No Treats for Charlie Read online

  The next day at school, Ellen was putting putting her coat into her locker when Michelle Wells and her sidekicks trotted up. It was a game day, so they were all decked out in their cheerleading uniforms, dressed in tiny skirts and ankle socks and sweaters bedecked with the mascot of the Henley Chargers. Michelle smiled and leaned against the locker beside Ellen’s.

  “Did you get my invitation? Julie’s mother works at the post office and she said she delivered it yesterday.”

  Ellen closed the locker and spun the lock, just to be safe. She didn’t want to get shoved into it again. “Yes. Thank you.”

  Beside Michelle, Collette Howe batted her big blue eyes, her blonde ponytail gleaming in the bright morning sunlight. “Well? Are you coming?”

  The third member of the group, Theresa Wares, prodded Ellen’s shoulder with a hard finger. “Yeah. Are you coming?”

  She looked at the squad, including the two silent members, Julie Finney and Lisa Shepherd. She swallowed her fear.

  “Yes, I am. Thank you for the invitation.”

  Michelle simpered. “Excellent. We’re having pizza at 7, so don’t be late.”

  “Yeah,” Lisa told her. “The real fun starts at midnight, though.”

  “The witching hour,” Julie added.

  “You know all about that, don’t you?” Michelle straightened and winked at Leroy Hall, who was passing in the corridor. He grinned. “Well… see you tomorrow night.”

  The cheerleading captain led her girls away, and they followed where she went like obedient puppies. Lisa hesitated long enough to turn a hard look on Ellen.

  “Don’t think you’re invited because anybody likes you,” she told her.

  “Oh, not to worry. I’d never think that.”

  “Good.”

  Ellen watched as the girls flounced away. Sighing deeply, she headed off to class.

  When Ellen got home from school, her grandmother presented her with a wrapped bundle.

  “What’s this?”

  Angelica smiled. “You can’t very well go to a Halloween party without a costume.”

  Ellen opened the wrapping paper, careful not to mar the images of ghosts and vampires. She pulled the gaily-printed paper away and stopped stock still. The package held her mother’s ritual robes, complete with her gold tiara bearing the symbol of the Triple Goddess.

  “This isn’t a costume.”

  “No, but they don’t know that, and this is an opportunity for you to inherit what your mother left behind.” Angelica smiled at her and crossed her arms. “Samhain is an important night for us, as you know. The veil is very thin. You never know who you can contact - or who those idiot girls might bring through without you there to guide them.”

  Ellen’s mouth was dry. She ran her hand over the cool black silk. “I don’t think they’ll listen to any guidance from me.”

  “If they won’t take your guidance, then they can take your wrath.”

  She looked up into her grandmother’s eyes and saw a steely look there that she didn’t expect. Angelica nodded.

  “You know what happens to the uninitiated when they play with things they shouldn’t. It’s good that you’re going to be there, Ellen. You can put right what they put wrong.”

  “But…” She hesitated, unconvinced. “I don’t have any training in combat magic.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Angelica smiled an enigmatic smile and walked away, leaving Ellen in the foyer with her mother’s robes clutched in her hands. “I’m sure.”

  Ellen pressed her face into the black satin robe. She expected to smell moth balls or maybe lavender, but instead the thick, heavy scent of incense and sandalwood rose to meet her. In her mind she was an infant again, cuddled in loving arms, being presented to the man in black who haunted all her dreams. The memory faded away again as soon as she lifted her face from her mother’s ritual garb.

  She blinked tears away. “I miss you, Mama.”

  The next day, Saturday, was Halloween. Ellen spent the daylight hours in dread, worried about what she would find when she arrived at Michelle’s house and hoping that this would be the end of her outcast days. She knew that she was fantasizing when she imagined Michelle and the others greeting her with open arms, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop hoping. Perhaps today would be the day they finally accepted her.

  Fat chance.

  She wasn’t there to be a friend. She was part of the entertainment.

