The Witch of Belladonna Bay Read Free Page B

about it, why sulk all around and skip supper?”
    â€œThat’s just it. I can’t figure her out. The whole mess has her screwed up in the head. Cryin’ all the time. Disgusting is what it is. And…”
    â€œAnd what, spit it out.”
    â€œAnd I think she’s on some kind of drug. She’s all loose lipped and weak-kneed.”
    I was quiet. Drug is the worst, most ugly word in the English language. Drugs killed Naomi.
    My daddy meddled with all sorts of drugs, too. Not to mention drinkin’ it up with Jackson. I was always scared he’d find Naomi’s love for anythin’ comin’ from that poppy flower. Opium was her favorite, like the caterpillar on the mushroom in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , which, by the way, is a silly book. (Who’d eat anything without knowin’ where it came from? Shoot.)
    You know what? I think those Old-timers and Towners are right. I think I do act too old for my age.
    â€œAnd there’s more,” said Jamie, pulling me out of my worry over caterpillars and poppy fields.
    I’d moved in closer. I was frightened of what he’d say, so I needed to be nearer. That way his words might fly right past me and wouldn’t sink in. I hugged him tight. Let him feel the love come out of me. Not a sexy kind of love. A better kind. True love. It let me know things about Jamie. That weakness made him queasy. It’s why he loved me from the start. I ain’t afraid of nothin’. Well, almost nothin’. His next words, those words scared me.
    â€œWhat Jamie, what else?” I asked, not wanting to hear the truth.
    â€œI think she’s been over to Belladonna Bay.” He nodded his head sideways toward the back of the house and past the creek where the mist, which never broke, enveloped that horrible piece of land.
    And that’s when I knew things were gonna change. But I couldn’t foresee, even with all my tryin’ and scourin’ in bowls of water. Even with laying out a million tarot cards in all kinds of spreads and combinations. I couldn’t tell he’d be gone from me by morning. Or that everyone important, all the grown-ups all around us, would consider him dead. Or that they’d blame my daddy for his murder, too.
    *   *   *
    Jamie’d been missing for six months when Jackson finally fired the last prissy nanny and called my aunt Bronwyn out of sheer desperation. Carter and Minerva were too busy to take care of me (even though they asked Jackson to let them), and Jackson was too drunk. I tried to explain that I was just fine taking care of myself, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said I couldn’t just “run wild.” And I gave him a look that said, And just what do you think I’ve been doin’ my whole entire life, Jackson?
    In the end, it took him a whole half a year to get up the courage to call his own daughter. And even though I can’t look into his mind like with folks I don’t know so well, I already knew he wasn’t really lookin’ for Bronwyn to come home to take care of me. He’d just had enough of her bein’ gone. And with my daddy gone too, he needed his other kid around.
    But damn . six months is a long time in a girl’s life to wait for the inevitable. I could already feel those boobies growin’. Minerva tells me I’m crazy and flat as a board. Seems that having strange ways slows down the whole process of getting old. But I swear I can see ’em, I swear it.
    Thing is, I ain’t never even been sick. And I don’t expect to. And I’m beautiful and therefore useful. That’s a funny idea, ain’t it? It comes from my very own bible. The Little Prince . It’s full of all sorts of funny ideas that don’t seem to make sense at first, until you sit and think on it for a bit. Those are the best kind of ideas, in my opinion.
    The book belonged to Naomi. She brought it with her