The next day it rained buckets and we girls were even more bored to tears than usual since we were stuck inside. I swept the canned goods aisle maybe 15 times in 30 mins just to give me something to do. Momma put Mary Sue to work scrubbing the walls of the bathroom. Me and Jenny Kate laughed at that until Momma said she was gonna put us to work on the sink and toilet once Mary Sue was done. She got done faster than lightning too. Or so it seemed. Took me longer to scrub that toilet than it took to walk up the holler to home at the end of the day. Not because it was so dirty, but because I was in no hurry to get it done.

Uncle Alvey came round in the afternoon, when the downpour had fizzled out into a drizzle. “Come on, girls,” he said, hiccoughing before letting out a mighty belch. Mary Sue and I laughed, but Jenny Kate just rolled her eyes. “I got my check from Uncle Sam,” he said. “Let me take you over and buy you an ice cream from Pete.” There was a soft serve machine at the gas station across the street. Uncle Alvey always liked to treat us when his government check came in. I didn’t really understand back then why the government paid him when he worked in our store, but I didn’t ask questions. I knew better.

“Daddy, you spoil them,” Kathy Jo called out from the register, where she was running the belt so she could clean it.

“Spoil you too, if you like, baby,” he said to his daughter.

Kathy Jo shook her head. “I gotta work, Daddy,” she said.

“Oh!” he scoffed at her playfully, as he moved towards the front of the store. “Aunt Mary Anna will watch over the place. We won’t be too long.”

“Plus, nobody is coming shopping in this mess,” Jenny Kate said. “There ain’t been nobody in here all day!”

Kathy Jo turned off the belt with a smile, and we all ran across to the gas station. Pete served us up quick- nobody was in the gas station either, considering the weather. We hung around inside the station eating our ice cream, me and Kathy Jo standing next to one another in comfortable silence at the window, while Uncle Alvey chatted with Pete about some grown up stuff I didn’t understand nor care to. When I was sure my sisters weren’t listening I elbowed Kathy Jo in the side.

“Ow! What’d’ya do that for?” my cousin said, rubbing her ribs with a deepening frown.

The rain was coming down harder now, and I knew that nobody would want to go back across the street until we’d finished our ice cream and the rain let up a little again. I had my cousin trapped right where I wanted her- as long as Mary Sue and Jenny Kate didn’t interfere. “Take me to see the Chew Witch.”

“What?” Kathy Jo hissed at me. I knew she knew how to drive her daddy’s old beat up Ford, even if she wasn’t supposed to. And honestly, nobody would care if she did. It’s not like her daddy ever followed any rules, and her momma was always too busy making jams, jellies, pies and whatever else she could sell to keep the family afloat. If the car was gone, she’d probably just assume that Alvey took it to go drinking with his buddies again.

“You scared?” I asked, my grin growing wider as she furiously shook her head.

“Why would I be scared of an old lady?” Kathy Jo said. But I could see in her eyes, she was scared. Everybody was at least a little scared of the Chew Witch. She reminded me of that woman from that old German story, the one about the two kids getting lost in the woods. Except I couldn’t imagine that the Chew Witch lived in a house of candy that would lure children right into her cauldron. I almost shivered, but kept my stoicism in the presence of my older cousin. She couldn’t see that I had any cracks, or else I just knew she wouldn’t take me.

“Well, if you aren’t scared, then take me to see her. She said I’d never see anything interesting unless I followed her home.”

Kathy Jo was thinking mighty hard about it. She was mostly done with her ice cream cone, and I knew I wouldn’t really have a chance to talk to her about it again once we were back in the grocery. “Why do you want to go?” She finally asked. She crunched into the bottom of the cone, chewing like a horse while she waited for me answer.

“Didn’t she invite me?” I asked. Honestly, that was the best answer I had for Kathy Jo. Why did I want to go see the Chew Witch? It wasn’t because I thought she’d be a good cook. And it wasn’t because I thought she lived in a nice house or would be very nice to me once I was there. Regardless, there was something compelling about her. That’s why I always watched her when she came shopping. It was like she had a secret about life in the mountains, and I had to know what it was.

“I don’t know, Peggy June,” Kathy Jo said. She wiped her hands on her jeans.

“Pleeeeease,” I begged. “Just tell your momma you’re going to see Annie Mae. Annie Mae was a friend of hers that lived a little further out towards the state highway, near the school. Her momma was a teacher.

“Okay, but I don’t know where she lives,” Kathy Jo said as she crossed her arms. She looked like she’d won some sort of argument, even though we hadn’t really be fighting.

“Don’t worry. I know how to find out,” I said.