by Lynn Cahoon
“I have one theory. Isaac.” Grans put her knitting aside and pushed Mia’s call button. “We’ll get a nurse in here with some juju juice to make you feel better. They wanted you awake to check your responses before they gave you anything.”
Mia thought about her grandmother’s words. Isaac? Why would Isaac hit her over the head? “Grans, that can’t be right. Isaac was at dinner with Christina. I saw him.”
Grans sniffed. “Doesn’t mean he didn’t send someone to do the dirty work. I never thought he had the gumption God gave a snail.”
Despite herself, Mia chuckled. “Don’t make me laugh; it hurts.”
“Where is that nurse?” Grans glanced at the closed door. “Maybe I should . . .”
Mia held up her hand, stilling her grandmother’s movement. “Stop. I’m not the only patient on the floor.”
The room fell quiet for a second and Mia could hear the whoosh of the oxygen machine from a nearby room. Mia lowered her voice, just in case. Her grans had told her it was better to be discreet when discussing this type of information.
“The EMT guy, Levi Majors, is part of the coven. Did you know?” Mia watched her grandmother as she had returned to her knitting, the metal needles clacking in rhythm with the flowing oxygen.
“Did I know what, dear? That Levi is a witch? Of course.” Grans didn’t even look up from her knitting. “Not everyone in the family practices, if that’s got you worried. Just Levi.”
“Why would that worry me? And why is everyone making sure I understand that Trent isn’t practicing?” Mia frowned, then rubbed her face and the frown away. She pushed the question aside with a wave of her hand, like she was trying to get rid of a gnat buzzing her face. “Did you attend the coven here?”
“No. Adele and I both felt the coven membership was more for the younger set. What are we going to do, dance around naked in front of a bunch of twenty-year-olds?” Grans shook her head. “She would have turned them into stone if they’d even looked cross at her. No, sending Adele into the local coven would be letting the fox loose in the chicken coop.”
Mia played with the remote for the television that hung on the opposite wall, looking for the music stations. She found a country video station and stopped, processing what Grans had said. “Wait, Adele had power?”
“More than you’d know. She was quite the witch in her day.” Grans nodded at the door; someone was coming. Mia thought about all the times she’d seen Adele. Never once had the woman let on that she had an ounce of power. In fact, she tended to mock Mary Alice whenever she’d mention the craft. This didn’t make any sense at all.
“You’re awake. Good. Let’s check how you’re doing.” The nurse bustled into the room and then slipped a blood pressure cuff on Mia’s arm and stuck a thermometer in her mouth. Grans stood.
“I’ll be right back. I’m out of coffee.” Grans patted Mia’s foot under the cotton blankets. She focused her attention on the nurse. “She’s in pain.”
The nurse nodded. “I called up the doctor before I came into the room. I had a feeling she’d be awake.”
Mia frowned, wondering what her grandmother wasn’t telling her. Isaac couldn’t have done this. He’d been at dinner with Christina. But if not Isaac, who?
She closed her eyes and let the nurse do her job, but the image of Isaac’s face when she left Christina at the Lodge wouldn’t leave her mind. Could the elation she’d seen on his features been more than just seeing his long-lost sister? Or were they going after Mia’s recipe book? And now she’d left her home unguarded and unprotected. She should have spelled the book the day Christina arrived at her door. That would have kept the book safe, even if it wouldn’t have stopped the attack.
Mia watched as the nurse pushed a drug into the IV, and then her eyes drooped and she stopped worrying.
Night had fallen outside by the time she awoke. Grans was gone, a note on her table explaining that she would return in the morning to take her home. Mia sipped her water and felt hunger roll through her. She hadn’t eaten for hours, maybe days. She grabbed the food menu and called the number on the phone next to her bed. A cup of soup, a sandwich, coffee, and a cup of milk and she was done. Thirty minutes to wait. She turned on the television.
“She’s right, you know; your grandmother, that is. The two of them wouldn’t have been welcome in the coven. The young ones like their pleasures of the flesh.” The voice sounded old, shaky.
