by Meg Muldoon
I gulped hard, thinking about that night in the kitchen and how close I’d been to using it for Aunt Viv.
How close I’d been to using it on Steve, for that matter, over the last few months.
“But you see, I didn’t know any of that back then. Or maybe deep down I did, but didn’t care. I was in such a state, I’m ashamed to say. All I knew was that I wanted Jerry back and was willing to do anything to get him. So one day, I stole the ruby elixir from your grandma’s greenhouse, and I used it to cast a love spell on Jerry.”
“What… what happened then?” I said.
My voice was trembling.
“Magic,” she said, somberly. “Both good and bad.”
She looked out the passenger window.
“That night, I heard the sound of pebbles hitting my window pane. I stepped out on the widow’s walk, and who should be below, looking up like a modern-day Romeo, but Jerry Ashby himself.”
Those bright pink lips of hers turned up, then just as quickly turned down at the corners.
“He said that he’d made a big mistake by dumping me for Penelope. He said he loved me, and only me. And that he wasn’t going to leave the house until I took him back.”
She paused.
“What happened then?” I asked.
“I was overjoyed. All my dreams had just come true. The love of my life had come back to me. So I helped him up to my balcony and through the window into my room and we spent one wild and passionate night together. A night I’ll never forget.”
She pulled her hair back, retying her handkerchief around the long blond locks to keep them from flying all over the place. But I caught her eyes before she pulled them away and looked up ahead at the road.
There were tears welling up.
“You really loved him,” I said.
“I really did.”
“So what happened next?”
“Well, it was a beautiful night. But then in the morning, he woke up and started screaming.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Screaming?”
“Yes. Loud, horrible screams. He woke your mom up down the hall, and would have woken up your grandma too if I hadn’t put my hand over his mouth. You see, Jerry didn’t have any recollection of the night before. He didn’t remember telling me how much he loved me. The last thing he remembered was being at his house, watching a football game in his reclining chair. And somehow, he’d ended up in bed with me, betraying his fiancée.”
She shook her head.
“I was so young and stupid then. I was so sure that Jerry was my soulmate, but I was wrong. That’s why the magic didn’t stick. That’s what the universe knew before I intervened. Of course, it didn’t occur to me that I was doing anything wrong. But I now know that I was. You see, if it was meant to be, it would have worked. But if you’re going against the plans of the universe, it’s a very temporary situation.”
“So Jerry wasn’t your soulmate?” I asked, turning off the highway and onto Seal Point Drive.
“Nope. I think he belonged with Penelope, if you want to know the truth. And I think if she hadn’t been killed, they probably would have ended up back together. All I know is that he certainly didn’t belong with me. I had to learn that the hard way.”
“Well, what happened after…”
I shot a glance up in the rearview mirror, noticing a shiny lime-green car that appeared behind us. A young woman with dark hair and big movie-star sunglasses was at the wheel.
“Well,” Aunt Viv continued. “I was devastated and Jerry, being the honest person that he was, told Penelope about the whole thing. She almost broke it off with him, from what I heard, but then decided that me and my witchy ways must have hypnotized Jerry into my bed. Which was more or less the truth. They got married that next summer, and needless to say, I didn’t get a wedding invitation.”
She looked out the window again, her eyes following the rooftops of houses as we rolled through our neighborhood.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Viv.”
“Oh, hon, that wasn’t even the bad part. Remember how I said a witch will pay a price when using that powerful elixir? Well, for over 40 years I’ve been paying it. Right after Jerry, I noticed when I started dating again that I had trouble attracting men. You see, I was lovely back then. Probably as beautiful as a young Stevie Nicks. I should have been one of the most sought-after bachelorettes on the whole Oregon Coast – second only to your beautiful mother of course.”
She shook her head.
“But every time I tried to flirt with a man or get close to one that interested me, they always pulled away. I mean, it got to the point where I was practically throwing myself at them, dressing provocatively and flirting shamelessly, but not a single one would give me the time of day. So I asked your grandma about that ruby potion, and you know what I found out?”
“What?” I asked.
That sandpapery feeling I’d had at the back of my throat earlier when Aunt Viv mentioned the ruby bottle came back in full force.
“That if you use that elixir and do a spell like the one I did on someone you don’t belong with, and you end up hurting someone, then the spell – having nowhere else to go – comes back to you four-fold in a negative way.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” I said.
“It means, darling, that I’ve been alone for a very, very long time. Watching my youth slip away and never once having another man fall in love with me.”
