Mr. Conjure, page 12
“That’s not what I was thinking.”
“Then what were you thinking?”
“Mainly? ‘Oh God, it’s going to get me. What am I doing down here? I don’t want to be here. Gotta have the knife or I’m dead. It’s the only thing that can protect me. I have to have it. The Shadowman will get me if I don’t.’ See? Not a superhero, just a supercoward.”
“If you were that scared, then you should’ve given me or someone else the knife.”
“But it was because I was so scared that I wouldn’t give anyone the knife. It wasn’t just a weapon; it was also protection. I wanted that protection for myself. Again, supercoward. Instead of protecting you or the others, I was only worried about myself.”
“If you were that scared, you should’ve told us.”
“I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“Mary,” Rachel said with disapproval.
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I freaked out. I’m sorry I wouldn’t let you have the knife. I’m sorry I was so scared. I’m sorry I’m not a superhero.”
“Mary, I don’t want you to be a superhero.”
“Good because I’m not. You’ve never been a sidekick either. You’d be a terrible one, anyway. Being better than the superhero is a major no-no.”
Rachel looked down with a vague smile. Mary took a deep breath. She was still a supercoward, but she had to say this, “I’m sorry for what I said outside the house. You told me something in confidence, and I used it to hurt you.”
Rachel frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The thing with Jenny. Now Taryn knows.”
“Taryn already knew. I mean I didn’t tell her it was Jenny at the hospital at first, but eventually, I had to. She wasn’t too happy, but she gets that Jenny needs help.”
“So she knew you and Jenny went out before?”
“Yeah, I told her. That’s why Jenny’s a sore spot. Sort of like Cy is for Kyle.”
“Cy? What are you talking about?”
“You know because like you were into Cy before Kyle and he’s worried you might still be into him. Taryn is a little worried that I might still have a thing for Jenny. But I don’t and I think she gets that now.”
“You called me a bitch.”
“Because you revealed something that I didn’t like.”
“I deserved it.”
“Maybe a little, but not really. You were right. I was putting Jenny’s well-being ahead of Taryn’s safety and the realization shook me.”
“I don’t know how we can help Jenny now.”
“Yeah, I guess we gotta wait for Gran,” Rachel said.
“You talk to Kyle a lot.”
Rachel looked at her quizzically. “Define a lot.”
“I mean you two talk.”
“You’re wondering if he told me something about Cy?”
“When he was roofied, he accused Cy of still having a thing for me.”
“And how did that make you feel?”
“Startled. Cy said Kyle didn’t deserve me.”
“Oooh.”
“I’m glad Gran was there to take charge.”
“Did you say anything to Kyle later?”
“I don’t know if he even remembers any of it. But he’s got to know how amazing he is. I mean he accepts me. He supports me. I’d be a fool to mess that up.”
“You should tell him that.”
Mary’s mouth moved, but no words came out, just a few incoherent sounds. She covered her mouth in embarrassment.
“I don’t know if I can,” she said from behind her fingers.
Rachel smirked. “So that’s your kryptonite.”
Mary pointed at herself. “No, supercoward, remember?”
“Wanna go inside?”
“Be pretty weird if we didn’t.”
Taryn and Kyle were sitting in the living room. They looked up silently when the girls entered. Rachel slung an arm around Mary’s neck. “So what are we going to do at this slumber party?”
“What slumber party?” Taryn asked.
“There’s a Shadowman still on the loose. We can’t be left alone. So slumber party.”
“No no no! This is very against the rules.”
“I’ve never been to a slumber party,” Ghost Mary said.
“Harvey, Gran won’t mind.”
“It’s a school night.”
“Nope. It’s not. Teacher work day tomorrow.”
“Well, this still against the rules. No parties. No spell casting. No boys. You’re about to break every single house rule.”
“I’m not going to do any spell casting.”
“You already have!”
“It’s okay.”
“Then why don’t you call Helena and ask her if it’s okay?”
“There’s no need to disturb Gran.”
“Is he saying we can’t stay over?” Rachel asked.
Mary nodded.
“Is it no one can stay over or just me?” Kyle asked.
“It’s fine,” Mary told him.
“NO BOYS!”
“Gran likes Kyle.”
“I know she does, but she was specifically thinking of Kyle when she made that rule!”
“He’s stayed over before. We’ll all stay in the living room. It’ll be perfectly innocent.”
“I’ll go. It’s okay,” Kyle said.
“No, don’t.” Mary wanted him to stay. He made her feel safer, and she didn’t like the idea of him on his own, especially if the Shadowman decided to go after him. And thinking about that reminded her of their fifth. “What about Eddie? Should we get him over here?”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYS!”
Ghost Mary giggled.
“I’ll call him,” Rachel said, pulling out her phone.
Harvey raised the volume on the television to maximum. Not realizing what was going on, Taryn picked up the remote to mute it. Harvey swatted it out of her hand. She jumped and looked in shock at Mary.
“Harvey, you either let us stay here tonight, or we all leave and stay somewhere else and you don’t come with us. Which would you prefer, to chaperone a mixed group for a slumber party, or be left here and we go out without any supervision to spend the night?”
