Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 14:16:10 EDT
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: The Hexing of Josh and Ed

		 THE HEXING OF JOSH TURNER AND ED PARSONS
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
		      WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM

[Here's my annual Halloween offering.  For my non-English readers, "yore"
and "shore" is "your" and "sure" as pronounced in the backwoods of the
South in the last century, which is the setting of this story. I think you
can say the other words to yourself and figure out the rest of my phonetic
stabbings at mountain-men's conversation.]

"I tell you, Ed, thet woman's a witch!" Josh Turner said solemnly. "As
shore'n a hoot owl hoots."

"I says you say the truth." Ed Parsons said cautiously. They were staring
at the old woman who sat mumbling to herself outside the general store. She
certainly was a stranger in Johnson's Hollow, wearing a shawl over her
too-white hair, her face heavily wrinkled, a scream of lines across her
face, her nose prominent and hooked , her teeth all missing but for two,
and those two were hideously brown and crooked, and she moved her gums back
and forth, muttering, muttering. They hadn't dared get close enough to
speak to her, just watched her from behind the wagon carefully, two stout
young fellows in faded and worn overalls and shapeless shirts. Josh boasted
a straw plug hat he got from his father, but neither wore shoes, for their
large feet clung to the street with a life of their own. Neither young man
could imagine choosing to wear shoes except to church or in the most
inclement weather, the feet acting as extra hands in a half-dozen ways,
agile toes picking up things and ferrying up to the upper set of hands and
the scrutiny of the eyes. Those toes wriggled now, but in alarm and
agitation. If a witch was moving into Johnson's Hollow, trouble was bound
to come of it.

"Whut are you two doin' over hyar?" came the gaily careless voice of Martha
Cummings. She was a brazen young thing, and had declared to a dozen people
that she intended to marry one or the other of the two lifelong
friends. She hadn't clarified which one, but as many people had pointed
out, she was the sort of "Good Lord, anybody'll do!" girl just waiting for
someone to ask her to marry him so she could say yes and set to raising up
a passel of young'uns of her own.

"Watching thet woman." Josh said. And he repeated. "I tell you, thet
woman's a witch."

Martha started to laugh, then grew solemn. "You shore about that, Josh?"
she said.

"Shore as shore." Josh said.

"Me, too." Ed agreed. "She looks like a witch, don't she?"

"Shore does." Martha agreed. Then, as brazen as ever, she said, "Think I'll
go talk to her. I could use a hexin' done for me."

"A hexin'?" Ed said in alarm. "Martha, don't...." But he grabbed for her
arm too late, the girl was stepping lightly over to the old woman, her
plain blue shift her only clothing, arms and legs bare and wild in all four
directions, and she giggled as she skipped, yes, skipped, right over to the
old witch and crouched down beside her, chatting away brightly!

"She's done gone plumb crazy." was Josh's appraisal.

"Shore has." Ed agreed.

They watched as Martha talked to the old woman. After a couple of minutes,
she pointed right at the boys, to their horror. They ducked down behind the
wagon and sat there on the dust.

"What is Mart' up to now?" Ed wondered.

Josh felt sure he knew. "She done put a hexing on us."

"She wouldn't do that." Ed said, scandalized.

"I tell you, she has." Josh said. "I can feel it in my bones, working on
in."

Ed was quiet and said, "I think I can feel it, too. It's got my stomach
curling up like a hurt snake."

"Yeah." Josh felt his stomach wrenching up, too.

"Hey, you young'uns, clear on out of there!" came a rough male voice, and
they looked up to see Old Man Foggerty, the owner of the wagon they were
next to, standing over them. "Go find somewhere else to set yoreselves," he
said, "Or I'll take my whip to yore backsides."

Josh and Ed took off, found new refuge in the stable's sturdy side and a
fortuitous bundle of straw made a passable bench. They settled in there.

"What we going to do about the hexing?" Josh asked.

Ed was a bit more sensible about such things, and he was now, too. "Got to
find out what the hex is, I reckon." he said dolefully. "Have to come out
and ask Mart' what she had done to us. Then we can figger out how to break
the hex."

Josh considered this. "Reckon yo're right, blood brother." he said. He and
Ed had cut their thumbs and mixed their blood when they were only eight,
they had been "blood brothers" ever since. While a boyish thing to do, the
bond was true, they had been inseparable ever since, staying at first one's
house then the other's, and recently they had taken to sharing a house left
to Josh by his grandfather upon the old man's death, the two working the
ten acres that came with it. Right about then was when Martha had first
declared her intent to marry one of them. She had been haunting them ever
since, and probably was desperate enough to hire a witch to help her along
on that.

