by Mara Webb
“Your first assignment is to create a family tree. This should go back as far as is possible with the available history for your ancestors. You are required to include full names, dates of birth and death, cause of death, magical specialty, activity of note and a summation of the family legacy that has been delivered to you.
“This is to help you feel great pride in continuing the noble tradition of witchcraft. This may be submitted in absolutely any format, we aren’t fussy. Also, please find attached to this email a powerpoint presentation on wand safety. GOOD DAY TO YOU.”
At once confetti fired out from the laptop again, adding another paper layer to the quilt we were sitting on.
“I don’t know about you, but I could really go for some tuna right now. Should we lunch?” Quin started to swagger out of the bedroom door, looking back to see if I was following.
“What is your accent Quin? Where do you come from? How did you learn to speak? Were you something else before you were a cat? How old are you? Did you talk to my aunt Edith? Do the neighbors know you can talk? Do other cats speak? How many…”
Quin cut me off with a series of very long, very shrill meows.
“Gosh you are quite the nosy parker, aren’t you? Like I said, plenty of time for all that. Tuna first.” He paused and turned back to face me again. “My accent, by the way, is a delight, thank you very much. I would like to point out just how hard all this has been on me, after Edith died, I was alone in this house for ten days. Tuna cans have a ring pull system that I just can’t figure out and I can legally only speak to other magic folk, so I was very lonely, no one came by.
“I ate mice and birds, like an animal. I managed to turn on the TV, but the buttons are too small for these paws. I was trapped watched repeats of British cooking shows Nora, for ten days! Do you know how hard it is to make pastry? DO YOU? So yes, I am now a qualified British chef with an accent that sometimes slips back into American, sometimes Scottish just for fun. I’m a talking cat what more do you want?”
Two lonely people, a cat and a newly magical witch, with endless questions and endless answers. At least it would never be boring here.
Before I knew it, the sun was casting longer shadows across the room. I looked at my watch and realized the time. Wandering back to the top of the stairs I stretched out my legs slowly as I took each step. The book had become quite interesting and I had been immersed in it for hours, barely changing position.
My back was stiff, and I ached across my shoulders and neck from craning over the pages. I offered to cook Quin a garden burger, but he not-very-politely declined and requested yet more tuna. Do cats even eat this frequently? I hadn’t spent much time around cats as a kid, or an adult. My estranged husband had an allergy to cats, dogs, joy. Anything that would bring a little happiness into our home was a no-go.
Quin didn’t seem deterred by a recently full stomach and hurriedly chewed through another full bowl of fish. As my burger sizzled under the grill, I sliced bread, buttered it and pulled apart a lettuce to give my meal some crunch. I felt surprisingly comfortable at the thought of being in this house, and that this might be my home now. Any attachment I had to my life as it had been was fading fast.
Quin had made it clear that he planned to curl up on my bed while I slept, it was brought up as a fact rather than him seeking permission. I told him that I would need to have a bath or a shower before sleeping tonight, my muscles needed some heat to ease the pain and I wouldn’t mind ten minutes to myself.
I appreciated that Quin had been by himself for over a week, but he was relentless. He had followed me step for step absolutely everywhere I went today, not that I had really traveled far. I had mostly walked between the desk, the kitchen and the bathroom, although we had a conversation and it was agreed that he wouldn’t follow me into the bathroom anymore. I compromised and said it was ok for him to talk to me through the door. I thought he might run out of things to say, I was sorely mistaken.
I ran a bath and looked in the unit under the sink for any toiletries, on the shelves I found all of the bathroom products from my apartment. There were half empty shampoo bottles, bubble baths, a yet-to-be-unwrapped bath bomb set my mom had shipped to me for my birthday and a D.I.Y. hair bleach kit which I had bought, opened and chickened out from using. It was an idea I had entertained shortly after Greg and I split.
