“I rode a broom last night.” She said the words softly and then out loud. “I rode a friggin’ broom and didn’t fall off.”
She set her coffee cup on the coffee table and walked over to the broom. She stroked the handle, staring in awe at it.
“A bunch of wood, sticks, and it carried me above the sea. And I didn’t fall off!” The broom was smooth and still.
“But wait... I did fall off... I was pulled off.” She muttered. “What the hell was that thing that pulled me off?”
She shook her head.
“I can’t wait to ride you again tonight.” Dorothy said. She looked at the broom a while longer, remember the rush of the salt-stained wind against her face, her hair blowing, her fingers tightly clutching the handle.
“Okay, on with the day.”
Dorothy returned to her cup of coffee and finished it up, and then turned off the TV. She pulled on her purple short jacket and grabbed the gym bag.
“It’s time to get this done!”
* * *
Dorothy tapped her card against the scanner that was on the gym reception desk.
“Welcome back, Dorothy,” the pert young lady at the counter smiled as she looked at the monitor, checking Dorothy’s likeness against the picture that popped up. She handed Dorothy a towel folded with origami precision into a neat roll. Dorothy took it just as there was a loud buzzing sound. The metal gate to the gym snapped opened.
“Thank you,” Dorothy said as she entered the hallway towards the changing rooms. She entered the door marked “Women” at the end of the hall ‘and quickly found an empty locker. She hung her jacket and pulled her shoes from the bag. A sense of urgency was rippling through her. She put on her shoes as fast as she could. She gathered what she needed for her workout, shook her towel out from its origami shape and draped it around her neck and then locked the locker. It was a combination lock, so she didn’t need to worry about a key. Not that a witch couldn’t open any old lock if she wanted to.
As she grabbed her water bottle and phone, she headed down the hall to the co-ed running room. She was no runner, but she usually was able to survive the elliptical. Her body trembled and then, between her and the elliptical, was him. Oscar Dominion. His forehead was shining with a light sheen of sweat, his T-shirt clung to his lean body, his gym pants betraying his muscular legs and other obvious attributes. Dorothy licked her lips and took a deep breath.
Be calm, don’t be a dweeb. Just act natural.
“Hello!” she said, walking boldly towards him.
“Why, hello!” Oscar said as he kept walking. Dorothy stepped in front of him and he stopped. He cocked his head, looking at her while pulling his towel from his neck and wiping his hands.
“I don’t mean to be a bother, but I’m a big fan of yours!” Dorothy said as she held out her hand. He hesitated to reach for it as he replaced the towel around his neck.
“Have we met?”
“No... well, yes but no. We’ve passed each other in the street,” Dorothy said. Oscar raised his eyebrows and studied her from head to toe. “I do readings here in town.”
“I seem to recall your face,” he said, his eyes illuminated from the bright overhead lights. Dorothy kept her hand out and wiggled her fingers.
“I’m gross and sweaty,” he said.
“That’s fine,” Dorothy said as she took his hand. She held it, staring into his eyes. It pulsed in her hand; the warmth, the sweat, and perhaps a small vibration of interest. She smiled as she released him. He stood staring at her, looking at his hand and back at her.
“I was told this town was strange, well, odd, or perhaps, I mean to say, magical. That most of the people who live here are witches.”
“True. This town is like a cross between Cassadaga and Salem. There are several covens here of witches and other spiritual types. And of course, many residents aren’t witches at all and just live regular lives. But you never know what will happen in Hermana.”
“I’m beginning to understand that,” he said as he looked down at his hand again. His breath hitched slightly and then he looked up at her. “I think where I’m staying is haunted.”
Dorothy nodded her head.
“Most of the houses here are haunted. Well, really, most houses in the world are haunted at this point!” Dorothy laughed, perhaps a little too loud and with a touch of cackle. She walked towards the ellipticals and Oscar followed.
