We didn’t go to the State Park this time, but we were all there when Issa came out of the woods at sunset after his Vision Quest. There was a strange look in his eyes as we met. I had never thought about it like this before, but when I saw that look, I said, “You know now. You know how lonely I felt for a year and a half.”
He didn’t say anything, but he held me for a long time, even before draining his water bottle.
As I got ready to go to school, I tried to think back to what it was like last year. It had been rotten. I didn’t feel that way now. I wasn’t on the road down anymore — I was on the way up, and to my surprise, it was harder. The scary part was trying to convince people I wasn’t a druggie anymore. Twice during the first day, people tried to sell me things. Only one of my teachers was glad to see me. The others pretended, but I could tell.
By the end of school, I had a splitting headache. Issa met me at my house as we planned, and I brewed myself a strong cup of willow bark tea.
“Do you have any homework?” he asked after we had relaxed awhile.
“One subject. Why?”
“I brought mine too. We can work together, if you want.”
“But, Issa . . . you’ve done so much for me already. You don’t have to . . .”
“I’m doing it for me, too. You’re wearing my Mitzpah. The girl who wears that needs to do everything she can to get a good education, to become strong
and wise.”
I swallowed hard. I saw what he was saying. He didn’t want a druggie or a dropout for a girlfriend. I couldn’t blame him. That really got me thinking about who I was — I wasn’t just alone in the world. I never was, even though I thought I was while I was doing drugs and stuff. I was a part of a family, with my mom and dad. I was a part of the Grove, its leader before, its Priestess now. And . . . I was a part of something with Issa.
He helped me with my homework almost every day, and Penny and Michael came over sometimes to join us. Soon I was looking forward to homework time as the most fun part of the day. But I realized something that bothered me. Penny and I hardly ever found time to do things together anymore. I guess it was partly because we both had boyfriends. And also, we both had more homework than in past years. But I was sure glad she was still my friend, and our friendship seemed to get better as I got stronger and more confident about things.
With Issa’s help, I did well in school. September passed and October neared its end.
“I know we’re Sprites and Halloween is important to us, but we have to grow up sometime!” Sandy said.
“But
trick-or-treating
is
so special,” Penny said.
We were all sitting around in Michael’s backyard. I hadn’t said anything yet, and Penny seemed all alone in her crusade to keep trick-or-treating alive.
I wanted to come to her rescue, but I just wasn’t sure.
“But aren’t people going to get suspicious of all these teenagers — and adults even — all in blue cloaks, running around trick-or-treating?” Dulcy asked.
I saw something happening to Penny, but I could hardly believe it at first.
I had forgotten that other people could cry too. Issa was saying something about feeling too old.
“Wait!” I said. Everyone looked at me. I wanted to help Penny, but I kind of agreed with the others. There has to be a way. “Sprites . . . should always be children at heart.” I let the thought linger a moment.
Everyone slowly nodded.
“But we have to be careful too. We have to navigate a path between the thorns of the world, just like we do every time we pass through the Guardian Hedge. How about . . . we go to a Haunted House, have dinner and ceremonies at the Grove, and then go trick-or-treating on the way home at a few houses that still have their porch lights on? It’ll be dark, and we can lurk through the shadows like Wood Sprites are supposed to!”
“And after that, you are all invited to a little party at my house, which goes as late as we want,” Issa said.
Penny relaxed. “That sounds nice.”
Everyone agreed. I could tell Penny was feeling better, and she started making notes of all the different magic people wanted to do. She also mentioned that she would be putting her tent there with mine and Dulcy’s. I began to think about the ingredients for the amulet I wanted to make.
We all met at the college after school, and I held onto Issa as we toured the torture chambers, dungeons, witches’ dens, and graveyards the college students had put together.
We didn’t just eat at the Grove, we feasted, beginning with hot spiced cider and ending with Halloween cookies. The hilltop hummed with magic, music, and dancing for hours, and I knew I had a friend for life when I slipped the amulet of reconciliation over Dulcy’s head.
“You don’t deserve the blame for anything I did. Only I can take that blame. But even so, you humbled yourself and learned from it. You will always be a Sprite, the Master Herbalist of the Grove, and my sister forever.”
She looked at me and her eyes were smiling, like they used to, before I started eating mushrooms.
Michael played and Penny dedicated a new Grimoire. She handed me both the old one and the new one, and said, “These should be in the keeping of the Priestess.”
I thought for a moment. “I’ll keep them, but I’m rusty at calligraphy, so it gives you an excuse to come over more often!” Everyone laughed. Penny and I smiled at each other.