I remembered moving my sorry box of things into my new bachelorette pad and thinking that a change was needed. I had stared into the mirror and slowly picked apart every aspect of my reflection. My dark brown hair that immediately showed a newly sprouted grey, my pale skin that allowed some of the blood vessels around my eyes to show, my eyelashes that were shorter than the ones women on TV had.
Six months ago, I was in a place where I wasn’t sure who or what to blame for the collapse of my relationship, that night I bought a hair dye kit from an all-night drug store and thought that peroxide blonde tresses would be the solution to my problems. I’d bought the dye and a large bottle of schnapps and lemonade. I woke up the next morning still a brunette thankfully, but I was hungover and wearing the protective gloves that came with the kit. It had been a close call.
I didn’t see the negatives in my reflection as much now. I apprehensively looked into the bathroom mirror as the water filled the tub, not sure if I could handle another ghost encounter. I could see the freckles on my cheeks from the walks I had taken in the sun to get to my job in the cafe. The job I got for myself which helped me get independence and showed that I could make it on my own. I had a smile on my face again which was also new.
“You have the same amber streak in your eye as your aunt you know, brown eyes and an amber streak across the left one. Just like Edith,” Quin muttered from behind me. I turned to give him a look, he had perched himself neatly on the bathmat. “I know, I know you said I couldn’t come in here, but you are just waiting for the bath to run so I figured it was ok to chat while we wait.” He smiled.
I smiled back at him, but my goodness if this wasn’t the neediest cat in the world. I turned back to the mirror to inspect my amber streak when I saw her again.
“Oh, oh, no. Ok, woah, I didn’t, ok!” I whimpered a little and was now bent over the sink trying not to be sick. I had seen Edith again in the mirror and the adrenaline from the fright was turning my stomach. “Quin, are you seeing this?” I turned to Quin to see him grooming his back legs, just dragging his tongue across the fur without a care. “Quin?”
“Yeah? Oh, sorry yes. Witch ghost. Did we not discuss this before? I feel like we have been talking all afternoon, surely that came up?” He looked genuinely surprised. He had not brought this up even a little bit. I had heard many stories about the best places to sit in the house and the day he spent learning the layout of the heating pipes under the floorboards so he would always have a warm place to lie down. I would have remembered a conversation about a witch ghost.
“So, when a witch dies they can choose to go to the after place, whatever that may be, or remain as a ghost. Most choose ghost, that way they can help guide the new witch or wizard that has received their powers. Main drawback to that plan is that they can’t speak. Oh, and they can only appear in mirrors to their relatives. Oh, and the mirror has to be inside their house. What was that other thing? She said something about a hand thing, like a compact thing, in a drawer or under a paw or near the badger claw. Any chance you know?”
He looked up at me, but my expression made it clear that he had better figure it out quickly or I would throw him into the bathwater and mess up his clean fur.
“Don’t panic!” he said. “I remember it now. She told me that she had bought a few compact mirrors and stored them in the vanity drawer in the bedroom. That way when she died those mirrors had technically been in the house, so she would be able to visit those mirrors as a ghost and you could take her outside with you. I told you about how she thought she was going to be murdered didn’t I? I definitely told you witches can’t drown already, so we know somethi
ng crazy must have happened. Oh, and you have a meeting with the high council tomorrow. Not relevant to her murder but I just remembered.” He was very lucky to stay dry that night, I shuffled him out of the bathroom, undressed and climbed into the water.
Lying in the bubbles now I had hoped to begin to relax before bed. Quin was pressed up against the bathroom door reciting a poem he had written when he had been alone, it was awful but he craved conversation so badly I would periodically clap and tell him that I really enjoyed the repetitive use of the line ‘and then I heard another bird’.
Had Edith been murdered?
The police seemed satisfied that she had drowned and didn’t mention anything about suspicious circumstances. On top of everything, I now needed to investigate what had happened to her. I also needed to somehow force Quin to concentrate long enough to tell me what a high council meeting involved and where it was held.
