Pumpkins and Potions

by Tegan Maher

  I could see I’d caught her attention. She looked at me with curiosity. “Well, that’s something I’ve wondered about myself. I’ve never been able to figure it out.”

  “It’s not just about the practical steps like adding the ingredients or heating it to a specific temperature,” I said. “It’s also about magic. Those rhymes your mother was reciting -- they were ways she was focusing her energy. That’s what witchcraft is about, after all. It’s about focusing energy and intention. Your mother was good at it, and she took notes about what worked and what didn’t. All of those notes are in her spell book.” I tapped it. “And Celia stole all of that information from you. But really, it belongs to you. This is your mother’s legacy.”

  Nikki looked at the book. “In this… this… grimoire?” She said the final word slowly and carefully, as if it felt foreign on her tongue, which I'm sure it did.

  I nodded again. “Exactly. It’s all right here. Penny and I think that --”

  “Meow!”

  At the sound of Turkey’s interjection, I corrected myself. “Penny and I, and this fine cat here, Turkey, think that Celia’s been breaking into your factory each year because she’s searching for two missing ingredients to a special magical chocolate called Hecate's Honor. She’s figured out what all of the ingredients are except for two. She probably didn’t steal anything last night because she didn't find the missing ingredients. That means they’re still in your factory somewhere -- we just have to find them. Then we could complete the recipe. Nikki, the chocolates could help your business become more prosperous.”

  “The Hecate’s Honor chocolates?” Nikki repeated with disbelief. “But they’re just candy! This sounds crazy. No. My mother may have believed in this stuff, but I don’t.”

  “Why don't you just give it a try?” I asked. “Tonight only. In the spirit of Halloween. Just try believing that this is real, and see how it feels.”

  “Come on,” Penny said. “It’ll be fun! The missing ingredients are supposed to glow in the dark. We’ll wait until nighttime, and then do a really good search of the place -- only without creating a huge mess, like Celia did. We’ll be more careful with our search.”

  “I’m sure you two have better things to do besides hanging out here until dark,” Nikki said skeptically.

  “Not at all,” Penny said. “We should head home by eleven, because we have an important coven meeting at midnight, but we’re free until then.”

  “It’s our last meeting before Halloween,” I said. “We don't want to be late.”

  “Coven meeting…” Nikki repeated, while shaking her head.

  She looked at Penny and then me, as if waiting for one of us to say we were just kidding.

  When neither of us did, she shrugged. “Oh, what the heck. I’m at the end of my rope. If you both think that this is worth our time, then I’m in. Let me go tell Earl that we’re going to have company for dinner.”

  She headed out the front door, and Penny and I gave each other a high five.

  5

  For dinner, Earl cooked up a deep-dish pizza topped with sausage, peppers, olives, and onions. Nikki served us big slices along with butternut squash soup and a garden salad. We all ate in their dining room, which was on the second floor of the farmhouse. While we ate, we sipped pumpkin ale, and shared stories about Hillcrest.

  It was fun to get to know Nikki and Earl. Turkey and Skili even got a slice of pizza to share. When the sun set, Earl stayed behind to do the clean-up while the rest of us headed down into the chocolate factory.

  With the lights out, the place was almost pitch black.

  It was rather spooky, especially after Penny said, “I hope Celia doesn’t come looking for the missing grimoire.” After that, I kept thinking that every moving tree branch that I spotted in my periphery, through the window, was actually Celia’s thin arm, reaching out to curse us all through the barn’s windows.

  We began our search by reciting the incantation that Edna had written down, just under the title “Hecate's Honor.”

  “The night, the moon,

  All ghosts and ghouls,

  Help us honor Hecate

  And all her powers

  With our hearts and minds,

  To her will we do bind,

  Thirteen ingredients

  We seek to find,

  Let them glow

  With pale green light

  So we shall find them

  With clear, pure sight.”

  Immediately, as we finished, certain objects around the room turned pale, glow-in-the-dark green. I walked over to a shelf and reached for one of the glowing jars.

