Family Magic by Patti Larsen Page B

suggestive.”
    “Really?” I tried to distract her. “Maybe Mom
will want to hear it.”
    “Maybe I do, too!” She cackled, hopping up
and down on one foot to the other, face splitting into a huge grin.
“Say it again, sweetheart!”
    Gram reached out to grab the mailbox as I
spotted the twitch of the living room curtain across the lawn. I
waved, trying to appear harmless, tugging in earnest. I yanked at
her even harder when I spotted a huge black dog. Yikes. This family
had obvious protection issues to need a monster like that in the
family. I felt a sudden shock of recognition. It was the same dog I
saw the day before outside my house. Only this time, I paid
attention to what he looked like.
    Shaggy, thick and massive,
more pony than canine, he stood by the corner of the house,
staring. The way he watched me made me shiver. I wasn’t sure if
Gram’s antics would trigger an attack or not but I wasn’t about to
hang around and find out. Man, that dog was huge .
    “Let’s go, Gram, the mailbox doesn’t want to
play today.”
    She pulled free of me, shrieking. “Let me go!
Leave me alone!”
    I pulled a little harder, not wanting to give
her the chance to take off on her own. Who knew what the dog would
do if he saw her run away?
    A wicked gleam appeared in my grandmother’s
eyes.
    “Witch!” She cackled happily. “She’s a witch!
Help, she’s evil, evil!”
    “That’s it,” I grated through clenched teeth,
keeping one eye on the dog and the other on her, “no more nice Syd.
Here, Gram,” I fished out a large milk chocolate bar from the front
of my backpack. I had been saving it for a rainy day of pajamas and
bad TV, but this was way more important. Thank goodness I had it
with me in the first place. Besides chocolate, the only other
distraction that worked was tequila and I was too young to carry it
around. Guess the Boy Scouts have the ‘be prepared’ thing all
figured out after all.
    Her gaze lit up like a child as she tore into
the wrapper. I managed to turn her around and start her walking the
block back to our house. I glanced over at the dog, but he was
gone. Dodged that bullet. We slowly made our way without much
incident while Gram sucked and smacked at the melting chocolate.
One glance at her and I knew it would take a whole lot of scrubbing
to get her clean. But, at least she was quiet.
    She stopped at the end of our driveway and I
flinched. I took her by the arm again, hoping to head off another
outburst, wondering why the chocolate hadn’t done the trick when
she turned to me, face blank and serious.
    “Darkness comes,” she said softly, wetly
around the chocolate in her mouth.
    “Yeah, Gram, sometime today.”
    She turned to me and pressed her index finger
into my chest. I looked at the smear of chocolate. There was no way
I was getting the stain out of my pale blue jersey.
    “Nice, Gram,” I said.
    “No light has it seen,” she continued as if I
hadn’t spoken, “none will it see, for it chooses the dark.”
    I stopped tugging.
    “Gram? What are you talking about?”
    “From within, but without,” she whispered to
me. “Its goal is power, its joy, pain. Darkness comes, Sydlynn, and
you must stop it.”
    I shook my head, not sure what to say. This
was the most lucid I ever saw my grandmother, if you could call it
lucid. She even managed to get my name right for the first time
ever. Here she was after decades of living in her own little
existence, attempting to communicate, and I had no idea what she
was trying to say.
    “Gram,” I said. “Who is it, can you tell
me?”
    “Beware,” she said.
    Our conversation ended with the banging of
the kitchen door. Mom ran out into the yard toward us, her face a
combination of anger and fear.
    “Mother!” She reached for Gram, spotting the
chocolate. “Syd!”
    “Mom!” I fired back.
    “Did you have to give her that?” Mom tried to
take the last of the bar from Gram but the old lady was quick. She
managed to stuff it into her