A Witchmas Carol

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Yeah, we’re going to have a talk about that car when we’re free of this,” I said. “I thought only men obsessed with penis size bought Camaros.”

  Landon scowled. “I was a teenager. I thought it was cool.”

  “You were a butthead.”

  “That, too,” Landon conceded, gripping my hand. “We need to let it go, though. We’re not focusing on the past any longer. We’re focusing on the present.”

  “Right you are.” Uncle Calvin brought his hands down on the chair’s armrests. “Are you ready for more family fun?”

  “Do we have a choice?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Then sign us up.”

  “Great.” Uncle Calvin beamed. “Have I mentioned how glad I am to get to spend this time with you?”

  He was so earnest I couldn’t help but return the smile. “That makes two of us.”

  Reindeer can’t fly. If they did, they’d be a menace to airplanes. Personally, I prefer reindeer to airplanes, but I don’t make the rules.

  – Aunt Tillie explaining how Santa visited the previous night and no one caught sight of the reindeer

  Nine

  “So, what happens now?”

  I expected Uncle Calvin to surround us in magical swirls of light for our jaunt to wherever he planned to take us. If Aunt Tillie was the guide for the past, that meant he was the guide for the present. I was mildly curious who the guide for the future would be, but we obviously had to work our way through this leg before finding out.

  “We have several stops to make,” Uncle Calvin replied. “I’m actually looking forward to making them.”

  “Where are we going?” Landon asked, slipping his arm around my waist. “Are we going to visit my parents again? If so, I’d appreciate it if we could refrain from seeing any of my exes.”

  “We’d both appreciate that,” I muttered under my breath.

  Landon pressed his lips together, and I could tell he was trying to keep from smiling, but he wasn’t entirely successful.

  “It’s not funny,” I challenged, shooting him a look. “You clearly have a type.”

  Landon’s smile slipped. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I think she’s talking about fiery blondes,” Uncle Calvin supplied. “What? I saw the last adventure. I was waiting to talk to Tillie so I didn’t interrupt, but I saw it. You were not a nice boy, Landon.”

  “Ugh.” Landon made an exaggerated face. “I’ll never hear the end of this, will I?”

  “Probably not,” I confirmed. “We’re ready, by the way. Take us where we need to go.”

  “Great.” Uncle Calvin’s smile was so wide and congenial I knew it was something I’d never forget. I’d seen it in photographs before, of course, but seeing it in real life was something else entirely. “The truck is waiting outside.”

  I stilled as Uncle Calvin moved toward the front door, confusion etching its way across my brain. “Truck?”

  “This isn’t the past, Bay,” Uncle Calvin said. “It’s the present.”

  “Yes, but I’m guessing that under everything, Landon and I are really still asleep in that room.” I pointed for emphasis. “Now you’re saying we have to drive to our next location. It doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Who says it has to make sense?” Uncle Calvin threw open the door, allowing a gust of wind and snow to blow inside. I inadvertently shivered as Landon tugged me closer to him. “Life doesn’t always make sense, Bay. You of all people should know that.”

  Resigned, I shuffled toward the door and peered out. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “What?” Landon asked, moving to my side. He made a growling noise in the back of his throat when he recognized Aunt Tillie’s plow truck. “No way.”

  “Yes way.” Uncle Calvin turned a set of expectant eyes to me. “Let’s get to it. You’re not the only one I’m excited to see tonight.”

  “I guess that means we’ll be visiting the family,” I muttered, reaching for my boots. “How happy will they be to see us?”

  “This trip will be different from the last one, Bay,” Uncle Calvin said. “You’ll see how when we get to our first destination. As for boots … you don’t need them.” Uncle Calvin snapped his fingers and suddenly my feet were covered with hilariously fluffy witch slippers. “We’re behind. We need to get going.”

  I spared a glance for Landon and found him glaring at his feet, a sparkling pair of new slippers on display. They looked to be bunnies, but it was hard to tell because of the floppy ears and whiskers. “You look cute.”

