I cracked a small smile. “Well, when you put it that way . . .”
“I have one more idea,” Maggie said. “And this one doesn’t involve a television show or a board game.”
“I’m all ears.”
“What if you talked to Serena?”
I thought of my uncle’s girlfriend, with her long skirts and tarot cards. “Absolutely not.”
“What? Why?”
“Because she’s completely nuts, that’s why.” I’d known Serena my whole life. Hell, she was practically family, but I’d never been able to buy into all her talk about the worlds outside our own. She marched to her own beat, and I was cool with that, but asking me to learn the rhythm? That’s where I drew the line.
“All I’m saying is it couldn’t hurt to talk to her. Weird is kind of her area of expertise.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Maybe we should just try the library after all.”
Maggie sighed. “Fine. We can go and look in the archives for old newspaper photographs or something that might help us figure out who this woman is and what she wants.”
The whole thing still sounded crazy, but what other choice did I have? I glanced uneasily at the handprint on my arm. My fingers were itching to tug my sleeve over it and pretend it didn’t exist, but a wave of determination washed over me. I ground my teeth and glared at it instead. There had to be an explanation for what had happened to me, and I was going to find it.
“Sounds like a plan.”
CHAPTER THREE
It didn’t take long for the calm I’d felt while talking to Maggie to evaporate. As soon as I left the playground, my mind began to hurl questions at me—questions with no answers. By the time I arrived home, my nerves felt like I had been running over them with a cheese grater.
I pulled myself from the car and turned to see my uncle Gareth sitting on the front porch. He was holding a book in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other. Considering the late hour, it could mean only one thing.
“Oh, come on,” I groaned as I stomped up the steps and plopped down in the chair beside him. “Again? She just did one last week.”
Gareth smiled sheepishly but didn’t look up from his book. “She had a feeling. You know the drill.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why can’t you date someone normal?”
He ignored me, but he did reach over to give me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “She brought cookies, if that helps.”
“Snickerdoodles?”
“They are your favorite, aren’t they?”
I nodded and let out a sigh. Serena might be bat-shit crazy, but she was a hell of a baker. “Fine.”
“That’s my girl.” Gareth grinned at me, the glint in his eyes making him look much younger than his forty-two years.
We don’t look much alike. Gareth is tall and brawny with honey-colored hair, tan skin, and dark chocolate-colored eyes. I’m on the short side with long, wavy brown hair, hazel eyes, and a fair complexion. I look mostly like my mom, but I have my dad’s smile.
Gareth’s and my mannerisms are the same, though, and we have the exact same sense of humor. We can even finish each other’s sentences. Serena jokes that we share a brain. I guess that’s what happens when your whole family consists of a single person. Gareth took me in after my parents died, and it had been just the two of us—and his kooky girlfriend, Serena—ever since. Our relationship had always been more like friends or roommates than uncle and niece, but I liked it that way. Life with Gareth was easy.
I leaned my head against the back of the wicker chair and sighed. Sitting beside Gareth on the porch, listening to the soft slithering sound of his pages turning was peaceful, but my mind still flashed with images of the woman, or ghost, or whatever it was. The handprint on my arm stung under the fabric of my hoodie.
“You okay, kid?” Gareth was looking at me over the top of his book.
“I think I’m just a little stressed about the SATs.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.
“You’re going to do great,” he said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “You’ve been studying for months.”
“I know. I guess I’m just. . .” I bit down on my bottom lip. “I’m just worried.” About more things than one.
“Everything will work out exactly as it’s supposed to. You can’t control what happens to you, only how you react to it.” He smiled at me. “Besides, you have nothing to worry about. You asked for a dictionary and a set of encyclopedias for your eighth birthday. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna kill it.”
The memory made me laugh. Though the encyclopedias had passed on, I still had that same worn-out Webster’s sitting on my desk in my room. “Thanks. You’re right. I just need to relax a little.”
“Exactly.” Gareth turned back to his book. “Now, why don’t you head in for some of those cookies? Serena should be finished up by now.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m right behind you.”
I stood up and walked toward the door. Part of me was dying to turn around, jump into his lap like I used to do as a kid, and tell him how scared and confused I was. But the other half screamed at me to walk inside and not say anything that might land me in a padded room.
With a huff, I walked inside. The house smelled strongly of burnt sage. Serena, or Madam Serena Morales as her customers call her, was in the living room. A dozen or more candles lined the room, casting shadows against the walls. The light wrapped around her, giving her russet brown skin a soft glow. Her large brown eyes were wide and focused, and she was swaying back and forth, her shiny dark hair swishing around her shoulders in a perfect line. She was clutching a bundle of burning sage and mumbling some kind of incantation under her breath.
If I hadn’t seen it a thousand times before, I would’ve laughed, but Serena and Gareth had been together for as long as I could remember, and these cleansing rituals had become commonplace in our house.
“Hi, Serena,” I called out as I passed through to the kitchen.
She blinked and turned to smile at me. “Lainey! Just in time! I’ve just finished the cleansing ritual. Your house is officially spirit free!” She swept across the floor with that ridiculous flamboyant walk she somehow made look natural and began to blow out the candles. “Don’t you just love the energy of a clean house? It’s absolutely exhilarating. Can you feel it?”
“Yeah, definitely.” I snorted down a laugh. Not that Serena noticed. She continued flouncing around the room, sweeping her long skirt around her legs like a matador does his muleta.
“You know what I think we should do?” Serena skipped back over to me. “I think we should form a serenity circle. We haven’t done one in months!”
“Um . . . that sounds really great, but I’ve got a lot of studying to do. I think I’m gonna grab a few cookies and then head up to bed.”