Be Careful What You Witch For

by Hoobler, Thomas

  She knew what was wrong: Alex’s sudden affection wasn’t real. Or at least, she didn’t think it was. But Olivia couldn’t exactly go back to Eva’s house and ask. Eva would only offer her a cup of her special tea and then everything would look just wonderful.

  Olivia unlocked the ground floor entrance door and prepared to start thinking of Alex every time Aunt Tilda tried to read her mind. That wouldn’t be difficult, because there was so much more about Alex to occupy her mind now.

  But Tilda wasn’t even there. She had left a note on the kitchen table: GONE TO DO SOME ERRANDS. EAT ANYTHING YOU FIND IN THE PANTRY.

  Olivia read it twice and looked up, thinking of all the rooms in the house. She couldn’t recall ever being left alone anywhere before. At home, there was always a cook and housekeeper and the chauffeurs and so on. Then she jumped. Something furry had rubbed across her leg.

  Julius, of course. Olivia was never truly alone as long as Aunt Tilda’s watch-cat was roaming around. She opened the pantry door and looked at the shelves. Plenty of fruit, from fresh oranges and apples to dried figs and raisins. Potatoes, onions, mushrooms, garlic. Cans of cat food. Hmmm.

  She showed the cans to Julius. They had different colored labels, depending on what was inside. He looked them over and then put his paw on one with a purple label. Olivia read the contents: liver and bacon. Yuck. She shrugged. Well, whatever turns you on.

  She found a can opener and soon the tasty aroma of liver and bacon hit her nostrils. Must be fish liver, she thought. She waved the can at Julius and started for the door to the garden. But he didn’t follow.

  “What’s wrong now?” she asked. “It’s nice outside. You’ll enjoy it.”

  Julius walked to the corner of the kitchen where his dish was. It was empty. He looked at it and back to Olivia.

  She got the idea. “Okay, Julius, I wouldn’t eat out of a can with nasty sharp edges either.” She picked up the dish and carried it outside with her. This time, Julius followed.

  There were paving stones forming a flat area right outside. The garden itself, with all kinds of plants Olivia didn’t recognize, was a little farther back. At her feet, Olivia could see a large five-pointed star marked in chalk on the stones. This was where the people had been singing the night before. She noticed that Julius avoided the star, walking carefully around its edge.

  As an experiment Olivia set the dish down inside the star and dumped the cat food into it. She waited. So did Julius. No takers.

  It was creepy enough that Olivia herself started to feel nervous standing inside the star. She picked up the dish and moved it out so Julius could reach it. Right away, he started eating. And Olivia walked backward into the house and shut the door. Tightly.

  She had no idea how long Aunt Tilda would be gone, so she hurried upstairs to the floor where Tilda’s bedroom was. There was a library on this floor too, Olivia recalled, and she wanted to see just what kinds of books were in it.

  The first thing she noticed was that it was considerably neater than Eva’s book collection. Although the room was completely lined with shelves, there was a rich-looking Oriental rug covering the floor, two comfortable chairs with reading lamps next to them, and a long wooden worktable.

  Disappointingly, the bookshelves held only books. Olivia had been hoping to find another glass ball—not that she knew exactly what to do with one. If she used it to attract Alex again, maybe he’d start standing in front of Tilda’s house until the police had to be called.

  She went closer to the shelves and began to scan the titles. First a section with books on herbs, which wasn’t surprising. Some of them were in foreign languages. Olivia recognized French and other titles that were probably Latin. There were a few whose titles were in different scripts, like Arabic and Chinese, and some Olivia didn’t even recognize.

  More interesting was a large section of books that seemed to be mostly about witches and warlocks. Olivia felt a little chill go up her spine. She took one of the books down and found engraved pictures of witch ceremonies. The people in most of them weren’t wearing clothes, just like Tilda and her friends. Witches, she thought. Is that what Tilda is?

