"I’m considering it," I said darkly.
When we reached the farm, Uncle Mike stood in the yard waiting for us, his weathered face grim. My uncle was tall and lanky, a retired engineer who lived in old blue jeans and, inthe summer, ancient T-shirts advertising products that had gone out of business before I was born. In the winter, he switched to flannel shirts. He was kind and solid and had been the bedrock of my childhood.
Right now, though, his light blue eyes were troubled.
He opened the door and touched Aunt Ruby’s shoulder, but she never even stirred. When I came around to their side of the car, I patted his arm.
"I can help you get her inside."
"No need," he said gruffly, and then he bent down and lifted her into his arms the same way he’d carried me to bed when I was a little girl, reminding me of the strength in his lean frame. "Get the door for me."
I ran ahead to open the door, and he carried her into the house and down the hall to their bedroom. When he came back out, he pointed to the kitchen.
"Let’s have some iced tea and talk, young lady."
Oh, no. He pulled out the "Young Lady."
I’m in trouble now.
7
Jack
"That was weird," Shelley said, buckling her seatbelt without prompting, because she was a smart kid. Adorable and smart as a whip.
"Why are whips supposed to be smart?"
"What?"
I shook my head. "Never mind. But yes. That was weird. And a good reason not to play with magical items."
"I didn’tplaywith it! And I didn’t know it was magical!" She glared at me. "It’s not fair to blame me for something I didn’t know about. I just thought it was pretty, and it would look nice on Aunt Ruby, and maybe she’d quit being mad at me for the school thing."
"The school thing. Right. What is that about anyway?"
She rolled her bright blue eyes and shoved her light brown hair away from her face. "I don’t think I should go back to normal-kid school. I should go to a school for witches."
I slammed on the brakes when a cow ambled out of the field through a broken length of fence and wandered onto the road.
"That looks like one of Mr. Rooster’s cows," Shelley said, pulling out her phone. "I’ll text him to come get her."
"Yeah, it’s Rooster’s field. Tell him I’m sending her his way." I pulled off the road, put the truck into park and walked out to meet the cow.
"Time to go back home," I told her.
The cow, being a cow, looked at me with enormous, gentle, and completely uncomprehending eyes.
I waved my arms at her and moved to her right, so I could herd her back where she’d come from, which of course made her immediately want to go in the opposite direction.
"Listen, cow, I’m not in the mood," I told the creature. "I look at you and see steaks and hamburger, so if you don’t want?—"
"UNCLE JACK!" Shelley yelled from the truck. "Don’t scare her!"
Yeah. The twelve-hundred-pound cow was absolutely scared of me.
Ha.
Even in my tiger shape, I was only five hundred pounds.
