Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book 1) (39 page)

Jenny felt dizzy.  Too much smoke.  She crammed out the joint, with a grimace at the rhino foot, then stood up and walked out to the balcony.  She looked out over the budding life in the orchard, the wildflowers in the stable yard, the blooming vines creeping up the walls of the graveyard on the next hill.  She thought of her ride to school after her first date with Seth, how life in the trees crawled underground in the winter, resting in the roots like a corpse in a grave, but it always came back with a new eagerness to live again. 

“That’s it,” Jenny said. “It’s all about getting access to powerful people.  She’s too impatient to wait.  She wants to climb high and fast.”

“
It could work,” Seth said.  He came out to join her. “Old Chuck there can probably introduce her to some people.  She’ll have him enslaved by the end of the show.”

“
And then she graduates and moves to Washington, DC to start school,” Jenny said, “Seth, we have to stop her!”

“
What?  Why?  Maybe she’ll leave town for good.”

“
But nobody else knows about her power,” Jenny said. “And they wouldn’t believe us if we told them.  And nobody else has powers like us, to fight her with.”

“
We don’t know that,” Seth said. “If there’s three in Fallen Oak, there must be others in the world.”

Jenny paused.  She had never really thought of that.  She wondered how many were out there, what they were doing, if anyone else had a curse like hers.

“Okay,” she said. “But they aren’t focused on Ashleigh.  That’s our responsibility.  She’s from our town.”

“
Now you sound like my dad,” Seth said. “‘Ooh, responsibility’s such a tough word, isn’t it?  Breaks your back, doesn’t it?’  Whatever.”

“
You know I’m right, Seth.”

“
What can we do?” Seth asked. “Should I go heal her?  Or do you want to infect her with something?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Do you want to kill her?” Seth asked.

“
No!”  Jenny turned on him. “Why would you say that?”

“
It’s something you could do,” Seth said. “You wouldn’t go to jail, because it would be death by disease, not murder.  No one would believe a person could do that.”

“
You’ve thought about this?” she asked.

“
Haven’t you?  Haven’t you ever wondered what would happen if you killed someone on accident?  Or on purpose?  If there’s a witness, do the police believe him?  Or whether you could even go to jail for Jenny pox?  Would you be considered a biological weapon?  You never thought about it?”

“
No, Seth,” Jenny said. “I’ve always just pretty much tried to avoid killing people.  That’s plenty to worry about on its own.”

“
If you wanted to kill Ashleigh—”

“
I don’t!”

“—
now’s the time,” Seth continued. “Before she has powerful friends.  Before she’s working in secure areas that we can’t reach.”

“
We can’t just do that,” Jenny said.

“
What else could we do?” Seth asked.

Jenny tried to think of another idea, but nothing came to mind.

“Anyway, we’ve got bigger things to worry about,” Seth said. “The Easter egg hunt thing on Sunday.  Do we need to go shopping?”

“
You’ve got closets and closets of things upstairs,” Jenny said. “I’d rather go shopping right here.”

“
Help yourself.  Some of those closets haven’t been opened in ages, mwah-haha-haha.  There’s all kinds of jewelry and everything.”

“
Is there any I can borrow?” Jenny asked.

“
You find it, you dust it, it’s yours.”

Jenny gaped at him.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not wearing it.”

“
Do you have a sewing machine?”

“
Maybe an antique.  My mom’s not the knitty type.”

“
My favorite kind.  And, so what do we have to do at this Easter thing?”

“
I have to give a speech that the bank manager wrote for me,” Seth said. “Which I will shorten.  And then we sit on the bandstand with the mayor and the preachers, the town council.”

“
Dr. Goodling’s going to be there?” Jenny said.

“
And Rev. Isaiah Bailey from New Calvary Church.” New Calvary was the black church, located on the southern outskirts of the town, not too far from Jenny’s house.

“
Yeah, but back to the Goodlings.  Is Ashleigh going to be near us?”

“
We can try to avoid her,” Seth said. “Anyway, the mayor talks, and the white preacher and the black preacher give a blessing together.  And then the kids hunt for eggs all over the square.  The police block off the roads.”

“
What do I have to do?” Jenny asked.

“
Just sit by me until the hunt is over.”

“
How long does that take?”

“
One year it took three hours.”

Jenny shook her head. She got to her feet. “I’m going closet shopping.  If Ashleigh’s there, I want to look twice as good as her.”

Ashleigh sat with her family on the front row of the white folding chairs arranged on the bandstand.  Cassie was beside her, and then Mayor and Mrs. Winder.  She watched as the people of Fallen Oak trickled out into the grassy square after church.  Cars parked around the square, and black families in colorful Easter clothes emerged, having brought their kids to the square from New Calvary Church to participate.

Ashleigh watched little knots of people come together to greet each other, shake hands and hug.  Kids in their Sunday best ran everywhere.  Lots of teenage girls were looking very big with their pregnancies, and they didn’t seem terribly happy about it.  Ashleigh liked looking down on these little peasants who had done so much to advance her in the world.  One day, some of these people would staff her first campaign for state office.  Ashleigh had enchanted all of the unborn.  She believed they would be of use to her when they grew up.  When she eventually reached high office, she would have a devoted young staff to serve her.

She was feeling cheerful and cocky from her string of victories.  She’d strolled into the principal’s office on his last day and acted surprised to see him loading his pictures and framed degrees into a cardboard box.

“
Principal Harris, why on Earth are you packing your office?” Ashleigh had asked him. “It’s only April.”

He had glared at her for a moment.

“You know very well why, Ashleigh,” he said. “I’ve been suspended.  Mrs. Varney will be acting principal for the remainder of the year.”

