I stepped in front of her so she couldn’t run away. “Tell me the truth,” I pleaded. “That night … at the carnival …”
“I sensed the evil,” she said. “I saw it.”
“But how can that be?” I asked. “My whole life, I—”
“I can sense it now,” Miss Elizabeth interrupted. “The evil you carry. It’s so strong.”
“I—I just don’t understand!” I cried. “I never used to be evil. Up until my birthday I never had any powers!”
The woman stared at me coldly. I caught the fear in her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled. “Let me go now,” she said.
“No, wait. Please.” I blocked her path. I held up my hand. “Look at it again. Just look at it. Maybe … maybe you made a mistake.”
She shook her head. “No. I must go.” She raised the shopping bags in her hands. “I have been shopping a long time. My family is waiting.”
I shoved my hand into her face. “It will only take a second,” I said. “Please—look at my hand. You were wrong the first time. I know you were.”
Miss Elizabeth sighed and set down her bags. She reached for my hand and turned it so that the palm was up.
She raised my palm to her face and squinted at it for a second or two.
And then she opened her mouth in a shrill cry—and tossed my hand away as if it were burning hot!
“The evil!” she cried. “It’s there on your hand! I made no mistake. It came with your birthday! Thirteen is a powerful number!”
She took a step back, her eyes wide and frightened.
“Wait,” I pleaded. “Are you sure—?” I stuck out my hand again.
“Please—don’t hurt me!” the woman begged. “Don’t hurt me! I have a family. They are waiting.”
“I … I won’t hurt you,” I whispered. “I’m … sorry.” I lowered my hand—my evil hand—to my side. And turned away from the poor, trembling woman.
She grabbed up her bags and scurried away. I watched her as she rode up the escalator, staring down at me, clutching her bags tightly in front of her as if shielding herself from my evil magic.
At home I shut myself up in my room and didn’t even come out for dinner. Mom kept banging on my door, asking what was wrong. “Are you sick? I’m a nurse, remember? Let me look at you.”
“No. I just want to be left alone,” I called out.
I felt relieved when she left to work the night shift at the hospital. I sat down at my desk and grabbed the telephone.
I’d been thinking hard, thinking for hours.
At first my thoughts were filled with anger. Anger and despair.
My life is over, I thought. I’m doomed—doomed to a horrible, lonely life.
A life without friends. With everyone hating me, terrified of me.
But then I started thinking about my powers. I have powers, I knew. I definitely have powers. But do they have to be evil?
I thought about those old TV shows they run on Nickelodeon all the time at night. The one with the genie who is always popping in and out, doing cute magic. And the other show—Bewitched—with the cute, blond witch.
Everyone thinks they’re funny, I told myself. No one hates them. Everyone thinks they’re terrific!
I knew they were only TV sitcoms. There wasn’t anything real about them. But they started me thinking in a whole new way.
They gave me a little bit of hope.
So I sat down at my desk and phoned Jackie.
At first she didn’t want to talk to me. “Haven’t you caused enough damage?” she asked angrily. “What more do you want, Maggie?”
“I want my friends,” I said. “I want you and your sisters not to hate me. I don’t want everyone in school to stare at me like I’m some kind of freak, and hide from me, and think I’m evil.”
“But—but you are evil!” Jackie sputtered. “You proved it—in the lunchroom. Even Judy had to admit it.”
“No—!” I protested. “Listen to me, Jackie. Please don’t hang up. Give me a chance.”
“I’ve got to study,” she replied. “I can’t spend time on the phone. I have that algebra test first thing tomorrow morning, and you know it’s my worst subject.”
“I have the test, too,” I said. “Listen, I’ve been thinking …”
“I’ve got to go, Maggie. Really—”
“Maybe I do have powers,” I continued. “In fact, yes. Okay—yes. I do have powers. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But I seem to have them.”
“Maggie, you’ve already hurt my family so much!” Jackie declared.
