Enchantment (13 page)

Channie’s momma and daddy had been married forever and they couldn’t go for more than an hour without a fight.

Mrs. Abrim didn’t look like she was old enough to be eight-year-old Elijah’s momma much less Josh’s. She hardly had any wrinkles at all, and not so much as a wisp of grey in her dark brown hair. Josh’s step-momma was even prettier — and a whole lot younger.
 

Daddy didn’t even wait until the introductions were done before he started pushing Channie at Josh — obviously trying to trigger Chastity’s curse. She pulled him aside and said, “Cut it out, or I’ll curse you right here in front of everybody.”

Daddy pulled the paper advertising the race out of his pocket. “Has he talked about any of the other races? What about this kid, Wesley Wickam? I’ll bet he’s favored to win.”

“Why don’t you forget about betting on the races and just enjoy them like everyone else?”

Daddy laughed and said, “What’s the point of a race without a wager?” and went back to the Abrim's tarp. He clasped Josh’s shoulder and said, “We sure enjoyed your visit last week and were hoping you could join us for supper again this coming Wednesday.” Yeah, right. Daddy just wanted to pick Josh’s brain so he could figure out how to manipulate the next race.
 

Josh said, “I’m sorry Mr. Belks. I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m grounded.”

“Grounded?”

Channie said, “It means he can’t leave his house except to go to school, to practice, or to a race for two weeks.”

“It’s my punishment for hanging out with Channie instead of picking Elijah up from the neighbors.” Josh put his helmet on his head and bent over to grab his bicycle. “I need to go get ready.” He winked at Channie and said, “Wish me luck,” then rolled his bike towards the starting gate at the top of a huge dirt hill.
 

Daddy waited until Josh was out of hearing range then looked at Mrs. Abrim and said, “Keeping an active boy cooped up in a house for two weeks seems down right cruel. Why not just whip him and be done with it?”

Mrs. Abrim arched her unnaturally thin eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
 

Momma elbowed Daddy in the ribs and forced a laugh past her gritted teeth. “Oh, don’t pay him no mind. He’s just joking around.”
 

Mrs. Abrim said, “Child abuse is nothing to joke about.”

Channie had warned Momma and Daddy about how the law in Colorado didn’t allow folks to whip their kids, but Daddy hadn’t believed her. Thank goodness, Momma had. She slapped a no-speak spell on Daddy so fast he didn’t know what hit him.
 

Mrs. Abrim jumped out of her lawn chair and said, “Monroe? Are you alright?”
 

Daddy opened his mouth, but of course he couldn’t talk with Momma’s spell on him. He couldn’t breathe either.

“Are you choking?”
 

By now, Daddy’s face was purple and his eyes were bulging. If Momma didn’t let up soon, she was gonna make him pass out or give him a stroke or something.
 

Mrs. Abrim ran behind Daddy, wrapped her arms around his chest, as far as she could reach, and started squeezing on him.
 

What the hell?

Momma’s mouth fell open, but only for a moment. She pressed her lips into a thin line and glared at Mrs. Abrim. Daddy took advantage of Momma’s brief loss of focus, raised his shield and took a deep raspy breath.
 

Mrs. Abrim let go and quit hugging on Daddy, but then she started patting and rubbing his back. What was wrong with her? Was she crazy? Even if she couldn’t feel the air crackle with angry energy, surely she could tell by the look on Momma’s face that she wouldn’t tolerate another woman’s hands on her man.

Mrs. Abrim froze mid-pat then started hollering and jumping around like she was on fire. She swatted at her blouse and yelled, “Ow, ow, ow. Something’s stinging me!”

“Momma! Stop it!”
 

Momma whipped her head around and glared at Channie, but at least she stopped cursing Mrs. Abrim.
   

Mrs. Abrim quit carrying on, but she was still upset, and rightly so — that stinging spell was painful. She pulled her collar away from her neck and gasped when she looked down the front of her blouse and saw the bumps and welts caused by Momma’s curse.
 

Daddy grinned then looked down the front of Mrs. Abrim’s blouse and offered to help her find the bitey-bug that was stinging her. He still had his shield up, so Momma’s curse bounced right off him.

