Enchantment (3 page)

“Belks? Seriously?”

“I wanted to change it to Belts, but Lucky convinced me that Money Belts was a little too obvious, especially since we’ll be living amongst Empties. They have no sense of humor when it comes to names. In fact, I’ll be going by Monroe. The rest of y'all can use your first names or nicknames, but Money is too unusual for a man on the run.”

~***~

The be-calm spell wore off just outside of Tulsa. Savvy, Courage and Zeal woke up cranky and fought all the way across Kansas. The little monsters didn’t fall asleep again until just before sunrise outside of Denver. Channie closed her eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. She was almost asleep when Momma turned off the engine and said, “Well, we’re here.”
 

Daddy said, “Welcome to Louisville, Colorado,” and opened his door.

The trips burrowed through the clutter like gophers and crawled over Momma and Daddy to escape the confines of the bus. Channie was right behind them but waited for Momma and Daddy to get out first. All three boys had dropped their pants and were peeing on the back wheel of the bus.
 

Channie stretched and looked around. Aunt Wisdom had shown her pictures of places like this, but no photograph could capture the magnificence that surrounded her.
 
The houses were ginormous. And well kept. They were freshly painted in muted colors that complimented the scenery. There were no sagging porches, no rusting vehicles on cement blocks, no chickens, goats or pigs either. She counted eight windows on the front of a single house. There wasn’t so much as a dandelion in anyone’s yard. But the yards were tiny, smaller than Momma’s kitchen garden back home. Did these folks buy all their groceries in town? That’d be awful expensive. But if you could afford one of these houses, you’d probably be rich enough to buy just about anything you wanted.

The trips were done peeing, but no one told them to get back in the bus. Channie said, “Why are we stopping here?”

Daddy pointed at the “For Rent” sign in the yard of a huge two-story house with a rock facade. It was on the end of the street next to a large park with a well equipped playground.

Channie’s jaw dropped. “Are we going to live
here
?”

“That’s the plan, baby girl.” Daddy chuckled and gave Channie’s shoulder a squeeze then said, “Why don’t you and Abby take the boys to the park for some fresh air while your momma and me see if we can’t find us a payphone. We need to call these good people and set up a meeting face to face.”

Channie was thrilled with the prospect of living in a mansion, but she felt sorry for these ‘good people.’ Even though you couldn’t force a person to do something against their will, you could push them a long ways down a path they’d already chosen. Especially if they were Empties with no defense against magic. These folks already wanted to rent their house, so it wouldn’t be hard for Momma and Daddy to steal it out from under them. They’d still have to pay rent, but it wouldn’t be anything close to what the house was actually worth.
 

They’d been at the park for less than an hour when Channie heard Daddy’s shrill whistle.
 

Momma opened the combination lock on a brass box hanging from the doorknob and pulled out a key. Her eyes shone as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Daddy was right on her heels. The first thing he did was flip off the porch light. “I couldn’t convince the Whitcomb’s to keep paying the utility bills on this here place, so don’t nobody turn on any lights or other appliances or I’ll lay into your behinds with a switch. See that tree out front? They don’t call it a weeping willow for nothing.” Everyone nodded their heads.
 

“It’s just as easy to light a candle or a kerosene lamp as it is to flip a switch and a whole lot less expensive. Money don’t grow on trees.”
 

Where
was
the money coming from? Back home, Momma and Abby drove the bus into town once a week to sell eggs and herbal remedies. They earned enough cash to buy the things they couldn’t make, shoot or grow, like gas, kerosene and shoes. Daddy’s moonshine brought in a fair amount of cash, but he gambled it away as fast as he got it. Even if he found a place to hide his still, Channie doubted it’d bring in enough money to pay the bills.
 

~***~

Channie and Abby took the trips back to the park while Momma and Daddy settled in. They sat on picnic tables under the pavilion while the boys played, fought and scared off all the other kids.
 

Abby had been in a foul mood ever since they left and Channie was sick of it.

“What the hell is your problem?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

Enchantment’s magic grew warm inside Channie’s belly, instinctively rising to the challenge. It softened both her demeanor and tone of voice as it flowed out of her. “I might, if you told me what’s wrong.”

