Hell's Hollow

by Summer Stone

  Mom went to her side, sat her down on her bed. “It’s okay,” she cooed. “Mary Kate isn’t locked away at all. She’s home at the house now. She’ll be by to visit soon.”

  “She used to live here with me once,” Gran said. “Nice girl that one. Flaming red hair.”

  I turned and bolted from the room.

  I promised myself I’d visit her every day until school started back. It killed me that I couldn’t do anything for her, couldn’t take away the crazy thoughts. Now that I knew how scary it was not to know what was real and what wasn’t, it hurt so much more not to be able to help. I couldn’t figure out why The Hollow dying would’ve taken away my crazy, but not hers.

  Mom and I were working the counter at the bakery, while MK experimented with some wild new creation that involved molten cupcakes, loads of whipped cream, and gobs of melted fudge.

  George McGraw barged through the door. “What in the world is producing that intoxicating aroma?”

  “That would be Mary Kate’s latest design,” Mom said.

  “Wylde Creations,” MK said with a smile.

  “Ring me up for two,” George said. “One just won’t be sufficient.”

  I laughed, watching him eat the messy chocolate with a spoon, getting it all over his face like a kid.

  When I heard the door chimes, I turned to see Zach standing in the doorway with a middle-aged man beside him. I ran to Zach and hugged him without thinking. Then I realized, there was no more tug inside of him. Instead, the weird energy I’d felt in him since the healing coursed into my body from his. I hadn’t felt that in MK after her healing. I wondered what it was.

  “Hey, Sera Seraphina,” he said. His new green T-shirt showed off the muscles he’d been building with his dad’s weights. It shocked me somehow to see him in shorts and flip-flops, so much skin revealed. His thick black hair hung in his eyes.

  “Hi,” I replied, hoping he could tell how much I’d missed him.

  His dark eyes sparkled at me. “This is Clarence Jenkins. I guess I’m going to be staying with him for a while.”

  Clarence Jenkins, who had to be well over six feet, shook my hand. His was warm and rough. “Pleased to meet you,” he said in a voice that reminded me of James Earl Jones’. “All we’ve heard about since he got to our house was about the girl who saved him. I figured we’d best bring him over or he’d be on the same topic as long as we had him.” He laughed in a rich, belly laugh kind of way, while I tried to get my cheeks to quit blushing. Zach looked equally embarrassed.

  “Can he stay?” I asked, looking between Mr. Jenkins and Mom. “Please? We could drive him back home later.”

  Mom came around the counter, wiping her hands on her apron. “I’m Clara Wylde, Seraphina’s mother. It would be fine with me for Zach to visit for the day if it’s all right with you. In fact, my sons are all coming over for dinner tonight. It wouldn’t be any trouble to include one more. We could bring him back to you in the evening. Have you heard any news about his grandmother?”

  “Still critical. We went by the hospital last night. Terrible shame.” He shook his head. “I suppose it would be all right for him to spend the afternoon. Boy deserves a little fun.” He punched Zach lightly on the shoulder. “Not too much fun, mind you.” He raised his eyebrows with a smile, and then Zach was blushing.

  “Can I get you some refreshment before you go?” Mom asked him.

  “I wouldn’t mind trying some of whatever is making this place smell so good,” he said.

  “Oh, you have to try it,” I said to Zach, as I went behind the counter to get two servings of MK’s creation.

  I set them on a table and Zach and Mr. Jenkins dug in with equal enthusiasm. When they’re plates were licked clean, Mr. Jenkins said, “Now don’t go telling Terri I ate all that. I’m supposed to be cutting back.” Then he laughed deep and loud.

  While Mom got directions to their house, I grabbed Zach’s tingling hand and led him out the door. Without having to talk about it, we both headed straight for the hollow.

  “I was worried about you,” I said. “You didn’t call.”

  “I know, sorry. There was so much going on. And then he said I shouldn’t call too late. And I guess I was worried it would be weird on the phone, not being able to see you or how you’re reacting. I guess I’m not used to the idea.”

  I guessed that made sense. “How are you doing with everything?”

