by P. J. Night
“Hi, Lauren. This must be your friend Charlotte,” she said, beaming at Charlotte as she and Lauren hurried up the stairs. “Come on in, girls. It looks like it might rain again. And they’re predicting nasty weather for the weekend. Lots of thunderstorms and even a tornado warning. A tornado would certainly be unusual for this time of year.”
The girls stepped into her front hallway. Charlotte felt a huge rush of relief when Aunt Marina closed and locked the door. Inside it was cozy and warm, and there were delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
Aunt Marina wore a zip-up sweatshirt and jeans. She bustled around, showing them where to hang their jackets. “Well, I’ve cooked a ton of food for us,” she said cheerfully. “I made curried vegetables and brown rice, and I even bought organic popcorn for us to eat when we watch a movie tonight!”
Aunt Marina showed Charlotte and Lauren into the guest room, where there were two twin beds made up with colorful quilted bedspreads.
It wasn’t until after dinner was over and the dishes were finished that Lauren brought up the card.
“Aunt Marina, remember that card I showed you a few days ago?”
“Of course. The Wheel of Fortune card,” said Aunt Marina, setting down her cup of green tea. “Is it giving you trouble?”
Charlotte and Lauren exchanged uneasy looks.
“Well, yeah,” said Lauren. “W-we think it’s cursed. It brings bad luck.”
Taking turns, the girls blurted out the story. The weird coincidences. The texts. The sort-of awful and truly awful things that had happened to whoever happened to be in possession of the card. Whoever wasn’t passing it along.
Aunt Marina listened carefully. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t scoff. She kept nodding, and then shaking her head with dismay at the bad stuff.
“Do you think we’re crazy?” asked Lauren when they’d finally finished.
Aunt Marina shook her head. “No. I don’t. When I first saw the card, I thought the message on the back was silly, but after everything you’ve told me, I believe you’re right about the card and its powers. I’ve heard of such things but never actually seen something like this.”
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Charlotte.
“After what we know it can do, we don’t want to pass it along to someone,” added Lauren. “Even if we put it back in the book and it went to someone we don’t know.”
Aunt Marina stood up. She tapped a finger thoughtfully against her lips. Then she scooped up Cinders, who’d been sleeping next to her on an empty chair, and began pacing, stroking his head as she did so.
The girls said nothing. It was clear that she was thinking about what to do.
Finally she stopped pacing and turned toward them. “I think I know something we can try to get rid of the curse,” she said. “We’ll have a ceremony. Tonight.”
Charlotte and Lauren exchanged glances. A shudder ran down Charlotte’s spine.
Outside, Charlotte realized, it had begun to rain.
“We’ll do it here, in the kitchen,” said Aunt Marina. “Lauren, find some candles and holders. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I just need to consult my references. I’ve never done anything quite like this before. I guess there’s a first time for everything,”
A few minutes later Aunt Marina called the girls into the kitchen. By now the rain was pouring down outside, and Charlotte thought she heard the distant rumble of thunder.
Aunt Marina had changed out of her jeans and sweatshirt. She’d put on a billowy purple blouse over similarly billowy dark silk pants, and she’d taken her hair tie out so that her long blond hair tumbled around her shoulders. She’d spread a red tablecloth over the kitchen table. Three candles, of different heights, flickered in a small cluster at the center. The overhead, recessed lights cast a wan glow over the room. Charlotte smelled something like cinnamon and assumed Aunt Marina was burning incense somewhere, although she couldn’t see it.
“Sit,” she commanded them.
The girls sat.
No one spoke for a minute. The rain outside and the ticking of the kitchen clock were the only sounds. Charlotte darted a glance at Lauren and met Lauren’s gaze. Charlotte felt strangely apprehensive. There was so much at stake. So much depended on Aunt Marina’s success. What if she failed?
But Aunt Marina had a look of resolve in her big blue eyes, a confidence that reassured Charlotte.
