Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter Nine

Saying Goodbye

To my relief, the next morning I had access to my whole wardrobe, so I pulled on a favorite sweater and a pair of corduroy pants. Elastic bands allowed me to draw my chocolate brown locks into a pony tail before heading downstairs.

Evan had already started making muffins with Ginger. Rose promised to go grocery shopping while we shopped for beads. She slipped Evan a bunch of money and told him to stop by the mall to get us clothes for the funeral. I’d forgotten about it and felt guilty about finding moments of pleasure.

Evan looked straight at me and said one word only. “Don’t.”  It was like he could read my mind. He crossed the room and stood in front of me. With two fingers he lifted my chin and made me look straight into his eyes. “Your mother would be happy you’re settling in here.” 

I nodded and tried to hold back the tears. A few of them escaped and rolled down my cheeks.

“Oh Maggie,” Evan sighed and grabbed me in a huge bear hug.

I squeezed my face into his chest gratefully.

“Oh, disgust me!” Corey had entered the room and stood just behind Evan. He’d put his finger into his mouth and made gagging noises.

Evan let me go. One of these days I really was going to smack my brother. He looked like he’d finally gotten a good night’s sleep, so I forgave him his snarkiness.

“Can we go now?” he said impatiently.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Corey grabbed a muffin and we headed out the front door.

***

The bead store was a fantastic business dedicated to the craft hobby of making jewelry with beads. A rainbow array of natural stone beads hung on hooks all around the walls of the large space. Cabinets, which reminded me of old-fashioned typesetting cabinets, sat side-by-side on the floor. Drawers with cubby separators held thousands of different beads. Corey was a trooper and posed for Evan and me with almost all of them while we checked to see how each type of stone affected his magical aura. Of course, he struck various movie star and superhero type poses, so other shoppers and the store clerks looked at us with trepidation, but we didn’t care. In the end we found a unique combination of stones that repressed the magical layer from Corey’s aura.

We ended up buying strings of beads made from lapis lazuli, black lava stone, white turquoise, conch fossil, and sponge coral. The gold flecks of pyrite in the lapis made his entire aura slightly larger, but the black lava made it smaller, so the combination worked well. We figured we could make up a story about Corey liking patriotic jewelry since all the beads were red, white, blue or black. If that didn’t fly we’d tell them we were from southern California and shrug like that explained our behavior.

Afterward, Evan took us to a mall and we found clothes our mother would have approved of for this most solemn occasion. Corey complained the entire time. I knew he hated shopping, but his angry behavior had little to do with clothes. The mundane task irritated me, too. I just wanted to crawl in a corner and alternate between bouts of crying and sleeping. That’s why Evan patiently urged us to keep going. In the end, we got dress shoes to go with Corey’s new suit, since he’d grown out of his old ones and didn’t return home until dinner time. After dinner, Rose showed me how to do the knotted silk thread method of creating a beaded necklace and Evan went home. I finished unpacking my boxes and realized, as I crawled into my bed, we only had one day left to emotionally prepare ourselves to say goodbye.

***

I had to walk down to Fiona’s store around midday to pick up more supplies for Corey’s necklace. Madison, a pretty twenty-something store clerk who had a thing for Evan, gave me a dirty look from behind the counter. I ignored her.

***

By late afternoon, I’d found a solution. Corey had to wear strings of beads as ankle bracelets on both legs. He hid them under his socks. He put two more strings in each of the front pockets in his pants and he wore the necklace. With the combination of stone energy, his magic was completely camouflaged.

***

Reverend Pruitt, the Episcopalian minister from Holy Trinity, dropped by to go over the details of Mom’s service with Corey and me. We listened dutifully, until the reverend got to the part of the service held graveside, and then Corey blew up. “I don’t want to go!” he shouted. “Why do I have to see her put into a hole in the ground?” 

I looked at Rose for an explanation.

“Because it’s your last chance to say goodbye,” she said tersely. “You’ll regret it someday if you don’t.”

“I didn’t say goodbye to Dad,” he grumbled.

“And do you regret it?” she asked softly.

He slumped forcefully back into the couch cushions. His expression glowered at her, even as the tears poured down his face. The reverend continued to talk about what we could expect.

***

After dinner, Corey and I curled up together on the couch in the den and watched Mom’s favorite DVDs back-to-back until we couldn’t keep our eyes open.

“We managed to keep going after Dad,” I squeezed his hand and said quietly.

“I know,” he replied. Then he yawned hugely, and we both went to bed.

