“I called to tell you am a witch.”
“You missed me that much huh, did you fly out here with a broom or something”
He’d probably laugh at his own quip. She envisaged that, smiling to her speculation and wiping away sad tears. Everyone she’d tell may probably think it’s a stupid joke. Thinking about it, she had not believed it herself, so how would they.
Liz would definitely go nuts by hypothesis of her real dream, or whatever that was. Her mother hated witchcraft so much that she may end up taking on some new demented hobby. And lucky or unlucky her, she had no boyfriend. Literally her social life was practically empty. I need some new pack of friends, she decided and another small doleful smile crawled up on her face.
The past hours had been few but relatively powerful enough to change her life forever.
With just one decision, her life was bound to change for the undefined.
Zoe suddenly felt famished, her stomach insisting with a grumble. She dragged her feet to the refrigerator and pulled out a can of milk and was in luck to find some cookies. Liz’s favorite. Liz would throw a fit if she found out, but at that particular moment she was too hungry to care.
Zoe’s face was crestfallen as she stood on the marble kitchen heating the milk in the microwave. She busied her mind with the same fashion magazine she had been skimming through the previous afternoon. When the microwave alarm rung, she grabbed her hot mug and sat on the kitchen table guttling the cookies.
After stuffing her stomach with milk and cookies, she felt an urge to get comfortable. The custom made couch was inviting. If not a friend then a couch would do, the thought brought a smile to her misery. She shifted from the kitchen to the seating room and perched her bleak self to the couch. Her cozy snuggle transmuted her fatigue mind to a sleepy head.
She had dreamless three hours sleep.
A warm prod brought her back to the life she was not content with just yet. She rubbed her eyes as she looked at the lovely never aging Margaret Donaldson. Mrs. Donaldson was a blonde. Her green eyes were watching her intently and her brows were pulled together with worry. She had a black beautiful dress on, something Zoe figured must have been the last night outfit.
“Zoe dear are you okay? Why are you sleeping on the couch?” she asked
“Nooo… no it’s fine. I just passed out from drinking milk.” she chuckled and collected herself from the couch.
“Oh my God you got me so worried, I was beginning to imagine you had a fight with Lisbeth and she made you sleep there.”
“Oh no, It’s nothing like that.” She assured with a smile.
“Thank Goodness. I just got in and it looked pretty strange. Well, let me go freshen up and I will come down to catch up and make coffee” she sounded delightful.
“No thank you, and well am glad you woke me, I have to get home very early. If you don’t mind could you please let Liz know am gone when she wakes up. I just have a couple of errands I -” she replied a little too desperately.
“Sure, Are you sure you are okay” she disrupted her, noticing her uneasiness.
“Uhhuh” she replied calmly, not sure if she was really okay.
Zoe followed her with her eyes as she ascended the stairs, cursing her restlessness in the process. She then followed her lead to Liz’s room. Inside it, she found Liz dead asleep. Without wasting time, she grabbed her keys and purse then fled.
She plugged her iphone to the car radio and played it loud enough with intentions of not hearing her thoughts.
She arrived home, and parked her car but couldn’t come out of it. She stared past the house frame trying to plan a strategy. If she got out of the car she had to know what she would go about to keep her mouth shut: And how she would do it for the mean time. It would be tough to hide things from Carol, other than Liz she had always been a great confidant. She had gotten used to saying little white lies. But the kind of lie she was keeping now was eating her up. She tried comforting her conscious by telling herself that she was not lying but keeping a secret life she had not yet come to terms with.
It may come a time that she will be ready to tell them. To explain and answer all the questions she could not answer them at that moment. Questions she could barely answer herself.
Zoe dabbed her head on the sterling wheel purposely after a thought brought a red light into her mind. The biggest problem she was yet to solve, was finding out if she was what they thought she was. If she was gifted or ungifted, a weary smile formed on her lips for the way they neutralized the real uneasy scary words to casual bearable syllables.
She sat upright on her driver’s seat, with her chin lifted and her eyes closed. She breathed in as long as she could and then opened her car door ready for an adventurous secret life.
“Wow you really look Good in it.” Carol called out interrupting her thoughts.
She turned to see her mother standing on the foyer, grinning at her with an apron and cooking glove on her hands. Zack came out of nowhere and raced straight to the car.
“Morning guys.” she greeted.
Carol smiled “Morning darling.”
“It is a good morning.” Zack replied from behind her.
“It’s cool hah.” she told Zack rather than the intended question it was supposed to be.
“Kinda.” he said, inspecting the ride thoroughly.
“Really, that’s all you got. I won’t do you any favors with it.” she kidded.
Zack’s eyes didn’t leave the car “You are incapable of mean.” he said.
“Oh really, I will gladly prove you wrong.” she replied
“You’ll teach me how to drive though?” he bamboozled.
“Sure no worries.” she smiled, and bought the prank.
“You see, told yah.” he jeered.
“Get out of here, before I strangle you.” she faked anger while watching him walk back into the house with a victorious shrug.
When Zack was out of the picture, she was left with her mother by the foyer.
“What were you cooking” she asked loving and extending the distraction she was getting from here unwanted thoughts.
