CHAPTER 8: IN WHICH PAYBACK IS A WITCH
“Hello”
“Hi. Can I help you?”
“I’m calling for Leo Devereux. May I speak to him?”
“Speaking, who is this?”
“M-Mya.”There was silence on the line, and Mya wondered if he’d hung up or something.“Hello?”
“I’m listening” he said, his voice cautious.
“I want to take you up on your offer...i-if it still stands that is”. He didn’t say anything, and she wondered what the dickens was going on in his head right now. She hesitated to say, ‘hello?’ again, but was too shy to continue without some sort of encouragement. The silence stretched uncomfortably.“Leo?” she said tentatively.
“Yes?” his gravelly voice replied intimately in her ear. She sighed and bit the bullet, “Soo, when can you start?”“That’s up to you Mya, just say when.”
“Now?”
“Okay. I’m on my way” and he hung up. She stood staring at the telephone. She didn’t know why but she had walked down to the phone box at the corner to call. It was like she was even afraid to let his voice in her house…she hung up slowly and stepped out of the box. Her heart was going at a rate that she was sure was not healthy for the long-term well-being of her body – but she didn’t know how to slow it down. She walked slowly down the road to her house, wondering how she had got to this place. She’d been going along, minding her own business; weeding her garden, doing her schoolwork, keeping under the radar, when all of a sudden she’d walked past the ‘popular’ table at school and Charlotte had called out to her, complimenting her dress and wanting to know if it was vintage designer...first of all, she’d been very surprised that Charlotte even knew what her name was and secondly, she’d been sure she was being made fun of.
Then Charlotte had invited her to sit next to her at the table, and had made a point of talking to her throughout the meal. Leo had been there, and his friend Miles. There was the blonde girl, Tina who was always flanked by ‘the brothers Grey’ as she thought of them- Aaron and David. She wasn’t sure what the deal was with them...ménage a trois? Ashley - the dark girl- was quite friendly when she bothered to tear her attention away from Miles for a minute, though he hardly seemed to know she was alive. Teddy the bear was the sweetest of them all, always nice to Mya, even before Charlotte had condescended to notice her.
Leo had ignored her the whole time, keeping his eyes on his plate. He’d started as he meant to go on until recently that is, blind to her except when he was making snide remarks about her intentions, her looks, or her clothes. She had for the most part tried to ignore him, not only because he clearly didn’t like her, but because he might as well have been wearing a sign that glowed ‘OFF LIMITS’ the way Charlotte behaved around him. She tended to make her displeasure clear when anyone of the female persuasion spoke to him about anything Charlotte did not find strictly necessary. And that seemed to cover just about anything from ‘pass the salt’ to ‘you look good’. If Tina wasn’t constantly surrounded by Grey, she would definitely have been expelled from the group for being overfriendly with Leo. The fact that Leo clearly couldn’t stand Mya was one reason she probably lasted so long.
Still, it was a strain for her to keep up with Charlotte. The constant preoccupation with clothes, looks, and men was wearing for Mya. She had absolutely no interest in all three, and would really rather have been pottering quietly in her garden. She couldn’t find the words to say so politely though, so she found herself ensconced in Charlotte’s room of an evening trying to look interested in the earnest discussion going on between Charlotte and Tina about whether the pink shirt or green would go better with her new black jeans that she’d bought to match Leo’s.
Then the pool had appeared, from where and why Mya didn’t know...but now she stopped to think of it, it was a bit strange for a magic pool to just materialise like that. It had disappeared as soon as Charlotte was recovered from it too – almost like it had simply appeared so that Charlotte could fall into it, and be rescued...by Mya? Well, that seemed like an awful lot of trouble for a magic pool to go to. And why would it anyway? Perhaps she should ask her grandmother if she knew anything about the appearance of magic pools...Although she tended to be out of it most of the time these days. She was getting on for eighty...
She turned away from these depressing thoughts to find that she’d reached her door without noticing, so lost in her musings was she. She took a deep breath and turned her thoughts to what lay ahead. She didn’t know what Leo was expecting when he came, but she was pretty sure he was in for a surprise...Leo drove up to her house, coming to an abrupt halt at her gate. Was that spell still active? He wasn’t about to risk having his head split open again so he hooted and waited for her to come out. Before she’d attacked him with her magic, he would have thought she’d summoned him here for another taste of Leo – ‘girls did seem to be entirely forgiving of anything he did to them after all, no matter how callous he was’- but now, he wasn’t so sure...unless she was into some sort of dominatrix shit. Hmmm... He wasn’t exactly averse. In fact, the evidence that she had a spine kind of piqued his interest. He’d gotten used to thinking of her as Charlotte’s doormat- but apparently there was some spunk to her. No pun intended…
She came down the stairs in a woolly sweater (in this heat?) that was kind of ragged around the edges. Her leopard print (really? so five years ago) dress was faded in places and reached like, her ankles. It did however; hug her figure in all the right places so he wasn’t complaining too much. Maybe it was the best she had – but the sweater would have to go.
She came up to the gate and unlatched it. He leaned out of the window of the jeep to speak to her.“Hi” he smiled in greeting
“Hi.” She replied expression quite blank, and definitely no answering smile.
“Err, so is it safe?” he asked, smile flickering a bit.
“Safe?” she asked brow furrowing in puzzlement.
“For me to come in... you know, the spell?” he reminded her.
