The Big Bang (16 page)

***

“Dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this food. Feed our souls on the bread of life and help us to do our part in kind words and loving deeds. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“Amen.” Maryellen dropped Frank and Laney’s hands and examined the steaming platter of Hunan beef beside her. The meat looked fried. The Sesame Scallops were battered and fried. The Kung Pao chicken, while not as oily, was swimming in a sea of hot peppers.The Happy Family looked anything but.

Maryellen shifted her attention to the next table where the diners dug into dishes of a batter-coated dessert.

“That green tea fried ice cream is to die for,” Laney said.

“I’ll try to save room,” Frank said.

Maryellen’s throat constricted with the thought.

Frank dumped overflowing spoonfuls onto his plate. “What are we thinking in terms of attendance at the ribbon cutting itself?”

“Hard to say, yet.” Laney put a mound of rice in the center of her plate. “I have Sarah working on an Evite with RSVP’s for both the morning and evening events.”

Maryellen gave herself another quick pinch.

“I’ll follow up with a separate reminder to the board so they know they need to be at the ribbon cutting.”

Ignoring the mini-Matterhorn of scallops she’d heaped onto her plate, Laney clasped a piece of beef via chopsticks. “I’d hate to have anyone feeling like the celebration is mandatory.”

“Considering the scope of the project and the impact on the community, it is,” Frank said.

Maryellen allowed herself exactly two pieces of Kung Pao chicken, one spoonful of Mu Shu, and all the snow peas she could collect from the Lo Mein. “Maybe you could make the ribbon cutting be the May meeting?”

“No can do.”

“Why not?” Laney twisted a tangle of Lo Mein around her fork.

“Covenants.”

“Can’t you invoke some special circumstances rule? I mean, when will we ever be having a neighborhood-affirming, community-building event like this again?”

“It’s a thought.” He smiled at Laney. “Problem is, Pierce-Cohn will have a field day.”

“Probably right,” Laney said. “Especially after his performance at Mother’s Helpers.”

“Mother’s Helpers?” Frank asked.

“The home shopping party Laney had on Thursday,” Maryellen said quickly and helped herself to an ice cube from her water glass.

“Eat, Maryellen,” Frank said through a mouthful of scallops. “She’s always watching her weight.”

“I wish I had your willpower.” Laney looked her over as though she were a department store mannequin. “You can’t be more than a size two.”

Size zero, she didn’t say, but made a show of nibbling the broccoli flower from the stem instead as Frank took chopsticks to his Hunan beef.

“Home shopping, like Avon?” he asked.

“A lot like Avon,” Maryellen said.

“Much more hands-on, though.” Laney smiled like the Cheshire cat.

Maryellen scraped excess sauce from a piece of broccoli and prayed Laney would leave it at that.

“Can’t imagine how Pierce-Cohn can go to those parties and be the only man,” Frank said, post-swallow and pre-bite.

“Will’s one of the girls,” Laney said. “But I really did think he was going to die of embarrassment when he came back from putting on that cream and saw Hope standing there.”

“Some sort of allergic reaction,” Maryellen said.

“My doctor confirmed there was nothing in there that could have caused—”

“He’s fine though,” Maryellen said, weighing Laney’s reaction to an under-the-table
shut-up
kick.

“If you ask me, his reaction was more from overhearing Hope tell me she’d just come from consulting with you on the playgrounds than anything else.”

“Hope said that?” Frank put his chopsticks down.

“Hope’s consulting on the playgrounds?” Maryellen asked.

“Never hurts to have another set of eyes on the plans before they’re finalized.”

“But I thought she was against—?”

“She was.” Frank swirled the contents of his glass, and took a pull of chardonnay. “Until I gave her the opportunity to admire her own handiwork by looking out her front door.”

“Brilliant idea, by the way.” Laney clanked his glass with her own.

Why hadn’t Frank mentioned to her that Hope was consulting on the playground?

“Sounds like Pierce-Cohn doesn’t necessarily think so.” Frank could barely contain his self-satisfied smirk. “But her involvement’s already paid off. She moved a flower bed set too close to the basketball court and changed up some plantings that would have attracted bees.”

