by Tess Lake
Peta has always had the uncanny ability to virtually read my thoughts, being that she has been one of my closest friends my entire life.
“As soon as the play’s over you can get back to writing that story, which I very much want to read. People were reading the Harlot Bay Reader, even though you were writing about foreshore restoration. I mean come on, you made foreshore restoration an exciting topic!” Peta said.
I laughed and yes, I did feel a little better.
We were on our way to the one and only costume shop in Harlot Bay, Black Cat Costumes, the place where a long, long time ago under the influence of being drugged I had apparently rented a sunflower costume and then worn it while running off into the streets of Harlot Bay. Peta and I had been sent to buy some spirit gum and other odds and ends that we needed as we reached the end of rehearsals and we’d soon move into the one week of production.
We were passing Aunt Cass’s Chili Challenge office when I waved Peta over and asked her to stop for a moment.
“What’s up?” Peta said once we parked.
“I want to ask Aunt Cass if we’re anywhere on this salamander. I think I could handle life a bit better if I didn’t have to keep going out at night down to those stormwater drains to collect water,” I said.
“Let’s go for it,” Peta said.
I marched across the road with Peta following behind me. Although Aunt Cass had given us instructions to collect water and return the sample strips to her, the fact was we had barely seen her over the last few weeks. Partially that was me not going down to the main part of the mansion because the protesters were staying there still. There were no more family dinners running and at most we’d see Aunt Cass as a passing presence as we delivered the water testing strips and samples to her. She was busy at the Chili Challenge office most days, for once keeping out of trouble.
I went into the office without bothering to knock and saw that the large warehouse space was packed to the rafters with boxes of chili sauce, cowboy hats, stopwatches, and wet wipes. The last time I’d been here the place had been virtually empty as we’d nearly run out of chili sauces when Aunt Cass had been missing and frozen. It seemed she had made nice with all of her suppliers, paid them off and gotten the business back on its feet. I was expecting her teenage staff to be there, packing boxes, but there was no one in the warehouse. I could hear Aunt Cass out in the office humming to herself as she typed away on her laptop that now and then let out a witch cackle as she set off an email. I rapped on the office door and let myself in, Peta following behind me.
“What’s up Peta, Peta pumpkin eater?” Cass said, standing up and holding out her hand for a high five.
“Uh not much Cassandra, Cassandra… I don’t know what rhymes with Cassandra,” Peta said and slapped her palm.
“How about you? Do you have a high five for your great aunt, your very great aunt?” Cass quipped.
I slapped her palm. The moment our hands touched there was a burst of noise so strong it knocked me off my feet.
There was a roaring so loud it sounded like a hurricane. I could hear three women chanting a spell of some kind. Then there was an echo, younger voices, chanting a spell but something went wrong. There was shouting and then sound of cracking as though the ice over a lake was too thin to walk on. I heard a man say “I will,” and then the sound was gone, leaving me laying on my back, blinking up at Aunt Cass and Peta who had their hands outstretched to lift me up.
“I know I’m strong but I’m not that strong,” Aunt Cass said. They lifted me up off the ground and then I sat down in the chair that was on the other side of Aunt Cass’s desk.
“It’s this slip power. I keep hearing all kinds of crazy noises and that one was really loud. People chanting, some man saying ‘I will’, people yelling something had gone wrong. I don’t know,” I said. Already it seemed sort of like a dream, the details quickly slipping.
“ Is that what you came here for, just to touch me to see if you could hear something?” Aunt Cass said, sitting back behind her desk and returning to her laptop.
“Actually, no, I want to know what’s going on with the salamander because I’m getting tired of going out late at night. I’m busy enough without having to go traipsing around grimy tunnels collecting water,” I said, starting to get a little sarcastic.
“Okay, but we need to make this quick before my staff gets back from the coffee run,” Aunt Cass said. She stood up, clapped her hands together, and I felt the magic surge. When she pulled them apart she was holding the map of the stormwater drains with all of the small testing strips stuck to it. She laid it out on the table in front of us.
“How did you do that?” I said.
“As always, if you want to learn you just have to ask. I can teach you but you need to be careful because if you try to summon something that’s too big, you’ll die,” Aunt Cass said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, I can teach you but by the way, you’ll die, yes, sounds real inviting,” I said.
“So this is what you’re using to track the salamander?” Peta said distracting both of us from what could become an argument.
Aunt Cass pointed to some of the strips. There were pink ones and then brown ones. There didn’t seem to be any pattern that I could discern although there were slightly more pink ones on the edge of town nearest to our decaying mansion.
“Something is interfering with it. I’m getting odd readings all over the place. I’m not sure but maybe there’s more than one salamander,” Aunt Cass said.
I stood up and glared down at the map as though I could force it to reveal its secrets with an angry look.
“Well, whatever it is we need to do something. The teenagers in the play are going crazy. I think one of them, although I don’t have any evidence about this, broke into someone’s house just to steal money because a girl told him to because he believes he’s in love. Those protesters who were all calm and easy-going are now yelling and stomping and I’m sure they’re on the brink of punching somebody,” I said.