Abby raised her shield before Enchantment’s magic touched her and stared straight ahead.

“Whatever.” Channie hopped off the table, dusted the back of her jeans with her palms and walked towards the baseball field. Five minutes later, she was surrounded by boys. She was flattered, even though she knew it was only because of her name. She probably should have pulled Enchantment’s magic back into her power-well, but it took a considerable amount of energy to restrain it once it was active. Besides, she didn’t want to.

Thanks to Abby's mistakes, Channie wasn’t allowed to date. The boys at home had flirted with her at the monthly clan gatherings. But Hunter was the only one so far that had tried to court her — if that’s what you could call his attempt to seduce her at the bauxite quarry.
 

Channie wasn’t romantically interested in any of these Empties. She was just having fun, basking in their devotion as they filled the air with lustful energy and vied for her attention.

“Enchantment?” Daddy’s voice startled her. She’d been so distracted, she hadn’t felt him sneak up on her. He narrowed his eyes and glared at each of the boys. Not a single one of them paid him no nevermind. They only had eyes for Channie. Daddy leveled his gaze at her and said, “What do you think you’re doing?”
 

“Talking?”

“Get on home.”

“Yes, sir.”
 

Daddy kept his shield up and didn’t say a word as he followed her back to the house. But when they got inside, he said, “Go on upstairs. I need to talk to your Momma.”

“We were just talking. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“Them boys was Empties.”

“This whole state is nothing but Empties. We can’t avoid them forever. I start school tomorrow. Half the students will be boys.” Channie meant it as a joke, but Daddy didn’t laugh.

He rubbed his forehead with his fingers and groaned out loud, as if he were in physical pain. “Go to your room, and don’t come out until I call for you.”

There wasn’t so much as a stick of furniture in Channie’s room. All she had was her pillow case full of books, a couple of blankets and a quilt. She made a little nest for herself and curled up on the floor with her tattered copy of “David Copperfield.” She considered casting a listen-up spell on herself, but if Daddy called for her before the scent of magic dissipated, she’d be in even more trouble for eavesdropping.
 

“Channie?” Abby's voice woke her up. “Momma and Daddy wanna see you downstairs.”
 

Channie yawned and opened her eyes. Abby was standing in the doorway, a candle in one hand, her flashlight — a birthday gift from Aunt Wisdom — in the other. How long had she been asleep? “Am I in trouble?”

“I don’t know. They was holed up in their room when me and the trips got back from the park. I ain’t heard no hollering anyways.” Abby tucked her flashlight under her arm to light the candle then squatted down and handed it to Channie. “What’d you do?”

“I didn’t do anything! Except talk to a few boys.”

“Oh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You want some advice, lil sis?”

Channie nodded.

“Don’t argue or interrupt, no matter what they say. Just let ‘em get it out of their systems. All you can do is pretend to repent, beg their forgiveness and hope they don’t curse you.”

Channie rolled her eyes. “Thanks a lot. That makes me feel so much better.”

Abby smiled and said, “You’re welcome,” without the least bit of sarcasm.
 

~***~

Momma and Daddy were in the parlor, sitting together on the sofa, holding hands in a rare display of unity.
 

Daddy said, “We got something to tell you, baby girl, and we want you to stay calm.”

His words were ominous enough, but when Momma and Daddy both raised their shields, Channie’s heart leapt into her throat. Daddy said, “Your momma and me—”

“Momma and I.”

Daddy usually laughed when Channie reflexively corrected his grammar — it was sort of a running joke between them — but this time he just sighed and said, “Your momma and I … we decided … oh, hell, there ain’t no easy way to break this to you.”

Momma snorted through her nose and said, “Daddy and I are changing your name.”

Channie’s mouth popped open. “What?”

“You heard me. We’re changing your power-name. Enchantment’s magic is too … seductive.”

“You want to change my name on account of them boys in the park? That ain’t fair.” When she got upset, Channie had a tendency to forget her schooling and regress to her native dialect. “Ever single one of them Empties come up to me and started talking. I didn’t do a dang thing to encourage ‘em.”