  Olivia started to read a little bit from one of the books, but most of it was about the goddess of nature, called the Lady, and the energy of the universe. There were certain times of the year when the veils between the normal world and the spiritual world became thin, and you could cross then. What good would that do me? Olivia wondered. She decided it would take too much time to find anything useful here, and replaced the book on its shelf.

  Another section of the library appeared more promising. Spells and Potions was the first title that caught Olivia’s eye. She grabbed it and opened it to the first page. However, it began with a long warning about how you had to prepare yourself for using any of the spells in this book. You could release malign spirits into the world. No one should attempt... blah blah blah. She flipped the pages, trying to find out how to get a crazy boy off your case, but the purpose of each spell wasn’t clearly marked. You were supposed to figure it out.

  She moved on, reading titles. Runes, Tarot, pendulum reading, premonitions, voices from the void, crystals... All very interesting, but confusing. It would take her days just to figure out what the titles meant. She looked up, and saw on the top shelf, right under the ceiling, a book bound in dark red leather. The title was embossed in gold, but at first she couldn’t see it clearly. Then a sunbeam shone through the window on the opposite wall and fell on the book’s spine, illuminating the title so Olivia could read it: THE ENOCHIAN MAGICK OF DR. JOHN DEE.

  That sounded interesting, but the book was far out of her reach. She looked around and found a stepladder that she slid over to where the book was. Even so, the ladder had only three steps—not quite enough for her to reach the top shelf. She stood on her tiptoes atop the ladder and stretched out....

  And the book seemed to fall out of its place and into her hand. She was so startled that she almost dropped it. But she didn’t, and opened it to the first page. The title was there, along with an explanation that Dr. John Dee, astrologer to the court of Queen Elizabeth, had for many years communicated with spirits and devised a system of magick that he had used to help the Queen prosper and defeat all her enemies both at home and across the seas.

  Before Olivia could turn the page, she heard the elevator. Tilda! Olivia slid down from the ladder, but then looked with dismay at the empty space on the top shelf. She wouldn’t be able to replace the book, even if she could reach that high. But if she left it on the table, Aunt Tilda would realize Olivia had been there.

  Still holding it, she rushed into the hallway. The elevator was chugging its way from the ground floor, so Olivia took the stairs and fled up to her room. She looked around. There was only one place to hide the book: she tucked it under her thick feather mattress.

  Now, before she encountered Tilda, she had to put all thoughts of the book out of her head. Olivia gritted her teeth. The only thing she could use to do that was Alex.

  Chapter Seven

  AUNT TILDA MUST HAVE THOUGHT Olivia was boy crazed, but that was all right as long as she didn’t know the truth. All through dinner Tilda kept giving her concerned glances, while Olivia continued to imagine lush romantic scenes between her and Alex. If Olivia didn’t know the truth, she would have worried about herself too.

  Tilda had noticed that Julius had been locked outside, but Olivia excused herself by saying she had wanted to make friends with him. When he seemed hungry she thought the garden would be a much nicer place for him to eat than the kitchen. “I guess I just had my mind on something else when I closed the door,” said Olivia. Alex Alex.

  “I can well understand that,” said Tilda. “But if you want to make friends with Julius, a better way is to toss him his toy mouse.”

  So after dinner Olivia was forced to play the mouse game. Julius wasn’t fooled, however. He kept glaring at Olivia and lashing his tail back and forth. Whenever he went after the mouse
, he looked over his shoulder to check on what Olivia was up to.

  Finally Olivia told Aunt Tilda that she had homework to do. Fortunately Tilda didn’t know that homework at The Knickerbocker was regarded as pretty much the same thing as child abuse. There was just the poetry memorization assignment, but Olivia managed to do that in about fifteen minutes.

  Julius had followed her upstairs, and when Olivia wanted to check her memorization, she kept saying the poem aloud to him, over and over. He soon got pretty tired of listening to that and went elsewhere.

  Olivia quietly closed the door, turned on her computer, and found a site that played rap music. Earlier, she had discovered that Julius didn’t like it. Having ensured that she would remain alone, she changed into pajamas and crawled into bed. After waiting for a few minutes just to see if either Julius or Aunt Tilda would come charging in, she felt confident enough to slip the book from its hiding place.

