Scary Mary (5 page)

"Yeah, come over Saturday anytime, and we’ll
hang out,” he said.

Then they went their separate ways.

~~ ~~ ~~

Mary was humming a happy tune as she let herself
into the house. She’d started doing it on her walk home. If she’d
stopped and thought about it, she would have realized that she’d
never hummed on the way home. It was usually dark thoughts and
imaginings of revenge. But she wasn’t thinking about humming or
having foul thoughts about her classmates. She was thinking about
Cy. He was so cool. He didn’t make fun of her, he didn’t act like
she was a total reject of society, and he wasn’t afraid of her. It
was neat. Rachel was the same way, but she was a girl. Mary smiled
to herself. A boy liked her.

She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that
she was caught completely off-guard by the tiny cannonball of
frenetic energy that hit her in the legs. She fell in a heap. She
lay there for a minute blinking. What’d just happened? Her mind
quickly figured it out as something began touching her cheeks. It
felt disturbingly like licking. She scrambled to her feet.

“
Gran!”

She came out of her office. Mrs. Polk, who was
once again toting Chowder, followed her. Gran took one look at Mary
and ushered Mrs. Polk back into her office. Mary could hear her
telling the woman that she would only be a few moments and giving
her a quartz crystal to meditate with while she waited. When she
came back out, she was holding back a smile.

“
Are you all right?”

“
The ghost dog made me fall again. Are you
sure he isn’t a malevolent spirit?”

Gran chuckled. “He seems perfectly friendly to
me.”

Mary snorted.

“
He seems to like you.”

She snorted again.

“
He scampers off whenever you come into
the house. Why don’t you try playing with him while I finish up
with Mrs. Polk?”

Mary stared at her slack jawed. She wanted her
to play with an invisible dog?

“
Here, use this. Mrs. Polk says it was his
favorite toy.” She pulled a red, squeaky ball out of a pocket. Mary
took the ball reluctantly. Not believing that it would work, she
tossed it across the room. It floated back to her in a bobbing
fashion and dropped at her feet. She scowled at her feet. She did
not want to play with the ghost dog, but Gran had already retreated
to her office. She picked up the ball. She couldn’t believe she was
doing this. She tossed the ball again.

Really, the dog didn’t annoy her that much. As
ghosts went, he seemed innocuous, but still, he was a ghost. If
anyone had come upon her, they would have freaked out. There she
was throwing a ball, and it was floating back to her.

She had to get used to this sort of thing from
an early age. She’d had the ability to hear ghosts since she was
born, but she hadn’t been aware of it until she was five. It was
normal for kids to have invisible friends, but not invisible dead
friends. When she’d told her schoolmates about these ‘friends’,
they’d run screaming for the teacher. She’d realized very quickly
that no one else heard the rich, chuckling voice of the late
elementary school principal admonishing students not to run in the
halls or the requests from the little boy named Henry who wanted to
play hide-and-go-seek in the park. She’d learned quickly that she
had to keep mum about what she heard. The only person she could
tell was her grandmother. Other people just didn’t want to hear
it.

She threw the ball across the room for Chowder
and listened to his invisible paws click across the hardwood floor.
She wondered what he did when he was home with Mrs. Polk. He
probably stayed dormant or something. She wasn’t sure why, but
ghosts tended to perk up when she was around. Gran had theorized
that her aura strengthened them or made their presences more
pronounced on this plane. Meaning she was like some sort of walking
amplifier. Mary didn’t like that theory because it meant that she
unconsciously helped ghosts talk to her when she’d rather they
stayed silent.

A car starting behind the house alerted Mary of
Mrs. Polk’s departure. She threw the ball one last time, but it lay
where it landed. Chowder was gone. If only all of her ghostly
encounters were so simple.

Chapter 5

First Date Jitters

Mary stood outside Cy’s house on pins and
needles. She’d finally worked up the courage to ask Gran to drive
her over, but now standing outside his home, she was beginning to
reconsider. There were trimmed shrubs and weeded flowerbeds along
the front of the house. She could see lacy curtains framing the
windows. Her home had brown scrub grass and blinds. What did she
have in common with him? She shook her head and told herself she
was being silly. They were just going to watch movies and goof off.
There was nothing to get stressed out over.

