Callis Rose by Mark Tufo

  “Just shut up,” she told him.

  Mrs. Denton led a weeping Mr. Denton in.

  “Is that my dad?” a wide-eyed Kevin asked.

  Callis nodded slightly.

  “I must be worse off than I thought. I’ve never heard him cry. I mean, not until the Broncos won the Super Bowl any way,” he said, trying to inject some levity into the situation.

  “Hey, kiddo,” Mr. Denton said, stepping next to Callis. “How you doing?” He was crying again.

  “I think better then you, Dad.”

  “Huh huh…funny one,” Mr. Denton answered with no mirth.

  “Hello, Kevin.”

  “Hi, Mom. Probably should have stayed with soccer.”

  He watched as his mom’s face fell flat with his words. When he had told her six years ago that he wanted to play football instead of soccer she had damn near read him the Riot Act. It had taken him a solid two months of harassing her and showing safety statistics until he had ground an agreement out of her.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. It was a joke, I love football.”

  “When the doctors here say you’re able, we’re going to move you to Beth Israel Hospital. They have some of the finest surgeons in the world,” she told him as she tried to cope with this new wrinkle in her life, all their lives.

  “Okay, okay,” he told her. “I’ll be alright.”

  A parade of nurses and doctors came in with equipment that looked better suited for a science fiction movie.

  “We’re going to need to examine him,” Dr. Long Face told Mrs. Denton.

  She acquiesced immediately, hoping beyond hope that someone would remove her from this waking nightmare. A nurse ushered the trio out into the waiting room once again. It was an hour or so later when Mindy and Talea showed up.

  “How’s Kevin?” Mindy asked almost trivially. She shot daggers at Callis as she spoke.

  “Nice of you to show,” Mrs. Denton replied coolly.

  “I’m the captain of the cheerleading squad, I can’t just up and leave for any old thing,” Mindy said with disdain.

  “Any old thing!” Mrs. Denton stood. “Any old thing? You spoiled little brat, your brother is lying in that room,” she said pointing, “with a broken neck and will probably never walk again, but yeah…that’s any old thing.” Mrs. Denton was close to breaking down.

  “He probably wouldn’t have got hurt if she wasn’t in the stands,” Mindy said, pointing at a shocked Callis.

  “Get out,” Mr. Denton said quietly. “Just get out. I’ve never been so ashamed to be related to someone in my entire life up until now. If you can’t be supportive. just leave.”

  Mindy glared at Callis, turned, and left.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Denton,” Talea said before she also left.

  Callis called the Lowries to let them know what had happened. She spent the remainder of the night in the lounge area with the Dentons. Kevin would be moved to Beth Israel the following morning.

  “Callis, do you want me to bring you home?” a wrung out Mr. Denton asked.

  “If it’s no problem Mr. Denton I’d like to spend the day at the hospital with you.”

  “He’s lucky to have you as a girlfriend,” Mr. Denton said, looking at her through the rear view mirror.

  The majority of the time revolved around discussions with a myriad of doctors that specialized in degrees that only a doctor would be able to read. By the end of it all, it still pretty much boiled down to what they had learned the previous evening. They did not yet know the extent of Kevin’s injury and chances were that he would never use his legs again.

  They only got to see him for a few minutes and those were a blur for the boy. He was constantly sedated so that he would not attempt to move. The Dentons finally headed home on urgings from the doctors that nothing of significance was going to happen that night and that they needed to go home and rest so that they could be strong for the journey that was to come.

  Callis could barely keep her eyes open as she watched the street lamps pass overhead. Each radiated its own brightness that she could not touch or feel. When the Dentons finally dropped her off at her house, she hardly had the energy to walk up the pathway.

  “We’re going to church in the morning before we go to the hospital, Callis. Would you like us to pick you up?” Mrs. Denton asked.

  “Yes please.”

  “We’ll be by around 9:30, and thank you, sweetheart.”

  Callis smiled.

