Free The Accidental Witch by Jessica Penot

like mud in rain.”
    I lit the candle for Ellie and I said, “May Ellie find happiness. May her sorrow leave her and may she find joy in all the little things in life.”
    I lit the candle for Candy and I said, “May Candy find a place that will embrace her for who she is. May she find safety and love and happiness.”
    I raised my hands when I was done and said, “The magic is spent and sent.”
    Again, the candles sparked and the flames leapt. They danced and rose larger than they should have. The wax around the candles caught on fire and the sparks flew up into the air and drifted out the window. There was a sudden silence. The birds stopped singing and the wind stopped blowing. It became chilly. The light of the candles grew until it was overwhelming. I sheltered my eyes, the light was so bright. Eventually, the light began to fade and the candles were almost spent. I sat in silence and watched the candles burn. When the last candle had flickered out, the birds began to sing again and the wind whispered through the trees. The air became hot and humid again.
    I stood up and cleared the altar. As I wiped the old wax away, my phone rang. I jumped. I had been in such a trance, I had forgotten about the real world. I shook myself out of my stupor and answered the phone.
    “Hey,” a voice said.
    “Hey,” I answered.
    “Do you want to get dinner?” It was Aaron.
    “Sure,” I said.
    “I’ll be there in an hour,” he said.
    I didn’t have time to tell him to wait. He’d already hung up. I began to wonder if the love spell had been a mistake. Perhaps it had been too strong. I looked at my phone for a minute and then I shoved it in my pocket and ran home to get cleaned up for dinner. I tried to dodge the workers as much as possible as I got ready, but it is hard to dodge people that are laying down hardwood floor in the hall in front of your bedroom. I stepped over them politely and smiled, but they seemed irked by my presence.
    One of the men laying the flooring down called out to me as I stepped into my room.
    “Hey, lady,” he said in a Mexican accent. “What did you do to scare the ghosts away?”
    “What?” I said.
    “My wife was here. She’s psychic. She says this place used to be the most haunted place around, but now there is nothing here. She wants to know what you did.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t you have work to do?” I asked.
    I slammed the door before he had time to respond. At least my room was my own. I turned on the television and the shower. I undressed slowly as I watched the news. I don’t know why I watched the news. It never helped my disposition. It always made me cranky and mad and hopeless. I stepped in the shower and let the hot water wash over me. I felt better already. All the tension and irritability melted away. I stood there for a minute and then I leapt back out of the shower and began to get ready. I had gotten used to being on my own and this dating thing was stressing me out. I liked Aaron and he seemed like a nice man, but every day? Really? Did grown people want to see each other every day if they weren’t married? Of course, I had no idea what the answer to this question was. The last time I’d been on a date, dinosaurs had roamed the Earth.
    I slipped into an old dress I used to wear in the summer when I had been thinner. It didn’t look that bad, but it reminded me that I desperately needed to go shopping. I had really stopped caring about my appearance over the last year. I dug around in an unpacked box and found a necklace and some earrings that matched it.
    I stood back and looked in the mirror. I’d seen worse. The doorbell rang just as I slipped on my shoes. I skipped over the workmen and down the stairs to meet Aaron at the door. He smiled at me and whisked me away into the night.
    That night he took me to a little café off the highway. It wasn’t much, just a greasy spoon, but as far as I could tell, they had the best barbeque