We talked and laughed for more than an hour in our living room till Jade got anxious. She wanted to work on her skills and now that mom knew about them, she had agreed to work with her on developing them. I went out back to shoot some hoops and kill time until my lunch with Serena.
****
About twenty minutes before two o’clock, I went inside the house to shower and get ready for my lunch across the street with Serena and the other witches. Under the water, I wondered why they wanted to meet me. Did it have more to do with the fact that Serena and I were becoming more serious and important to one another or were they only concerned that I wasn’t a person with powers? Were they afraid that I would be clearly outmatched and therefore unable to protect her? Or did they now know about my mother and did they have new and as yet unrevealed concerns regarding Mom? Or had Tabitha or Elizabeth maybe given them some new information about my sister and now possibly my whole family could be either under suspicion or maybe they were also afraid for my entire family’s continued safety? Thinking about all the possibilities threatened to give me a major headache.
I toweled off and dressed fast. The other thing which freaked me out: I didn’t know how powerful these witches across the street were in Serena’s life. Did they have the power to control her destiny? Because if they did, that meant they had the power to control mine as well. What if they didn’t like me? Could they rip me out of Serena’s life as easy as ripping off a Band-‐‑Aid? I shuddered. That thought frightened me.
I headed downstairs and found it eerily quiet. I crept around a little anxious for a minute, not knowing what to expect and almost laughed out loud when I found my mom and sister still on the couch in the living room, all right, but sound asleep. I guess the witching lessons, or whatever my mom and sister were calling them, had taxed them both, because they were both napping peacefully, each stretched out in their socks on the sofa and loveseat, and looking like they had been that way for a while. I wrote my Mom a quick note about the lunch and also about going to Sully’s dad’s sporting goods warehouse after and that I would grab dinner on my own and find her later tonight. I wrote I had my cell phone with me and would text her later. I scrawled I loved her at the bottom. She loved stuff like that. I grabbed my house keys and walked across the street to Serena’s.
Technically Serena’s house could be called the corner house of our cul-‐‑de-‐‑sac. I stared at it hard trying to discern -‐‑ Could I notice the spell of protection? This time I did notice something different. The coven witches’ rental car remained parked in the driveway, that was the same, but the shrubs and bushes surrounding the driveway and lining the walkway up to the front door seemed thicker, denser even. Like it had grown overnight. As I got closer, I saw that the branches were thicker, and woven and tangled together. Where they grew from the ground, the trunks were wider and appeared sturdier and more substantial. And here within the leaves, something new lurked– where before there were no flowers growing at all, now there were new blooms, beautiful, full-‐‑petal blood red roses. With thorns. Huge, nasty-‐‑looking, thorns. As I reached out to admire one of the roses, I could have sworn one of the tangled and throaty-‐‑looking branches swatted me and I snatched back my hand with a start. I examined it and noticed brutal thorns had dug deep into the flesh on the top of my hand and opened the skin, and a tiny rivulet of blood began to flow. “No! No, no, no, no, no!” The front door flew open and Serena ran out, yelling as she came toward me. She had a cloth with her and as she applied it to the top of my hand, I could feel it had been heated and had some kind of ointment on it. At first I thought it would sting, but it didn’t.
“Oh, Logan, I’m so sorry. They didn’t know. They were only protecting me.” She busied herself with my hand.
Did she say they? About the bushes? As if to answer my question, she bent away from me and began whispering furtively to the bushes. I couldn’t make out what was said but I got the gist of it. She had told them off. Unbelievable.
Suddenly, from the side of me, I felt a nudge. A branch had extended one of the beautiful roses toward me. I got the gist of this too. I understood I had been offered a version of an apology.
Having never offended a tree before, I wasn’t sure what to do.
Good thing Serena did. She curtsied low and took the extended rose and made an exaggerated show of smelling it, inhaling deep and exhaling long. Then she spoke.
