Thistle While You Work: A Wicked Witches of the Midwest Short

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Then fix it,” I demanded, gritting out the words. “Fix it and I’ll declare you the Wickedest Witch of the Midwest and bow down to you for the rest of my life.”

  “Oh, geez.” Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “Let’s not get melodramatic, shall we? I’m going to find her … and you’re all going to call me a hero … and you’re all going to be on my list … but there’s no room for blame.”

  “Just find her. I don’t care how.”

  Aunt Tillie’s expression bordered on sympathetic, which was almost enough to send me on another crying jag.

  “I’ll find her, Mouth,” Aunt Tillie said. “Don’t fall apart on me now. I’m going to need you to do it.”

  AUNT TILLIE kept her wits about her when she cast the spell, using Bay’s magic to help bolster it since she was the steadiest. I tried to lend a hand but was so uneasy Aunt Tillie ordered me to take a step back.

  By the time the locator spell was fully functional I was an emotional mess. Marcus gripped my hand as we followed the swirling ball of light into the forest. He was steady as we trudged through the darkness, but I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.

  “She must be freezing,” I murmured. “She’s probably so cold.”

  “She’ll be okay,” Marcus said, squeezing my hand. “Thistle, you need to snap out of this. I don’t like the way you’re acting. This isn’t your fault and you cannot go on acting as if it is.”

  “If it’s not my fault, whose fault is it?”

  “There’s not someone at fault every time something goes wrong,” Marcus pointed out. “I love you, baby, but you’ve got a defeatist attitude right now and it’s not going to help Annie. You need to pull it together.”

  “I’m not sure I can. My head is like a nest of bumblebees. I hear all of this humming and my heart hurts from the stinging. We need to find her. I just … this is too much.”

  “It’s not too much,” Aunt Tillie said, keeping one eye on the locator spell’s spinning sphere as she fell into step beside me. “The Goddess never gives us more than we can handle.”

  “Isn’t that the mantra of most religions?” Chief Terry asked. He was doing his best not to watch the ball of light … and failing miserably. He was well aware of our witchy ways, but often opted to ignore them because he wasn’t sure how to wrap his head around it.

  “Witchcraft is not a religion,” Aunt Tillie countered. “It’s a way of life.”

  “Good to know,” Chief Terry intoned. “I don’t suppose that ball of light can tell you if we’re close, can it? We’re pretty far into the forest right now. Why would she go this deep?”

  Aunt Tillie shrugged, noncommittal. “Perhaps she got turned around. Perhaps someone else forced her to go this deep. The spell will find her. Give it time.”

  “It has to find her,” I said. “I just … we cannot lose her.”

  Aunt Tillie’s gaze was sharp when it landed on me. “We’re not going to lose her. The child is smart and tough. For all we know she accidentally followed a ghost without realizing what she was doing and got lost.

  “Annie isn’t a normal child. She’ll survive because she’s meant to survive,” she continued. “She’s destined for greatness, that one. This isn’t the end of anything. It’s merely a … crack in the cauldron.”

  “I wish I had your faith.”

  “You’re too busy beating yourself up to have any faith,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “You need to keep flogging yourself because that’s the only thing keeping you standing right now. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. You need to get over it as soon as possible, though. When we find Annie, she’ll need you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because, loath as I am to admit it, you’re her favorite,” Aunt Tillie replied. “You found her on the road that day. She bonded with you. She’s bound to be frightened and upset when we get her back. That means she’ll want you.”

  The words warmed me. “Marcus is technically her favorite.”

  “She adores Marcus, but she loves you best,” Aunt Tillie said. “I am, however, a close second.”

  I snorted, the sound taking me by surprise. That was such an Aunt Tillie thing to say. “Do you think we’re close?”

  “I definitely think we’re close,” Aunt Tillie said. “Let go of the guilt, Thistle. You’ll do more harm than good with it if you’re not careful.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t lose her.”