"So when do we talk to Martha?" Josh said after a time.

"How about now?" Martha said, and Josh started. She had come up on them
from the other direction, around back of the stables. Derned woman was bad
about that, it was like being spied upon, he wouldn't have been surprised
to look out his window and see her peeping in on him one of these days. In
fact he had on occasion found a footprint near their house which was
neither his nor Ed's, small enough to be a child's...or Martha's. "What do
you want to know?"

Ed was braver as well as sensible. As Josh shrank back from her gaze (she
had hexed them for sure, he could see it in her mischievous eyes!), Ed
spoke up. "We want to know what you talked to that old witch woman about?"

"I told you." Martha said as she drew a circle in the dust with her left
big toe. "I asked her to put a hex on for me."

"On us?" Josh asked.

"Yep." Martha said.

"But why? What'd we ever do to you?" Josh asked in agony.

Martha lifted her head high. "I done told you I wanted one of you two to
marry me, so I could keep yore house for you." She looked from one to the
other. "You two are such friends, it will take a woman like me to marry
either of you, without'en wanting the other one to clear on out." She grew
conspiratorial. "If'n you two can keep a secret, we wouldn't have to be so
careful about which one of you married me, even." she said. "You got a big
bed, just put me in the middle and we won't worry which'uns the children
come from."

The boys were scandalized. Such a loose woman! "You just clear on out of
here!" Ed said sternly. "We'll tell the reverend on you, and he'll preach
you into hell come next Sunday!"

"No way either of us is ever marrying you, you heathen hussy!" Josh said
emphatically.

"Suit yoreself." Martha shrugged. "But until you do, won't neither of you
have a pecker."

"What?"

"I told that witch to take 'em right off of you." Martha said. "And she'll
do it, tonight. When you hear an owl hoot tonight, that's when she'll do
it. She'll have that hoot owl take yore peckers, mebbe along with yore
knackers, and stuff them in an old oak tree way back in the forest and you
won't ever find them. You'll both be smooth as a girl between yore
legs. But when one of you marries me, then I'll have her bring both of them
back!"

"Clear off, I tell you!" Josh said. "We'll get us a counter-hex, is what
we'll do!"

"Ain't one." Martha said. "You know where to find me when you're ready to
get yore peckers back."

And she skipped off, just like a child with a happy secret.

"We should burn that woman." Josh said sternly. "Only way to handle a
witch." Whether he meant the old hag or Martha he didn't specify.

"Maybe we will." Ed said. "But for now, let's find someone to tell us how
to take off the hex. Then we'll build a bonfire for her. Let's ask my
grandmother, she knows plenty of counter-hexes and charms. Like cut off the
head of a live weasel and carry it warm in yore back pocket'll get you good
fortune, maybe that's all we need to do."

Somehow, Josh didn't think it would be that easy.

Grandma didn't have any counterhex for that, her only advice was for him to
marry Martha, because "after all, you boys need someone to take care of
you."

Old Man Tolliver just laughed when they asked him, laughed right in their
faces.

Mother Margaret was off visiting relatives in the next county.

That left only old John Hargess, who ran a still up in the woods. He wasn't
their first choice, a vile, filthy man with a foul mouth. But he knew
charms, everyone agreed on that. They had to scamper to make it up to his
place before sundown, fortunately it wasn't too far from their own place.

Old John was drunk as he usually was. He belched in their faces and said,
"Hexed yore peckers off, huh?"

"She will, tonight." Josh agreed. "When the owl hoots tonight, that's when
she'll take them."

"Using the power of the full moon, yes. Powerful magic in the full moon,
it's what werewolves need, you know. Converting magic, that's the power of
the moon. She'll take the changing face of the moon and change you both,
easy as pie."

"So what're we goin' to do 'bout it?"

"Do? Why, you hold on tight to them." Old John said. "Can't no witch take
them off if you got hold of them."

"Hold onto them." Josh's hand gripped his crotch. "I shore will, all right,
starting right now!"

Old John barked his laugh. "Won't do no good that way. Can't hold onto it
yore ownself. A witch can reach right through your own hands. Got to be
someone else hanging onto it."

"Why's that?" Ed wanted to know.

