Chapter Thirteen

Each Notch has a Knife

Salinger

The first step to getting each of the cousin's lives straightened out was to talk to them about their futures. I interviewed each of them.

“Pearl, what do you plan to do after graduation?”

She looked at me like I was a freak. “Well, if there turns out to be a place open in our generation's coven, I'd like to join it. I don't think that's very likely. It will be Intarsia, Clementine, and Fair Isle. I'll be left out because I'm the youngest.”

I nodded. “What about a career?”

“I'm going to work in my mother's shop.”

I had heard about it. It was a mystic boutique called Cold as Stone that sold semi-precious stones, tarot cards, and tiki masks.

“Is that what you want to do?”

She scoffed. “No one is pressuring me. Until I chose my color, they thought I was too childish to help there. My mother lets me work there two nights a week now.”

“Is the money good?”

“She doesn't pay me.”

“Will you get paid after graduation?”

“Probably not.”

I looked around the room because looking at her was a trifle painful. “Are you okay with that?”

“Why wouldn't I be? It's a family tradition. Except that it would be cool if I could figure out a way to get more people to come in. It's practically a graveyard right now. That’s why I wouldn’t be paid.”

I said goodbye to her and scribbled a note in my book about touring the shop to see where I could help.

I didn't ask her about Antony. It was obvious she wanted to be with him forever and ever and ever. I didn't need to make her say it.

⚘⚘⚘

Intarsia was next. She was a sight to behold since she had continued to wear red lipstick.

“What are you going to do in the fall?” I asked, taking her hand and spinning her like a dancer. “Do you have plans?”

She steadied herself against me and rolled her eyes. “Why do you have to look like Colin Ferrell and talk like my mother?” She pushed me away.

I chuckled. I did not look like Colin Ferrell. Instead of correcting her, I said, “Your mother sounds awesome. What does she think you should do?”

“She thinks I should go to work in her yarn shop.”

I rubbed my chin doubtfully. “Would you get paid?”

“Of course, I'd get paid. I get paid now. I have done their books since I first started taking accounting. They're taking mild advantage of me, and that's fine... since I don't have any other plans.”

“Well, we need to get you some other plans. I'm going to that college,” I struggled for the name, “Grant MacEwan tomorrow to look at what's available.”

She groaned. “It's too late. If you wanted to apply there, you should have done so months ago, or didn't you know?”

“Don't be such a defeatist. Just because we can't start something in September doesn't mean we can't make arrangements for later. We have to make plans.”

“And you're planning to go to Grant MacEwan in January?”

“I'll go if you'll go.”

She looked at me like the idea was unheard of. “You'd go to college with me?”

“Yes.”

“You'll be my little bus buddy and go take classes every day there?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that when you have already made up your mind to have Veda and spirit her away to the north?”

At first, I didn't know how to answer her. We stared at each other with open mouths. Finally, I said, “Who's getting married, Intarsia—? I'm two years older than you, but I still haven't got a career. Just like you, I've been spending my time doing whatever my father asks me to do at his shop. Let's just start by going there tomorrow and seeing how we like it.”

She nodded.

I felt like a creep because her eyes shone with a flame of hope that I’d changed my mind. I hadn’t, but she deserved to do something meaningful with her life. Like the jerkwad I was, I smiled at her and let her believe whatever she liked. Then I wrote the time we were going to meet in my book and went on my way.

⚘⚘⚘

Fair Isle was perched in the window seat when I came back from Intarsia's. I had been planning to take her to the college with us, but the truth was that I didn’t even want to talk to her.

I read the book she stole all the way to the end after she left my room the night before. I had been avoiding it the same way I’d been avoiding her. It was terrible. No small wonder Veda dropped it.

We had been all over each other. Her hands in my hair, her tongue between my teeth, the buttons on my shirt torn free, and with each heightened detail of intimacy between us I thought I’d scream. I did scream a bit, swearing and cursing as I did so. Not only did it show that I was an inexperienced writer, but it also showed that I was an inexperienced lover. Reading it was like listening to an ancient fortune teller give you a play-by-play of the first time you got anywhere with a date, which wasn’t exactly true.  I wasn’t completely inexperienced.  I just hadn’t liked any of the girls I’d dated enough to get swept away the way I was when I thought about being with Veda.  I wanted her in my arms badly, but because of the girl swap, that was how I kissed Fair Isle.

The book only ended because I had put a timepiece within it. The ball had to end at midnight, so when the clock struck, Aunt Hazel interrupted us in the library. That was the end of the book.

When I’d had enough of what I’d read, I took it to the firepit in the backyard and disposed of it in the only I knew would ensure it would never be read by another person. With the licking flames, I felt better, like Fair Isle had never slipped her hands up my shirt and enjoyed what she’d felt.

After I burned it, I felt hoodwinked and a little like exacting revenge on Fair Isle for her thievery. Looking at her by the window, she didn’t look like the same girl who had snuck into my room. She was wearing a black shirt that had been worn so many times, it had turned gray. Her hair was spiked and she wore dark circles around her eyes, but they only made her look younger. She was the youngest warrior in a line of soldiers—afraid. Before she read it, she didn’t know what was in the book and once inside, she couldn’t leave when she’d tried. Now she had the aftermath to deal with just as much as I did.

What happened between the two of us when she read my book was irreparable because the version of me that existed in the book had responded to her very favorably. The resulting uproar was exactly what I wished would happen in the book, but with Veda. Except I was wrong. Veda never would have responded the way Fair Isle did.

I swallowed my discomfort and approached her. “What are you doing in the fall?” I asked.

She reached out and brushed her fingertips against the tail of my shirt. Meeting my eyes and my visible reproach, she dropped her hand. In the daylight, she couldn’t win no matter what she did. Clearing her mouth, she said, “I'm moving to British Columbia in September to study. I'm going to be a herbalist. Maybe I'll be back in May next year. Maybe not.”

I was surprised she had that much direction. “Really? Was that a recent decision?”

“Yeah,” she said, clicking her tongue. She opened her mouth to say one thing, closed it, and said something else, “I need to get away from Veda. The way I feel about her is ruining my life. Do you think you could marry her and haul her up to the Yukon before I come back next year?”

“Um, I don't think I could.”

Her eyes grew to the size of moons. “Does that mean you gave up on her?”

I averted my gaze. “Why are you in such a hurry to have all that settled? Right now, she's not really dating me. She fooled me into thinking she was and I do feel a little foolish. I've been going about this the wrong way. A lot of things have to happen before the end can come.”

Fair Isle stared at me. “Was that English you just used? It sounded like a different language to me. The one called B.S. A lot of things that have to happen? Like what?”

I couldn't tell Fair Isle my plan to help Veda settle her cousins. After all, Fair Isle going to college in B.C. might be enough to set her on the track Veda hoped for her.

I scratched my chin and didn't answer her directly. “I think your plan to be a herbalist is wonderful. You must message me, after you've gone, and tell me about what you're learning.”

She lowered her eyes painfully. “I'm not going to message you. I've already wasted enough of my time on you.” Her voice was scathing as she stood up and brushed past me.

I had to do something about her. I got out my book, jotting down only her name and a question mark.