“Oh I’m aware. Sheriff Hardy has already told me that there has been an increase in the number of assault cases and also breakins across Harlot Bay,” Aunt Cass said. We heard some voices outside, the three staff members returning from the coffee run. Aunt Cass folded the map and then there was a surge of magic and it disappeared between her hands.
Tabby, James and Even appeared outside the office, Tabby giving us a wave.
“Be with you in a second,” Aunt Cass called out. She closed the door after taking her coffee.
“Look, I think I have a few other ideas about where the salamander might be. If you want to help me solve it, I’m going to need you to come rock climbing with me. I have some caves I need to check,” Aunt Cass said.
“When you say caves you need to check, do you mean deep ones that are wet and probably scary?” I asked suspiciously.
“Of course, is there any other kind? So are you in? If you want your nights back you need to help me,” she said.
“Sure, let’s do it, why not. At least it’s doing something,” I said.
“That’s the spirit. Well not really the spirit but good. We’ll go after Ro’s wedding. I’ve been thinking that that’s a ceremony that might have a lot of emotion, so if we’re very lucky, the salamander might be attracted. Hopefully I can set out some traps and catch it and we won’t have to go into any caves at all,” she said.
We said goodbye to Aunt Cass and her staff members and then went back out of the car to continue on our way to the costume shop.
“That looks like some progress. Go down to the caves, catch the salamander, no more having to go out at night. Or Aunt Cass catches it at the wedding. Everyone calms down. Those protesters stop yelling, random girls in the street stop scowling at me, and that crazy one who punched me never does anything like that again,” Peta said. She touched her cheek where the bruise had been from the punch she’d taken not too long ago.
“It’d be good to catch it at the wedding because
I don’t want to go down to a cave,” I said, starting to think I’d been too hasty in agreeing to do so.
We arrived at Black Cat Costumes and rushed inside. Peta grabbed all of the six bottles of spirit gum they had in stock. This was only meant to be a quick trip out to buy supplies but with the stop at Aunt Cass’s we were taking far longer than we probably should. I got out the list and grabbed a few more things, including a feather boa that we needed for one particular scene that was a wild interpretation of the Bard’s words.
The shop owner, Maurice, chatted away with us as we grabbed things off the list. Once we had it all we went to the cash register to pay for it.
“I’m glad the Mayor pulled some strings to arrange to bring this production to town. I’ve been selling so many supplies! It has been great for my business,” he said.
“Well we’re not done yet, so we’ll probably be back. Are you going to order more spirit gum?” Peta asked.
“Yes, I have an entire case on back order. I can’t believe that I’ve sold out. It just keeps flying off the shelves left and right,” he said.
We grabbed our things and rushed back out to Peta’s car, putting all the supplies on the back seat before driving away back to the theater.
“How much spirit gum are we using exactly? I know we have Anton’s fake nose and Aunt Cass’s makeup as Sly but are we seriously going through that much of it?” I asked, turning one of the spirit gum bottles over my hand.
“I think we are. I just keep on buying bottles of it. I’m sure some of the teenagers are taking it for whatever stupid thing, wearing fake eyebrows or whatever, but yeah we’re going through a huge amount of it. I hope that shipment comes in soon because we’re going to need it through the production,” Peta said.
We pulled up across the road from the theater and braced ourselves to rush through the protesters who were now shouting and stomping even louder than before.
“Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon,” Peta said to me with a wink.
“And then we can go be waitresses,” I said and gave her smile in return.
Chapter 17
“Oh goddess, I can’t find my bra!” Molly wailed, rushing around the lounge, looking for the bra that was, in fact, in her hand at that moment.
“You’re holding it. You need to relax,” I said, although I was feeling very far from relaxed myself.
“Oh right, I’ll try this one on. These dresses aren’t providing very much support,” Molly said.
“Do you think we should wear shoes up to the wedding? There are a few stones between here and the forest,” Luce said.
“I guess we could wear shoes, but then we’re going to have to dump them somewhere,” I said, adjusting my dress.
The wedding had crept up on us and then sprinted. It was heading towards past five o’clock, the sun going down, and the three of us were frantically trying to get ready. Aunt Ro had given us dresses, thin flimsy things that were utterly beautiful. The three of us looked like wild forest nymphs, which was good, especially given that we had garlands of wildflowers to wear in our hair.
The wedding was to take place up around behind the Torrent mansion in the forest, and then the reception, if you could call it that, was nearby where there would be an enormous bonfire and tables of food. There would be non-witchy guests at the wedding, but obviously there were quite a lot of witchy elements. Jack, Will and Ollie hadn’t arrived yet but had been given instructions by the moms what to wear: black pants, white shirts, no shoes. Aunt Ro and Sheriff Hardy’s wedding was to be a wild wedding, one connecting with nature, and in deference to Aunt Ro being a kitchen witch, one that was to be followed by an enormously ridiculous amount of food. Even Adams was coming along, wearing his red bow tie and under strict instructions not to speak in front of anyone who wasn’t a witch.
