by Dani Corlee
“But those have a scientific foundation!”
“Our spells also have,” Lucille nodded, noisily chewing her gum.
“We just don't know how to explain them mathematically. Not all, at least. Not yet. We can pass through objects, through the walls, for example. Till not long ago, this was considered pure magic, without any scientific explanation. Now we know that things feel solid, but aren't.” Isidora smiled and continued. “I'm not going to give you a Physics lesson because I'm not good at these things. You will learn these things at our witch school, as far as I know. Just let me say that the fact we can go through walls has strong scientific foundations, as have many of our magical powers.”
Kim kept quiet, trying to digest what Isidora had just said.
“We can talk long distance without a phone. Is this normal too?”
Isidora nodded.
“If it is so, what's the explanation and why don't you teach everybody to do so?”
“First, I'm not sure the world is ready for such a huge change, and I'm not the one who should decide. Then, we have yet to understand the mechanism of many of our spells, and therefore we cannot teach non-witches to do the same. Moreover, many people do it already, even though unconsciously. Think of all the times you think about a person you haven't heard or seen for a while and after a few seconds that person calls you. Or when you know what a person feels even though he doesn't show it and doesn't tell you anything about it. Think about the concept of empathy, the ability to feel and even experience another person’s emotions. All these are magic. Besides, we believe witchcraft started with empathy, which brought us the ability to cure and help other people.”
“But you said you cannot cure other people. Otherwise, illness wouldn't probably exist anymore, am I right? You wouldn't let people die young or suffering, would you?”
“To some extent, yes, we can cure illnesses. To some others, we cannot. Had we mastered the whole living system, we would have already defeated death. We can heal our own bodies, as many non-witches do even for serious illnesses. But we cannot do anything for somebody else’s body if the person doesn't believe the healing must start from within. We know how to treat plants and minerals to get the most out of them and how to connect with forces from the Universe so that we can help, without using any invasive medicine. Unfortunately, there are still so many things we don't know, or we don't know how they work. And by we, I mean humankind.”
Kim stood up.
“Many things to ponder... But I must go now. My mom will arrive tomorrow, and I want to check everything at home. I'll be at work tomorrow, and I need some time before her arrival.”
“Check everything? What for?” Lucille asked.
“She has never appreciated my mess, or my way of arranging things. I don't feel like having her scolding me like a kid. She makes me feel horribly nervous.”
“Can we help you somehow? Lucille added.
“No, I don't think so. I'll let you know if I need something!”
“My dear, let us come with you. We will help you and hopefully have some time to talk about the problem.”
Kim thought for a while. “OK, let's go. It will be quicker for me to have some help.”
“Let's go.” Isidora snapped her fingers and they all, including Kim's car, appeared in her home’s driveway, unaware of Michelle, the woman living near her who often checked from her window, sure something strange was going on with her new neighbor.
“Everything is spotless and perfect now.” Kim sat on her sofa, exhausted as only a witch can be after housework done with spells.
“We can now talk about the problems. We can... What's the matter with you?” she said with an annoyed tone to Aurora, who had been pulling her arm for a while to get her attention.
“I'm hungry! I haven't had my afternoon snack yet.” Aurora complained, a little offended she had been scolded in front of the witches.
“It's late now. Well, OK, I'll give you a fruit salad,” she decided.
“What about jelly instead? Or a chocolate ice cream? Mrs. Daisy loves chocolate ice cream.” Aurora replied, making appear a huge waffle cone dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles with five chocolate balls on it.
“Not at all, girl!” Kim replied. “Here's your fruit salad.” And magically changed her snack to the displeasure of Aurora, who made a grimace and silently knelt down to eat, leaning on the tea table.
Isidora, Lucille, and Ravyn looked at the scene with a smile, then started talking.
“Why can't you reverse Aunt Adeline's spell? I thought a reversal was something easy to do.”
“Not always, my dear. It can be done immediately after the spell and only if you know the kind of spell used. Aunt Adeline uses ancient spells, often mixing them. Not because she wants to experiment. Only because she starts with a spell, and while performing it she forgets what she's doing. Results can be something quite unexpected. What a stroke of luck she didn't end up turning all of us into antennas!”
“Could she?” Kim looked terrified. “Well, I'm glad she didn't.”
“I've already checked the past with my crystal ball but couldn't quite understand what she did. Ravyn, you might want to try it again by yourself and see what you understand. But this isn't our only problem. If we can bring the antenna back, what can we do to prevent its terrible effects?”
“Can you see the past? That's something...”
“Gnut a gnied agnound gnit,” Aurora mumbled, some peach coming out of her full mouth.
“Aurora! I've told you before, don't interrupt us and never speak with your mouth full,” was Kim's blunt comment.
