14
Without hesitation, Alba followed Char inside her house. I leaned back on my heels and looked down the street. Silently wishing we’d given Holly, Jax, and Sweets a heads up, so they’d be able to save us in an emergency.
“Come on, Red,” Alba said gruffly when she turned around and saw that I wasn’t right behind her.
I let out a ragged sigh and grudgingly followed her inside the picturesque little house. The rest of the days’ sun drizzled in through the kitchen windows towards the back of the house. The open floor plan let the living room and the kitchen intermingle with only a table separating the two spaces.
Picture frames lined one wood-paneled wall and covered the flat surfaces around the room. An overweight potato shaped black cat wandered out from the back room to investigate the sound of guests. Regis, the little Chihuahua, we’d seen her walking earlier, was dozing in his doggie bed next to a little fireplace in the corner of the living room.
“You’ve got a very cozy house here,” I told her once I had a minute to look around.
Char ignored my compliment and motioned for us to take a seat on the sofa which was covered with blankets. “So. You girls are looking for Charlotte Maxwell. Why don’t you tell me about that?”
Alba nodded solemnly and explained. “We are looking for my husband. His name is Tony Sanchez. He was hurt in a car accident on November 1st and was released from the Aspen Falls Medical Center about a week ago. His doctor told me that when he woke up, he said his name was Arthur Maxwell, and he had a visitor during the time he was there. His visitor, whom they all just called Grandma Maxwell, was the one who took him home.”
Char sat back in her mustard-colored chair. The potato-shaped cat jumped up onto her lap and wedged himself under her arm. “Get down Phil,” she grumbled, pushing the fat cat down onto the floor where he landed with a thud. “Well. I can understand why you’d think to come check with me. I suppose you discovered I also had an Arthur Maxwell in the family.”
Alba and I nodded. “We found the news report on the Internet,” I said softly. “We’re very sorry about your grandson.”
Char narrowed her eyes. “So, your husband has been missing for almost a month, and you’re just now looking for him? Seems a little odd to me.”
Alba nodded curtly. “I can understand that. Mercy,” Alba gestured towards me, “and I go to the Institute, here in Aspen Falls. My husband, who lives in New Jersey, drove out here at the beginning of the month to surprise me because we hadn’t seen each other since September. He didn’t tell me he was coming. When I called to talk to him, I discovered that our family thought he was out here with me and I thought he was out there with them.”
“I see,” she said, nodding slightly. She began to play with the thin watch around her wrist.
Alba trained her eyes on Char intently. “Why didn’t you tell us that you were Charlotte Maxwell when we met you earlier?”
I leaned forward in my seat. It was like watching a game of cat and mouse playing out in front of me.
Char shrugged off the question. “I didn’t know who you were. I’m an old woman, and I live alone. I have to be cautious you know. If a random person starts snooping around asking questions, you don’t just give them the answers without a little information first.”
“Well, you know what we want. We told you that we were looking for my husband.”
Char’s eyes opened wider. “We just started talking, and then you ran off!” she protested.
“I’ll just be straightforward with you here, Char, is my husband here?” Alba asked, without any fanfare leading up to the question.
I held my breath. We knew he was here. It was just a matter of whether or not Char would admit that he was here.
Char leaned her short round body forward and sighed. “Here?”
Alba nodded. “Yes. Here.”
“He’s not here,” she said.
“Your neighbor across the street said you have a man fitting my husband’s description staying here with you.”
“Ugh, Lloyd, sticking your nose into my business as usual,” she grumbled. “Well, I have someone staying here, but he’s not here right now.”
“Fine. Is my husband staying here?” Alba asked rewording her question. I could sense that Alba’s patience with the old woman was wearing thin.
“What does your husband look like?” she asked, obviously avoiding admitting that it was Alba’s husband.
Alba rolled her eyes and groaned. “He’s 6’4”and about 230 pounds. He’s got dark brown hair and brown eyes.”