Chastity’s power-well was almost full but it continued to gorge on Momma’s rage. Damn it to hell and back, Daddy was doing it on purpose. He was still hoping Channie would accidentally curse Josh.

Elijah grabbed a couple of cans of soda out of the cooler and handed one to Channie. “Josh will be racing in the next moto. If we hurry, we can get a spot close to where most of the crashes happen on the other side of the track.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the continuing drama.

Channie said, “What’s a moto?”
 

“It’s just what everybody calls the races.”

As they walked around the edge of the dirt track, Channie noticed several older racers with bags of ice on their shoulders, elbows and knees. One poor man had ice on just about every joint of his body, but his overall energy was still positive in spite of his pain. Channie admired his courage and cast a pain-away spell on him. He shook the ice bags off his body and stood up.
 

The woman sitting next to him said, “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking myself off the injured list.”

“The hell you are. Sit your butt back down and ice those arthritic joints of yours or I’m selling your bike on Craig’s List.”

When they got to the spot Elijah had in mind, he stopped, but didn’t let go of Channie’s hand until the race started.

As soon as the starting gate dropped, Josh leapt out ahead of everybody. He looked like he was flying when he went over the first jump. Channie had watched some of the earlier races but no one had gone as high or as fast as Josh. And those guys had all been older. Some of them were professional racers.

When he crossed the finish line, Josh was so far ahead of everybody else, it didn’t even look like he was in the same race. Channie lost sight of him when he coasted off the track and disappeared into the middle of a cheering crowd. But the race wasn’t over.

The sound of crumpling metal and a cry of pain caused Channie to jerk her gaze back to the track. She didn’t see the first guy go down, but she witnessed the rest of the crashes as the bikes and bodies piled up in front of her. Elijah had been right about finding the best spot to see all the accidents.

Channie looked at him and said, “Your brother was amazing!”

“Yeah, I know.” Elijah didn’t sound amazed. He popped the tab on his can and slurped the foam off the top then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Josh is ranked number one in his age group.”

“Out of all these kids?”

“Out of the whole country.”

The starting gate hit the dirt with a thud. Another race had started. Josh was on the other side of the track, near his family’s tarp, waving his hands over his head, motioning for Channie to join him.

She stood up, brushed the dirt off the seat of her pants and offered her hand to Elijah. He took it and held her hand all the way back.
 

When they got to the tarp, Daddy said, “So, Joshua, how much time do you have before your next race?”

“When I won my first moto, it automatically advanced me to the final. So I have a lot of time to kill.” Josh grinned at Channie. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

“Channie, needs to take the trips to the privy. I wanna talk to you about the next set of races.”

“Daddy! Leave him alone.”

Josh wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve, smearing a streak of red dirt across his brow. “Actually, I need to go to the john too. But I’ll be happy to talk to you when we get back.”

Courage wrapped himself around Josh’s right leg, Zeal jumped on his back and Savvy stood in front of him with his arms outstretched, begging to be carried.

Channie said, “Stop climbing all over Josh! He’s not a playground. Besides, only babies need to be carried.
 

Courage and Zeal let go immediately, but Savvy didn’t back down. “I don’t care. I want Josh to carry me.”

Josh laughed and threw Savvy into the air. He giggled and squirmed when Josh caught him and tickled his ribs, but as soon as he stopped, Savvy wrapped his legs around Josh’s waist, his arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder. Courage and Zeal stared at him, their eyes wide and filled with longing.
 

Channie immediately regretted her mean comment about babies. These little boys were still reeling from the loss of their momma. They didn’t want to be carried because they were too lazy to walk. They needed to be held and cuddled.

Channie said, “Come on you two, I’ll carry you to the privy.”

Courage put his hands on his hips and said, “We ain’t babies.”

“CoCo, I’m sorry for saying only babies get carried. It’s not true. Grandaddy was still carrying me on his back when I was twice your age. I just didn’t want you three wearing Josh out. He’s not done racing.”

“I’ll carry one of them.” Elijah squatted down but CoCo and Zeal just looked at each other and then at Channie.

Josh craned his neck around Savvy, who was clinging to him like a baby gorilla and said, “Come on guys. I need to go pee.”

