Earth (4 page)

"Oh nothing, just people were asking about
you and wondering where you'd gotten off to." I kept hold of her
wrist as I stepped backwards, stomping on Nick's stomach this time,
helping her with my free hand to straighten and close her clothing.
He cursed again and beat the sidewalk with his fist before finally
pushing himself up. I pulled Tracy behind me, shielding as much of
her as I could, which wasn’t difficult given how tiny she was.

"Just what the fuck are you doing, you stupid
bitch?" His breath reeked of stale beer and cheep weed. My stomach
flipped as it hit my face.

"Just looking for Tracy. People were asking.
Wouldn’t want people looking for her, would you, Nick? You know,
asking questions, if she went missing or got
hurt."
I
double checked my energy lines and projected as much feeling as I
could at him, trying to fill him with rejection and fear and the
sense of flight. I hoped if he felt creeped out enough he would
just turn and run, thinking I was a freak; it didn’t matter to me
what he thought of me. But in his drunken state he took the
feelings and allowed his need to overcompensate blind him, feeling
challenged instead of scared. I felt this channeled back at me
through my own projection.
Damnit. Stupid jock.
He took a
clumsy step towards me.

"Tracy, get in the goddamn truck. Now!" He
found his confidence quickly and yelled at her. Tracy jumped as if
just his words would inflict more bruises.

"No!" I cried out as he moved quicker than I
thought he could. In one motion he was stepping towards me and
reaching one hand to push me out of the way, grabbing at Tracy with
the other. All pretenses aside I drove all my energy down in one
angry spiral and felt the tremors flying back up at me. The ground
shook, sudden and violent, the sidewalk cracked and crumbled
beneath Nick's feet. I turned, wrapping my arm around Tracy's waist
and running into the nearest front yard, re-centering and grounding
myself almost instantaneously. Without the barrier of concrete it
was much easier to do.

Nick faltered and tripped over his own feet
trying to get away from the crumbling sidewalk. As he fell, I
closed my eyes and
reached
for the energy lines that were
still shaking. I pumped more energy into them causing a second
violent episode and the small crack opened five inches. Nick came
down, shoulder first again, landing awkwardly in the crack. Under
the rumbling of the ground I felt the snap of his clavicle and I
smiled to myself,
reaching
down and thanking the Earth and
pulling my energy lines back into myself. The rumbling stopped.

"Oh my God," I heard Tracy whisper through
the fingers she had pressed over he mouth, her eyes so wide they
seemed to take up half her face. "Do you think he's hurt?"

"One can only hope," I muttered and Tracy
looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "Sorry. Um, have you been
drinking?"

"No." She couldn’t seem to speak in anything
more than a whisper and two fat tears spilled over and down her
cheeks.

"Well, yeah, I think he's hurt," we could
hear his curses by now, "and he's had quite a few," she nodded
dumbly at me, "so you should get him to a hospital." She nodded
again and scurried away, reaching to help Nick as much as she could
to stand back up and get into the truck. She was so tiny, barely
five foot one and all of a hundred pounds, maybe. And here was
this jerk-off, over six feet tall and probably well over two
hundred pounds abusing her. I guess it takes a big guy like
that to beat up such a tiny girl. 

I pressed my lips together in a tight line,
trying with all my might not to wince as she did when she bent
over, putting more pressure on her old and new bruises or when he
draped his meaty arm over her battered shoulders. I waited until he
was finally in the passenger seat and she scurried around, climbing
up into the driver’s seat before stepping off the yard and back
onto the sidewalk. I waited there, just outside of a pool of light
from a street light, watching Nick through the window, my eyes
narrowing. In my mind I was already reciting the binding and
banishing of him.

I knew as I watched Tracy pull hesitantly
away from the curb and drive down the street that, being only
seventeen, the hospital would insist on calling Nick's parents. I
hoped with his obvious level of intoxication, even golden boy Nick
wouldn’t escape a well-deserved grounding. That would buy us a
little extra time to find Mr. Right for Tiny Tracy. I sighed
heavily when I lost sight of the truck’s rear lights. I knew he had
been hitting her, for all of her lame excuses and denials, but I
had no idea that he might be raping her. It seemed even ungifted
girls learn to build walls around something like that, hoping to
hide it and keep some dignity.
Well Trace, at least tonight you
don’t have to put out.

