Cursed! (8 page)
Every time Kara came over, she took treasures home from the giveaway pile. “It's like a free garage sale
every day
!” she said joyfully.
Soon the house was lined with boxes of books and costumes and Dad's toys. BB claimed as many of the toys as he could. I didn't mindâat least they'd be stored in his room. But there was less and less room for Lewis.
We discovered mice in the basement. I insisted Dad use a live trap, although we weren't sure how kind it was to release mice outside in the middle of winter. Still, I hated the thought of killing them.
The Spirit Man watched it all. I figured he'd be happy with the chaos, but his face never showed it.
Bear went back and forth between Lewis and me and the basement, supervising everyone. He whined every time he passed the Spirit Man. At least BB was too busy to torment Bear with the Dalek.
Once the sorting was done, and a ton of junk tossed or given away, Dad told BB they could start tearing things apart.
“The more we do ourselves, the less it will cost,” Dad said.
“Yeah, but do
I
have to do it?” BB asked.
Dad nodded. “Sure. You're strong enough to be a really big help. And you get a bedroom out of it.” Then he grinned and pulled something out of his back pocket. “And this.” He tossed BB a thin silver tool.
“Cool,” said BB, his eyes lighting up.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A sonic screwdriver,” Dad said.
I choked on my milk. “But, Dad, they don't actually work!”
“You just see how much work we get done!” Dad said as he and BB, happy now, headed downstairs.
I giggled. The sonic screwdriver was another
Doctor Who
toy. For the Doctor, it locks, unlocks or fixes anything. I didn't think it was going to do much good for BB.
Deconstructing the basement was almost worse than the big cleanup. Dad and BB took out all the old wallboard and flooring. They found rotted wood and tore that out too.
Mom got more and more tired. Dad took charge, working with BB in the basement every evening and on weekends, while I looked after Lewis. We sat in my room with Bear and worked through the alphabet. Lewis was getting better, remembering the sound of each letter and beginning to figure out the huge words he liked so much.
His current project was studying his favorite book about Egypt. Slowly he sounded out, “Stages of Mummification.”
Finally the construction guys arrived, and the chaos got even worse. There was a steady flow of people and stuff and noise in and out of the house. At least it all came through the back door and straight down the stairs to the basement, instead of up the stairs past my room.
With Dad and BB helping in the basement, and Mom sick, it became my job to walk Bear. Lewis came too, and sometimes the Spirit Man. I hated it. Bear was just too big for me. He whined and pulled at the leash whenever the Spirit Man came with us. Or if he saw a squirrel. Or a cat. Orâwell, there were a lot of things Bear wanted to know more about.
While I hung on to the end of his leash, I kept telling myself it would all be worth it if we could get to Grandma's for Christmas.
When I finally went back to school, I discovered that Byron had really missed me. He pulled my hair, stole my pencils and sharpened them down to stubs, and turned to chat with me over and over and over.
When Mrs. Von Hirschberg was organizing us with partners for a project, she looked at Byron and then at me, and tipped her head.
Me? I thought. With Byron? I sat frozen in horror. This had to be another torture from the Spirit Man. I took a deep breath and shook my head desperately.
No
. Mrs. Von Hirschberg nodded and paired Byron with Drew.
Byron kept at me anyway. Finally I decided to do more than endure. The next time he walked to the back of the room to sharpen his pencil, I dangled one braid over my shoulder.
I listened for him walking up the aisle, and knew exactly when his hand reached out for my braid. I closed my hand over his wrist and said, in the voice Dad uses with Bear and BB, “Don't!”
He froze and slowly opened his hand. The back of his neck was red when he sat down.
I was proud of myself, until he followed me home from school. I hurried Lewis along, trying to get him home before Byron caused any trouble. He stopped at the end of our block.
Mom sent us right back out to take Bear for a walk. He'd been inside all day and was bursting with energy. I didn't dare let him run or he'd pull me over, so we argued with each other all the way up the block.
Byron was still there. I walked straight to him, Bear leaping ahead of me. Byron wouldn't dare bully Lewis or me if he knew about Bear.
But he wasn't scared. Byron knelt down and buried his hands in Bear's fur. Bear licked him. Byron laughed and said, “Who's a good boy?”
I stood there, stunned. He liked Bear?
Lewis knelt beside him. “His name is Bear.”
I groaned. Don't introduce them! “C'mon, Lewis, we have to take him to the park.”
“Can I come?” asked Byron, jumping up and walking beside us.
“Sure,” said Lewis, before I could say no. I glanced behind me, looking for the Spirit Man. This would be just his kind of thing.
When we got to the park, Bear whined and pulled at the leash. I tugged him back.
“He wants to run,” Byron said.
“Of course he wants to run,” I snapped. “He's been inside all day. But he's too big for me.”