  “No, but I lost you when you were younger.” Aunt Tillie narrowed her eyes as she stared into the darkness, slowing her pace as the colored sphere shifted to the left. “You don’t see me crying in my Cheerios because you spent eight hours lost in the woods, do you?”

  I tilted my head to the side, conflicted. “That never happened.”

  “Yes, it did.”

  “No, it didn’t. I would remember being traumatized because I was lost in the woods.”

  “You don’t remember because I told you it was a game and then bribed you not to tell your mother how frightened you were when we found you,” Aunt Tillie said, the muscle in her jaw tensing as she held up her hand to still everyone. “You took the bribe and milked the situation for three days. I … something is here.”

  I discarded Aunt Tillie’s story, filing it away to bring up another time, and swiveled wildly. “Where? Annie? Are you here?”

  The unmistakable sound of pounding footsteps assailed my ears and I jerked to the right when I heard a tree branch snap. Landon lifted his flashlight at the noise, extending an arm to shove Bay behind him should we find ourselves under attack from an unseen force.

  Instead of an enemy, though, a small figure stumbled into our circle of searchers. It was Annie. Her hair was disheveled, her face filthy, and she looked to have any number of scrapes on her arms. She was ghostly pale and barely standing.

  “Oh, Annie!” I raced to her, grabbing her close. Her skin was like ice, but I didn’t care. “I thought we lost you. You’re okay now. We have you. Everything is going to be perfectly okay.”

  And just like that, the pit of dread in my stomach broke apart. The guilt remained, but it wasn’t nearly as sharp as before. Annie was here and she was safe. That’s all that mattered.

  Five

  “Annie, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  I ran my hands over her slim shoulders, cringing at the cold emanating from her body. She didn’t answer, and when I focused on her blank face all of the worry I’d managed to shove out of my soul returned with enough force to smack me across the face. She looked like an empty shell, nothing close to the gregarious child I lost hours before.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Clove asked, kneeling. “Has something happened to her?”

  “Let me see.” Marcus gently nudged me to the side so he could crouch low and attempt to meet Annie’s gaze. She stared into nothing, registered nothing. “Sweetie, can you talk to me? Can you look at me?” His voice was so gentle it almost hurt to listen to him.

  Landon shifted his flashlight and frowned when the beam landed on her feet. “Holy crap, she’s barefoot! We need to warm her up right now.”

  My heart sank. “Does she have hypothermia?”

  “We need to get her back to the inn,” Chief Terry instructed, shifting out of his coat and wrapping it around Annie’s shoulders. “We need to carry her.”

  “Then do it,” Aunt Tillie barked. “Get her off the ground right now.”

  Marcus did as instructed, wrapping his arms around Annie’s shaking body and cradling her to his chest. “She’s trembling.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We’ll get you back to the inn right now. It’ll be okay.”

  “Marcus, wait.” Aunt Tillie’s face was serious as she shuffled forward and wrapped her hands around Annie’s bare feet. She cringed at the icy digits but otherwise remained focused as she whispered something I couldn’t quite make out and then blew on Annie’s feet.

  Out of curiosity, I extended my hand and found the cold dissipating
as Annie instinctively flexed her toes. It wasn’t much, but it was the first sign of life she’d managed since she barreled through the bushes.

  “Let’s go,” Marcus said. “We need to get her in a warm bath and feed her. There’s no reason to stay here.”

  “You go,” Aunt Tillie instructed, remaining rooted to her spot. “Take Annie back and let Winnie, Marnie and Twila fuss over her. They’ll know what to do. Call them when you’re on the way and tell them what to expect.”

  “What about you?” I asked, casting a worried look over my shoulder. “What are you going to do?”

  “I want to take a look around,” Aunt Tillie replied mildly. She flashed a smile that didn’t make it all the way to her eyes. Something else was lurking there, and she made shooing motions with her hand. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Why are you staying out here?” Landon asked.

  “I don’t know. I sense … something.” Aunt Tillie turned her attention in the direction from which Annie ran. “I don’t think we’re alone.”

