Page 43 of The Witching Hours

I stopped eating. “You mean R.W.? I didn’t do that.” After the briefest pause, I added, “I mean I didn’t do it on purpose, and I wasn’t by myself.”

She nodded. “Well, I believe you when you say you didn’t mean to do it, but the fact is, you did. Those others you were with? They couldn’t make a frosty breath disappear. Right now you live around other people who aren’t like us, and you can’t be letting them pull you into their nonsense. You can be friends and neighbors with ‘em, but if they want to dabble in the mysteries? Like what happened tonight? You just have to be polite, excuse yourself and go on home. You understand?”

“I think so. Auntie Nan said for me to ask you to send R.W. back.”

Grandmama grinned. “Did she now?”

I nodded. “Uh-huh. She also said to tell you hi and she wouldn’t be, uh, tarrying much longer.”

“Well, I’ll sure be glad to see her. I’m thinking she’ll like that chair you’re sitting on just fine.”

I looked around at the chair. It was sturdy white wicker and it didn’t creak when I wiggled my butt. “Expect so,” Iconfirmed looking around at the beautiful surroundings. “It’s real pretty here, but excuse me for saying so…”

She smiled. “Go on.”

“Is this all you do?”

She laughed again. “Oh, no, darlin’. This is my chat place, where I receive folks for a visit. I stay busy helping souls figure out what they’re gonna do next.”

“Oh,” I said, not really understanding, but not wanting to reveal that. “So, what do you want me to tell them about R.W?”

“R.W.” She shook her head. “He’s a volatile and contentious sort. Comes by it natural though. He’s here but he shouldn’t be. Boy’s got a whole lot of lessons to learn first. But I guess you know all about that.” I didn’t have a fix on what she was talking about, but I nodded my head like I was an R.W. aficionado. “He needs to grow up to be a man and have a personal relationship with failure. Someday, if things go right, he’ll be the better for it and he’ll make his way here.”

Just then I heard heavy steps on the porch. I turned around and looked over my shoulder. R.W. was stomping toward us wearing a baseball glove and carrying a ball in the other hand.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m busy. I’m playing ball with those kids over there.”

He pointed to someplace behind him. I leaned around, but didn’t see a thing beyond a big stand of yellow Dutch iris in full bloom.

“Well, we were just talking about you,” Grandmama told him. R.W. looked at me for a second, but didn’t acknowledge me. His attention went right back to my grandmother.

“So? What do you want?”

“R.W.!” I said. “Don’t you talk to my grandmama that way.”

She held her hand up to stop me from saying more, but she was smiling.

“R.W., say hello to your friend, Brenda Lee.”

He tossed the ball up, caught it, glanced my way and said, “Hello.”

“She’s here to fetch you back,” Grandmama said.

R.W. was shaking head and looking around like he might make a run for it. “No. I’m not going back. I like it here.”

“Of course you do,” Grandmama said. “And there’s a gift in that. A gift few people get. For your whole life, after you go back, you’ll know for sure and certain there’s something wonderful waiting when your life lessons are done.”

I figured she was talking to me, too. At least that’s how I took it.

He was still shaking his head. “I’m not going.”

“Well,” she said, “it’s not up to you. Lots of things in life are like that. Not up to you.”

R.W.’s baseball and glove dropped to the porch floor when he vanished.

“Where’d he go?” I whispered.

“Sent him back where he belongs. But don’t think this means I’m gonna be sitting here ready to get you out of all the trouble you could cause.”