Char shifted her weight and turned in her chair slightly. “How can I be sure that the man I have staying here is the man you’re looking for?”
Alba stood up. She’d had it. “Because I would know who my husband is. Where is my husband? Tony!” Alba called.
Char stood up too and waved her hands at Alba. “Sit down, shhh, I told you he’s not here.”
“Where is he? Tony!” she called again.
“He’s not here! He went for a short walk. He’ll be back any minute,” she said with a sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had him when we came looking earlier?” Alba asked her angrily.
Char began pacing around the room. “Like I said, you didn’t hang around long enough to find out.”
“You could have stopped us!”
“It’s not my fault you ran off,” the old woman cried.
“So you’ve had Tony all week. And you let him think his name was Arthur Maxwell? What’s going on?” Alba demanded.
Char was obviously on edge. Her pacing continued, and she became twitchy and anxious. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Fine, I’ll tell you the story. Sit down.”
“You sit down. Your pacing is wearing on my nerves,” Alba told her before she’d sit.
Char stopped moving and looked at Alba with frustration. “Oh, fine,” she said and then returned to her well-worn upholstered arm chair. “Ten years ago we lost my Arthur in a car accident. They took him to Aspen Falls Medical Center and they tried to bring him back, but ultimately he didn’t make it. You probably already know that. What you don’t know is that every year, on the day of his passing, I go down to Aspen Falls Medical Center and I bring the doctors and nurses a basket of goodies to thank them for working on my grandson. Now, I know it’s not the same doctors and nurses that worked on him ten years ago. I get that, but I like to go down there anyway. It gives me something to do and something to look forward to every year. This year – ten years to the day after we lost Artie – I dropped off my goodies at the nurses’ station, just as I always do and I happened to overhear two of the nurses talking about a John Doe that got brought in with a head injury after a car crash. It piqued my interest so I found out what room he was in and I started visiting him. He was about the same age as my Artie was and about the same size. Something about him just really reminded me of him,” she said her voice quietly choking as she ended her story.
Alba wasn’t buying the whole thing. “So when he woke up without a memory you just told the hospital and my husband that he was your grandson?” she hollered incredulously. “It didn’t occur to you that he had a family that was missing him?”
The lines in her face softened. “You didn’t show up! None of his family showed up! Every day that he lay there sleeping peacefully in his coma was a day that a family didn’t show up to claim him!”
“So that meant there wasn’t someone out there looking for him?” Alba cried.
Char’s head bobbled on her shoulders. “I was going to return him. I swear.”
Alba shook her head. “But you told the hospital that you were his grandmother!”
“You don’t understand. One evening, after he’d been sleeping for several days, a nurse tried to kick me out. She said visiting hours for non-family were over. So I fudged, and told her he was my grandson. The truth is. I’m a lonely old woman. I get visitors when my family can tear themselves away from their busy lives and it was almost Thanksgivi
ng and this was going to be another year I spent it alone. So when the doctor started talking about your husband going home, I thought maybe I could just keep him for the holiday. I was going to help him find his family after Thanksgiving,” she admitted sadly. Char looked up at Alba with genuine sadness in her face. “For what it’s worth. I’m really sorry.”
Alba looked at her staunchly. “Ok. This still doesn’t make any sense. How did you convince Tony that his name was Arthur Maxwell and that you were his grandmother?”
Char winced and stood back up. “Oh. About that …,” she began uneasily. “I suppose there’s something else you should know about me.”
Alba and I exchanged uneasy glances and then turned our eyes back to Char.
“I’m actually not from Aspen Falls originally. Originally I’m from Wisconsin. I moved out here to go to college, just like you girls did,” she looked at us, smiling nervously as she paced. “I came out here to go to witch college.”
My eyes widened. While that was a bit of a surprise, I didn’t know what that had to do with Tony.
“And?” Alba asked impatiently.
