by Tegan Maher
A collective gasp filled the space.
He scrubbed his trembling hand over his sweat-drenched face. “I thought you were good witches.”
I choked on my tongue.
Juliana slapped my back. “What do you mean? Who called us witches?”
No one in Mystic Meadow knew that. No one. It was our one cardinal rule: Tell no one who or what you are. So, how did he know?
He bent forward, clasping his hands together into a tight ball that blanched his fingers. “Before I moved here, I was an amateur sleuth.” He hesitated as he squeezed his hands tighter together. If he knew what we were, this meant war.
War meant we had to cast a spell on him. Although, given how disastrous today had been, I wasn’t convinced it was the best idea. Time would tell.
7
“You hunted ghosts?” Mama said. “What does that have to do with us? The last I checked we were very much alive. You may not be for long.”
If he could’ve crawled into a hole and never come out, he would have. The look on his face was a mixture of horror and profound shock.
“Mama,” I said as I gave her the evil eye. “Don’t make things worse.”
She stared at Tommy with a coldness in her eyes. “How can it get any worse? He thinks we’re ghosts.”
“I never said that,” he said. “I said I was a paranormal investigator. I’m an experienced investigator.”
“And what does that mean?” I asked.
He smiled. “It means I know things about you.”
Mama and I exchanged glances.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone,” he said. “I need your help.”
“Help you with what?” I asked.
He gulped. “That woman wants to kill me.”
Mama laughed. “She won’t.”
“How do you know?” he asked.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know who the woman was or what she wanted. Why would I get involved?
Mama pointed to the den. “Come on. This is your mess. Time for you to clean it up.”
He bit his lip.
“Now! You’ve already wasted enough of our time,” she said.
Juliana and I followed them.
“I don’t get it. Why did you send a weird love letter and what does that have to do with the supposed crazy woman who wants to kill you?” I asked.
Tommy shrugged as he stopped to look at Jonah. “What’s wrong with him?”
“The same thing that’s wrong with all the cops outside,” Juliana said as she looked out the window. Her breath caught in her throat.
“What is it?” I asked as I looked over her shoulder. “Where’d they go?”
Mama’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“The police officers aren’t there. Where did they go?” I asked.
She stared in disbelief. “Find that grimoire now.”
“Why?” Juliana asked.
“She’s here.”
Tommy whimpered.
“Who? What is going on?” I asked. “There’s no one else here.”
“Two cups of Bacardi… four cups Ginger Ale… ½ cup blue Caracao…” an unfamiliar voice said.
I turned like someone stuck in cement. “Who said that?”
“Make sure you use Bacardi Superior, not the regular one. They’re not the same.”
I turned my head in the voice’s direction, but there was no one there.
“Mama?” I couldn’t contain my fear.
Her eyes bugged out of her head. “That’s the recipe for my Bat’s Brew.”
No one said a word.
“Is that why you did this? You wanted to steal my award-winning recipe, and you used that wench to help you do it?”
“Technically, I didn’t,” Tommy said. He glanced at the front door. “I’ll admit I wanted to, but I never got the chance.”
“That’s only because I’m smarter than you. Do you realize what I had to do to prevent our arrests?” She searched out the window again. “Where did she put them?”
“Who is she?” Juliana and I asked.
Mama leaned her head back. “You’re about to find out.” She looked into the foyer. “Let’s get this over with already.”
Juliana moved closer to me, her hands shaking. “What’s happening?”
“I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but…” Tommy’s words trailed off. He pointed.
Jonah was in the foyer.
“How did that happen?” My heart rate went through the roof. “Who moved him?”
Juliana covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a scream.
“Oh, great. Another surprise,” Mama groaned.
Jonah turned in our direction. His blank expression provided no answers.
I forced a smile as if things were fine.
He blinked three times. “Did I just barge into your house without knocking?”
Juliana and I exchanged glances. We looked at our mother for guidance.
She didn’t disappoint. “No, I told you to come in, silly. I know I’m not much to look at, but I didn’t think I was that forgettable.” She buried her face in her hands. Her ego was way too big to let that happen.
He played right into her hands.
“She’s good,” Juliana said as Jonah apologized.
Mama let him off the hook after he flooded her with comments about how no one would ever forget her face.
“Can you focus?” I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at Tommy. “What’s he talking about? What woman?”
Jonah lifted a brow. “What’s happening?”
Mama laughed off his concern. “Nothing, dear. Nothing we can’t handle. It seems our friend Tommy got himself in a bit of a pickle with a woman.”
Jonah chuckled. “The ladies’ man strikes again. Who’s the unlucky lady?”
He forced a grin. “It’s not like that.” He glanced at my mother. “I had difficulty making it home from the diner today.”
“How so?” Jonah asked.
Mama checked her watch and gasped. “Oh, no.” She shoved Tommy. “Hurry. Jonah is a busy man.”
Tommy stammered, “What do you… No, I don’t…”
She pushed him toward the front door. “No time to waste. You don’t want to be late.”
“Late for what?” he asked.
