Page 44 of The Witching Hours

“What do you mean?”

She chuckled. “You’re good at playing dumb, aren’t you?” I didn’t answer. “Brenda Lee. You know those other children didn’t send R.W. through that ceiling, don’t you?”

“I… um…”

“You were the only one there who could’ve done it.”

I looked down at my lap. “Oh.”

“So, tell the truth. You told yourself you were being real nice to that boy making cupcakes and all, but the fact is that youwere holding a lot of anger in your heart. He’d said a lot of things that hurt your feelings and made you mad. Isn’t that right?”

“Maybe.”

“There’s no maybe about it. Being special can be wonderful, but it also means you have to watch yourself. From now on you need to be real careful about what you do and what you think. You hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am. I hear you.”

She looked over to her left. “Look at those cannas. They just came shooting up this fine morning. I’ve never had that color red before. Gorgeous, aren’t they?”

I followed her gaze. I knew what cannas were because Auntie Nan grew them. Only ours were orange. “They’re the best I ever saw,” I agreed.

“Alright now. Best be getting on. He’ll be back by the time you get there.”

I opened my mouth to say something. I don’t know what. But instead of thanking Grandmama and telling her goodbye, my eyes flew open, and I heard R.W.’s mama yelling.

“PRAISE BE THE ANGELS!” she was saying while she was hugging R.W. like a little kid. He was struggling trying to get away. Big boys don’t want to be hugged like that by their mamas.

“It wasn’t angels brought that boy back to you, Agatha. And you know it. It was Brenda Lee.”

R.W.’s mama squinted at Nan like she didn’t like her at all. She didn’t say another thing. She just took R.W. and left. It was easy to see where he got his mean streak.

On the ride home Daddy and Auntie Nan acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

Daddy said, “MissedPerry Como”.

“Well, that’s the thing about TV,” Nan said. “There’ll be more of it tomorrow. I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow. I’ll be trying to get the grass stains out of that girl’s blue dress.”

Daddy kind of grunted at that just as we were pulling into the driveway to park the car under the carport next to the house.

“Brenda Lee, you go on to bed. School comes early in the morning,” Nan said.

“Okay.”

“Oh, and…” I stopped and turned back. Daddy had already gone on into the house. “Don’t ever say anything about what happened out there.”

“But…”

“But what?”

“But Margaret or Ronny or Billy Ben may think it’s kind of strange that we saw R.W. disappear into a ceiling screaming and begging for his life tonight and then tomorrow he’ll be in school like nothing happened.”

Auntie Nan smiled. “Don’t you worry. If one of them brings it up, you just say you don’t know what they’re talking about. That’s the thing about folks like them, after a while they’ll forget all about it for real.”

“They will?”

“I’ve seen it a hundred times.”

“But what about R.W.’s mama?”

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