“And...well, your husband didn’t exactly have amnesia…,” she admitted, grimacing, she pinched one eye shut and peered at us nervously out of her other eye.
Incensed, Alba stood up. “You put a spell on my husband?!” Alba demanded.
The old woman refused to meet Alba’s eyes with her own but nodded, smiling sheepishly, ashamed at what she had done. “I realize it was a lapse in judgment, perhaps. I’m very sorry, dear. I didn’t hurt him at all, I swear. It was just a little memory transference spell, not a big deal at all,” she said, waving it away as if she hadn’t done what she did.
Alba’s face was crimson red. “You did a memory transference spell on my husband?” she hollered.
Char stopped moving. “It’s reversible, totally reversible. And he’ll feel well rested and as good as new when I take the spell off,” she said raising her shoulders apologetically.
We heard a door open. “What’s reversible?” said a deep voice from the back of the house.
Alba’s eyes widened. Slowly she walked towards the kitchen and peered around the refrigerator. I knew the moment she saw him. Relief flooded her face. “Tony!”
15
“Tony?” asked the man’s voice. “Who’s Tony?”
I stood up. I’d never met Tony before, but I was about to. My heart thrummed nervously as I followed Alba to the kitchen, where the light was beginning to dim as the sun began to fall lower on the horizon.
“You’re Tony!” Alba told the man.
Char followed the two of us into the kitchen and held up her hands. “Ok, ok. Now I know you’re anxious to reunite with Tony, but you’re going to go and mess with memories now. Before you get all excited, let’s fix this calmly and rationally.”
Alba turned to Char angrily. “You need to fix my husband, PRONTO!”
Char wrung her hands in front of her, nodding. “Yes, yes, yes. I know. Artie, I’m going to need you to come in here.”
Tony looked from Alba to me to Char and back to Alba again, where he rested his gaze appreciatively. “What’s going on Grandma? Who are these women?”
“Oh, I’ll tell you about them another time, Artie. For now, I need to give you a hug and tell you goodbye again.”
“Goodbye? Are you going somewhere?” Tony asked with confusion.
Char smiled at Tony with adoration. “Something like that, sweetheart. Come here; come give Grandma a hug before I go.”
Tony did as Char instructed and gave her a hug and a peck on the cheek. “I wish you’d tell me where you’re going. You’ve got me a little worried,” he said when he let her go.
“Yes, I know dear, it’ll all get worked out soon, I promise. Now, why don’t you be a dear and sit down at the table? I don’t want you to lose your balance or anything.”
“My balance?” he asked. “Why would I lose my balance?”
“Artie. Do what Grandma says. Sit, please?”
Tony pulled out a chair and sat down grudgingly. “I’m sitting, Grandma. Now, will you tell me where you’re going and who these women are?”
“In a moment dear. But first, I need to light a candle, before it gets too dark in here,” she said and went looking for something on her countertop. “Oh, here it is.” She pulled a long thin black candle from the counter and shoved it into the empty candle holder in the center of the table. “There, now, a match,” she said and looked around.
Without a word, Alba snapped her fingers and blew towards the black candle, and it lit up suddenly.
Char looked at Alba and gave her a tight little half smile as her eyes twinkled. “Thank you, dear.”
Tony’s eyes widened at the simple act. “You’re a witch like my Grandma? Is that how you three know each other?”
“Artie,” Char said with frustration. “Please, Grandma is working. Hush, now.”
Tony’s eyes widened but he pinched his lips together.
“Ok, now what was I doing?” Char wondered aloud.
“The candle…,” Alba reminded her.
I could see Alba’s breathing becoming more rapid with anticipation.
“Oh yes!” she said with a finger in the air. She closed her eyes and touched her forehead – her lips moved as she thought, trying to recall the words of the spell she wanted to use. “Stand back. You don’t want to get caught up in this one.”
Alba and I moved away from Tony and towards the living room.
