Love Witch

by Tess Lake

  The rehearsal dragged on as I watched and eventually I was called to help with costume changes. Time thankfully slipped by and soon it was the late afternoon and soon we were finished. The theater was locked up and we left, all the teenagers babbling excitedly, ignoring the protesters who were still being quite polite but getting increasingly noisy, shouting out their slogans at us. Not much had come of the protest. Carter had covered it in his paper, of course, but because there had been no fights and there was no footage of anyone getting dragged away, there wasn’t much more to report on the story. Not to say that Carter hadn’t tried. He had of course interviewed the leader, Galina, describing her opposition to the Taming of the Shrew being performed.

  I was marching back to my car so tired and glazed over that I didn’t see Sheriff Hardy until I bumped into him.

  “Oh Sheriff, sorry,” I said and gave an enormous yawn.

  “Were you out late last night?” Sheriff Hardy said, his face impassive.

  There was no tone in his voice, nothing threatening or scary, but I felt like I’d had a bucket of ice water thrown on me. He hadn’t asked me if I’d been up late last night or had slept badly. No, he had asked me had I been out late last night. He knew. He absolutely knew it was me and probably my cousins. I quickly scrambled for a lie.

  “Nope, just working long hours with the rehearsals and also at the library, which is where I’m going right now actually, I really can’t stop to chat,” I said, trying to step around him. He moved across to block my way and touched me on the arm. In my tired state, I felt the slip magic tingle. I heard the Sheriff’s voice talking in low tones about police matters, but then over the top of it came the sound of a wedding march played by a violin.

  What was that? Was I hearing things from the future now? Or had Sheriff Hardy been married in the past?

  “Persons unknown broke into the Magic Bean coffee shop last night,” Sheriff Hardy said.

  “Oh wow, that’s terrible. Did they steal anything?” I said.

  “Just some property damage, a jar of mayonnaise I believe smashed on the ground. One of the suspects left some footprints in it actually,” he said.

  That feeling of being doused with a bucket of ice water hit me again, and my tiredness fled. I resisted the urge to look down at my shoes, which were, in fact, the same shoes I’d been wearing last night. I’d wiped the mayonnaise off them in the morning.

  “Well good luck, I hope you catch them,” I said for some crazy reason. Sheriff Hardy gave me a level look.

  “Well nothing was stolen, so I think this is going to be one of those cases that probably goes unsolved. I just hope that those involved aren’t stupid enough to do anything like that again,” he said.

  “That sounds good,” I croaked. Sheriff Hardy stepped aside and continued his way up the street. I managed to gather myself together and walked back to my car before driving around to the library. By the time I got there, the shock had begun to wear off, and my sleepiness was starting to return. I knew we shouldn’t have broken into the Magic Bean! Even though we could argue it was because we’d discovered there was magic in their food. Given there was now a footprint on the scene it seemed that evidence that would tie one of us to it but it appeared the Sheriff had given us a pass. After all, there had been no witnesses to see or catch us. I understood all too well though what he was saying. Despite the fact he was going to become our relative in a few short days, there was no way could let crimes like breaking and entering slip by unpunished.

  I went into the library saying hello to Constance Osterman who was at the front counter. She was Kaylee’s mom. I was still training with Kaylee although it had gone down to maybe once a week now with all the extra jobs I had going on.

  “He’s downstairs again,” Constance said.

  “Thanks, have a good night,” I said. The library would be closing soon. Given I was working late they’d given me a key so I could let myself out and lock up when I left.

  I went downstairs to find Ollie covered in dust sitting cross-legged with piles of paper scattered around him. As I may have mentioned before, my job is essentially taking piles of paper and separating them into new piles. Ollie would then decide out of those which would be digitized. He’d been mostly focusing on family histories and crimes thinking these were the most exciting things in the hope that we could get more funding to digitize the entire collection. He was sitting amongst the piles of paper muttering to himself and looking at them. He picked a piece up and then threw it forcefully down.

