by P. S. Wright
apologize friend rat. I have dragged you away from your home and now you and I will perish together here in the desert."
Now it was that the oriole, flying back to his nest after consulting with Lucas Saguaro, spotted the shuffling tree and recognized it as Joshua Tree. She alit upon one of his trembling and stripped limbs. "Why do you venture so far from your home Joshua, who was so constant on the mountain?"
"I must travel to the home of the winter witch to give her my apology and plead for the humans of mountain. But though my friend, this rat, knows the way, we will not make it without water to sustain us."
The oriole remembered how Joshua had sheltered the Saguaro and provided her with seeds from his last flowering. "I will fly ahead and seek assistance for you."
It was not long before the oriole located Carnegiea, nearly arrived home after her long ordeal. When the bird had relayed the information about Joshua Tree, she turned and headed back out to intercept him. She found him struggling through the shifting dunes, barely able to remain upright against every passing wind. Most of his buds had dried and fallen away. She reached her arms out to the Agave youth. "Oh Joshua, you must return to your home and the cooler mountains, the sturdy rocks about which you can wrap your roots, and the winter run off that will sustain you through the coming hard summer."
Joshua spoke in a hoarse voice, like the wings of moths among dried leaves. "I cannot turn back, Carnegiea, the true and brave. You did not leave the mountain. I have brought mischief upon my friends and must atone for it."
"Then I will come with you, my constant friend." Carnegiea held fast to her friend as they made their way across the burning desert. She held him fast to the ground so that he would not blow away and provided him moisture from her own reserves when he would have perished.
At long last the friends arrived at the home of the winter witch. Mistress When's abode sat astride the horizon, one half always in daylight, one half always in night. Though this would be impossible for any man or plant or animal, it was natural for the witch. Once her home was found, the traveling companions would have to find a way to anchor it in place in order to enter it. The wood rat explained, "The horizon stays still for nobody, not even the winter witch. So Mistress When's house and gardens move with it. While it looks to be standing still from a distance, when you approach it, you will see it moves further away. But you can anchor it in a way, so you can enter it. Once you enter, you will move along with it. You must be careful where you exit when you go, else you will find yourself in the wrong time zone!" Joshua and Carnegiea followed the rat's instructions and positioned themselves so that the sun's rays cast long shadows, crossing the path of the oncoming home of the winter witch. As the shadow fell across the witch's door, the rat called, "Hurry, jump aboard now. The sun moves too and your shadow will not hold it long."
Now the couple found themselves on the painted green lawn of the powerful Mistress When. Carnegiea tried to push her taproot into the soil but met solid resistance. "What is this? It feels as hard as the rock!"
The rat shrugged. "Everything here is frozen. Mistress When is frozen in time as is her home and gardens. The grass is only painted green. The hedgerow is only an ice sculpture painted in green and the roses painted on. Do not mention it to her though. She is very sensitive to the limitations she must live under."
Carnegiea and Joshua knocked at the door of the winter witch. The door opened to a woman who's grey streaked hair did not match her handsome face of middlesome years. She seemed a simple woman who wore no makeup and had slippers on her feet. She dried her hands on her apron as she took in the strange friends standing on her doorstep. "Carnegiea isn't it? Your hum reached my ears. I must say I was confused."
This certainly was not what the cactus girl had expected to hear. "Oh, but you restored Joshua Tree's village folk to their proper form! Thank you."
Mistress When's eyebrows shot right up into her hairline. "I? Never did. Maybe you mean one of my sisters?"
"But I hummed the oriole's song. When we came down the mountain, the people were trees once more."
"That doesn't sound like something I would do."
Joshua's shame grew. The witch would not admit to curing a people whom she had actually cursed. Now Joshua was forced to admit his part in this mischief in front of Carnegiea. "Mistress When, thinking myself quite clever, I deceived Carnegiea into believing my human friends were actually my kin, who had been cursed by you. When she hummed to you and asked you to restore them, and you answered her request, you were actually transforming them for the first time." To Carnegiea he said, "I am sorry for playing tricks on you and sending you on a foolish and dangerous quest."