“Baking cookies, Is everything okay honey, you looked distracted.”
She genuinely smiled at the idea of cookies, but when the subject was suddenly changed, so did her smile.
“Am fine mom.” she faked a smile.
“You can tell me darling. I’m your mother and I saw the look you had in your car and it didn’t look good Zoe.”
“Really mom, am just tired, It’s all good.” she insisted, hating on the nag.
“I don’t believe you, I know what I saw dear, did you argue with Liz-”
“Really mom I’m okay, quit it will you.” she snapped then bolted to the door.
Carol stared at her back with disbelief. She shrugged her shoulders and went back inside warily.
Zoe opened her door and hated how she snapped but her guilt was acting up. It was either that or her mother’s nagging would have caused her the bitter truth. A revelation that was not safe for either of them to ponder at the moment. The other possibility that could occur was for her to vent her frustrations on Carol. She slammed her bedroom door and locked it behind her.
A groan escaped her throat at the sight of Josh on her wall. She made an instant note in her mind to bury her anger on tearing the poster apart.
Her raged hands saw to it that the poster was torn to incredibly small pieces, one could almost refer the end result to a machinery work. With all the pulverized pieces on her bed, she took joy in taking pictures of her mosaic.
Zoe looked around her room and adjudicated that she needed some more distraction. The activities that shot up in her mind were cleaning her room, taking a shower, doing her nails and then later on help Carol in the kitchen.
Her routine begun from the laundry room. She took a broom, a cobweb brush and other cleaning facilities. When she passed the kitchen to her room Carol eyed her suspiciously.
Zoe could feel her gaze all
over her back but she wasn’t about to start any dialogue that would obviously lead to a guilt trip. She let her drown in her multiple assumptions or whatever conclusion she was drawing in her head as she played cleaning.
She strolled to her room, locked her door and played some loud music to keep her away from mentations. She walked to the mirror and removed her amulet carefully then placed it on her dresser.
Just before she could let her dubious self start obsessing over her fate, she grabbed her broom and started dancing to the ear blocking music. She swept her messes, changed her sheets and covers to dull pink ones and did some rearrangement.
That afternoon Zoe stood in the shower longer than usual, straining not to think of her alien world but shifting her thoughts to a new project, taking random pictures. A to do she assigned for the next day.
Feeling fresh and covered up with a t-shirt and shorts she walked to the kitchen clouded with a maze of picture taking scenarios.
If someone stayed at their home for a weekend, she or he would be insane not to think her mother was once upon a time chef. It was as if she could not leave the kitchen.
She looked at the cookie jar, it was a quarter fool. That was not right.
“Mom, weren’t you baking cookies this morning?”
“I was,” she gave her a second’s glace then to the jar “oh you wondering how fast they are gone? It’s all your brother’s doing, he has gone to meet some friends and I think they are having a bakery party of some sort.”
“A bakery party mom, really?” do eight yr old boys have bakery party’s? Did she wake up in another century?
“Why else would he go running with half the jar? I told him next weekend I will teach him how to bake so that he would start entertaining his friends on his own expense.”
Zoe chuckled “good luck with that” she said biting a cookie.
“He begged me yesterday to bake cookies. He then told me that he and his friends are going battle on video games and everyone was to bring some baked snacks.” she defended.
“So you decided to name it bakery party for him.” Zoe probed, walking to the sink.
“Am glad he’s not around to hear that.” Carol confessed looking very relieved.
“Do you need any help with that?” Zoe asked looking at the elbow macaroni Carol was about to boil while she helped rinsing dishes on the sink.
“No it’s okay I’m almost done anyway.” she declined. Zoe wanted to give it a try though she was certain she would not accept. She was so obsessive about her cooking, never liked someone else’s hand destroy her magic in the making.
“So is Liz okay?” she asked.
“Why?” why shouldn’t she be? Zoe asked herself.
“The headache? Is she okay?” Carol reminded.
Zoe grimaced at her soapy dishes “Ooh yeah. Yeah, she is great.” She replied then bit her lower lip. It was stupid to forget the first rule of a liar. Never forget the lie you told. She had been in a total oblivion with that one.
“That’s good, the poor thing sounded really sick.” carol said sounding hapless.
Zoe bit her lips again, feeling bad how concerned she was for the white lie.
“Did you make her soup?” Carol pushed.
Zoe groaned inwardly, this is too much she thought.
“I didn’t, she didn’t want it. She doesn’t like soup.” she piled up her lies. Then she closed her eyes counting the many lies she had just spit.
“Mom I’m sorry about snapping earlier.” she pleaded ruefully. And hoped it was a dilution to her lies.
Carol stopped grazing cheese and turned to face her.
“It’s all right honey. I understand, sometimes I forget how my own mood swigs make me.” She looked like she was about to add something but stopped herself.
Zoe breathed, glad to have stopped herself from jamming up more reasons for her to feel miserable.
The afternoon passed unnoticed with a cloudy gray sky and furious chanting birds. It was already dusk and Zack returned home with an empty container and a happy face. Zoe and Carol were both settled in the sitting room. Zoe was reading her historical romance novel and Carol was watching a show in the food network.