“Good haunted or bad haunted?” Oscar asked. “I really felt unsettled in my room last night. Or rather, this morning. I was wrapped around three.”
“Ah, the witching hour!” Dorothy said.
“I know I’m in all these horror shows but I didn’t think there was really a “witching hour.””
“Of course there is, that’s where the expression comes from! That’s when spirits are most lively, depending on the moon and stars and other stuff too.”
“Huh.”
Dorothy arrived at an elliptical but didn’t climb on it. She turned to Oscar.
“What happened?”
“Oh, I don’t want to bore you...”
“Please... you’re not...”
Oscar opened his mouth to speak again but then shut it.
“What is it?” Dorothy asked.
“Nothing... not now...” Oscar said as he glanced towards the clock on the wall. “I really have to get going. I just ran in to do a quick work out, I have a scene tonight where I won’t be wearing much so wanted to make sure I’m toned up...”
Dorothy hoped that her smile wasn’t too broad.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine...” she said.
Oscar took another breath as a few drops of sweat trickled from his forehead. He wiped his face once more with the towel.
“I really have to go. But I’d like to talk to you more about the crazy stuff I saw, not just last night.”
“Of course. I won’t even charge you!” she joked. He looked at her with big eyes.
“Oh, of course I’d pay whatever your rates...”
“I’m teasing you,” Dorothy said. “I would never charge you for a reading and certainly not for my opinion.”
Oscar’s face wrinkled with worry and his half smile at her words was unconvincing.
“When are you free?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe come by set sometime and I’ll have a better sense. We’re shooting mostly nights, obviously, so maybe that’s not good for you.”
“I’m a nighthawk, despite being here so early!”
“Early? Ha-ha... obviously you’re not in the film business!” Oscar chuckled as he turned to leave. He took a step and turned back. “See you around... what was your name?”
“Dorothy.”
“Ah, Dorothy. Figures. I know I’m not in Kansas anymore...” he chuckled and then stopped. “But I guess you hear that all the time.”
“That and others. But it’s all good,” Dorothy winked.
“Oscar Dominion,” he said.
“Yes. Nice to formally meet you.” Dorothy’s words were lost to the air as Oscar hurried off. Dorothy raised her hand and wiggled her fingers at his back. The towel fell from around Oscar’s neck. Dorothy scooped it up just as Oscar turned around.
“I dropped my towel,” he said as he returned to reclaim it. Dorothy held both her towel and his in her hand. She handed him a towel, but it wasn’t his.
“Thanks,” He said as he took Dorothy’s towel, not realizing they had been switched. He hurried off again and this time he was gone for good.
Dorothy stared at the elliptical. She was committed now so she climbed on and put in her half hour as she imagined Oscar lying in her bed with nothing but a smile.
* * *
The blackout curtains were drawn, shrouding the room in a greyish glow.
The moon’s face will illuminate secrets.
Dorothy arranged the stolen gym towel on her altar. She struck a long match on the rough edge of a crystal cluster. The knob of sulphur sparked to life. First, she lit
a black candle and then she lit a white candle followed by six pink candles. Their combined flames glimmered separately then flaring up to join together several feet above the altar.
Dorothy nodded her head and lifted the goblet from the altar. She raised her golden chalice (filled with fresh spring water that had been one of her birthday gifts) towards the combined flames and hummed. The flames danced apart. She raised her goblet higher, humming louder. The flames of the candles flickered and grew higher. She drank some of the water and returned the rest to the altar.
She lit another match to burn the stick incense. It was a really nice rose-scented incense, one of her favorites actually. It had a light fragrance that wasn’t too strong and didn’t overtake the apartment yet wasn’t so weak that she didn’t know if it was burning at all.
