Moonshine and Manslaughter

by Ellie Moses

  “It’s as easy as taking candy from a baby, child. You just close the door to your mind. Just think of a door stuck shut in your noggin. It’s harder for you, I know. You struggle with it because of Ray. It’s one thing to see haints and quite another to love one as fiercely as you love him. Your feelings for him leave that door wide open.”

  I stared at her wide-eyed as Ray came into focus beside her. It was true. I loved him so much that if I was powerful enough to snatch a body for him, I would. But that was wrong and it wasn’t bright magick. Shaking my head to rid myself of that morbid notion, I forced myself to smile and allow the happiness of sitting on a creek bank with my Granny to return.

  I tapped the side of my head. “Guess I better at least put up a screen door then.”

  7

  Granny Mack and I caught two big bass a piece and she built a campfire after we’d cleaned and cut them into filets. I ambled down the small embankment to the creek to clean my hands of the fish scales still stuck to my palms.

  Standing and twisting from side to side, stretching my muscles and looking up at the sun, I mumbled my intent. “I think I’ll ramble around in the woods for a bit and see if I can’t find some more arrowheads, Granny.”

  “Watch out for them copperheads, Jolene. You know how to spot ‘em. And this fish’ll be done here in a minute,” Granny Mack called as I took off following the creek where it meandered downstream.

  I wasn’t particularly scared of copperheads, I had my boots on and some thick socks just in case. But the rest of my long legs were bare from the bottom of my denim cut-offs to the top of my boots. Copperheads could strike high when they felt threatened.

  The woods were dappled with sunlight and I skirted around still #4 when I knew I was near to it. Something about it spooked me beyond the fact it was a murder scene. It made my heart hurt to think of the man who had been killed and for my cousin who would be tried for murder if I couldn’t figure it out.

  Sniffling back the tears that blurred my vision, I set to work searching for arrowheads. I didn’t look the way a normal person might just by walking around and pushing aside leaves and rocks. No, I found myself a felled tree and sat on it cross-legged and closed my eyes.

  I reached out to the earth, my mountain witch spirit communing with the ground beneath me. I cleared my mind and let the connection grow until I saw in my mind’s eye all the places around me where the arrowheads were buried just beneath the soil.

  Before I opened my eyes, I thanked the spirits of those who surrounded me, the ones who had made the arrowheads centuries before I walked beneath the same leafy canopy as they had. My heart swelled as the silence of my trance disappeared and I had to leave them.

  Billy Jack always thought I was melodramatic in my search for old fossils and artifacts like arrowheads, but as a mountain witch who would take the mantle from Granny Mack, I had been taught to respect my bond to the earth.

  I hopped off the downed tree and wiped the sweat from my brow. My method of hunting took a lot of my energy but when I found my treasures, it would be restored.

  Setting off down the hill I’d climbed in a zigzag pattern, I soon filled my pockets with arrowheads. I discovered them in the places I’d seen with my mind’s eye and they were beauties. They hummed in my hands when I brushed the dirt away.

  I looked around and saw I was near my favorite swimming hole. This part of the creek, farther down from Granny’s favorite fishing hole, pooled up deeper than the high school’s new pool. I was happy I’d worn my bikini underneath my shorts and tank top,

  Hurrying through the trees and brush, I made my way down anticipating the dives I would make from the rocks into the cool water below.

  A lovely voice that sounded like an angel singing stopped me in my tracks as I walked out onto the highest outcropping over the swimming hole. I dropped down quick and lay flat on the rock, low crawling to the edge.

  Down below, some creature dove and surfaced repeatedly. The sun glinted off its scales and blinded me. Jolene, you’re hallucinating, I told myself. We don’t have mermaids in Devil’s Elbow.

  I rubbed my eyes and crawled back off the rock and clambered down closer to the swimming hole. The singing stopped and so did I. I peeked around the huge oak tree where an old tire swing still hung. Everybody and their mama had used that old tire at least once in their lifetime.

  “Joleeeeeeen!”