There was already a line of cars parked out front of the mansion, various police officers and Sheriff Hardy’s family members and friends from around town. There were people making their way up behind the mansion, some of them wearing shoes, others barefoot, taking their shoes off when they got out of the car and walking gingerly across the gravel and up onto the grass that led up into the forest.
“I knew we should have had a bucket or something where people could put their shoes, like a shoe cloakroom,” Luce said. Molly emerged from her room with a different bra in place.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no, you can’t wear that one,” Luce said.
“Why not? It looks good,” Molly protested.
“Remember what you said, no more than a credit card worth of cleavage. That’s like the national debt size of cleavage! Change it for something more demure,” Luce instructed.
Molly returned to her bedroom grumbling to itself. She’d just emerged from her bedroom with a far more demure bra in place when the three boys arrived, all of them pulling their shoes off when they came inside and leaving them by the door. I must admit the three of them in their black pants and white shirts somewhat took our breath away, but I think we had a far more devastating effect on them.
“Oh wow,” Will breathed, looking Luce up and down.
“You look like forest nymphs,” Ollie said.
“You’re beautiful,” Jack breathed.
Those butterflies, the ones that flutter in your stomach, returned and I felt myself blushing. That was only for a moment though. The three of us then flung ourselves across the room and nearly tackled our respective boys to the ground. There was quite a lot of kissing until the front door opened and Aunt Cass came marching in, wearing an exquisite green dress the color of a rainforest.
“Alright lovers, let’s go, we have a wedding,” she instructed.
We gave ourselves one final adjustment, checked our boyfriends, and then all of us headed outside and up into the forest. One of the reasons we were slightly late was that Aunt Cass had pressed the three of us into service to help set up some magical traps out in the forest in the hope that the salamander might arrive, drawn by the emotions and love at the wedding. It had been a new spell, one that was quite simple really. Essentially, if the salamander walked over one of the traps it would freeze in place and we’d sense it. When that happened we’d only have about twenty minutes to collect it in a spelled cage that Aunt Cass had stashed behind a tree.
We made our way up into the forest following the pathway of glimmering lights in the trees. The sun was still going down so they weren’t shining brightly yet, but when it grew dark they would be lighting up the night. We reached the large clearing where Sheriff Hardy was standing in bare feet, wearing his black pants and white shirt. He had his best man beside him, a friend who had traveled from out of town, called Eric. He was looking around at the assembled crowd with a smile on his face. We said goodbye to our men, giving them one last final kiss, and then rushed off to the small alcove in the forest where Aunt Ro and the moms were waiting. The moms were wearing similar dresses to us, looking more like nature witches than kitchen witches. Aunt Ro’s wedding gown was a vivid green like jade, her hair studded with shining gems and intertwined with wildflowers.
“Mom, you look beautiful,” Molly said, her voice thick.
“No one cries, we’re all wearing too much mascara for there to be any crying,” Aunt Cass said, even as she wiped away a tear. Aunt Ro gave the three of us each a kiss and then our moms adjusted our dresses as we tried to hold back our grumbling that they were already looking perfect.
Once we were all ready, Aunt Cass stepped forward and from a small pocket in her dress pulled out a glinting locket.
“This is April’s, she wore it on her wedding day,” Aunt Cass said.
We all stood still trying desperately not to cry and ruin our mascara as Aunt Cass fastened it around Aunt Ro’s neck.
“April is here, I can feel it,” Aunt Cass whispered.
That set off another round of seven witches trying not to cry. Finally we got ourselves together and then in the distance music started up, a violin playing a wedding tune.
; “Okay time for you to get married. He’s a good man,” Aunt Cass said.
Me, Molly and Luce led the way, taking the role of flower girls essentially. Behind us came Mom and Aunt Freya, followed by Ro, and then at the rear, Aunt Cass.
We walked into the clearing. A hush went across the crowd. The sun was just going down and in the twilight the small gems in Aunt Ro’s hair shimmered. Our dresses picked up glints of light as we walked, the diaphanous material faintly glowing. Although I was concentrating on walking, not crying, and smiling at everyone, I could still feel the magic. In some places it was calm and felt familiar. This was our land. This was our place. This is where our family had been for many years. It felt as though generations of Torrent witches were watching over us and keeping a safe. In other places I could feel the magic surge and push as though the emotions of everyone around us was pulling on it. I saw Jack standing over to the side looking across at me, his eyes wide, a dark blue in the dimming light. He stood beside his brother Jonas, and Peta who grinned at me and gave me a little wave. I gave her a wave back.
We walked up to the floral arch and took our place on one side of it. The moms came to stand beside us and then finally Aunt Cass after she gave Aunt Ro a kiss on the cheek. Because Grandma April was frozen down in the basement and her husband, Grandpa, who’d we’d never met, had left years ago there was no one to give Aunt Ro away, so Aunt Cass was standing in for that role.
You might think that at a somewhat witchy wedding, we’d have a somewhat witchy wedding celebrant, but we had a local woman by the name of Meredith from one of the churches that Sheriff Hardy had attended when he was a child and young man.
Sheriff Hardy and Aunt Ro came together and joined hands.
“My love,” Sheriff Hardy murmured.
“My darling,” Aunt Ro said in return.