Wands Have More Fun

by Rebecca Regnier

  She’d told us there was a clearing and inside we’d find a Wand Wood Circle. It was hidden just outside of the state park. She said it had to be hidden; otherwise, a hunter or camper could happen upon the important trees. And the trees were cultivated for the task. The Distinguished Ladies of Widow’s Bay used magic and logic to keep the trees protected.

  “Lately, we’ve chosen to move it around because ongoing magic to camouflage a space is really draining. Even when you have a dozen witches handling the task, until very recently, we just didn’t have the staff,” Aunt Dorothy explained to us as much as she could, as fast as she could. Though, as usual, it was never quite linear. Things occurred to her randomly, and she blurted them out.

  Now that I’d seen the witches writing the grimoire, I wondered if timelines weren’t lines at all. Maybe that’s why Aunt Dorothy’s storytelling, and instruction, had a quality of jumping around from point A to point Z and ended up somewhere around point Q.

  We were all bundled up, booted up, and ready for the outdoor mission. I could feel my toes, still, but knew that wasn’t a permanent condition out here.

  “Up here. I see what Aunt Dorothy’s talking about.”

  Fawn, Georgianne, and I had volunteered for this field trip to get the materials for our wands. Fawn was in the lead because her knowledge of the natural world, the woods, animals, and the like was far superior to anyone else in the Distinguished Ladies Club, maybe in the whole of the Upper Peninsula.

  She’d wound us through several paths with Dorothy’s cues, not knowing exactly where we were going, but seemingly still confident that we were headed in the right direction. We trudged through the underbrush and bad cell service with Aunt Dorothy popping in and out and still hadn’t found the place.

  While we had a lot to learn, Aunt Dorothy and the grimoire that Georgianne found on Widow’s Bay Wand 101 said you needed to have the materials first before you could really learn how to wield your wand.

  Our mission was to get enough supplies for the entire DLC. The small group of us would make our wands first, and if it worked, we’d tell the entire Distinguished Ladies Club how to go about it. It was always best to test run, just like the flying, before we unleashed it on the full membership.

  While I was the least outdoorsy of the group, I could still operate a hack saw in a pinch and a chain saw if things got epic. If you grow up at the tip of the world like we did, you better know how to cut wood.

  Though I had done nothing of the kind for decades, I was certain it was like riding bike.

  “The Wand Woods is nestled behind the older growth. Fawn will be able to tell.”

  Aunt Dorothy had wanted to come along, but I insisted that she stay indoors. Despite her magically spry self, there was no reason she couldn’t just tell us via cell phone now that she was good at using the device.

  “The grimoire is specific. It has to be virgin wood.” Georgianne had the wand making facts at the ready in her phone. Every time Georgianne quoted the text, I thought back to the moment I’d seen, the moment when those instructions were written. It was a living document for me now.

  I also had to commend all of us; we hadn’t yet made the obvious joke or dissolved into peals of laughter over the phrase virgin wood.

  “I’m not going to make a comment on that,” I said, and Fawn pushed my shoulder. Levity was always important when you were about to be lost in the forest and die.

  “It’s opening up there.” Fawn pointed out and we followed her.

  “The best choices are trees that are indigenous,” Georgianne added.

  “Okay, so if we see a palm tree, we’ll steer clear.” I was so helpful.

  The snow was hard and packed. It made it easy to walk on.

  In a day or so, if the weather radar was accurate, we were going to have fresh snow and blizzard conditions. It was today or nothing when it came to my interest in walking in the woods unless we wanted to break out the snowshoes. We pressed on.

  Dawn had broken before we’d gotten out of Fawn’s truck. We were still worried about vampire attacks, and the best defense against that was the sun. Fawn slowed our pace and slid between two tall pines. It was a tight squeeze, and small chunks of snow shook loose as the trees rattled when we passed between them behind her.

  “Here it is.” Fawn stepped into a clearing, I followed, and Georgianne was right behind me with her nose in her phone.