7
I was being chased. There was something behind me and whatever it was wanted to hurt me. I couldn’t see a face, there was too much shadow and darkness masking the identity of the attacker. Why would someone be chasing me? I didn’t feel fear until I sensed them behind me.
Where was I? An alley? A forest?
The body of the chaser was getting closer and they reached out to grab me, shake me. I couldn’t see the face that owned those hands, but they were strong. I reached out to push them away, it was hard to reach them, and my body was jolting more forcefully back and forth. I began to open my eyes and found myself tangled up in my bedsheets with Quin who now appeared to also be having a nightmare. His little legs were running and trembling and the pads of his feet against my forehead had woken me. At least he wasn’t talking in his sleep, so I had to be grateful for that at least.
A guide sheet from O.W.L. had arrived on the desk overnight while we slept so I silently read through it and made a mental note of some equipment I would need. Last night Quin had suggested getting a large piece of card, some paint, pens, brushes, various other stationary items and a fresh fish. We both understood that the fish was not related to my assignment at all.
Today I needed to make a start on the family tree project, I had one week to submit my first draft, feedback would be given the same day and then another week to make adjustments or additions. The piece of work I was producing would just disappear from my desk and reappear on the desk of Professor Eastey. Quin was still sleeping, and his jaw was twitching as he gently meowed to himself. I decided to head into town and collect my car from the street by the police station and then by the time I had driven it back Quin would be fully awake and ready for breakfast.
The closet was filled with my clothes. They were all clean and hung up or folded neatly, this was not how I had been storing them at the apartment. How they were organized now was obviously preferable. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt and crept quietly out of the room towards the bathroom to get dressed so as to not disturb Quin.
I was afraid of catching my reflection in any surface in case I was surprised by Edith’s ghost again. I still wasn’t used to the idea of that. The magic and the fact I was a witch was somehow an easier pill to swallow. It probably has something to do with a lifetime of cartoons and films that have ghosts as terrifying features in a haunted house. But this was Edith, right? My aunt is not terrifying, and I came all this way to see her, so I should see her.
I dressed in the hallway outside the bathroom door, took a deep breath and stepped in onto the tiled floor. Don’t be scared don’t be scared. I slowly approached the mirror above the sink from the side, careful not to take my eyes of the reflection, not sure when she would appear. A feeling of calm suddenly washed over me and I stood a little taller, taking the final step so that I was now directly in front of the mirror.
Over my shoulder Edith began to walk in my direction, stopping when she was close enough that I could see her smile. She raised a hand and placed it softly on my arm. It was a cool touch, as if someone was holding a glass filled with ice water against my arm, but it felt good to have overcome this fear. The calm feeling slowed my breathing and allowed me to appreciate what an unusual, but wonderful moment I was experiencing. I smiled back at her.
“I’m so sorry, I will find out who did this to you, I promise.”
I made that promise with no idea of how I would figure it all out, but I was committed to trying. Her hair, before she died, had been long and flowing strands of a honey color, blonde and golden. She had told me many times that it was important to know a good salon that could jazz up your hair once it started to grey. Standing behind me now her hair was still long and still flowing, but just as the rest of her, was now a translucent, glowing silver.
“You can’t speak to me, can you?”
Edith shook her head.
“But I can ask you yes or no questions?”
She smiled and nodded.
“Any chance you have a clue as to who did this? No? Ok, so this is all going to be like a game of charades? We are both terrible at that game, we need to get better quickly I guess!” I laughed a little and she was silently chuckling too. “I need to head out and grab some stuff for my family tree thing, did you have to make one?”
She nodded and then mimed falling asleep.
“Oh, it's really boring? I thought it might be at least a bit fun, no?”
She took the hand that had been on my arm, held it out open, flat and horizontal and wobbled it gently, so the family tree was a little interesting.
“Do you still have yours? Could I see it?”
