Exaltation (Insight #11)(27)

Raven walked around the side of the house and found Miss Thelma Ray on the back stoop snapping beans into a bowl. Her husband Mr. Hennery was asleep in the rocking chair next to her and her old hound dog ‘NoNo’ was asleep at her feet.

“How was your day, Miss BellaRose?” Thelma Ray asked without looking up.

Raven adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. “Not bad. Figured out my mom is like otherworldly or something, my dad is, too. Leads a powerful coven and all. Oh, and I may or may not have caused three hurricanes when I was defending myself when I was a kid. Which makes me like some kind of awesome. That and my dad is going to teach me how to use energy, um, vim, as power.” She raised her brow to point out how cool that was.

No reaction.

“Oh come on, tell me I should be taking this seriously, that I shouldn’t be making light of it or the spirits will put me in my place,” Raven said, crossing her arms. “Let me hear it.”

“I don’t suspect any of this is shocking to you considering you have heard it three times over,” she said as she raised her eyes to look her.

“Oh yeah and I was drugged to forget my past trauma.”

“Blame me. I should have looked at that class schedule closer,” Thelma Ray said, shaking her head.

“Berries is a balding joke.”

Thelma Ray made her classic “ummhmm” sound that came from somewhere deep in her throat. She snapped the bean in her hand with a hard crack.

“Now, what I do want to know ‘bout your day is why your daddy had to take you to lunch when I made you a lunch?”

Busted.

Raven adjusted her stance. “No disrespect. I planned to eat your amazing, mouth-watering lunch. I just happened to be diverted from my intentions by unforeseen circumstances.”

She was trying not to smile, Raven could tell. “Go on now. Get ready for your dance thing.”

Inward sigh. Raven rushed past her, hearing Thelma Ray laugh under her breath. She glanced back to see her shaking her head. Raven loved that woman. Everyone needed a Thelma Ray in their life. That much she was sure of.

Inside Raven found Emery wiping down a counter that could not get any cleaner. Ash had her hair in curlers, mascara in one hand and eyeliner in the other. She was saying, “Mom you cannot be that vague. What else?”

Raven assumed Emery had a similar conversation with the twins and Ash was not letting it go. Raven gave her a thumbs up then pointed to her wrist to tell her they were on a time schedule and to hurry her interrogation up.

Raven took the stairs two at a time. Her bed was in a loft on the second floor that led to the twins’ room. She dropped her bag at the top of the stairs and started to strip out of her school clothes. She found River in the bathroom leaning over the tub rinsing out hair color.

“Ah! You guys are killing me. We’re already late.”

“It will be dry and styled by the time you get dressed.”

“Joke’s on you. I laid out my clothes last night.”

“Nope. Joke’s on you. Ash has your shorts on already and I have decided the tank you have looks better with my jeans.”

“That’s so wrong,” Raven said, as she started to wash off her school makeup and prepared to put on her night makeup.

“How was it with your dad?” River asked, as she pulled her head out from under the water.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Try.”

The thought to tease River about Berries being her dad crossed Raven’s mind. River saw the smirk. “What?”

“Your mom knew Berries.”

“How do you mean?” she asked as she stopped towel drying her hair with a look of horror on her face.

Raven busted into laughter. River shoved her shoulder.

“It was not his juice!” Raven said louder than she should.

“Did he tell you whose it was?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Not really. But…”

“But what?”

“I get the vibe that it came from someone my dad trusted.”

“You don’t think—”

“He didn’t admit to it or anything but I could tell he was worried about you being upset about it.”

“You told him that!” she said in a loud, harsh whisper.

“Well, yeah.”

“I cannot believe you did that,” River said as she blushed.

“Just chill. I never got conformation, but I think you should be looking around the Quarter for the juice man instead of hacking into files.”

“You’re just saying that because there is only one man in the Quarter that looks anything like us.”

Raven shrugged. “That would be so cool, to know for sure.” As soon as her mascara was on she added, “Maybe instead of teasing your mom we should have been teasing my dad. It was kinda of cute how interested he was.”

“What else did you guys talk about?” she asked over her blow dryer.

“Hurricanes and car crashes.”

“Same speech.”

“You’re not tripping over it?”

“Not so much. I had a few dreams about it, remember.” Raven nodded once. Nightmares were more like it. The girl woke up screaming on the regular. “But Ash is going nuts. She wants to know it all.”