“
Oh, goodness, no!” Ashleigh said.  Principal Harris just stared at her.

“
Ashleigh,” he asked. “Why do this?  Why ruin my life?  What did I ever do to you?”

“
Gosh, Principal Harris,” she’d said. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about you at all.”

Then Ashleigh took a strawberry lollipop from Mrs. Langford’s desk on the way out.  Ashleigh didn’t care about Harris one way or the other, though she enjoyed crushing somebody who had tried to stand against her.  Of course, if he hadn’t done that, Ashleigh wouldn’t be where she was today.  She was glad some people were so predictable.

Most important, the real reason Ashleigh felt like a queen as she looked down from on high on the bandstand, was that Ashleigh had gotten the call from The Covenant. 

It had come, appropriately, on Good Friday, just two days ago.  A lady named Beth Underwood, who called herself an “event coordinator” for The Covenant, reached Ashleigh at home to make the invitation.  They wanted her to give a presentation in May, at the big monthly dinner meeting, not just a little prayer breakfast or a lunch seminar.  Ms. Underwood, who didn’t sound much older than Ashleigh, offered to send a private jet to meet Ashleigh at the Greenville Downtown Airport.  She said Ashleigh’s family was welcome to stay in the Magdalene Suite at Covenant Hall, or the plane could take them home after dinner.

Ashleigh asked to stay.  Covenant Hall was a beautiful forty-room Colonial Revival mansion in Georgetown, originally built in the early 20
th
century by a member of the Mellon family.  It had later been an expensive hotel, before it was acquired by the private, tax-exempt religious organization known as The Covenant.  She would be giving her presentation in the small theater there, then eating with the members in the dining hall.  Staying meant more time to network.  Maybe she could even stretch out the visit a few days.  It would be Ashleigh’s first visit to Washington, DC, and she wanted to see everything.  She especially loved the idea of touring around the center of world power with Cassie at her side.

“
Here is what our members will expect from you,” Ms. Underwood had said.  Ashleigh had grabbed a pen to take it down word for word. “First, they want a full presentation of the abstinence program you created.  They will want a recap of your tribulations.  Finally, they will ask for your input on possible federal abstinence programs aimed at your age group.”

“
Okay,” Ashleigh said. “I can do that.”

“
Additionally, everyone in your party will sign a confidentiality waiver regarding all discussions and events inside the building.  This simply allows everyone to speak his mind freely.”

“
Of course,” Ashleigh said.  She was trying not to jump up and down, trying not to let out the excited squeal that so badly wanted to escape her. “Will I be able to meet people and shake their hands?”

“
Yes, at the reception,” Ms. Underwood said. “Several of our members are eager to meet you, Miss Goodling.”

“
Tell them I’m eager to meet them, too,” Ashleigh said.

Afterward, Ashleigh had run excited, screaming laps around the house, frightening their dog Maybelle, who opened and closed her mouth uselessly, since Ashleigh’s mother had long ago grown sick of the dog’s occasional barking and instructed the veterinarian to cut Maybelle’s vocal cords. 

Ashleigh had spent months laying out the bait to attract an invitation inside The Covenant’s locked and guarded doors. 

The Covenant was a small, very specialized ministry, focused on makers of law and policy.  Among its members were eight Senators and thirty-four Representatives, as well as assorted top officials, all of them men.  Their main focus was promoting war against Muslim countries—any war, any country, as far as she understood.  Ashleigh didn’t know much about foreign policy, but she had a simple strategy for that.  She would simply agree enthusiastically with whatever they said. 

The Covenant sometimes took an interest in domestic policy, including abstinence education on religious grounds.  When Ashleigh had read about them, she recognized this as an issue where her power could work for her, and she could actually portray herself as an expert on current teenage behavior, which was forever a mystery to most adults, anyway.  She simply needed a scapegoat to oppose her abstinence campaign, someone to blame for the rash of pregnancies that Ashleigh could create.  Principal Harris had been a perfect mark and walked right into it.  Her daddy had taught her how to recognize a sucker.

Now she looked forward to putting her hands on the Congressman and Senators at The Covenant’s May meeting.  She would have the chance to talk to a room full of powerful men.  She would enchant each of them, handshake by handshake, and a thousand opportunities would open up for her.  She did not plan to leave Washington without job offers for the summer.  She wanted to be somewhere she could shake a lot of hands, so that she would already be her own little power center by the time she started at Georgetown in the fall.  The first door was wide open and waiting for her, and that was all she needed.

From the bandstand, Ashleigh watched the brightly dressed crowd grow larger.  They were like toys in her sandbox, and playing with them had helped prepare her for the world.  Now it was time to leave her toys behind.

Her mood darkened when she saw Seth and Jenny approach the bandstand.  She studied the dangerous couple.  Seth wore a simple black suit, with a tie and pocket handkerchief the color of a robin’s egg.  Jenny had clearly gotten into the Barrett closets: her vintage cloche hat had a bouquet of red silk roses stitched on one side, and she wore a long blue dress that nobody in Jenny’s family could afford.

Ashleigh had gone for the simple look, with a white boater-style hat wrapped in a single purple ribbon, which matched the purple trim on her white dress.  She found herself comparing herself to Jenny Mittens, and she resented that.  Jenny had worked a pretty good scam of her own, taking Seth from Ashleigh so quickly.  Seth had betrayed Ashleigh, after she’d invested so much time making Seth into who he was.  He’d dropped Ashleigh cold.  Ashleigh didn’t know who she hated more, Seth or Jenny.  Her hate for Jenny was lifelong, etched deep into her identity.  Her hate for Seth was recent and hot, a freshly opened wound she hadn’t expected.