Awaken, Witch!

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” the woman said as I deposited the sugar on the counter.

“I don’t know what I saw, but thank you for the chai. I have to be going now.” I crossed the rug to the coatrack to get my coat, scarf, and bag.

“Don’t leave now,” the magpie said. It wasn’t like a parrot or a chicken bawking or something. It was a voice that rang as clear as a human’s. “This party just got started.”

I backed away from the coatrack, trying to find my way to the door without looking. My boot caught on the edge of the rug at the entrance and I fell backward onto my rear end, crushing my wrist in a very painful way. I hunched forward and cradled my hurt wrist between my knees and stomach protectively.

“Oh no, that won’t do,” the woman said from behind the counter, looking over at me on the floor. She seemed too calm for what was happening under her roof.

The door at the rear of the shop swung open wide and the bearded man stood framed inside it. Now that I saw him in relation to the doorway, his giant stature was evident. He filled the space, an imposing figure of a man.

“What in the blazes is going on out here?” his voice boomed dramatically. He gestured at me with one hand, the other still hanging onto the doorknob. “Who is this woman spying on me and my rituals?”

“I didn’t mean to,” I stuttered, worried that he would curse me or something equally awful. It was evident that I’d walked into a place of nightmares and devil worshippers or… something. I wasn’t quite sure. I knew there’d been a witchy element to the shop, which was part of its allure, its quaintness, and was one of the multiple reasons I’d popped into it in the first place.

But I’d not expected to catch giant… wizards… doing creepy rituals in a back room. I’d thought the place would be something adorable to pass a few hours as I looked through the wares on display and explored them. Maybe I’d forget my worries by becoming absorbed in something new and distracting.

“Oh, you spied?” the woman said, folding her hands under her chin.

“Don’t act surprised, Amanita,” the man said. “You put her up to it, I suspect, and it’s just like you.”

“This one is different, Lightbeard,” Amanita said. “I heard her from a block away.”

“Heard me?” I echoed. Amanita. Lightbeard. A talking magpie. I pinched a hunk of skin on the back of my hand. Ouch. I wasn’t dreaming, although I wasn’t quite sure of the efficacy of that test. As my marriage had fallen apart, I’d felt I was in a nightmare the entire time. If this was a dream, it was a step up from that.

“I don’t care if you heard her. We’re not doing the school and that’s final.” He took a step into the room and began to turn, grabbing hold of the edge of his robe as he did, like a ballerina or something. “Be gone, woman, and forget what you saw. It’s in your best interest.” He fluttered the fingers of one hand like he was about to cast sprinkles on me.

“That’s bullshit if I ever heard a pile of bullshit.” Amanita crossed her arms and moved out from behind the counter. She squared off with the old man in the center of the aisle between the bookcases. “You know it’s not in her best interest. I already know that. She’s meant to be here.”

As I climbed to my feet and dusted off, I began to understand that these two total strangers were arguing about my future. Like they knew me. Like… like they’d seen my future.

They were crazy. That was the only explanation.

I went back to the coatrack and grabbed my scarf and bag.

Lightbeard turned back around, crossing his arms. “You aren’t equipped to be a teacher or a mentor.”

“I know. You are. I’d handle other things. I’d do the hands-on stuff. The practical stuff.”

He closed his eyes, the entire room seeming to dim in the absence of those brilliant blue orbs. When he opened them, it was as though they’d become steel. They were stormy, angry.

“Practical magic is useless without theory. Without training in intent. Without all of it. It is weak magic.”

“I know. That’s why it requires both of us. That’s why the students will need you.” Amanita pointed at him.

He shook his head vehemently, his beard following suit. “We’re not doing it.”

“It’s too late. She’s here. It was part of her fate and now this door is open and now we have to train her.”

It was like a black cloud burst over Lightbeard’s head and a billowing puff of energy exploded around him.

What was I sensing? I could feel his anger.

He shook his head. “I’m so angry at you, Amanita. If I were a darker shade of wizard, I would put a curse on you for trying to tie my life up into this nonsense.”

“We’re already tied up in nonsense, Lightbeard. Years of it.” She tapped her cheek smugly. “You know, you could always leave.”

He straightened and pointed a finger at her. “And let you have the satisfaction of drawing on the Puddle and killing me while I’m not around? As unlikely a chance as ever.”

Amanita pantomimed a bow and said, as she was straightening, “I don’t trust you either, old man.”

He fumed, pursing his lips into a thin line which disappeared inside his beard and mustache. “I know you’d do it too, which is precisely why you don’t trust me.”

Amanita leaned forward and pointed her thumb at the K of the black in Black Sabbath. “I don’t trust you because you don’t trust me.”

I shook my head, caught in the circular nature of their logic. If they were in some kind of relationship other than this visibly combative one, they had issues. Worse issues than I’d had with my ex. In fact, their argument was beginning to trigger me. I tiptoed toward the door to sneak out and put the miles between me and them with plans to never come back. I didn’t want to be part of whatever they were talking about. All the better if I could leave and forget about them.

“She’s getting away,” the magpie said.

“Oh, don’t go yet, Ivy Danielle,” Amanita said, stopping me dead in my tracks.

She knew my name.

Chills quivered through me. My stomach fell into my feet.

I spun. “How’d you know my name? Have you been stalking me? Who are you?”

I wracked my mind for ways that she could have known my name. I’d not yet paid for the drink.  She couldn’t see my license plate through the window where my car was parked. I’d never been in her shop before.

She shrugged. “I heard it.”

“You heard it?”

“She’s as daft as a farmhand, Amanita. She repeats everything you say. I’ve not heard a single intelligent thing come out of her mouth. I wouldn’t be able to teach this one a blasted thing!” Lightbeard shook his head and touched his temple. At his insults, defiance surged through me like a flame. Who did he think he was? Such judgments! “She’s not ready. Let her wake up more. Then… perhaps.”

“Wake up?” I echoed.

“See? Parroting me now. Is she slow?” He leaned forward and squinted at me. “Does she have all her chromosomes? Or too many?”

Embarrassment singed the tips of my ears and sizzled through me like a fuse leading to dynamite. If he kept at it, I might explode. I had a slight temper, but the shock of what was happening was keeping it at bay.

“Her awakening has already started. She’ll be impressionable. We can teach her and guide her on her path.”

I grabbed the door and began to open it.

It slammed shut, the handle painfully ripping out of my fingers. Gratefully, it wasn’t the hand I’d fallen on. But now both hands smarted. Over my shoulder, I saw Lightbeard lowering his arm like he’d been the reason the door slammed shut.

I tried again, and the same thing happened. I spun and stared at them both, my heart racing.

“Who are you? What is this place?” There was a quaver in my voice. “I just want to go home. Can I please leave?”

Lightbeard sighed. “Now look what you’ve done.”

“Ivy Danielle, you have nothing to fear. Come sit back down, sip on your chai, and I’ll explain everything.” She flashed a glare toward the old man. “He promises to play nice. I heard him.”

He lifted a long, bony finger and waggled it at her. “Don’t start with me again or I’ll go back to shielding my mind from you, you cursed woman.”