Believe: The Complete Channie Series (12 page)

The
picnic table in the dining room was covered with the linen cloth Momma only used on holidays and set with mostly matching dishes. Daddy had pulled the wingback chair into the dining room and was already sitting at the head of the table.

Josh offered to help carry the rest of the food in from the kitchen, but Momma shooed him away with her apron. “Get on in there and sit yourself down next to Channie’s daddy. Zeal, you sit on the other side of Grandaddy. Savvy, you sit right there where I can keep an eye on you. CoCo, you sit over there by Channie’s boyfriend—”

“Momma!” Channie wanted to crawl under the table. Her ears felt like they were on fire. Josh was blushing too, but he was also grinning.

About half-way through the meal, Daddy twisted sideways in his chair and leaned towards Josh. “What exactly are your intentions towards my daughter?”

Josh’s grin faded to a tight-lipped smile.

Channie spoke through gritted teeth. “Daddy …”

Daddy said, “The boy’s got nothing to fear, so long as his intentions are honorable.”

Yeah, right.

Josh stuttered a bit then said, “I would like to be her friend.”

“Is that all?”

“We only met a few days ago.”

“Alright, son, but before this night is over, you and me are gonna have a nice long talk.”

This had gone far enough. “Daddy, leave him alone.”

Momma patted her mouth with her napkin and shot Daddy a warning glance. “Joshua, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.”

Josh set his fork down and put his hands in his lap, but he maintained eye contact with Momma. “My mom and dad got divorced two years ago. I live with my mom and little brother, Elijah. We go to Dad’s every other weekend when I’m not racing—”

“Racing? What kind of racing? Horses? Automobiles? Dogs?” Daddy loved racing of any kind. Especially if he thought he had insider information that might increase his odds of betting on a long shot.

“BMX.”

“BMX? What’s that?”

“Bicycles on a motor cross track.”

“Bicycles? Folks around here race bicycles?”

“Yes, sir. I’m racing next weekend in Dacono. Admission is free, if you and your family want to come watch.”

Daddy pushed his plate to the side, put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his fists. “You any good?”

Josh looked at Channie and blushed. “The best in my age group.”

Daddy thumped him on the back and said, “Good for you, my boy. Good for you! Do you like peach cobbler?”

“Yes, sir.”

Daddy dumped half of Momma’s peach cobbler onto Josh’s plate then grilled him about bicycle racing between bites.

Damn it to hell and back. Channie could see the wheels of greed spinning in Daddy’s mind. She’d set him straight after Josh left. No way was she going to let him sabotage Josh’s race just so he could bet on his rivals.

Channie watched in amazement as the cobbler disappeared. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, but Josh could sure put away the food.

Daddy pushed back from the table and said, “Prudence, take the boys to the park for a while. I’d like to talk to Channie and Joshua.”

Oh crap. What now?

The boys whooped and shrieked with delight then bolted for the front door before Momma could override Daddy’s decision and order them to get upstairs and into the bathtub. She threw her napkin on the picnic bench and slammed the front door on her way out—leaving Channie and Josh all alone with Daddy.

Daddy patted the bench to his left. “Come on over here, baby girl.”

Channie narrowed her eyes, but did what he asked.

Daddy folded his arms across his barrel-sized chest and leaned back in his chair. “Alright, son, how much has Channie told you about us?”

Josh’s gaze switched from Daddy to Channie for the briefest of moments, but Daddy noticed.

“It’s alright, son. Just tell me the truth.”

“I’m sorry, sir. You’ll have to ask Channie.”

Daddy slammed his fist down on the table, making the dishes as well as Channie and Josh jump. “I’m asking you!”

“Stop it, Daddy.” Chastity’s energy buzzed, prickling Channie’s skin. “I told him what we are and what you and Momma did to me. I also told him how I don’t have very good control of my powers and how easy it is to trigger a curse. Something you might want to keep in mind.”

Daddy took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “I wanted to hear it from the boy, Channie. That way I could judge his understanding and know what to do about it.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead then put both hands flat on the table and leaned towards Josh.

“Do you believe her?”

“I think...maybe...I do.”

After
supper, Josh insisted on helping Channie clear the table. Daddy’s face turned red when Josh put the dishes in the automatic dishwasher instead of the sink. He glared at Channie, but didn’t say anything. 

Josh was a regular chatterbox and talked non-stop. “This is so cool. I can’t believe you can really do magic! Can you levitate stuff?” He held a plate by the edges and grinned at her.

Channie grabbed it before he dropped it. “No. Only the most powerful mages can manipulate non-living matter.”

“Can you fly?” He widened his eyes and lowered his voice. “Or cast a spell on me...so I can fly?”

“There’s a cost to every spell. It takes so much power to make something fly it’s rarely worth it.”

“But you could do it, if you needed to.”

