fill him in on what my grandmother told me?
Well, Dex, I’m a little out of it because a couple of weeks ago I was kidnapped and forced to participate in a hoodoo ritual that cleansed my soul. Apparently, my family has a legacy of black magic. Like, curses and love potions. Oh, and guess what? The Maggots are in on it too!
No, that wouldn’t really fly. I mean, he’s cool and all, but I don’t know anyone who would listen to my story and then not send me directly to an insane asylum. Besides, Dex is the closest thing I have to a normal friend here…. I don’t know if I’m up for losing him yet.
“I’m just tired,” I say. “I’ve been having nightmares lately. That’s all.”
My grandmother hasn’t mentioned the big revelation either. I spend the next couple of weeks watching her closely, trying to figure out exactly how this new, strange information figures into the absorbing puzzle that is my grandmother’s existence. For instance, if her husband was so infatuated with her, where did he go? And could she really be almost seventy years old? And the main question in my mind: If being a Magnolia Leaguer is so wonderful, why did my mother run away?
My mother. That’s a whole other door to open. Supposedly, she knew all about this hoodoo arrangement… meaning she’d used the spells herself. But as much as I try to wrap my mind around this, I can’t remember her saying anything that would have indicated that she’d grown up privy to any sort of supernatural powers. Sure, she was obsessed with horticulture and tinctures, and I guess that fits in… but it seemed normal for an herbalist.
My only memory that seems to support this new insight into her past is from her thirtieth birthday. I was eleven years old. We had planned this huge party for her at the Main, with fire dancers and banjo players. Big Jon never said so, but I think he was a little in love with my mom, so this particular birthday got special treatment.
I remember I came into our cabin with a handful of flowers I’d picked from the Sanctuary. She was wearing a beautiful dress I had never seen before. It was green and silky and dipped down low in the back—much fancier than anything I’d ever seen. She had on long green gloves to match. When I came into the room, I stopped in surprise. She had lit candles everywhere and was burning some unfamiliar sweet incense. She was standing in front of the mirror, turning from side to side.
“Mom?” I said, a little scared. She seemed in a trance, almost. It took her a full minute to answer.
“Hi, honey,” she said, still staring at herself.
“You look pretty.”
“Thanks, sweetie.” Her eyes were a little bloodshot. I couldn’t help wondering if she’d been crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“My first wrinkle.”
“What?” She was being ridiculous. Her face was as smooth as polished stone. “No way.”
“Way,” she replied, smiling. She pointed to a barely discernible line between her eyebrows.
“Mom,” I said, “that’s not a wrinkle. It’s, like, a cat hair or something.”
“My mother never got even one,” she said. “She went to the Doctor first.”
“The doctor? Like the boob doctor?” We all used to laugh about the boob doctor. Once, a girl with boobs as round and firm as beach balls had come to the RC. In a particularly unwise moment, she told Billy she’d gone to the boob doctor. He also stretched out ladies’ faces and sucked fat off their bodies with a hose, she said. After she told us that, we’d go up to her and poke her boobs with our fingers. She left a week or so later.
“Not exactly,” my mother said. She stared some more. “If I had done what my mother said, I’d never have any wrinkles.”
“What, like use sunscreen?” My mom was always slathering me in thick, smelly sunblock. It was a drag.
“Sort of,” she said. She ran her finger over her face and then thoughtfully stroked the pendant around her neck. “I’d never have to age at all,” she said. I stared at her. She was definitely being weird. “Well, I guess there’s no turning back now.”
“Mom,” I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You look awesome.”
She turned around, smiling. “This dress is a little overkill, though, huh?”
“Maybe.”
She motioned for me to unzip her. “It’s something I had from a long time ago.”
I waited for her to explain, but she had that