“She certainly seemed jazzed up about the project when she finally got to the party,” Laney said.

“Good to hear.” Frank made a show of constructing a Mu Shu with the rolling skills he learned as a teen working at Taco Bell. “When did you say your party was again?”

“Thursday morning,” Laney said.

He looked up. “And Hope said she’d just met with me?”

“Almost missed the whole shebang because of it,” Laney said.

“That’s odd,” he said.

“Why’s that?” Laney asked.

“We did have a meeting that day, but not until that afternoon.”

“That is odd.” Maryellen set down the teacup she was using to warm her hands. “Because I saw her pull out of the Trautmans’ driveway just before she showed up at Laney’s.”

“As in, Tim Trautman’s?”

“Exactly.” Maryellen allowed herself the briefest of smiles.

***

Holding the black satchel of offerings containing everything from an opal ring to an off-campus lunch pass to a chunk of Lauren’s hair, Eva turned to Tyler. “As bidden by the sacred
Book of Coven
, it is time for the Head Warlock to make his ritual sacrifice.”

Pretending not to notice the
no worries
glances the two of them exchanged, she handed Lauren a shift sign-up sheet for Memorial Weekend and grabbed Tyler by the wrist. “While we’re gone, tell Lauren when you can work the ribbon cutting and party and she’ll try to give you the times you want.”

Her father’s favorite cliché,
keep your friends close and your enemies closer
, had never felt so apropos as she led Tyler to the laundry room, slid open the pocket door, and sent him through. Before following him to the open area beside the washer and dryer, she turned back and slid the door closed behind them.

Almost.

It was all she could do not to check and see if Lauren was still fingering the thinned spot in her hair and trying not to look perturbed watching them disappear into the laundry room.

Tyler reached past her and slid the door closed.

She untied her cape and tossed it over the washing machine.

“I need to tell you something,” he said.

“What’s that?” She could feel him squirm.

“It’s about Lauren.”

“What about her?”

“And me.”

She kept her back to him, so her face wouldn’t betray the casual in her voice. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“That’s why you cut so much of her hair?” he finally asked.

“You can hardly tell she’s missing any.”

“There’s a chunk gone by her left ear.”

“Lauren’s the most powerful Dedicant. Her sacrifice is almost as important as yours.” Eva turned and waved her scissors, which happened to be at about crotch level.

A look of panic crossed his face.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She snipped off a lock by his left ear, and then did the same to herself, but from the underside of the back of her head. “It’s not like I care all that much.”

He ran his fingers along the side of his head. “So you’re cool about Lauren and me?”

She pulled out two empty Baggies from the satchel, put Tyler’s hair in one, hers in the other, and zipped them closed. “As long as you continue in your role as Head Warlock without getting distracted when your gf—she’s around.”

The most annoying look of relief crossed his face.

She dropped the Baggies into the satchel. “You also need to make your sacrifices tonight.”

“Thought I just did.”

She let the strap of her tank top slide down her left shoulder. “There’s one more.”

His eyes fell to the cup edge of her new Victoria’s Secret strapless bra, exactly as she expected. “I don’t think I should…”

She traced the outer rim of his ear with her tongue. “We have to praise the Goddess.”

“I know, but—“

“But what?”

He stared at the door. “Lauren.”

“You just got together with her.”

“I know, but—”

She began to tug at his shirt. “You’re not exclusive yet, right?”

“Not yet.”

“Then no worries.” She reached for the top button of his jeans and began to unbutton his fly. “It’s for the Goddess.”

He confirmed his agreement with a low moan.

***

Maryellen locked the bathroom door behind her, entered the stall, and took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure what was worse, keeping Laney off the subject of Mother’s Helpers while she flirted with Frank, smiling while the woman took over everything about Memorial Weekend, or listening to Frank obsess over Hope? Finding out he’d hired Hope as a playground consultant from Laney was bad enough, but to know poor Will Pierce-Cohn’s sweating, burping, dizziness, and rash might have been not only an allergic reaction, but his reaction to Hope’s involvement in the playground project, was practically unbearable.

