29
The whole town was finally rid of the flu, so keeping with our new tradition Grandma Misty hosted a celebratory dinner in honor of solving another murder.
She invited all the Blackwater’s, Daniel, and at Agnes’ request Dale. Cole shot Dale ‘I don’t like you’ looks all night, but Dale was dense he didn’t even know it. When he saw Cole looking at him, he just smiled at him.
You gotta love Dale.
“I can’t believe Helen Matthew’s murdered her brother. That sweet girl was always at the church bake sale every Sunday,” Dale said, stuffing piece after piece of chicken in his mouth until he had chipmunk cheeks. It was like he was trying to do the chubby bunny challenge with fried chicken instead of marshmallows.
“You might want to slow down on the chicken, Dale,” Daniel said, getting a dirty look from Dale.
“You might slow down on telling people what to do, City Boy,” Earl said, shocking everyone at the table.
He had never said a good comeback in his life, but I guess the saying ‘there’s a first time for everything’ was true.
“Look at you, Dale. Who know you had some bite in you?” I asked, sipping on my sweet tea.
Dale smiled at me before turning his attention back to the apple of his eye, Agnes. Abigail had another thing coming if she thought she was going to pull Agnes’ attention away from Dale and put it on Cole. It wasn’t happening.
Looking around the table, I didn’t miss Earl at all, but I could tell that my Aunt Tilly did. She cried every day because she thought what they had was real and that’s why she couldn’t shake it. She didn’t want him back, but she wanted to be loved like that again. I could tell.
I was going to find Aunt Tilly a man and a good one. I couldn’t leave it in her hands because she had the world’s worst taste in men. I didn’t even want to think about who she would have brought home next.
Everything was much calmer without Earl and Devin. I had never been so happy to get rid of people. I would have rather been trapped in an elevator with Daniel Price than spend one more day around Earl and Devin.
Realizing that I hadn’t called Oliva, I excused myself and stepped outside. Dialing her number, I waited for her to answer and after a couple rings, she did.
“Hello?” Oliva’s voice came from the other side of the phone.
“Oliva, this is Malady Norwood, and I just wanted to let you know that we caught your husband’s murderer and they are in jail as we speak,” I told her, feeling good by being able to give her some closure for herself.
“Was it Andrew? I knew it was him. He always had it out for my Bobby,” she said, and even though I couldn’t see her, I knew that her nostrils were flared with anger by the way she was talking.
“It wasn’t Andrew Reeks, Oliva. It was Helen,” I said, wincing as I waited for her reaction.
She was silent for so long that I thought she had hung up on me. “Oliva?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m here. Did I hear you right? Helen, as in Bobby’ sister, Helen? She killed him?” she asked, shocked.
I knew that it must have been hard for her to take in, but it was the truth.
“Thank you for letting me know. I have to go,” she said before she hung up.
I decided to stay on the porch and look up at the stars for a little while. I never got a brother, but I had Christopher, and he was the next best thing. I didn’t know what could make a brother and sister hate each other the way that Bobby and Helen did.
She always seemed like a super sweet girl who had her priorities in the right place, but I guess you can never judge a book by its cover or in that case you can never judge a girl by her sundress.
I was going to miss her snickerdoodle cookies at the weekly bake sales and friendly attitude. It was hard to tell myself that everything about her was a lie and it made me wonder who else in Cat’s Cradle was harboring deep secrets.
I could see Helen on an episode of Snapped and the title would have been ‘From Bake Sales to Murder.’
30
I should have known. I fell asleep too easily tonight. No sooner had my head hit the pillow that I was lost in the deepest of deep sleeps.
Maybe I could have marked it down to being exhausted. What with all that had been going on, it probably would have made sense. Still, I should have known better. Sleep wasn’t a difficult thing for me. Grandma Misty always told me it was because I was an honest person because I didn’t have anything to keep me up at night.
It didn’t mean I usually fell into slumber this easily though. I had a frantic mind, even for a witch, and most nights I had a hard time cutting it off. It wasn’t unusual for me to lay awake for some time, going over the events of the day and worrying about what my sheer existence and proximity might do to the people I cared about.
My curse- in addition to being the bane of my life- also brought me a tiny bit of guilt-ridden insomnia every now and then.
Not tonight though. Tonight, I didn’t even have time to worry about curses, or murders, or strange fiances who worm their way into the lives of treasured aunts.
There was a reason for that though, a reason that would be the cause for many the sleepless night after this one.
I knew I was in a dream immediately and, almost as quickly, I knew it wasn’t a regular dream. This was a dream like the one I’d had before, the dream that offered me a glimpse into the possibility of Daniel Price ending the Norwood curses now and forever.
I was lucid and lost in the specifics of my new surroundings.
Standing in a large open field with the sun shining down on me, I could smell the grass, feel the warmth, and breathe the crisp air.
It was spring, I could tell as much from the temperature and weather. Unlike a lot of places, Cat’s Cradle had four distinct seasons, and this one was definitely spring.
I was looking out toward the mountains in the distance, those beautiful mountains that had marked so many of my memories. These mountains were my home and, for whatever reason, I was really happy looking at them right now.
I felt free. I felt light. I felt complete in this dream in a way I never had before, and it was freaking me out.
What was giving me this feeling and, more than that, what would the cost be?
I was happy; knee-slappingly, gut-bustingly, heart-soaringly happy.
