it was open, she surprised herself by having plenty of things to say. “What about Clement, Mama? What about me? Don’t reckon I’d call us safe. And anyway, magic doesn’t have me, cause I think it is me. I am it. And I can’t cut my heart out, Mama. I love you, but I can’t do that.”
A deep sigh hissed in the receiver. “Saints preserve us.” Delpha gripped the phone harder and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. Mama was stubborn as a mule, but she only said “saints preserve us” when she knew she was at the end of her rope. Delpha was making headway.
“Undo the hex. The ‘Getteth Lost’ is pointless now, anyway. He’s foundeth. You have to let him come help you. ’Cause I need your help!”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, then finally: “All right.”
Delpha looked up to tell Clement that he could go home now, but he was already running out the door, footsteps pounding down the hallway and toward the parking lot.
KATYBIRD LET OUT A LONG GROAN AND TRIED to sit up. Everything was dark in the chapel, every muscle in her body hurt, and a pounding rhythm beat inside her head. “I think I’ve been hit by a Mack truck,” she wheezed. The warm press of Podge’s coat against her face made her sneeze, and every one of her ribs wailed in protest.
“What time is it?”
“Easy there, Katy. It’s about ten at night,” the shadow sitting beside her said. The voice was soft and brittle, and Katy jerked away from the stranger and squinted. Pound, pound, pound went her head. Then she caught the silhouette of a long braid with a wand stuck through it.
“Delpha?”
“My mama’s on her way. She’ll help us. Rest now.” Delpha sighed hard, then leaned her head back against the pew.
“You asked for help?”
“Had to. I was scared you’d break yourself.”
Katy’s mouth popped open. She hadn’t realized much mattered to Delpha but getting the spell done. It hurt a little, too, that Delpha had given up on Katy’s magic, but Katy couldn’t exactly blame her. Truth be told, it felt good to have all that pressure off. It’s better this way, Doubt whispered.
Thunk thunka thum thum, thunk thunka thum thum. Katybird realized the pounding noise wasn’t inside her head. It was coming from outside the church.
And it was getting louder.
“What’s that noise?” she whispered to Delpha.
“Drums, I think.”
Katy strained to listen. Delpha was right. Now Katy could hear the pattern clearly—Celtic skin drums, just like the recordings in her family’s museum.
An eerie dread spidered its way across Katy’s shoulders, and she staggered to a window. Flickers of light winked in and out of trees as the torches wove their way down the ridges of the surrounding slopes. There appeared to be two big groups on opposing hills: the McGills and Hearns, no doubt. Katy remembered the evil McGill zombie’s promise of war at midnight. Unearthly shrieks and howls cut Katy straight to the bone. “It’s the zombies! They’re … they’re coming downtown. By the looks of all those torches, it’s the whole graveyard of them!” Katy cried.
Delpha sat up straight, shadows zigzagging across her worried brow. “That’s just a couple miles away.”
Tyler called from one of the opposite stained-glass windows, swaying and fidgeting. “Um, guys? There’s folks gatherin’ inside town hall. They’re carrying guns. I think they’re organizing a hunting party for the zombies.”
“What if your mama doesn’t get here in time?” Katy demanded. “All those people are going out after the zombies with nothing but piddly guns!”
Before Delpha could answer, a rasping chuckle echoed from the church’s hallway, startling all three of them. Dull bootfalls echoed along the walls, slow and heavy. “Weeee Hearn,” a ghastly voice scraped through the darkness. “Come ’ere, wee Hearn. I’ve got somethin’ fur ye.” Katy thought she recognized the gutteral voice as one of the McGill zombies from the basptismal tank. Maybe it had gotten trapped in the rubble? Delpha and Katy exchanged looks of fear.
Tyler bristled and flexed, but Katy shook her head wildly. Run, she mouthed. Delpha was on her feet now, crouching as she tiptoed around the pews to one of the smaller windows along the length of the chapel. A tiny squeaking noise made Katy cringe. Delpha was opening the unoiled crank-style window. Katy and Tyler rushed to her side.
“I kin heaaaar yooooou, silly lass. Got ears like a cat.”
The hand crank squeaked faster, and cool night air poured through the partly opened window. C’mon, c’mon. When the crack was big enough, Delpha waved at Katy to go first. Exhaling, Katy slithered through the gap and dropped several feet to the ground outside. Tyler passed Podge into her waiting hands, then motioned for Delpha to go next. Tyler tried to squeeze through the opening last but groaned halfway through. Katy’s breath caught. He was stuck!