  He shrugged. “It’s weird that she thought I wasn’t actually her grandson.”

  “A lot of it’s weird,” I said. “Like what she did at the church.”

  “The poison?” Zach asked.

  I nodded.

  “I thought she was trying to prove her innocence by showing that God wouldn’t let the poison harm her. But Clarence said he thinks she couldn’t handle the guilt of her wrongdoing, that she came to see the light of how she’d messed up my life. It was my dad’s fault, though. He’s the one that set the fire, the one that abandoned me.”

  “He didn’t know you were in the house when he set the fire,” I said. “Maybe he felt too guilty to stick around.”

  Zach shrugged. “The police said they’ll find him. He’ll go to trial for arson and murder. I guess I don’t have to feel responsible anymore. It’s so weird. Everything’s changing.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” I asked as we took the trail down to the woods.

  “I guess,” he said.

  The hollow was cordoned off with police tape. Mounds of dirt circled the trench where they’d dug up Deborah’s grave. It felt as though the hollow had been defiled. I wondered what Tall Tree would have thought of all that had happened.

  We sat by my sequoia. Zach stared gloomily at the wounded hollow.

  “Once the police clear it and take the tape away, we can fix it up,” I said. “We’ll put the dirt back and make it seem the same as it was.”

  “It won’t be, though,” he said.

  “You found her,” I said. “And you’re free.”

  “You, too,” he said, looking into my eyes. “No Hollow to be bound to anymore.” A swallow swept down into the clearing beside us then swooped back up into the sky. “Like him,” Zach said, “you can fly free.” He scooted closer to me. He touched my lips. They buzzed. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.”

  “You have?” a squiggle of delight raced through me. I touched his face, the mottled pink scars smooth beneath my fingertips. A current passed between us.

  “Sera,” he said in this way that made my insides light up. “Can I…? I mean, would it be okay if I…?”

  I leaned toward him, closed my eyes. His warm, soft lips touched mine. And it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It didn’t matter that we were both new at this, our mouths knew what to do. His tongue found mine and heat bloomed between us. I couldn’t get close enough. I wanted him to wrap me up in his arms and hold me forever. It felt electric, as if sparks were literally flying between us.

  A chipmunk scrambled through the clearing and raced around, chasing an acorn until we couldn’t help but laugh. It broke the spell of the moment, but it had also broken the seriousness.

  We talked about school starting back soon and the special program Clarence had told him about that would help him catch up to high school level work. We talked more about the police investigation, the hunt for this father, about what he would say to him if the day ever came when he saw his dad again. He told me about the therapist he’d seen that morning, who’d seemed surprised that he wasn’t more messed up emotionally, how he’d tried to explain the way I’d healed him, which made her question Clarence about the facts. We talked about what it was like for me now that the healing source was gone, about why or how The Hollow had healed me in the end. And we talked about Gran.

  “I promised myself I’d visit her every day until school starts,” I said.

  “I’ll come with you today,” he said.

  “You don’t mind?” I asked.

&
nbsp; He shook his head. “I’d like to meet her.”

  And so we went back to the bakery to get the car keys from Mom.

  “Oh, honey,” she said. “I don’t know about the two of you going by yourselves. Why not wait until tonight and we’ll all go together?”

  “Beause the boys are coming for dinner tonight and I promised I’d go. Please? We’ll be fine.”

  She looked over at MK, as if deciding whether it was safer to leave her alone in the bakery or Zach and me alone with Meadowland. MK was making a ginormous mess with the melted chocolate, laughing and drizzling it all over her Wylde Creations. “What if Martha won’t let you in?”

  I could feel her giving in. “It’ll be fine. If she gives us a hard time, I’ll have her call you.”

  She wrinkled her forehead as if searching for a reason to say no. Apparently she couldn’t find one. “All right. But you drive carefully. Keep your hands on the wheel at all times.”

  I smiled. “Mom. We’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve driven the car.”

  “Call me on your cell the minute you get there, and then again when you’re leaving to come back,” she replied.

  “Okay,” I promised and grabbed the keys before she could change her mind.

