Cursebusters! by Julie Smith

Author:Julie Smith [Smith, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
Published: 2011-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter XVII: Momarama

He wasn’t kidding. Next up was Kara.

At the appointed hour—after dinner and before the Rangers meeting—Julia and I descended on Sonya’s room, where we found the two of them sitting cross-legged on the floor and reading the Tarot. “Uh-oh,” Sonya said, “I think I see visitors in your future.”

“Oh, great,” I said, “you didn’t tell her we were coming.”

Kara’s face was a stormy sea of boiling emotions, her face working involuntarily, muscles twitching and jerking just beneath the surface. She was fast unfolding her legs. Call me psychic, but I knew she was going to bolt if we didn’t stop her.

I dropped into a squat and put a hand on her knee, causing her to jump about a foot. Her leg tensed so hard it felt like A.B.’s. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “You’re going to be okay. Somehow, some way, we’re going to get you away from that witch.”

Her mouth dropped open in a gasp and her eyes filled. Julia had dropped to the floor as well. “We know, Kara. We saw what you’ve been through.”

She was shaking her head silently, as if this were the last thing she wanted to happen, and scooting on her butt toward her bed, away from Julia and me. She looked as if she expected to be raped and pillaged any minute.

And finally I got it. She was embarrassed that we’d witnessed what she must see as her humiliation. “Kara, listen. You know what visions are like. I literally saw a witch. I don’t even know what your mom looks like. All I saw was a crone in a black dress and a witch’s hat. And she was chasing you. Something…I don’t know what…but something about the vision told me it wasn’t a one-time thing. Maybe it was the expression on your face—kind of like what I’m looking at now. I know you’re scared, but you don’t have to be. We’re not going to invade your privacy. We just want you to know you’re not alone.”

“I saw you tied to a post,” said Julia. “Like…well, like Joan of Arc or someone…and she was whipping you.”

“You’re crazy! My mother wouldn’t tie me up.”

I had to note that she hadn’t said her mom wouldn’t whip her.

“I want to tell you about my mother,” said Julia. She was looking down at her hands, the fingers of which were interlaced in her lap, but constantly opening and closing, fidgeting, hopping about like small animals she couldn’t control. I could see this was no easier for her than for Kara.

“She didn’t let me go to school, didn’t let me have any friends, didn’t let me out of the house. I had to stay in my room for two days, with no food except peanut butter sandwiches, just for reading Harry Potter!”

Silence. Dead, stone-cold silence. What do you say to something like that?

Finally, Sonya said, “What was up with that?”

“Harry’s demonic, that’s why! Mom joined some church that thinks everything’s demonic. Even school.”

“Omigod,” I said. “Like in Carrie.”

Nobody said anything.

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