  It was in English, but a kind of English that was hard to understand. Sometimes there was an f where there should have been an s, and many of the words were strange and unfamiliar. As far as Olivia could make out, however, the early part of the book was a biography of John Dee, Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer. This was not the present-day queen, but the one who had lived a long time ago. A spirit had appeared to John Dee and told him of a lost book of the Bible, the Book of Enoch, which contained a system of magick. The angel gave Dee a crystal larger than an egg with which he could see into the future.

  Olivia’s heart beat faster as she realized that she had held a crystal like that only yesterday. Was that really the same thing? Where had Eva gotten hers?

  There was lots more about the Book of Enoch, but nothing else about the crystal. Olivia got tired of reading and leafed through the rest of the book. It contained charts and diagrams and a whole section on spirits of many types. Apparently Dr. Dee could call on them for help when he needed to.

  At the end of the book was a group of pages that didn’t belong with the rest. The paper was different. They were even a little smaller than the earlier pages, as if they had come from another book. Someone had stuck them in here and bound them together with the first part. The first page had a message written in ink that said, “Receipts, Spells, Charms, Potions, and Curses. Use With Great Care.” Olivia turned the page eagerly, but she found to her dismay that the entire section was written with some kind of alphabet that she didn’t recognize. She turned the pages one by one, looking for a clue as to their meaning, but there was nothing until she reached the last page of the book.

  A single sentence was written in ink right in the middle of the page: “Do as thou wilt.” I can’t do as I wilt unless I understand it, she thought.

  Annoyed, and so tired that she could hardly keep her eyes open, Olivia slipped the book under her pillow instead of hiding it underneath the mattress. As soon as she turned off the reading light overhead, she was asleep.

  But it wasn’t a restful sleep. She found herself in a dark forest. Overhead she could hear the sounds of beating wings. She looked up to see angels, but they didn’t look like the sweet, benevolent angels she’d seen in paintings. They were angry. Olivia felt they were trying to prevent her from finding something. What it was, she didn’t know, but she ran on, deeper into the forest.

  She sensed that something was pursuing her, and she turned to see that it was Alex. He called for her to wait. He wanted her to meet Wolverine, which suddenly appeared next to him. It was a gold-colored cat about ten times the size of Julius, with long steel claws. He was about the last thing Olivia wanted to meet. She told Alex to eat his pizza and ran on.

  Then she came into a clearing and an old man sat there on a chair, reading a book. Olivia, for some reason, knew what the book was. “Is that the Book of Enoch?” she asked the man.

  He looked up. He had pale blue eyes and a long beard that was as white as milk. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked.

  “Is that the Book of Enoch?” she asked again. She leaned over him and tried to read the title, but it was in a language she didn’t know.

  She heard a noise and turned. The angels were swooping down to carry her away, only this time she could see their faces: Madison, Muffin, Jessica, and all the girls from the dodgeball team. They were going to do something to Olivia, something terrible. She didn’t want to go with them.

  She faced the old man again. “I need the book!” she told him.

  “You have to go there first,” he said, pointing upward. A wind blew, the treetops parted, and Olivia could see the dark sky. “The stars,” said the old man. “You must find which one you are.”

  Olivia screamed in frustration and then sat up in bed. Darkness surrounded her. She was sweating and she realized it had been a dream.

  She heard a noise and jumped. Scratching. Something was scratching at her door.

  Julius. Suddenly even his company seemed preferable to being alone. She got out of bed, turned on a light, and opened the door. He looked up at her with questions in his eyes. He’d heard her scream. “Come in, then,” she called.

  Gingerly, he stepped through the doorway and looked around suspiciously. Olivia climbed back into bed and patted the quilt. “Come up and sit here,” she called. “I’ll pay attention to you and maybe I can tell what you’re thinking.”

  Julius gave her a look that clearly said Are you kidding? and marched with dignity back through the door and into the dark hallway.