  “You alright, kiddo?” a concerned Mr. Lowrie asked as Callis pulled herself into the house.

  “I’ve been better,” she told him honestly. She relayed as much of the information as she could before the commercial break was over. When it was all boiled down, it didn’t amount to much anyway. ‘Boy crippled during football game, girlfriend heartbroken, sister still evil bitch.’ That was the part she thought about as she headed towards her room.

  Sunday was much like Saturday had been, although they had finally been able to keep the swelling in check. The fact that Kevin had held on to usage of his arms and hands was taken as a positive sign, but he had enough drugs in him to keep him in a near comatose state.

  “I wish they would give me some of what they’re giving him,” Mr. Denton said, not because he wanted to be high, but because he wanted to be able to forget, to let go…even if it was artificial, it would still be a welcome respite.

  After welcoming his parents and Callis, Kevin had asked where his sister was in one of his brief moments of lucidity. Mindy was still conspicuously absent. Mr. Denton had begun to stutter a response, but Mrs. Denton answered swiftly, hoping that her son did not see the lie for what it was.

  “She’s sick honey. I think it’s with worry for you.”

  In truth, Mindy had pitched a fit at the prospect of going to church and wasting her day waiting at the hospital; especially since they weren’t even going to do anything.

  “It’s the only day I get to sleep in!” she had whined.

  Mrs. Denton couldn’t even find it in herself to argue with the girl, it just wasn’t worth it. “The very day you turn eighteen, Mindy,” Mrs. Denton stated, “I want you to pack up everything and move. I don’t care where, I don’t care with whom. But I want you out of my house. And if it’s all the same with you, don’t bother giving me a forwarding address.”

  The look of shock on Mindy’s face would have been priceless if Mrs. Denton could have mustered enough to care.

  The Dentons placed a sleeping Callis into their car and drove her home Sunday night. She wanted to go back with them on Monday, but school waited. People she had never talked with before came up in the hallway to either express their well wishes or to ask how Kevin was.

  “Why are they all going up to her? I’m his sister,” Mindy said, slamming her locker closed across the hall.

  Probably because they know you haven’t even gone to see him, Talea thought. She shrugged her shoulders in response.

  “Do you think the potion you gave him on Friday had something to do with his injury?” Laura asked.

  “Are you really going to add stupid on to your list of bad traits?” Mindy snapped. “How could something I gave him break his neck?”

  “You gave him something that was supposed to break him and Callis up. Seems like it’s working,” Laura reposed, she was more than a little upset with the way Mindy was treating her and was striking back any way she could.

  Mindy thought about the potential validity of Laura’s words and wheeled, turning on her and pushing her up against her own locker. “Don’t you ever tell anyone. Do you understand me?”

  Laura was nodding in fright.

  “Do you really think she’s right, Mindy? How screwed up would that be if you gave something to your brother that made him a spazz.”

  “You too? Is stupidity contagious?” Mindy asked. “If my brother has to lose the ability to walk to get rid of Callis Rose, then I consider that a fair trade. He’s better off,” Mindy said smiling as she headed off to cla
ss.

  “This isn’t right,” Laura said to Talea.

  Talea once again shrugged her shoulders. “It’s Mindy Denton, what did you expect?”

  Mindy fumed at lunch as a steady stream of students visited and were comforting Callis as she sat at her usual table sans Kevin. “They’re acting like she’s Helen of Troy.”

  “Mindy, they’re just seeing how she’s doing,” Laura said in defense.

  “Laura, you’re only holding on by a thread with me. How much further do you want to push it?”

  “They’re asking about your brother, they want to know how he’s doing,” she pleaded.

  “Why aren’t they asking me how I’m doing?” Mindy exclaimed loudly. “Why aren’t they asking me how this is affecting me?” she demanded.

  “Probably because they know you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

  Mindy and Laura were both staring agape at Talea.

  “Oh my God! Did I say that out loud?” Talea asked, clamping her hands over her mouth.