  “Hey Ollie, you okay?” I asked.

  “No, I’m not okay. I think a lot of these documents have been forged but I don’t understand how,” he said. I put my bag down and then sat on the floor across from him to have a look at the pile of paper he’d been dropping pages onto. The first piece of paper looked like a pay record of some kind, showing how much someone had been paid for building work out on Truer Island.

  “Well this looks like a payment record for a builder on Truer Island. Why would you think this is forged?” I asked.

  Ollie tugged at his hair and gritted his teeth.

  “You’re right, they’re pay records for a building on Truer Island. It myst be a big building because all of this pile are pay records as well, and what’s the biggest building we have out on Truer Island?” he asked.

  “It has to be the Governor’s mansion, right?” I said.

  “That’s what I thought too except this isn’t for the Governor’s mansion. This is something else entirely. It would have to be the size of a mansion out on Truer Island and it doesn’t exist on any map,” he said.

  That bucket of ice came sloshing towards me again. I knew instantly what he was talking about. He was right. There was a mansion out on Truer Island that I suspected wouldn’t be on any maps, except one. Molly, Luce and I had followed the birds carved into tree trunks out onto Truer Island to find the creepy mansion, which looked very similar to Torrent mansion.

  We’d barely escaped and once we had, we couldn’t find the mansion again. I couldn’t tell Ollie this however. He didn’t know we were witches and what could I say? Yeah, you’re right. There is a mansion out there but it’s hidden under a spell?

  “Did you find anything else?” I asked, hesitantly.

  “I found a map that shows buildings that don’t exist, there are dates that don’t match up, there are gaps where there should be no gap. How old is Aunt Cass?” he asked

  “She’s in her eighties,” I said, a little unsure myself.

  “That’s right, she is in her eighties, and she looks like she’s in her eighties, and all the paperwork you could ever find about her would pin her to being in her eighties. Can you tell me how old Hattie Stern is?” he asked.

  “She looks to be early sixties, I think? I mean she is Kira’s grandmother, and she has a daughter, and that daughter had Kira,” I said.

  “Right, so she’s in her early sixties and Aunt Cass is in her eighties and then we have this,” he said, handing me a copy of a newspaper article. The title was Ocean Swimming Trio Win Big! I couldn’t read the story because my eyes had prickled with sudden tears. It was Grandma April, Aunt Cass and Hattie, sixteen years old if they were a day, grinning toothy smiles in black and white at the camera.

  “Maybe Hattie just looks young,” I said, not believing it myself.

  “I don’t think that’s true, Harlow. I think Hattie is the same age as your Aunt but for some reason she looks like she’s sixty. All of these pieces of paper here are wrong, dates that are wrong, people who should still be around but have disappeared, gaps everywhere. Harlow, there’s something deeply wrong with the world,” Ollie said.

  I saw his hands were shaking. Without thinking I reached out to touch them. There came a burst of sound and this one wasn’t good. It was Molly shouting, pleading, begging and then Ollie shouting back at her. I couldn’t understand what they were saying but they were fighting. It was something terrible. It faded away, leaving only an echo of grief behind. Was
that the future? Had I just heard Ollie and future Molly breaking up?

  “It’ll be okay, Ollie,” I said, patting him on the hand.

  Ollie sighed and looked down at the papers surrounding him.

  “I don’t see how it can be. I honestly feel like I’m going crazy,” he said.

  I made an abrupt decision, one that I wish I didn’t have to make but there was no lie that could cover this, no little story that would make Ollie feel better. I stood up and then held out my hand to him, which he took and I pulled him up off the ground.

  “You need to finish work now and I’m going to as well. Go home, have a shower and then come out to the mansion to see us. I’m going to call Will as well,” I said.

  “What is this about Harlow? Is something wrong? Is it about Molly?” Ollie asked.