  “According to the information, the Wand Woods will be easy to spot because…”

  I nudged her from her phone. She looked up and took in the scene.

  The sun streamed through the opening in the canopy. There were small trees of all varieties planted in circles within circles. The arrangement looked familiar.

  “It’s Stonehenge.” Georgianne nailed it, that’s what it was. Large trees sheltered the small, but they were grouped in clusters, and the clusters formed the circles that looked, exactly like Georgianne said Stonehenge.

  “Oh, my gosh,” I gasped.

  I heard Aunt Dorothy’s voice through the cell phone: “Point me in the direction of the Wand Wood!”

  I did as she asked and let the magic of Apple FaceTime share the magic of what we were seeing.

  There was no doubt we’d arrived. The sun provided a golden spotlight on the circle of fresh, young trees. And it was almost as if the tall, older pines protected the trees so they could stay new, less buffeted by the harsh wind and snow of Widow’s Bay.

  “Who planted these?” Fawn asked Aunt Dorothy over FaceTime.

  “Ah, it was June.”

  June had died before I’d returned to town. She was one of the older Distinguished Ladies.

  “You’ll have to assign this to someone, moving forward. It’s important,” Aunt Dorothy added, her signal breaking up a bit.

  “I want to do it,” Fawn said, and the awe on her face reflected the love she had for the natural world.

  “You’re hired,” Georgianne said, and I agreed. Coming out here, planting, replanting, and ensuring there were indigenous trees was a job we didn’t know we needed to be done. I was grateful Fawn volunteered and I was reminded again that there were dozens of such tasks that we hadn’t even begun to realize needed to be done by the witches in Widow’s Bay.

  “Aunt Dorothy, the signal is fading. I’ll call you later.”

  “Fine, dears. Pick from the trees that speak to you!”

  “Okay.” I ended the call.

  “Trees that speak to us. What is this, Grandmother Willow territory now?” Georgianne said.

  “Oh, nice. I still haven’t gotten my royalties for that one,” Fawn said and chuckled at the Pocahontas reference.

  There were countless trees, and I was sure I’d never seen small trees planted so close and in such variety. I wondered how they survived.

  “Won’t these crowd each other as they grow?”

  “It looks like one tree was recently thinned out.” Fawn pointed to a little gap where there should, if things were symmetrical, be a young tree, but it was an open space. There were more mysteries here than we’d be able to solve in one day.

  “Normally though, I’d say yes,” Fawn continued. “You’d never plant saplings so close to one another. But, then again, the trees aren’t going to stay here. I’m going to move them all, into the woods, after we get our clippings. The smaller trees will get bigger and take the place of the shelter trees.” Fawn knew what do to, without even glancing at the grimoire.

  “Can you identify the trees? If you can, I can let you know what their properties are. That should help us decide.” Georgianne had her magical tree reference material ready to go.

  “And, of course, if one of ‘em says, heeey gurl! I’m here to be your waaand! It’ll also be a good indication.” I couldn’t help it; trees talking to us was a new level.

  We all smiled and set to the task of finding the raw materials we’d need.

  “I need to find a red ash.” I had looked it up. Sorbus aucupaira was the Latin name for red ash, also kno
wn as the rowan, and I was supposed to use that as my wand wood. When ancient witches gave you an order, you obeyed.

  “This is a red ash.” Fawn put her gloved hand to a branch. It was early spring and maybe in the rest of the hemisphere people were used to seeing blossoms and berries, but in Widow Bay, at this point, winter hadn’t shaken loose for spring. Except in the Wand Wood Circle. The trees had blossoms and sprouts. The air was fragrant from the blooms, and spring most certainly had arrived.

  I wondered if it was here all year. The red ash had green, fern-like leaves, and small red berries growing in clusters. I walked up to it and felt a bit of guilt for disturbing the pristine beauty of the space.

  “Okay, the grimoire says the ash is good for warding off evil? That you have to be of good purpose to successfully use it,” Georgianne informed us.

  I had to listen to the vision I had, so the red ash was as good a place to start as any. The trees weren’t talking to me right now, but I knew the witches had talked to me. Rowan was going to be our first cut.