  There was something magical about being behind the wheel with Zach next to me. I didn’t drive all that often, didn’t have much reason to. But I knew I would now. I could drive over to visit him or pick him up from the foster home so we could go hang out in the hollow.

  “Stop staring at me.” I giggled, trying to force my eyes to stay on the road.

  “Why?” he asked, brushing my hair off my shoulder.

  “It’s distracting!” I said.

  “Sorry,” he replied, but he didn’t stop staring.

  I warned him about Martha, and he promised to help if she gave me a hard time.

  “Hi, Martha,” I said, when she buzzed us in. “This is my friend, Zach.”

  No smiles from her. “No funny business,” was all she said.

  I held Zach’s hand on the way to Gran’s room. I still felt electricity when we touched. “This is it,” I said, pointing at the door. “She might be wild, or she might be mellow. I never know what to expect.”

  “Are you coming in or aren’t you?” Gran yelled through the closed door.

  I opened it. “Hi, Gran,” I said. She was in her nightgown, messing with some kind of shoebox-tinfoil contraption.

  “Hi yourself,” she said, staring at Zach. She turned to the air next to her and said, “You might be right, but he’s much too young.”

  Zach squeezed my hand.

  “I do see the resemblance,” Gran was saying. “But it doesn’t seem likely.”

  “Gran,” I called, trying to bring her back to reality.

  “That was a dark time,” she continued. “Dark as a lark, crazy as a loon. It’ll be back soon. Soon so soon.”

  “Are you sure you can’t do anything to help her?” Zach asked in a whisper.

  “Not without The Hollow,” I said and my stomach knotted up. I wondered where The Hollow’s energy had gone, how it could have just disappeared into nothingness. If only it had lasted long enough for me to do this one last thing. “Gran,” I said. “Do you want to go to the garden? Zach and I came to hang out with you. Maybe you could leave your… um, your project for later.”

  “Later?” she said, twisting the tinfoil into a tall, tight spike. “It’s a well-known fact that the more there is to do, the more time you need to … devote to your … prioritizing the choices when they float up from below like dead fish in the water.”

  “What about the girl in your kindergarten?” Zach whispered. “You healed her at school, not in The Hollow, didn’t you?”

  I’d never put that together before. Why had I never thought about that? My mind started racing. How could I have healed Sierra’s finger without The Hollow? Had I somehow called the energy all the way up to the schoolroom? That didn’t seem likely. Had I always been in The Hollow when I’d healed small animals or my brothers back then? I couldn’t remember clearly, but I didn’t think so.

  I placed my hand on Gran’s arm, tried to imagine the energy of The Hollow rushing into me. But all I felt was her black tug. I pulled back my hand.

  Zach touched my shoulder as if to comfort me. The spark between us flashed. As I focused on it, the electric feeling grew, magnified until suddenly the whoosh of energy overwhelmed me. I pulled away.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked Zach, while Gran continued talking as if we weren’t there.

  He nodded. “What was it?”

  “It felt like… but how could it be? The energy of The Hollow.” I said. “I felt it inside you.”

  “A person couldn’t possibly hold that inside them,” he replied.

  My mind raced. “You’re descended from Tall Tree,” I said, thinking aloud. “The earth was splitting. The Hollow was erupting. It needed somewhere for the energy to go. Maybe it gave itself to you.” I gasped. “Zach! Maybe it was you that took the crazy away. You healed me.”

  Gran turned to us, then back to her invisible friend. “You were right. It is him!”

  Zach’s eyes locked onto mine. “I don’t know. I wasn’t aware of doing anything like that. How could I have The Hollow inside me without even knowing it?”

  “Haven’t you felt different since then?” I asked.

  “Of course, but that’s because you healed me — not just my scars, but also inside, all the dark places, all the blocked memories.”

  I shook my head. “I think it’s more than that. I’ve known the flow of The Hollow all my life. It’s been gone since that day. It explains the weird energy thing I feel every time we touch. I think The Hollow is inside you.”