***

I woke up the next morning with a scream lodged in my throat. The nightmare faded quickly, but bits and pieces stuck in my mind. Arianrhod, with her silver skin and long navy hair, chased me. Her gown, made from the nighttime sky, flowed around her. I was standing on top of Bald Mountain and she chased me down the mountainside. I kept slipping on the loose shale. Several times I tripped and fell, but I scrambled back up and kept on running. Sweat dripped off my face and strung my eyes. A silver hand reached out to grab my shoulder and I woke.

Shaking off the fear still gripping me; I padded out to the bathroom and ran into Corey.

He looked at me. “I feel like doggie doo doo,” he said.

“I know bud,” I said empathetically, “but we’ll get through it. We have to.”

He nodded sadly. Then he looked into my face. “You look like doggie doo doo.”

“Nuh uh!” I gasped and peered around him to look at myself in the mirror. Fiona had said the whole clan would be at the service.

Corey barked a single chuckle. “Gotcha,” he said and sauntered out, leaving me alone with my fears and my reflection. I knew he only teased to distract me from my grief. It wouldn’t work.

***

Evan and I had discussed his role in advance. He intended to keep his distance from me at the funeral. It wouldn’t help me to assimilate into the Berkeley Springs High School culture if gossip had already been spread about how I chased Evan, a Seer, as my mom had chased my dad. The clan strongly believed Healers and Seers should not mix. They wouldn’t accept we were only best friends at face value. Therefore, he would not show any emotion or make any gestures which might be misconstrued as romantic in front of the clan. I’d agreed. Today I would be strong by sheer will alone.

***

The choir stood in front of their special pews in the chancel before the altar. The organ played its first notes and they started to sing.
I am the Resurrection and the life sayeth the Lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

I looked at the casket with my mother lying in it. She looked at peace, so beautiful, but her eyes were closed. When I’d first walked into the nave and saw the open casket I’d instinctively turned on my healer vision. It had been irrational hope. Mom had no aura. She had gone. Only her body remained.

Reverend Pruitt said, “The Lord be with you.”

The congregation replied, “And with thy spirit.”

The minister continued. “Let us pray.” 

We bowed our heads.

“O God,” he intoned, “whose mercies cannot be numbered. Accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant Shannon, and grant her entrance into the land of light and joy…”

I let the words wash over me. My mind filled with a myriad of memories of better times, laughing and crying, teasing and yelling. A badly spliced home video ran through my head. Every once in a while a phrase from the service penetrated my brain.

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more…”  I remembered Mom telling me about Dad being killed in action.

“…and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

I remembered the last family picnic we’d had with Mom and Dad before he’d shipped off to war. How much they’d loved each other.

Rose was standing at the pulpit now. I barely processed what she said. “…He that heareth my word, and believeth in him, hath everlasting life…”

I hoped she and Dad were together and happy now.

Fiona stood on the pulpit. Her voice rang strong and clear. “…I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die…”

Tears started to drift down my cheeks as I remembered: Mom dancing in the sand, barefoot on the beach, running away from the waves because the water was cold. We carried on after Dad left, and eventually we found the ability to enjoy life again.

The minister spoke, “In peace let us pray to the Lord…”

I let the tears fall unchecked. I remembered when Mom and I fought because I didn’t want to go to Cacapon for the summer. It seemed so stupid now.

“Grant to all who mourn a sure confidence in thy fatherly care, that, casting all their grief on thee, they may know the consolation of thy love.”

The congregation responded, “Amen.”

I remembered the day my father came home carrying a shriveled, red face in a blue blanket to meet me. I remembered how tired but happy Mom looked and how ugly Corey looked, how his tiny hands clutched into fists.

“Grant us grace to entrust Shannon to thy never-failing love; receive her into the arms of thy mercy…” and finally, “forever and ever.”

We all said, “Amen.” 

***

Someone led me out of the church to a waiting car. It took us to the cemetery at the end of a town so small I saw the whole place with one sweep of my gaze. The town of Great Cacapon and the cemetery sat near the nexus of the Cacapon River and the mighty Potomac. Ancient trees dotted the area between grave stones. Most of them were evergreens, and I thought it appropriate.

The sedan parked and I was escorted to a newly dug grave. My mother’s coffin, now closed, was removed from the hearse and slid onto a wheeled scaffold. A few men pushed it over to the grave site and placed it over the hole. A fabric skirt covered the mechanism holding up the coffin and hiding the hole. Good, I thought. I didn’t want to see the grave any more than Corey. A pile of fresh earth sat at one end of her coffin.

