Wish (6 page)

      I frowned, not pleased with the coincidence of what
she’d written. Keith frowned, too.

      “I had to rip up her sleeves, too,” Stevie said and
grabbed the fabric on my shoulder. Then she squinted and stared at me. “Hey.
Wait a minute. Oh my God. Sydney. How could you do this to me?”

I had no idea what she was talking about.

      She grabbed my arm right where she’d punched me. She
rubbed at the skin. Hard.

      “Ow. That hurts.”

“Oh My God. That is totally not fake,” she yelled, rubbing
harder. “Did you get a tattoo, Sydney?”

      I looked down where she’d tried to take off my skin
with her fingers. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

      “What the heck is wrong with you?” Stevie asked.

      She pointed at my arm. Inked right into my shoulder was
a Celtic knot pendant. Exactly like the one I’d seen on the book in my mom’s
room.  

      I screamed again. “Get it off,” I yelled, scratching at
it, as if there were a bug crawling up my arm. Or a really large snake.

      Keith rushed up beside me and put his arm around my
shoulder. “Hey. Relax. It’s cool,” he whispered in my ear. “It’s okay.”

      “Ha, ha, Sydney. You are so freaking funny.” Stevie
scowled, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Get it off, get it off,” she
said, imitating my scared voice. “Nice try. I can’t believe you went and did it
without me.”

I leaned against Keith, drawing strength from his composure.
I looked down. Purple ink, the same color as my necklace was scratched into my
arm. Permanently from the looks of it. Oh my God. What the heck was happening
to me?

      “It’s okay,” Kevin whispered again. People walked by,
staring at the freaky farm girl and her tall dark sidekick.

      Stevie chomped her lip ring, shaking her head at Kevin
and me. I clung to him as if he’d just yanked me out of a powerful undertow. 

“Okay. Quit pretending you’re all freaked out just because
you did it without me. Without telling me, your best friend.” She glared at
Keith. “Your best girl friend.”

She shook her head. “You know how badly I want a tattoo, Sydney,”
she whined. “My dad is so against ink, but if he knew your Nana was letting you
get one.” She sighed knowing her dad wouldn’t have backed down. He was okay
with piercings, holes, could grow back in he said. But not tattoos. “Any way,
you should have at least invited me along so I could watch. Cold. That’s cold.”

      “She wanted it done for her birthday,” Keith said.
“It’s a tattoo in honor of her Mom, so it was private. You wanted to surprise Stevie,
right, Sydney?”

      He held my gaze with his eyes, nodding at me,
encouraging me to agree. I stared at him until I soaked up some of his
strength. I nodded and looked away. “Yeah.”

I couldn’t look at Keith. I couldn’t remember ever hearing
him lie before. Not since I’d known him. Why now?

      My stomach twanged and I groaned. This was not my day.
Not my day at all.

      “What’s the matter? Do you have more cramps?” Stevie
glanced at Keith. “Tattoo girl here got her period the same day she got her
first ink. Can you believe it? She’s the only person I’ve heard of who didn’t
start her period until 16.”

      I glanced at Keith. His cheeks reddened and he looked
away from us, down the hallway. 

Stevie laughed. “Sorry, Keith. I forgot how sensitive you are
to girl talk.”

      “Oh my God, Stevie. Shut up. I’m going to the
washroom.” I hobbled off to get away from the two of them, too scared to run in
case the sausage roll of toilet paper between my legs plopped out onto the
ground. That would be the last straw and would send me to the Insane Asylum,
even if my mom wasn’t there.

      Stevie hurried after me. “Wait, I need to get you my
tampons,” she called.

      “Oh my God.” I put my hands over my ears. “I don’t want
them.”

“See you later,” Keith yelled and disappeared down the
opposite hallway. Stevie caught up too quickly.

      “Stevie,” I hissed as I rushed into the bathroom and
she followed.

“What?”

I whipped around to glare at her. “What do you think?”

Her face fell. “Wow. You are a witch today. Keith doesn’t
care about your period. I always complain to him when I have mine. Besides. You
cheated me out of seeing you getting needles poked into you.”

I pushed into an empty stall and locked the door behind me,
plopping down on the toilet seat.

“I didn’t mean to.” I sighed. “Give me a break, okay? This is
my first time with my period. I’m freaking out a bit here. I didn’t know it was
going to hurt so much. Or be so uncomfortable.”

“Can’t hurt more than the tattoo did,” she said in a pouty
voice.

I sighed. Wrong. The tattoo didn’t hurt at all. I had a quick
flicker of a memory of Nana touching my shoulder. Stupid witch stuff. I wanted
to cry.

“Stevie. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Neither of us spoke.

“You want me to get you a tampon from my locker?” she finally
asked.

I put my head in my hands. “No. I don’t even want to try to
figure that out right now.”

Stevie didn’t say anything.

“Jenny is going to make my life miserable,” I said to the
floor.

“Don’t worry about Jenny, Mike’ll be all over her by this
afternoon. He’s playing some stupid game to make her jealous. They’re idiots.
They break up more than a game of Jenga.” She took a couple of steps away from
the front of my stall. “Hey, they have pads in this machine. Got a quarter?”

      “Of course I don’t.” I sighed. “God, I wish this day
would just end already.” I felt dizzy and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I
was at home in my bed.

I stared at
the alarm clock. 7:30.

A.M.

“Oh my God.” I sat up in my bed, lifted my covers and peeked
underneath. I wore the same thing I sleep in almost every single night. Black
jammy bottoms with pink skeletons on them, and a black tank top.

      Magic purred and stretched beside me.

