by Mara Webb
Over the Broomstick
A Wildes Witches Mystery Book 1
Mara Webb
Copyright © 2019 by Mara Webb
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Thanks for Reading
1
The letter arrived the same way all the others had. Paper stuffed into the mailbox waiting to be relocated to the kitchen counter. It was overflowing by late morning and clouds began to gather so I ran to the curb in my bathrobe, grabbed a handful of mail and ran back to the shelter of the porch. Another day of miserable weather.
Where was the glorious summer we were promised?
I didn't want the mail to get soaked. At least I had enough gas in the car to get to work today, I would hate to walk to the bus stop and wait in the rain. I walked back into the house and put the mail down, I needed to get dressed and head out to the post office to send a parcel before work and it had to be today, otherwise I would miss her birthday. Scrambling through the pile of clean laundry on the bed I quickly realized that everything was creased. I always do this. I chastised myself as I pulled out the pants and polo that made up my cafe uniform.
As I waited for the iron to heat up, I stared at the little bread logo on the polo. How had I ended up working two jobs that I hate just to pay the bills? Between making sandwiches Monday through Friday and selling sneakers on weekends, I barely had any time for myself anymore. That was intentional.
I thought that by thirty I would have my life together; I was on the family trajectory only eight months ago. Excitedly planning for a baby with my husband, daydreaming about walks to the park and playdates. The baby never happened. The nurse at his medical practice? She is his girlfriend now. I can’t even shout “I knew it!” to his face, because I hadn’t known it, it had been a total surprise.
Now I was miles from my old home, sleeping in a one-bedroom apartment with a view of the highway. Working two jobs gave me no time to think about what had happened. I didn’t have time to sit on my phone scrolling through social media, looking at everyone else’s perfect life, my sorority sister with the twin daughters and the brand-new Mercedes or my cousin with the beach house. I hadn’t seen pictures of that in weeks.
The iron was now cooling after zooming over the cotton. I managed to make my uniform look like maybe it had been hung up in my closet and not sitting in the dryer for three days. Looking in the mirror on the way out the door I saw a loose strand of hair, fixed my ponytail and grabbed the car keys.
Sitting around the back of the building was the parking lot where my little Toyota lay waiting. A generous gift from my stepdad a few years back. The car started and I backed out of the parking space and began my drive to the post office.
Such an odd day. The clouds had seemed ready to drop a year’s worth of rain only twenty minutes ago, but the deep heavy grey had been replaced with a purple hue. “Freaky storm, huh” I muttered to myself. There wasn’t much traffic on the roads at six in the morning, so it was always quiet, but something was different about the sound now. The hum of the car engine was slowly being drowned out by the growing sound of… something.
What was that? Birds? Cats? Definitely animals. I peered out of the window and could see that the trees that lined the road were filled with crows. At least a few dozen on each tree. As my car passed each tree the sound lessened, as if they didn’t want me to eavesdrop on their squawking conversation. In my rear-view mirror, I saw groups of the birds watching the car, bow their heads in my direction and start squawking again.
Birds act strangely just before a big storm, right?
I reminded myself to check online for bird behaviors associated with weather. As I pulled up to a stop sign, I saw a cat walking towards the curb. It appeared to be looking right at me. I have fed the odd stray cat at the back of the cafe, was this one of them? It had no collar that I could see. As it reached the road it stopped and lowered its head. I turned the corner and looked back. The cat was gone. It must have been a trick of the light, or tired eyes.
I decided to grab a quick coffee near the post office before heading over to work, that would perk me up a little and put an end to the weird exhaustion hallucinations I was clearly having. I pulled up outside the post office and turned to the passenger seat to grab the parcel. “Oh for…” The parcel was still at home. Great. It was my aunt Edith’s birthday in a couple of days, and I was going to miss it. She was getting a little paranoid in her old age. She didn’t trust digital communication, so everything had to be through the post. We used to speak on the phone quite a bit, but she put an end to that about four months back.
“They are listening Nora, they know too much,” she wrote in one of her letters. Someone needed to go up to Sucré, her little hometown, and arrange some real help for her. My mother was never that close with her sister. My aunt Edith and I had a connection, always had. I used to love visiting her as a child, listening to her wild adventure stories and exploring the woods near her house. I could maybe try sending her gift by express courier tomorrow and hope that it reached her in time.
The shift at “Sammy’s Subs” dragged even more than usual. The monotony was broken by some odd behaviors from out-of-towners though. A couple of old folks I had never seen before came in and asked me how I was doing with their head tilted sympathetically to the side. Did I look that chaotic? I checked myself before I left my apartment, I didn’t think it was obvious that I had slept badly, or that I had been through a tough few months.