Mia turned off the television and pulled back the curtain separating the two beds in the small room. “I’m sorry if I woke you. I didn’t know anyone was there.”
“No worries, child. Back at the home, I share a room with Gertie, who’s so deaf she keeps the television on full blast, even when she’s asleep. I’d ask for a change in rooms, but beggars can’t be choosers, as the social worker tells me when I complain. I know I should be grateful they have to take on a few Medicaid patients, I just wish they didn’t have to remind me about their sacrifice on a daily basis.” The woman in the bed next to her waved a shriveled and gnarled hand. “If you want to watch television, you go right ahead.”
Mia smiled and gently rolled over to her side to see the woman clearer. She couldn’t decide on an age; the woman looked ancient with her long, gray hair splayed out on the pillow. The face lined from years of life. “I’m Mia Malone. I’m Mary Alice’s . . .”
“Granddaughter. I know, child. I’m old, not senile. I hear you bought the old schoolhouse. I attended St. Catherine’s Prep there back in the day. I loved the way the windows showcased the Magics, no matter what classroom you were stuck in.”
“The Magics? Oh, you mean the mountain range.” For a minute Mia thought the woman had been talking about the local coven. This conversation was going off the rails, mostly because Mia was so tired.
The woman rolled over on her side to mirror Mia. “Dorothy Purcell. I’m the oldest woman in Magic Springs.”
Mia thought back to what she’d said originally, then whispered, “Were you part of the coven?”
A short bark of a laugh came from the woman. “Heavens no. I haven’t got a drop of power. My husband did, bless his soul, but it didn’t keep him from being killed in a mining accident. Power can only go so far; you have to have the brains God bestowed on an earthworm, and unfortunately my Harry should have been further down the evolutionary scale.”
Mia bit back a smile. “Then how do you know about the covens?”
“Don’t you listen? My husband told me. He’d go to meetings, then come home, reeking of liquor and perfume, and blab all about how much I missed because I was just a human.” She shook her head. “Harry swore he never fully participated, but a woman knows.”
Mia could hear the sadness in the woman’s voice after all these years. Love twisted you up, especially when the one you loved wasn’t worthy. Isaac’s face popped into her mind. She wondered if he’d resorted to tearing up her warm, cozy apartment yet, looking for the cookbook. Please, Christina, keep him in line.
“Actually, we’re not the same type of witches who attend covens. We practice a kitchen witchcraft, focused on healing. Usually covens use cooperative magic. Ours is more individual.” Mia heard herself chattering; Grans would be furious. She wondered if the painkillers were lowering her natural resistance to talking about her power. “I have a kitchen doll that’s my familiar. Gloria. I’ve had her since I was five and turned Thanksgiving dinner into a table filled with all types of candy. And I have Mr. Darcy, but he’s having some issues lately, so I just leave him be.”
Dorothy chuckled. “Sounds like you’re Glinda the Good Witch.”
“Or just someone who loves candy.” Mia sighed. “Mom was furious, Dad, scared. I went to stay with Grans for a year before I started school. She trained me not to talk about this to anyone who wasn’t in the family. To be normal.”
“Sometimes normal isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.” Dorothy adjusted her blanket. “I was normal and my Harry still strayed.”
“I’m sorry.” Mi
a tried to focus on the woman next to her. The room was getting warm and her eyelids heavy. No way she’d be able to stay awake to eat and she really had wanted that soup.
“No worries. When the accident happened the mine paid me a hefty settlement and monthly checks. I’m pretty sure they were wishing I’d pass myself, or at least remarry after the first fifty years of payments.” The woman’s voice seemed farther away now. “Adele’s father tried to hitch me up several times so he could stop the checks.”
Mia felt fuzzy, but something sounded off. “Adele’s father?”
“He owned the mine where Harry was killed.”
Mia felt Dorothy’s gaze more than saw the blue eyes watching her as she drifted off to sleep. As sleep overtook her, the thought of connections as live wires to people turned into her dreams where people floated in and out of her subconscious, not speaking, but attached with a mess of wires. Wires Mia couldn’t untangle, no matter how hard she tried.