A member of the choir had joined us graveside and sang a mournful, Celtic ballad of loss.

Reverend Pruitt took his place and spoke, “Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant Shannon with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing but life everlasting.”

My memories fast forwarded to the morning after Halloween, when my mother’s aura was riddled with tumors. The tears started falling again.

Somehow Evan had stepped up to stand behind me.

Father Pruitt took a handful of dirt and threw it on the coffin, “…we commend to Almighty God our sister Shannon; and we commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”

I reached my hand behind me.

Evan grasped it tightly.

I remembered her face as she brushed Corey’s hair out of his eyes on the Night of the Mothers.

“…May her soul, and the souls of all the departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

“Amen.”

Evan wrapped an arm around my shoulder and led me back to the waiting car.

The tears flowed freely, I couldn’t stop them. I barely noticed anything around me. I was surprised by his appearance but grateful for his support. Sometime during the service he must have changed his mind. Rose held Corey. Duncan, Fiona’s farm foreman, held her. It was a relief someone held me.

Someone make a passing, furtive comment to Evan. I couldn’t hear what the person said, but I caught his response.

He snarled, “I don’t give a hairy fire truck what they think.”

I wondered if my family was a bad influence on him.

When the rented sedan pulled up in front of the sunny, yellow house, Evan helped me out. He steered me into the house, up the stairs and into my bed. He tucked me in, still wearing the new black dress, under the blankets and he lay on top of the covers holding me tightly. I was so drained and so tired.

***

When I woke several hours later, it was dark and Evan was gone. I stripped out of my clothes, climbed back under the covers naked, grabbed the couch pillow, and cried myself back to sleep.

Chapter Ten

Mistletoe

I wanted to spend a couple of days wandering around the house abjectly depressed; but couldn’t. Aunt Rose may have planned the schedule, or not, but the next two days were filled with a bustle of activity.

When I walked into the kitchen, Rose sat at the table with Pat McMahon, Duncan’s eldest son. They sat closely, held hands and talked quietly over mugs of hot tea. I made one for myself.

“Good morning,” said Rose. “How do you feel?”

“Morning, Aunt Rose. Hi Pat.”

He nodded and smiled at me.

“I guess I feel okay,” I shrugged.

“That’s good. I’m afraid we have a lot to do today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we need to make sure you and Corey are ready to start school next week.”

School?  Next week?  Oh wow
. “I already have stuff for school.”

“I doubt you have stuff for snow.”  She had a good point. The daytime temperature never dropped below 50º F in Santa Monica. I had a few warm things, but not enough to get through an entire week of school.

“Corey hates shopping.”

“I’d assumed as much. That’s why I asked Pat over this morning. Are you able to shop for him?”

“Sure, I guess so.”

“Then you and I will shop, and Corey will go on the mistletoe hunt with Pat and his brothers.”

“What’s a mistletoe hunt?”

“It’s when the men of the clan go looking in the forest for mistletoe growing wild in trees. When they find it, they harvest the bush for Fiona. We have many uses for mistletoe throughout the year. More importantly, we need it for Hogmanay.”

“What’s Hoeg-man-eh?”

“It’s our traditional celebration of New Years. Get ready. I’d like to leave within the hour.”

***

Corey seemed pretty excited to be included in an all-guy event. That is, he became excited after I dragged him out of bed and explained it all. A spark of hope flickered in my heart at the thought of him getting a temporary respite from being angry and depressed. I made sure he wore all of his camouflage protection stones and wished him good hunting.

Once Rose and I headed out of town in her car, I asked where we were going.

“I thought we’d head to Virginia today. We’re going to Winchester.”

I’d never been there, so I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily, the city had a booming, modern commercial district with everything I might want or need.

I’d inherited my winter coat from Rose and my winter boots from Fiona but I needed warmer clothes for school. Corey needed pretty much everything. Rose suggested I find a new outfit for the New Year’s party. She instructed me to find something comfortable to wear around the house but nice enough for eveningwear. After looking for quite a while, I found a knit dress in an indigo velour that almost matched my eyes. The dress was shorter than I liked, so I paired it with black leggings and ballet slippers.

***

Pleased with our purchases, we headed back home. On the way I asked her, “So, what’s up with you and Pat?”

“Oh, we’ve been dating for a long time,” she said casually. “At one point I thought we would marry, but things were so confusing after your mom and dad left. You see, there aren’t any other Healer families left in Cacapon. Over the decades people have either moved or passed away. It’s strange, but in our clan, Healer women have only ever given birth to girls. Some have married outside the clan and left. Fiona and I are the last Healers here. I’ve always worried something might happen to her and I’d have to…”

I finished the thought for her. “You assumed you would become the next Great Healer.”