The next morning I'd woken up feeling a
little better than I had yesterday since I took some Melatonin and
passed out to some late night T.V., satisfied that I had given
Tracy one of the better Friday nights she'd had in months. I knew I
had dreamed but luckily the drug induced haze left me with only
memories of blurred green and yellow and slivery light rather than
specific details.

I drank my coffee slowly, savoring the
flavor, allowing myself time to wake up. The house was totally
quiet, my parents having taken off for the day to go the Indian
Casino about two hours away. The house was colder than usual, with
a slight bite in the air, letting me use my robe for the first time
in almost a year.

I took my time getting ready, taking a long
hot shower and eating a huge lunch, not sure if I’d have time later
for dinner. My mom called at some point to let me know they were
doing well at the casino so they’d be staying for the rest of the
day and probably have dinner there. When I reminded her I’d be out
tonight, she sounded strangely disappointed but didn’t press the
issue. I was in a hurry to get off the phone and prep my supplies
for tonight.

When I was a kid my dad built me a tree house
in our backyard. Much to their surprise I still used it frequently,
mostly as a cache for our casting supplies. I scurried up the tree
and through the trap door with my bag from The Oak, Ash and Thorn
clamped in my teeth. After latching the trap door I took a deep
satisfying breath, smiling to myself and exhaling in a sigh. My dad
had taken care not to damage the tree by not cutting down the
branches and building around them, allowing thick branches inside
the space, giving it an earthy smell. I pushed open the huge window
he’d built into the south-facing wall that opened to a view of a
large orange orchard.

I set to work charging the candles and
crystal I bought last night and left them sitting on the window
sill to absorb the sun’s energy. I turned to cleansing my pentagram
and my sacrificial knife – an athame – I pulled from a chest I kept
up there. Although I was by nature a control freak, I did trust the
other two to do this work just as well as I would do it, but I was
the only one out of the three of us with a decent hiding place for
our tools.

Jodi would have to hide them under her bed or
in a dresser drawer where she ran the risk of her sisters finding
them when they went in to steal clothes. As for Steven, his mother
still frequently cleaned where she wasn’t wanted and picked up his
laundry and put it away for him, which completely ruled him out. We
could handle blackmailing siblings but not a freaked-out Catholic
mom who still chose to pretend Steven was just going through a
phase rather than admit he was actually gay. After a little over an
hour my cell phone went off loudly, shattering my peaceful
reverie.

“Hey, Steven.” I answered absentmindedly as I
polished the blade of the athame.

“Hey! Did. You. Hear?” He was punctuating his
words again, he had juicy gossip. I could practically hear him
salivating.

“Probably not. What?”

“Nick Braver!” he breathed. I smiled,
silently congratulating myself.

“What about him?” I tried to ask lightly.

“Oh you witch! You do know!” His voice rose
excitedly.

“Know what?” I asked.

“Ooooh you did it didn’t you?”

“What? Steven, spill!”

“Well he’s telling everyone that he was
mugged last night when he and Tracy left the party and was beaten
up so bad that they broke his collarbone.” He was bursting to
laugh. “But the funny thing is you’d think he’d have some bruises
or a black eye maybe or even a fat lip, but just the collarbone.
That’s weird, right?” He was fishing.

“Absolutely bizarre.”

“Shay!” I could feel the red in his
voice.

“What?” He was silent, waiting for me to
spill this time. “Oh fine,” I conceded. “Remember when I left?”

“Yeah?” His voice took on a hungry tone.

“Close your mouth. Anyway, I heard Tracy
begging him to leave her alone in his truck, so I simply… separated
them.” I packed all our necessary items into a backpack and slung
it over my shoulder.

“And just accidentally broke a bone?”

“Can I help it if he was literally falling
down drunk?”

“Fine, but you’re telling me and Jodi
everything later. Swear!”

“Fine.”

“Hey, want dinner before? My treat.”

“Yeah, I’ll pick you and Jodi up at, what,
seven?”