“And where would you go?” Harvey asked, calling her bluff.
Mary really didn’t have a good answer, but she had to try. “I don’t know. A twenty-four-hour diner. A park.”
“I have the keys to my dad’s office. We could stay there,” Taryn said.
“There you go. Either let Kyle and Eddie stay here, or we all leave.”
Harvey was quiet.
“If you go, can you take me with you?” Ghost Mary asked.
Mary silently nodded her head to answer the ghost. She was waiting for Harvey’s response.
“Fine! Everyone can stay! But there will be no going off to be alone together, no sharing blankets, and no Twister.”
“No Twister?” Mary repeated in confusion.
“What does he think this is—the 1960s?” Rachel asked.
“We don’t even own that game,” Mary said.
“Well then, it’ll be a very easy rule not to break.”
Rachel and Taryn got up. “We’ll go retrieve Eddie. We’ll bring pizzas back too.”
After the girls left, Kyle looked over at Mary. Something appeared to amuse him.
“What?” she said.
“We have Twister at my house.”
“NOOOOOOOOOO TWIIIIIIIIISTEEEEEEER!”
Mary brought her feet up on the couch and propped her head on her knees to look at Kyle. “Oh? And why haven’t you invited me over to play?”
“Would you like to come over and play Twister?”
Harvey knocked the magazines off the coffee table.
“You know I don’t think I’ve ever played the game.”
“It’s fun. It helps if you’re flexible.”
Mary wrinkled her nose. “I’ve never been flexible. Hated gymnastics.”
“Well, it can be fun if you’re not flexible too.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Harvey opened and slammed the front door which made both of them jump. “Harvey, geez! We’re just joking around!”
“I will be taken seriously.”
Mary rolled her eyes. “You are taken seriously.”
“Forbidding Twister is a bit funny,” Ghost Mary said.
“It’s an evil, vile game that ruins people.”
“Um, that’s a weirdly strong opinion,” Mary said.
“What happened, Harvey?”
“The first girl I ever went out with dumped me after playing Twister with another boy. It stayed with me, okay?”
“Okay.” She leaned over to clue Kyle in, “His first girlfriend dumped him after a game of Twister.”
“Fair enough.” When he turned his face toward her, Mary realized they were only inches apart. Her breath caught, and she leaned in.
“Do I really have to say NO KISSING? Because I will, loudly and repeatedly and you will LISTEN!”
Mary stopped short of kissing Kyle and sighed unhappily. She leaned back.
“Harvey doesn’t approve?” he asked.
“Of course he doesn’t approve.”
“This is such a bad idea,” Harvey muttered.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rachel and Taryn came back with Eddie and three pizzas. The teens all gathered at the kitchen table. It was a bit of a tight fit with five people, but it also made it cozy and fun. Elbows bumped. Feet overlapped. They reached over each other. There were jokes and teasing. It was easy to forget why they were all gathered there. But as the sun went down, every light in the house came on, and Eddie even donned his head lamp. Mary wondered if she’d ever do something normal without the weird overshadowing it.
Rachel had also stopped by a Red Box and had gotten a comedy and an action movie. They all voted for the action movie. The comedy looked raunchy, and Mary was worried Harvey would throw a conniption with the first penis joke. Mary and Kyle sat at one end of the sofa with a foot of space between them while Taryn and Rachel snuggled on the other end. Eddie sat in Gran’s chair. Mary kept waiting for Harvey to say something about the girls being so close, but he didn’t mention it. She wondered if it was because they weren’t his responsibility or if he was uncomfortable with their sexuality.
Mary got up to get a soda. Rachel followed her into the kitchen. “You want a soda too?” she asked as she opened the fridge.
“Not right now. We need to talk about the other thing that happened with the Shadowman.”
Mary frowned not sure what she meant.
“You pulled two ghosts from their anchors to help you.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said in denial.
“What would you call it? How’d they get there?”
“I didn’t bring them there.”
“Then what happened?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation.”
“You called them to you. If they hadn’t appeared, the Shadowman would’ve gotten you.”
“Believe me, I know that.”
“Did you feel anything before they appeared?”
“Other than blinding terror? I don’t know.”
“You don’t usually get nosebleeds.”
Mary grimaced. Rachel was right. She could count on one hand how many nosebleeds she’d gotten. The one she’d gotten at the abandoned house had stopped quickly, but it was odd that she’d gotten one at all. “I don’t know what happened, so I can’t replicate it.”
“You could try. And don’t say you don’t know.”
“How though? Go outside and scare myself in the dark? Freak out so bad that ghosts appear?”
“Well, no. That isn’t a good idea. I was thinking you could just try to call a ghost to you now and see what happens.”
“Like any ghost?”
“Were you thinking about Marvin and Gladys before they appeared?”
“No, but I do know them.”
“Well, try bringing one of them here.”
Mary wasn’t sure she wanted to do that, even if she could. It seemed kind of rude to yank them out of their homes a second time that day. And someone else came to mind, anyway. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she pictured Mrs. Brown. Heard her voice. Envisioned her there with them. Thinking about it wasn’t working. She could tell. She squeezed her eyes tightly and strained to imagine the ghost there.