"Law of similarity. 'At's what seems, is." Old John said, belched
again. His eyes were reddened and seemed to flame at them. "Thet witch'll
have herself a hexing doll of each of you and that doll is going to let her
do as she sees fit, magically speaking, for its arm is your arm. But she
can't move the magic on two dolls at once, you see. She'll have to do it
one at a time."

"So if'n we got hold of each other's peckers, then the witch can't take
them!"

"Thet's right."

"So all we got to do is hold onto them?" Josh asked.

"Well, wouldn't hurt to keep them busy while you're at it." Old John said,
smirked. He seemed to be about to belch fire or something.

"Keep 'em busy?" Ed wanted to know.

Old John made a motion with his hand that was unmistakable. "You know the
way." he said. "Long as a man's busy, a witch can't get at him. The power
of life has its own anti-hexin' power. But you'll have to do it all night
long." he cautioned them. "Only way t'do it. Then you'll be safe until the
next time there's a full moon and the hoot owl hoots."

Josh figured he'd heard enough, and stood up from his crouching position
which was a country boy's way of making his own chair out of his legs, the
athletic toes grabbing on tight. "We both thank'ye kindly, Old John, and
we'll be on our way. I don't want to be outside come moonrise."

"Moon'll be up in a half hour." Old John said, still bubbling inside. "You
boys better hurry home and get started, and remember to keep a tight grip
on 'em until moonset."

"We will, sir, don't you worry none." Ed promised. The two took off and
when they were gone, Old John did in fact burst out. In laughter, the
insane helpless laughter of an inebriated man who has seen something very
funny.

Josh and Ed made it home at sunset, which meant that it would be moonrise
shortly. "You want something to eat?" Josh asked Ed.

Ed shook his head. "Too scared to eat."

"Me, too." Josh said. "So how you want to do it?"

Ed considered the problem. "On the bed, I reckon." he judged. "Lay there,
talk to each other, keep each other awake. We can sleep come sunrise." But
Josh was too nervous to stand still, he paced back and forth. Every time
he'd look at Ed, Ed was sitting there almost calmly, had he not known his
friend better he would have been angry at Ed's calmness. But Ed wasn't
calm. He just handled fear by holding still, the same Josh handled it by
pacing like a trapped bobcat in a cage.

As it grew dark, they lit a candle, a long stout one that could burn all
night long. After a time, that light was the only light to be had. Then,
like a thief stealing into their shack, the white finger of light of the
moon reached into their window and they watched steal slowly toward them
like it was the ghost of a dead murderer come to get them.

"Hoo! Hoo-hoo!" came the call.

"That's it. That's it!" Josh babbled. "The hoot owl done hooted!" His hand
darted at his crotch. "God, oh, God, don't let her take my pecker!" He
howled.

"Get on over here!" Ed shouted at him. "I cain't help you or you me if'n
yore' over there!"

Josh fumbled at his fly, unbuttoning the material, dug in. Oh, God, it was
gone already! No, no, it was there, still, shrunken and small. "Oh, God,
she's started on mine! It's a-shrinkin'!" he moaned.

"Get over here!" Ed had his cock out, and the sight of that organ calmed
Josh. If his was gone, they could still save Ed's at least. He got over
onto the bed and Ed's hand fumbled into Josh's pants, pulled out the
frightened little pecker. "You see, she ain't got it yet! It's right here!"

"It's shrinking, I tell you!" Josh wailed.

"Now, Josh, I tell you it's just 'cause yo're skeered, 's'all." Ed
said. "Man's pecker'll shrink when he has a fright. It's the same as it
ever was. I seen it this size plenty of times when we go swimming in the
spring 'n the water's still cold.

"It feels numb." Josh shivered. "I kin barely feel it."

"It'll be all right." Ed said. "I got a'hold of it now."

Ed did, Josh realized. His buddy was there, ready to cling to Josh's
manhood and save it for him. Ready to hang onto him all night long. Just
like the time he had a cramp when they were young and were swimming, it was
Ed come and got him and helped him in to shore. He might have drowned them
if'n it hadn't been for Ed. That was when they'd decided to become blood
brothers. Ed had saved him then, and Ed was going to save him now, just
like he would save Ed.