“We’ll start by all closing our eyes,” said Aunt Marina in a low, even voice. “We will rid this card of any evil intent.”
Lightning illuminated the dim kitchen. Then thunder boomed so loudly that Charlotte and Lauren both jumped. Charlotte opened her eyes a crack to see what was going on. Aunt Marina appeared to be concentrating so hard she seemed not to have heard the thunder. She remained still, her palms face down on the table, the card faceup between her hands, her eyes closed, her brow furrowed with concentration.
Suddenly Aunt Marina’s eyes flew open. She stared straight ahead of her. Charlotte had the strangest impression that Aunt Marina was listening to something. Charlotte could hear nothing but the rain and the clock.
Wait. Was there something else? Was the whispering starting?
Charrrrrrrrloooooooootte.
Lauren had her eyes closed. She didn’t seem to have heard. Aunt Marina’s eyes were open, and she still looked like she was listening, but maybe she heard something else.
Charrrrrrrrloooooooootte. Stoooooop herrrrrrrr!
Charlotte gulped.
Aunt Marina nodded, ever so slightly. She turned in her chair and reached for something on the counter behind her, something Charlotte hadn’t noticed before. Something bright glinted in Aunt Marina’s hand. She turned back to the table, and Charlotte could see that she was holding a large pair of pointed scissors, the kind her mother kept in her sewing box.
Aunt Marina picked up the card. She was murmuring something under her breath, but Charlotte couldn’t hear it beneath the steady patter of rain.
Stoooooop herrrrrrrr!
“We must rid this card of any evil intent,” Aunt Marina repeated, this time in a louder, clearer voice.
Nooooooooo!
“We must cut its energy in twain.” With that, she opened the scissors wide and snipped the card in half.
Charlotte and Lauren both gasped.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!
As soon as the two pieces of the card dropped to the table, the lights began to flicker.
“And in twain again,” said Aunt Marina, seemingly oblivious to the cries Charlotte had heard, to the blinking lights all around them. She picked up one of the two pieces of card and snipped it in half. Then the other piece.
Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed. The lights flickered one last time and went out. Charlotte’s blood felt like ice in her veins. The only light in the kitchen now came from the candles, and they were flickering wildly, as though an unseen breeze was trying to blow them out.
Aunt Marina snipped another piece in half.
The candles went out completely.
Snip. Charlotte could hear the scissors once again.
The candles relit.
Charlotte’s hands gripped the edge of the table. Her knuckles quickly turned white.
Snip.
The door to the kitchen blew open, hitting the wall behind it so hard a pane of glass shattered. All the cupboard doors in the kitchen banged open, and Charlotte could hear glasses and cups breaking.
Outside, someone—or something—howled in anguish.
Lauren shrieked.
So she was as scared as Charlotte.
Snip.
Now Charlotte heard a roaring in her ears. Could the others hear it too? It sounded like ten chain saws going in an enclosed tunnel. Deafening. She clutched her ears to drown it out, scrunching her shoulders to ward it away.
How many more snips
did Aunt Marina make?
Charlotte didn’t know. But suddenly the roaring stopped. The door, eerily, slowly, swung closed, latching gently. Then the electricity came back on.
The three of them looked at one another, blinking, as though awakening from a harrowing dream. Charlotte darted a glance around the kitchen. Two broken mugs and a broken wine glass lay on the counter. All the cupboard doors remained open. Aunt Marina set the scissors gently down on the table. With a dainty finger she began counting the pieces of cut card. But Charlotte noticed her hand was shaking.
“Thirteen,” she said.
“Is it gone?” whispered Lauren. “The curse, or whatever? Is it all cut out of the card?”
Aunt Marina smiled weakly. She drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t really know, Lauren. I’ve never actually tried to exorcise a curse from a card before, if that’s what this was. I’m kind of learning this as I go along.” She stood up from her chair and began closing the cupboard doors one by one. Then she found a paper bag and began delicately picking up the broken shards on the counter, dropping them into the bag.