  He didn’t say anything for a minute, as if he was trying to digest this new possibility. Then he looked at me. “I don’t know if I believe it,” he said. “But just in case it’s possible, do you think…” He looked at Gran. “Maybe we could… together…somehow… help her?”

  My insides lit up. “Should I try?”

  “Yeah, if you think there’s any chance,” he said.

  I took his hand, felt the flow of The Hollow. “I don’t know what it will do to me, or you.”

  He nodded, touched my face. “She’s been waiting a long time.”

  I loved this about him, his kindness, his willingness, his total lack of selfishness. I closed my eyes and focused my attention on the surge of energy coming from Zach. “I don’t want to drain you,” I said.

  “I’ll be okay,” he replied.

  I placed my hand on Gran’s arm.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, pulling her arm away from me.

  I looked into her eyes. “Trust me,” I said. “I’m a Wylde and I’m a healer and I’m going to take the dark crazy away from you.” I could not believe how confident I sounded, and I prayed she couldn’t tell that I was bluffing.

  “Dark crazy?” she said in a hushed tone.

  “Confusion,” I replied, recalling what it had felt like, “fear, blurred lines between worlds. Okay?”

  She nodded without speaking and sat perfectly still.

  I put my hand back on her arm and let the whoosh of energy between Zach and me build up and spill into her. I was scared as hell to let down my shield in a place like this, but I knew I had to let her crazy into me if I was going to be able to heal it. I just had to hope that whatever this thing was between Zach and me, it would be enough to bring her sanity and protect us from taking on her illness.

  Her crazy felt completely different from MK’s. It was like a black hole, all her thoughts loose and whirling, no connections between them, reality and other all lived together, no separation. Her mind felt like a tornado and its aftermath all swirled into one. And it sucked me in. The black hole drew me into the abyss. I tried to rear back, but its pull was strong. Fear overwhelmed me even as the rush of Hollow energy coursed through me and into her. What if I couldn’t get out
? What if I tugged Zach in with me? What if Johnny Rocket came in and found the three of us blacked out on the floor? Wave after wave of energy slammed into the black hole. Swirling, whirling, dancing round the bend, ring around the rosy, ashes, lashes, syncopated dashes. Falling, falling…

  Yank. Suddenly, I was back in my body, out of Gran’s mind. The energy rush between Zach and me continued to fill my body, taking away the desperate feeling of drainage. Gran was gasping like she was having a heart attack. I pulled my hand away.

  “Gran! I’m so sorry! Gran, are you okay?”

  She panted. “What in the name of heaven or hell was that?”

  Zach stared at me. “You were getting lost. I could feel you pulling away. I had to jerk you back. I hope that’s okay.”

  I nodded, feeling like I might cry. “Should I call a nurse?” I asked Gran.

  She looked around her like she wasn’t sure where she was. “The sun is shining in my head.”

  Zach and I turned to each other. She was talking crazy.

  Gran started cackling. “You don’t understand!” she shouted. “The sun! Daylight!” She stepped up on the bed and started jumping, laughing in a wild, witchy way.

  “Gran, oh God, Gran, I think you should get down. You’re going to hurt yourself. Someone’s going to hear you! Gran!”

  “Did we mess up?” Zach asked. “Should I get help?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I said. “It might be like the running around, streaking kind of thing. She might be okay. I don’t know. Gran? Come down.”

  She sat down, looked heartbroken. “They’re never going to believe it. They believed it about Mary Kate, though. Right? Clarabelle will make them see.” Then she stood up and charged me with a hug.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She raised her eyebrows, looking from Zach to me. “He likes you,” she whispered loudly. I blushed. She put her arm around Zach. “Not to worry, sonny, in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, the feeling is mutual.”

  Mortification spread across my face. “Gran,” I said. “Be serious. I’m trying to figure out if this worked or not.”

  She took both our hands. A zing of electricity shot between us and she dropped them both. “Interesting,” she said. “It worked, Seraphina, and grandchild of Abraham Clay, descendent of Tall Tree. I’m as sane as a saint. Now all we’ve got to figure out is how in the world you’re going to spring me.”