Drink Your Medicine (Jalex)

<7>

One week into my attempt at being more successful in school, there was a pop quiz in science. In all honesty, that was the subject that I was paying the least attention to. The class was simple and the questions even more so, however the quiz was on a topic that we had just begun to learn about. I'd given myself three weeks to figure it out, but clearly that backfired. 

Through most of the quiz I guessed the answers, but there were a few that I was sure of. If I can't get a passing grade on this quiz, I can kiss my chances of getting that guitar goodbye. So I sat through the rest of my school day praying that I'd get a good grade, listening extra closely to lessons, and catching up on homework. Surprisingly, I'd actually gotten better at that last one. It went from two in the morning, to one in the morning, to eleven in a matter of days. I guess that actually trying helps. 

Upon arrival home, I was surprised to find my dad and Jillian at the table, both engrossed in a conversation spoken in hushed tones. "Where's Mum? " I wondered aloud, half not expecting an answer. 

"Groceries, " My father answered quickly. He immediately went back to the conversation. 

"Well that was weird, " I muttered as I started for the stairs. Dad was never back before I was. I wonder what the two of them were discussing that was so important that they didn't even think to wait for Mum to talk about it. Unless they were talking about her. After all, she had left at five in the morning with a mysterious errand a little while ago. Maybe they were on to her. 

I allowed my imagination to run wild, ranging everything that she could possibly be doing from bounty hunting to being a hitman to being a master jewel thief guilty of a thousand frauds. 

Then again, she was probably just dealing with some kind of addiction. Or maybe she was going out to mourn Tom. I wouldn't blame her. When he first died almost two year ago, I snuck out every night just to talk to him and ask for him back. 

Ask for him back. 

Black magic. 

I ran into the bathroom as soon as I thought of it. "Jack! " I called. 

"What's the matter? " He asked, coming forward with a panicked expression. 

"Did Mum say anything about magic? " 

"If you're talking about her infatuation with ouija boards, then cool your jets, because they are all fake. Doesn't everyone know that black magic isn't real? " 

"What if she's trying to talk to Tom? " 

Jack's eyes grew wide. "Would she? " 

I nodded. "She would. Why wouldn't she tell us about this?"

"Well that would be an interesting conversation. 'Hey guys, I'm trying to talk to our dead member of the family. I'm getting so desperate that I might go to use satanic means. You're okay with this, right? '"He made his voice higher to copy hers. 

I pointed to him and rubbed my chin in thought. " This is true. We'd all think she's gone loony. " I dropped my hand once more and looked around. "What do I do now?" I whispered to myself. Remembering what I originally wanted to do all of the sudden, I took the mirror back off of the wall. 

"What are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to get you out of this thing." I pulled on the corkboard, feeling it begin to separate from the back of the glass. I was almost through the very top when there was a knock at the bathroom door.

"Are you almost finished in there?" My father's voice asked from the other side of it. I quickly put the mirror back on the wall, said goodbye to Jack, and then opened the bathroom door. I'd get him out if it was the last thing I did. I just had to figure out why Mum was crazy enough to try to bring Tom back. 

Even I was never quite that desperate. I guess having one son just isn't enough for her. 

I walked back off to my room to begin studying up on science. If I was going to pass the rest of the quizzes, I should probably start to understand the subject at hand here. I was halfway through the page on my textbook when Helen knocked on my doorframe. "May I come it?" She asked me. 

I looked up and gestured for her to come in. "What is it?"

"You're closer to her than I am, so do you know what's wrong with Mum?" She asked, wringing her hands.

I looked left and right to make sure that no one was listening, and then motioned her closer. "Don't tell anyone else about this, okay? I think that she's trying to bring Tom back."

"Black magic?" She said it so sarcastically I knew that she thought that I was kidding, but when I kept a straight face, her smile slowly disappeared. "Are you seriously convinced that she's involved with that stuff?"

"I'm not only convinced, but she's spoken about using oujia boards too."

"Why wouldn't she say anything about it?"

"If she told you that she was trying to use necromancy to bring back our dead brother, would you believe her?"

Helen sighed and shuffled her feet, still pretty unconvinced. "I suppose I probably wouldn't believe her." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Do you have any other more realistic ideas about it?"

I rolled my eyes, knowing that this was the most likely outcome of my response. "Probably drugs or alcohol would be my first though on the matter. But then again, what do I know? She doesn't really tell me anything more than she tells you guys."

Finally done listening to my idiocy, she turned on her heel. She stopped halfway between me and my bedroom door. "Do you think that Dad knows but isn't telling us?"

I shrugged in response. "Stranger things have happened. Maybe he's in on it too."

Helen nodded and walked out of the room with nothing more to say. 

I can see why Jack thought that I wouldn't believe Mum if she told us the truth about what she was doing.