“Should we just throw away the pieces?” asked Charlotte. “Of the card, I mean.”
Aunt Marina turned toward the pieces of card on the table and furrowed her brow. “I don’t think so. I think perhaps the best thing to do is to return the card to where you found it.”
“Return it? You mean to the library?” asked Charlotte.
Aunt Marina nodded. “Just in case. Just to be completely sure that the circle is complete and the curse is returned to its origin. And I think you should do it, Charlotte.”
“Without Lauren?”
Aunt Marina nodded again. “Yes, to replicate the time you found it.” She carefully gathered up the pieces using a pair of ordinary kitchen tongs, and dropped them into a plastic bag. Charlotte noticed that Aunt Marina didn’t want to touch the pieces of card even though their little ceremony was over. After rummaging around in the kitchen drawers, Aunt Marina found a small metal box, which had just a couple of mints left in it. These she took out, and dropped the plastic bag with the card pieces into the now-empty container. She clapped it shut and handed it to Charlotte.
“Is that it, then?” asked Charlotte in a small voice. “Is it over?”
Aunt Marina hesitated. “As I said, I haven’t ever done anything like this before. But I think so. I hope so. Now. How about popcorn and a movie?”
“How about if we watch a musical tonight?” said Lauren. “Something really silly and fun.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Charlotte.
“Me too,” agreed Aunt Marina.
Chapter 12
The next morning Charlotte stood on the front stoop of the library, shivering a little in the early chill, waiting for it to open. It was a few minutes before ten, the opening hour, but she seemed to be the only person eager to get in. It had been raining when she’d left Aunt Marina’s house, so she’d borrowed an umbrella from her. Now, though, the atmosphere was eerily still. The sky had a strange, almost greenish tint to it, and unseasonably warm air had crept in. Where a minute before she’d been clutching her sweatshirt to herself and shivering, she now felt a trickle of sweat dribble down her stomach. Maybe that was nerves, though.
She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket and felt the tin that contained the thirteen pieces of the card. She shuddered with dread. The sooner she got rid of these pieces of card the better.
“Oh, Charlotte, hello, good morning, good morning!” said Mrs. Lazer, limping hurriedly up the steps behind her and jangling her set of keys. “Am I late?”
“Good morning, Mrs. Lazer,” said Charlotte, stepping to the side to let the librarian open up the building. “No, you’re not late. I think I’m early. Um, how are you feeling? I heard you had a little accident.”
“Oh, pshhh,” scoffed Mrs. Lazer. “I’m getting better every day. It was just a sprain, and I still have no idea how I managed to step off that stool like that. Heaven knows I’ve been up and down that step stool hundreds of times before. But I’ll be right as rain in another week or two.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” said Charlotte, and she meant it. “I guess I’m here bright and early.”
“You are, but that’s a good thing,” said Mrs. Lazer, still fumbling with the keys. “Although I’ll be perfectly honest with you—I don’t like the look of that wall of clouds over there.” She pointed.
Charlotte swiveled around to observe the sky over the post office, where Mrs. Lazer had gestured. A huge, black cloud, almost vertical in shape, loomed over the western horizon. It was sort of eerie. To the east the sky was cloudless and blue.
“They’re predicting high winds and heavy thunderstorms,” continued Mrs. Lazer, banging open the heavy old door with her hip and holding it open for Charlotte to enter. She flicked on the lights from the master switch next to the front door, and the beautiful old library lit up. She made her way toward the reference desk in the children’s room and set down her big bag. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep my weather radio on near my desk.”
“No, that’s fine, of course,” said Charlotte. “I’m just here to look for—um—a book.”
“Do you need help finding it?”
“No!” said Charlotte, too quickly. “No, thanks, I’m good. I know which one I want.”
Mrs. Lazer bustled around, picking up books to reshelve and flicking on area lights. Charlotte noticed Mrs. Lazer had a plastic brace on her ankle.
