Tommy Nightmare(38)

“I bet I could eat two hamburgers right now,” Jenny told him. She opened the Piggy Wiggly bag on the counter. “Oh, and fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes…this is great!”

Her dad made patties and took them out to grill. Jenny took cabbage and carrots and put together a slaw, and then she grabbed a pitcher and squeezed juice from the plump lemons he’d brought.

She carried two glasses of lemonade outside, gave one to her dad at the grill, then relaxed on a lawn chair, soaking up the sun.

“You feeling okay, Jenny?” he asked.

“I guess.”

“Sure you don’t have any idea what happened?”

“Well…” Jenny said. “I didn’t want to say on the phone.”

“I figured.”

“Did I ever tell you Ashleigh Goodling had a power like ours?” Jenny asked. “Like me and Seth?”

“The preacher’s daughter? No, I think I’d remember if you said that.”

“Well…she was like us. Only a lot worse.”

“What kinda sickness did she spread? Or could she heal people?”

“Neither one,” Jenny said. “Her touch made people feel love. That’s why everyone in town loved her and did whatever she said.”

“Hell, I can believe that,” he said. “I always thought there was something off about them Goodlings. Dr. Goodling puts me in mind of them people that travel with the carnival.”

“So, here’s the thing,” Jenny said. “Ashleigh turned the whole town against me and Seth. Or maybe not the whole town, but a lot of people. And she had them all together at the courthouse, ready to hang us for being witches. Honestly.”

“Like Gabriel Joe?” her dad asked. That was the name of the slave that had supposedly been hung from the giant gnarled oak in front of the courthouse in the 1700s, on the charge of practicing sorcery. There hadn’t been a courthouse then, just the giant oak.

It was a story usually told at night, by a campfire, somewhere around Halloween.

“I’m not kidding,” Jenny said. “I think that old story helped get everybody together. Kind of made it easy for Ashleigh to tell everybody what to do. And then she killed Seth with a shotgun.” Jenny pointed to her chest, to show where Seth had been shot.

“What?”

“He got better,” Jenny said, thinking of Monty Python. “And then everybody tried to hang me from the tree. And then…don’t you need to flip them?”

Her dad was staring at her, the metal spatula in his hand forgotten halfway to the grill.

“What happened, Jenny?”

“Then I lashed out.”

“Did people get hurt?” he asked.

Jenny didn’t say anything.

“Did people die, Jenny? They said on the news…” His mouth dropped open. He understood now. “How many people, Jenny?”

“A lot.”

“What’s a lot?”

“I don’t really know. A hundred? Maybe more?”

“A hundred people?”

“Yeah, I’d say…at least a hundred people. The Goodlings, and Mayor Winder, the police department, a bunch of kids from school, Coach Humbee and some other teachers, some deacons from the church, that realtor guy with his face on the benches all over town—”

“You killed Dick Baker?” her dad asked. “He still owes me a check.” His voice was detached, as if he were mentally drifting away. “That’s a lot of people, Jenny.”

“I know!” Jenny said, and then she broke down and began to sob. She rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her gloves.

A fatty lump of the neglected beef fell through the grill and ignited in a gout of greasy flame. Her dad set the metal spatula down on the little platform attached to the grill, and he turned to walk inside.

“I got to think this over,” he muttered, walking toward the house.

“What about the hamburgers?” Jenny asked.

“You can finish them if you want them,” he said. “I tried to teach you better than this, Jenny.”

“I know, Daddy! I should never touch people. I know.”

He walked into the house, looking tired and old.





Chapter Seventeen


A few days after the quarantine ended, Jenny took some new clay pots down to the Five and Dime, to see if Ms. Sutland wanted to put them out for sale.

She arrived to find the door propped open and half the store’s inventory packed into boxes. A couple of men were moving furniture out on hand trucks.

“Ms. Sutland?” Jenny asked, though the bell had tinkled loudly when she entered.

Ms. Sutland emerged from the back office, dabbing at her eyes.

“What’s happening?” Jenny asked.