  In history class a few weeks ago, they had been covering the Salem Witch Trials, and when Lisa Shepherd had asked her point-blank if her grandmother was a witch, Ellen had made the mistake of telling the truth. It was the worst mistake she’d made yet in her high school career. To compound her error, she hadn’t just shared what Angelica could do, she’d also come clean about her own abilities. Lisa immediately told Julie, who then told Collette, and from there it reached Michelle, who might as well have been in a broadcast booth. By lunch time, everybody in the school knew that Ellen had admitted she could speak with the dead.

  The harassment had taken a few hours to start, but by the end of the day, it was clear that she was the object of discussion. Steve Jameson, Julie’s on-and-off boyfriend, taped a sign to Ellen’s back that said “I see dead people.” April Nichols, daughter of Henley’s evangelical minister, marched up to her with her Bible in her hand and offered to do a deliverance, whatever nonsense that was. After that, girls followed her in packs, only to scatter when she turned around, giggling and frightened. Stanley Cooper threw stones at her when she was walking home from the bus stop. It had been a banner day in the life of Henley’s bullies.

  Now she was invited to a party hosted by the most popular girl in school, and Ellen knew what to expect. She was going to be on display, just another spooky thing on a spooky holiday. Well, if that’s how they wanted to play it, then who was she to interfere?

  She showered and put on the oil her grandmother had made to anoint them both for Circle. She put on her normal underwear, but over that she donned a white chemise and a black overdress with a lace-up bodice, part of her garb for the Renaissance fair. Her Highland dance shoes went on over striped socks, because cartoon witches always wore striped socks. She left her black hair hanging loose and let it air dry so the natural curls could go wild instead of flat-ironing them out of existence the way she usually did. She took out the diamond studs she’d worn in her ears every day since her sixteenth birthday when Angelica had given them to her, then hung her pentacle necklace around her neck. For the first time, she made no move to conceal it. Finally, she donned her mother’s robes and her golden circlet, letting the triple moon phase symbol rest over her Third Eye. Only then, when she was fully attired as the witch she was, did she look into the mirror.

  She barely recognized the person who gazed back out at her. She looked like her mother more than she ever had before, and the robe, with the delicate gold embroidery at the cuffs and hems, made her look mystical. Ellen swallowed hard. They wanted a witch. Well, that’s what they were getting.

  Angelica met Ellen at the base of the stairs, smiling in approval. She nodded her head.

  “You look beautiful, darling,” she said, bestowing a kiss on both of her granddaughter’s cheeks. “You’re really coming into your power.”

  “I don’t feel powerful,” she admitted.

  Angelica put her hands on Ellen’s shoulders. “But you are. And you know what this day really means, and what this night can really hold.”

  Ellen hesitated. “Should I open the door?”

  “They’re going to do that themselves, but if they ask you to do it?” Angelica nodded. “Absolutely. Let them see that we are nothing to be laughed at.”

  “What if I open the door and nothing happens?” she fretted. “Then I’ll be a laughingstock.”

  Her grandmother’s eyes glinted. “Oh, don’t worry. This is a very special night.” She picked up her car keys. “Ready?”

  “You’re driving me?”

  “Well,
you can’t take a broom.” She grinned. “I want to talk to that girl’s mother.”

  Ellen felt sick. “Don’t make things worse for me.”

  “Honey, I would never. But Michelle’s mother needs to know a thing or two about her darling.”

  The house was hard to miss. It was heavily decorated for the holiday, with orange, black and purple streamers, a fake cemetery in the front yard, and a mass murder tableau made of scarecrows.

  Angelica chuckled when she saw the display. “Well, one thing’s certain. They’re not afraid to go all out.”

  Michelle’s mother opened the door for them, a smile on her face. “Come in!” she greeted cheerily. “Happy Halloween!”

  “Happy Halloween,” Ellen responded politely.

  “Great costume! The girls are downstairs,” Mrs. Wells said. “Go on down. Pizza will be here in a minute.”