  The sound was like nails on a chalkboard. Pain surged in my head and I covered my ears. I felt light-headed and was sure my guts were about to leap out of my throat.

  A large splash at the edge of the water soaked me even though I was behind the tree. It was like the water was a living thing that reached around the tree trunk and doused me. Spluttering, I wiped the water from my face. Charging out from behind my tree, I yelled at the foe I could not see. The surface of the swimming hole was calm again with not a sign the stillness had ever been broken. A splash that big ought to have caused some ripples.

  Someone tapped me on my shoulder and I nearly jumped clean outta my skin. I whirled to find Luke Woolum behind me, blocking my escape and grinning like a crazed possum.

  I felt the steam coming out of my ears and shoved him out of my way. I yelled at him. “Why are you stalking me through the woods, Luke?”

  He laughed and lifted his hand to the side of his head and made circles with his pointer finger. “Ain’t nobody stalking you, Jolene, you’re plumb crazy. Me and Sissy came down to the swimming hole is all.”

  He pointed to the other side of the creek where they had set up lawn chairs. Sissy came out of the water wearing a turquoise bikini that sparkled in the sun from all the rhinestones she’d bedazzled it with.

  I was sure she was the creature in the water I’d seen and heard. But why did her voice cause so much pain when she’d called my name earlier? It must be like Granny Mack said, I had to block her from my mind. Sooner rather than later, too.

  Before I could light into Luke again, Bonita’s convertible appeared in the parking lot further up the tree line from Sissy and Luke’s spot on the other bank.

  My friend got out of her car with Bonita and waved at me to join them. I turned away from Luke and ran back up the hill to my diving rock. I’d be durned if I was going to miss out on my dive. Recalling the arrowheads in my pockets, I took them all out and placed them in the plastic sandwich bag Granny gave me when we were fishing.

  She always brought me some Tommy Toes, her name for those baby tomatoes from her garden. I tucked the arrowheads inside the bag noting that it still held the tangy aroma of those vine-ripened beauties. I tied a knot in the top instead of using the zipper thingy. I didn’t trust it to stay closed. Shoving the bag back in my pocket, I turned and ran off the edge of the rock executing a perfect dive.

  The chilly water rushing past my face and arms cooled the fire of anger that burned inside me. I swam along the bottom of the deep pond for a minute before shooting up for air.

  PJ and Bonita were still standing by Bonita’s convertible, but Sissy Prather was packing up her lawn chairs. I looked over my shoulder to find Luke swimming slowly behind me. The man gave me the willies.

  In spite of him, and to keep from showing how he unnerved me, I swam leisurely to the other side and stood on the bank to wring out my long hair just to show I wasn’t going to be buffaloed by either of them. Sissy glanced over at me but in my mind’s eye, I pictured the steel door of a bank vault to keep her out.

  She laughed and sang some little grade school ditty under her breath, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of my attention. Instead, I turned and picked my way up the hill towards my friends.

  “Lord a mercy Jolene!” Bonita called as I gained the dirt parking lot.

  PJ was no better. Her voice carried across the pond as she rebuked me. “Why on earth are you down there carousing with Luke and his girlfriend? Granny Mack said you was hunting arrowheads.”

  I hissed at PJ, thoroughly put out with her. “I was not carousing with them!”r />
  “Well excuse me! Sure did look like that to me. I know you don’t care for either one of them, but you’d do better not to be seen alone with the two of them then.”

  Bonita handed me a towel that had been warmed by the sun in the backseat of the convertible. “Thank you,” I mouthed as PJ carried on for what seemed like five more minutes.

  Luke and Sissy walked by us and I grabbed PJ’s hand. “Hush up and hand me the keys.”

  She pointed to the car. “They’re in the ignition Jolene.”

  I jumped in the driver’s seat and motioned for her and Bonita to get in. “We’re out of here! Hurry up before Luke decides to follow me again.”

  Bonita slid into the backseat and PJ rode shotgun. I revved the engine of that glorious, red convertible and burned rubber, leaving Luke and Sissy literally in the dust.