  “She’ll have to tell you. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I’m going to go now and I want you to leave too. Please do as I ask and hopefully I’ll see you at the mansion very soon,” I said. I grabbed my bag and rushed out of there, Ollie following behind me, a look of confusion on his face. He told Constance he was leaving and that she should lock up because I was going too.

  I rushed back to my car and then tried to ring Molly and Luce but the diabolical telecommunications of Harlot Bay were not cooperating. I checked the time. With any luck they should be at home by now. Praying to the goddess that my car wouldn’t break down I started it up and rushed home, feeling an aching tension running through my body. There was going to be no way around it: Molly and Luce would have to tell their boyfriends that they were witches. Perhaps Luce could have kept the secret from Will a little longer, but it felt cruel, exclusionary. I kept testing my phone on the way home but it refused to cooperate.

  When I burst into the house I found Molly and Luce pacing anxiously.

  “What’s going on, Harlow? Ollie called me and said you told him to come out here and that I’ve got something to tell him?” Molly said.

  “Will’s coming too. What is this?” Luce asked.

  I sat down at the kitchen table, feeling that I might be sick.

  “Ollie knows something is wrong. He found all these papers, dates are wrong, Hattie Stern’s age is wrong. I think he even found the building records for that mansion out on Truer Island. He was going crazy like he was getting depressed from it. I think you have to tell him. You have to tell him that you’re a witch and you have to tell Will as well, Luce,” I said, staring at the table.

  I expected perhaps some shrieking or maybe yelling but what I hadn’t expected was complete dead silence. Molly flopped down on the sofa and then Luce sat down on the other chair and began biting her nails. The silence stretched out until I could no longer bear it.

  “Look, Jack had to find out when he saw me throw a fireball. At least you can just tell them and maybe it’ll be okay,” I said.

  “It’s not your fault, Harlow. I know it’s not,” Molly said softly.

  “We may as well get it over and done with, see what happens,” Luce said.

  I knew it wasn’t necessarily the telling of the secret that was the problem. It was what might happen next. Our own fathers had had us and then left our mothers, refusing to have anything more to do with the family, something we’d put down to the fact that our moms were witches.

  It had been something we’d discussed on and off between the three of us and it was a common problem amongst witches generally that holding on to love was difficult. We were secretive by nature and that didn’t always work well in a relationship. We had no time to dwell on that though. There came the sound of two cars driving up. Ollie was in one and Will was in the other, his truck with Truer Landscaping emblazoned on the side. Ollie had gone home and cleaned himself up, but Will had come straight from working late and was still looking quite dirty with bits of grass stuck on him. I opened the door and let them in, both men looking extremely worried.

  “What’s going on Luce, are you okay?” Will asked, rushing over to embrace her.

  “What is it?” Ollie asked and did the same.

  They didn’t answer but instead both of them burst into tears, and I quickly found myself crying too. The poor boys couldn’t have been more confused than if a pink elephant had just walked into the room and asked for a sandwich.

  “Shh, it’s okay, just tell us what’s going on, what’s the matter?” Will asked.

  “We have something we need to tell you,” Luce said haltingly. She didn’t get to finish that sentence though. There was another interruption in the form of a car roaring up the driveway and skidding to a stop outside, but not quick enough to avoid ramming into the back of Ollie’s car, pushing it forward to crunch into the front of the mansion.

  “What the hell?” Will asked. We saw two figures jump out of the car and recognized them immediately as Tess and John Donaldson, the owners of the Magic Bean. Tess had a baseball bat. John was shouting at her, trying to stop her, just like last time, but she wasn’t listening. She kicked the front door open and came screaming into the house.

  “You broke into my shop. I know it was you!” she said. She hefted the baseball bat, getting ready to attack the nearest person, which was Molly. Ollie and Will were rushing towards her to stop her when there came a surge of magic, a flash of golden light that hit Tess and John and knocked them flat on their backs. Bits of the light bounced off, breaking into golden flakes that glittered down, showering over the boys. They turned towards Molly and Luce and me who were all standing there with our hands out, glimmering gold still trickling from our fingertips.

