The town of Lysandermoor had been steadily rising with joy during the passing weeks of July. A very special holiday was creeping toward us like the dead crawling away from their graves. Samhain. Wow! What a great holiday.
The spirits will always rise on Samhain, and some will go into the homes of their families and "dine" with them. Some of them might see the candles by the windows to help them pass on while others, who have no good intentions, will see the pumpkins we carved scary faces into and turn away.
Meanwhile, the living and their children will dress up in masks and costumes and go door to door to say, "Trick or Treat!" Even some of the young men and women will go to costume parties and have the time of their lives.
Oh, excuse me, the laymen call it Halloween.
Mom stumbled a bit into my room after knocking, bringing in what laymen would call an atrocious smell. She must've already done some of her wake'n bake without me. "Magicka! Time to get up," she signed to me.
I groaned as she opened the thick orange curtains one at a time for the sun's beautiful, yet blinding rays to come in. My room still looked the same as it had been for the past few years. Turquoise walls with tapestries of Tarot cards and mandalas, fairy lights, Turkish lamps, some metal posters of Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, and Lana Del Rey, and right next to my door hung my Chilling Adventures of Sabrina calendar. My colorful beanbag, which Tana claimed for herself, was in front of my window that was to the right side of the bedroom. My altar next to that window was decorated with crystals, spell jars, sigils, tarot cards, books on witchcraft, and a big Himalayan salt crystal. Anything boho, hippie, or witch related was in my room. It just runs in the family. What can I say?
Mom's long, curly red and white streaked hair flowed behind her as the AC kicked on while she walked to my vanity. She wore her favorite Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and had a yellow and orange paisley shawl over it. Her pants were high-waisted skinny jeans and her feet were still bare except for the shiny red nail polish she loved so much. I'm still surprised that no one ever stopped to look at my mom's eyes whenever we went out in public. They were beautiful emerald jewels that always sparkled in any light. Even under the moon, they sparkled. Needless to say, my mom came through with the good genes.
"Get dressed, sweetie. Try to not be late," Mom signed with one hand while setting out a crystal necklace and a couple of bracelets, then did her best to glide out the door. Gliding was more of Grandma's forté, anyway.
Tana and Alice followed suit of my mom walking out and jumped onto my bed. Once Tana got on my chest she started hitting my face like she was doing me a favor. Meanwhile, Alice got up and started doing her sweet and awkward trills while trying to get under the crocheted blanket with me. Two cats who were polar opposites. One sassed, one loved, and somehow they found each other bearable. I could never.
Get up! You feed us! Tana said with a growl.
I groaned once more as I tried to swat away another paw to the face, but failed. "I don't want to."
Tana huffed so hard she snorted. I won't cleanse anything for the rest of the week, then.
I rolled my eyes groggily at the Satan spawn. "Fine."
Tana was my first familiar. A friend from middle school had a litter of kittens that were born and Tana was the only one who came up to me. She was also the first familiar that I could understand. She played with my puffball keychain while speaking her excitement with no one else hearing her but me. I accidentally scared her when she first realized that I could understand her, but once we became friends her... personality, suffice to say, really started to show through.
You better be down in ten minutes. Ten minutes I tell you! Tana said as she jumped down from my bed to the floor and walked away with her dark brown tail going straight up with a curl at her tip.
At least she's happy.
I'll be honest, Tana was the prettiest cat I had ever seen. Her eyes could tell stories of icebergs and blue skies during winter. Her belly and the majority of her fur was white, but her mother was a Siamese cat, so she had big tannish-beige colored patches scattered across her back and the tiniest bit on her face. Her ears were the same color as her tail and the only black spot she had was her nose. Mom joked around with me when I got her and said that a Buddhist monk must've been drawing her from the Otherworld and made a mistake on her nose by sneezing with the heavily inked calligraphy brush in hand, making the black go towards her right eye instead of straight up her nose.
Alice on the other hand successfully got under my blanket and looked at me with her sweet green stained glass eyes. I don't think she'll be mad if we cuddle for a bit.
While Tana was a bit on the burly side for cats, Alice was significantly smaller. She was the runt of her litter but had no problems with feeding from her mother. She was the only black and white kitten of the litter and was quite quirky. Her meows were more like mehws and she only played with people and other animals, never toys. And in addition to her features, Alice had an adorable black mark on her top lip that resembled a Marie Antoinette beauty mark.
"I think she might. And because of that, we shouldn't waste time." She whined as I held her while getting up. "Plus I missed my morning wake'n bake with Mom. How else am I supposed to enjoy breakfast and make school tolerable?"