“Tyler, the crank!” Delpha yelped.
The zombie cackled inside the chapel, and Delpha tried to clamber back up the outside wall of the church. “Move, Tyler, move!” she hollered, clawing at the bricks. Katy grabbed the heel of Delpha’s boot and boosted her up to the sill. “Leftie loosie, Tyler! Leftie loosie!”
The window widened, and Tyler scraped his way out, just before the pane above his head turned to stone as a hex hit the glass. He dropped to the ground, panting. “What now?”
“Puppet,” Delpha said uncertainly. “Maybe … maybe we could draw the zombies away from downtown before people try to fight ’em.”
A chorus of shouts reverberated across the street from town hall. Inside its windows, folks raised their rifles and fists as they ginned up courage for a fight. A voice bellowed through the windows: “Are we gonna tolerate conjure in this valley?”
“NO!!” came the answering chorus.
“Are we gonna sit still while monsters and abominations threaten our loved ones?”
“NO!!”
“What’ll we do?”
“TAKE ’EM OUT!!”
A small flock of mud-splattered ATVs and Jeeps littered the parking lot. Katy winced. “We can’t yet. These people will follow the zombie torches into the hills, tryin’ to fight them. They’re gonna get themselves killed.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Delpha growled.
Katy’s heart pounded. Why was Delpha asking her? But the answer was on her lips already. “We have to try to warn everybody inside. It’s the right thing to do.”
“How’re we gonna do that without announcing we’re witches?” Delpha snorted. “We’ll have to explain how we know the zombies can’t be killed.”
Katy gave Delpha a sad smile. “ ’Fraid you’re the only witch here, Delpha. And, anyway, we’ll think of something to say.”
Delpha grimaced but nodded. “Fine.”
They ran to town hall, and Katybird pounded on the massive wooden door. “It’s three kids,” she hollered. “Let us in!” The door yanked open, and Katy, Delpha, and Tyler were pulled inside. As the door slammed shut behind them, Katy studied the room. More than a hundred people were gathered there—folks from the Hollow, mostly, plus a couple dozen tourists—some seated and others gathered around a raised lectern at the front of the room, rifles in hand.
“Rock slides have made our mountain roads impassable, and the cell towers have been blown apart, so it’s up to us to defend ourselves. Everyone will hunt in pairs,” the deputy’s voice blared from the lectern, making Katy
wince and cover her ears. “If you see one of the evil critters, shoot to kill.” Shouts of agreement erupted.
Delpha elbowed her way to the stage and climbed the steps, with Katy and Tyler following close behind her. The deputy cast them an annoyed glance and waved them off the platform with his bullhorn, but Delpha stalked forward anyway, scowling at the crowd.
“Y’all don’t know what you’re up against,” Delpha hollered. “Y’all are gonna get yourselves killed!” She was met with a chorus of boos and shouts to sit down and mind her elders. From behind, Katy saw the tips of Delpha’s ears flush and her shoulders tense. “Don’t be stupid! You can’t fight this magic with bullets!”
“Is that the McGill girl?” a voice nearby whispered.
A man below with a beet-red face shook a finger up at Delpha. “An’ how would you know, young’un?” he yelled loud enough for the whole room to hear.
A wave of uneasy whispers traveled around the edges of the room, and Katy only caught snippets of hushed words as wary eyes studied Delpha. The phrases “great-great-granddaddy warned us” and “the old feud” and “devil worshippers” drifted to Katy’s ears. A crawling dread filled her, as decades of cheerful politeness and the fragile trust her family had built with their community unraveled. Folks had written off old witch stories as tall tales before, but in their panic they latched onto any old dusty gossip, even the nonsense.
Delpha even looked the part of a dangerous witch as people showered her with suspicious looks. Her wand hand inched toward her pocket. Katy grabbed Delpha’s elbow and squeezed it, but Delpha didn’t relax.
“Don’t be idiots!” Delpha yelled, but people were shouting over her now. The deputy moved to grab Delpha.
As he seized her arm, Delpha kicked and fought, howling in fury. Tyler lunged forward, his eyes wild and defensive, a guttural snarl erupting in his throat. Katy shrieked as several men leaped onto the platform to help restrain Delpha.
Look, Katy told herself. Look at all those gun barrels in so many jumpy hands. Across the platform, Delpha struggled against the men, trying to reach her wand. Beside her, Tyler’s fingernails grew long and sharp. Click-click, click-click, the men’s rifles answered.
Cattywampus Page 17