  “Boy, you sure are peeved,” PJ said as I swung out onto the road and made my way back to the cow pasture parking lot right up from Granny’s fishing hole.

  Bonita hollered from the back, the wind whipping the bandanna she’d tied like a scarf around her curls. “Leave her be PJ! You know darned well she wasn’t out there with them two by design. My guess is she was hunting arrowheads like G Mack said and decided to take a dip in the pond. Ain’t her fault them two was there when she came along.”

  “The voice of reason,” I said and glared at PJ.

  “Well, you did have a thing for Luke in high school…” she said and flinched like she thought I might hit her. I was not the violent type, especially not with friends, but I have been known to prank people when my dander gets up.

  “I did not! But if I did at some point in my freshman year, it was only because I was young and dumb.” I pressed the brake gently and pulled the convertible in next to Granny’s car.

  We all piled out and the scent of baking fish made my belly growl and my mouth water. I quickly forgot my bad mood and linked arms with my girlfriends. “Let’s go eat Granny Mack’s spread and argue later.”

  Bonita agreed. “Let’s just eat now and not argue later.”

  My heart lifted as PJ kissed my cheek. “Sugar, ain’t no need to fight over that sorry Luke Woolum. As I recall now, it wasn’t you who had a thing for him in high school, it was your cousin Rosemary.”

  I could have gone a million years without the mention of Rosemary, but PJ meant well. Rosemary Eulene Frye was my cousin from my mother’s side that I never saw again once she left Devil’s Elbow. She moved out to California and made a name for herself, but it sure wasn’t the one she was given at birth.

  Granny Mack always said Rosemary wanted to get above her raising, and since she was only touched by magic and not a practitioner, she’d been real lucky all her life. Living in the hills and hollers of Appalachia was the last thing she ever wanted for herself.

  I didn’t despise her because of that though, I despised her because she really did break Granny Mack’s heart. When I was 14, I found a box of letters all marked RETURN TO SENDER in red. They were ones Granny had sent Rosemary when she first went out west.

  That girl never did have the sense to know that family was all you really had in this world. I knew that if she turned up today, all these years later, Granny Mack would take her back like the prodigal son. I guess it galled me to think on it.

  Granny Mack’s portable table groaned with the grilled fish, three different kinds of pie, two jugs of sun tea, and various pickles, relishes, and hoecakes she’d cooked over her creek-side campfire in an iron skillet.

  I forgot Rosemary and Luke and Sissy that quick and accepted the kiss on my other cheek from Granny. Today would be a good day if it killed me.

  When we’d all filled a plate and sat down in the extra chairs that had appeared since I’d left to hunt arrowheads, Ray came and gave me a ghostly kiss on my cheek. I sure was getting loved on today.

  He whispered in my ear that we would talk later about Luke and Sissy. Then he sat down beside my lawn chair and waited for me to eat a few bites.

  I sighed knowing I’d have to talk about that pair, but dug into my hot hoecakes and fish with gusto. Granny Mack had saved some more Tommy Toes and they were warm from the sun and salty where she’d seasoned them.

  They burst in my mouth and I swore they must have come from God’s own garden. Granny shushed me. “Child, he had a hand in these, but the ones in heaven will be much better than any my hand can produce.”

  I felt my cheeks color as Bonita and PJ snickered behind their napkins. I was twenty-eight for crying out loud, but that never stopped Granny Mack from correcting me.

  Delilah joined our group and sat under my chair mewling pitifully for some of my fish. I ignored her but Granny Mack set down a little styrofoam bowl full of fish she’d pulled studiously from the bones for my familiar.

  She eyeballed me before fussing again. “You better take good care of Miss Delilah. You know she’s more than just a house cat or a painter to you.”

  I caved and took a large piece of fish from my plate. “Here you go sweet girl,” I crooned and scratched behind her ears. Granny was right. Delilah meant the world to me and I needed to respect her place in my life. My familiar got lots of extra love from my grandmother because her own familiar had gone back to its spirit’s home right before I graduated high school and Delilah found me.