  “Why don’t you two both go to hell!” Mindy said, grabbing her books and leaving.

  “I can’t believe you said that,” Laura said with wide eyes. “I mean. I was thinking it, but you voiced it.”

  Callis had excused herself when she saw Mindy get up from the table. She had a pretty good idea where she was headed and went to the football field to meet her there.

  Mindy had just lit her cigarette when she saw Callis coming. “No losers allowed,” Mindy said, exhaling a big plume of smoke.

  “Well you’re already here so they must have changed the rules,” Callis retorted.

  “What do you want, attention whore? I’m busy.”

  “I see that. It must take a lot of energy to be that big of a bitch.”

  If the cartoons had ever been real and steam could come out someone’s ears, Mindy was about as close to making that a reality as was possible. She thought for a moment of charging and shoving the burning ember of her lit smoke into Callis’ eye. That would wipe that smirk off her bitch face, she thought. She held her spot, though, knowing full well what Callis could do.

  “You look like you want to take my head off, Mindy. Why don’t you?”

  “I’ve seen what you can do. I might hate you, but I’m not an idiot.”

  A look of shock registered on Callis’ face.

  “Oh yeah, I saw you performing your voodoo,” Mindy said, waving her hands above her head. “I wonder what the cops would say…or maybe the Feds. Yeah I wonder what the Feds would say. Maybe that’s what I should have done instead.” Mindy instantly stopped her diatribe, realizing she got a little too close to the truth for her own liking.

  “Instead of what?” Callis asked, picking up on the other girl’s unease.

  “I have nothing to explain to you,” Mindy said defiantly.

  Callis advanced on Mindy.

  “That had better not be smoke I see coming from under there!” Mrs. Pennington, the biology teacher, was shouting as she came across the parking lot.

  “Shit,” Mindy said, tossing the offending butt onto the ground and snubbing it out with the toe of her shoe quickly.

  “Oh,” Mrs. Pennington stopped when she saw who it was. “Hello, Callis. How is Kevin doing?”

  “Damn!” Mindy shouted as she stormed away.

  “He’s got a ways to go,” Callis replied as she watched Mindy leave. She had wanted to press her for more information. She had initially wanted to ask why she couldn’t bother to be by her brother’s side, and that she was breaking his heart. But now there was something else. Mindy kept getting further and further away as Mrs. Pennington cornered her with a rapid fire succession of questions.

  “Why would you come back here?”

  “I need help,” Mindy said.

  “We’ve been over this,” Wendy, the shop owner, said.

  “I’ll pay double.”

  “Get out.”

  “Triple.”

  Wendy paused.

  Mindy pressed when she saw an opening. “This isn’t about breaking up a relationship. This is about my safety now.” Mindy was truly scared for one of the first times in her life. So when she began to lay it on thick, it wasn’t all that difficult. “The girl…the witch we told you about last time, she knows I wanted her to break up with my brother and that I was trying to do something about it and just today she vowed that she was going to get revenge on me. I need help. I need your help.” Mindy squeezed a tear out.

  “What makes you think I can protect you?” Wendy asked.

  “I’ve seen what you can do. Please, she busted my friend up because of a rumor. What do you think she’s going to do to me?”

  “Probably no less than you deserve,” Wendy responded.

  “I need you to teach me some spells to stop her.”

  Wendy would have sent the girl on her way except for the ‘Past Due’ bill for rent that she had sitting on her desk. “Say I believed you – which I really don’t – I can’t just teach you how to do what I do. It has taken me years to perfect my craft. What you’re asking is akin to buying a guitar, walking into a music shop and asking that you be able to play Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven after your first lesson.”

  “Who?”

  “I should kick you out just for that.”

  “Please.” Mindy was as close to begging as she had ever been.

  “I need to see what this girl can do. This is going to cost you.”