“Kim, my dear, please let her talk. What was she saying? It might be important.”
“I was saying, put a shield around it!” Aurora replied, annoyed to have been scolded again by her mom.
“Aurora, sorry, you are a genius. Come here, let me hug you.”
Aurora flew into her mom's arms with a smile and planted a sticky kiss on her cheek.
The witches looked at each other. Lucille shook her head and chewed. “Really incredible. It seems such an easy solution, now that we know it!”
“Mom, snack finished,” Aurora proudly said to her mom after a while, handing her the empty plate.
“We'd better go now,” Isidora said, standing up from the comfortable sofa. Lucille stood up too, and both approached her to kiss her goodbye. Kim looked at Lucille tensely, afraid as usual that her friend could stick her chewing gum on her hair.
CHAPTER 6
“Mom, your phone is ringing!” Aurora shouted from her room.
“What? My phone isn't rin...”
She was interrupted by the phone’s ringtones, the military attack sound that was connected to her mother's calls. She stood up abruptly, looking around with a pleading-for-help glare. The forthcoming days would be quite difficult for her. She loved her mom but was well aware that their living together, even though only for a few days, was nearly impossible, at least for her. Without her father’s presence and arbitration, sooner or later they would end up arguing.
She answered. “Mom? Yes, that's the right road. I'm getting out and waiting for you so that you can see me.”
Kim headed outside along with Aurora, who was prancing around, very excited to meet her grandmother again who she hadn't seen for a few months.
“How wonderful, Mom, how wonderful! Granny is coming! How long will she stay with us?”
“Only a little while, I hope,” Kim murmured harshly, hoping Aurora hadn't heard her.
“There, she is there!” Aurora exclaimed, not able to contain her excitement, and tried to run toward the car. Luckily, Kim managed to grab her by her arm.
“How many times do I have to tell you to pay attention to the cars? You could end up under one!” Her mother hadn't gotten out of her car yet, and she was already reacting nervously. That woman could really give her incredible anxiety.
“Remember!” she hissed to Aurora, who was waving to her grandmother drivin
g into the path. “No magic!”
They approached the parked car. Linda got out of it and picked Aurora up in her arms, hugging and squeezing her hard, and smothering her with kisses.
“My pretty doll,” she exclaimed between one kiss and the other, Aurora giggling happily.
Kim couldn't help noticing that kind of affection had been denied to her, her mother having always been quite cold and self-controlled, unlike how she had always behaved with Aurora.
Linda put Aurora down and came up to Kim, brushing against her face to kiss her.
“Hi, my love. Is everything OK? I absolutely need a toilet!”
“Come inside, follow me. How was the trip?” Kim led the way, taking her upstairs to the toilet next to the spare room.
While overtaking the room she would be using, in the corner of her eye she noted Linda’s rolling luggage, which Aurora had teleported there in the meanwhile, disobeying her mom's orders.
“What the...?” she started, widening her eyes and trying to retrace her steps to peep into the room and check what she thought must have been a trick of the eye.
When Kim realized what had happened, she grabbed her mom, her saliva went down the wrong pipe. She coughed loudly and while trying to survive she grabbed her mom by the arm, making her turn again towards the toilet. “Mom, the toilet is here!” she grunted between one coughing fit and the other. “You'll see the room afterward.”
“Yes, but...” she tried to answer while Kim pushed her to the bathroom. “What's the matter with you!” she protested. With a last stroke Kim pushed her inside, then closing the door behind her while her mother was still grumbling unintelligible words.
“What did I tell you?” Kim shouted in a whisper to Aurora, who looked at her, scared. Kim felt like laughing, but what Aurora had done was too dangerous. She needed to be seriously scolded; otherwise such behavior could have terrible consequences. She tried her best to wear a formidable look.
Scared, Aurora brought her little hand to her mouth as if only then she had realized what she had done.
With a finger snap, Kim sent back the trolley in her mom's car and tried to act as if nothing had happened.
Linda left the bathroom, wanting to check the room. Kim tried to approach her, but she slipped away and entered the room avoiding her daughter's grip, sure that there was something wrong with it. She rushed inside and looked around. Kim had arranged the room in a charming way. It was modern but warm and cozy and extremely spacious. Two walls had been painted in a milky coffee color while the remaining were cream-colored. The double bed with a wooden headboard was covered by an acid-green bedcover and cushion matching the bedcover and the walls. There was a roomy dresser with a designer lamp on it, a comfy armchair, and a small desk in front of the window. Her mother could use it to deal with the work she had with her. A sliding door brought her to the large walk-in closet.
Linda looked about for her luggage, but couldn't find it.
“What the hell!” she exclaimed in a low voice not to be heard by her daughter and granddaughter. “I thought...”