  “Then I’m staying with you,” Landon said.

  “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “That’s good,” Landon shot back. “You couldn’t afford my services. I’m going with you. Don’t bother arguing. If you think I’m leaving you to wander around the woods alone, you’re crazy.”

  Even though it was dark, I didn’t miss Aunt Tillie’s exaggerated eye roll.

  “Fine,” she heaved out. “I’m in charge, though.”

  Landon’s expression was blasé. “We’ll both be in charge.”

  “I want to be more in charge.”

  “How about I go with you and we’ll vote?” Bay suggested.

  Aunt Tillie immediately started shaking her head. “You’ll vote with him.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  If I weren’t so agitated by Annie’s silence and Marcus’ disgusted sighs I would’ve tossed my opinion into the Winchester argument pile, but I had no time to deal with their crap. “I don’t care who is staying or going. We’re going! This is about Annie, not your never-ending power struggle.”

  Landon didn’t rise to the bait. “I’m staying with Aunt Tillie.”

  “So am I,” Bay added.

  “Fine,” I said. “We’ll meet you back at the inn. Don’t stay out here too long. Everyone will worry if you do.”

  “There’s no need to worry,” Aunt Tillie offered. “I’m the wickedest witch of the Midwest, after all. Nothing bad will happen.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “WE’VE GOT a bath ready upstairs.”

  Winnie met us at the front door and extended her arms to take Annie from Marcus. He seemed reluctant to relinquish her, but arguing with Winnie is akin to driving a golf cart into a semi-truck and expecting to come out the winner, so Marcus acquiesced.

  “Come into the dining room,” Marnie ordered. “Winnie has Annie under control. We kept dinner warm for you. We’ll make sure Annie eats as soon as she’s done with her bath.”

  “She hasn’t spoken since we found her,” I said, rubbing my hands together as I trudged toward the table. “She hasn’t said one word. She doesn’t make eye contact.”

  “She’s probably in shock,” Marnie suggested, resting her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be okay as soon as she warms up.”

  “Of course she will.” My mother bustled in my direction, her flame-red hair glinting under the chandelier. “She just needs a few minutes to adjust. It’s no different from that time Aunt Tillie lost you in the woods. You weren’t chatty when we found you either.”

  My eyebrows winged up. “She mentioned that when we were out searching. I don’t remember being lost in the woods.”

  “Oh, well, you probably blocked it out,” Mom said. She didn’t appear bothered in the least that she was casting my entire childhood into a lava vent and sitting back to watch it burn. “You were very upset.”

  I glanced at Marcus, frustrated. “Can you believe this?”

  Marcus slipped his arm around my shoulders and led me to the table. “You obviously survived. There’s no reason to get worked up about it.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” I grumbled. “I just found out I was lost in the woods, and I don’t remember it.”

  “It’s for the best.” Mom patted my shoulder. “We have meatloaf and potatoes. We made it special after we heard what happened. They’re Annie’s favorite. We also have French onion soup and bread bowls.”

  “Load me up,” Marcus said, smiling. “I’m starving. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until you mentioned meatloaf.”

  “How about you?” Mom turned to me.

  I shook my head. “I’m not hungry.”

  “Oh, you’re hungry,” Mom argued. “Your stomach hasn’t stopped growling since you walked through the door.”

  That couldn’t be right, could it? As if on cue, my stomach picked that moment to rumble. It was only then that I realized was famished. Hours of worry and self-doubt had worked together to hollow me out. “I guess I could eat,” I hedged.

  “You’ll definitely eat,” Mom said, knitting her eyebrows. “Where is Aunt Tillie?”

  “And Bay and Landon?” Marnie asked, scanning the empty foyer. “Were they in a different vehicle?”

  “They stayed behind,” I replied. “Aunt Tillie was acting weird.”

  “Aunt Tillie always acts weird,” Clove noted. “I didn’t think she was acting particularly odd given the circumstances.”

  “She insisted on hanging out in the woods,” I argued.