She nodded and then used three fingers on each hand to draw lines across her cheeks like whiskers. She was suggesting that I should ask Quin. I asked her if he always talked this much, she closed her eyes to nod. I already knew that asking him to find Edith’s family tree project would initiate a very, very long story about something vaguely related but not helpful.
I said goodbye to Edith, crept down the stairs and opened the front door of the house. I realized that maybe shorts and t-shirt was a bit ambitious for this time of day.
The sun was bright, and I suspected that the day would get warmer, but it certainly wasn’t warm right now. I would need to have on a jacket, or a coat just to keep the chill of my arms and maybe some jeans. I really didn’t want to wake Quin as I wouldn’t get out of the house for another two hours with him babbling away. I looked around the entryway and noticed a coat stand that had not been there yesterday, it held a cardigan, a thick winter coat, a waterproof jacket, two different colored denims and a pale blue sweatshirt. I grabbed the sweatshirt. This was perfect as it also meant I didn’t need to go back upstairs past the cat. My legs would just have to stay cold until the air heated up.
Within minutes I was walking into the heart of Sucré and spotted my car outside the police station. Further along the high street stood a traffic cop trying to hand a ticket to an old lady that was screaming in his face. I couldn’t make out much of what was being said.
I unlocked my car and climbed inside. Unfortunately, the magic that had fallen across every other element of my life over the last couple of days hadn’t removed the fast food wrappers from the dash and passenger seat. It was still a trash heap on wheels. The old lady was getting louder and some of what she was saying was now audible from the inside of the car.
“HOW DARE YOU...OF THE EAST COAST ROOPERS...THE NERVE... KNOW WHO I AM?”
I couldn’t hear everything but in the rear-view mirror I could now see a woman so angry she was almost bouncing up and down on the spot. The officer tucked the ticket under her windscreen wiper and started to walk away. This made her angrier and she started to grab random items from her purse and throw them at the back of his head. I turned the key once, twice, on the third attempt the engine roared to life and I drove away.
As soon as I pulled up to the house, I knew I was in for a lecture.
Quin was sitting in a window tucked in front of the curtain, his tail whipping about angrily. I think he had wanted to give me t
he silent treatment but staying quiet isn’t one of his skills and it would be more of a punishment for him than for me. I asked him to help me find Edith’s family tree project and that if he was kind enough to show me where it was that I could bring back two fresh fish from the market later. That seemed to win him over.
I made myself a bowl of cereal and poured some milk into a saucer for Quin who was now trotting back into the kitchen with a large roll of paper between his teeth. I unraveled it across the kitchen island counter to inspect while I ate.
Our tree went back for hundreds of years. Some ancestors had fallen victim to witch hunters, some had died of old age, the odd spell backfiring, a house fire, jealousy over the first prize pumpkin at a county fair had provoked a poisoning and then there was Edith, born June 13th, 1940, no date of death had been recorded yet. That would be my job. I needed to create my own version of this, add any details that I could find that were missing, add myself and edit Edith’s entry.
“I can get started on this today Quin, if you can help me? I have quite the to-do list so I will need to get started pretty soon. Did you want to come out with me to get supplies?”
He looked up with milk all around his mouth, his tongue rapidly lapping up at the droplets he could reach. “I think I will stay home and catch up on some TV, if you could set me up on a different channel, I am tired of cooking shows. When you get back you need to prepare for the council meeting, I can help with that too.”
Urgh, I had forgotten about that. I needed to first of all notify both of my managers that I would not be coming back, ever. I was going to make a go of it here in Sucré, I had enough money to keep me going for quite a while and until I needed to work again, I would be able to focus on learning all there is to learn about witchcraft and Edith.
I made a couple of phone calls, amped up the urgency of the need for me to leave, a few white lies were told, the manager of the sneaker store said some very mean things, but he couldn't fire someone that didn’t want to come back, so I got what I wanted either way, he didn’t have to like it. I set Quin up with a nature channel so he could watch all sorts of animals chasing each other and then I left the house for the second time that day to find an art supply store and a fish market.