  “Okay, I’ll grab some of it then.” We needed the length from elbow to fingertips for all the samples we collected. I had the perfect tool, thanks to a recent trip to Korda’s. I used the gas-powered hand saw to remove half a dozen of the branches of the ash. Fawn had the cart at the ready. She bound the cuttings and labeled them. And then we moved to the next tree.

  Fawn touched a tree with white bark; if I were going to guess, I’d say it was a sycamore.

  “This is paper birch,” Fawn told us.

  “Let’s look birch…birch.” Georgianne scrolled through the list. “Ah, okay, birch has feminine energy and healing power. It calms and soothes, so it is good for peaceful magic. It’s good for healing spells, and for calming and bringing peace to a situation.”

  “Oh, we need that, like double!” I fired up the saw and cut as many of the branches that I could find that matched the length we needed. None of the trees were taller than us, so ladders weren’t needed. That made it pretty easy. Fawn and Georgianne bundled up the paper birch limbs, and we moved on to the next.

  “This is a red oak tree sapling,” Fawn said and Georgianne’s eyes lit up.

  “Oh, this one, this is the granddaddy. We need a lot of this. Listen. Oak has a strong, masculine energy and is also good for healing and protection. It makes a good wand for intensely focused work. Oak is long-lasting and durable. It has stability and is a real workhorse, according to the ancient text here.”

  “Okay, red oak it is.” I cut the lengths needed.

  We continued through the circle of trees.

  “Hemlock tree, this brings warmth, no need to look at the book. The Seneca use hemlock. We’ll need a few,” Fawn said, and I gathered some.

  Then we moved to a sugar maple and a box elder.

  “Oh, also an apple tree wood. Is that the apple tree?” Fawn nodded, and we added to our increasingly crowded cart.

  “Feminine, healing, love, just everything!” Georgianne was enraptured by the properties of the applewood.

  “Okay, we’re stocking up.” I took what we needed from each. I hoped we weren’t destroying them. I had confidence that Fawn would find good homes for the shorn trees we’d disturbed.

  After an hour of careful selection, we had around fifty possibilities and varieties neatly stacked and labeled in the cart. It was filled to the brim with neatly cut—well, as neat as I could make them—bound and stacked branches.

  The Wand Wood Circle was looking a little trampled, and that made me feel guilty. But I remembered these trees were planted for this exact purpose. June had tended this garden, planted, replanted, and worked so that someday, we’d stand here.

  And then the thought struck me.

  “We need to honor June’s work somehow,” I said, and Fawn agreed right away.

  “How do you think?” Georgianne said.

  I hadn’t gone as far as to figure that one out. I just knew I wanted to be sure to thank her.

  “I know a song,” Fawn said.

  “Okay, that’s good, yes,” I said.

  And the formerly hard-nosed, cynical, street smart crime beat reporter on the mean streets of Detroit linked arms with her coven.

  Fawn looked at me, and then we all looked at the trees, in all forms, that surrounded us, that had waited for us, and that would hopefully come to our aid in the form of wands.

  Fawn’s voice was mellow, an alto. It was made of earth and ancient things. And I had no idea how beautiful it was until this moment:

  Hear my voice, Ancestors of our souls,

  You tended the earth, the wood, the animals.

  Like you, I shall go.

  I see you across the shifting of tides,

  I see you in the shapes of the moon.

  You are here but gone, eternal yet float like a feather,

  We follow your lilt on the wind.

  Like you, I shall go.

  Hear my voice, Ancestors of our souls,

  Hark to my song to honor you.

  Like you, I shall go.

  Hear my voice, Ancestors of our souls,

  Through you, I shall move.

  In earth, in wood, in creatures,

  We know you are here still.

  Like you, I shall go.

  Hear my voice, Ancestors my soul,

  We leave for you our lives, the wood, the creatures.

  One day we will be gone,

  Like us, you shall go…

  Her voice moved in and around the branches of the trees. It traveled on the wind. It lingered after her last note.

