Uncle Bobby turned from the counter. "A date, Sam? Well, that's great, isn't it?"
"I, uh, I guess," Uncle Sam said uncertainly.
"You mean a date like boyfriends and girlfriends have? You have a girlfriend?" I asked.
Uncle Sam blushed. "No! I don't have a, a girlfriend! Raquel asked me to get coffee some night this week."
"Raquel?" Uncle Bobby asked in a teasing way.
"Abby's mommy?" I asked. "You're going on a date with her?"
"Well, it's just to get coffee, nothing special." Uncle Sam blushed an even deeper shade of red.
"Let's leave him alone, Charlie," Uncle Bobby said. "We talk about it any more and he's gonna turn into a tomato."
That night at dinner, Uncle Bobby got a phone call and had to go back out. It was just me and Uncle Sam. We hung out in the library, him on his laptop and me reading a Hardy Boys mystery. This one was about a girl who people said was a witch. She had lots of weird stuff in her house, and books, but it turned out she was a scholar who was learning about witches and that's why she had all the herbs and crystal balls and everything. She kissed both of the Hardy Boys at the end of the story, to thank them for saving her-yuck! I went back to the chapter that described her house. One of the books that she had was called a 'grimoire'. It was a witch's spellbook, and I wondered if that was the 'grimmer' that the lady had talked about it my dream.
I sat up on the sofa and glanced around, looking over at the bookshelves. My eyes landed on a book on the top shelf, it was a thick, dark, book and it looked like it said, The Black Grimoire on the spine. Now I was really curious! I wanted to see what was in that book.
I woke up early in the morning. Uncle Sam was asleep and Uncle Bobby wasn't home. I looked out the window in the kitchen and there was fog in the front yard. It looked kind of spooky. I went into the the library and grabbed a stool, pulling it over to the shelf. I grabbed that black grimoire, and ran up the stairs to my room, tucking it under my arm.
It was an old book, and the edges of the cover were a little crumbly. The edges of the pages were yellowed, and it smelled musty. I thumbed through it, looking for spells. It was a spellbook! It had lots of drawings too, some of them were kind of gross and scary. There was a diagram of a bat, cut open, with words to describe certain parts of the bat and what spells they could be used for. There were drawings of different kinds of herbs, what they looked like, and what they were used for in spells and magic.
I heard a door squeak open and footsteps, and I closed the book and shoved it under my bed. Then I brushed the little bits that had come off of the book onto the floor. I laid down in bed, and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. I had to look through that book and see if there was a spell to bring my mommy back!
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
Uncle Sam was standing outside the play area, talking on the phone. I was sitting at a table with Abby and her mommy.
"Could you open this please?" I asked, holding up my bottle of chocolate milk.
"Sure, sweetie," Miss Raquel said. She shook it and then pulled the plastic seal off, and twisted the cap off. She handed it back to me.
"Thank you," I said.
Miss Raquel reached over and wiped some ketchup off my face with a napkin. I smiled at her. She was nice.
Abby grabbed at her mom's arm. "She's my mommy!" She said to me, giving me a dirty look.
"I—I wasn't-" I said, suddenly feeling hurt.
"Leave her alone!" Abby snapped.
"Abby, be nice!" Miss Raquel said, frowning. She looked at me. "I'm sorry, she missed her nap yesterday, and she's grumpy today. She didn't mean it."
Uncle Sam came back to the table. "What's going on?" he asked, after looking at me for a moment.
"Abby's being a little snappy," Miss Raquel told him. Abby crawled onto her lap and snuggled into her mom's chest. I felt jealous...and then I felt sad. Abby didn't know how good she had it, even if her mommy and daddy had stopped being married last year.
"We're not going to stay for too long," Uncle Sam told me, and gave me a big smile. I was okay with that, because Abby continued to be grumpy after we went to play, and kept running away from me. I felt like I didn't want to be around her any more.
When we pulled into the driveway of Uncle Bobby's house, Uncle Sam glanced back at me and said, "Surprise!"
I saw Grandpa John's truck parked in front of the house, and I unbuckled and started to get out. "Hey!" Uncle Sam grabbed my arm. "You don't get out of the car until it's stopped, and the engine is off, you hear me?" he looked down at me. "I know you're excited, but you need to be safe. That's a warning, young lady."
"Okay, Uncle Sam," I said, but I didn't care if I got 10 warnings at that moment. I ran up the steps and opened the door.
"Daddy!" I cried out happily. He got up from the table and came over to me, and I ran to him and jumped into his arms. He held me tightly, kissing my cheek and putting his hand on the back of my head. I started to cry a little bit. "I missed you!" I told him.
"I missed you too, sweetheart," he said, He put me down, and Grandpa John came over and gave me a hug too. "Hey, little one," he said, and ruffled my hair.
"I have something important to tell you," Daddy said. "Let's sit down."
We sat down at the table, and he spread some papers out.
"I found a relative- she's your mother's third cousin, I think? She's elderly...anyway, she told me some information about your family. It seems that each generation has one or two people in it that have some sort of special ability. She said that her sister could tell when people were going to die, and sometimes how they were going to. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to deal with that knowledge very well, and she became a recluse."
"What's a recluse?" I asked.
"A person who never sees anyone or talks to anyone." Daddy explained. "She verified your story of the relative who was the midwife too. She hadn't heard of anyone changing into something like your Aunt did, though. We were able to do some searching, and it turns out that your Great-Uncle and your Grandfather were in World War Two together, and they were dosed with some kind of gas during the fighting. This may have changed their DNA and caused mutations, which cause your Aunt's...condition."
"What does that mean? What's DNA? Does that mean that Aunt Michelle was a mutant like Wolverine?"
Daddy chuckled. "No, it's... it means that what happened to her Dad, in the war, may have changed her genes so that she became something different than the rest of the people in your family."