“Well—what if I use my powers for good?” I asked. “If I can do evil things, I can do good things, too—right?”
“I don’t know,” Jackie said impatiently. “The whole thing is too creepy, too yucky. Everyone is scared of you now, Maggie, and—and so am I.”
“But what if I do something good tomorrow? What if I use my powers to get you an A on the algebra test?”
Jackie uttered a startled cry. “Excuse me?”
“I’ll get you an A tomorrow,” I repeated. “I’ll concentrate all my powers. I promise. I’ll—”
“Concentrate your powers? Like in the lunchroom?” she interrupted.
“I’ll concentrate all my powers and get you an A on the test,” I said.
“Well …”
“I want you to stay my friend,” I told her. “I’ll do it for you. Really. You’ll see. And if I do it, you have to promise not to hate me.”
Again, she hesitated. “Well … we’ll see, Maggie. See you tomorrow.” And she hung up.
I sat at the desk, gripping the phone, staring out the window at the black night sky.
I just made a big promise. Can I do it? I wondered.
Can I?
The next morning I met Jackie outside the algebra classroom. I ignored the kids staring at me up and down the hall. I saw them whispering as I passed. And I saw several kids back away, as if I carried a disease or something they might catch.
“Ready?” I asked her.
She eyed me intently, as if she’d never seen me before. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I—I don’t know what to think. You’ve done so much harm. Poor Jilly had to stay home today. Her ribs hurt too bad. She could barely get out of bed.”
I lowered my eyes. “I’m really sorry,” I muttered. “I didn’t mean to hurt Jilly or you. You’ve got to believe me. It was before I realized—”
“Let’s just go in,” Jackie said sharply. “Kids are looking at us.” She started into the classroom.
“I’m going to do what I promised,” I whispered as I followed her in. “I’m going to concentrate all my powers. You’ll see. I can do good, too.”
We took our seats. Jackie sat in the same row as me, two seats away.
When I sat down, Cory Hassell, the boy who sits next to me, scooted his desk as far from mine as he could. Then he leaned over to me and whispered, “Are you going to make everyone puke their guts out today?”
I rolled my eyes. “Give me a break, Cory. That was not my fault yesterday. I don’t know how these dumb rumors start—do you?”
He didn’t answer. He sat back up and pretended to study his algebra textbook.
The bell rang. Mrs. Rodgers got everyone quiet. Then she walked up and down the aisles, passing out the tests.
She stopped when she got to my desk, and peered down at me. “How are you feeling today, Maggie?” she asked.
“Fine,” I replied. I took the test from her.
She stared at me for a few seconds more. She looked as if she wanted to ask me another question. But she didn’t. She moved on down the row.
“Everyone begin,” she instructed when she had returned to her desk. “It’s a difficult exam. But you should have enough time to complete it.”
A heavy silence fell over the room. I glanced around at all the heads bowed low over the test questions. Pencils scratched. One girl was already erasing violently.
Did she get her name wrong? I wondered.
r /> I shut my eyes and started to concentrate.
I concentrated on Jackie. I pictured her in my mind, filling out the test, getting all the answers right.
Jackie will get a perfect score, I told myself.
I was catching on to how these powers worked. I just had to concentrate on something—and it came true.
So I lowered my head and shut my eyes, and wished for Jackie to get a perfect score on the algebra test. Wished … concentrated hard …
And yes. Once again, the skin on my arms started to prickle. My hands burned … burned so hot …
My eyes snapped open when I heard a sharp cry. I recognized the voice. Jackie!
I turned down the row—in time to see Jackie leap up from her seat. “Oh! Oh, nooo!” she wailed.
Bright red blood poured from her nose.
The blood splashed onto her test paper. It ran down the front of her yellow T-shirt.
Mrs. Rodgers looked up from her desk. “Oh, what a bad nosebleed!” she declared.
The blood flowed from both of Jackie’s nostrils. Two rivers of gleaming, scarlet blood.
