Max watched as Joshua checked his blood sugar at the kitchen table. Joshua looked up from his glucose meter at his father’s gaze.
“How old was I when you found out I was diabetic?” he asked.
“You were about three years old,” Max said. “You were always thirsty and going to the bathroom. One day, you fainted, so we took you to the emergency room. The doctor tested your blood, and your glucose was very high.”
“Did the diabetes ever get in the way of school?”
“No.”
“Where are my school pictures?”
“Around here somewhere.”
“The attic?”
“Maybe. I haven’t checked in years.”
“Do you ever notice how there’s no framed pictures in the living room or anywhere in the house?”
“I leave that up to Brenda.”
“Is she jealous of Mom?”
“No. Why?”
“I still don’t remember much...”
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“Yeah. I ate earlier, before you got up. I didn’t sleep much last night.”
Joshua put his meter back in its case. “Dad, I need to tell you something.”
He explained about the conversation he overheard between his father and Ruth. “She called Brenda a wannabe. You didn’t argue with her.”
Joshua had expected a more dramatic reaction from Max. Instead, the older man sighed. “Those women were close to your mother. Liz had a connection...to an energy. This gave her power.”
“Harvester?”
Max rose from the table. “Nothing but a fantasy. Besides, those women had no business with witchcraft; they started to get jealous and I never figured out what caused the fire.”
“Dad, please tell me more.”
“If you know about Harvester, you’re already half-way there. Trust me when I say that you’re safe as long as I’m around. Those women can bring up the past, but they have no power without Liz.”
“What about Nick’s accident?”
“I was wrong. I don’t think Ruth or the others had anything to do with it.”
“You can’t say that about Marilyn.”
“I can only hope that her killer is found.”
“What about the merger?”
“They still want to do business.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. By spring, the merger will be complete. I’m sorry about Marilyn, but the plant can’t shut down.”
“But the story was on the news and in the paper—“
“Great Lakes don’t care, son. They need us, too. It’s business as usual.”
Joshua wanted to ask his father more, but he knew he was lucky Max had been willing to talk about Harvester. Joshua was willing to be patient. “I’d like to go to the plant today.”
“Fine. I’ll be leaving as soon as I finish my coffee.”
Anna, at lunchtime, cruised up to the parking lot at Fruit Ridge High School. Colbie was waiting at the front doors.
Colbie had called Anna at the plant, asking for a meeting.
The weather was cold and wet, Colbie’s hair and jacket damp. When she entered Anna’s warm car, she noticed the cracked windshield. “I didn’t think you’d show up.”
“I told you I would.” Anna drove out of the parking lot, turning on to the main road. “Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere.”
Anna turned on to the dirt road that led to the old church. She parked in the same spot, but kept the engine running.
Colbie looked over at the building. She had attended this church as a little girl with Ruth and Leo. Her mother would sometimes go with them. “I think Max wants to tell Joshua.”
“Not before the merger and the baby being born.”
“Only months away. If Max tells Josh now, what difference will it make?”
“Even Max doesn’t know everything. Are you going to tell him what we did?”
“Brenda told me to keep quiet.”
“She knows?” Anna asked.
“God, I wished this had never happened.”
“I thought Brenda was going to teach you.”
“She knows some things, but she’s still a student. The only other spell-casting I’ve done is with you, on that night...”
“What about making my glass pentagram break into pieces?”
“Not me. But what about making the curtains in my room almost strangle me? Didn’t know you had a mean streak, Anna.”
“What?”
“I know it was you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been pissed ever since I got pregnant—“
“No, Colbie. I didn’t do it, whatever it was.”
Colbie shook her head. “Then who?”
“Maybe Harvester.”
“Didn’t Harvester save Joshua’s life?”
“I doubt that Josh could have bonded with Harvester. Josh has no business practicing. I think it’s dangerous for him.”
“I’ve looked everywhere in that house, and I can’t find his witch box.”
“He’s trying to put things together,” Anna said. “He’s getting closer.”
“Did you think, when he got sick, that his memory would be almost wiped clean? That he would be better off if he couldn’t remember—“
“We had to help him, Colbie. And you got your proof that you have talent, in spite of what Ruth always said.”
“Maybe my talent had nothing to do with it.”
“Don’t dump all of this on me.”
“Hey, I’m grateful. At least he’s still alive.”
Joshua could feel the tension in the plant as he walked with his father. No one turned around from their machines to say hello.
The baler was being used, a worker from Great Lakes Packaging throwing in sheets of discarded cardboard. He did not get too close, wearing work gloves and safety glasses.
Joshua got on the elevator alone. He shivered in his heavy coat and fleece shirt. He disliked this place, and he couldn’t hide his lack of enthusiasm as he watched the crew perform one repetitious task after another.
Bonnie and Lois were at the work tables. He took off his coat, hanging it on a hook.
Bonnie, her work glasses around her neck, pulled a sheet of lined paper from her pants pocket. “Here. Don’t let Max see it.”
Joshua nodded, stuffing the folded paper in his back pocket. “He finally said something to me this morning about Mom and Harvester. I couldn’t believe it.”
“What did he say?”
“Harvester was a fantasy. That none of you have any power without Mom.”
“Brenda doesn’t have any power without your mother’s spell books. What an insult to Liz.”
“Dad says he still doesn’t know what caused the fire. He said you all had become jealous of each other.”
Lois suppressed a laugh and Bonnie turned to her.
“Your dad is wrong, Josh,” Bonnie said. “We weren’t jealous of Liz. We were afraid for her. As we are for you. The spell I gave you will keep dark spirits away. But Harvester is real.”
“I saw him once,” Lois said. “He was a mist. Heard his voice in the woods outside the Curtis house. We were out there late at night. We didn’t have to conjure him; he was close to Liz in those days. If anyone was jealous, it was Max.”
“She liked me to sing to Harvester,” Joshua said.
“You remember that?” Bonnie asked.
He explained what he heard on the cassette tapes. “I was afraid, but Mom seemed to think I should love Harvester.”