The Witch Read Free Page A

harder on the gas pedal. Normally Jacob got along with his mother-in-law, but the topic of religion was a sore point.
    “Not on the Lord’s day,” she said.
    “Mabel, the apostles worshiped on Saturday. I usually have to head into the office for a few hours on Saturday, so we never fish on the Jewish Sabbath.”
    “You’re not Jewish. You and Stephen are Christians.”
    “Agnostics,” he corrected. “Actually, there’s a touch of pagan in us. I can feel the need to fly. The need to communicate with the gods and goddesses. The full moon has me out baying.” He looked at Mabel and smiled.
    “Why did my daughter have to marry a Loony Tune?” But she smiled back.
    “I was irresistible. You know that. Why else would you have shown me all those dishy youthful photos of yourself when Cathy brought me home to meet you?”
    He made his mother-in-law blush. He loved to do that, because she was actually prettier when she blushed. Mabel had just had her fifty-eighth birthday, but her skin was still pale and soft, almost wrinkle-free except for the puppet lines reaching down to the corners of her mouth. Her hair was pale blond fading into white, and her well-shaped physique only hinted at a mature plumpness.
    Jacob pulled up in front of the elementary school in which she had taught for the past thirty years.
    “I’m not kidding about church, Jacob. Children should be raised in a Christian manner.”
    “Even Moslem children?”
    “My grandson should be.” Her eyebrows arched, but Jacob refused to give her any promises. “I don’t have time to argue now. This evening expect a call from me.”
    “Stephen will be happy to hear from you.”
    Mabel shook her head and got out of the car.

Chapter
4
    A piercing screech greeted Jacob when he walked into his kitchen. Stephen jumped out from under the kitchen table wearing a handmade mask of a wolf.
    “Hey, Molly, you didn’t warn me about the monster in the kitchen.”
    “Did I scare you, Dad? This is just a mask,” Stephen said as he pulled the mask off with his paint-stained hands. “Molly helped me to make it for Halloween. She’s going to make a fuzzy suit to go with it.”
    Seventeen-year-old Molly stood at the kitchen threshold. Her baggy pants and sweatshirt covered what Jacob knew to be a tight firm body. He wondered why she always chose to keep herself so covered up.
    “I hope you thanked her,” said Jacob.
    “Sure I did. Thanks, Molly.”
    “Hey, I’m going to expect something in return,” she said.
    “Like what?” Stephen’s eyes opened wide.
    “A good little boy trundling off to bed when he’s told.”
    “Dad,” Stephen whined.
    “Stephen,” whined back his dad.
    “I should have had you tucked in already before your father got home. I only allowed you to stay up to show your father the mask.”
    Stephen grimaced.
    “It’s okay, Molly. Why don’t you take off for home, and I’ll see to this ferocious beast.”
    “It’s a wolf, Dad. See!” Stephen modeled the mask again.
    “Okay. Will you be needing me at all this weekend?” Molly asked.
    “No, I’m taking the entire weekend off to be with my son.”
    “Will we pick flowers and go to the shore?” Stephen asked.
    “If that’s what you want to do, but shouldn’t we also plan on doing something else?”
    Stephen shrugged.
    The telephone rang.
    “I’m feeling psychic tonight, Stephen. I’ll bet that’s Grandma.”
    Enthusiastically, the boy ran to answer the telephone.
    “I could stay over if you need help getting Stephen to bed,” said Molly.
    “Who was that big lumberjack I saw with you the other day?”
    “Randall. He’s on the school football team.”
    “Why don’t you go home and give him a call? By the way he was looking at you, I’d say he’d like to hear from you.”
    Molly stopped starring into Jacob’s eyes and looked down at her white and black running shoes. Her body tensed.
    “We’re not serious,” she mumbled.
    “Sorry to hear that. You should really