“Yes. For instance, if CoCo had slipped when I was trying to haul him in off the roof, I could have cast a spell to lower him safely to the ground. But I would have to be fairly close to him to make it work. And I’d be so drained, I’d have to go to bed for a week.”

A spell like that would most likely kill her, but Josh was taking things much better than expected. He’d even let Daddy put a no-speak spell on him so he couldn’t tell anyone else about magic. Channie didn’t want to freak him out with too much information.

Josh put the last plate in the dishwasher and opened the cabinet under the sink. “Where’s your dishwashing detergent?”

“It’s right there in front of your nose. In the white bottle.”

“Nope, that’s only for hand washing dishes. You don’t want to use that stuff in a dishwasher. Believe me, I found out the hard way.”

“What happens if you do?”

“It overflows and spills soapsuds all over the place.” Josh kept digging around under the sink as he talked. “A couple of years ago, we were getting packed up to go to a race in Pueblo. It was my turn to do the dishes but we were out of dish detergent so I just filled the dispenser with Dawn. We were only gone for two days, but when we got back, the hardwood floors in the kitchen were so warped they looked like a BMX track.”

“Did you get a whipping?”

“What? No! Of course not. They knew I didn’t do it on purpose. And even if I had, they might ground me for a month or make me miss a race, but my parents would never hit me.”

“Never?”

Josh closed the cabinet door and turned around, but instead of standing up, he knelt on the floor and sat back on his heels. “Channie, do your parents beat you?”

“No.”

“Have they ever beaten you? Or the boys?”

“We’ve all been spanked, but those boys have never been switched, much less given a beating.” She didn’t mention the beating Daddy had given Abby when he found out she was pregnant.

“Switched? What’s that?”

“You know, whipped with a willow switch?”

“Jeeze! Your parents hit you with a stick?”

“A switch is not a stick and I haven’t been switched since I was about twelve-years-old. Are you telling me you’ve never been switched? Not once in your whole life?”

“No. I’ve never been spanked either. Not even with a bare hand.”

“Then how come you aren’t spoiled rotten?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

“Are you?”

“Most definitely.” Josh grinned at Channie and said, “We have two choices. We can either unload the dishwasher and wash all these dishes by hand, or we can ride our bikes down to the 7-Eleven and buy a box of Cascade.”

Channie would have loved to use the fancy appliance, but since Daddy was trying to cooperate, she decided not to push any more of his buttons. “Let’s just do them by hand.”

Josh washed and rinsed the dishes and stacked them in the drain rack. Channie dried them with a dishcloth and put them away. She had to keep reminding Josh to keep his distance. Even though he wasn’t generating any lustful energy and Channie’s power-well was still pretty low from zapping him earlier, there was enough leftover magic in Chastity to zap him again if he got too close.

Josh asked, “So what sort of things can you do?”

“You mean other than curse boys?”

“Can you do any cool stuff like mind control?”

“When I still had my old power name, Enchantment, I could influence people to get what I wanted because they had such a strong desire to please me. But I could never make someone do anything they were dead set against. Magic can’t prevail over free will. I can’t make an honest person lie, or steal something for me. And I can’t make a liar tell the truth.”

“Can you...make someone fall in love with you?”

“No. Magic is powerful, but nothing is more powerful than love.” Channie lowered her voice. She didn’t want Momma or Daddy to hear what she was going to say. “The spell I used to make you kiss me is called a come-hither spell. It’s powerful magic, but it’s temporary—and it’s only lust, not love.”

Josh’s ears flamed red. He turned around and leaned against the counter. “What did you do to make your parent’s feel like they needed to change your name?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Josh didn’t know anything about Channie, but it still offended her. “They wanted to protect me from my sister’s fate.”

He pulled his eyebrows together. “To keep you from running away?”

Channie rolled her eyes. “To keep me from getting pregnant.”

“Jeeze, haven’t they ever heard of birth control?”

Channie nearly dropped the plate she was drying. “It’s not just that. They don’t want me to...you know…”

“Have sex?”

“Josh!”

“What? Sex isn’t a dirty word.”

“It is in this house!”

Josh
was washing the last fork when music started pouring out of his pocket. He held the soapy fork in one hand, wiped the other on the side of his pants leg and pulled out a cell phone. He rolled his eyes as he flipped it open. Channie couldn’t understand what the person on the other end was saying, but who ever it was, they weren’t happy.

“I’m at a friend’s house. They invited me to stay for dinner ...

“You don’t know her ...

“Yeah, mom. It’s a girl. And you’re kind of embarrassing me. I’ll talk to you when I get home.”

Josh rolled his eyes again and turned his back as if that would keep Channie from hearing what he said. “I’ll come home as soon as I finish helping out in the kitchen, okay?”

There was a long pause while Josh listened to his momma give him a scolding.