Page 42 of The Witching Hours

My Nan looked at R.W.’s mama and said, “No promise. The girl isn’t just young. She has no experience. She’s not yet of an age to learn about the legacy and you know it!”Legacy?“But this is a bad turn of luck so I’ll see if there’s something she can do.” To me, she said, “Brenda Lee. I want you to sit down somewhere you feel safe and close your eyes.”

I looked around. “I don’t like it here.”

Nan nodded. “You want to go outside?”

I nodded. “Over there,” I pointed in the direction of Crawdad Creek, “under the peach trees.”

So, the three of us left the house. I led the way with Nan behind me carrying one lantern and R.W.’s mom carrying the other.

I hated giving up my secret safe place. Nobody knew it, but I came there by myself a lot. Well, just Missy and me. She was the best company in the world and never said a thing.

“Find a place where you like to sit,” Nan said. I sat down cross-legged on a grassy spot where I’d sat countless times before, although never in my good dress. “Now close your eyes.” I didn’t know why I was closing my eyes, but I knew the grownups were in no humor for talking back. “Now go ask your Grandmama for a chat and tell her what’s happened, if she hasn’t already heard. Tell her you don’t know if you had a partin this, but if you did, you didn’t mean to send R.W. through the veil and his mama needs him back ‘cause it’s not his time. You say it was an accident and you really need her to send R.W. back so you won’t be in trouble. Then say hello from me and tell her I’ll not be tarrying much longer.”

That was an awful lot to remember all at once. It also seemed like some kind of weird game that grownups shouldn’t be playing. But like I said, it was a good guess they didn’t want to hear argument.

I’d been real little when my Grandmama died, but I knew what she looked like. There were photos and, when I saw her in dreams, I knew it was her even though she didn’t look nearly as old as other kids’ grandmothers. She looked younger than most mamas. I guessed that’s what happens when you die and go to heaven.

In my mind I yelled out. “Grandmama! It’s me!” Nothing. “You got a minute?” Saying that over again seemed like it might be the most stupid thing I’d ever done, but people were counting on me to get R.W. back. That seemed even more stupid.

I shut my eyes together harder to see if that helped and held them real tight. “Grandmama! You there? It’s me, Brenda Lee! You got a minute?”

I thought I saw a flash of my grandmama sitting on a pretty porch in a pretty yellow dress, but it only lasted a second. I saw two more flashes like that and decided that, if I saw another one, I would grab on to and hold real tight so it couldn’t get away.

That’s what I did and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the porch of a house I’d never seen before. It was a big white, two-story Victorian with a blue painted porch that wrapped around the sides. One of things that made the scene picture perfect were the mosaic pots filled with red geraniums in full bloom. The grass yard was a huge expanse of freshly mowed,lush green, shaded by big trees with Spanish moss hanging down.

Grandmama was sitting in a white rocking chair next to a pretty table with a china tea service and some fancy treats like little sandwiches with the crust trimmed off, strawberries and cream, and big fluffy biscuits with fresh peach jam.

“Have a seat,” she smiled and gestured toward another rocking chair that sat on the other side of the table. I sat. “Help yourself.”

I knew I was on a mission, but gosh, those biscuits looked heavenly. So, I took one, opened it in half, smeared it with clotted cream then crammed as many strawberries on it as I could without them falling off. I took a big bite, made some yummy sounds because it was the best treat ever then took a big breath.

“This air smells good,” I said.

Grandmama laughed. “Yes, indeed. Everything here is good.”

I looked around and decided she was right. The air felt like velvet on the bare skin of my forearms.

“Is it magic?”

“Maybe. Why do you ask?”

“Well, for one thing, you don’t look as old as you should. For another, my daddy told me we couldn’t plant red geraniums at our house because the rabbits would come at night and gobble them all up. I like rabbits okay, but I might change my mind about that if they ate up all my geraniums.”

She laughed again and I could tell by the look in her eyes she was glad I was there. “Brenda Lee, you are a delight. I’m glad the legacy is going to you.”Legacy? There was that word again.“What would you like to drink?”

Without giving it any thought, I said, “Coke.”

When I looked back at the white wicker table, there was an ice-cold, green glass bottle of Coke. I knew it was ice cold because of the condensation.

“Is this heaven?” I asked.

“Some might say so,” Grandmama replied.

“It’s good there’s Coke in heaven.” I looked around. “Do they have Baby Ruth candy bars here, too?

I was learning toloveher laugh.

“Everything you want is in heaven so long as it’s not bad for you or somebody else.” She set her teacup down and looked at me. “Now then Brenda Lee. You wouldn’t normally get to come see me. But that thing you did tonight. That was bad for somebody else.”

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