Jackie jammed her hand over her nose. But it didn’t stop the nosebleed. In seconds the blood flowed over the side of her hand.
Mrs. Rodgers ran up beside Jackie and took her by the elbow. “Quick—go to the nurse! She’ll know how to stop it. Hurry, Jackie! Oh, my. I’ve never seen so much blood!”
Jackie staggered to the door, cupping her hand over her nose, leaving a bright trail of blood on the floor.
“I’d better go with you,” Mrs. Rodgers said. “Just keep doing your tests, everyone. And no talking.” She hurried after Jackie.
Jackie stopped at the classroom door. She turned and pointed at me. “Evil!” she cried.
One word.
That’s all.
Evil.
Then she and the teacher disappeared out the door.
“Whoa. That was so gross!” someone said.
“Poor Jackie.”
Then the classroom returned to silence. I lowered my head and shut my eyes again. I was trembling so hard, I gripped the sides of my chair to steady myself.
My breath caught in my throat. My chest ached.
Evil. I can only do evil, I realized.
I wanted to help Jackie. I tried to help her. But my powers can be used only for evil.
And I can’t control them. I do these horrible, evil things to my friends because I have no control over my powers!
Then, behind me, I thought I heard a boy begin to chant—softly at first, and then louder.
And then some girls joined in. Then more voices. More voices chanting.
And as I sat there trembling, sick, terrified, it sounded as if the entire class chanted, slowly, in a slow, steady rhythm, softly, so softly, like distant thunder.
All of them.
All of them, leaning over their test papers, chanting:
“EVIL … EVIL … EVIL … EVIL … EVIL … EVIL … EVIL …”
After dinner that night I rode my bike over to Glen’s house.
I didn’t know where else to go. Who else could I talk to?
He seemed really surprised to see me. He led me into a tiny den beside the living room. It looked like some kind of hunting lodge from an old movie. The walls were covered with huge art posters of tigers and elephants. The chairs and couch were all beat up, cracked, dark brown leather. A long hunting rifle was mounted over the doorway.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I thought maybe you—”
What did I think? Why was I there?
I suddenly felt very confused.
Glen motioned for me to sit down in one of the broken leather chairs. “I heard about Jackie,” he said, dropping into the chair across from me.
“And did you hear …” I started. But it was hard to force the words out. “Did you hear that everyone blames me?”
He nodded. “It’s crazy,” he murmured, lowering his eyes to the floor. “I keep hearing rumors about you, Maggie. Kids are talking. You know. After that thing in the lunchroom …” His voice trailed off.
I sprang up from the chair. “What am I going to do now?” I wailed.
He shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. It’s so … scary.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re not going to do something evil to me—are you?”
I let out a sigh. “Of course I’m not. But … that’s the scariest part. Don’t you see, Glen? I don’t know why these evil things are happening. And I can’t control them when they do happen!”
He continued to stare hard at me.
“I don’t mean to hurt anyone!” I cried. “How can I prove that to everyone? How can I stop everyone at school from thinking I’m some kind of evil witch?”
Glen shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe … maybe if you showed kids you were normal … if you showed them that bad things don’t always happen when you’re there … after a while, kids would forget about the rumors.”
I bit my bottom lip. “Yes, that’s true. But—”
“I know!” He jumped to his feet. “How about the Pet Fair tomorrow morning?”
“Huh? What about it?”
“It’s at the Community Center. Just about everyone from school will be there, Maggie. If you show up and help out—”
“I was supposed to help out,” I interrupted. “Judy wanted me to help her, but—”
“Great!” Glen cried excitedly. “If you help out at the Pet Fair, and nothing bad happens, kids will start to see that you’re not evil. That you’re totally normal.”
I hesitated. “Well …”
“Do it!” Glen urged. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Do it, Maggie. It’s worth a try! Do it! What can you lose?”