“Here goes, goodbye my dear grandson,” she whispered sadly, pausing to stare at him lovingly for another moment. Then finally, Char closed her eyes and held her hands up on either side of her as if praying to the heavens.
On this day and in this hour,
I call upon the ancient power.
Make him forget, what has been done,
Before the setting of the sun.
By the powers of spirit, water, fire and air,
Arthur’s memories he shall never bare.
Return to him his rightful mind,
And bring back Tony’s memories of every kind.
All eyes turned to Tony. He sat looking at the three of us like we were a bunch of loons.
“Grandma, when are you going to tell me what’s going on? This is freaking me out a bit.”
Alba and I looked up at Char.
“It didn’t work,” Alba said breathlessly, her mouth drawn open in fear.
Char held up a hand. “Sunset, deary. He’ll be back at sunset.”
Our eyes moved to the windows. The sun seemed to be disappearing quickly now. There was a knock at the door.
“Man, when it rains, it pours,” Char said as she went to answer the knocking. “Hello?”
“We’re looking for our friends, two girls about this tall,” said a familiar voice. “Have you seen them?”
I walked into the living room and peered over Char’s curly white hair. “They’re with us,” I told Char.
“Of course they are,” Char said as she opened the door wider. “Come on in.”
Jax rushed in and wrapped her thin arms around my waist. “Oh, there you are! We’ve been worried sick!”
“Sorry,” I said. “We wanted to wait until we knew what was going on before we told you to come over.”
“What is going on?” Holly demanded. “It’s almost dark out there. Have you found any new information?”
I pointed at Alba.
Alba gave them a relief filled smile and pointed to the kitchen. “This is Tony,” she said with a steady even voice.
Jax, Holly, and Sweets walked trepidatiously into the living room so they could look into the kitchen, where Tony still sat at the table. Their eyes opened wide, and their mouths hung open with wonder.
“This is Tony?” Sweets asked, excitedly.
“Why does everyone keep calling me Ton–,” he began and then stopped suddenly as if he’d gone into a trance.
Holly looked around. “What’s going o
n?”
A slow smile began to spread across Alba’s face as she held up a hand to silence Holly. Slowly, Alba moved into the kitchen.
“Alba?” Tony asked, looking around the kitchen curiously. “Where are we?”
“Tony?” Alba asked softly. “Are you back?”
“Back? What are you talking about? Where in the heck are we?”
“You’re in Aspen Falls. You came to see me,” Alba reminded him.
Tony’s face brightened as memories began to flood his mind. “Oh! Yeah, where’s my car, I have something for you,” he said.
Alba gave him a big smile. “Oh, Tony. All I want is you!” she exclaimed and walked around the table.
Tony pushed himself back from the kitchen table and stood up. Quietly the two embraced, Alba’s face filled with gratitude and joy that her husband was back.
“I missed you,” she whispered as she buried her face in his neck.
Tony’s face softened. “I missed you, too.”
Alba took his face in her hands. “I love you,” she whispered.
His smile widened. “I love you too, Alba,” he answered and then his lips happily met hers.
I cleared my throat uncomfortably.
“Maybe we should give these two a minute together alone,” Char suggested. “Can we sit down for a minute, ladies?”
Holly, Jax, Sweets, and I all retreated to the living room with Char. She sat in her arm chair, and the four of us sat across from her side by side on the sofa.
“Girls, this is Charlotte Maxwell,” I told them. “She was looking after Tony since he’s been out of the hospital.”
Charlotte gave me a thankful look and then smiled at my friends. “You can call me Char.”
“Char, this is Holly, Jax, and Sweets. We all go to the Institute together. Jax is my roommate,” I explained to her.
“Oh wow, back to the days of having a roommate! I sure had a spitfire for a roommate! Oh, the stories we could tell,” Char said reminiscently.
“Char, we’ve taken away your Thanksgiving guest,” I said sadly. “What will you do now? Do you have family nearby?”
Witch Pie: A Witch Squad Holiday Special (A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery Book 4) Page 9