  “So, did you find your arrowheads?” Granny asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

  “She sure did,” Bonita said before I could answer.

  “And a whole lot more,” PJ added.

  I looked at them both like they had lost their minds. Not wanting to bring up Luke while I still had a good appetite, I asserted myself into the conversation. “I can speak for myself ladies.”

  “But you don’t want to talk about it and Granny needs to know,” PJ countered, staring at me with her sparkling green eyes.

  I balanced my plate on my knees. “My mind is just an open door anyone can walk through at will!”

  My girlfriends nodded in the affirmative as Granny added her two cents. “Purty much.”

  Ray agreed, much to my annoyance. “I try not to pry, but you are an open book.”

  “Ugghhhh!” I whined and stuffed my mouth full of fried fish and some okra.

  My grandmother put her plate down and shook her head at me. “You best find a way to lock your noggin up tight now, especially with Billy Jack in the trouble he’s in.”

  I gulped down half my sun tea before leveling with my grandmother. “Luke and Sissy were at the swimming hole and she got in my head again. And, she’s a mermaid or some such creature.”

  Granny’s mouth fell open. I gently grasped her chin and pushed it closed with a smirk. “We wouldn’t want you catching any flies, Granny.”

  She swatted my hand away and shushed me. “There ain’t any mermaids in these hills and hollers. I would know since I know just about everything that goes on around here.”

  PJ piped up. “But Granny, if that was true you’d know who murdered that man and framed your grandson.”

  I rolled my eyes at my friend. “Granny doesn’t have eyes everywhere PJ. She isn’t omniscient.”

  Bonita shrugged. “I don’t know Jolene. I’d say she pretty much is since she’s the oldest mountain witch these parts has ever known.”

  Granny Mack beamed at Bonita. I rolled my eyes and gulped down some more tea.

  “That’s right Bonita. You always were the sharpest,” Granny glanced at PJ meaningfully before turning back to my other friend. “I am a powerful witch, but even those of us with great powers can’t always see through another’s misuse of magick. Someone broke Jolene’s ward and made it look like my grandson is a killer. That takes a lot of power and some trickery. Little as I know about merfolk, they don’t hold that kind of power. Unless they hoodoo’d old Poseidon up from the depths and brought him to podunk Kentucky.”

  “What in blue blazes would they do that for?” PJ asked.

  Bonita took her hand. “Poseidon is a myth, hun. Granny was making
a point…oh never mind.”

  I couldn’t hold in my belly laugh a moment longer. Almost choking on my tea, I sputtered and laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks.

  Granny waited patiently until I regained my composure. “I’m glad to see you laugh again, baby girl. It’s been a while.”

  I felt Ray’s ethereal hand on my shoulder. Since we were all gathered, I figured I may as well tell everything and save myself from having to rehash it later when Ray and I got back home.

  “Okay, so here’s the thing. Sissy has to be some kind of magickal being. At the swimming hole today, she was singing my name and it hurt my ears and my brain. It was like a siren, the kind that goes off and it’s so loud and persistent you’d do anything to shut it off.”

  She splashed around and not a ripple formed across the surface of the pond. I saw the sun glinting off scales, like fish scales, but much larger. Then Luke came up behind me and nearly had me jumping out of my skin. Those two are bad news, and one of them has magick.”

  Granny sat tapping her fingers on the arm of her lawn chair deep in thought. Even PJ didn’t dare break the silence. Ray moved closer to me. “You can’t go wandering around without me anymore. I should have known they might try something again. But Delilah led me to still #4 and I poked around a bit and lost track of time. There’s some dark magick lingering there outside the new ward you set up.”

  I’d felt it too, while hunting arrowheads. I opened my mouth to speak to Ray when Granny Mack took hold of my hand. “We have to do a cleansing of still #4. Your ward isn’t enough to block this brand of dark magick. It’s time you do some work on the ley lines that run through these hills.”

  PJ and Bonita radiated sympathy as they leaned forward and took my hands in theirs. “We’re here for you, Jo. You don’t have to do this alone.”