If Momma wasn’t such a sourpuss all the time, Channie would have thought they were pulling her leg. Folks took up to a year deciding on a baby’s name to be sure they found one that matched the child’s personality. Once given, a name wasn’t changed. Not even when it caused severe problems like … say … a gambling addiction that forced you to uproot your entire family and move them halfway across the country to keep ‘em from being murdered.

Channie’s heart thundered against her ribs. Enchantment’s magic surged and poured out of her, but with Momma and Daddy already shielded all it did was prove their point and drain Channie’s energy.
 

Momma and Daddy shared a look that was part regret, part pity and a hundred percent determined.

“Look, all I did was talk to a couple of boys. Abby's the one that went and got herself knocked up. If you want to change someone’s power-name, change hers. It ain’t fair to punish me for something she did!”

The lines around Momma’s eyes deepened.
 
“We ain’t punishing nobody. We’re only trying to protect you. Be reasonable.”

“Reasonable? There’s nothing reasonable about any of this!”

Channie consciously slowed her breathing and unclenched her fists in an effort to calm herself. “You can’t change my power-name. It’s illegal.” She wasn’t sure about that, but if it wasn’t against the law, it should be.

Daddy leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “We made the mistake of naming your sister Abundance, and look what happened to her.”
 

Abby was sitting on the stairs, shoveling the last of Momma’s homemade cottage cheese into her mouth — straight out of the crock.

“Why do you think she had triplets?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the boys’ daddy has a multiplier power-name of some sort.”
 

The only thing Abby had ever said about her babies’ daddy was that he was an Empty — actually she’d used the polite term, Magically Disabled Person, instead of the derogatory slang that everyone else used — but no one in their right mind believed Savvy, Courage, and Zeal were sired by an Empty. Those boys were already too powerful to be Halfies. They couldn’t cast spells yet, but the way they instinctively tapped into their power-names proved they were gifted.

Daddy said, “It was Abby's magic that took what should’a been one baby and made three. That’s why them boys are identical.”

“I still don’t see what that has to do with—”

Daddy slammed the side of his fist into the threadbare armrest of the sofa, sending a puff of dust into the air. “We are living smack dab in the middle of nothing but magically disabled, immoral parasites.”

It wasn’t at all unusual for Daddy to get riled up when he started talking about the carnal nature of teen-aged boys. But Channie knew she was losing the argument when the vein on his forehead began to pulse and his voice climbed in pitch as well as volume.
 

“Every young man back home had to raise his shield around you if he didn’t want to fall under your spell. Empty boys don’t have the ability to shield themselves from your magic. Hell, they don’t even believe in magic. They ain’t gonna worry about what sort of curse I’ll slap on ‘em if they don’t keep their nasty hands to themselves!”

Daddy closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose. He lowered his voice and said, “Come here, baby girl,” then reached for Channie’s hands and pulled her closer, until her knees bumped his shins. The old sofa groaned as he shifted his weight from one hip to the other. Most people were considerably less intimidating when they were sitting down. Not Daddy.

He said, “You don’t have complete control over Enchantment’s power and we can’t afford to wait until you do. I know it’s not your fault and it’s not fair, but if we don’t change your name, you’ll draw those sex-crazed Empties to you like flies to honey.”

Channie couldn’t help feeling a bit of pleasure as she remembered how she’d charmed that entire crowd of boys. She bit the inside of her cheeks in an effort to keep from smiling, but that didn’t fool Daddy. Not one bit. He tightened his grip on Channie’s hands, squeezing the blood out of her fingers.

“That is not a good thing! I don’t want you to attract their attention. I don’t want you to enchant them. And I sure as hell don’t want you to wind up like your sister!”

Channie jerked her hands free and stumbled backwards, out of Daddy’s reach. “My power-name is not going to get me pregnant!”

Sometime during the argument, Abby had gotten up off the stairs. She was leaning against the arched opening that divided the entryway from the parlor with the crock of cottage cheese cradled in one arm like a baby. She licked both sides of her spoon then said, “Channie’s right. Her power-name ain’t the problem...”