“Thank you, Wood Protectors. Your gift of perfume is wonderful and we accept it.” Then she took my arm, and escorted me into the house.
“Um, what was that?” I tried to make my voice light, but having just been attacked by a tree, I was having a little trouble with that.
“Well, simply put, the exterior of the house is in a state of transformation. Some additional, ah, features, are being put in place to ensure added protection.”
“Is a moat next?”
“Not a moat, no.” She giggled when she said it and I wasn’t sure if she had made a joke or not. She leaned into me then and kissed me. I forgot everything then and kissed her back. We stood there in the hall like that until I heard a throat-‐‑clearing noise and we jumped apart at the sound. Three women were standing in the front room waiting for us. They barely hid their amused faces.
The trio seemed to be around the same age, but they struck different poses from one another. Serena introduced me to each of them. She seemed closer to the one named Eden, who acted motherly toward her. The one with the long braid answered to Cordelia and a fiery-‐‑eyed black-‐‑haired one was named Finola. Each was warm and welcoming to me, asked if I might be hungry for lunch and when I admitted I would be, we all went to the back of the house. We went to the dining room this time, where we found Elizabeth and Tabitha setting the large farmhouse-‐‑style table for lunch. We were having cold cuts and cheeses with some salads and it looked delicious. Tabitha made herself a sandwich and, as was becoming the custom, made herself scarce for the adults to congregate.
We circled the table, making small talk and filling our plates, then seated ourselves and talked and laughed through lunch. It relieved me that the meeting appeared to be going so well. Serena had never looked more beautiful, and she and Elizabeth were so animated, talking about our school and her studies and telling funny stories about some of the people they knew. Serena kept us laughing. Cordelia and Finola had stories of their own about some of the places they had traveled to. We were all having such a good time, I wondered if I had stressed about the lunch for no good reason. Eden seemed to be watching more than talking and I began to wonder why I had been summoned there. I didn’t have to wonder for long.
“Logan,” began Eden, and it so surprised me when she spoke, I almost dropped my glass. “My sisters and I are so glad you were able to join us this afternoon.”
Right away, the mood at the table shifted. Cordelia and Finola stopped talking and they and Elizabeth directed their attention to Eden.
So, she’s the queen bee.
“First, we want you to know that we agree fully with Elizabeth. Our Serena has made a fine choice with you.” Under the table, Serena squeezed my knee.
“So, we wanted to meet you to confirm for ourselves what kind of man you will make for her, what kind of man you are. And ask if you have any questions for us. I realize that much of your world has been flipped upside down in the last twenty-‐‑four hours.
Is that a reasonable assessment, Logan?”
“Yes, ma’am. That about sums it up.”
“Ah, so polite. Another character trait we can credit to your mother. I will relish meeting your mother, Lily, is it?” I nodded.
“Yes, it appears we have much to thank her for, not the least of which is raising two fine children. I understand you have a sister with talents as well.” Not a question, but I nodded again.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Please, dear Logan. You may address me as Eden. I insist.”
Her voice welcomed me and she reached for my hand. By instinct, I reache
d out, remembering only at the last minute my hand had been injured by the guardian bushes, and made a quick switch to my other hand. But Eden caught it.
“Oh my, did our Wood Protectors do that? Here, let me.”
She reached for my injured hand. The wound had become nasty now, red and angry. The blood had dried on top and caked and the skin around it had stretched and reddened. Eden covered my wound with her other hand and closed her eyes. She lowered her head, closed her eyes and raised my hand with hers to her lips, murmuring something half under her breath. She cradled my hand to her cheek, then opened her eyes and her face became a beautiful smile. “There,” she said, “that’s better.” She opened her hand and dropped my hand to the table. I stared, knowing what I would witness but having a hard time believing it nonetheless. Sure enough, the wound on my hand had disappeared. No redness, no line where the cut had been, not even a scar. Only sign anything had happened? Before where I had hair, now only a smooth, soft spot remained, like a scar that healed over from an accident years ago. Only this had happened two hours ago instead of twenty years. “Thank you.” I managed.