  “That was good. June heard it,” Georgianne whispered and I knew she was right.

  “I saw far back, to the beginning of the grimoire, I think they all heard it,” I added.

  “Yes, that is the point,” Fawn said.

  “Man, this is all so…” I felt a few tears try to leak out of my eyes.

  “Look who’s getting mushy! I promise not to tell Tatum,” Fawn said, and we all laughed together. As rich as a life I had with my kids, this life, now, surprised me every single day because of how different and special it was. Here I was, kids grown, husband gone, and gray hair flying. With today’s focus on young mommies, I was supposed to be put out on the slag heap! What a miracle Widow’s Bay and the DLC was in my life. My witchy crew and I dealt with trolls, shifters, bitter cold, and hot vampires. It was more than I’d ever imagined this part of my life could be.

  “Yeah, Tatum would kick my butt if she knew I was getting sentimental. Okay, I’m done having a total meltdown. We need to get a move on before I get mean and cynical again.”

  The three of us hugged.

  I surveyed our haul. It looked good, thorough, and like we’d have enough for the coven. Though who really knows about these things?

  “Let me catalog all these, so I can be sure they get replanted, and new growth is started here next spring.” Fawn pulled out her phone to document the Wands Wood Circle.

  “Sure.” We watched Fawn take pictures of the trees.

  “I think they’re all Michigan native, and that’s key,” Fawn said and Georgianne nodded in agreement.

  Georgianne and I took a handle of the cart. Fawn then led the way out of the wooded clearing. I knew Fawn would return to this spot, again and again, to be sure the trees continued to thrive and spread. I could see her here; she didn’t need to listen for Grandmother Willow, she was Grandmother Willow. We all were, in our own ways.

  I hoped I would find a reason to return too. I didn’t know if you had one wand in your lifetime, or you needed to replace it. But even if I never needed another, I would make a point to come out here again.

  There was something magical in these trees, something ancient as the earth. And it had melted me completely. Even though the air was getting cold and the winter was reminding us it would not let go, the Wand Wood Circle made me think that Brule may have known all along where the witches should settle. Did he bring them here because of this very spot?

  I
had so many things to ask him. Many times, I was overwhelmed by his actual presence or the danger we were fighting when we were together. Questions about the history of our area fell by the wayside when you were trying to stay alive or vanquish an invader.

  I should have asked him some of my many questions last night.

  I made a mental note to ask how he decided on Widow’s Bay when he had almost all of the Upper Peninsula, heck, all of the Great Lakes to choose from for the witches on the run?

  I wondered if maybe the trees hadn’t spoken to us, but rather through us, through Fawn.

  It was more than my brain could wrap itself around.

  Chapter 9

  Despite the magic of the Wand Wood Circle, I had a pageant to judge. And that very fact reminded me that I also had a murder to report on.

  But I was back the Widow’s Bay High School, butt in chair, judging locked and loaded.

  “You need to get me out of here before dusk, so I can spy on The Moose Lodge.”

  I had other spying to do too, and all of it was urgent. None of it was this darn pageant.

  “I’ll do my best,” Pauline said, and I gave her a serious look.

  I needed to see who was volunteering for what. We needed to continue to keep an eye on the forces all around us, or any one of them could muck up the happy balance we had here in Widow’s Bay.

  I pulled my focus away from all that and to the task at hand. Judging.

  The contestants had two areas to compete in today. Pauline had it all outlined in our binders. The public was allowed to watch all the events, but the main pageant, with the extravaganza and show, and tickets, was the big draw. Pauline had lined up sponsors, there were programs, a crown, and a sash: the whole nine yards.

  She’d put the crown and sash on display in the lobby showcase of the high school auditorium. She’d also hired The Frog Toe for a pre-pageant fancy dinner, for which she also sold tickets and secured sponsors. That was the whole nine as well. I often wondered how Pauline had the energy for everything she did. Maybe she was part vampire. Whatever, it was always the whole nine yards with Pauline.