Enchantment Read Free

Daddy wasn’t shielded she also knew she could push her luck. “Why? What’s going on?”
    He got a pinched look around his eyes as he stared over the top of the bus and all the color drained from his face. “On second thought, if something happens, get your bike and ride as fast as you can to your Aunt Wisdom’s place and tell her what’s going on.”
    “What is going on?”
    Daddy scrubbed his face with calloused palms then said, “Just promise me you won’t go inside that cabin.”
    “You’re scaring me, Daddy.”
    “Good.” Daddy squeezed Channie’s arm then patted her cheek. “Promise?”
    “Yeah, I promise.”  
    He nodded once then joined Momma in the cabin. Abby and three very cranky trips stumbled out the door.
    ~***~
    The Volkswagen bus was an old 1956 panel-van model without rear seats or windows. Useful for avoiding prying eyes when running moonshine, but not very comfortable for passengers — even when it wasn’t packed floor to ceiling with half their earthly belongings. Channie helped Abby clear a space for the triplets then wriggled between Momma’s cedar trunk and Daddy’s tool chest like a snake.  
    Abby grabbed Channie’s left foot and said, “What the hell you think you’re doing?”
    “I want to know what’s going on.”
    “I’ll tell you what’s going on, you’re gonna get me whipped.”
    She was right of course, Daddy would scold Channie, but he’d take his belt to Abby for not stopping her. “I’m not going to get caught. Unless you tell on me.”
    “I ain’t no snitch.”
    “Daddy told me to go get help if something goes wrong. How am I supposed to know if something goes wrong if I’m stuck in here?”
    “I don’t know, but Daddy said to stay in the bus.”
    Channie pushed a little persuasive magic at Abby.  
    She sighed and let go of Channie’s foot. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, lil’ sis. You’re gonna get me in all sorts of trouble.”  
    Channie rolled onto her back and grabbed the steering wheel to pull herself between the front seats. The side doors hadn’t worked in years and were bound shut with bailing wire.  
    When Channie sat up, her jaw dropped. The cabin was on fire. Black, oily smoke seeped through the cracks between the logs and poured out around the door jamb and window sills.
    She ran to the window and pressed her palms against the glass. The interior of the cabin glowed but she couldn’t see anything through the smoke. There were no flames and no heat. The cabin was not on fire, it was bewitched. Energy pulsed all around Channie. She’d been healed, blessed, bound and even cursed, but this magic was different, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. It made her dizzy and a little nauseous. She stumbled back to the bus and yanked on the rope holding her bike. “Abby! Get out here and help me get my bike!”
    “No need, baby girl. We’re all done.”
    Channie whirled around. Daddy was sitting on the top porch step, fanning smoke away from his face. Momma stood to the side, clinging to the porch post.
    Channie slid her hand from the base of her throat to her hip. “Good lord, Daddy, you scared the bejeebies outta me.”
    Daddy rocked forward and launched his massive body off the step. “Let’s get outta here.”

    ~***~
    They were about fifty miles west of the Oklahoma state line when the trips fell asleep and Daddy did something he’d never done before. He confessed.  
    “I was on a lucky streak, sold all my moonshine the first night and tripled my money playing poker with the boys. Me and Lucky McGee decided to head on down to Hot Springs and play the ponies.” Daddy sighed and wiped the sweat off his brow with a grimy red shop towel.
    “Usually, the tracks, stables, horses and jockeys are shielded from magic, but there was some sort of hullabaloo going on that day with visiting celebrities so the track’s mages were a little distracted. Lucky found a hole in the shield and kept watch while I cast a weakening