“There,” she said triumphantly. “This is another reason we approve of you, Logan. You have so embraced our world. This can’t have been easy for you and yet you seem so suited to it. So accepting, with such grace and aplomb. We applaud you for your quiet dignity in the face of such upheaval.” She clapped her hands together. “That’s why what we have to say may be the most important thing we have to tell you.” She leaned forward and I thought, here comes the three-‐‑pointer. Under the table, Serena squeezed my knee again.
“A little bit of history, first. Per our tradition, we have always believed that the witch gene could be passed down only to a female child if one parent had the power. Such as in Serena’s case and now, it seems, in your own case as well, Logan, since both your mothers were witches and your fathers were not. We believe the reason the Council wants Serena so bad is because this is no longer true.” She measured my reaction. Slowly, I began to put the puzzle together. Could she be saying that they thought I had powers?
Now, that sounded crazy! My mother could tell her, I couldn’t even match up my socks correctly! They all laughed just then. Right.
Forgot who I was dealing with for about the billionth time. Of course, they knew what I was thinking. Then I realized, every time I had any thought, they knew them all.
“Logan, we take great pains to afford you privacy in your thoughts, please don’t worry about that. And as for having powers, I assure you, we have researched the lineage. And you do have them. They may be latent, or dormant, if you will, but they are there. We are more than confident of that.”
“Excuse me, ma’am, I don’t mean to doubt you, but I can’t even guess how many marbles are in the jar at the annual Lancaster Fair. I can’t imagine how I could have any powers.”
“Well, beginning tomorrow, we are going to teach you how.” She sat back in her seat and just like that, they’d decided. I peeked at Serena and she had flushed with excitement. Elizabeth seemed as doubtful as I did, but other than that she appeared to be the only one.
“In the meantime, Logan, you must be diligent, and on your guard at all times. Soon the Council will learn what we have learned and you will become as important to them as Serena is now. We would also like to invite you to bring your mother and sister to meet us. We were so excited and astonished to learn of their presence here in Lancaster. Such a small town for such big talents! Suddenly, this little place is bursting at the seams with sorcerers!” She laughed and everyone laughed with her. It sounded strange. Did I miss an inside joke? I made a mental note to hit the town library and check out some of its history. Maybe we were all missing something?
Serena spoke up.
“Eden, I know Logan has some plans this afternoon with friends. He should probably get going now. I don’t want him to be late.” She got up from the table and I did the same.
“Thank you for the lunch. I enjoyed meeting you all.
Cordelia, Finola, Eden, thank you for your hospitality. I know my Mom and sister would love to come over sometime. I’ll coordinate it with Serena.”
“Wonderful, Logan!” said Eden with enthusiasm. “We’ll all look forward to it. “Something of a family dinner then?” She stood and embraced me. “That’s what we are becoming, I think. A family.” She warmly hugged me again. Cordelia and Finola also stood and each kissed me lightly on the cheek and told me they would welcome me soon for training. Serena walked me to the door.
“Bye, Logan. Thank you for coming. I think it went well, do you?” “Yeah, I think so. Do you believe I have powers?”
“I told you I’d blow your mind. Wait till you harness what you can do, Logan. I don’t just love you for your rugged good looks you know.” She ruffled my hair.
“Yeah, but I never figured my witchcraft would make your top ten list. Crazy.” I kissed her sweet lips and bounded out the front door.
Chapter Fourteen
LOGAN
I got to Dave’s about fifteen minutes early, so I parked in front of his house and replayed the events of the afternoon in my mind. That would be a serious mindblower if Serena’s houseguests were right and I did have some witch powers. There would definitely be some advantages to that. Maybe I would never have to struggle again to get a term paper in on time. I could just whip one up with a spell! Or I could use some witchcraft to become the all-‐‑time greatest pitcher in the Major League. Or hey, I could become the youngest, greatest all-‐‑time pitcher in the Major League.