  “Thank you.” She looked at Angelica. “Thanks, Gran. I’ll see you later. Please…”

  “I know,” Angelica smiled. “I won’t embarrass you too much.”

  Mrs. Wells laughed and showed Ellen the way downstairs. The basement was finished, with wall-to-wall carpet and a bar in the corner. A large sliding glass door opened onto a walk-out patio, where another scarecrow tableau was assembled. A huge flatscreen television hung on the wall, and a slasher movie was playing. The room was full of cheerleaders and popular girls in Halloween costumes, and Ellen felt out of place.

  “She’s here,” Julie announced.

  Michelle swept forward, dressed in a revealing nurse outfit. Ellen wondered who she was trying to impress. “Come in,” she said. “Hey, everybody, it’s Ellen!”

  A low murmur coursed through the room, and everybody turned to stare at her. One of the girls whispered, “I thought we were supposed to come in costume.”

  The others laughed. Ellen didn’t think it was funny.

  Michelle took her arm, and it was the first time the cheerleader had ever touched her. She led her into the middle of the room, where a table had been set up. It was groaning with sodas and snacks, and in the middle of the centerpiece was a Ouija board. Ellen could feel power emanating from the board, and it made her shiver. There was a spirit attached to that board, and it knew she saw it. She retreated spiritually and put up wards of protection around herself, but she heard the spirit of the board chuckle at her efforts. They would not be enough.

  “We’re going to be having pizza soon, and then we’ll watch movies and talk and stuff. But once midnight comes, you’re on.”

  Collette widened her eyes theatrically. It added to the impact of her Raggedy Ann costume. “Witching hour.”

  “Technically, witching hour is at 3 am,” Ellen told them. “It’s also called the devil’s hour.”

  “Ooh! Spooky!” Michelle gave a fake shudder.

  “Do you believe in the devil?” Collette asked Ellen.

  Lisa snorted. “She worships him.”

  She held her head high. “I believe in the devil, but I don’t worship him. You’re thinking Satanists, not witches.”

  Theresa asked, “Are you really a witch?”

  “Of course she is, silly!” Michelle chided gently. “I mean, she’s Angelica Harper’s granddaughter.”

  The brunette cheerleader giggled. “Say no more.”

  Mrs. Wells came to the top of the stairs. “Michelle, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Ellen’s heart sank, convinced that her grandmother had done or said something that would make the party even more excruciating. Michelle trotted up the stairs. Ellen could hear the two of them talking, but she couldn’t make out any of the words they said.

  After a moment, Michelle returned, her hands full of pizza boxes and her expression sour until she reached the bottom of the stairs. She pasted on a false smile. “Pizza’s here,” she said. “Dig in.”

  While they ate, the girls gossiped about other classmates who hadn’t been fortunate enough to be invited to the party. Ellen didn’t listen. She sat by herself in the corner, eating her pizza and drinking a soda, while the other girls chattered. Finally Lisa said something that caught her attention.

  “Is Mike coming over?”

  Michelle smiled. “That’s what my mom wanted to talk about.” She cast an arch glance in Ellen’s direction. “Somebody’s grandma told her that Mike was going to be coming to the party, even though boys aren’t allowed at my house.”

  “That sucks,” Julie opined.

  “Well, that just means he can’t come in the front door.” She nodded her head toward the walk-out doors. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

  Now she understood the slutty nurse costume. Ellen spoke up without stopping to think about whether she should. “If you have sex tonight, you’re going to get pregnant.”

  The room fell silent. All of the girls stared at her. Michelle sputtered, “Wh - As if! Like you know anything.” She rolled her eyes. “And stay out of my personal business, freak.”

  The other girls held onto their silence for a few minutes longer. Michelle flounced up the stairs to the bathroom, and in her absence, Julie asked, “How do you know? How do you that’ll happen?”

  Ellen shrugged. “I saw it.”

  “Saw it how?”

  She hesitated. “I can’t explain it. I just did.”