Malady Norwood didn’t get to be this happy. There would be consequences for it and, given the fact that I could feel my face twist into the biggest smile I had ever felt before, I could only imagine these consequences would be the worst ever.
“Are you going to say something?” A familiar voice sounded from behind me.
I felt my hands go to my face and tears burn at my eyes. I was so happy that I was crying?
Oh no. This couldn’t be.
“Malady,” the voice, Daniel Price’s voice, echoed in my ears. “Please just say something. You spun around so quickly, I’m not sure what to think.”
His voice was nervous and full of energy. I turned around, and my heart nearly jumped clean out of my chest.
There he was, the most irritating man I had ever known in my life. He was dressed in a fine suit with an open jewelry box in his right hand... and he was down on one knee.
“Come on Sweetheart,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. “What do you say? You want to be my witchy wife?”
I woke in a cold sweat, my heart pounding so hard against my ribcage that I was afraid it was going to crack a couple.
I swallowed hard, more questions than ever before in my mind.
Not only was Daniel Price going to be responsible for breaking the Norwood curses, but he was also going to ask me to marry him.
I took a deep breath.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
31
“I don’t know about all this,” Aunt Tilly said, looking at me from across the computer screen. The glow of it made her look fifteen years younger, and the look on her face made her seem every bit like the lovelorn teenager she had be
en acting like recently.
It seemed strange to me that a woman who had lived as long and full a life as my Aunt Tilly had would choose to decide her life wasn’t as happy as she wanted it to be. She had been around the entire world twice if Grandma Misty’s stories could be believed. Yet, here she was, sitting on her hands and fretting over the fact that I was putting the finishing touches on her online dating profile.
Still, helping her out made me feel good, and anything to keep my mind of the troubling dream I’d just had was just fine by me. I couldn’t think about the crazy things running through my mind at night these days.
I couldn’t marry Daniel Price. I just couldn’t. But Aunt Tilly, I wasn’t going to stop until she made a genuine love connection. She deserved at least that much as far as I was concerned.
“And my age,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “Are you sure you want to put down the right number?” She shook her head. “I mean, I’m no spring chicken anymore.”
“You look amazing,” I said, giving her a playful pat on the hand. “And besides, if a guy can’t deal with the fact that a mature woman has lived an amazing life and now she might want to share it with him, then he’s no man at all.” I bumped her shoulder with my own. “At least not one I want for my aunt.”
“You’re sweet,” Aunt Tilly answered, a calmer smile gracing her face. “You remind me a lot of your mother, actually.”
I bristled. My mother was gone. She left me ages ago, and on my birthday no less. The last thing I wanted to hear was that I was like her in any way.
Aunt Tilly must have understood as much, because no sooner had the words left her mouth that she added, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything that might rub you the wrong way.”
“It’s okay,” I answered, shrugging quickly and trying to brush things off.
“It’s not,” she said. “But the thing about that is, life is long and complicated, especially if your last name is Norwood.”
I chuckled. “I’m starting to understand that, I think,” I answered.
“You more than most,” she said. “You seem to have a penchant for trouble. It tends to find you, if I’m not mistaken.”
I looked at her, typing the last line of her profile and adding one of those sideways winky faces.
“That’s an understatement,” I scoffed, closing the page and them my laptop itself. “It’s my curse.”
Aunt Tilly leaned forward, placing a hand on my upper arm. “I think, if you asked people, they might tell you it’s not a curse at all. They might even consider it a gift.”
“A gift?” I asked, almost laughing out loud. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Aren’t you?” she asked, shaking her head. “Look at all the good you’ve done for people. Look at the justice you’ve served and the questions you’ve answered. You brought peace to people who needed it. You brought closure to people in the darkest time in of their lives. I can’t think of anything more important.”
A sense of pride filled me, warmth I couldn’t quite find the words to thank Aunt Tilly for stoking in me. My curse had always been a weight hanging over my head. It was the sort of thing I didn’t want to think about, but maybe I had been wrong. Maybe my hardship could bring help to those who needed it. Maybe that was my purpose and- if so- a part of me was okay with that.
Of course, Aunt Tilly wasn’t one to leave well enough alone.
“What I don’t understand is why a girl like you is still on the market. Don’t you have one of those online thingies?”
“Not on your life!” I said instinctively, before looking at my aunt and remembering I had just set one of those ‘thingies’ up for her not two minutes ago. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I added. “It’s just, my curse sort of precludes that sort of thing. The last time I was in a relationship, it ended with-”
“With my sister in a cast. I know. I know,” she waved it off. “But that’s neither here nor there and, if you ask me, a few broken bones is a small price to pay for a niece’s happiness. So, if I were you, I’d leave myself open. You never know when things might start looking up.”
And sitting there, looking at the optimistic look on the face of a woman who had been cursed way longer than I had, I actually believed it.
“I guess so, Aunt Tilly,” I said, smiling a little myself. “I guess so.”
“Alright then,” she answered, pulling me into an over the shoulder hug. “Now let’s get you a dating profile. I’m not about to do this on my own, you know.”
* * *
The End
Thank You for reading!
Curious about what happens to Malady next?
* * *
Find out in Cursed on Third Base!
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Cursed on the Second Date: A Witchy Cozy Mystery (Cursed Coven Cozies Book 2) Page 14