Page 38 of The Witching Hours

He chuckled.

My anxiety was spilling out of my mouth. Did I sound like the mature voice of reason or like the scaredy cat nobody could respect? It could go either way.

I was the last one standing on sweet mother earth. The others had gone inside. All but me. I looked behind me. Forward or back. I could easily find my way back to my bike with just my flashlight and ride home hell bent for leather. I wasn’t the kind to be bullied into nonsense, but I thought it would somehow be wrong to leave Margaret. Since she’d be the only girl and all.

So, I climbed the steps, careful to walk on the outside edges like Ronny said. I inched through the open door. The others were standing in a loose huddle in the middle of the room where the floor appeared to be sound.

“Okay,” I said, “We’re all here. What’s the mystery?”

Ronny pulled out a cotton blanket that I hadn’t noticed he’d been carrying. He scanned the dusty wooden floor withhis Boy Scout issue flashlight then gripped the flashlight handle between his teeth and spread the blanket out.

“We’re gonna do this thing my cousin told me about,” Ronny said. “It’s called Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.”

“I heard about that,” Margaret said. “It’s wicked weird.”

Ronny nodded, but seemed irritated that he might have to share authority with Margaret.

“Here’s how it works,” he went on. “R.W. is gonna lie down on this blanket. Then two of us are gonna kneel on one side and two on the other.” We all stood still waiting to hear further instructions. “Well, what are you waiting for? R.W. You lie down right here.”

“Wait a minute,” R.W. sounded suspicious. “This is not a human sacrifice thing, is it?”

That made the boys laugh, but it made my stomach feel queasy.

“Don’t be stupid,” Billy Ben said. “If we sacrificed you, the devil would probably just spit you back and say, ‘Ew. No. Not him!’”

The boys laughed again. R.W. said, “Ha. Ha,” but he laid down just like Ronny said.

Ronny showed us how to put the first and second finger together on each hand and slide our fingers under R.W. palms up. There was support under his shoulders, torso, thighs, and calves. Ronny had R.W. cross his arms over his chest like a corpse, which didn’t ease my jittery feelings at all.

“Okay. Now here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna start saying it together. And we’re gonna keep saying it until R.W. lifts off the ground without us even trying.”

That sounded preposterous, but I went along. “Start saying what?”

Ronny scoffed like I was an idiot. “What’d I say? Light as a feather. Stiff as a board.”

“And that’s gonna make him what? Float in the air?” It was my turn to scoff, and I got the satisfaction of hearing the others giggle in response.

Ronny frowned at me and said, “Stop acting like a spaz and help out.”

I considered objecting to that characterization, but decided to just get busy and get this over with so I could go home.

R.W. lay still, but it was easy to tell he was amused by the other four of us chanting light as a feather, stiff as a board. None of us really believed anything was gonna happen. Not even Ronny. That’s why Margaret gasped when R.W.’s body began to lift off the ground. It felt like an electric current was running through my veins instead of blood.

“Geez. Do you feel that?” Ronny said.

We all jerked our hands away when R.W. began to rise. We sat there wide-eyed and frozen watching R.W. slowly float upward.

“Judas Priest!” Billy Ben sounded scared in earnest. “I’m going home.” He left without another word. Leaving with R.W. in trouble was kind of a shitty thing to do, but I couldn’t blame him too much.

The amusement on R.W.’s face had been replaced by alarm as he continued rising higher in the air with none of us touching him.

“Okay,” he said. “Ha. Ha. Get me down now.” He was struggling to get free, but his body was… well, stiff as a board.

I stood up and tried to grab on and at least slow his progress upward. R.W.’s Levis were loose enough that I could get ahold of two handfuls of denim. I was pulling down with all my might, but R.W. continued rising.

“HELP ME!!!” I yelled. “Ronny. Do somethingright now!”

At that point R.W. was floating higher than my standing height. In another minute my arms would be fully stretched to their limit.

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