His cock began to feel again, feel the warmth of Ed's hand on him, the grip
of life, the touch of friendship, the tie of blood brother. They were
joined together, no witch could break the bond of blood brothers, the tie
of blood was the most powerful of all. It meant he would never face the
world alone, there would always be, so long as they both lived, him and Ed,
their spirits connected. The mixture of the pagan beliefs with his
Christian heritage didn't bother him, for didn't the Bible speak of evil
spirits and others driving out the evil? If they'd been able to speak with
Mother Margaret, the old woman would have written them out a Scripture
passage with the power to protect them. But Old John Hargess was a pretty
fair hand at fighting evil himself, maybe because he knew it so well
himself. He'd said to hang on tight all night long, and that was just what
he was going to do!

His breathing calmed as his prick came back to life, swelled out in the
warmth of Ed's hand to its normal size, the skin becoming soft and supple
and flexible, not the hard ball it had been when Ed had first got hold of
him. Ed had been soft to begin with.

"Well, we got hold of 'em." Josh said after a length.

"Yep, I reckon we have." Ed agreed.

"Now what we going to do?" Josh asked.

"Old John said to keep 'em busy." Ed said after a pause. "Said life has its
own power again' hexin'."

"Yeah." Josh agreed. "He did say that." He hesitated, and then gave Ed's
cock an almost experimental pull back and forth. In response, it swelled
and grew in his hand.

"Josh?" Ed said. "Maybe we shouldn't oughta be doin' this. I mean, ain't
nothing happened to us so far. Maybe it's enough to just...hold on tight."

"I guess you're right." Josh agreed.

"Hoo! Hoo-hoo!" And a wind guttered their candle, nearly extinguished it!

With a yelp of fright, Josh pounded at Ed hard and fast, and he wasn't
surprised to hear Ed's voice of surprise, and then have Ed do the same to
him. When a witchin' is coming right at you, suddenly you don't have to
think about things no more!

So he pumped Ed's pud and it grew hard and fearsome in its strength and
turgidity. His own cock was a shock of aggressive manhood that sparkled in
his loins with the hundred distinct pleasures of stimulated flesh, the kind
that catches your breath back in your throat and you find yourself panting
at even the least exertion.

There was no more hesitation on either young man's part, their hands were a
pounding frenzy on each other's pricks, Josh looked into Ed's eyes in the
now-steady candlelight again, and he saw his friend's face, frightened wide
eyes...or eyes alight with desire. Ed's mouth was open, he was gasping and
looking into Josh's eyes, and Josh knew he must look much the same to Ed.

"Gotta keep this up all night." He panted to Ed. "Maybe we'd better slow
down a mite on the strokin'?"

"Maybe we could...." That was as far as Ed got and the owl hooted again,
and again the candleflame was assaulted by the wind. The candle was sitting
in a protected corner away from the window. There was no reason it would
gutter like that; it had to be the witchin', the candle was warning them of
the presence of the evil forces.

But they had their talisman, they had their charm, they had their
counterspell, and this was it, to pump each other's cocks and they
did. Life was joy and life was good, and that was what bubbled up from
Josh's groin to percolate through the rest of his body, he was alive and he
was well and his cock, by God, his cock was still attached to him and still
working! Old John was right, no witch can get at your cock and steal it
when you're busy using it, when your best friend, your blood brother's,
hand is on it working it for you!

"Oh, yeah, pump it for me, Ed, pump it for me!" Josh groaned. "I can feel
the power working in me! I can feel it chasing away the evil spirits!
They're a'running, Ed, they're a'running from us!"

"Uh, uh-ah, ah!" Ed moaned. "God, yes, Josh, yo're right as rain, thet
power is being banished from our presence. Keep on working me, we got thet
evil on the run from us now!

Even the hoot of the owl and the guttering of the flame didn't fret the
boys now, they had their aura of protection going now, they were suffused
with the warmth and beneficience of life welling up from within them, Josh
felt his cock surging with delight in a way it had never done when he'd
worked it himself, furtively, beneath the covers at night when he was sure
Ed was asleep. Once or twice he'd awakened to feel the bed shuddering and
knew that Ed was pleasuring himself in the same way, he'd kept himself
still and quiet each time it happened, not intruding on his best friend's
moment of privacy, feeling the bed's movements becoming more urgent, then
the strangled, suppressed moan of completion, the burst of salty smell of
fresh-shot jism soaking their covers, and then Ed would be silent but for a
small amount of breaths louder than usual in the dark night, and then all
would be complete and he could go back to sleep, feeling that he and Ed had
shared something after all, even if neither would ever speak of it.