The Community Center is a long, red brick building with a gym and an auditorium, built beside the Cedar Bay public swimming pool. It’s used mainly for town suppers and parties. Kids don’t hang out there, but sometimes my friends and I like to explore the thick woods that stretch behind the building for miles.
I woke up early Saturday morning. Pulled on a clean pair of khakis and a sweatshirt. Grabbed a glass of orange juice and an untoasted Pop-Tart for breakfast. And rode my bike through the chilly morning fog, across town to the Pet Fair.
My plan was to get there early so that I could help Judy set up. But as I parked my bike in the rack at the side of the building, I heard cat yowls and barking dogs from inside.
I stepped inside and saw that the big, brightly lit gym was already filled with kids and their pets. As I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright light, I glimpsed cats in cages and boxes, hamsters, ferrets, and dogs of all sizes and colors. A boy from my class had a fat, green-and-yellow snake curled around his wrist.
Most of the animals didn’t seem happy to be there. They were all yowling and howling. Kids were shouting and laughing and showing off their pets. At the front of the gym some blue-uniformed workers were setting up a podium and microphone.
I searched for Judy and finally found her at the far side of the room. She was scurrying around from one group of kids to the other. “All cats against this wall!” she shouted, motioning to the front wall. “Please—try to keep your pet with you!”
“When is the judging?” a girl shouted to Judy.
Judy’s answer was drowned out by two dogs growling fiercely at each other.
“Please! Keep your pets calm!” Judy shouted. “All cats over here! Dogs against that wall!”
At the front a man started to test the microphone. It let out a deafening, shrill whistle. That made all the dogs go crazy—howling, barking, straining to pull free of their leashes.
Judy definitely needs my help! I told myself.
I started to make my way to her through the pets and pet cages. But I stopped when I saw a cat I recognized.
Plumper!
Somehow, Plumper must have escaped from his carrier. The cat was slinking low across the gym. His yellow eyes were locked on a cage on the floor, a cage filled with wh
ite mice!
I saw Plumper’s back arch as he prepared to attack the mice.
“Plumper—no!” I cried. I swooped down on him and lifted him into my arms.
Plumper screeched his unhappiness. He swiped a paw at me, but I held him away from my body. He couldn’t reach me.
“Judy—!” I called, running to her, the squirming cat in my arms. “Plumper got free! He—”
Judy spun around at the sound of my voice.
“Here. Here’s your cat,” I said breathlessly. I reached Plumper out to her. “I—I came to help out.”
To my surprise, Judy let out an angry shriek. She grabbed Plumper from me. “Give me that cat!” she screamed. “Don’t touch my cat! Get out! Get out of here! We don’t want you here!”
Trembling, I backed away.
I saw kids looking at me.
The gym grew quiet.
“Get out! Get out!” Judy screeched at the top of her lungs. “You’re evil! Get out!”
“N-no—!” I cried. “Please—don’t do this!”
Everyone was staring at me in silence now. Even the animals were quiet.
“You’re evil, Maggie!” Judy shrieked. She raised Plumper out toward me as if preparing the cat to attack me. “We don’t want you here! Get out! Out!”
My legs were trembling so hard, I could barely move. Somehow I backed to the gym door. My breath came in loud sobs.
So many eyes staring at me. All the kids … all the kids I knew … staring at me so coldly … with so much fear … so afraid of me.
They all hate me! I realized. Everyone … everyone I know.
It was too much. Too much to bear.
I started to back out the door. And then I stopped. And I pointed to Judy.
“Judy—!” I screamed her name. “Judy—! You shouldn’t have done that!”
My arms tingled. Heat soared through my hands. I gasped as a bright red flame shot out of a finger.
I heard an electric crackle. Sparks burst from my hands.
In shock I jerked up both hands—and long, angry flames shot out from all my fingertips.
Screams of fright rang out across the room.
And then the screams were drowned out … drowned out by the wails and howls of the animals.
Dogs howled and struggled to tear free of their leashes.