I looked at the clock, it was almost time for the lunch rush. I recognized the woman walking along the sidewalk past the glass front of the cafe, she lived in my building. I don’t think she had ever visited me at work. We exchanged pleasantries every now and then. She was a recent divorcee and was ‘really rooting for me’ to find love and ‘nourish my soul with new experiences’.
The little bell above the door rang as she entered. She was headed straight for the counter, travelling towards me in such a weird, smooth way as if she was gliding. Her head didn’t bob up and down as she took steps.
“Hi, what can I get for—”
“You need to go home,” she interrupted.
“What? Is there a leak or something? A fire?”
I was panicking, I couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel while I looked for a new place if my apartment building was a flame engulfed heap of rubble with burst pipes firing water in all directions. “I can’t leave until five, my boss will kill me.”
I looked up to the clock again and the hands were whirling before my eyes. The minute hand started to spin faster and faster until the time read five. What? Did I just see that? Was the clock broken? I don’t understand how clocks work, but I know they don’t randomly speed up and then quickly go back to normal. I heard a short, stern cough. I turned and saw my neighbor was still standing at the counter.
“As I said, you need to go home.” She turned and left. I stood with my jaw slack. Behind me I could hear the sound of keys jangling.
“Do you want to sleep here or what?” Alice,
my co-worker, stood by the door with her coat on gesturing for me to hurry up. Looking back in front of me I could see the chairs turned upside down on to the tables, the floor slick with water after being freshly mopped. The little sign on the door had been turned so that it read “closed” to anyone outside. I looked up at the clock again and it was now five-thirty, the day was over, the cafe had been cleaned and was ready to be locked up. What on earth was happening? I clumsily untied my apron and grabbed my jacket off the hooks on the back of the break room door before making my way over to Alice. She didn’t seem phased by anything.
“Did the clock…? I...when did we clean the…? Is this not weird to y…”, I couldn’t string a sentence together. Alice turned to me, the confused smile faded from her face and she put a hand on my right shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes.
“You need to go home,” she said. It was her mouth moving, but it didn’t sound like her voice. She shook her head quickly, as if shaking something loose, and then grinned again at me before she turned towards her car. “See you tomorrow, don’t forget to watch that movie tonight! I have some theories girl, I need to air them out!” she laughed, started her engine and drove away. I stood with my car keys in my hand. What was happening? Had I finally had that mental break I worried was coming?
The rush hour traffic wasn’t there. All the lights were green. “This doesn’t...come on, like, what?” I kept muttering to myself as I drove home without a single delay.
The sky was still a strange purple color as I pulled onto my street. I can make it home from work it less than six minutes apparently. That has never happened before.
I noticed a black cat sitting in front of my building, it looked a lot like the same cat from this morning. I lowered the driver’s side window and said to the cat “Hey, we gotta stop meeting like this. Stalking me isn’t cool.” It smiled. Or at least it looked like that, but it can’t have smiled, because it is a cat.
I parked at the back of the building and walked around to the front. The cat was gone but there was now a woman with straight black hair wearing a suit standing on the sidewalk, she turned to face me. “Ms. Wildes? Nora Wildes?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s me.” Great, she was probably a lawyer or something. Was she about to hand me divorce papers? I just wanted to get into my bathroom, soak off the weirdness of my day and watch that weird documentary thing Alice suggested. I didn’t want the plans of my night to change from relaxation to crying into a glass of wine and clutching the wedding dress in my closet. Why did I even bring that? I should have just thrown it into a river or donated it or set it on fire or... I realized no one had said anything out loud for at least half a minute.
“Sorry, what did you say you needed again?”
“I am the executor of your Aunt’s estate. I am here to transfer your inheritance and deliver a letter.”
“My aunt’s estate? What are you talking about?”
The lawyer, or whatever she was, grabbed my hand tightly. I felt a surge of heat radiate from her skin; it was traveling up my arm. A pulsating sensation was now swimming through my entire body, I stood paralyzed with this liquid electricity shooting over me. I wanted to scream but no sound left my mouth. She let go, the feeling stopped.
“Ok, that’s taken care of. That was a big one, understandable of course. Her house in Sucré is yours as well, must stay in the family you see. And, and…” She started to pat her jacket, rummaging through each pocket until she produced an envelope, “... here is your letter. A note really. Read it once, read it well, you won’t get a second try.”
I took the envelope and looked at the writing on the front. “Nora Wildes” in a cursive, gold ink. I looked back up, my head spilling over with questions, but the lawyer, or whatever she was, had disappeared.
I opened the envelope and took out the folded card, inside was the most unusual sight. The ink was swirling as if it was freshly written, wet, flowing. A living ink almost. The letters shifted over each other, dancing around the card until settling in position, spelling out “they will say she drowned, but witches can’t drown.” As soon as I read the sentence the letters pooled back together into a single puddle and dissolved.