  “Crushed, dried lavender!” I said, as I placed the jar on a countertop.

  “This cocoa powder is glowing!” Nikki said with excitement. She placed the bag of cocoa next to the lavender.

  “Glowing raw sugar,” Penny said. She placed that next to the others. For the next few minutes, we moved around the factory, picking up one glowing item after another. Once we were all done, we saw that, sure enough, we had eleven ingredients gathered.

  “Celia must have gotten this far, too,” I said, eying the ingredients. “She probably took what she needed, and you and Earl never even noticed anything was missing.”

  “But what about the other two ingredients?” Penny asked.

  I tucked my right leg up against my left knee, so that I was in the yogic tree pose. Sometimes it helps me think. My gaze traveled around the room, but I didn’t see any more pale-green items. “Like we said earlier, it must be hidden,” I said thoughtfully.

  “But where?” Penny wondered aloud. I could tell that she was just as stumped as I felt.

  “I can’t believe this is really happening,” Nikki said, her voice filled with wonder. “All those years, I thought my mother was just being her kooky self whenever she said her rhymes aloud. I had no idea that she was really working magic!”

  I held up a glowing bottle of cocoa liquor, so that the green light coming off of it poured over the open spell book. “Here’s a note at the bottom,” I said. “Maybe this will help. It says, ‘Let the goddess herself light the way on the last few steps of your journey to finish the spell.’”

  “Finish the spell...” Penny repeated. “That could be referring to the final two ingredients.”

  I looked over at the bronze sculpture by the door, but it wasn’t glowing. “I guess that if the sculpture of Hecate was the final ingredient, she’d be glowing in the dark,” I said.

  “I don’t think we could add an entire three-foot bronze sculpture to a bowl filled with chocolate ingredients,” Nikki said.

  I turned to her. “Did your mother have any other decorations with Hecate on them?” I asked.

  Nikki thought this over, but then shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “She must have,” Penny said. “The note says ‘let the goddess herself light the way.’”

  “The sculpture by the door is the only Hecate decoration that I’m aware of,” Nikki insisted. She migrated toward the sculpture and we all followed. Skili landed on Hecate’s head.

  “Maybe there’s something written on it,” Penny said. “You know, like the words are the final ingredient.”

  “But wouldn’t the script be glowing?” I said.

  “Maybe it’s under the base of the sculpture,” Nikki suggested. “Let’s try tipping it over so we can see.”

  Nikki, Penny, and I worked together to tip the heavy sculpture onto its side. The three-foot bronze goddess was glued to the wooden base. We tipped the entire thing, but the bottom of the wooden base was blank. No script. No glowing marks or symbols. Just plain old wood.

  Penny tapped the place where Hecate’s dress met with the wooden base. “Maybe the writing is under the bronze part,” she said. “Marley, we could use a spell to separate Hecate from the wooden base.”

  It took us a few minutes to come up with a good spell. When we had it, we recited it together. The spe
ll worked -- we were able to easily lift Hecate off of the wooden base as if she’d never been attached in the first place.

  Again, we were disappointed. There was no writing beneath the bronze portion of the sculpture, either.

  “Hmm…” I said. I stared at Hecate and thought over the words on the little note in the grimoire. “It said, ‘let Hecate light your way,’” I murmured, as I moved my hands to the sculpted torches. Impulsively, I cupped my hand around one. The top of it -- the replica of flames -- felt loose in my grip. I followed my instincts and started to turn it. It moved, twisting off of the torch’s handle like the top might come off of a bottle.

  “The flames on these torches twist off!” I said.

  Penny leaned in, to see what I was doing. “Woah, Mar, you’re brilliant!” She started twisting the top of the other one.

  Soon we had both tops off, and we saw that the torches were hollow.

  I pulled out a glow-in-the-dark bundle of cinnamon sticks from my side, while Penny retrieved a glowing glass canister of gold leaf.