 
Courage climbed onto Elijah’s back. Zeal jumped into the air, and nearly tackled Channie.
 

There was a long line to use the privies. But Channie didn’t mind. It would probably be the only chance she’d get to talk to Josh without Momma and Daddy listening in. At least until they were able to sneak out and meet in the park like they’d planned.

Josh must have been reading Channie’s mind. He said, “So, do you remember what we talked about right before I got sick on Thursday?”

“You mean about meeting you at the park after midnight?”

Josh closed his eyes and groaned.

Elijah’s grin spread across his entire face. He said, “You guys are going to sneak out and meet at the park in the middle of the night? Sweet! Can I come?”

~***~

Savvy kept his hands linked behind Josh’s neck but leaned back to look him in the eye. “It’s too cold in the park after dark. But if you want to play with Channie at night, you can climb up the front of the house and go in through her bedroom window.”

Several people standing in line for the privies snickered. Josh’s ears turned red and Chastity’s magic boiled over. It wasn’t as bad as last Thursday, but it was bad enough. Channie tried to redirect the curse at the young man waiting in line behind Josh, but Chastity’s magic was attracted to the source of the lustful energy and that source was Josh. He turned his back and tried to set Savvy down, before the curse hit him, but there wasn’t enough time. The curse was selective. Not only did it ignore the target she’d chosen, it didn’t so much as ruffle a hair on Savvy’s head. But there was no way to hide a curse like that from a mage, no matter how young they were.
 

Savvy wiggled out of Josh’s arms and glared at Channie. “That was mean!”

“Josh! Are you okay?”

He nodded his head but since he didn’t answer her, Channie knew he was lying.

She said, “Elijah, when the trips are done in the privy, take them back to my momma. I need to … talk to Josh.”

Channie wanted to help Josh but she couldn’t even hold his hand without the risk of triggering another curse. He led her to a travel trailer and walked in without knocking.

He said, “It’s not much, but it’s convenient. Although, it would be a lot more convenient if they’d fix the damn toilet.” He opened the toy-sized refrigerator a crack then slammed it shut. “Jeeze that’s nasty. Dad never remembers to clean it out after a race.”

Josh waited until Channie sat down then slid behind the formica table bolted to the floor and flopped onto a fake leather bench across from her. “If this keeps up, I don’t think I’m going to be able to race in my next moto.”

His face was still chalky but his cheeks were pink. “Isn’t there some way you could turn off the magic? Just for a few hours?”

“I wish. I’ve tried everything to control it. But Momma and Daddy used some kind of ancient magic they didn’t understand, and had no business messing with, to change my power-name. They have no idea how to undo the damage they’ve caused.”

“They want to change your name back?”

“I’m more powerful than both of them put together. Their shields are useless against Chastity’s magic, so yeah, they want to give me my old name back.”

“Mages have shields?”

“It’s the only defense we have against each other’s spells.” Channie’s mouth dropped open. She fell back against the cushions, letting her hands flop to the side. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

“Think of what?”

“I’ve been going at this the wrong way. I can’t change what my parent’s did to me. I can’t keep from cursing you every time you feel a little … frisky. But maybe I can build a shield for you that would protect you from all magic — including Chastity’s.”

“What are you waiting for? Do it!”
 

Josh’s excitement was contagious, but Channie needed to curb her enthusiasm so she could concentrate on the process. She’d never tried to create a shield for someone else, but it was probably a lot like raising her own.

“Come on, Channie.”

“Calm down. I can’t do anything while you’re radiating so much lust. You’re about two seconds away from triggering Chastity’s curse again.”

Josh closed his eyes and started muttering. Channie had to enhance her hearing to figure out what he was saying. “… Maggots, dead fish, fried liver—”

“What are you doing?”

Josh opened one eye and grinned. “Thinking of gross stuff.”

“Does that help?”

“Almost as much as a cold shower.”

Channie raised her own shield several times and studied the interplay of willpower, magic and energy. She focused on calming Chastity’s energy then tapped into her heart-of-hearts and Enchantment’s magic. If she used even a tiny bit of Chastity’s energy to build Josh’s shield, it wouldn’t be able to repel the curse.