  “Is this like when your grandma sees ghosts?”

  “Kind of,” she admitted.

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. This is all so stupid. People can’t see ghosts, and nobody can see into the future.”

  Collette quietly said, “I’d say that you got pretty close to the truth for her to react that way. Maybe she and Mike do have plans…”

  “Not in front of us, I hope!” Lisa laughed.

  The girls laughed with her, an edge of relief in the sound.

  Ellen sat back. With her witch eye open, she looked at the girls ahead of her. Most of them were destined for very normal lives - graduate high school, go to college, get an M.R.S. degree - and some were destined to be successful. It didn’t surprise her to see financial success in Lisa’s future. She was already in the Young Entrepreneur Club at school.

  When she looked at Collette, she wished she hadn’t. Unlike the others, there was no future that she could see. Collette saw her looking and smiled nervously. Ellen shifted her eyes back to the bottle of soda in her hand, trying to pretend she hadn’t been reading the other girl.

  It wasn’t just that Collette had no future.

  Her timeline ended tonight.

  They watched more scary movies and listened to music that Lisa had brought, inflicting her favorite boy band on them. They gossiped and ate, and night fell. Upstairs, trick-or-treaters came and went, and the darkness outside grew deeper and blacker with every passing minute.

  The closer it got to midnight, the more Ellen could feel the power coming from the Ouija board. It throbbed like a toothache. None of the other girls seemed to feel it, but she was finding it hard to tear her eyes away from the board and its plastic planchette.

  When the last slasher flick ended, Michelle turned off the TV and turned to her guests.

  “It’s time to get freaky,” she said. “Midnight is almost here. Let’s get down to some serious fun.”

  “Anybody know any scary games?” Lisa asked.

  “There’s Bloody Mary,” Theresa suggested.

  “Yeah,” Ellen allowed, “but don’t you want to do something that you can all get involved in?”

  “Like what?”

  All eyes turned to Ellen. She took a breath. “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

  Julie blinked owlishly. “What?”

  Ellen sighed. It was time to do what she’d been invited to do.

  “One of you will lie down on the floor with your legs straight and your arms by your sides. The rest of us will kneel around you, and using just two fingers on each hand, we’re going to lift you.”

  “Right,” Lisa scoffed.

  Ellen ignored her and looked at Miche
lle, issuing her challenge. “Well? Do you want to play?”

  Michelle grinned. “I’m game.” She stretched out on the carpet exactly as Ellen had described. “Now what?”

  “Close your eyes and concentrate on being weightless. And now we all kneel around you.”

  Ellen directed the girls into position, and even the skeptical Lisa joined the group. Each of them slid their fingers under Michelle’s body.

  “Chant with me,” Ellen said. “We have to say it seven times. Say, ‘Light as a feather, stiff as a board.’”

  The others joined in, and they repeated the phrase seven times, chanting together. “Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

  Ellen interjected. “Now lift on the count of three. One, two, three.”

  The girls lifted with their fingers, and to their frightened amazement, Michelle drifted up from the floor. They lifted her almost a foot above the ground before Julie squealed and pulled her hands away. Michelle fell with a thump, and the girls giggled and babbled.

  “Oh my God! It worked!”

  “I can’t believe it!”

  “Did we just cast a spell?”

  “My turn!”

  The partygoers repeated the feat with different girls lying on the floor, always with the same result. The last time, Julie was the subject, and they were just about to begin chanting when there was a sharp rap at the patio door. One of the scarecrows from the display had moved, and its painted face was pressed to the door. Its hand rose and flopped against the glass.

  Several of the girls screamed, but Michelle hopped up with a grin. She went to the door and opened it, admitting Mike Nichols, her quarterback boyfriend. He squeezed past the scarecrow display, leaving the one he’d been using as a puppet so it was still staring inside. She kissed him, and he put his hands on her hips, looking down at her skimpy costume appreciatively.

  “Happy Halloween,” he said.

  Michelle pouted. “You’re not in costume.”