“Share the smile honey” Carol poked, eyeing her son interestedly.
“My cookies were the best, Jared’s cake was salty, Kyle’s muffins tasted funny and Billy also had cookies but they were not as crunchy as mine. So I won the game and my cookies were the best.” He boasted, heading for an arm chair sofa nearest to the TV set.
“Shouldn’t you be thanking me for our victory?” Carol asked.
“We are partner’s mom. I won the game, you won the baking so we should thank each other”
“Okay champ, thank you.” she smiled and beamed at him, then restored her eyes on the TV.
“Mom?”
“Yes darling.” she replied, her eyes still on the TV.
“Can we go to the movies this coming Friday?” Zack half asked half begged.
“Yes dear, what kinda movie is showing?”
“There is this new action movie, Kyle told me about and it sounds really great.”
“We can arrange that, will you be free Zoe?” Carol said her eyes on Zoe.
“I hope so.” Zoe said uncertainly.
“So family date it is” Carol announced, ignoring Zoe’s uncertainty.
“Eeew mom, what happened to movie night” Zack made a face.
“Family date sounds cooler.” Carol defended innocently.
“No it doesn’t.” he disagreed.
“Zack you know why mom is calling it family date?” Zoe pitched in.
“No why?”
“She misses dates.”
“Is that true mom?” Zack inquired with a half a wink.
Carol’s cheeks flushed. “Don’t you two gang up on me. Call it whatever you want, but am calling it Family date”
“And mom please stop calling me champ, it’s kiddish” Zack muttered.
“The last time I checked you were a kid.”
“Well check again. Am not a toddler, I can take care of myself.” he declared sternly.
Zoe giggled soundlessly, understanding what Zack was going through from her kiddo experience with Joe, only difference was that he really was a kid and she wasn’t. Zoe felt drained and walked to the kitchen for some water, while in the kitchen her mother had switched channels and the evening news was on. She heard a voice that made her chock out the water. She then raced out of the kitchen to the sitting room. Just after she arrived Mr. Longwood’s news was done.
“Mom, do you know who is the bold headed man.”
“Not really, he is something Longwood a gold tycoon. Why?”
“Really? a gold tycoon?” she asked surprised. That was something she would have never guessed, a witch and a tycoon. No wonder his face was so familiar.
“Yes, he was just broadcasted to explain the rise of gold prices, why are you so interested”
“Nothing, I thought I saw him somewhere.” and she did, It was nowhere near gold mines.
“Could be, but I bet it’s the television, where else would you see such a man.”
“It sure is.” she replied absently.
5. UNBELIVABLE
The night was fondle. At ten pm her windows were drizzling with consoling raindrops. Zoe was whole heartedly denying herself the prerogative to assess her coded imminent situation. She resigned to reading and sipping leftover concord wine as if nothing unusual was going on in her life. With covers rolled up to her waist, and knees raised to support her novel, her eyes were intense on the quondam pages of her book. Simultaneously, her right hand held on to a quarter full wine glass.
With all that action going steady, Zoe was in no position to hear her mother’s stealth entrance into her private space.
She wasn’t sure if it was the look on her face, caught in the act phenomenon or just plain embarrassment that caused her to hide the wine glass even though she was certain Carol had seen everything.
She was mortified as her mother watched her with a satisfied grin on her face. Of which was a fairly odd reaction.
“You think I didn’t know you helped me out once in a while?” she asked going over to her.
Zoe shrugged, not meeting her eyes as Carol sat beside her on her bed.
“I know you’ve been stealing my wine since you were fifteen.” She tortured some more.
Zoe wished she could have the witchy power to rub off her mother’s memory then and there. Her jaw dropped while her mind flashed back to three years ago.
“How…how did you know about that?”
Carol giggled, “Am so glad you always have a way to forget am a mom and teacher, its healthy for the both of us.”
“I may not be a counselor or anything, but I was fifteen and your wine was always alcoholic. So why didn’t you stop me.” At least that’s how parental guidance was supposed to be she thought.
“You maybe a lot like your father, but you have my stubbornness too. I knew you were doing it to piss me off because I didn’t like that boy…. Chris.”
At the mention of Chris Zoe felt chagrined.
“And I knew your father’s graceful genes would kick in your teenage mind somehow. I would have reprimanded you if I saw the need to, but you didn’t give me a reason to get alarmed. I also did a lot of mixing up the wines bottles with non alcoholic liquor. In the meantime I figured you will get tired of playing stubborn games with me. And besides am grateful you don’t overdo the drinking because I have no record of alcoholics in this family, but-”
“Mom seriously, please don’t…we were done with the ‘being responsible’ talks on my birthday, can we talk about something else like why you came in my room in the first place.”
“I don’t want you to be reckless, that’s all.” She pressed.
“I know mom, and I am trying not to be. Jeez you are making me feel like am twelve.”
Carols eyes twinkled “you have grown so fast it’s scary.” she felt the emotions in her voice and by the lazy way Carol’s finger tugged Zoe’s hair over her ear.
If she let this trend proceed, they might all be getting emotional in less than a minute. The mention of Chris had brought up memories and questions she needed answered.
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