“What’s going on in here?” Harvey asked.
That wasn’t the ghost she wanted. Mary struggled to imagine the former school nurse’s ghost. She didn’t know what she was trying to do exactly, but she had done it once. Maybe she needed to be afraid to do it again.
“Mary, what are you doing?”
She didn’t want to break her concentration to answer Harvey. She’d always wondered what had happened to the ghost after Mr. Landa got rid of the desk that was her anchor. The ghost had coached her on what to say to Landa to get him off her back. She’d really appreciated the help, and she’d never gotten the chance to properly thank her.
Mary also wanted to know if the ghost was all right. She didn’t know where the desk had gone when Landa had gotten rid of it. But what if the reason the ghost wasn’t appearing was that the desk had been destroyed? Her stomach twisted at the thought. Mrs. Brown, where are you? Please come to me, she silently called.
She reached out straining mentally. She focused on her internal switch and pressed it hard. She’d only ever imagined it as a simple on/off switch, but now she strained to find a third setting. And to her amazement, there was a click.
“Hello? Who—Mary, is that you?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Mrs. Brown. Who are you?”
“Harvey Callox, short order cook and babysitter.”
“Is that a joke? Mary, what’s going on?”
“It worked,” she said.
“Really? I knew it!”
“Mary, I’m happy to see you, but where am I? Where’s my desk?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Brown. Don’t be upset. I brought you here. I can’t believe I did it.”
“I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Neither did I. Are you all right? How do you feel?”
“I think I’m okay, but it is a little strange. Am I attached to you?”
Mary did feel something. She hadn’t noticed it with Gladys and Marvin, but it felt like there was an invisible thread going out of her and something was on the other end. Was that Mrs. Brown? Was the ghost tethered to her?
“Is this spell casting? It seems like spell casting,” Harvey grumbled.
“How are you doing, Mrs. Brown? What happened to your desk?”
“Oh! It was sold at auction with some other office furniture, and a private school purchased it. I’m in the nurse’s office! I see little sick children again!”
“You like sick children?” Harvey asked in vague disgust.
“She’s a nurse,” Mary said in her defense. “That’s really great, Mrs. Brown. I’m happy to hear that.”
“And how are you doing? How is your grandmother?”
Harvey snorted at the question.
“Gran’s doing well. She’s out of town right now visiting her sister.”
“That didn’t answer my first question,” Mrs. Brown said knowingly.
“Yeah, well, it’s good to hear from you, Mrs. Brown. Maybe we’ll chat again some other time.”
“Mary Hellick, what have you gotten yourself into? You will—”
Mrs. Brown’s voice cut off as Mary toggled her ghost switch.
“That was kind of rude,” Harvey said.
“Yeah, well, I’ve already got a babysitter.”
“Is the ghost gone? What happened?” Rachel asked.
“I sent her back. It was either that or get another lecture.”
“Oh. But it worked?”
“It worked. I don’t know what it means. She did reveal that she felt attached to me, and I sort of felt a tether. Harvey, have you ever felt that?”
“I’ve always been with you so I don’t know, but I saw something coming out of you when the ghost was here. Don’t know what it was.”
“He says he could see something coming out of me but doesn’t know what it is.”
“Can ghosts see each other?” Rachel asked.
Mary knew ghosts didn’t have senses like living people, but she wasn’t sure how they perceived stuff exactly.
“We can tell when someone else is there and talk to them. We don’t have bodies so we can’t be seen. But I know that lady had brown hair and wore glasses. Can see it in my head.”
“They don’t really see each other, but they know what each other looks like,” Mary told Rachel.
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Well, that’s ghosts.”
“Everything okay?” Taryn asked, appearing in the kitchen doorway.
“Yeah, we were just trying something out. Mary can kidnap ghosts.”
“Congratulations?”
“I’m not kidnapping them.”
“Do you prefer to say you’re abducting them?”
“No. Summoning them. Let’s just call it that.”
“You can summon spirits. Just like a real psychic!”
“Congratulations?” Taryn asked again.
“Gee, thanks,” Mary said dryly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Everyone was engrossed with the movie. Mary wondered what they would do after it. With the ghosts there, they didn’t have to set up a watch and ruin the illusion of this being a real slumber party. The ghosts would watch over them and they’d be safe. But they couldn’t do this night after night. They needed to figure out what to do about the Shadowman. Gran was due back the next day, and Mary knew she’d have ideas, but she felt like a failure having to wait for Gran to show up and tell them what to do.
Rachel’s cell phone began ringing. She took it out and looked at the display. Whoever it was surprised her, she hurried to the kitchen to answer it. Mary and Taryn looked at each other. Neither knew who it was.
Together they got up and followed Rachel into the kitchen.
“Ryan, slow down. How do you know that she’s gone there? Could she be at the Trunk?”
Mary tensed up realizing that Rachel was talking to Jenny’s brother and from the sound of it, Jenny was out of the hospital.
