No Time For Witches, page 2
“You’re better off without that asshole,” she whispered. She looked down at the hat and muttered. Crinkling up her nose she brought the hat closer and sniffed. Her face relaxed, it had been cleaned. She sighed heavily and walked over to the counter. She pulled a barrette out of her apron pocket and twisted her hair into a low bun at the back of her neck and secured it.
“I’ll give it a few weeks, then I’m gonna have mom work on dad,” she said to her reflection. This really was beneath her but she figured it would help in the drama club come the fall semester. She planned on enjoying her senior year.
“Thou art beautiful, milady,” she said and laughed.
Ψ
Kim grabbed her lunch and made her way out to the picnic area. She saw Martha there and was surprised the girl had lasted as long as she had. They’d been working at the museum for nearly two months. She would have bet good money that Martha would have quit by now, but she seemed to enjoy her job. She noticed that Martha had her iPhone and was playing with it. They weren’t allowed to have their phones on them while they did their tours. Kim didn’t have a problem with it since she had no pockets. As she stepped onto the grass, the tiny shells that hung from her moccasins chimed. She liked that and in private, she had danced a little, hearing them click.
“I hope you’re not carrying that thing around on your tours. You know Mrs. Shoal will have a fit if she sees you,” Kim said, settling on the bench by the picnic table.
“Please. You clearly follow the rules too much, girlfriend,” Martha said, grinning.
“I admit it, I’m a rule follower,” Kim said and laughed, pulling out a sandwich.
“I guess if you’re planning to go into the Navy, Kimi, you’d best be good at following the rules. Me, I like to break them or at least push as far as I can,” Martha said and laughed, her eyes crinkling at the side. Kim shook her head and chuckled.
“I wish you wouldn’t call me Kimi. My grandmother is the only one I don’t mind calling me that,” Kim said.
“Aw, come on Kimi. I’ve pretty much known you my whole life. I think it’s cute.”
A dark elegant eyebrow went up and then Kim shook her head and took a bite of her sandwich. She chewed and watched the blue jays in a stand of ash. There must be nests around, she could hear the cries of the babies nearby. There were the liquid songs of the brown-headed cowbirds that mixed with the chickadees. In between the dark leaves of trees, she spotted the brilliant yellows of the goldfinches. Along the grounds of the museum were robins that hopped along looking for the worms. She heard the call of a woodpecker and the rhythmic drumming that echoed off the building.
She squinted up into the sky, it was going to rain. She’d get a ride from Martha, so she didn’t have to walk to the bus stop. She liked that the museum backed up to the woods, it was like a parkland. There were walking trails around the whole of Salem. Living here all her life, she hadn’t really been beyond the city, except for a few excursions to nearby Boston or other neighboring towns.
“Why don’t you go into the Navy?” she asked, looking at Martha sideways.
“You know, I’ve thought about it. But, honestly, they just don’t pay enough. Besides, I want to go to college and enjoy my life before I figure out what I want to do after college. Way too much work, your way,” Martha said and laughed, flinging a loose strand of hair over her shoulder. When she did that, Kim noticed something around Martha’s neck.
“Martha, what’s that around your neck?” Kim asked, shifting over.
“Oh this? I found it in the witch exhibit. Suits me, don’t you think?”
“What? Are you kidding me? Seriously, did you steal that?” Kim asked, standing up and facing Martha.
“Let’s just say I borrowed it. See, look, it is a miniature painting of a girl. She looks like me and look, there is even a lock of red hair in the back of the locket,” Martha said and turned the pewter locket over. It was suspended around her neck by a gold chain, one from this century. Kim looked at her pointedly.
“That’s stealing and that is seriously old jewelry. Martha, you could really get in trouble. You need to put that back. I’m sure it is fragile and if you break it or ruin it, I don’t think your dad can get you out of trouble.”
“Hey, I can take care of myself. Dear old daddy doesn’t need to know. I’ll return it, I promise and don’t be such a drudge,” Martha said, tucking the locket back down into the blouse of her costume.