Awe, c'mon! Just eat one of your candies and call it a day. I want cuddles all day!
"I'm sorry, Alice, I can't. How's this, I'll carry you around wherever I go in the house when we get back from school."
And in your backpack when we get going to school.
Defeated. "Very well." Alice then began to purr as she rubbed her cute face against her hind paws.
I set Alice down to put on my clothes. A cream-colored, loose-fitting dress with spaghetti straps, a v-neck, and floral embroidery along the hem. A long lace cardigan that matched my dress went over my shoulders. The orange and black bracelets Mom set out decorated my wrists while my black obsidian pendulum rested as a necklace after I sealed the clutch.
Alice jumped onto my shoulders as we made our way to the bathroom. As soon as I walked in, there she was to greet me. As always.
"Good morning!" she said in a sing-song voice.
"Morning," I said back.
In the mirror stood me. The other me. The me telling this story had decided on the cream-colored dress Mom got for me from Free People. As for the other me, she decided to wear the frilly blue dress that Grandma handed down. Also, other me wasn't carrying Alice on her shoulders while getting ready for the day. Instead, she had her hands and shoulders free of animals as she did her makeup; a cat eye and smoked out nude toned eyeshadows. While my blonde hair was curled and cut just above my shoulders, hers were luscious curls that cascaded down just past her tailbone. It seemed to suit her style.
"So girly, how are you and Sage?" she asked while putting on her favorite deep red lipstick. Every morning she asks if we're doing okay.
My shoulders got tense. "We're fine," I dragged out with a shy smile while grabbing my toothbrush and putting a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on it. Once I got that settled, I opened my compact mirror with one hand, which had my normal reflection and began to brush my teeth.
Nearly every time Sage was mentioned I blushed, although I didn't understand why.
Sage and I had met when we were both first years at the academy. We both ended up going through similar things together. We went through school, meeting boys, beginning our first-ever relationships and going on double dates, and our first breakups together.
"Jesus Christ, the two of you would be so cute together." She jumped up onto the countertop and started gliding on her mascara in such elegant strokes.
My eyes widened in shock. "Excuse me?" I mumbled out with foam nearly spewing from my lips.
She giggled at my reaction. "Oh, relax. I'm only making a compliment," she said as her eyes looked at me in what seemed like a comforting way.
I raised an eyebrow as I asked, "You okay?"
She took in a deep breath. "I'm okay. I'm just so happy and excited."
"Oh? Why's that?"
She looked off to the left and said with rosy cheeks and a glowing smile, "I.... met someone."
My toothbrushing halted. "Really?" I fumbled out, nearly spewing toothpaste all over the mirror.
She nodded her head with a big smile.
"Tell me about him," I said before brushing the front of my teeth
"Oh, don't you worry about it."
I finished brushing my teeth and spit it all out in the sink as I thought about what to say. "What's he like? Please?"
She shook her head slowly. "I can't tell you everything. Just know that this person means more than the world."
I let out an awe while leaning up against the wall. Alice then jumped from my shoulders to the countertop. "C'mon, please tell me a little more?"
Her eyebrows raised as she lifted her shoulders. "You already know it could interfere with your timeline."
"-interfere with my timeline. Okay...." I said with annoyance.
"I know sweetie," she replied empathetically before dropping her mascara into her tasseled clutch. "Hey, remember what I told you; back straight, shoulders back, boobs out." We both laughed from the inside joke as she hopped off the counter. "Forgive me for cutting this short, but I have to run. Date night with the dream guy." She looked down and smiled lovingly. I could almost see a small tear forming in her eye. But she cut it short. "Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow!"
I waved back at her and giggled as she gracefully walked away.
It's crazy how far she's come. The day we met, we were both too shocked to speak. It's not every day someone, even a witch, gets to see a version of themselves in a parallel universe. When we first met, I was scared at not being able to see my reflection, but she seemed to be... terrified? Sad? Shocked? I'm not sure, and she won't say. We both had walked in at the same time apparently, and once I noticed that my reflection wasn't my own, I backed away to the wall behind me. When we locked eyes she froze in her spot and tears ran down her face as she covered her mouth and ran away. To this day, at least during this time, I've never known why she acted the way she did.
I went out the bathroom door after grabbing my eye drops and walked down the steps of our old Victorian home. Alice then hopped off the counter with excitement then scurried to the kitchen while I followed.
"Good morning, Mom!" I said loudly with glee after jumping down the last couple of steps and rushed over to Tana and Alice's food bowls for their offerings.