Charlotte headed straight for the shelf labeled HORROR. It was in the far area of the stacks, near the west wall. She was relieved to be out of Mrs. Lazer’s sight line.
There was the red book, back in its place on the high shelf above her head. Peering around the corner to be sure Mrs. Lazer wasn’t looking, she set down her overnight bag, dragged the footstool underneath the shelf with the red book, and stepped onto it. With a shaking hand she pulled the small tin from her pocket and opened it. Then she reached up and took the red book down from the shelf.
The pages seemed to crackle with something akin to static electricity as she slipped the first of the thirteen pieces of the card into the book. Carefully she closed the book and put it away. Her hands were still shaking, and it took several attempts to shove the book back into the space it had occupied on the shelf.
She could hear it start to rain again outside. It seemed to be the loudest rain she’d ever heard. It pattered like drumsticks on a snare drum.
“I think that’s hail!” called Mrs. Lazer from across the huge room. Charlotte’s view of her was blocked by the shelving, but she guessed they were still the only two in the library.
She climbed down from the stool—carefully—and then walked to the end of the row and stuck her head out. “Yeah, sounds like it,” she called back.
“I think you’d better stay here until this storm passes, honey!” called Mrs. Lazer. “It sounds like a doozy!”
Charlotte nodded and quickly headed back to the place she’d just been. She had to do this fast, in case the power went out. And she had to be brave. For her father’s sake. Her father was always at the back of her mind. His safety. His very life.
She began pulling other books off the shelf, books that were in the vicinity of the red one. One by one, from high shelves and low shelves, she selected books and then slipped the pieces of card between the pages. Each time she experienced that same sensation as she opened a book to insert the piece of card—a staticky crackle, like when you pulled two socks apart that had just come out of the dryer. She did this until the pieces were all gone. When she’d finished, she stood, staring at the shelf of books, breathing heavily. She hoped this would work. She hoped that once and for all she had gotten rid of this curse, or whatever it was the card had brought on her.
A new worry struck her. What if someone else checked out a book with one of the thirteen pieces? What if she
was passing along bad luck to thirteen new people? She thought of the old movie she’d seen when she was a kid, the one where a sorcerer’s broom kept dividing and dividing and as it did, it gained, rather than lost, strength. That movie had totally traumatized her. She’d slept between her parents for a week after watching it.
She stood, looking at the bookshelf, gnawing on her knuckle. Had this been a terrible mistake? She’d reproached Lauren for suggesting they pass the card to a really old person or to a really ill person. What if she’d just passed it to thirteen perfectly healthy members of the reading public? What if—
Her worried thoughts were interrupted by Mrs. Lazer calling her name.
“Charlotte! Come quick!”
She could hear the wind howling outside. She grabbed her overnight bag, slung it over her shoulder, scooted out of the stacks, and stopped. Her ears! They hurt! It brought back an awful memory from when she was eight years old—her mom had tried to teach her how to blow up and then tie a balloon when she’d been helping get ready for the twins’ fourth birthday party. There’d been one particularly difficult balloon that refused to blow up, and Charlotte had popped her ears trying to blow into it. The memory of that pain came roaring back. Her ears felt the same way they’d felt then. She hunched her shoulders and pressed her ears with the heels of her hands.
“Never mind your ears! The radio is saying tornados might be touching down in our area!” called Mrs. Lazer, who had emerged from behind her desk. “We should go to the basement. Now!”
Charlotte broke into a run and followed Mrs. Lazer, who limped ahead of her, into the small vestibule of the library and toward a side door off the main entrance that she’d noticed a few times but had never opened. Mrs. Lazer unlocked it with shaking hands and held the door for her, flicking on the lights as she did so. Charlotte peered down a narrow flight of stairs leading to the library basement. Mrs. Lazer hustled Charlotte down and then followed her.
Down in the shadowy basement of the library the noise of the weather grew muffled. It smelled musty and damp, like old books. Through a narrow casement window close to the ceiling, Charlotte could see greenish light filtering in from outside.