“A drudge? I mean it. Mrs. Shoal will have a shitfit,” Kim said holding out her hand expectantly. Martha laughed and stuck her tongue out and backed up, pulling the locket out again and waved it in the air.
“Come get it, Kimi,” she laughed and turned and ran into the woods along a trail. Kim laughed and took off after her. She was pretty sure that Martha wouldn’t get far in those horrible shoes. Her own feet felt cushioned in her moccasins and she liked the sound of the shells clicking softly at each foot fall.
“Come on Martha. Just hand it over and nobody has to get hurt,” Kim said and laughed as she picked up a long branch. Martha looked over her shoulder and laughed.
“You look like a real Indian, Kimi,” she called over her shoulder.
“You know my name means secret in Wabanaki. Or rather Kimi means secret,” Kim called and laughed as Martha lost her shoe and stopped to run back and put it back on. She picked up her pace and swung the stick at Martha who squealed. She had missed by a mile and laughed.
“Oh, man. Wait, wait. I have to stop,” Martha said, panting and slowed down. With her hands on her hips, she flung her head back and blew out her breath.
“You’re out of shape, girl,” Kim said and came to stand beside Martha.
“It isn’t that, it’s these damned clothes. They’re heavy as hell. I don’t see how those people managed. Plus, I’m pretty sure the women didn’t run back then and they’re hot as hell. I shouldn’t have run,” Martha said, her face now bright red.
“Yeah, I think they made the women wear that stuff to keep them in hand and acquiescent,” Kim said and took the stick and now swished it around the long grass that bordered the walking path. In the distance she heard lightning and then smelled the sting of ozone in the air and she caught the scent of petrichor, telling her rain was coming. She was definitely getting a ride to the bus stop.
Both girls jerked when a boom of lightning and thunder struck near them and Martha screamed. She moved closer to Kim and both young women looked up to the sky. There above them was a massive storm cloud, dark and moving swiftly. They watched as jagged lightning branched out from the cloud and struck near them on the path. Both women began to run away from the storm. More deadly lightning popped down around them and Martha was now crying, nearly in hysterics. Kim’s heart was pounding hard with fear. She’d never seen anything like it and moved with Martha, grabbing her arm when Martha began to lag behind.
Martha’s breath was coming in panting sobs and she stumbled, nearly losing her shoe again. Looking back, the clouds were still spitting lightning. Kim wanted to head back to the museum but the lightning was popping down in that direction. Another boom stuck near and Martha’s wail rose in the air. There was nowhere to run, there were trees all around them and if they tried to go back to the museum, they would run into the lightning.
“There, over there. It’s a tree,” Martha said, her face blood red with effort.
“We can’t go under that tree, the lightning will hit it,” Kim said over the rising wind.
“It’s like a million years old. If lightning hasn’t hit it yet, then it won’t. Besides, there are a ton of trees around it that are taller,” Martha said, now taking Kim’s hand and leading her to the large oak.
“Wait, that’s the hanging tree. We can’t go there,” Kim said and began to pull back. Martha was trying to drag them to a famous oak, it was the tree that many women and men were hung, back in the day, when the citizens of Salem hunted down witches.
“Who cares, that was like a thousand years ago. Come on, there’s a hole we can climb into,” Martha said and grabbed Kim’s arm and yanked. Another explosion nearby prompted Kim to run toward the tree. Please don’t let the tree get hit by lightning, she prayed. She was shaking badly when they got to the large tree. It stood well over eighty feet and there were other trees around taller than that. She hoped that Martha was right about the other trees catching the lightning. The oak tree had lasted over three hundred years without being struck, she guessed it would be okay. The rain began to fall with a vengeance and she thought about her lunch sitting on the picnic table. It would be ruined by the time she got back and she’d only eaten half her sandwich.