Mom was at the kitchen island trimming our very fragrant grow from the basement while Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon blasted through the newly installed surround sound speakers around the kitchen and living room.
"Oh, good! You're finally up," she signed once more. "Here's your tea." She picked up the tea that was in my favorite mug as I walked back toward the island and scooped up cat food for both of my familiars. The mug was a cauldron that had three little legs at the bottom and a print that said Witch, please on both sides.
Sign language --specifically, PSE-- was what my mother and I used to communicate with each other. She wasn't born with normal hearing for a child and as she grew older, her hearing worsened. While growing up, my grandmother refused to teach her any sign language, so English became her first language, making it also the easiest for her to sign.
"No joint today?" I signed out my question with a giggle after setting down the food bowels as the cats argued about whose bowl belonged to who.
"You would've had one if you didn't oversleep," she said shaking a finger at me teasingly as she signed with the other.
"I know, but it's Monday," I drag out with a cheesy smile.
"Too bad, so sad." She smiles at me while I sip my infused tea.
Mom was the typical 70s hippie child. She had a silent obsession with Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles, Make love, not war was her motto, and even went full-nomad life to travel across the U.S. in a VW minibus. She says that she ran away to find herself and she had no regrets about anything she did. Not even having me, despite not having my dad around.
When the nearly floral tea hit my taste buds, I asked in sign language, "What strain did you put in this one?"
She sucked behind her teeth, looking for what she used. She found the two single-pound bags full of the sacred green flower on the counter behind her. "Kandyland and a small bit of Purple Punch." Before I could sign out anything, she raised a hand. "A small bit. There's more sativa than indica in that tea. Also, there's rose, hibiscus, and strawberry in there too. What do you think?"
I smiled with a little chuckle. "It's delicious."
"Great! I've been thinking about adding teas to the shop."
Oh, the shop. Mom ran her own small cannabis business in town with a license to grow her supply. Hence the beautiful buds from the basement of our home.
"You should. Ooh! You could make some teas that could also be smokeable with cannabis. Like rose, raspberry leaf, and lavender. Things like that."
Mom looked at me with her head tilted and then pointed at me with the scissors in her gloved hand. "I didn't think about that. Good idea."
I smiled at my accomplishment as I check the time. I nearly choked. "I'm late! Sage's at the cafe by now. I gotta run."
"Alright, but finish your tea," Mom instructed.
"Yes, ma'am," I say before chugging the lukewarm drink. As soon as I was done, I let out a breath and set the cup in the sink. "I'll see you later, Mom!"
"See you later. And hey, don't forget any spellbooks this time! I don't want to get another call!"
"Yes, Mom! I'll grab them!"
I grabbed all of the leather-bound spell books needed for my typical school day; protections, charmes, manifestation, astronomy and astrology, numerology and mathematics, and sources. After double-checking every spell book, I stuffed them into my pale pink and blue backpack. Alice hopped inside of it and I zipped it up just enough for her to stick her head out, then it was off to the cafe.
"I love you, Mom!" I exclaimed.
"I love you, too!" she replied as Tana darted out the door before I could reach for the handle, nearly making me fall. I cursed under my breath and quickly shut the door behind me.
Outside of our home which looked gloomy and gothic, were two giant scarlet oak trees on either side of the front yard that twisted and bent in toward each other. In front of me was the dirt driveway with a beat-up, yet still reliable, silver Corolla at the end of it. To the right was a pathway through a great overgrown forest. The trees were a varied bunch. Some were of many different oaks, some black cherry, some red maple, among many others, and its pathway was a straight shot from my home to downtown where Sage was waiting for me.
Due to my tardiness, I decided to take the shortcut. Tana trotted slightly ahead of me as I quickly walked in the direction of the forest. My brisk walking turned into jogging as I dodged rocks and roots in my path. Tana ran in the same direction and soon enough we entered the grove.
While speeding through the grove, I saw the trees' colorful leaves in my peripherals, and it almost made me upset for not stopping to admire them. But there was always the next day. Suddenly, a man dressed in gray stood to the right of the grove, giving me a bit of a shock back to reality once I saw him among the colorful leaves. I quickly glanced at him and said, "Sorry, excuse me!" out of politeness and continued down to my desired destination.
Soon enough, the noise of busy people filled my ears. TVs were on display in shop windows, old homes that were turned into tourist attractions were filled with people, and diners and cafes were bustling to wait for more tables. And there, standing in front of the Potions Cafe, was my best friend with a big smile.
"Hey, what took you so long?"