  “We’re witches,” Luce said.

  “We’re magic,” Molly added. The boys both looked down at the unconscious Tess and John and the fading glimmers of gold, and then back at the three of us. I lifted my hand and summoned a golden butterfly into being and drifted it across the room.

  “We really are,” I said, the golden butterfly drifting down to the floor before dissolving.

  Chapter 11

  “This is madness. I have to call Peta,” I gasped to Molly.

  “Okay,” she said, gulping down the glass of water and leaning back against the wall of the cool room.

  I dialed Peta and she picked up straight away. “We need you at Traveler Cafe right now, we’re getting killed here,” I said.

  “See you in five,” Peta said proving once again why she was an amazing best friend. No questions, no queries, just agreement.

  “She’ll be here soon,” I said to Molly. We each took a deep breath, both of us looking incredibly sweaty and hot and bothered. We were hardly even half way through the lunch rush and things had collapsed into chaos. Although we were easily twenty or thirty orders behind, there was just no way we could keep going at the pace we had been all morning. And so I asked yet again the question I had asked multiple times already today.

  “So you think Ollie’s okay?”

  Molly smiled at me. She knew I was just asking because I wanted to be reassured again. “Yes, really, he’s okay, he’s better than okay. I mean, you know how he is with research, he’s just fascinated. He just wants to know more and more. I think we just made all of his research dreams come true maybe,” Molly said and gave a little laugh.

  “I wish Luce would tell us what happened,” I said.

  Last night had gone two very different ways for my cousins. After we’d knocked out John and Tess Donaldson from Magic Bean, Molly and Luce had taken Ollie and Will up into the forest and gone into separate directions to have some private time to talk with them, leaving me with the unconscious assailants. I had immediately hidden the baseball bat and called Sheriff Hardy who had arrived just as both were waking up from their magically induced stupor. They were both confused about exactly what had happened which Sheriff Hardy covered over by saying that they’d just crashed into the back of Ollie’s car and were possibly suffering some shock from the car accident. The damage to the back of Ollie’s car wasn’t that severe (nor the damage to the front of the mansion), so the reason didn’t hold
water, and Tess had started trying to argue again, saying that we had obviously broken into the Magic Bean for some nefarious purpose. Sheriff Hardy had told her that they were still investigating, but in any case there was no reason for the two of them to ever come back to Torrent mansion and especially not with a baseball bat. He also told them that if he heard of them returning for any reason he would immediately arrest them. John and Tess had driven down the hill with Sheriff Hardy closely following behind them. It wasn’t long after that before a stony-faced Will came walking back from the forest with Luce following close behind him, her eyes red from crying. He got in his truck and left without saying a word. Luce rushed inside, ran by me and vanished into her room. I knocked on her door but she wouldn’t answer. About half an hour later Molly and Ollie came walking down from the forest hand-in-hand, their fingers entwined, beaming at each other, the very epitome of a couple in love. I’d had to give Molly a secret sign that it hadn’t gone well for Luce, and thankfully she managed to understand without us having to say anything out loud. She’d gone with Ollie to his house and said she’d see me the next day at work.

  In the morning we’d gotten up and Luce had refused to speak, retreating to only grunts as we’d gotten ready for the day. Telling Will and Ollie that we were all witches couldn’t have come at a worse time. It was Saturday and the soft opening of the Traveler Cafe. There was no grand opening, not even any advertising. My cousins were just going to open the café and see how it went. I had been roped into work with Molly and Isabella, one of their Traveler staff. Luce was going to work on the Traveler side of the business making coffees along with Julie.

  Given that there had been so few people in the past week coming to Traveler, we’d expected maybe only a few customers but had been quite surprised to find there was a continuous flow of people looking for food and coffee. It was only at eleven when Kira came by that we’d discovered the Magic Bean had been shut that day, so they could, in Kira’s words, “beef up the security to stop people breaking in and stealing their mayonnaise.”