2
I had been standing outside for several minutes holding the blank card when the sound of thunder caught my attention. Looking up I could see that the strange purple clouds were swirling. I have never seen a tornado and any unusual cloud activity sends me into a panic that I am about to be whisked up into the sky, so I ran into the building and started to climb the stairs to my floor.
My hand still tingled a little where the lawyer had held it. I made a fist and then opened out my hand over and over trying to shake out the strange feeling with an increased blood supply. The sensation changed slightly. It was reminiscent of the feeling when you hold something very tightly for a long time and then let go.
I pulled out my keys and singled out the one for my door and slid it into the lock with little effort. “Huh?” I whispered to no one. This building was old, very old. It was the cheapest place I could find at short notice. My lock has been stiff and difficult since I moved in. The landlord didn’t care enough to replace it. Every day I have had to jam the key in, wiggle, pull it back, jam it back in and then turn it with a shoulder shove against the wood. Many times, I have shoved too hard and ended up falling onto the ground in the entryway. Had the landlord replaced it today? It had just worked as if new. I would have needed a different key though, right? My old key wouldn’t work on a new lock. Maybe he fixed it up or something.
Walking into my apartment I was struck by the pile of mail on the kitchen counter. This morning I had dumped it on top of the growing pile of credit card bills and demands for payment from my utility provider. I had asked my mom and stepdad for a bailout as they were both living a comfortable life with extra cash but was told that I wouldn’t benefit from it.
It would be ‘more valuable for my soul for me to experience this struggle’ was actually what my mom had said. She had sent me some scented candles to help cleanse my spirit or something.
This morning that pile of envelopes was jumbled. It was now in two distinct piles. One was clearly all of my bills; I could see the red stamps on the front of a few. The other pile seemed to be a dozen or so opened letters with a sealed envelope on top.
I put down the blank card I was still holding and walked closer to the mail piles. The pile of opened letters was all the correspondence from my aunt Edith, every letter she had written to me since I moved here. The letter on the top was the most recent, I hadn’t had the time to open it yet. I picked it up and opened it, as always, she had written the date at the top on the right. She had written this over two weeks ago, had I really been so busy that I couldn’t have opened this at all?
“My dear Nora,
I don’t have much time left and there is only so much I am allowed to say. I know that this will all seem very strange at first and even frightening at times but be brave. There will be some more instructions at the house when you get there. It’s all up to you now sweetheart. The torch is passed to you, just as it was passed to me by your grandmother. By the time you read this I am probably dead, or it is coming.
When you arrive here at my house in Sucré, take a good long look at yourself for me. Promise? You are ready for this.
Edith.”
Dead? What?
I read the letter again, then a third time. Nope, still didn’t make any sense. Over the months her letters had become more anxious, fearful. Concerned that someone was watching her or monitoring her thoughts. This one was different. She hated phone calls, but maybe she would pick up.
I couldn’t just take off and drive to Sucré, I had two jobs that I hated and an apartment I couldn’t stand, but those were my commitments. I searched through my phone for her contact number, but her name wasn’t there. There is no way I had deleted her entry just because she didn’t like her phone anymore, I kept her number, right? I scrolled through every name jus
t in case, but no, she was gone.
What had that lawyer lady said? That the house was mine now or something? I could call in sick tomorrow, fake a cough, give really gross details about my symptoms and maybe buy a few days off. Sucré was maybe two or three hours away. I just needed to check if Edith was alright, maybe set her up with a doctor’s appointment to discuss the paranoia. I was due a visit anyway, but this was clearly a sign to get my butt over there sooner.
I dug around under the bed for my carryall and started to pack some clothes. I zipped my toothbrush, toothpaste and floss into my little toiletries bag and scanned the apartment for other items I would need. I had about $80 left on my credit card before it was completely maxed out, and I needed gas. The light had come on a few days ago so I had planned to limit travel until I got paid. I quickly changed out of my work uniform, grabbed my cell phone charger, the carryall and headed out the door.
The neighbor that I had seen at work earlier, the one who had spoken to me before the clocks started to act strangely, was standing in the entrance to the building. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say to her, I felt the tension build as I approached. She smiled broadly.
“Hey Nora, are you out for the night? Hot date?” She laughed. Had she forgotten what had happened just hours before? There is no way, you don’t just tell someone that they need to get home with no further information as to why and then just carry on with your day.
“Yes. Big night for me, don’t wait up!” I joked and laughed along with her as my legs continued to carry me out towards the parking lot. I didn’t really have a reason to lie to her, but I also didn’t want to tell her I was leaving town for a few days when I intended to call in sick tomorrow.