What was Will going to do when the church land was finalized?

At least she didn’t have to worry about Frank asking anything more about the party now that the conversation had moved away from Will and onto a rundown on Tim Trautman, and what exactly
Laney
thought Hope was doing over at his house.

And why
Laney
thought Hope felt the need to lie.

Brassy, shameless Laney, who seemed to be able to say whatever she thought and do whatever she pleased.

Amazingly, her theories, at least where Hope was concerned, were logical—Hope was helping Tim plant flowers, but said she was with Frank so no one would overhear and give up the surprise. Laney knew the flowers were a surprise because she’d dropped off Theresa’s party goodies on Friday only to be treated to a tour of the blooms overfilling the beds that Tim,
who knew nothing about flowers
, had planted for her. Other than fulfilling Frank’s need to know everything about Will’s reaction, Tim Trautman in general, and Laney’s insatiable need to gossip, there really couldn’t be all that much more to the story.

Maryellen got up and started for the restroom while the two of them busily, and pointlessly, continued to conjecture as to whether Hope had seen Tim putting in flowers and, because of her love of gardening, had offered to help, or that given their common backyard fence, Tim couldn’t help but notice her gardening abilities.

And her.

Maryellen bowed her head, said a small forgiveness blessing for feeling angry and taking part in gossip, bent over, grasped her hair with her left hand, and, although she hated to have allowed herself to eat so much that she had to, stuck her right index finger down her throat.

With a quick flush, the Happy Family was reunited where they belonged.

After a thorough hand washing and a swish from her travel mouthwash, she reapplied her lipstick and ran a brush through her hair. Reaching for a paper towel, she twisted open the door, threw the paper in the wastebasket, and started back.

Frank, busy gesturing with his hands, didn’t notice her until she’d almost reached the table. He waved his fortune cookie. “We were waiting on you, Maryellen.”

“Sorry,” she said, reaching her seat, where only her plate remained amid to-go boxes. “You two go ahead. I’ll save mine for later tonight.”

“No, Maryellen.” Frank picked up the remaining fortune cookie from the tray and tossed it to her. “We‘re going to do this together.”

At least she’d managed to avoid the prospect of green tea ice cream.

Setting aside her plate for the waiter to wrap for the next day’s lunch, Maryellen clutched her cookie. She wasn’t even hungry for something sweet.

Frank and Laney shattered theirs and grabbed their fortunes from the mess of shards and crumbs before stuffing them into their mouths.

She carefully separated hers into two even pieces.

“Mine says, a person’s character is his destiny
,”
Laney said.

“What you desire is always possible,” Frank read.

Maryellen pulled at the strip of paper hanging from one of her cookie pieces.

“Maryellen, what does your fortune say?”

She forced a smile. “You live a charmed life.”

***

Before her parents came home, Eva removed half the hair from Tyler’s Baggie and tied it together with her own using a pink ribbon.

She reread the directions for spell number two once more:

Take a lock of hair from your lover and tie a pink ribbon around it. Light three pink candles and then place the hair in a hollowed out apple along with a pinch of ground cinnamon, seven rose petals, and a lock of your own hair tied with a white ribbon. Pass the apple through the flame of each candle while visualizing yourself and your lover.

A little tongue in the ear and a reminder she wasn’t into a bf/gf thing anyway and Tyler was where she wanted him, totally into the spell to disrupt Benchmark Testing week. Not that the Tyler/Lauren thing would last much longer, anyway, but boyfriend or friend-with-benefits, she wasn’t about to let some innocent-acting freshman whisk Tyler from under her.

Or worse, shift the coven balance in some way.

She pulled a long curly hair from an envelope. Substituting black ribbon and candles instead of pink and white, she entwined Lauren’s hair instead of her own.

Following the remaining instructions exactly, she wrapped the apples in white cloth, walked downstairs, and headed out the back door. The pink ribbon apple was to be buried under the window where she slept.

She set aside a pile of pea gravel from the designated spot and searched for an appropriate site for the other apple.

With no burial instructions for the black-ribboned apple, she settled on an easy to dig spot in the center of the garden below her parents’ bedroom.