She grabbed Jonah’s hand. “How kind of you to offer to give you a ride to the airport.”
Tommy gasped.
Juliana and I exchanged glances.
“Where’s he going?” I asked.
Tommy opened his mouth to speak, but she stopped him with a stern look.
“Home. Back to California,” she said. “I guess our tight-knit community is too tight for him. He wants to go where he can be free to roam and do whatever he wants. If he wants to enter a champion baking contest, he can do that. If he wants to borrow family recipes, he can do that. Around here, we take our Halloween baking contests seriously.”
Jonah nodded in agreement. “She’s right. People will kill to win a baking competition here. This year they added a twist.” He snickered. “A drinks category. I heard a rumor; Consuelo is favored to win.”
“You’d kill me for a drink?”
Mama snickered. “I sure would.” She winked at Tommy. “You wouldn’t want me to have to kill you, would you?” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Did you know there are people who will create an elaborate hoax just to win the dessert round? How crazy is that?”
Juliana chimed in, “I heard a contestant wrote phony love letters to the reigning champion, then framed her for kidnapping.”
I finally understood. “Who does that? You have to be one sick puppy to do that to an innocent woman and her children.”
Jonah stared at us in disbelief.
“What do you think would happen to someone who did that?” Mama asked Jonah.
He shrugged. “I can’t say without knowing the details. If there was proof, he’d be in legal jeopardy.”
“Could he go to prison?” Mama�
��s eyes lit up as she asked.
Jonah shook his head. “I couldn’t say for sure.”
A phrase came to mind. “I know how he did it!” I blurted.
All eyes were on me.
“What?” Jonah asked.
I couldn’t contain my excitement. “He set us up. The scene at the diner was by design. He wanted people to see them argue.”
“Who?” Jonah asked.
Juliana placed a hand on my shoulder. “Go ahead. Tell him.” She winked at Mama. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t understand,” Jonah said.
“Tommy started an argument with our mother at the diner. The place was swimming with police officers. Swimming in uniformed men and women. We thought the argument was over when we stepped outside, but he goaded her.” I glanced at my mother. “He created another scene outside.”
Jonah nodded. “And?”
“And I don’t know how he pulled it off, but he staged his own kidnapping. Naturally, everyone thought we had something to do with it. That’s why the house was surrounded by police when we got here.”
Jonah furrowed his brows. “What? When? I didn’t see anyone.”
Mama chuckled.
I cringed. I wasn’t prepared to tell him he was here earlier, and my mother had put a spell on him to make him forget.
“I set nothing up,” Tommy said.
“What about the love letter?” Mama asked.
I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t often I figured something out before she did. “There’s a sentence of it that doesn’t fit. It’s a one-off. I didn’t think much of it until now. He left us a clue.”
She walked to the den to retrieve the letter and reread it. “How did I miss this?” She fixed her gaze on Tommy. “You thought you could put a spell on us via a fake love letter?”
He hung his head. “I heard it on a witch podcast. They said the spell helps you get what you want.”
“And what do you want?” she asked. “I mean, besides my freedom, my children’s safety, and my recipe?”
“You did all this to steal a recipe?” I’d never been so angry in all my life.
“Pathetic,” Mama said.
He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that. She told me what to do. I didn’t know it’d go this far.”
“Who is she?” I yelled. “Where is she?” I turned in a circle, looking for the source of the voice I’d heard earlier.
Jonah pointed to the porch. “You mean the woman in the hat? She’s on the porch.”
The floorboards on the porch creaked.
I looked out but didn’t see anyone but the cats.
“She’s here,” Tommy said.
The tall blonde woman with piercing blue eyes walked in the front door, holding her wide-brimmed hat in her hands. She was about my mother’s age if not a little older. “There you are.” She locked eyes with Tommy.
“That’s her. That’s the woman who kidnapped me,” he said.
Everyone froze.
She took tentative steps toward us, then stopped in front of Marlon Brando and Rock Hudson. “What lovely little guys these are.” She moved to pet them, but they ran from her.
An icy chill ran up my spine. “Who are you?”
She grinned as she scanned our faces. “Tell them who I am, Tommy.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
She walked into the den. “Is that how you want to play this?”
He made a whimpering sound. “I don’t know what you want with me.”
“I want what you took from me,” she said. “Where is it? Where’s the grimoire?”
“What’s a grimoire?” Jonah asked.
Mama walked toward the woman, signaling for us to move back. “I’ll take care of this… again.” She stopped in front of the woman, staring directly into her eyes. “I thought you died.”
The woman laughed. “You’re hysterical.”
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who is this, Mama?”
She held a hand up to stave off another question. “This woman is my lifelong—”
“Best friend?” the woman said.
“Enemy,” Mama corrected her. “This is Eugenia, horrible baker and awful human being-slash-witch. What are you doing here? Don’t you have husbands to steal or prison time to do?”
I’d never heard a word about this woman in my life.
“Funny you should mention prison. I’m not the one accused of kidnapping,” she said as she reached out to touch my mother’s face.
Mama backed away. “Why are you here?”