The winter witch shook her head. "You are both foolish. I never turned them into humans, nor turned them into trees. I've no idea who has bewitched your friends, but it was not me. Frankly, I think it serves you right. Joshua, you should not practice to deceive others in a way that might do them harm. And Carnegiea, were you not traveling to the mountain, where you did not belong, in order to enlist the Pines in an alliance against the desert Agaves? You should not go looking to sew interspecies hatred. Your human friends are foolish indeed to have friends such as you."
The two youngsters looked one to the other. They realized the witch was right, and also fully appreciated their situation for what it was for the first time. Joshua truly and deeply regretted all he had done. He begged the winter witch to intercede on their behalf with whichever of her sisters had cursed his friends the humans. Her heart was not as cold as her lands, but nearly so. Only one thing warmed her heart.
"If you can provide to me one blossom which is more beautiful than any other in my gardens, then will I help your friends. But if you fail, you shall be planted in my yard to freeze and I will paint you and keep you forever."
Joshua sighed. His pods were shriveled and dry as the festive peppers the humans adorned their entryways with. But he had little choice but to accept the witch's offer. "I must drink. Without the rain, my blossoms will not bloom."
"You had best not be trying to trick me, Joshua. I am not a young cactus of barely fifty. And I do not like being fooled." The winter witch spread her fingers, blocking part of the sky. A shadow grew up from he outspread hands and took to the air. The shadow grew and took on the form of a cloud. The cloud drop fat drops of freezing cold rain.
Joshua turned his leaves upward and caught the rain, channeling it toward his crown and down into his core. But it was too little, too late. His pods dropped soggy and lifeless onto the frozen, painted, ground.
"Oh Joshua, I'm sorry." Carnegiea lamented. Then to the Mistress When she asked, "Is there nothing I can do?"
"Produce me a flower, more beautiful and rare than any in my collection, and I will release you both. But if you fail to, I will make you both part of my gardens."
"How long do I have, before I must deliver on this promise? I am young yet, and have never bloomed."
The winter witch considered. "One day and one night should be enough. You are mature and healthy. Produce for me, or do not waste my time." With this the witch shut her door to the travelers.
Joshua said, "You should not have done that, Carnegiea. You did not owe me that and now you will be frozen too."
"Do you have so little faith in my flower? The Saguaro have always produced the most beautiful white and yellow blossoms. You will see."
Joshua sighed. "Yes, but the winter witch is only giving you one day and one night. When day comes tomorrow, if you've not produced, you will be frozen. And don't forget, Mistress When's greenhouse is home to Datura, the most lovely and perfect of the witches' weeds."
Here the wood rat interrupted. "Wait, wait, do not give up hope. The winter witch has actually given you a lifetime. Listen, I told you the witch and her home are frozen in time, one half always in day, and one half always in night. Weren't you listening? So long as you do not cross from one to the other side, a day and a night will not pass. So when you are ready, you can produce your single
bloom, then cross sides and call the witch."
Now the two travelers rejoiced as they saw the way of it. Carnegiea and Joshua spent many hours in their single day soaking up the sun on the daylight side and drawing moisture from the winter witch's irrigation ditches. They paid a visit to her greenhouse and peered in at the haughty Datura. As they gazed at the deadly flower, she preened and showed off her gaudy purple skirts which she tossed high over her head. None were as spoiled and jealous as Datura. Those who crossed her needed to fear her murderous temper. More than one competitor for her mistress' affection had been poisoned. Joshua doubted his ability to compete with such beauty. But Carnegiea grew more confident as she watched the juvenile behavior of the beauty queen. "She is pretty but really quite ordinary. She primps and preens because she must. Real beauty will show, you'll see." Carnegiea said.
Soon both Agave and Saguaro had produced their pods and were ready to bloom. Linking arms, they traipsed through the painted grass to the night side of the winter witch's abode. They fell asleep staring at the stars and wondering if the morning would see them freed or frozen.
Carnegiea awoke to the sight of hundreds of tiny moths, flitting in the starlight. "Oh they are so pretty!" She could hardly keep from exclaiming and startling