  “We’ve got the last two ingredients!” Penny said happily.

  Nikki clapped her hands. Turkey purred. Skili gave a happy hoot.

  Then there was another sound that came from across the room.

  Clap. Clap. Clap.

  The slow clap echoed through the dark chocolate factory.

  A silhouette emerged from behind one of the kitchen shelves that jutted out into the room. Even in the dim lighting, I recognized the lean figure and long hair. Celia.

  “Well, well, well,” she said. “I knew if I hid long enough, you’d make some progress eventually. I never thought to tamper with those torches. To think, the flames unscrewed. Who would have guessed? Good work, darlings.” Her false tone of sweetness sent a chill down my spine.

  Nikki stepped forward. “Celia, you have no right to be here!” she said. “Get off of my property, or I’m calling the police.”

  “Ha!” Celia said. “The police! As if they could stand up to a witch.”

  She crossed the barn in our direction and lifted a finger, which she pointed in my direction. “What are the final two ingredients? Hand them over. I already have enough of these.” She waved at the pile of glowing food items on the counter. “I only need enough to make a small batch of chocolates, after all. I’m keeping them all for myself.”

  “Of course you are,” Nikki spat out. “You always were selfish. I don’t know why my mother ever hired you.”

  “I was different back then,” Celia said in a sickly-sweet tone. “More innocent. But when she died, I had a decision to make. Would I do the honest thing, and be open with you about how powerful your mother’s spell book really was? Or would I simply steal it from right under your nose…? I think it’s obvious which path I chose.”

  “You witch!” Nikki exclaimed. “You could have helped me! You could have talked to me about my mother’s abilities! Instead, you took off with her book and never said another word to me.”

  Celia let out a menacing cackle. Then she pointed at me again. “Hand it over,” she said. “Whatever you have in your hands, there. I want it.”

  I hid the bundle of cinnamon sticks behind my back. I was frightened of Celia, but there was no way I was handing over one of the final ingredients to a spell that would make her even more powerful.

  Celia stepped behind the pile of glowing ingredients on the countertop. The luminous pile of sugar, cocoa, and other items cast a pale green light over her features from the bottom up, which had the effect of adding strangely shaped shadows to her face.

  “You’re making a mistake,” she said to me. “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way is that you simply hand over the ingredient.” She motioned to Penny. “You too, girl. I know you have the other missing ingredient. Give it to me.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Skili had moved to the back of the factory, so that she was positioned behind Celia.

  I felt Skili reach out to me with her mind. “Keep her talking,” she transmitted telepathically as she flew up onto one of the tall shelves positioned behind Celia.

  “How did you know we’d be looking for the ingredients tonight?” I asked Celia.

  “It was simple,” she said, sounding pleased with herself. “I noticed that my grimoire was missing, and --”

  “Your grimoire?” Nikki huffed. “It’s not yours, Celia! You stole it!”

  At that exact moment, Skili leaned against a large tin of cocoa powder, and it slid off of the shelf. Unfortunately, Celia was standing too far away, and the tin hit the floor with a massive clatter, completely missing her head, which I had a feeling Skili was aiming for.

  Though the tin didn’t come into contact with Celia, the noise did startle her enough to cause her to whirl around and see what had happened.

  As she turned, Penny and I both took advantage of the fact that her finger was no longer pointed at us. “Bind her!” I shouted, at the very same time that Penny said, “Stun Spell!”

  Thick ropes appeared around Celia’s body, and they twisted and tightened around her like a cobra intent on suffocating its prey. I knew they’d stop once Celia was restrained, and wouldn’t suffocate her, thank goodness. My intention was to stop Celia’s shenanigans, not kill her.

  Penny’s Stun Spell worked marvelously, and as the ropes tightened, Celia slumped forward onto the counter, right on top of the pile of ingredients. Her head landed with a “poof!” on a bag of confectioners sugar, as though it was a pillow. Penny and I rushed forward, and together we lowered her to the floor.