  Landon’s turn to me was slow and deliberate. “I love you. You know that, right?”

  I nodded, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at the outrage I’m sure bubbled under the surface.

  “I think I’ve more than proven that I’m no longer that cocky kid we saw fighting with his girlfriend – a girlfriend he didn’t really care about, mind you – and you should let it go since I’m about to go out into a blizzard with a ghost while wearing … these.” He jerked his foot for emphasis.

  I took pity on him. “Did you think I didn’t know you were different? I’m hardly the same person I was when I was sixteen either.”

  “No, but you weren’t … like me.”

  “You’re a boy.”

  “Thank you for noticing.”

  “No, I just meant that you were a boy who was active in sports and you were probably popular,” I said, shivering as we followed Uncle Calvin into the storm. “You were living a much different life than I did.”

  Landon helped me into the plow truck, pointing the heat vents in my direction and lifting my hands in front of them so I would be warmed relatively quickly. “You said in the previous memory that our lives weren’t all that different,” he noted. “Do you still believe that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even though I was a little bastard to Shelly?”

  “I’m guessing Shelly contributed her own brand of drama to that relationship. I don’t blame you … at least not entirely.”

  “That’s a relief.” Landon rubbed his hands over mine. “I never realized that she looked so much like you until I saw you standing together.”

  “She was, like, six inches taller than me.”

  “Yeah, but the blonde hair and blue eyes … I must’ve known what I would like even then.” Landon grinned as Uncle Calvin hopped into the driver’s seat. “Just for the record, I think this is really weird. I want you to know that.”

  “Oh, get used to weird, son.” Uncle Calvin winked. “You’ve hitched yourself to this family for the long haul. Things will only get weirder.”

  “Do you know what happened to Shelly?” I asked, curious despite myself. “Did she ever get over the big heartbreak of … whatever year that was?”

  Landon shrugged as he fastened a seatbelt around my waist – the truck was older so it had a bench seat – and kissed my cheek before reaching for his own seatbelt. “I’m sure she survived the trauma.”

  “Hold on,” Uncle Calvin bellowed, grinning as he put the truck in reverse and floored it, laughing maniacally as he slammed into a snowbank. “Yeehaw!”

  Landon widened his eyes to comical proportions. “Oh, geez! You drive like Aunt Tillie.”

  “Who do you think taught her? Hang on! It’s going to be a bumpy ride … and I mean that quite literally.”

  BY THE TIME UNCLE CALVIN parked in the Dandridge’s parking lot I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach. If we were on a ship, I’d chalk it up to carsickness. We were on land – although close to the lake – and in the middle of a blizzard, so I didn’t know what to term it.

  “I don’t feel so well.”

  Landon scowled at Uncle Calvin as he helped me from the truck, rubbing his hand over my back as I stared at a snowdrift and seriously considered tossing all the Christmas cookies I ate hours before.

  “I can’t believe you have such a delicate stomach,” Uncle Calvin lamented. “I would’ve thought Tillie drove that out of
you years ago.”

  “She tried. I’m nowhere near as bad as Clove.” Speaking of Clove. I lifted my eyes to the towering lighthouse. “Are we going to see what they’re really doing right now or is this more of Aunt Tillie’s special magic?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “It means that we interacted in memories we shouldn’t have been present for during the last leg and it was clear they were hallucinations of sorts,” Landon supplied. “Otherwise I think I would’ve remembered meeting my future self.”

  “The workings of the witch mind aren’t my domain,” Uncle Calvin said. “I’m not sure how all of that occurred. You’ll have to ask Tillie.”

  “She’s not here, though, right?”

  “She’s off with your cousin.”

  “The one we’re about to visit,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, I hadn’t put that together.” Uncle Calvin tapped his chin as he moved toward the sidewalk, which was completely buried in snow. “I get what you’re asking. I’m not sure what we’ll be seeing. Perhaps it will be a scene from earlier. It is the middle of the night, after all. Clove is probably sleeping.”