“Let me take him,” Byron said, reaching for the leash.
I yanked it back. “No way.”
Byron stopped. “I really like dogs,” he said. “And I'm bigger than you. I could take him for a run across the park and right back to you, and he'd be really happy.” He stood looking at me, waiting for me to decide.
Wow, he sounded almost nice. Did he mean it? I checked around againâno Spirit Man. I handed over the leash. “Across the park and right back to me. Don't let go!”
He grinned and called out, “C'mon, Bear!” They dashed across the park, behind the wading pool, around the far side of the playground, and then back across the park in great loops.
When they reached us, they were both grinning. Byron handed me the leash. “Can we do this again tomorrow?” he asked, still smiling.
“Sure,” said Lewis. “Bear would love it.”
Lewis! Then I looked down at Bear, panting and happy. I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, he really did like it. Tomorrow would be fine.”
I wasn't sure if it was a good trade, but at least Byron stopped pulling my hair. Every day he'd walk home with us after school, wait while we got Bear and take him for a run around the park. Sometimes he brought doggie treats. Bear loved him. I tried not to think about it.
Now that I had Byron under control, it was time to plan my birthday. The house was still in chaos; I'd have to organize my party around that. At least the renovation would be done for the Boys' Birthday Party in February. Lewis, Dad and BB have birthdays within weeks of each other, so we have one celebration every year on the Family Day long weekend. We invite all our friends and have a really big party to liven up winter. Mom cooks for days, and Dad makes his special collection of salsas: red and green, fresh and cooked, mild and blistering hot.
Mom was too tired to make any fancy plans, which meant my party could really be mine. I wanted it small: just Kara and Lewis and Bear, and some friends from schoolâLucy and Claire and Olivia. BB was going out, so he wouldn't be bouncing all around us, waving light sabers and flying helicopters. And Dad had promised no construction. It would be perfect, as long as the Spirit Man behaved.
On the morning of my party, Bear woke me from another dream about the Spirit Man. He whined and nuzzled me with his cold nose. I thought he was whining because the Spirit Man was in my room, but he kept bugging me, pulling at the covers and letting in freezing air.
“Bear, stop it,” I snapped. As I pulled the covers back, I muttered, “Why is it so cold?”
Then I shot out of bed. “Why is it so cold?”
I turned on my bedside lamp; nothing happened. I groped in the dark for my housecoat and slippers, and felt my way to the bathroom. No lights there either.
I groaned and walked into Mom and Dad's room.
I leaned in the doorway and called out, “Mom, Dad. There's no power. It's my birthday, the house is cold, and there's no power.”
Dad woke cursing.
He wrapped up in a robe and slippers, and we walked through the house together. We peered out the front window. Snow was falling in slow fat flakes, coating every tree, bush and power line in a thick blanket.
“No streetlights,” Dad said. “And all the neighbor's houses are dark. It looks like the power's out in the whole neighborhood.”
“Why is it so cold?” I asked. “Doesn't the furnace burn gas?”
Dad frowned. “Yes, but it has an electric fan to move the air. So no power means no heat.”
He walked into the kitchen and phoned the power company.
“The furnace doesn't work but the phone does?” I asked.
He grinned. “Cool, isn't it?” he said as he listened to the recorded message. He groaned and hung up. “The snow has brought down power lines; they're working as fast as they can.”
“How fast is that?” I asked. “Fast enough for my party?”
Dad shook his head. “I have no idea. We'll light the fire, dig out flashlights and find candles. It'll be fun!”
I scurried back to my room to get dressed. I glared at the Spirit Man lurking in the corner of my bedroom. “I'm not going to let you ruin my party,” I muttered. “I am not!”
By early afternoon we still had no power, but the living room was warm from the fire. While we couldn't bake a cake, Mom and Dad had figured out some snacks we could eat cold. Lewis added pickles to the feast.
Kara arrived, covered in snow. She and her dad had walked over.
“All the traffic lights are out,” Kara's dad said, as he tried not to shake too much snow onto the floor. “And the snow is wet and really heavy, so the roads are a mess!”
The phone rang. Mom answered and then called out to us, “Claire can't come. Her parents don't want to drive in this weather.”
The phone rang again. “That was Olivia,” Mom said as she walked into the living room with three fat candles. “She'll be late, but at least she's coming.”
The Spirit Man joined us, standing in the shadows in the corner of the living room. He stood impassive, with just a ghost of a smile on his face. I thought turning ten would be a really big moment, but being cursed is much bigger.
“He's here,” I said, nodding toward the corner. “He did this, and he's here to watch the party fail.” I frowned at him.
“Who?” asked Kara.
“The Spirit Man,” I said. “Who else?”
“You see him?”
“Sure, right in the corner. He's watching us.”
Kara glanced at the corner, and then at me, looking concerned. “You're seeing things, Jane.”