Page 4 of All My Witches
“Fine. I take it back. You started talking at six months. You were a prodigy and we were all inawe.”
“That’s better.” Thistle crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down. “I think you of all people should know that I had no choice but to start speaking early because I needed to protect myself – and therefore all of you as well – against AuntTillie.”
“And speaking early did that foryou?”
Thistle nodded without hesitation. “I didn’t just speak. I uttered my first counter-curse. It was a powerful one, and that’s how Aunt Tillie knew she’d met her match. I was aprodigy.”
She was completely full of crap. Her first word had been “cookie” and I remembered very well because she was so delayed compared to Clove and me that everyone started clapping when she finally spit out the word. Twila (her mother) had been worried that Thistle was developmentally delayed, but it turned out she was simplylazy.
“I guess that’s why you and Aunt Tillie have never gotten along,” I drawled. “She’s afraid of you because you’re aprodigy.”
“Exactly.”
“Uh-huh.” I pursed my lips. “You realize that I recognize you’re full of crap,right?”
Thistle scorched me with a look. “Don’t make me force you to eatdirt.”
“There’s too much snow outside to finddirt.”
“Oh, I’ll make anexception.”
“Because you’re aprodigy.”
Thistle extended a warning finger. “If you keep this up, you’ll be dead to me for the rest of thenight.”
“Why is that a concern? It’s hardly the firsttime.”
“Yes, but you need me,” Thistle supplied. “You need me to help you plot against Aunt Tillie. I heard you whining when I got here. You want to mess with that old bat, but you need help doingit.”
She wasn’t wrong, still … . “What did you have inmind?”
This time the look that crossed Thistle’s face was diabolical. “I’m so happy youasked.”
Uh-oh. I’d clearly woken the beast. I tilted my head to the side, debating whether or not I cared that she was probably going to take things too far during our revenge plot. Ultimately I couldn’t work myself up even a little at theprospect.
“What have you got inmind?”
“You’re going to lovethis.”
She was right. I lovedit.
* * *
How awesome wouldit be to be able to send your kids up to the attic for five years and have them pop out as fully-functioning adults? That’s how it works on soaps, and I think it soundsheavenly.
– Marnie after being stuck babysitting the girls for an entireweekend
Two
It turnedout that Thistle’s plan wasn’t genius as much as it was immature. Still, I was bored and worried about Landon being stuck on the frightening roads, so I agreed to help. By the time we were done, Thistle cast a spell that made Aunt Tillie feel as if there were ants in her pants – and infesting her chair. We were left with nothing better to do than to wait for Aunt Tillie to react and then ultimately slapback.
In the meantime, our other cousin Clove and her boyfriend Sam arrived. They looked a little worse forwear.
“We ended up in the ditch,” Clove announced as she warmed her hands by the roaring fire in the dining room. “It’s like Armageddon outthere.”
The simple statement caused my anxiety to escalate. “How did you getout?”
“I towed them out,” Chief Terry announced as he strolled in the room. “I had my truck and a chain. We got lucky that they hadn’t been in there more than a fewminutes.”