"But she didn't wear jeans!" I said, still confused. "She wore suits! I don't get it!"
"What your Dad is trying to explain, is that you don't have anything to worry about," Grandpa John spoke up. "We talked a a friend of mine, Missouri, remember we talked about her? She said that she had heard about other families having similar things happen. You don't have to worry about changing into anything else- your ability is you knowing things, and that's all it's going to be. And as long as you can control that, you'll be fine." He smiled at me.
"So I'm not going to become a creature like Aunt Michelle, and eat anyone?" I asked, looking at all of them.
"No, honey, you're not," Uncle Sam said reassuringly.
Daddy looked at me. "So what else has been going on around here?"
"Uncle Sam has a date!" I told him. "He's going to go on a coffee date with Miss Raquel!"
Daddy and Grandpa John laughed. "Really Sam? That's awesome!"
Uncle Sam blushed. "Don't get too excited. It's just for coffee."
"Well, you need to get out more, son," Grandpa John clapped his hand on Uncle Sam's back.
"How did you meet her?" Daddy asked.
"At the library. Her daughter and Charlie are doing the craft program."
"Oh, she's got a kid!" Daddy chuckled. "Maybe you'll get some practice being a Step-Dad!"
"No thanks, I'm fine being an Uncle," Uncle Sam said, smiling at me.
"Abby might be jealous anyways," I said. "She grumped at me when her mom helped me."
"Well, I doubt that anything is going to happen, so don't start planning a wedding or anything, geez," Uncle Sam said, getting red again.
~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~
I walked into my bedroom, rubbing my wet hair with a towel. Daddy was sitting on my bed.
"We have something do deal with yet," he said.
"Uh-" I stopped by the door.
"We need to have that talk about you breaking the computer rules."
I felt my face get red. "I'm sorry, Daddy," I said, getting nervous. "Are you gonna spank me?"
"Yes, I am," he told me. "And I have to tell you, I'm not happy about all the sassing either."
I squirmed, feeling embarrassed.
"Come here and I'll dry your hair," he said. I walked over to him and he took the towel from me, and rubbed my hair until it was just damp. He set the towel on the bed next to him.
"Turn around, Charlie," he told me. I turned around to face him. He had a stern look on his face. "Sam told me he had you writing lines, and you even gave him grief while you were doing that," he said. "I understand what he's trying to do with giving you the warnings, and making you more aware of how often you are being mouthy, but I'm telling you, if it continues, I'm going to do away with the warnings, and just start handing out consequences. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Daddy," I said. I didn't want to ask what kind of consequences he meant.
He sat up and put his hands on his thighs. "Now, I don't want to have to have another talk about the computer again."
"But Daddy, I was bored! And Uncle Sam didn't come to put the next show on-"
"Then you should have gone and asked him. And you decided to play a game afterwards, when you already know better. That doesn't excuse what you did, little girl."
He took my arm in his hand. "Come on-" he said.
"But Uncle Sam already-" I protested, trying to back away from him.
"No, Charlie," he said, and he pulled me forward and then turned me over his lap. I started to cry, because I felt guilty, and because I knew I had done the wrong thing, and because my mouth just couldn't help being sassy sometimes. I cried harder as he spanked me, and I squirmed around trying to get away from his falling palm, and I kicked my feet. Finally he stopped, and pulled me to sit up in his lap. I clutched at his shirt, sobbing. "I'm s-sorry, D-daddy."
"All right, sweetheart," he said gently. "I know you are. You're a good girl, you just need to learn to watch your mouth more."
He snuggled with me until I was calm, rubbing my back and stroking my hair. Then we went downstairs so I could have a bed time snack and say good night to everyone.
The next day, Daddy went to the library with me and Uncle Sam. When we went to eat afterwards, there were more moms than usual with us, and a lot of them were either sitting at the table with Daddy and Uncle Sam or standing around. Uncle Sam looked a little uncomfortable from time to time, but Daddy seemed like he was having fun, talking and laughing a lot.
In the car on the way back to Uncle Bobby's, Daddy said, "Well, hey, I got two phone numbers today, how about that?" He grinned at Uncle Sam.
"For what?" I asked.
"Uncle Sammy's not the only one that's going to be going out on a date," he told me over his shoulder.
"Wait- you mean some of the moms want to go out on dates with you too?"
Daddy laughed. "Don't sound so shocked, Charlie. I'm a handsome guy, you know?"
"And oh so modest," Uncle Sam said sarcastically.
"Nah, I'm confident, and the chicks like that."
"Do you have to?" I asked.
"Do I have to what?" Daddy glanced back at me.
"Go on dates."
"Well, why wouldn't I?" he glanced at me again. "It's just a bit of fun."
"Who's going to watch me when you guys are on your dates?" I asked.
"It's not going to be at the same time, probably." Uncle Sam explained. "We wouldn't leave you alone, Charlie."
That wasn't what I was worried about. All of the women at the library were moms. What if Daddy and Uncle Sam went out on dates with them, and fell in love with them and their kids, and then got married and didn't want me any more? What if the kids were better behaved than me and nicer? What if they liked them better? I turned my head and looked out the window, biting my lip so that I didn't start crying.
When we got to Uncle Bobby's house, he and Grandpa John were in the library, looking at a map that was spread out on a desk in the library. They motioned for Daddy and Uncle Sam to come over to them.
"Signs are starting up again," Grandpa John said urgently. "I think we have a good chance of catching him this time."
Daddy turned to me. "Charlie, go play out back for a while. Swing on the tire swing or something, we've got to do some work here."
"Okay," I agreed, although I had wanted to sit with Daddy when we came back. Maybe I'd get a chance to sit with him tonight after dinner. I had missed him a lot while he was gone.