  “Thanks a bunch,” Olivia called after him. “Let me know if you need a favor someday.”

  She left the light on and lay awake for a long time before falling asleep again.

  She woke up late. At home, somebody would have knocked on her door to wake her up. That had always annoyed her, but now she was irritated that nobody had done it. Maybe I should just skip school altogether, she thought as she brushed her teeth. Nobody would particularly care, would they? Alex, of course, probably would, but maybe Tilda wouldn’t.

  The book, she remembered as she was getting dressed. Tilda might find it if Olivia left it under her pillow. There wasn’t really any good hiding place here, so she tucked it into her backpack with the rest of her things.

  She rushed downstairs to find breakfast waiting for her. Waffles. With maple syrup. They were too tempting to turn down. “Julius said you had a bad dream,” Tilda commented as Olivia began to eat.

  “He would know,” Olivia responded.

  “Incidentally,” said Tilda, “I spoke to Eva this morning.”

  “Yes?” Olivia responded coldly. Did she send over any tea?

  “Actually, she confessed that she let you look in her crystal.”

  Ice water began to flow through Olivia’s veins. She tried to think how to hide her thoughts, and only came up with Alex Alex Alex.

  “And I assume you saw this boy,” Tilda went on.

  “Alex?” Olivia asked with an innocent look.

  “Yes,” Tilda responded. “Alex. Now sometimes when that is done, it causes a certain kind of behavior, stronger or weaker depending on the person who is using the crystal.”

  “Mm.”

  “Eva thought that because you had never used it before, the effect would be very slight.”

  Olivia couldn’t help herself. “Listen, are you telling me that you know I attracted Alex with this crystal thing?”

  “Well, isn’t that so? You seem to have him on your mind quite a bit lately.”

  “Aunt Tilda, that isn’t possible.”

  “So you didn’t observe any effect on him?”

  “Well, I did, but I thought—” Olivia wasn’t sure just what she thought at this point.

  “You thought it must have been a coincidence?”

  Shrug. Olivia didn’t want to tell Tilda the whole truth. It was embarrassing.

  “If he seems too... attentive,” Tilda went on, “you should know that the effect will wear off in a few days. Usually.”

  “Usually?”

  “Well, if it doesn’t you can go back to Eva
and she’ll know how to fix things up. She’s quite an adept at the crystal. The Irish have a gift for it.”

  “But I mean, you act as if this was normal,” Olivia responded. There, she’d said it.

  “It’s quite normal, dear. Didn’t your mother tell you?”

  Olivia felt the same way she had when Tilda had asked if Mother had told her about reincarnation. “No,” she admitted. It must have just slipped her mind. One of those little things like flossing after meals that she forgot to mention.

  Tilda pursed her lips. “Well, it’s all part of the craft. Surely you know...” She looked quizzically at Olivia.

  “The craft?” Olivia felt dumber here than she did in school.

  “Witchcraft, some people call it. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of that. People are always telling false tales about witches. Shakespeare’s plays are full of them.”

  Olivia felt a little dizzy. “I think I’m going to be late for school,” she said.

  “Oh, yes, you wouldn’t want to make a bad impression,” said Tilda. “That’s not the thing to do if you want to be invisible. But I’m very glad we had this talk. Now I know there are some things I need to explain to you.”

  I’ll say, Olivia thought, grabbing her backpack. A twinge of guilt went through her as she felt the extra weight of the book she’d sto—borrowed from Aunt Tilda’s library.

  On the way to school, Olivia kept wanting to take the book out and read some more, but she was afraid that René would see it. He was chatty today, wouldn’t you know. Talking about his school days and how he’d walked many kilometers from his parents’ village to get there.

  Olivia was already a few minutes late and she had no time to do anything but collect her things for morning classes and rush to Mr. Feldstein’s room. When she got there, at first she thought she had blundered into the wrong place. The teacher was a redheaded woman wearing a dress covered with rhinestones and a tiara. But when she turned to see who was coming through the doorway, Olivia saw it wasn’t a she. It was Mr. Feldstein in a dress and wig.