She walked across the lawn to the front door.
She was about to step onto the landing when the front door swung
open. She stepped back surprised. A guy with a passing resemblance
to Cy stood in the doorway. He had large shoulders and a thick
build like a wrestler. His hair was cut short and spiky in the
classic jock fashion. His big eyebrows were drawn together due to
the scowl on his face.

“
Who are you?” he demanded.

“
I’m Mary. Cy invited me over,” she
stammered. This must be Kyle, the older brother.

“
Oh, I’ve heard about you,” he said,
taking a long look at her. Mary’s back stiffened under his sneering
gaze.

“
Have you?” Her jaw tightened.

“
Yeah, you’re the town freak. You like to
dig up dead people because you can’t find any living ones to hang
out with.”

Her eyes narrowed. She wanted to say something
nasty back that would make him blink, but she didn’t want to get
into a fight on Cy’s doorstep. It didn’t seem like something a good
guest would do.

Cy appeared behind Kyle. He gave her a cheerful
smile. “Mary, great you’re here.”

Kyle glanced back at his brother with a smirk.
“So, little brother’s going to hang out with the weirdo. Maybe neck
on the sofa. I’d wear some garlic if I were you.” Mary wondered if
their parents would be very upset if she kicked their eldest
between the legs, after all if she did any permanent damage, Cy
could still supply them with grandchildren.

“
With dating tips like that, Kyle, no
wonder you’re going to the dance alone."

“
I’m not coming home alone,” Kyle said and
jerked his coat down. He brushed past Mary without another word.
They watched him peel out of the driveway in a green
SUV.

“
Sweet boy. Wherever did your parents go
wrong with you?”

Cy laughed and waved her inside. When she
stepped into the house, she was in the living room. She stopped
just inside to look around. Cy’s home was a nice, middle-American
ranch house. Little figurines of children sat on side tables along
with dried flower arrangements. The walls and the mantle were lined
with pictures of the family: Kyle and Cy fishing; Kyle, Cy, and
their folks on a picnic; Cy in a mini-league baseball uniform; Kyle
in a Superman costume. She absorbed the normality.

“
Don’t worry about Kyle. He won’t be home
for hours, if he does come home.”

“
So where are your parents?” She asked,
looking around.

“
They left for the weekend on a business
trip.”

“
They’re not here?”

“
Nope, and I didn’t get a chance to rent
any movies, but we can watch something off the shelf. Pick one out
while I make some popcorn.”

“
Okay.” She’d been nervous about meeting
his parents. She generally didn’t do well with parents, except
Rachel’s parents, but Rachel’s parents were different. They’d
raised Rachel. Other parents assumed Mary was a bad influence. It
had totally killed her babysitting career.

So silver lining, the parents weren’t there to
disapprove of her, but their absence meant she was alone with him.
She was alone with a boy. Mary wanted to bite her nails.

She chose Thelma and Louise from his family
collection. She was betting it was his mom’s, but he hadn’t groaned
and begged for a different title when she told him her choice. That
had earned him a few points.

They sat at either end of the sofa with the bowl
of popcorn between them. She got as well situated as possible, but
comfortable was impossible. Was this a date? It could be construed
as such, couldn’t it? They were a boy and a girl in his house with
no parental supervision. He’d asked her over. They liked each
other. He was cute. If it were a date, it was Mary’s first
date.

She wished she knew if it were a date. It was
hard being nervous something when she wasn’t if it was happening or
not. Getting tired of her constant worrying, she curled up into a
ball and concentrated on the movie. It’d been a long time since
she’d seen it.

~~ ~~ ~~

Louise was yelling at Thelma about how to get to
Mexico. Louise did not want to go through Texas. Mary could
sympathize with Thelma’s frustration with her friend. It seemed
like a lot of headache not to go through a big place like Texas to
avoid any chance of being caught in Texas. The simpler plan would
be to just go through Texas and not get caught, but maybe Louise
knew something Thelma and Mary didn’t.