The owl's hoots were something frightful now, it was hooting at them
non-stop, and the wind was shaking the shack so that the rafters fluttered
some dust down from the rafters onto them. It fit their mood, though, the
way their hands were busy at each other's crotch, the way that Ed's hand
milked at him with a sensual completeness, so that he didn't feel a lack of
any sort from this mode of sexual sharing. His friend, his best friend, had
teamed up with him to combat the forces of evil and frustrate their vaunted
task of entering their home and stealing away their manhoods and their
strength, but that very strength was their shield and their haven, it
surrounded them and nothing could reach them, and the forces summoned by
the witch could only stand outside the ring and mutter vile threats against
them, as they did with the hoot-owl's call and the motion of the impossible
winds.

They were winning, they were going to defeat this force! Josh felt it
triumphantly rising inside of him, they were victorious, they were
invincible, they were... His sense of exultation was replaced by one of
alarm. His body was spending itself too fast, the pleasure was building and
pooling in his loins, he was about to squirt!

"Ed, Ed, I'm going to shoot, Ed, I'm going to shoot!" He heaved those words
from his body by main force, his whole strength and self seemed to be lost
in the rising ardor.

"Come on, man, come on, shoot it for me!" Ed responded, his face rapt and
eager, still staring into Josh's eyes.

Josh looked into those lit fires, there was a strength in there and he
didn't know at that moment if it was the divine clarity of good magic or
the bestial darkness of the witches' spell. Had Old John been in league
with the witch, had he known before they had asked what they would want,
and had he decided, rather than to assist them, to aid in their downfall by
erroneous advice!

No, his cock wasn't vanishing, it was harder and stronger than ever! It was
proud, it was magnificent, it was his life, it was all of him, he was not
succumbing to the forces of darkness, his body was his and his dick was
his, and no witch was taking it off of him so long as his Ed, his loyal
friend, was there to help him fight it off.

And in that rush of self-confidence, his orgasm struck him, he gave out a
loud, long groan and he exploded up into the air. Ed was working his
love-tube, stroking him with strong, hard, even strokes, so that an
intensity of climax he had never known before rose up inside of him, this
was no ordinary explosion of jizz, this was his body fighting back once and
for all the demons that wished to thieve away his maleness in the
night. Never, never!

He sprayed and Ed groaned, his eyes wide at the sight, and then he groaned,
and Josh felt Ed's cock grow warm, so warm in his hand, he was then
pounding a hard man-gun that seethed beneath his hand, and then Ed joined
him in his ecstasy, and they were both spraying their seed up into the air
and the power of life was there, released to the world around them, and
they would be saved, they would!

Such a powerful ejaculation, Josh had never known before, he came, his body
writhed with the intensity of it, and the squirting of his jism, that he
knew, but now there was no more coming from him, but still his body was
trembling, it was like climax was besieging his body now in several
separate forces, so that from here and there about his body, orgasm raced
along his spine and intersected his brain and he jerked yet again, a pause,
and another sensation and another jerk of his body, he was spasming and
contorting still long after he was done.

And still Ed pumped on him, still his own hand kept itself busy upon Ed's
prong, and every last erg of joy was milked out of their puds, and then
they were done, Josh holding a cock spent and sticky, but still very much
there!

"We beat them off, I think." he gasped to Ed.

"Maybe so." Ed said. "But don't let go."

As Josh's extended orgasm finally released him, he found himself weak and
his fear of the witch's power returned to him. "She'll get us for shore,
now!" He moaned. "What're we going to do?"

"I'm not letting go of you." Ed said. "And don't you let go of me."

"Never." Josh whispered.

"Let's get them back up again." Ed recommended. "I think mine will get
stiff for you again if you'll be gentle with it."

It did, and Josh was able now to gently stroke it. But the witch's siege of
their little fortress of life was unending, they felt the forces of
darkness surging about them, and Josh began to pump his buddy's dick again,
working the cock like a man would rub a charm.

Ed did the same to him, and Josh found his body responding as if it were
the first time. A half hour or so of this and he found his body rising once
more to climax. Ed was pleased when he did it, and gently urged Josh's dong
back to holdable fullness when he was done. Some minutes later, Ed was
brought once more to the brink and Josh triumphantly pumped his blood
brother's cock to a second spray of potent seed.

But the siege went on and the two were surrounded. The night was long and
never once were they left alone, throughout the night the demons hovered
just outside their view, but they were there, Josh could feel them, they
were there, gnashing their teeth in frustration and waiting, hoping they
would give up. For Ed and for himself, he couldn't do that.