Sun streamed in the window when she woke. She glanced over at the other bed to say good morning to her roommate and gasped. There, where the other bed had been last night, was a recliner where Grans sat, knitting. She glanced up when she heard Mia’s outburst.
“Wondered when you were going to get up. Dr. Mike says I can take you home as soon as he checks your bandages.” Grans stood and came closer, taking Mia’s hand. “What’s wrong, dear?”
“Where’s Dorothy?” Mia sat up, looking out the door. “Did they send her home already?”
Grans put her hand on Mia’s chest, gently restraining her and pushing her back to the mattress. “What are you talking about? Who’s Dorothy?”
“My roommate. We talked last night after you left. She said she knew Adele’s father. That her husband worked in his mine.” Mia sipped water from the straw of the jug Grans had handed her while she talked.
“You’ve never had a roommate.” Grans’s tone sounded flat, like she was trying to convince not only Mia but herself. “How did you know about the mines?”
“She was in the second bed.” Mia caught Grans’s gaze and something flickered in her eyes; a recognition, maybe?
“Mia, the only other piece of furniture in this place for the last day has been that recliner where I sat, waiting for you to wake up. No second bed. You must have dreamed it.” Grans pushed the call button. “Let’s get that nurse in here so we can get you home where you belong.”
Mia leaned back and closed her eyes. Dorothy had seemed real, but now that she thought about yesterday, she remembered seeing Grans in that same recliner. There wasn’t any way there had been a second bed in this tiny room; it wouldn’t have fit. “Dorothy Purcell. And her husband’s name was Harry. Did you and Adele know them? The husband was killed in a mining accident?”
Mia heard the hitch in Grans’s voice when she spoke. “I don’t know a Dorothy or a Harry Purcell.”
And for the first time ever, Mia knew her grandmother had just lied to her. Before Mia could press the button, the nurse came in and checked her vitals one last time. As soon as the nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Mia’s arm and stuck a temperature gauge in Mia’s mouth, Grans stood.
“I’ll be right out in the hallway. I need to make a call.” And with that the conversation was over.
“I bet you’re glad to get out of here,” the nurse chatted. Twenty-four at the oldest, the woman had short, black hair and the hint of a tattoo on the exposed skin of her chest. A bracelet of roses tattoo circled her wrist. Following Mia’s gaze, she laughed. “My boyfriend bought me the tattoo for my birthday last year. The chief nurse hates it. Wants me to wear long sleeves all the time, but I’ve checked the policies and procedures handbook, and it doesn’t say anything about tats.”
Mia liked the young woman, who reminded her of Christina. Always trying to find her way in the world, trying to color just outside the lines.
“For a woman who was attacked yesterday, you seem to be doing great.” The nurse, Kat from her name tag, keyed some information into her computer and what Mia assumed was her electronic chart. Even in a small town like Magic Springs, medical records had gone high-tech. Probably because the hospital wasn’t locally owned, but part of a statewide medical group. Which was another reason Kat got away with her personal decorations.
After Kat removed the thermometer Mia spoke. Now or never, she thought. “Have you worked here long?”
“Since I got out of nursing school. I love being able to ski right after work. If I hadn’t torn my ACL in high school, I would have gone professional, you know.” Kat kept typing as she talked.
“Did you ever meet a woman named Dorothy Purcell?”
Kat’s reaction surprised Mia. The nurse laughed.
Frowning, Mia watched as Kat finished her note and closed the small laptop. Then she sat on the bed next to Mia. Kat checked the doorway before she spoke in a low tone. “So, you met our resident ghost?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll tell you the story I heard when I started working here. Dorothy Purcell was the oldest woman in town. She lived out at that nursing facility near the lake, before the company that owns it now bought it and made it a luxury retirement community. Like that’s possible. It just allows them to charge more.” Kat shook her head. “I tried to get a job there because they pay awesome, but the manager only hires locals. I’ve lived here six years now and I’m still an outsider.”