She bent over and duck walked into the declivity of the large trunk. Martha was beside her and there wasn’t a lot of room and they squished up next to each other. Another boom of lightning and thunder rolled around them and Martha clutched at Kim. Kim held onto Martha and could feel the young woman trembling. Both of them were seventeen and she considered herself a woman, but right now, she felt like a kid and she thought that Martha did as well. Another explosion and Martha squeaked and began to cry in earnest. Kim wrapped her arm around Martha’s shoulder and pulled her closer. Martha buried her head in Kim’s shoulder, then her chest.
Boom! This one was closer and Kim squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her head next to Martha’s. She could hear Martha whimpering and she too felt like crying. Her whole body was shaking and she wished they’d not run out so far away from the museum. She was pretty sure they would be late getting back from their thirty-minute lunchbreak. Mrs. Shoal was going to have a conniption, but Kim wasn’t going out into that storm until it passed. Boom! Another strike and this time it was way too close, her ears rang with the noise.
“Please, God, don’t let it hit us, don’t let it kill us,” she whispered. She almost smiled when she felt Martha nod her head in agreement. Her heart beat painfully in her chest and her mouth was as dry as her hands were clammy. Boom, boom, boom! Three explosions landed near their tree and Kim screamed, her ears felt as though they were exploding. She could hear nothing, not even her scream, only a high-pitched tone that filled her head. She felt as though her body was covered with ants but she didn’t look. She pushed her forehead into Martha’s shoulder and Martha’s head was buried in Kim’s chest. She held onto Martha for dear life and she worked her jaw, trying to get the muffled cotton feeling out of her ears. She was hot and cold at the same time and felt crushed within the confines of the tree.
There was another explosion, but this one seemed further off. Kim wasn’t entirely sure since she thought maybe she was deaf. She cracked an eye open and the world around them was a dark green, as though they were underwater. She knew it was from the heavy clouds overhead. The enclave they resided in seemed to shrink and she felt as though the wood was crushing her. It was hard to breath with Martha hugging onto her with a death grip. Another flash of lightning and she closed her eyes again. She was now hearing the pounding of rain around them.
The rain was coming hard and heavy and she thought about flash floods. They were on a high area and there were several streams around, but nothing big or deep to where they had to worry. Though her eyes were still closed, she saw the flash of light and braced herself for another explosion, a second or two later, it resounded off the tree. The storm was moving on and she relaxed a bit and pulled up her head. She worked her jaw more; the ringing still filled her head. She looked at her arm but didn’t see any ants but saw that the tiny hairs all over her arms were still standing up.
Martha pulled away a little and she saw her mouth moving.
“What? I can’t hear you?”
“What?” Martha said and stuck her finger in her ear and opened her mouth. Kim plugged her nose and blew and she felt a popping in her ears. It hurt, but it helped, she had heard people did this when they flew. She could hear better now.
“Pop your ears. Plug your nose and blow,” Kim yelled. Martha nodded her head and did the same. Her eyes were large and dark in her head and Kim felt tenderness for this spoiled young woman. She really wasn’t much different from Kim. Martha smiled tentatively. There was another flash and both girls covered their ears and waited. Five seconds passed and then the boom.
“I think it’s passed. You wanna head back to work?” Kim said, unwedging herself from the tree’s declivity. She reached a hand in and pulled Martha out after. The rain was still coming down but it was almost mist like. Kim tilted her head back and stuck out her tongue.
Martha looked at Kim and smiled. That storm had terrified her and she remembered when she had been a little girl when a bad storm had rolled over their home. She had gone to her parents’ room but they had sent her back to her own bed telling her she was too old to be afraid. Martha remembered trying to crawl under her blankets and pillow to get away from the noise. To this day, Martha still resented her parents for that time and she was terrified of storms. Kim hadn’t made fun of her and had even tried to protect her. Without thinking, she stepped forward and drew Kim into her arms for a hug. Kim was smaller and she nearly squished the young woman in a fierce hug.
“Thanks Kimi. I mean it. I was really scared.”
“You don’t have to thank me; I was scared too. Let’s get back to work before we get in trouble.”