Or maybe I could just use a spell to make the dishwasher load itself on my night to do the dishes. That would be the coolest thing. Wait, my mom would say I could be less selfish. Okay, first I will use witchcraft to cure cancer, and then I can become a baseball star. Oh, what had gotten into me? None of that would ever happen because I would NEVER be special like Serena. I would always be a perfectly ordinary guy and the only thing special about me would be the most wonderful girl in the world loved me. That did it for me and it always would.
I checked my watch and honked on the horn. About five minutes later Dave came out, ambled across the grass and got in the front seat of my car.
“Right on time, as usual,” he said, punching me on the arm.
“Hey man, what’s up?” It relived me to catch Dave in a normal setting, the dance being still so recent in my mind. I still couldn’t believe no one remembered all the crazy things that went down there, but as we cruised into town, Dave kept up a steady stream of chatter, and none of it had anything to do with the events of last night. Mostly it had to do with how Tamera continued to drive him nuts. This was so normal, I almost laughed out loud from relief.
We got to Sully’s dad’s store in about fifteen minutes and pulled around to the back. We spotted Sully as he waited for us, sitting on the loading dock among a ton of boxes and crates. He waved when he saw us pull up.
“Hey, bros!” he hollered good-‐‑naturedly. Sully always had such high spirits that even the prospect of hours of hard labor bagging and tagging sporting goods couldn’t damper his enthusiasm for life. There was a lot I liked about Sully, but I liked that the most. You were around him for like, ten minutes, and the good mood just rubbed off.
“Hey Sully!” I jumped out of my car and up onto the loading dock with him. Dave followed. Together we surveyed the boxes.
“Man, that’s a buttload of boxes, Sully.” Dave observed.
“How many trucks off-‐‑loaded?”
“Just two, but they were packed to the rafters. Took four guys like, three hours just to unload them all. I offered the forklift.”
He thumbed at a decrepit old four-‐‑wheeler in the corner behind them. “But they took one look at it and just shook their heads. Dad wouldn’t let me help either, said they were Teamsters and they could handle it. I thought they were gonna squash my Dad for saying that!” Sully snorted.
Dave clapped his hands together.
“Well,�
�� he said, “Let’s get started or we’ll be here all night.”
He dragged the first box toward him, sliced the top open with a box cutter laying on the ground near Sully, and surveyed the contents. “Got batting gloves in here.”
“Don’t forget to reconcile the manifest, Dave,” reminded Sully.
“I remember, I remember,” said Dave. We had all worked at Sully’s dad’s store one summer or another. The process went along pretty easy; you opened the box, checked the contents against the manifest included in it, and then stocked the shelves with the product. Sully’s dad didn’t believe in making things complicated.
Once a year he would pay us to do an all-‐‑night inventory. That usually ended up being a pizza-‐‑and-‐‑soda cash deal too.
We got into the groove and pretty soon a couple hours had come and gone. The sun went down and before long the darkness took over. We divided the work and it started going pretty fast.
Dave would open the boxes and check the contents. Then, since Sully had the most familiarity with the layout of the warehouse, he would tell Dave and me where everything needed to be stocked.
Dave would stack boxes on the dolly and we would take them into the warehouse and distribute the product on the shelves. It was easy to tell how long it had been since some shelves had been touched because they were coated with spider webs or had dead bug carcasses in the corners. It grossed me out but Dave thought it hilarious. Also, the noises creeped me out. I kept hearing these scurrying sounds, like small animals were underneath the tall, metal shelves that held all the stored sports items waiting to be stocked inside the store itself. A mouse or two might be one thing, but I could swear that skittering meant a lot more than one. I voiced my fears to Dave.
“Hey, Dave man, you catch that?”
“What?” Dave dropped a large box he had been holding on his shoulders, Tarzan-‐‑style, and a large cloud of dust swirled up from around it. “You hearing things, Logan?”
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