Chapter Twelve

In Which the Tea is Better at Baby Witch School

A lyssa and I are the first ones at Darla’s picnic table that afternoon. She’s reading a thick book and munching on a peanut butter sandwich as I move around the long table and come to sit next to her. “I hope you don’t mind me sitting here again.”

She looks up at me, shakes her head, and then returns to her book. Not much of a conversationalist, I suppose. Darla steps out from the back door with a plastic grocery bag and smiles as she meets my gaze. “Did you get your pouch made for the Choracle?”

“I did,” I tell her, pulling out the small bag I crocheted last night. She comes over and inspects the bag.

“Very nice stitches. Would you be willing to make me one if I paid you?”

“Witches don’t charge other witches, Darla,” I tell her, repeating back what she told me.

She smiles. “This is different.”

“This is just one bag. I don’t mind.”

“Well then, thank you.” She sets the bag she’s holding down in front of Alyssa. “This should get you through class.”

“Thank you, Darla.”

I’m dying to know what’s in the shopping bag, but Alyssa stuffs it in her backpack and goes back to her book just as Mariah and Mackenzie walk up and plop down on opposite sides of the table, glued to their phones.

“What are we working on today, Darla?” Mackenzie asks.

“More card reading today. Next time we meet, we’ll be starting our Books of Shadows, so have your mama take you to the bookstore before Thursday.”

Alyssa looks up as Darla speaks, but says nothing, returning to her book as soon as silence falls over the table again.

“We’re not meeting on Wednesday?” I ask.

She closes her eyes as if it pains her and sighs. “No, it’s homecoming and so the girls all have their Powder Puff game on Wednesday.”

“All of us, except Alyssa,” Mariah says, turning to the girl. “Are you sure you won’t consider playing? The senior team really could use you. It’s not tackle. You were the best soccer player this school has ever seen. We all thought for sure you’d get a scholarship.”

Alyssa barely looks up from her book. “Yeah, I just can’t. Sorry.” She digs into the mysterious plastic sandwich bag Darla gave her and pulls out a plain peanut butter sandwich on white bread, unwraps it, and starts to munch on it.

“It’s not that werewolf you’re dating, is it?” Mackenzie asks. “I’ve heard that wolves can be assholes. That they’re always trying to tell their girlfriends what to do.”

Alyssa looks up from her book and shakes her head. “Zane is really nice to me. He never tells me what to do.”

“Zane Lamar?” I mouth to Darla and she nods.

Interesting. I guess I’ve been missing the tea all this time, hanging out in my room and running around with my niblings.

Zane is the youngest of the Lamar pack brothers. He just graduated high school in May, but his mama only lets him work at the club during the early hours before the shows begin. I knew he had a girl he was sweet on, but I never pictured someone like Alyssa. Though now that I think about it, they both have a good appetite, so maybe it’s a match made in heaven.

Adrian finally drags in well after four, clothes disheveled, with his hair in a million directions as he drags a motorcycle helmet off his sweaty head. Darla gives him a look, shakes her head and calls the class to order. Alyssa pulls out yet another sandwich. I wish I knew where she put them all.

“Today, we’ll practice reading for each other. Find a partner and begin with Chad’s spread.” Everyone defaults to the person closest, which leaves me with Alyssa again. She takes out her deck from a small pouch hand sewn with crooked stitches across the tops and sides. I must be eyeing it too long because she shrugs and says, “It’s all I could do on short notice.”

“I could teach you to sew straight seams, if you’re interested.”

“I’d rather learn how you did this,” she says, picking up my pouch. “My aunt is having a baby, and I’d like to make her a baby blanket.”

There was a point in my life where crochet was my obsession. I love passing it on like some secret religion of crafts. “Want to see if Darla will let us come a little early Thursday so I can show you?”

She shrugs noncommittally. I’m obviously way more excited at the prospect of passing on my granny crafts to the next generation than she is to learning it. I take out my deck and pull out the Chad Spread Card and read it aloud. “Chad’s Spread. Chad is a simple pig of few thoughts. Use this spread to narrow your choices/ideas down to two.” I look up at Alyssa. She’s almost at the end of her peanut butter sandwich.

“What’s your question?”

She looks at the card in my hand for a long moment, then sighs. “I’ll be eighteen soon so daddy says I have to move out in May when I graduate. I’m going through all of my things now, trying to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of. I don’t know where I’ll be living when I leave. There’s something my boyfriend gave me that I’m not sure what to do with. Can the Choracle guide me on what to do?”

I concentrate on her question then shuffle the deck, picturing the six-foot teddy bear she’s probably struggling to find a place for. It’s a Lamar brother kind of thing to do… go over the top like that, stick a girl with something incredibly sweet and yet incredibly impractical. Now she has to try to figure out how to fit it in a dorm room or a tiny efficiency. My brain seems to be off on its own tangent for a bit too long because Alyssa eventually clears her throat.

“You’ve shuffled them really well.”

I look down at my hand. “Oh, yeah, sorry.” Quickly, I lay out two cards: Improvisation and Desperation. My brain blanks completely. How do either of those things relate to her question? I tap on the table the way Darla did to give myself more time. Then it occurs to me… just give her advice using the words on the cards.

“Alright, well, it looks like the Choracle is telling us that your options are ruled by improvisation and desperation. Chad’s a really chill pig, so I’m not sure he’d ever recommend giving in to desperation. Desperation leads me to believe that it’s going to be really difficult to keep your boyfriend’s gift, but you should still refrain from anything drastic that could harm your relationship. You may feel incredibly desperate at some point, but I think you’ll manage to come up with a solution. Improvisation leads me to believe that you need to start thinking outside the box, or inside the box–whatever works best for this situation. There has to be a solution you haven’t thought of that isn’t a normal way of approaching the problem. Again, I’d be cautious of things that could harm your relationship.”

“Interesting,” she says and looks up at me. “That was actually pretty good.”

“Thanks. It was total b.s.”

She actually smiles and shakes her head. “It’s not. You’re guided by the goddess, by the universe, by everything you’ve experienced. You’re giving me your wisdom.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind.”

She shrugs. “It’s very truthful. Alright my turn. What’s your question?”

“What should I do with my life?”

Alyssa takes her deck, shuffles, lays out two cards, and begins to laugh. “What? What’s so funny?” I look down at what she’s drawn for me: Himbo and Curiosity. The Curiosity card is of Chad dancing on a stripper’s pole. I pick up the card and study it. “Where the hell did Darla get the idea for these cards?”

“Okay, first impression would be that you’re supposed to be a stripper and be with hot guys.”

I shake my head. Alyssa is Zane’s girlfriend. She may know exactly how I spend my nights, but there seems to be no malice behind her words. “I think honestly, it’s telling you that you need to be creative. Regular jobs are not for you. You have to do something that challenges you, that is going to be different every day.”

“Those jobs don’t tend to offer insurance.” I say aloud, without meaning to.

She shrugs. “Then we could always go back to the original meaning,” she says with a grin. “Know any hot guys with good insurance?”

I sigh. “As a matter of fact, I do.”