“You know each other?” Tommy asked. “Did you tell her to kidnap me?”
Mama laughed. “Please. What would I do with you?”
“My apologies, Tommy. I thought you and Consuelo were an item. My bad. Hope there are no hard feelings. I wouldn’t have kidnapped you if I’d known you weren’t together,” Eugenia said.
“What is going on?” Juliana asked.
Eugenia chuckled. “Explain it to him. I’ve waited this long. What’s another few minutes for family?”
Juliana and I gasped at the same time.
Mama let out a loud sigh.
Jonah and Tommy’s mouths fell open.
“Who’s family? What are you talking about?” I managed.
Mama’s shoulders slumped.
“Your shoulders,” Juliana said. “Straighten your back.”
That was a mantra she’d repeated to us daily since we were little girls. She never allowed us to slouch. Something wasn’t right.
“Mama?” I pressed.
She glared at Eugenia. “You have some nerve.”
Eugenia hung her head, then laughed a full belly laugh.
“This is your aunt,” Mama said.
“What? How? Since when?” I asked.
She walked over and grabbed Eugenia’s arm and pulled her in front of us. “Turn around. Let them see your conniving face.”
Eugenia hadn’t stopped laughing.
Juliana reacted in the most inexplicable way. “Welcome to the family!” She hugged Eugenia.
Eugenia cringed in her embrace. That’s when I knew she was one of us. Affection wasn’t a part of our fabric. We kidded. We joked. We loved each other and said it all the time, but hugs were for special occasions.
“Let go of her.” I pulled Juliana by her shirt.
Mama jumped in and wrapped her arms around them.
Jonah and I exchanged glances.
“What is happening right now?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
The group hug lasted less than two seconds, then my mother nudged Juliana aside and wrapped her hands around Eugenia’s neck. “If you ever pull a stunt like this again, I will… I will…”
Eugenia broke free. “You won’t do anything to me. You can’t.” She rubbed her neck. “What did I tell you about doing that? Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t choke each other?”
Mama struggled to catch her breath but didn’t let that prevent her for lunging for Eugenia again.
They fell to the floor and wrestled.
Tommy, Juliana, and Jonah stared at them in disbelief.
“Don’t just stand there and let them kill each other. Help me pull them apart,” I yelled.
I grabbed Mama, but her grip on Eugenia’s hair was too tight. I reached for Eugenia, but she palmed my face and pushed me away.
“Stop this now!” Jonah yelled.
Everyone froze.
“You,” he pointed to Eugenia, “go over there.” He looked at my mother. “You go that way.”
Tommy tiptoed toward the door. “Don’t you dare take another step.”
Tommy sat where he stood. “I won’t.”
Jonah paced in the middle of the room, mumbling to himself while we tried to catch our breath. When he was done, he fixed his gaze on me. “You, tell me what happened today and leave nothing out.”
I was more than happy to oblige.
He listened, took notes, asked questions, and then sat silently for a few min
utes. “Okay. Now, it’s your turn.” He looked at Tommy.
Mama started to speak.
“No, him,” Jonah said.
It took over a half an hour before he’d heard everyone’s stories, but when he was done, he sat behind the desk and held his head in his hands.
“You created this elaborate hoax to win a baking competition?” Jonah shook his head. “And the kidnapping was only a fake kidnapping to cause a distraction and what? Get your sister, your flesh and blood, arrested?” He furrowed his brows as he looked at Eugenia. “Why would you do that? Do you realize how much trouble they could have been in? And to what end?”
Eugenia hung her head.
“What did you do to the police officers? Where are they?” he asked her.
She shrugged. “You know we’re a family of witches, right?”
He shook his head. “I guess I do now. Go on.”
She snickered. “They’re still here. In the garage.”
Jonah jumped up and ran outside.
“Open the garage,” Mama ordered as she went after him.
Tommy followed.
Juliana and I stared at each other.
Eugenia walked to the window. “I owe you an explanation.”
We didn’t respond.
She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I was a rebellious kid.” She waited for a response. Neither of us gave her one. “I’m a few years older than your mother.”
“How come we’ve never heard of you?” Juliana asked.
“I’m not surprised. This family knows how to keep a secret,” she said. “That’s a question for your mother. She has her reasons.” She fanned her face with her hat. “I didn’t do this to hurt you. Until a few days ago, I didn’t know you existed.”
Juliana and I exchanged glances.
“Our mother is a legend in Hollywood. Our faces were plastered on magazine covers. We did television interviews. Mama won an Oscar and thanked us in her speech. How could you have not known about us?” I asked.
She sighed. “I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I came here to see my little sister. When I arrived, I stopped by the diner to grab a bite to eat and overheard a conversation about the baking competition. Someone mentioned your mother’s name. I asked questions. I pretended like I didn’t know her. Tommy told me he knew your mother well, but that she was difficult.” She laughed. “He didn’t know the half of it.” She placed her hat on her head. “He said something about wishing he had a recipe good enough to break her winning streak. I told him I could help him do something much bigger than creating a new recipe. We could borrow hers. And the rest is history.”