“You were telling me about Dorothy?” Mia tried to focus the conversation, afraid the nurse would get called out or Grans would return.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. Back to the story. She lived out there with the upper crust because they had to keep her; it’s a law or something. They didn’t like it because she cost them money, but the woman just kept on living, even when she was over one hundred. When she got sick they rushed her to the hospital, thinking this was her last hurrah, and she bounced back.” Kat’s pager buzzed. “Crap, Mr. Evans. The man thinks getting a sponge bath is an erotic opportunity.”
Mia bit back a smile. “So one day she didn’t bounce back?”
“One day they walked into her room and she was just gone. No fanfare, no preceding illness. She seemed fine when the night nurse checked on her and when the morning aide came in to get her up for breakfast, she was gone.” Kat snapped her fingers. “Just like that. I guess when her body gave out, her soul didn’t want to leave. For the last ten years, we’ve had sightings here and out at Lakeview.”
“You really believe in ghosts?” Mia asked as the young woman started to leave the room.
Kat paused at the doorway. “You tell me. You were the one she came to visit. I’ve worked here day and night and never even felt a chill. You’re here one night and you see our ghost. You think that’s a coincidence?”
Mia watched the young woman wave goodbye to Grans as she reentered the room. “You ready to get out of here?”
“Definitely.”
Grans handed Mia a stack of clean clothes. While Mia changed in the bathroom Grans must have bundled up all her personal items because when she exited the bathroom, Grans grasped her arm and led her out the door. Mia stopped in the doorway and glanced back in the room. For a second she thought she saw an elderly, gray-haired woman standing near the window, looking out, but then the sun wavered and the dust danced in the air, and Dorothy was gone. Again.
“You all right, dear?” Grans’s voice seemed far away. When Mia turned her grandmother stood right in front of her, and her hand reached up, pushing a lock of Mia’s hair out of her eyes.
“I’m fine. I just want to get home before Isaac destroys my apartment.” She put her arm through her grandmother’s and they started toward the entrance.
“No worries there. Trent went over last night and escorted him and Christina out. He dropped Christina off at my house to watch Muffy because I would be here at the hospital.” Grans’s blue eyes twinkled.
“And so Isaac couldn’t strong-arm her into letting him back in once Trent left.” Mia shook her head. “Y
ou guys take pretty good care of me.”
“Of course, dear. That’s what family does.” They were at the front door now, and Grans’s car stood at the entry, the door open, waiting for them.
“What if Isaac just went back?” Mia froze at the thought. At least with Christina there someone was watching the place.
“Trent would have called me.” Grans gently tugged on Mia’s arm to get her walking again.
“But how . . .” Then she got it. Trent had dropped off Christina, then returned to the school to stand guard. Like a Knight of the Round Table. Perfect. Okay, maybe a bit too perfect, but right now Mia didn’t care. She slid into the front seat. When her grandmother climbed in next to her Mia smiled. “Any way we could stop by Majors for some doughnuts? I’m starving and don’t feel like cooking.”
Grans nodded. “That could be arranged. But, dear, maybe I should drop you off at the house and go back myself.”
Mia frowned. “Why? It’s on the way to the school.”
Grans pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the recently plowed street. “Do you really want Trent to see you like this?”
“Why does it matter? We’re not dating or anything.”
Grans slowly angled the car on the slick roads. “Just keep telling yourself that.”
CHAPTER 9
They made a quick stop to pick up Christina, then to Majors for junk food and other supplies, including a bottle of Tylenol. Grans ushered them quickly in and out, and the women actually sighed when they returned to the car, sans a Trent sighting. Mia dry swallowed three pills to cure a headache that had started just about the third time Grans mentioned the way Trent’s hair curled over his ears.
Mia glanced at Christina, who sat in the back seat. She had a mile-wide grin. “Stop it, both of you.”
Christina shrugged, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I’m not dating anyone. I’ve got a business to build. And an inspector to track down.” Mia eyed the bag of chips in the grocery bags next to Christina. “The only thing I’m doing for the next two days is sleeping and reading.”