“What, Mom?” Kim asked with an angelic smile.
Linda frowned, still not convinced. For such a self-confident and secure person, seeing something that wasn't there was inconceivable.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I'm a little tired. The travel, maybe.”
Kim looked at her, raising an eyebrow, with a questioning expression. Her mother was never tired, at least she had never admitted it. Hearing her admitting such a thing was extremely bizarre.
She heard her mumbling something about the fact she should have known. She rolled her eyes, snorting, knowing that future days would be difficult to manage, especially if Aurora, and herself too, weren't extremely cautious in everything they did.
“Aurora, come and help me with the luggage. There are a few parcels you might be interested in...”
“Yeaaaa!” The enthusiastic reply was accompanied by a large smile. Kim looked at her while she lead the way for her granny running, unable to contain her excitement and happiness for the gifts she would receive in a few minutes.
CHAPTER 7
After the opening up all the presents and a quick tour of the house, Linda decided to settle down in the room and unpack her luggage.
“Why don't you rest a little, Mom? You could lay down a little while I prepare dinner.”
Linda frowned. “No. It wouldn't be logical. First I’ll unpack and set all my things in the closet, then I might lay down.”
Kim sighed and exited the room. She had heard the word logical once too often and she couldn’t stand it anymore. And the more she heard it, the more she tended to behave rashly, even though knowing well that it was only a childish way to affirm her own personality and way of being.
“Worse than Spock!” she grunted while she went downstairs.
In the kitchen, she started preparing dinner. She had already prepared some dishes she knew her mom liked a lot. Gnocchi alla romana, a dish they had while on a vacation in Italy and that her mother adored, roast beef, and mashed potato. As a dessert she wanted to prepare a cheesecake but she hadn't had the time yet. Kim thought she could prepare it quickly while her mom was unpacking her things.
She decided to prepare a classic rhubarb pie. It was too late, but she knew she could count on her magical powers to help her. Her mother was upstairs and she felt safe. She hit the air with one hand and preheated the oven. Then she turned and after one gesture of her arm, the necessary ingredients flew into the grinder. Another gesture of her arm and some others were stirred in a bowl.
She laughed, played the piano in the air, and the dough was ready in a pie plate.
What next? She thought biting her cheek. She had prepared that pie so many times, but she might be forgetting something. Preparing the pie all at once would be more practical, but she really enjoyed preparing it this way. It was more like making it the old way and it made her feel she had more control. She was still a little afraid of her powers. What if instead of a pie she created something totally unexpected by mistake? Then she looked at the pie ready for the oven and smiled. Her mom would surely enjoy it. She put it in the oven, blinked, and the pie was ready. She took it out, sniffing deeply the delicious smell.
She heard a gasp behind her. “Oh! How was that?”
She jumped out of her skin, the pie nearly falling from her trembling hands. She turned slowly, and her mom was there, leaning on a wall, open-mouthed.
“How can it be ready? I saw you put it a few seconds before taking it out!”
Kim froze and paled. After a moment of embarrassing silence, she tried to giggle. “You scared me, I wasn't aware of your presence.”
“I saw you putting it in the oven and it was raw! You closed the oven, opened it again, and it was cooked!” she said while approaching the oven, looking at it.
“It is... er, it's a new kind of oven. High tech, you know.” She put the pie on the table. “Have you unpacked your things?” Her hands were still trembling, but she tried to speak in a natural and casual tone.
“High tech you said?” Linda leaned a little and looked inside the oven through its door. “It looks pretty normal to me,” she said, turning to Kim with a puzzled look.
“Oh, well...”
Linda looked at the oven again. “Do you have the usage instructions you got with it? I would like to have a look at it to understand what's the technology it uses. I read a lot of magazines about new stuff, and I've never heard anything like this.”
Kim blushed. It was going to be a long, long evening. “No, I think I've lost it in the move.”
“In the move? How's that? I don't remember you having it before moving.”
“No, I mean, I had it already, but I wasn't using it yet.”
“So, where did you get it? I will inquire at the shop or the producer. This thing is pretty interesting, and I'm curious about its functioning.”
Swallowing hard, her forehead covered with sweat, Kim didn't know what to answ
er. “No, it's, well... I cannot tell you, it's an industrial secret.”
“Industrial secret? How's that?”
“I'm a beta tester for this product.”
“Kim, no. Are you crazy? Are you testing a product you don't know anything about and which, as far as you know, could blow your house up? If you don't care about yourself, think about Aurora.”
Kim clenched her jaw and tried to be as determined as possible and cut things short. “It's safe, don't worry. Have you unpacked your things?”
“Oh! Not all of them. I must hurry. I noted something strange, that's why I went downstairs.”
