As I stare helplessly from outside of myself, I am slowly wondering how long I have before it becomes too late. I never been outside of my body before.
I stay still. Just watching Asphodel doing preparations. she is putting ashes into a pestle with some oils in jars. I am assuming she knows what each one is even without labels, as each jar is a differing colour. She runs to her bag and shuffles around within it.
She is uttering something I can't hear. It's too muffled right now. Almost as though the longer I'm out here the harder it is to hear the real world. Is this what it is to be a ghost? I can't help but wonder as she finishes her incantation. She rubs some of the mixture on my head and chest. the mixture looks black as tar from here. She pulls out her wand. She shakes as she holds it above me. I suspect she's trembling with nervousness.
"Alright. Asphodel, you've got this." She says to herself. "We can totally do this." She shakes herself up a little and hovers the wand above me again. "Lilium!" She clearly commands. I have never heard any person speak clearly in Latin before.
I feel suction pull me towards my own body. It's a few seconds before a white flash happens and I open my eyes. I feel strange, like my last few moments were but a dream.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Hemlock in the water. Don't drink, bathe or touch it. I think we might be having a tail." She says.
'Not funny, I have one all the time,' Sven says to me and I giggle a bit.
"Alright Asphodel. how we gonna shake this unwanted guest?" I ask.
"Not too sure. But you can get dressed now." She says, sighing.
"Oh, right?" I flush and start to put my clothes on from earlier. "So, I got poisoned in my bath?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"Dirty move."
"You're telling me." She says.
"Shit, this happens before for ya?" I ask.
"Once before in the war." She sighs. "we couldn't get clean water for days." She hangs her head. "The war was really hard on everyone." She adds.
"That's how war is usually." I admit.
"True."
"So, considering this place is compromised, wanna just skip to the next destination?" She asks me.
"Maybe it's time you learn to drive too!" I laugh.
"Would you teach me?"
"I don't see why not." I smile. She's really connecting with me. I always wanted an older sister. Now I have one.
"Thanks!"
'So the more we move, the harder we are to detect. Perhaps someone is tracking us?' Sven Suggests.
"Hey Asphodel, are you able to tell if we are being tracked?" I ask her.
"Maybe."
"Also, why are all the spells so far in Latin?" I ask her one question after another.
"It's the highest vibrational language we know about," Asphodel replies calmly. "That was actually a good one." She nods.
I'm somewhat glad she acknowledges me as a student. That it's wise to ask the things I ask. It feels like I'm actually starting to understand how this stuff works. It all comes down to the seven hermetic laws. I wonder if it applies to all laws across all things? I can't be sure yet. Though it seems I may have the time to do so. Learning seems to be the major attempt here for me. Everything is different from what I knew before. Maybe everyone could do this stuff if they simply abided by those laws.
I sigh and sit up on the bed. I adjust and slip on my clothes from earlier. If I only understood earlier, maybe I could have prevented the incident. Who am I kidding? That stuff isn't normal to me, nor do I think it is normal for them. Someone or something is trying to stop us from leaving America.
"So I'll drive us to the other side of Nashville and I'll have to start learning to drive. There is a lot of stretch there for you to learn." I explain. The map on the phone is probably the most useful tool for us right now.
"Right. In the meantime, I think I have an idea where Garth might be." Asphodel Replies.
"Oh?"
"Only two people have it out for Garth." She says.
"And who is that?" I ask.
"Right."
"Their name is right?"
"No, hang right so we can hit the Sam's club for snacks."
"Oh!" I hang right as she points to Covington Pike.
"Left." She says.
I turn left and follow along the road. I soon see Sam's and pull into the parking lot, trying to get a spot as close to the doors as possible. I watch Asphodel reaching under the seat and pulling up a stack of money. I pull into the space in front of the doors.
"How d'ya know that was there?" I ask.
"Long Story." Asphodel replies.
"Okay."
"Let's get a list going." She says. I glance into the back seat and see the wyvern sleeping in the seat. "Is there anything particular you want in there?" She asks.
"Get a lot of soda. A coffee maker, a car smoke plug in, so I can wire the coffeemaker to the car. I want some chips too, maybe cookies." I just shoot some ideas.
"Yeah, Soda Agreed." She enters stuff into her phone. "Coffee and maker, a wired adapter, chips, cookies." She pauses. "Essential oils, candles, lighters, cooking oil, olive oil, salt, garlic..." She begins listing more on.
"Why all that?" I ask.
"We are going to make you a spell kit," Ashphodel replies. "Oh, a mortar and pestle if they have one here, maybe a herbalist guidebook for you." She thinks aloud.
"I doubt they'll have that here." I admit.
Asphodel shakes her head and gets out of the car. She waltzes her way into the store. She always has a way of acting, almost as if she owns this world. 0erhaps that's part of being a witch, you eventually gain more confidence. I still have a lot to learn, that much is clear.
"I wonder where Garth is. Asphodel says she's got an idea." I speak as I think.
RAP-A-TAP-TAP!
I look out the driver's window and there is a man with a coffee cup in my window. This man simply is pointing to the cup. Very poorly written on it says 'Change Please'. I feel for the man. It makes me think for a minute, realizing that we have money under Asphodels' seat. I reach and feel some paper slide. I figure that might just be more cash. I keep trying to swat it out and into my hand.
The man taps on the glass again. I slip it out enough to count. They all are twenties so I count out two hundred. I sigh as I roll down my window.
"could you spare some-" he tries to speak as I jam the money I counted out into his cup. I don't even want a thanks, so I roll my window up immediately. I don't want to hear how grateful he is. We all deserve to live.
I shift and put the rest of the stack back up inside of the seat cushion. I wonder how they ended up with all this money in the car. Garth doesn't seem the type to make a lot of money. I look back to the man and he has taken off, thankfully. I don't always do well with all people. I just know we all need help sometimes. I hope that helps him.
I sigh as I wait. I can see Asphodel approach the cash registers. It seems like this place is always a bit slower than a regular grocer. even so, it's usually easier to find everything here or so I find.
Asphodel inches up the line and I feel like smacking my head off of the steering wheel. This is taking what seems like forever. Dozens of people are going in and out of here. I could only imagine being a worker here. It's so busy.
Asphodel approaches the car with a bunch of bags. She opens the back and tosses them into the car. Closing the front door, she slips back and fluidly enters the car in one motion, opening the door entering and closing the door seamlessly.
"Alright. back to the highway we were on." She says, relieved.
"Busy in there, huh?"
"Yeah, but it's Memphis. What can you expect?" she laughs.
She makes a point Memphis is a fairly large city, considering. Nashville will probably only be bigger, I assume. I never really travelled like this and am enjoying the experience, minus the being nearly killed by hemlock.
I back out of the parking space and head toward the road. Hanging right, then down the road and then left to get back in the direction we were heading. It's only a matter of time before we are out of Tennessee. I never realized just how big the United States really was until now.