Again and again his body struggled up to quavering orgasm, time and again
his body was wracked by the exquisite agony of pure joy. His body seemed to
know it was under attack, and while his cockhead became tender at times,
the tenderness receded in short time and he was able once again to
withstand the mercies of Ed's fingers as they brought him climbing the
hills of desire once again.

His body was soaked with his sperm, it had splashed him all over. His arm,
too, was soiled with Ed's jism, and Ed too was similarly dappled with white
globs of jizz. And they still struggled on, never daring to stop, nor
venturing to rest or release their hold. For their own sake and their
friend's, they must not stop!

When dawn at last replaced the failing light of the moon, Josh finally
began to dare to hope they had endured. When the sun climbed over the
height of the trees, a solid hour after sunrise, he was ready to bet the
moon was gone and couldn't see them no more.

Ed's hand was milking him still, mewling, Josh groaned out a feeble burst
of seed and gasped and shuddered in divine torture at the wracking his body
had endured. But it had endured whole. His cock was still there, still safe
in Ed's fingers, still his after all.

"I think the moon is gone." he said to Ed when he was done.

"I hope so." Ed said. "We can sleep now, can't we?"

"Shore." Josh said kindly. "Now we can sleep." They were lucky not to have
any livestock, nothing they had to do couldn't wait until they had
recovered. So he and Ed stood and sleepily removed their clothing, wiped
their bodies with their shirts and then, reasonably clean, crawled nude
under the covers to sleep at last.

How long they slept, Josh didn't know, but they awakened to Martha brazenly
walking right into their shack. No houses had locks on them, but only
someone like Martha would treat that as permission to walk on in.

Josh pulled the covers over himself completely and shouted, "Martha, dang
it all! Don't ya'll know better'n walk into a man's house when he ain't
expecting you?"

"Still got your peckers?" she asked with a simpering glee.

"We still got them." Josh said. "Your hex ain't working on us."

Martha shrugged, as if that wasn't of any import. "There'll be other
nights. The witch can try for me again until she wins. You'd better give up
and propose to me now and save yourselves the heartache of living without
your peckers and knackers to fill your britches."

"You ain't welcome in here." Josh said. "Not now and not ever. Ed and I
fought off the witch's hex last night and we can keep right on doing it."

"What makes you think that witch is going to keep on trying?" Ed asked.

"Oh, could be on several accounts." Martha said. "But the main account is
on account of that witch is my Great Aunt Jane. She knows I got a hankering
to get myself hitched, and she'll keep right on trying until I get my way."

"You clear on out of here!" Josh said. "Next time I see you, I'll gun you
down, I will."

"You'll change your mind." Martha said. "I know what you two did last
night, shame on you."

"No shame in fighting off a hex." Ed countered.

Martha grinned. "But you can't do that every night, can you? Every night,
all night?"

"We can durned sure try." Josh said. He looked at Ed and smiled. "I know
I'm willing."

"Me, too." Ed said. "Damned if I'll be forced into marrying anyone."

Martha had no answer for that, she only looked angry and spiteful as she
stomped out of the shack.

"She means it." Ed said. "She'll keep thet old witch a hexin' at us, every
durned night."

"Then every durned night, we'll just have to be sure to hang on." Josh
said. "If'n I can't help out my best friend, who can I help out?"

Ed's answer was not in words, his hand came over and took Josh's cock in
his hands, cupped the spent organ lovingly. And he smiled at Josh.

Josh smiled back and took Ed's prick into his own hand. Have to get used to
sleeping like this, he reckoned. Man could do it if'n he had to.

And they returned to slumber, resting for the renewed battle they would
fight, for hexes were most powerful during the full moon, and the full moon
still had two more nights to go. And there would be more, many more, to
come, too.

Further down the road, Martha stopped, turned and looked back at the little
shack. The sullenness left her face, and she managed a chuckle. Held her
hand up to her mouth and used one little secret talent she had.

"Hoo! Hoo-hoo!" she sent back to the shack, though she knew they couldn't
hear her from way down here. She could do a hoot owl's hoot that would fool
anybody, especially a couple of gullible ones like Josh and Ed. And those
two men! Careless housekeepers, they'd never notice that little hole she'd
cut in the side of their shack, just big enough to insert a reed that would
let her blow onto a candleflame, guttering it while her breath rushing
through it would imitated well the sound of a vagrant but sturdy wind.

Secure in her ability to renew the "hexing" whenever she chose, she went
back down the hill toward Johnson's Hollow, to find herself a man from the
others who lived in the small community.

				  THE END

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