  “Just like us,” I murmured, slipping my hand in Landon’s as we moved up the sidewalk. “Every time I think Aunt Tillie can’t get weirder – or do something more obnoxious – I’m wrong. She continuously proves me wrong. How is that even possible?”

  “She’s gifted.” Uncle Calvin veered away from the front door when we got to the end of the walkway. “She’s always been gifted.”

  I watched him, a warm feeling filling my chest despite the cold. “You really loved her, didn’t you?”

  Uncle Calvin nodded. “Of course I did.” He looked to Landon. “I’m sure you’re wondering why.”

  “No,” Landon replied, taking Uncle Calvin by surprise. “I get it. She was your match. Sometimes things are simply meant to be.”

  Uncle Calvin pursed his lips. “That makes me feel better about you.”

  “Were you thinking worse about me?”

  “After seeing teenage Landon, who wouldn’t?”

  Landon scowled. “I’ll never get free of that memory, will I?”

  I patted his arm. “It’s okay. I still have to live with the memory of teenage Bay throwing herself at you. You’ll get over it … eventually.”

  “That was cute,” Landon argued.

  “You didn’t think it was cute when she said she wanted to keep you.”

  “That’s because she seemed a little oversexed. I couldn’t rationalize that version of you with the real you, who is never oversexed.”

  I scorched him with a dark look. “Did you just call me frigid?”

  Landon realized what he said too late to take it back. “Of course not. I … .” He looked to Uncle Calvin for help. “Do you want to step in here?”

  “I think you’re doing a hilarious job on your own.” Uncle Calvin clapped Landon on the back. “You’re a funny guy. I understand what Bay sees in you.”

  “Oh, geez.” Landon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can we get on with this? I don’t understand why we’re here.”

  “You’re here to get a picture of the Winchester world,” Uncle Calvin supplied. “You’re not here to interact with Clove and Sam. You’re merely here to see how they spent their evening.”

  That sounded too simple for Aunt Tillie’s deviant mind. “And then what?”

  “You’ll see … eventually.”

  That was far too vague. “I don’t like this.”

  “Welcome to the Winchester world,” Landon teased, moving behind me as Uncle Calvin led us to the large window on the Dandridge’s main floor. “I don’t like this,” he said after a beat. “I’m a cop. I shouldn’t be peeping through someone’s window.”

  “I promise they’re not naked,” Uncle Calvin offered. “I wouldn’t have taken this job if they were.”

  “Good to know.”

  The window was high enough that I struggled to see over the ledge. Landon did his best to help, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me. What I found inside was dumbfounding, and not in a bad way for a change.

  “They’re sitting on the couch drinking hot chocolate and watching A Christmas Story,” I pointed out, shifting my eyes to Uncle Calvin. “This is hardly earth-shattering.”

  “I don’t believe I said we were going to see something earth-shattering.” Uncle Calvin was blasé. “I simply said we were going to see Clove.” He kept his eyes focused on her, his lips twitching. “She looks like her mother.”

  Even though I knew that Uncle Calvin probably wasn’t really here – he had to be a manifestation of Aunt Tillie’s busy brain, right? – I couldn’t help smiling when I realized he was staring at Clove with open adoration.

  “Was Marnie your favorite?”

  “I didn’t have favorites.”

  “Don’t bother lying,” I chided. “It’s normal to have favorites. Chief Terry taught me that.”

  “Chief Terry taught you many wonderful things,” Uncle Calvin said. “He taught you the same things I taught your mothers.”

  I’d never looked at it that way, but it made sense. “So, was Marnie your favorite?”

  “Your mother was my favorite, but I had a soft spot for all of them, depending on the day,” Uncle Calvin replied. “I especially enjoyed watching Twila test every ounce of patience Tillie had. She drove your great-aunt crazy, but she was also the youngest, so Tillie protected her above the others.”

  “She doesn’t do that now.”