      “Nana.” I leapt from the bed. We needed to chat about
witch stuff. Now. “Nana.”      

No answer. I opened my bedroom door and peered down the
hallway. “Nana?” I called again.

      Cody’s voice yelled at me from downstairs. “She’s still
gone, Sydney.” He paused. “Just like she told you last night.”

“Last night?”

He didn’t answer for a minute. “Did turning sixteen take away
all your brain cells?” he asked. “You’re not doing drugs are you?” He actually
sounded concerned.

“Where is she?” I yelled, trying not to give in to hysterics.

He ignored me. I chomped my bottom lip and tiptoed into the
hallway. Magic prowled behind me. I picked up my pace. Magic sped up. I broke
into a full run down the stairs and Magic flew behind me towards the kitchen. I
muffled a scream of terror and ran straight into Cody in the doorway. I yelped
and panted with anxiety. His hair dripped wet from showering. He held a half-eaten
bagel in the air. His plaid button up shirt wasn’t what he’d been wearing the
morning before.

“What are you running from?” he asked.

“Magic,” I said and glanced down.

      Magic slipped by me with an annoyed meow. 

      “Your tiny little kitten?” he asked. His eyebrow went
up.

      “What day is it?” I spit out.

      Cody stared at me. Worried or nervous.

      “It’s Tuesday, Sydney.” He annunciated each word,
slowly.

      I gasped. Horrified.

      “Uh. Are you coming to school, or are you going to skip
out for the rest of your life like you told Nana?”

      “What I told Nana?”

      He stared at me as if trying to decide whether I was
joking or insane. He didn’t seem sure which to pick. I didn’t know either.

      “When did I talk to Nana?” I yelled. 

“Last night. Uh. On the phone,” he said slowly. “We talked to
her on the phone. Remember?”

      “Mom,” I shouted. “She’s with Mom.”

      Cody’s eyebrow snaked farther up. He took a bite of his
bagel, studying me as if I’d suddenly slipped on a cheerleading outfit.

I concentrated and then a flash went off in my head and
images zipped by as if I’d watched a DVD in fast forward. I remembered talking
to Nana on the phone. I told her we needed to talk. I wanted to see her and
Mom. I had to find out what was going on with me, what they hadn’t told me.

Nana had said no. She said there were complications. She
couldn’t explain yet, said they had to work a few things out before Mom could
come home. She sounded worried.

“Things are a little tricky,” she said. “Nothing we can’t
figure out. Don’t worry. We’ll be back soon and explain. Just be careful until
we get back. Don’t make any wishes. No magic stuff.” She’d paused then for a
long moment. “And Sydney. If you see your father, if he shows up, well, he’s
kind of um, sick. Don’t tell him anything. Pretend you know nothing about Grant
Witches or powers. Don’t tell him anything.”

“My father?” I’d asked.

Before Nana answered, Cody grabbed the phone from me.

Cody wouldn’t talk to me when he hung up. He’d gone to his
room, locked the door and played his music loud until I went to bed.

Now he stood in front of me, not taking his eyes off me. He
took another bite of his bagel.

“Nana thinks Dad might show up,” I said.

He lifted a shoulder. “So she said.”

“What’d she tell you about him?” I asked.

Cody chewed slowly. “She said he’s sick. As in mentally ill.
And here I thought it was the women in our family who were nuts.”

I made a face at him but he seemed genuinely upset so I
didn’t say anything.

“You think this has something to do with Mom being gone?” he
asked. His face showed no emotion, but I knew him better. “Nana said not to
talk to him if he does. You think he’s crazy?” he asked. “You think he’ll show
up?”

I didn’t want to answer any of those questions.

We had different feelings about dear old dad, Cody and I. Far
as I knew, Cody held onto his belief that someday Dad would be back. I didn’t
subscribe to the same theory. Cody wasn’t three anymore and ever since my
stupid sixteenth birthday I realized things weren’t exactly what they seemed in
my family. I did think Dad might be crazy. Probably driven there by an
enchanted chauffer. On a broom.  Maybe he’d found out about the witch stuff,
lost his marbles and bolted. 

I lifted my shoulder. “I don’t know,” I said to Cody. I
didn’t know what to tell him. Nana made me promise not to say anything about my
magic. I guessed that also included Mom’s book.

Cody stared into space. “Nana thinks he’s dangerous. But I
don’t believe it. He can’t be. I mean. He used to hold my hand when we crossed
the street. And he always read to me before I went to bed. He always told me
how much he loved me.”

Cody had been little, but he remembered.

I tried, really tried to share his opinion of the man I had
no memories of, but it was like trying to love a ghost.

“I don’t know, Cody. He’s been gone a long time. I mean. I
kind of thought he might be dead.”

Cody frowned at me like I’d said something evil. I wanted to
shake him. He’d been gone over fifteen years without as much as a phone call or
an email.

“Who knows what he’s been up to,” I added.

      “He was a good dad.”

      “He left us, Cody. He walked away.”

      “Well. Apparently he’s been sick!”

“Yeah? Well apparently he still is. And from the sounds of
it, he’s a little bit scary sick. He must be if Nana is so worried. Anyhow.
It’s not him I’m concerned about. I mean, I don’t even know the guy.” My
stomach sort of plunged at the thought of actually seeing him but I tried to
block it. The fear created a black pool, surprising me with its depth. “I’m
worried about Mom,” I said, trying to convince both of us.

      Cody’s eyebrows pressed together. “Mom? Nana said Mom’s
fine. She’s coming home.”

      “Yeah. Fine. She’s been gone for a year, because she’s
fine. And Nana was supposed to bring her back, um, yesterday.” Which was still
kind of today to me.