  “And Bay and Landon are with her,” Clove said. “It will be fine. Don’t get worked up.”

  “I’m not worked up!”

  Marcus squeezed my knee under the table and shook his head. “You seem a little worked up. You need to calm down.”

  “Have a little wine.” Marnie pushed a glass in front of me. “It’s from Aunt Tillie’s stash, though, so drink it slowly if you don’t want to dance around the room with a lampshade on your head.”

  “That never happens,” I grumbled, although I accepted and sipped the wine. I immediately felt warmer. “There’s no reason to wear a lampshade.”

  “No, this family just gets naked,” Marcus teased, poking my side. If he was still angry about the fact that I didn’t call him right away after Annie disappeared, he didn’t show it. He wasn’t one to hold a grudge, but I sensed a serious conversation in my future.

  “I have no intention of getting naked,” I said, leaning back in the chair and lifting my eyes to the ceiling. “How long do you think they’ll be up there?”

  “At least thirty minutes,” Marnie replied. “Annie needs to soak in the hot water.”

  “Aunt Tillie did something,” I supplied. “She whispered something I couldn’t hear and blew on Annie’s toes. It warmed her up some right away. I’ve never seen her do that before.”

  “She did it to you after you were lost,” Mom offered.

  I rolled my eyes. “Someone needs to fill me in on this missing day of my life. How did I get lost? How did it happen? Why did it take you so long to find me?”

  “You wandered away because you were angry with Aunt Tillie and she let you go because … well, she said it was payback but I’m not certain that’s true … and you decided to teach everyone a lesson and walked off on your own,” Mom answered. “She realized about eight hours later that you hadn’t come back. She found you on her own.”

  “Eight hours later?” I was dumbfounded. “I was lost for eight hours before anyone noticed?”

  “Bay noticed,” Marnie replied. “She told us you were gone, but we thought she was just talking to hear herself talk. She was a chatty thing sometimes, and you had no choice but to tune her out.”

  I shook my head and glanced at Marcus. “We’re lucky to be alive. All of us. Apparently we had almost nonexistent parental supervision.”

  Marcus chuckled. “We’ll do better with our kids.”

  He said t
he words with an ease I didn’t feel. “How can you possibly talk about kids when I lost one today?”

  Marcus’ eyes were steady as they locked with mine. “You cannot blame yourself for this. It was an accident. It could’ve happened to anyone.”

  “Of course it could,” Mom said. “I once took you to the circus and grabbed another kid’s hand. I thought she was you. It took me a good twenty minutes to realize my mistake. By then she’d had some cotton candy and you’d worked yourself into a royal snit by the ticket booth. Was that my fault?”

  My mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

  “What? I bought you some cotton candy, too.”

  “Oh, well, that makes it perfectly okay,” I muttered, anger pooling in my stomach. “You bought me cotton candy. It doesn’t matter that you walked off and left me. Cotton candy makes everything A-okay.”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “Stop being so dramatic. You got two cotton candies because you wouldn’t stop complaining. Your sugar buzz took two days to wear off. You’re still alive.”

  I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead and shifted my eyes to Marcus. “We can’t ever have kids!”

  Marcus chuckled. “We’ll figure it out. I’m glad you’re feeling a little better. The color is coming back to your cheeks.”

  “I won’t feel like myself until Annie starts talking again.”

  “She will.” Marcus leaned over and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “It’ll be okay.”

  I rested my head on his shoulder for a moment, basking in his warmth. I jerked when I heard the front door open, swiveling to find Aunt Tillie, Bay and Landon walking through the door. They appeared to be arguing – which wasn’t out of the ordinary – but I wasn’t sure I was in the mood for a big blowup. I’m always in the mood for a big blowup, so that made me realize I was even more out of sorts than I initially understood.

  “I did not purposely try to kill you,” Aunt Tillie announced, sweeping into the room and heading for her normal spot at the head of the table. Her combat helmet was still in place and she seemed oblivious to its presence as she sat. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”