“Oh!” she said, furrow clearing, “Right” she raised her right hand, forefinger pointed upwards like she was about to flag off a race, she flicked it downwards and whispered something that sounded like, ‘Finit’. He raised his brow in inquiry as to whether he was cleared to come in, and she gestured a welcome with her hand. He parked the car and alighted, wondering how Emily Post would recommend they conduct themselves in this situation. He stood still and waited to take his cue from her. She walked past him and into the house, and after a moment’s hesitation he followed.
There was a small foyer that led off to one side into the living room and the other, to a closed door. He avoided looking at the shaggy sofa where he had...lost control, last time. She was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by many pillows that were strewn hither and thither on the threadbare carpet. Her arms were folded and her expression was businesslike. It was a little confusing because the surroundings could be construed as quite romantic with the pillows on the carpet, but her expression said this was a transaction. “I need you to remove a stain for me.” Her voice spoke so softly he didn’t know if he’d heard right. ‘A stain?!’“Excuse me?” he said, thoroughly perplexed.
“I. Need. You. To. Remove. A. Stain.” She repeated, “Did I stutter?”
“I don’t understand you” he replied, completely flummoxed.
“That you do not”, she replied, heavy irony in her voice, “You left a stain the last time you were here, on my sofa. I need you to remove it.”The blood suffused his face and he felt hotter than he had ever felt in his life. He followed the direction her finger was pointing with his eyes and saw the slight discolouration on the sofa that she was talking about.“I have soap and water, there is the kitchen; you will find a bucket there and a brush. I’ll be in the garden if you need anything” she said before turning and walking out the door. He watched her walk away in bemusement then turned and stared at the sofa. He came closer to examine the stain – it could be...but then again, it could be anything. The sofa was clearly very old. Her meaning had not escaped him though. Wipe the stain from the sofa; wipe away the memory that it ever happened. Clearly, she was mad at him.
She wanted to peep back into the living room to see what he was doing, but she couldn’t think how to do it without him seeing her. She went out and tried to weed the Kale garden which was the nearest to the house, but she was too distracted. She felt dizzy like she was anaemic and there was a buzzing in her ears. Her stomach had cramped and her knees were just the slightest bit shaky. There was an air of unreality that suffused this whole situation, and she had trouble believing that she’d really left him in her living room, cleaning up after himself – albeit two weeks later...what was he thinking? Did he get the message or not?
She flung down her awl and crept back up the stairs. She opened the back door cautiously, trying not to make a sound. She listened, trying to gauge what was happening in the living room, but sofa cleaning wasn’t exactly a loud job. She dropped onto her hands and knees and crawled cautiously across the foyer until she was just next to the door to the living room. Should she peep? But what if he saw her? It would completely undermine the majesty of her walkout earlier. But she really wanted to know what was going on in that room! She was busily pondering what to do, as she crouched down near the door when she noticed a pair of black alligator skin boots right under her nose...“Boo” someone said from above her. She screamed and reared backward, landing hard on her behind. Leo was staring down at her, biting his lip really hard she could see; probably to stop himself laughing.“Are you alright?” he asked, voice shaking in what she was definitely sure was suppressed laughter. She frowned up at him then bent her knees in order to get up. His hand appeared in her field of vision, clearly offering to help her up. She ignored it and attempted to stand up with as much dignity as she could muster under the circumstances. She thanked God for her chocolate complexion which did not show her blushes but her face felt so hot she was sure she could cook her lunch on it, no problem.
“What were you doing down there? Have you lost something? “He asked, affecting to look around on the floor for something. Her face got even hotter, and she decided the best defense was a good offence.
“What were you doing lurking about the foyer?” she demanded in a belligerent tone, “You’re supposed to be cleaning!”
“I was”, he replied quite calmly, “but I heard sounds like shuffling and I thought some animal might have got in, so I thought I’d check “This did not help her state of embarrassment one bit and she wanted to run out of the room screaming; maybe lock herself in her room for the rest of her life and become a hysteric. She considered for a second carrying out the first part of this seemingly brilliant plan, but rallied and took a deep breath instead. She didn’t know how to get out of this but she hoped something would occur to her before too long. To her surprise, he saved her the trouble.“Would you do me a favour and come watch while I clean? I’m not sure I’m doing it right – this really isn’t my area of expertise...” his voice trailed away as he turned away from her and back into the living room, giving her a chance to compose herself. She took another deep breath and stepped into the living room after him.
“W-what” she cleared her throat before continuing“, what seems to be the problem?”
“Well, you’re sofa is clearly well-preserved and I don’t want to cause damage by inadvertently bleaching a patch onto it, but I can’t really tell if I am or not.”She looked into his eyes to see if he was making fun of her, or her sofa; but his eyes were guileless as a stormy sky just before it releases a light rain. He looked sincere...which caused her to narrow her eyes in suspicion. What was he up to?“Tell you what, why don’t you sit over there and watch me, and if I’m doing something wrong, you can tell me” he said before she could gather her thoughts. Before she knew what was happening, he was leading her to a chair and helping her into it. Then he crossed the room and knelt by the bucket, taking up the brush and applying it to the spot on the sofa with every appearance of earnest industry. She was bemused, and more than a little confused. Her hands clenched in instinctive reaction to the cleaning – wanting to go over and take the brush from him and clean the seat herself. She was not used to sitting and watching while others worked. It felt...wrong, somehow. But this was his punishment; she must let him do it. And do it he was, it seemed, with no complaints or snotty asides. Was it opposite day? What the hell was happening??