“
Worthless women. The whole lot of them.”
Mary’s head snapped up. She glanced at Cy. He was engrossed in the
movie and seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was, but that was
beside the point. Who’d said that? Cy hadn’t noticed it. Mary hoped
she’d imagined it. She turned back to the movie. Thelma had agreed
to plot a course around Texas to get to Mexico but had told Louise
that it was crazy.

“
They deserve everything they get. Put’em
in their place. Show’em who’s boss.” Mary looked around this time.
This
was
crazy. Was there another TV on in
the house? Was someone outside? Cy hadn’t noticed the strange man’s
voice and that disturbed her more than if it had alarmed him. She
didn’t like the sound of it. It was faint but still pierced her
ears, and it sounded angry and mean. She was about to get up on the
pretense of going to the bathroom but really to check the house
when someone knocked at the door. Mary about jumped out of her
skin.

Cy laughed at her reaction. “Relax, it’s just
the door, or are you afraid the state troopers have finally chased
you down?” She forced herself to smile at his joke, but her body
was tense. She watched from the couch as he went to the door. She
heard a voice she recognized. Vicky.

“
Cy, home alone? Excellent!”

“
Not really. Mary’s here with
me.”

“
She knows,” said another voice. This
voice she recognized too. Goody, Kyle was with the malevolent
cheerleader.

Mary got up off the couch, switched off the
entertainment center, and braced herself for Vicky vitriol. The
cheerleader sauntered into the living room with an easy smile
plastered across her face. If Vicky was all sunshine and rainbows,
Kyle was looming storm clouds as he came in and leaned against a
wall to glower at Mary.

“
Hi, Mary. It’s good to see you,” Vicky
said.

“
Yeah, whatever,” she said on guard. She
had no idea what the bubble brain was up to. There was another girl
with them.

Vicky introduced her. “You know Carolyn.”

Mary nodded her head. Carolyn hung out with
Vicky and thought the sun rose and set on the auburn-haired bimbo.
Carolyn wrinkled her nose at her. Her response was customary so
Mary didn’t pay any attention to her. Vicky was the one who had her
full attention. The cheerleader walked over to the large coffee
table in front of the sofa and began clearing off everything on it.
She acted like she was in her own home.

Carolyn stood to the side holding a box under
her arm. It was long and wide but not very deep. It looked like a
box for a board game. Once the coffee table was clear, Vicky pulled
it clear of the sofa while Kyle looked smug. Mary and Cy shared a
look and both shrugged their shoulders. They had no clue what was
going on. Vicky held out her hand to Carolyn. She handed her the
long narrow box.

“
Look what I brought everybody! A Ouija
board! I thought it would be a lot of fun, especially with our
expert here. Right, Mary?” Now Mary was worried. She’d never used a
Ouija board before, but Gran had told her about them. They were
used to talk to spirits and there was a spirit here who was
talkative.

“
Shouldn’t be in my home. This is my
house. Even Julie knew that. She may have been a faithless whore,
but even she knew not to bring unwanted people into my house.”
Mary bowed her head and silently urged the spirit to shut
up.

Vicky set up the Ouija board and plopped onto
the floor at the head of the coffee table. “Now everyone gather
round. Let’s try contacting River Phoenix’s ghost.”

“
Vicky, what are you doing?” Cy
asked.

“
Well, the dance was getting slow, so I
decided to ditch it and come over here and have some fun.” Cy
turned to Mary and gave her a questioning look. It asked if she
were okay with all of this. She bit her lip and glanced away,
unwilling to say no and show her fear.

“
Come on everybody, gather round,” Vicky
commanded again. Carolyn sat down first. She was to Vicky’s right.
Kyle sat down next to Vicky on the other side. Vicky got up and led
Cy over by the hand. “Sit here,” she said, nudging Kyle down. Kyle
was not pleased with the new seating arrangement and moved down
with a jerk. Vicky retook her seat on the floor at the head of the
table. Mary still stood, facing everyone.