We promise to keep all the things we learn in our Grove secret from people who aren’t in the Grove. If we ever leave the Grove, we promise to keep the Grove and the people in it secret. If we ever hear anything said, or see anything done in the Grove that isn’t right, we promise to tell the others.
I read it out loud.
“Why
grove?” Penny asked.
“The Druids met in groves, and we have lots of trees here. Also because coven is one of those words that scare people.”
Penny nodded. “Like witch.” She read it to herself slowly, then smiled.
I lit candles and got out my pens. A fine nib would be best, I decided, so we wouldn’t have to squirt out too much blood. “You are my witness, and God too,” I said. With a pin, I pricked my finger and let a drop of blood fall right into the pen nib. I grabbed a tissue to stop the bleeding, and tried the pen on my practice pad. It worked! I wrote my name below the pact.
“Wow,” Penny said. “My turn.”
“I’ll wash and dry the pen first. You can sit at the desk now.”
When the pen was ready, she said, “You are my witness, and God too.”
She pricked her finger, filled the pen, and I handed her a tissue. She wrote her name under mine. It was done.
I cleaned the pen and got out Band-aids. We looked at each other and
smiled.
“Did you bring some money for lunch?” I asked.
“Yep!”
“Let’s
go!”
It was March and we were having a warm spell. There was no ice or snow on the sidewalks, so when we got to a certain tree, I said, “It’s exactly one mile to the middle of town. Shall we run? Not to race — we stay together.”
“Sure!”
We started. “Let’s try to keep running, no matter how slow we have to go, okay?” I asked.
“We’ve done this before, haven’t we?” Penny said.
“Yeah. Three years ago.”
We ran. My side started to ache. Penny slowed down. My guts hurt more.
I wanted to stop. We were about a third of the way. I looked at my friend.
She looked at me. I had to slow down some more. Penny looked like she really wanted to stop. I kept going. My side was getting a little better. Not too far now. Penny looked at me with tears in her eyes. We didn’t say anything. We kept going. We were almost there. I almost stumbled and Penny slowed down for me. Only a little more! We made it!
“Walk!” I gasped. We moaned and laughed as we wobbled down the street.
When we had our breath back, Penny asked, “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. If we both have $3, we could eat at the Chinese place.”
“I only have $2.50,” she said.
“I’ll give you the 50¢. You want to? It’s all-you-can-eat!”
“Okay!”
“I want to look in some of the junk and antique shops,” I said.
“I want to look at sweaters. My mom said if I found one I liked, and it wasn’t too much, she’d get it for me.”
We wandered through clothing shops, and Penny looked at sweaters. I wasn’t interested in clothes, so I just tagged along. Then we hit an antique store. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to look at, just old stuff. Nothing caught my eye.
We feasted at the Chinese place. Egg rolls, fried rice, sweet and sour
chicken, veggies, soup, and Chinese tea. My fortune cookie said, You have found a trustworthy companion. I smiled to myself.
After lunch we went into a pawn shop. I looked around at old stereos and junk until a glass case caught my eye. It was full of all kinds of knives. I remembered something I had read.
Find a wooden-handled knife with a good steel blade for ceremony and gathering herbs. It may be used, but let it be new for you. Do not haggle on the price . . .
I looked around in the case. There was a wooden-handled one in a leather sheath. The clerk was coming over, a high-school guy. “Could I look at that one?” I asked.
“How old are you, anyway?”
“It’s for cutting herbs and stuff,” I said.
He let me look at it. It had a nice, slightly curved blade about five inches long. Stainless steel. I put it back in the sheath. You could hardly tell it was a knife because the handle was the same color as the sheath. “How much?” I asked the guy.
“That dopey little thing, $10,” he said.
“Will you sell it to me?”
“For cutting flowers? Okay. Don’t tell anyone I sold it to you.”
I looked him in the eye. “I won’t.” I paid him and popped the knife into my purse as we left.
“What’s
that for?” Penny asked.
“You’ll see,” I said.