  “Twila is an adult,” Uncle Calvin pointed out. “Tillie’s protective nature shifted to you and your cousins once the family expanded.”

  That wasn’t exactly the way I remembered it, but now was hardly the time to argue. “What are we supposed to be seeing here?” I asked, turning back to Clove and Sam. They were doing nothing of interest, Sam rubbing Clove’s shoulders as she watched the screen and laughed. It was a normal quiet night between the duo.

  “Just this,” Uncle Calvin said. “You won’t understand until we move a bit further into our trip.”

  “Oh, well, great,” I muttered, signaling Landon to lower me to the ground. “This was a waste of a trip.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Uncle Calvin pointed us back toward the truck. “I got to see Clove. She’s happy. That can never be a waste.”

  My heart went out to him. “You’re a nice guy, aren’t you? Mom always said you were – that you did everything for them when they were younger – but since we never got to meet you it was hard to affix a personality to the photographs. All we know is that you loved Aunt Tillie, and that’s hardly a ringing endorsement.”

  “Oh, you’re funny.” Uncle Calvin flicked my ear. “It’s time to head to Thistle’s house. While we drive, you can fill me in on Sam. Do we love him or hate him? Is he good enough for Clove?”

  The questions made me bite back a hot retort. He asked out of a place of love. How could I dislike that? “We like him,” I replied. “We weren’t sure at first, but now we like him. They’re getting married soon.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  It was a simple request – and I needed something to take my mind off Uncle Calvin’s driving – so I did.

  “THIS IS A BARN.”

  Uncle Calvin didn’t look thrilled by the sight of Thistle’s new home.

  “It’s a converted barn,” Landon corrected, linking his fingers with mine as we trudged through the snow. Even though we could feel the cool breeze and snow whipping by our exposed skin, our feet remained warm in slippers while we hiked through the accumulating snow. “It’s actually pretty cool.”

  “There are two barns here,” Uncle Calvin noted, his eyes drifting from one structure to the other. “Why?”

  “Marcus owns all of the property,” I replied. “He owns the stables over there, although you can’t see them because of the snow.” I pointed to the east. “He’s turning that barn over there into a petting zoo. We get a lot of tourists, so that will be a big dr
aw. He’s converting this barn into a house. He’s put a ton of work into it. It’s really cool.”

  Uncle Calvin didn’t look convinced. “It’s still a barn. I don’t think I want my great-niece living in a barn.”

  “It only looks like a barn from the outside,” Landon promised. “Trust me. You’ll be impressed when you see the inside.”

  “Besides that, Thistle is the type of person who doesn’t like conforming,” I added. “Living in a barn makes her feel different and special.”

  “And Marcus kind of feels the same way,” Landon said, leading me toward the front window. “They’re a good match. Marcus is calm. Thistle is mean, but has a good heart when she wants to. He reins her in when necessary.”

  “He also loves her despite – or maybe because of – her flaws,” I added. “I thought she would eat him alive for sure when they started dating. Now I’m starting to wonder if he’s you.”

  “Me?” Uncle Calvin’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “Why would he be me?”

  “Because Thistle is Aunt Tillie.”

  “Oh, she won’t like it if you say that,” Uncle Calvin warned, wagging a finger. “I find it entertaining, though. Let’s see what they’re doing.”

  I followed Uncle Calvin to the window, watching his reaction when he first saw the inside of the barn. He let loose with a shaky sigh and wide smile as he absorbed the homey inside of the converted barn. “Oh!”

  I nodded. “It has a lot of open space,” I supplied. “The ceilings are vaulted so Thistle won’t feel penned in. She’s the type of person who needs to run free.”

  “You’re Winchesters. You all need to run free.” Uncle Calvin smiled as he caught sight of Thistle. She was dressed in a pair of flannel pajamas with feet, the kind you most often saw on kids, and she was laughing as Marcus spun her around the living room floor. “They’re dancing.”

  I followed his gaze, my heart pinching a bit at the sweet sight. “I guess they are.”