She lifted the towel from the altar and sat down. She crossed her legs, placing the towel on her lap. She imagined Oscar Dominion right there in front of her. She held the towel up to her nose and through the smell of the bleach from the gym she could smell Oscar Dominion’s sweat. The room felt heavy and the air grew thick as she inhaled his lingering scent. The shadows along the walls fluttered and danced, skipping across the ceiling. The greyish glow of the room became darker, a long spindly shadow fluttering within the shadows taking hold in the far corner of the room.
“Not you again,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, of course it’s me. You didn’t think I’d forget you already, did you?”
“Well, I was just hoping you’d go away forever,” Dorothy said.
“It’s not that easy and you know it.”
“So, what you want now? I’m trying to cast a love spell,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, yes, you and your love spells. You already had the biggest love of your life, but you didn’t want it. So now you’re doomed to wander the Earth, never knowing what true love is because you already had it and didn’t recognize it.”
“If you came here to mock me, just go away. Your words don’t hold water with me anymore.”
“Maybe, maybe, I could help you,” he said.
“No, I don’t want your help. I want you to go away and leave me alone, don’t bother me.”
Dorothy closed her eyes and imagined a laser light beam blasting that thing away once and for all.
The shadow squealed and shuffled. He stepped out, spindly elongated stick arms flailing then shrieked at an unearthly pitch, Dorothy put her hands to her ears, the sound turning into sensation, flooding through her like white hot metal and then cooling into a warm caress.
Mmmm Dorothy sighed.
“Be gone,” she shouted.
He melded back in with the ceiling shadows. They twitched and flapped across the walls as if arguing then submitting. They poured like a pile of twigs into the darkened corner of the room and disappeared.
Dorothy breathed a deep sigh of relief. Her body was still vibrating, her nipples were hard, her pussy was throbbing. Part of her wanted to forget about the spell and go have a date with Mr. Big in her nightstand but she had to get the spell done. The coven cast the first part of a spell, but she had to do more work with it. She had to push her personal gratification aside and focus on the end game. Oscar Dominion and her together.
She wrapped the towel around her shoulders and stared at the candles, humming with louder enthusiasm than ever before. The candles danced, and this time, no shadows appeared.
***
Dorothy went outside, holding her broomstick. The rain from the day had stopped and the damp muddy aroma of new growth, pine needles, and ocean mist permeated the air. She was pleased to see the darkened sky lit by a dim moon with a thick mask of swirling fog so that she could ascend without being seen.
This time when the broom twitched beneath her fingers, she sat on it immediately.
No use wasting time when I know exactly what I want.
The broom rose high in the sky, and though Dorothy was ready for it, her stomach lurched as she stared down at the little city of Hermana once more. The broom flew over the ocean as it had before, flying very low. So low that the waves were splashing her.
“Go higher, I don’t want to get wet, and I really don’t want to get grabbed,” Dorothy said.
The broom rose slightly as it soared through the air.
“I want to go to the film set,” Dorothy told the broom. “I want to see Oscar Dominion.”
The broom continued to swoop over the ocean, travelling further and further out to sea. Dorothy watched as they continued to fly further from the film set, far from the town of Hermana or even any form of Earth itself.
“Where’re we going?” she asked, clutching the broom harder as it skipped even lower to the water’s surface. “We’re going somewhere, right?”
She didn’t actually expect an answer and yet, all the sudden, she felt a rush of wind beside her.
“Right!”
Dorothy was startled when she looked beside her and saw Natasha riding her own broom. Natasha waved to her, her long black hair fluttering in the wind, tangling in her cape and hood.
“Hi, Dorothy!” She called out.
Dorothy waved back.
“Hi, Natasha. I didn’t know you could ride a broom.”
Natasha laughed. Or rather cackled.
“There’s a lot you don’t know, Dorothy,” Natasha said, her deep, thickly accented voice cutting through the whistling wind. “Even though we all generate the illusion that we’re all open books, ready to be read. In our coven, most of the books are closed, with their pages stuck together with honeyed lies and smeared chocolate. I’m not the only one in the coven who can fly a broom. I could see you resisting the pull of your broom as I got closer. The broom is taking you to where we need to go.”
