Chapter 14 #4
Again, I’m not a very superstitious person, but things suddenly seemed…
heavy…inside Mystic Molly’s tent. Though it provided respite from the hot Texas summer sun, thus it was much cooler inside than expected, the air seemed to be pushing down on us all of the sudden.
The smell of the incense—which I still hadn’t laid eyes upon—seemed to get stronger.
Mystic Molly’s eyes fluttered under her eyelids uncontrollably and a light breeze seemed to ruffle her hair.
One glance at Auggie and I saw that he was intensely focused on her, waiting for her to say or do whatever she was going to say or do.
The air pushed down heavily upon us and the smell of the incense grew, everything seeming to come to a crescendo.
Then, Mystic Molly’s hair ruffled in the unfelt breeze a final time and her eyes fluttered open.
For a second, she looked dazed, confused about where she was, and then a smile came to her face.
She slid her hand from Auggie’s and nodded at him.
“She still thinks about you,” Mystic Molly said. “Every single day, Auggie. Every. Single. Day.”
Auggie’s face lit up and a happy gasp escaped his throat. Before I knew what was going on, Auggie had leapt out of his seat.
“Thanks, Molly!” He cheered.
Then he dashed out of the tent.
I was left sitting across from Mystic Molly, uncomfortable, anxious, and unsure of what to do. So, I rose from my chair jerkily and gave her a smile.
“Um, thanks,” I said and headed for the tent opening.
“Jordan?” Molly’s voice stopped me at the tent flaps.
“Uh, yeah?” I looked over my shoulder nervously.
Mystic Molly gave me a soft smile.
“I’m here whenever you’re ready,” she said before giving me a wink.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay. Yeah. Thanks.”
Molly nodded and I dashed out of the tent opening, immediately jerking my head back and forth, looking for Auggie.
I was just glad to be out of the dim light of the tent, the smell of whatever incense she had burning, the mysterious breeze, and the eerie gaze of the mystic.
When my eyes finally landed on Auggie, he was across the street, lying in the grass, staring up at the sky. A huge smile was on his face.
I made my way across the street, kicking at the ground, then the pavement, then the grass on the other side of the street.
When I came to stand next to Auggie’s prone body in the grass, it was like he didn’t even see me looming over him.
He was staring up at the cloudless blue sky and smiling like an idiot.
So, I plopped down next to him, folding my legs up into the lotus position.
“What was that all about?” I murmured.
“My grandma.” Auggie answered immediately, his voice sounding dreamy. “She still thinks about me.”
I stared at him.
“Every day, Jordan,” Auggie said. “She still thinks about me every day.”
A long sigh escaped his mouth and his smile turned beatific.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay. That’s cool.”
I didn’t know what else to say to such an odd answer. So, Auggie’s dead grandmother still thought about him in the afterlife or something? Did he really believe such nonsense?
Did he really think Mystic Molly had a direct hotline to the dead?
“I haven’t seen her in…” Auggie trailed off.
I waited.
“Years,” Auggie finally said. “But Mystic Molly assures me that she hasn’t forgotten me. Every time I talk to Molly, it’s always the same.”
“I mean, that’s great.” I shrugged, trying to be kind. “It’s always good to know the people we love never forget us. Right?”
“Right!” Auggie was suddenly sitting.
His legs still stayed stretched out before him, and he was propping himself up with his hands, but the movement was so quick it was startling. Kind of funny, too. Seeing Auggie so animated—even more so than he had been in the previous hour—was comical.
“So,” I mumbled, “you really believe that hocus pocus stuff? I mean…that was just strange. We were barely there for a minute and Molly contacted your dead grandmother to find out if she had thought about you today?”
Auggie gave an amused chuckle.
“Oh,” he said, “she’s not dead.”
He rose to his feet and brushed off the seat of his clam diggers with a fluttering of his hands.
“Huh?”
“The people we love never truly die.” Auggie shrugged and looked down at me.
“Right.”
That was all I could think of to say to such an odd statement. To such an odd morning.
“Look,” Auggie said, “there’s more to show you and tell you about. I mean, the tour isn’t complete or anything. But I really want to go home and work on my art. Is that cool?”
“Sure.” I nodded, though I was disappointed. Auggie and Mystic Molly had unnerved me, but his energy and the mystery of everything was intoxicating. I wanted more. “I’ll, uh, go back home, and…do other stuff.”
“Tomorrow!” Auggie jabbed a finger down at me excitedly. “We’ll hang out again tomorrow. Cool?”
“Sure.” I nodded.
Auggie smiled excitedly and started to skip away in the general direction of the creek. Apparently, he was going to follow its shore up to the big red barn in which he lived. When he was a few yards away, I realized there was one question about Possibly I’d had on my mind but hadn’t asked him yet.
“Auggie?” I hollered.
He turned to me, the smile on his face still there.
“Yeah?”
“What’s with the name?” I asked. “Possibly? Why do they call the town Possibly?”
Auggie grinned.
“Well,” he said across those yards between us, “they say when the first settlers came here—like a really long time ago—that they weren’t sure where they were.
They didn’t have GPS then, right? They didn’t even really have reliable maps.
They thought this might be Texas, but they weren’t sure.
So, one of them said it was ‘possibly Texas’ and it just kind of stuck. Possibly, Texas.”
I snort-laughed at that explanation.
“What was the other possibility?” I asked. “Oklahoma?”
Auggie gave me an odd smile.
“It was possibly not Texas,” he said.
“Right.” I drew the word out with a smirk.
“But it’s quite possibly the best place to be.” Auggie winked.
Then he was skipping away towards the creek once more, his flip-flops slapping at his feet and the hems of his clam diggers fluttering.
I sat there, in the grass across the street from Mystic Molly’s tent for quite a while, sweat slowly making a light sheen on my skin as the hours passed.
Finally, when the heat was becoming overbearing and I was certain I’d had enough sun for the day, I got up and walked back to Jack’s place.
He was still in the backyard, working on his table project, though he seemed close to finishing it.
I merely gave him a wave, letting him know I was home.
I didn’t go over and interrupt his private time working.
There was no reason to make him regret my presence more.
Later that night, in bed, as I sat atop my covers and stared out at the hazy golden glow coming from the roof of the big red barn in the distance, I replayed that morning in my head.
Things just got stranger and quirkier around Possibly.
Even if I had Auggie to explain everyone and everything to me.
The people, the places, the layout…it was all so alien to me.
And I’d been just about everywhere in the country you could get to by car.
Maybe I hadn’t walked enough dirt roads?
After the lights at the barn disappeared, I crawled under the covers, and lowered my head to the pillow. Other than Wyatt’s gunfire, I thought of how peaceful the town was. How everyone seemed to get along. One more thought entered my mind.
It possibly was the best place I’d ever lived.
Sometime, in the middle of the night, I thought I heard a door opening and closing.
But I wasn’t sure if I was awake or dreaming.