Page 36 of Midlife Witch Unexpected

The purple and green strands of light traced lines over the walls of the room and converged into a group going out the door. I could feel the light pulsing from me as it made its way around the house.

It was going to the library. I was sure of it.

I’d been thinking there was something in that room. I moved purposefully to the library.

"That which is mine, allow me to find," I said the words with conviction and power. Energy coursed through me. The moving sparks of purple and green light were dancing on the ceiling. They ran down the books, across the floor, up the pedestal, and into the book that was sitting directly on the pedestal in plain sight.

The bible?

Trepidation moved through me as I walked towards the pedestal. How could it possibly be the Bible? No way.

But as I stepped up to the book, the page it was opened to changed. It was as if I’d been looking with the wrong eyes, and I hadn’t seen what was clearly in front of me the whole time. The book was not a bible in the slightest. It was the grimoire of my family.

My fingers stroked the worn leather of the outside of the book. There was a front page with a list of people who owned this book before me. It stretched back generations upon generations, hundreds and hundreds of years. The book was older than the house by far. It had come with my family from Ireland from back in the days of Celtic kings. And now it rested in my hands, here in a small town in the hills of Southern Oregon.

And at forty-nine years old I was finally given my birthright, my heritage. This book was everything I’d been handed down through the centuries from my ancestors. This book held the truth of who I was and who my daughter would be.

Chapter 22

“I found the Grimoire,” I whispered to Hilda when she and Branson and Anita were over at my house.

“That’s wonderful news. Now you must study it. How did you find it?” she asked.

“I made up a thing I call a finder spell,” I gave a smile of pride.

“You’re a finder witch,” Hilda nodded as if that all made sense.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Your specialty is that you can find things.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I said. “It’s not conjuring dragons, making love potion, or destroying demons. I can find lost socks and missing keys. Special.”

Even Hilda couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face. “But at least we can move on.” Hilda let out a low whistle and motioned to Branson and Anita to join them. “It’s time to go to the cemetery.”

“She found it?” Branson asked.

Hilda nodded.

"Mom and Drake are working," Anita said, munching on some spicy Cheetos.

“We’ll go without them.” Hilda clomped her boots on the mat as she stood at the front door.

I looked at her as I prepared my litany of protests. My ankle hurt. It was too cold outside. There were bees down there and I was allergic to bees. And the failsafe…I have a headache.

But as I opened my mouth to speak, Hilda shook her head in protest.

“There may have been some things that were only known by The Hayes, but there are some things we know about for sure. Visiting the cemetery once a month and following the parameter is a must. That is the job.”

I took a deep breath. Hilda clearly had had a good night’s rest and had a resolute look in her eye.

There was going to be no arguing with this one. I was stuck going to the cemetery. I held up my hand because I could see by the look on her face, she was getting ready to give me another short lecture.

“I’m forty-nine years old,” I said. “I don’t need lectures. I know I made a mistake and I know the way to rectify it.”

Hilda chuckled to herself. "Kids these days. They think you have all the answers, but you don't. Do you think what you're basing your opinion on is reality? It isn't. Life is revealed one minute at a time and not a moment before. You never know what's going to happen at this minute and you never know what's going to happen in the next. You know that better than most."

“It seems to me after a bit of life you get a certain amount of knowledge and wisdom helps you to make better decisions,” I said.

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