Dorothy looked down at the water. It was black, rippling darkness while frothy waves bubbled on top, reflecting white foam in the moonlight.
“Are you scared of the ocean? Really?”
“I can swim and even dive, but I don’t know what’s out here... it’s so deep and dark.”
“Don’t worry,” Natasha said. “You won’t fall in; the broom won’t let you.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m just perched on this thing; I don’t even really have a lot of weight.”
“It doesn’t have any arms to catch me should I fall,” Dorothy said.
Natasha stood up on her broom, holding out her arms as if she was walking along a tightrope.
“Natasha! What are you doing?” Dorothy cried out, staring at the tall, beautiful woman, her black hair flowing in the night.
“Oh, broomstick riding is nothing for me,” Natasha said. “Nothing at all.”
“Wow. It’s pretty scary for me,” Dorothy said. “Like, super scary. I kind of want to get off it now. I thought I was just going down the street, now I’m going on some kind of epic journey and it’s scary, really.”
“Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” Natasha said with a smile.
“I hope we’re almost there. I’m getting really chilly. It’s cold way up here in the sky— over the ocean.”
Natasha smiled.
“Yes, it is. I’m also wearing my warmest cloak because I know it’s chilly for a broomstick ride. Don’t worry. I know exactly where to go. Now, stand up like me!”
“No,... I can’t.” Dorothy said.
“Don’t be silly,” Natasha urged.
Dorothy still clutched the broom handle with both of her hands.
“I don’t know if I dare. I’m like super clumsy. I can barely deal with standing behind the cash register at work.”
“If you think you’re clumsy, you’ll be clumsy and you’ll fall off,” Natasha said. “You know the first rule of conquering your fears: believe. Believe in yourself, believe in others, believe in the universe and believe in your broom.”
Dorothy sighed. She stared at beautiful Natasha’s milky white skin glowing in the moonlight, long black hair fluttering, her velvet cloak flying out behind her like some D
ark Angel skimming the waves.
“Aren’t we too low?” Dorothy asked.
“What do you mean, too low?” Natasha asked as she lifted a foot and balanced like a child walking a wooden fence.
“Close to the water... what if a whale breaches or some other creature, animal, person flies out...”
Natasha laughed.
“You’re such a worry wort, I can’t believe it. Why on Earth would a whale be breaching at this time of night?”
“Do whales know it’s night time? Maybe they think it’s daylight, maybe they don’t know it’s night. We don’t know.”
Natasha laughed again, coldly.
“You may have just begun your broom riding, but I’ve been riding brooms a lot longer than you can imagine. The whales do come up at night, much as we do or are doing right now. Some whales like to enjoy the night, others enjoy the day. When you go down far enough, it really doesn’t matter, for it’s dark all the time.”
“Have you ever been way down?” Dorothy asked. “Really way down, without scuba gear or any other kind of apparatus?”
Natasha jumped up from the broom, did a little kick, and then landed gracefully. In fact, when she landed, it was like she was floating, as if she had wings to help her hover gently. The cape continued to flutter as the brooms continued to fly over endless streams of water.
“Dorothy, there’re so many wonders in this universe, your mind wouldn’t be able to comprehend so much beauty, and so much imagination. The universe goes forever, and it folds and unfolds into itself with endless ripples, with each new crease a new delight to explore.”
“But have you ever gone down to the depths of the deep sea, open ocean?” asked Dorothy, a little bit louder.
“As above, so is below,” Natasha said. “The air is above us, and above the air... we don’t know. They call it outer space, the Milky Way. We haven’t ventured beyond the Milky Way, to endless galaxies far away where anything can happen. We’d never know if there was life or night. So, and we go below and it goes, down down down. You don’t know what’s there either. It spreads forever like space.”
Taurus: A Hearse of a Different Color Page 8