Martha smiled and nodded and for reasons she didn’t understand, she took Kim’s hand and held it as they walked back to the museum. She noted that Kim looked down at their clasped hands and then up to her, but didn’t pull away. They didn’t run back, they walked. The ground was wet and saturated in some areas. They stepped carefully to avoid the puddles that peppered the ground. They heard the distant thunder and Martha was glad that the storm was moving farther away. The air was humid now and she thumbed a loose length of hair behind her ear. She shifted the coif back on her head, it had fallen to the back of her head and the strings were nearly strangling her.
“Hold up, let me fix my hat,” she said and let go of Kim’s hand. Kim looked around them and sniffed the air.
“I like it when it rains, it makes everything smell green,” Kim said.
“Unless you have a dog, then all you smell is wet dog,” Martha said.
“I don’t have a dog. Do you?”
“Yeah, she’s an Irish Setter, her name is Molly.”
“Nice. My grandmother is allergic to dogs. I had one before my folks died, but we had to give her away,” Kim said, sorrow tinging her voice. Martha forgot sometimes that Kim’s parents had died over ten years before, when Kim was about five or six. She remembered vaguely that Kim had been a very quiet student in first grade. A soft pang of sorrow went through her heart. Sometimes she was so wrapped up in her own thing, that she forgot that others weren’t as lucky as her. But, then again, Kim had a nice grandmother. She’d met her a few times at school functions over the years and Kim’s grandmother seemed to dote on her. She was always rubbing Kim’s back or holding her hand or kissing her.
Her own parents were cold people and they cared more for Molly than they did her. In some ways, Kim had it a lot better. She would give anything for her mother to love her like that. But most of the time, she only saw disappointment in her mother’s eyes. Her father’s too. That was why she had stuck with the job. She wanted them to be proud of her, she wanted them to know that she could work and she wasn’t lazy. She’d heard them talking one night. She felt her face redden even now at the thought.
“She’s almost useless. Just lazy, pure and simple,” her father’s deep voice reached her.
“It’s because we spoil her. We should be harder on her,” her mother said.
“Right. You’re the reason she gets away with half the stuff she does. You let her have her way and when I put my foot down, I’m the bad guy,” he’d said. Martha blinked back the tears at the memory and finished tying her cap. She cleared her throat and rubbed at her nose and looked around them. The trees glistened with rain drops and the forest around them was hushed. Even the birds had quieted. She shivered and looked around. It was a little spooky and she felt a little foolish for thinking like a child.
“You ever notice that one minute, things can be normal and the next, spooky?” she asked, looking over at Kim. A dark eyebrow raised in question and Martha laughed nervously and shrugged. She waved it away and started walking back toward the museum. After a few minutes, she stopped and looked around.
“What’s the matter?” Kim asked.
“I’m not sure. Are we off the walking trail? I mean, there just seems to be a lot more trees and I don’t see a clear path back to the museum.”
Kim looked around them and turning in a circle, her face grew very serious. It made Martha nervous. She also started turning around in a circle.
“Do you hear that?” Kim asked.
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. I don’t hear anything, as in no traffic. I don’t care where you are, you can always here traffic. Especially the traffic off Highway 107 and Highway 114.”
“What do you think it means?” Martha asked nervously.
“I don’t know. Come on, let’s get back to work.”
Both started walking again, quiet in their own thoughts. Martha looked around them as they walked, her feet squishing in her shoes. She gritted her teeth; her socks were damp. Something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. It was an uncomfortable feeling and she didn’t like it. She reached out and took Kim’s hand again and she felt Kim’s reassuring squeeze. Both walked for nearly fifteen minutes and then Kim stopped.
Something nagged at Kim but she wasn’t sure what it was. She was at lest glad that her moccasins didn’t leak. She looked down at Martha’s shoes. They were making squishing sounds.
“We should be there by now. We weren’t that far away from the museum. The hanging tree was only about a quarter mile or so from there. We should be at the museum by now,” Kim said, biting her lower lip. Her head was turning this way and that. She was listening intently. She heard birds in the brush and in the trees. She took in a deep breath and sniffed the air.