  Mindy pulled out her mother’s credit card. Mrs. Denton put the family’s three cards in her locked drawer in her home office to be used only in an emergency. Mindy had discovered them about a month ago when she went snooping for some money. She hadn’t used them yet, but this seemed as opportune a time as any.

  “I thought you said your name was Mindy?” Wendy asked, looking at the card.

  “That’s my mom, she gave it to me in case of an emergency.”

  Wendy was breaking another rule; she knew better than to take a credit card that didn’t match the user, but the last name was the same, she had verified it with Mindy’s driver license and she REALLY needed this place. It doubled as her place of business and her residence. After she had caught her boyfriend of four years cheating on her, he had the balls to kick her out of their apartment and she had left knowing she had nowhere else to go.

  “Come on,” Wendy said reluctantly, motioning for Mindy to follow her. “I’ll need to get some information from you.” They headed down a small hallway that led to an opening where Wendy had a cot and a makeshift nightstand made from two milk crates. On top were a few books and a large box of Kleenex.

  “Nice place,” Mindy said sarcastically.

  “Yeah, well being a witch doesn’t pay well, and apparently doesn’t allow someone to see far enough into the future to see how big of an asshole the person you’re dating is. Luckily, you’re going to change that for me,” Wendy said as she waved Mindy’s mom’s credit card.

  Mindy smiled weakly. Wendy handed her a piece of paper and pen. “Alright, I need you to start writing addresses down. Do you have a picture of the girl?”

  Mindy pulled out her phone, flipped through some photos and stopped at the one of Callis looking up at her brother. She had taken the pic the day after she had seen Callis take those men down. She didn’t know what she was looking for; maybe something would show in the picture, possibly a spectral halo or shadow…something. But there was nothing, other than a slut who was looking up adoringly at her naïve brother.

  “She’s beautiful,” Wendy said, looking at the picture on the phone. “I’m going to plug this into my computer and download it. You alright with that?”

  Mindy nodded. “Is it possible she’s using a glimmer?” Mindy asked after she wrote Callis’ address down.

  “A glamour you mean?” Wendy asked.

  “Yeah a spell that masks any imperfections in the human form and hides what’s underneath.”

  “I know what a glamour is. Is this picture an accurate represe
ntation of Callis?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Well you know the old saying, the camera don’t lie?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well that has to do with the fact that cameras, for whatever reason, see through the glamour spells and portray the person who resides beneath.”

  “Dammit, I thought for sure her perfectness was due to a spell or something. Nobody can look that good. And I don’t think she even wears make-up.”

  “Listen, if this is just an issue of jealousy...”

  “It’s not (and in a flash of brilliance Mindy peppered in some honesty to strengthen her argument), at first maybe, but now I’m truly afraid for what this girl is going to do to me and my friends. I’m not sure, but she might have also been the reason why my brother is injured.”

  “What happened to your brother?”

  “His neck is broken.”

  Wendy gasped.

  “It’s horrible,” Mindy cried. “I’ve never been more fearful in my life.” She thought she was doing a pretty good job.

  “He’s alive?”

  Mindy nodded, too choked up to talk.

  “If she’s in love with him, why would she break his neck?” Wendy asked, involuntarily putting her hand up to caress her own neck.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he finally saw her for the evil person she is and he was going to break up with her. Or maybe that was just her way of getting at me.”

  “A little excessive, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know what’s going through her crazy mind.”

  “I’m going to come out tomorrow and try to sort all this out.”

  Mindy did not look thrilled with that answer. “Why not sooner?”

  “I have to set some things up and I just can’t leave my shop.”

  “Wouldn’t want to disappoint the shoppers,” Mindy replied.

  “Anyone ever tell you how funny you are? How’s five hundred dollars sound, funny girl?” Wendy asked as she swiped the card through her specially designed credit card app and attachment on her cell phone.

  Mindy swallowed a small lump in her throat.

  “Yeah, I thought that might have that effect. Your mom is going to be cool with you spending five hundred dollars at a metaphysical store?”