Dulcy gave a vial of anointing oil to Sandy, made just the way it used to be in the ancient Christian church. Issa led a group prayer, mostly in English,
but a little in Hebrew too. Michael did the blessing of the wine and cakes, and the remembering of the dead.
Outside the Circle, I said, “You are always patient with us, fair Grove.
Thank you again. On this Halloween night, let all our hauntings be white!”
I surprised myself. I didn’t know I had a poetic hair on my head. Maybe it was just an accident. But I really was starting to feel better about being the Priestess of the Grove.
We lurked our way through the darkness to a few houses. I was really out of practice at the physical skills a Sprite was supposed to have, like walking in the dark, but I managed to keep up. Several people were glad to get rid of their leftover candy. It was getting late, and we were on our way to Issa’s house when I realized that the house we were passing looked strangely familiar — and strangely important.
“Penny, help me remember. That house. A long time ago.”
“I think we went trick-or-treating there once. You, me, Michael, and a little girl we met.”
“Yes! And the old guy knew our cloaks were Druidic Bard cloaks!
Remember?”
“Vaguely.”
I had to find out. I had to know who he was and how he knew. “Will you guys come with me?”
“Sure.”
“Why
not?”
I headed up the walkway to the little house. The porch light wasn’t on, but there was a light inside. I looked behind me. My friends were all with me. I pulled back my hood, and the others did too. The doorbell chimed several times when I pushed the button. We waited.
I began to wonder if anyone was home. I rang again. Finally we heard a chain being unlatched, and the door opened a crack.
“It’s too late for trick-or-treating,” an old female voice snapped. I could hardly see her.
“Ma’am, we’re not really trick-or-treating, we just wanted to say hello to the man we met here two or three years ago.”
“Three,” Penny said.
“You must mean my brother. He passed away last year,” she crackled.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Well . . . thank you. Good night.”
“Why do you remember my brother?” she hissed as we started to turn.
I turned back. “He seemed to know some things, about history and stuff, that no one else would have known. He knew what kind of cloaks these are. I just wanted to ask him how he knew.”
“My brother was always reading some kind of history nonsense or other,”
she said, opening the door a little wider. “Why would kids like you care about that stuff?”
“We study history too,” I said. I didn’t want to say too much.
She opened the door even more. “Hmm. You look like smart kids. Do you get good grades?”
I wasn’t sure why, but she seemed interested in us. “This is Issa. He’s a baker and he goes to college.”
“Hello, ma’am,” Issa said.
“This is Penny, and Michael.”
“Hello,” they said.
“They are both good students,” I said.
“And this is Dulcy.”
“Hello, ma’am. I’m out of school and I work, but I still study things on my own.”
“And this is Sandy. I’m Ariel.” I couldn’t honestly say much about our grades. I hoped she wouldn’t notice the omission.
“Well, why don’t you all come in. I want you to look at the shelf of books my brother left behind. And I bet you all would like a nice cup of hot cocoa.”
“Thank you!” I said. She opened the door all the way and we filed in, following her slowly into a little dining room. In one corner was a built-in bookcase full of books, floor to ceiling.
“You kids look at those, and I’ll fix hot cocoa.” She lumbered into the little kitchen beyond, leaving us alone with the books.
“Ariel, look! The complete Golden Bough!” Penny said, looking at the books.
“Josephus and Pliny the Elder!” Michael said.
Issa went over to the shelves. “Here’s an English translation of the Zohar,”
he said. “Half these books are on our reading list, and the other half should be!”
We were all looking at the shelves of books now, many of them very old. I saw several I had once requested at the library, and gotten strange looks from the librarian for doing so.
“At least a dozen different kinds of Bibles,” Sandy said. I noticed mixed feelings in her tone of voice.
“And
the
Kings of Confucius, and the Koran and Bhagavad Gita, and the Tipitakas of Buddhism,” Dulcy mentioned.
“Wow! If we could just use these once in a while, it would be great!” Penny said.
“Come over here and drink your cocoa,” the lady said, setting a tray down on the dining table. “Do you like Howard’s books? They are all strange to me.”
“We like them very much!” I said. “Would it ever be possible for us to borrow one or two of them at a time? We’d be very careful with them.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Write your name and address on the note pad by the telephone, and I’ll see what I can do.”
We drank our cocoa and looked at the titles some more. Hermes Trismagistus, Eliphas Levi, Lady Sheba. History, philosophy, religion. She wouldn’t say anything more about them. We finished our cocoa and thanked her as we left.
“What do you think?” Penny said as we headed down the street toward Issa’s house.
“I have a hunch we’ll be seeing those books again.”