  Nikki, Skili, and Turkey joined us as we peered down at her. “What should we do with her?” Penny asked.

  “I never want to see her again,” Nikki said. “She’s caused enough trouble around here.”

  I met Penny’s eye. “I think we could arrange that,” I said.

  Penny smiled and gave me a nod.

  For the next fifteen minutes, Penny and I went about crafting a spell that would effectively bar Celia from entering Nikki and Earl’s Chocolate Factory ever again. Just to be safe, we added a magical footnote to say that Celia couldn’t visit us in Hillcrest, either.

  Once that was taken care of, we hoisted her unconscious body up and heaved her out onto the freshly mowed side lawn. We laid her down in the grass a few feet from where her “Celia’s Chocolates” SUV was parked, and then zinged her with Wake Up and Binding Release spells, simultaneously.

  As she came to, we backed away from her.

  “What the -- what happened?” she said furiously, while wiggling free from the remaining, loosened ropes.

  “Thanks for stopping by, Celia!” Penny said, while giving her a little wave.

  “Don’t come back any time soon!” I added.

  “How did you...? How did I get here?” she asked as she sat up.

  Penny and I didn’t bother explaining. A little bit of confusion served the woman right.

  I heard her SUV start up and pull away from the curb just as Penny and I reached the door that led into the factory. I felt satisfied that Celia wouldn’t be bothering Nikki any more.

  Inside the factory, I saw that Nikki had taken one more step toward embracing her mother’s eccentric side. She’d organized the glowing ingredients on the countertop into two neat rows. In front of the rows, her mother’s spell book lay open. Beside the counter, there was an industrial-sized mixer on wheels.

  Nikki was studying the book intently. When Penny and I entered, she looked up at us. “Are you two up for helping me mix up this magical chocolate?” she asked.

  “Totally,” I said. It was only ten, and Penny and I still had an hour before we had to hit the road.

  “Can’t think of anything I’d rather do!” Penny seconded.

  “Yay!” Nikki said. She sounded so much more cheerful than she’d been that very morning. “Finally, after thirty long years of struggling with this business, I feel like things are taking a turn for the better. I’m so excited to try a hand a
t this magic stuff. I really feel like it’s going to help my situation.”

  “It will,” I promised. “Life is better with magic.”

  “You’ll see,” Penny said. “It’s more fun.”

  I nodded with agreement. “Way more fun,” I said. “Everything just takes on a new focus. You feel like anything is possible. Music sounds more beautiful, and chocolate tastes sweeter.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Nikki said. It was too dim to tell, given that the only source of light in the factory was the faint green glow of the magical ingredients, but I thought there were tears in her eyes. I felt one hundred percent sure that they were happy tears.

  It was midnight on the nose when I pulled my van up to the front of the Death Café. The front windows glowed with warm yellow light, illuminating a large skeleton cutout that Annie had pasted up to greet guests.

  The bells attached to the front door jingled to announce our entry. Skili and Turkey greeted their familiar friends, while Penny and I happily said hello to our witchy sisters.

  Annie was just setting a plate heaped high with chocolate brownies down in the middle of the table that our other coven members, Cora and Azure, were sitting at. I saw that the ladies had already taken out their current knitting projects. It was our practice to knit while we chatted about magic. It seemed to help our conversations flow.

  “How did it go in Melrose?” Annie asked after our initial greetings were made. She reached for a pitcher and began pouring her special Spiced Pumpkin Punch into waiting wine glasses. “Were you able to figure out who broke into Nikki’s place?”

  “Yep!” Penny said as she lowered herself into a seat.

  “It was a mean and totally greedy witch named Celia,” I said, as I sat down next to Penny.

  “No!” Annie said. “Not Celia of Celia’s Chocolates?”

  “The very same,” Penny said.

  “Oh dear,” Annie said. “I guess I have to say goodbye to my supply of organic dark chocolate cocoa nibs, then.”