“But what about Doug?” I asked.
Doug Gordon, the owner of a nursery on Seabreeze Boulevard, had been an on-again off-again boyfriend of Aunt Viv’s.
“He was on the rebound after his wife left him. And besides, we were only friends. It never was love.”
I shook my head.
“Aunt Viv, this is all so sad.”
She let out a sigh.
“I won’t lie – I was depressed about it for a good many years. But then, I slowly began to see that maybe this had all happened for a reason. I mean, I became a much better witch during this time because I didn’t have a husband or family. And you know, I always had you, Ginger. You’ve been just like a daughter to me.”
She looked over with a loving expression, and for the second time that day I felt tears well up in my eyes.
“You’ve been just like a mom,” I said.
She reached over and pinched my cheek.
“See? It was all meant to be. I’ve just tried to enjoy my life and all the richness of it over the years. Which with you has been more than enough for this crazy lady to live happily ever after.”
I pulled up to our house and then killed the engine. I wiped at my eyes, holding back some more tears that were threatening to slide down my cheeks.
It just seemed so surreal – in a good way. Aunt Viv finally home in her beautiful Victorian house, right where she belonged.
“But you said that the curse has lifted,” I said. “How do you know it’s broken now?”
She smiled one of those knowing Aunt Viv smiles.
“Because I saw it in a vision before Penelope died,” she said. “That’s how I knew this was all going to work out just fine.”
My aunt turned toward the Victorian’s porch, nodding. I suddenly noticed that there was a man in a suit with a bushy mustache standing by the door.
Agent William Graybeal had a large bouquet of red roses in his hands.
My face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“I saw this very moment, hon,” Aunt Viv said, turning back to me. “And let me tell you, he is going to love my salmon chowder.”
Chapter 66
After putting the ruby elixir back in the garden shed where it belonged, I headed to downtown Broomfield Bay.
Aunt Viv was right – Agent Graybeal did love her salmon chowder. And if I was a betting woman like she was, the chowder wasn’t the only thing he loved, either. Though he kept a calm, collected, and friendly demeanor throughout dinner, I could see plain enough the way he gazed at Aunt Viv when sh
e wasn’t looking. It was the look of someone who had fallen, and fallen hard.
It tickled me pink that at the age of 66, Aunt Viv had finally found true love.
Shortly after dinner, I’d cleared out of the house. The two love birds could use some time to themselves. And besides, I had a couple important things to do.
I walked for a little ways, winding through the back neighborhoods of Old Broomfield before coming up to downtown. I turned on Second Street and walked toward the building.
The streets were mostly empty – but I knew that soon enough, that would change. It was officially summer now and Broomfield Bay would soon be slammed with the tourist rush. Couples and families, here to enjoy and explore the peace, beauty, relaxation, and good food the coast had to offer. The days would be long and sunny and even though there would be a lot of work in it for me, I found that I was actually looking forward to the summer.
Like the beach after high tide, I felt renewed somehow. Fresh. Like I was turning over a new leaf.
And I couldn’t wait for what lay ahead.
I got to the blue and white storefront and slid my hand into my purse, feeling the envelope between my fingers.
I pulled it out and stared at it for a long, long moment.
I ran a finger over his name and new address.
It hadn’t been easy signing the papers.
But like most things in life, you sometimes had to say goodbye in order to make room for something better.
I took in a deep breath, then pushed the envelope into the USPS after-hours drop box, watching it slide down the metal shaft.
“I wish nothing but happiness for you, Steve,” I whispered.
I was surprised, too, that I meant every word of it.
Chapter 67
I walked along the beach as the sun slipped into the ocean, casting an orange summery glow over the gentle Pacific waves.
I was thinking about the day that Steve left me.
How I’d been downstairs while he was packing, looking at the ruby potion. The potion that had the power to make him run back into my arms. How I was so close to using it. How I’d listened to him pack, to the sound of that hanger bouncing off the wood floor. Of him calling out, telling me he was leaving.
I’d been so distraught that day. So fearful and full of sorrow – I almost did something stupid. Something that would have had a lifetime of ramifications for me, only I hadn’t known that at the time.
But something had stopped me from using the ruby bottle. Then, and again the night at the café when Lilliana Marsh tried to kill me.
Something had been looking out for me.
I wasn’t sure if it was Sherwood, God, or the universe, like Aunt Viv would say.
But I had been one lucky witch.
I smiled, watching the sky turn to shades of gold and pink in the first real sunset of summer.