“…or the last one.” 
How much damage did my parents do to this little community when they ran away?

“I’m here now, and you’re still young. Maybe you and Pat can still marry and have kids.”

She smiled. “Pat’s my guy, that’s for sure. He’s always stood by me. He never left or married someone else, like his dad did. Who knows what will happen. You’re right.” 

I felt a little less guilty for existing.

“But honey,” she continued, “we have to wait and see how things work out. I couldn’t put so much pressure on you. You have so much to learn yet. I’m still willing to do my duty to the clan. Don’t worry.”

Was I prepared to take on the responsibility
?  Evan had accepted the mantle of Great Seer when he was my age, but I’d only lived with magic for six months. I still couldn’t heal people using energy-touch therapy. She was right. It was too soon to make any assumptions, but if I could undo a bit of the damage caused by my parents, I silently vowed to myself I would do it.

***

When we got back to the house, I found two surprises: an exuberant Corey and the high speed Internet equipment from the phone company.

Over dinner, he told us all about his day. “The hunt was really cool!  Did you know mistletoe is really a parasite?  Birds eat the berries of the mistletoe plant. Then they fly over trees and poop the seeds out. If the poop lands on the tree branches just so, a new mistletoe plant digs itself into the wood and grows into a little bush. You should see, Maggie, there’s the tree, looking dead because it’s winter. All the leaves are gone, but in the middle of the tree, nestled in these spindly branches and twigs is a little round evergreen bush with berries growing on it, like magic!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s why they use it in potions and herbal remedies, Corey…because of the magic.” 

“No, not anymore…that’s probably what ancient people thought, but Duncan says there’s a weird chemical compound which comes from the acids and bacteria in the poop mixed with the nutrients from the host tree. It’s all really complicated. He says mistletoe is an important part of nature, because it provides food for birds during a time of year when no other food is available. A lot of species of birds survive the winter because of mistletoe, and a lot of those birds are songbirds. Isn’t that cool?”

“It’s very cool,” I agreed.

“So anyway, the guys said they knew where a bunch of mistletoe grew because they’ve been walking around copses near the crop fields for the last couple of weeks taking notes. Guess what they did when we found some?”

“I don’t know. What did they do?”

“Duncan started blowing on this weird old wooden whistle. It didn’t make any noise, but right away this dude in a little green hat appeared. He flew up into the air, floated over to the mistletoe, and cut it down with this tiny, golden scimitar thing.”

“The scimitar thing was probably a sickle,” I corrected him. “The dude in the hat…was he blond with breeches on?”

“Yeah.”

“Did his green hat have a feather in it?”

“Yup.”

“Did you look in his eyes?”

“No!  Why would I look in another dude’s eyes?”

“Good…don’t.”

“Okay, whatever…but the dude could fly!”

“Yes, that’s because he’s a fairy.”

“You mean he’s like the lady in the well?”

“He’s exactly like her, except she’s an oracle and he’s a dryad.”

“What’re they?”

“An oracle can tell the future. A dryad magically helps trees grow and stay healthy. Buach, the dryad you met today, is the King of the Sidhe.”

“Buck is the king of the she?  That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Buach is the King Fairy. They prefer to be called Sidhe. It’s spelled S-I-D-H-E.”

“Sure, because ‘she’ is always spelled S-I-D-H-E.”

“I said the same thing when I first found out about them. Anyway, Sidhe is the politically correct term for a fairy. I’m guessing Buach does something to the mistletoe when he harvests it to make it magical.”

“Whoa, do you think?”

“Probably.”

“So the whistle that didn’t make any noise…is it magical too?”

“I’m not sure. The whistle is called a lute, and it plays a frequency which can only be heard by dryads. It’s probably magical, too.”

“Cool.”

***

Later that evening, Rose and I performed magic of our own by setting up the DSL connection and the wireless network throughout the house. The video game system in Corey’s room and the Blu-ray player in the den both had Internet connections. Once we’d hooked up my new notebook and the computer in Rose’s home office, we were set. I created a new e-mail account to touch base with a few friends in Santa Monica, but when I tried to compose a message, I couldn’t think of what to say. No one would understand what it was like to lose a parent and I didn’t want to depress them. I couldn’t talk about anything in my new life without revealing the existence of magic, so I canceled the message and went to bed.