“Yeah.”

“’Kay, call Jodi for me.” I hung up and
shoved my phone back into my back pocket and shimmied back down the
tree.

Dinner was at a rundown café on Main St. with
a decent comfort food menu at cheap prices. Despite the nine hours
of sleep I’d managed to get, that didn’t make up for the missed
sleep over the course of the week so I threw back my fair share of
cream and sugar coffee while we ate. I knew when Steven called Jodi
after speaking to me this afternoon our dinner conversation was
going to be comprised totally of my recounting, detail for detail,
what happened between me and Nick last night. I was careful to give
them too many details so they wouldn’t hound me about it and
recounted the whole five-minute episode that somehow took ten times
as long to describe.

“So I told Tracy to take the jerk-off to the
hospital.” I shrugged as I finished the tale and signaled the
waitress with my coffee cup for a refill.

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to
call on my energy that easily.” Jodi stared at me wide eyed after
the waitress scurried away.

“Easily? Are you kidding? I was exhausted.” I
shook my head at her and took another sip of my extra cream and
sugar coffee. “And remember, earth can be more tangible than air.
It’s easier to summon up the faith that its there for the
taking.”

“Still though, that’s pretty impressive,”
Steven agreed with Jodi.

“I wasn’t trying to be impressive.” I was
glowering and I knew it.

“No, I mean that you were able to do that
without Tracy realizing what was going on. She’s been insisting
there was a freak earthquake last night.”

“What?!” I spilled some of my coffee, burning
my hand and coughing on the sip I was in the middle of taking.

“Calm down!” Jodi hissed at me, shoving
napkins at me. “She hasn’t even mentioned you were there. People
just think Nick tripped and fell on that crack you made and that
Tracy’s trying to make something up to help him save face for being
so clumsy.”

“Oh. And people are buying that?” I
asked.

“Obviously, no one’s gone to check out her
story. They’re really just brushing her off.” Steven shrugged at
that last part. “But no one really believes he was mugged, I mean
look how big he is!”

“Hmmm…. Oh well, can’t ask for much more than
that.” I wadded up the ruined napkins and shoved them to the end of
the table. “So, how high was Prince Charming’s B.A.C.? Is he
grounded for life? Kicked off the team? What?”

“Actually no,” Jodi sighed, rolling her eyes
to the ceiling and holding them there for a moment. “I guess Tracy
did like you told her to do but his mom was so upset about his
clavicle that they didn’t really even pay attention to the fact
that he was obviously drunk and stoned.”

“Are you freaking kidding me!” I lost control
of my voice and startled the waitress behind the counter. I shot
her an apologetic look before whispering back at Jodi and Steven,
“Nothing? He’s off scot-free?”

“Pretty much babe.” Steven shrugged again,
shoveling the last few bites of his strawberry shortcake into his
mouth. I sat there fuming for a few quiet moments, gripping my
coffee cup until I felt the ceramic start to shake under the
pressure and set it down carefully.

“That is utter bullshit.” They both nodded
slowly at me. “Well then I’m glad I included a binding and
banishing on that creep in the spell tonight. Maybe when Mr. Right
shows up to sweep Tracy off her feet it’ll be in a way that
humiliates Nick.”

“Terra…” Steven gave me a warning tone with
one raised eyebrow, using my elemental name for emphasis; we all
knew once you started casting for revenge it was a slippery slope
that many people couldn’t recover from. You’d find yourself asking
for things you knew you shouldn’t, even for personal gain, which
just opened a flood gate for karma to bite you in the ass down the
road.

“I know! I know!” I sighed; flustered with
the rules we were all careful to follow, even if it was tempting
not to. I drummed my fingers on the tabletop for a moment, counting
to ten in my head to give myself time to calm down and then took a
deep breath. “Let’s go, we’ve got a lot of setting up to do. We’re
doing a double circle instead of just a single tonight.” We climbed
out of the booth as Steven threw a few bills down to cover the bill
and tip. We turned to walk out when the waitress came running up to
me holding a Styrofoam box.

"Don’t forget your take out!" She stretched
her arms out, handing me the box.