I walked along the dry sand until it turned wet, stopping just short of the old rusted ship, sitting there on the beach, looking like a big lonely giant. I paused, standing in the shadow of the Peter Alexander, watching the sky change from pinks and golds to magnificent shades of red. A fresh breeze blew in off the ocean, pushing through my hair.
I thought about Eddie.
There was still so much uncertainty. I didn’t know when he would be back. I didn’t know what awaited us in this next chapter. I didn’t know, either, if we could make it work.
But I did know one thing.
I would never let anything come between us.
Not ever again.
Not accidents. Not time. Not distance.
Not regret.
Because I knew he was right.
I knew that we belonged together.
The ship glowed in the brilliant sunset, and I suddenly noticed something in one of the small rusted-out alcoves of the hull.
I walked up to it, standing on my tiptoes to bring it down.
My heart fluttered.
It was a single purple tulip in a perfect stage of bloom.
Epilogue
Sage kept her eyes on the road and her foot steady on the pedal of the lime-green Mustang as she navigated the many curves of the windy coastal highway.
She tugged at the elastic band keeping her hair in a high ponytail. Her long, lustrous black locks cascaded down her back and blew around in the salty wind coming through the windows.
She felt fantastic.
She was glad to finally be alone in the car, away from him and his nonstop talking.
He was beginning to drive her insane.
What had Ginger ever even seen in a toad like that?
Obviously, Ginger wasn’t the sharpest wand in the academy. She was clearly far too sentimental and had no backbone, among other flaws. But still, she was a witch from a strong lineage. She could do so much better.
At least she hadn’t changed her name to his.
When Sage first started implementing her plan, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But she hadn’t bet on Steve being such a whiny, needy, weak-minded, emotionally-stunted fool, and now regretted including him.
Love spells could often change a person’s personality, but it was obvious that Steve was weak to begin with. Otherwise the spell wouldn’t have worked so well. And now that he had left Ginger and was in love with her, she couldn’t help but resent that weakness.
More than anything, Sage hated weak men.
As she drove, she stared out at the sparkling Pacific, smiling at the thought of pushing him off a cliff and into the sea.
Plans, after all, should always be flexible.
But while the image entertained her, she knew she couldn’t rid herself of Steve just yet. He had yet to serve his true purpose.
She navigated a sharp curve, and then she found her eyes on the water again.
The Pacific was different.
Until these last few months, all she’d known of waterways was the lazy, mucky brown waters of the Mississippi, and the brackish Gulf of Mexico that it emptied out into. Though the Pacific had a cold, hard beauty of its own, she missed the waters of where she came from more and more with each passing day. She didn’t like the indifference of the air here, either. She felt as though she couldn’t trust it. Not like the humid air of Louisiana, that always clung to you, wrapping you in its sticky warmth, always letting you know it was there. Letting you know you had a place.
“Soon, baby doll,” she said, glancing up into the rearview mirror, looking into her own deep green eyes and admiring them. “We’ll get out of this place soon. Get what we need and then get back home to where we belong.”
She pawed at the brakes, hooking a wide, fast right off the highway without signaling. A honk sounded from behind her, sustaining for a long way as the car continued on down the road. She said a few words, causing the car to lose air in all four tires at once, before driving down the street.
She smiled.
She drove the now-familiar road, hooking another right. The street curved along the coast, and she followed it until she arrived at the old Victorian.
She parked across the street from the house, studying it a long moment. Through one of the windows, she saw Vivian twirling with a mop. The old woman mouthed the words to some song, dressed in black rags, looking foolish as usual.
Judging by the stack of records that Sage had broken when she’d ransacked the house, it was nearly a sure bet that Vivian was singing along to Stevie Nicks.
Sage rolled her eyes.
What a ridiculous cliché her mother was.
Witch, please.
There was no sign of her cousin.
But that was okay.
Sage could wait.
She was good at waiting. She’d been waiting 44 long years for this chance. One more afternoon wouldn’t make a difference one way or another.
She caught her reflection in the rearview mirror again. The youth spell was holding beautifully, and she practically looked like a teenager.
She thought about the moment when she would finall
y meet her family in person.
They wouldn’t even see her coming.
But soon, they would come to know her.
And with the help of that red bottle, soon everyone would come to know her.
Sage of the South.
“Laissez les bon temps rouler,” she said, watching Vivian with a sinister smile.
Let the good times roll.
The End
Look for Ginger Snaps: A Witches of Broomfield Bay Mystery (Book 2) in Fall 2017
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