The Swamp Map

Foxxay: The two witches find themselves lost in the swamp they were supposed to know well.

"I think it's this way." Misty looked up from a map and pointed to her right. Her feet didn't move, however. She instead turned around to seek approval from her companion.

Cordelia came to stand next to her, a little out of breath. "Are you sure? You said the same thing twenty minutes ago, and I feel like we're only going deeper."

She looked back. The tall grass and sloshy ground of the swamp concealed their footsteps, keeping them from going back. There was no way of calling for help. Her smartphone had turned into a non-smart, non-phone machine when they stepped into the swamp. The pedometer indicated that she had already achieved her daily activity goals, giving her celebratory and inspirational words. Push the limits! Go farther! She'd really rather not.

The phone beeped, and she turned the sound off without looking.

"I thought the phone didn't work?" Misty said with a hint of hope.

Cordelia shook her head. "It's just the alarm for the lunch meeting. Well, at this rate, I'm standing the Mayor up."

It had started when Misty insisted on stopping by the shack on their drive home from grocery shopping. It was going to be a short stop. They would've had plenty of time before the Supreme had to leave the academy for the meeting.

The fault was on Cordelia's part. She didn't want to make a detour to their usual path to the shack, which was far from where they were driving. There didn't seem to be enough time for that. So, they had entered the swamp from an unfamiliar spot.

What a terrible lack of foresight that had been. Haste makes waste. Or, as Myrtle liked to put, premature orgasming pleases none.

"I'm sorry." Misty ducked her head. "It's all because I dragged you out here, Miss Cordelia."

Cordelia put her comforting hand on her shoulder. "Let's focus on finding our way for now, okay?"

But there seemed no path -not even an animal trail- to be found around them. The thick clouds hid the sun, and it was impossible for them to even get a sense of direction.

"Oh, I know!" Misty said. "We could use teleportation. Go to the shack, and you could even make it to the meeting in time."

"It wouldn't work. To use teleportation, it's crucial to know one's location in relation to where you wish to go. Witchcraft 101, Misty."

"I may or may not have skipped that class."

"It's also in the textbook."

"Never opened it before."

"Misty-"

"Hey, so, can we teleport back to the car, then?" Misty sounded extra cheerful, dodging further lecturing. "We know where we parked the car."

"But we don't know where we are. So, no."

Misty sighed and buried her nose back in the map. "What if we have walked through a portal to another dimension without knowing? Maybe that's why everything looks strange."

"Well, that would be a nice excuse to tell the Mayor, at least," Cordelia said. She knew that when Misty began talking nonsense like this, she was either hungry or sleepy. Considering the time, it was most likely the hunger.

Misty nodded and hummed, lost in thought. Then, she made up her mind and started walking. Cordelia tried her hardest to walk on the less muddy part of the ground as she followed.

"What do you think lives in other dimensions, Miss Cordelia?"

Cordelia shrugged, only taking a side-glance at her. "I don't know. It has never occurred to me."

"Do you believe in aliens?"

"The universe is immeasurable. The size and the age. It'd be ignorant to assume we are the only living organism."

"I think they are already here on Earth," Misty said. "But they are so common that we don't realize they've come from other planets."

"Is that right?"

Misty noddeed with a proud grin. "The octopus. They're so intelligent, Miss Cordelia. And, they may not use spoken words like us, but they can communicate through their skin color. Humans can't do that. And the dragonfly- Did you know these suckers have zero blind spot?"

Despite their situation, Cordelia couldn't help her smile. "Someone has been binge watching nature documentaries."

"I swear, I never thought I'd like that tiny computer. I always get the heebie-jeebies around all those machines." She shrugged. "But it's nice, getting to learn about the animals I've never known before."

"I'm glad," Cordelia said. "Perhaps I should give you a VR set for your next birthday so you could go to the safari or the Papua New Guinea jungles."

"What's VR mean?"

"Virtual reality. You wear a headset like giant goggles and immerse yourself in the digital world-"

The moment Misty heard the word digital, her curious eyes clouded with doubt mixed with slight disgust. "That means they are fake, though. Nature can't be controlled. It's fun because it can only be observed. That's where happy accidents come from."

"Oh, like getting lost?"

Misty gave her a guilty glance, which made her laugh.

"I agree with you, Misty. But this better be over soon." Cordelia looked up at the grey sky through the naked branches. "The forecast said it would rain around noon."

Although this uncalled-for exercise was keeping them warm for now, the air was crisp. It would be freezing in the rain.

Misty wrapped her shawl tighter around her shoulders. "The girls must be chilling in front of the fireplace now, with hot cocoa . . . and s'mores . . . Hollywood is maybe taking a warm, candlelit bath."

This made both of them shiver even more.

As they kept walking, they stumbled upon what looked to be a huhman trail. Misty opened the map again. Cordelia, on the other hand, looked at the trail in suspicion.

"Misty, I think we are going in circles."

"What are you talking about? We've been walking in a straight line."

"But, look-" Cordelia neared the biggest tree in their vicinity and pointed at the small pile of stones at the root. "I put them up in place of footprints."

Misty's hesitant gaze travelled back and forth between the stones and the map. "How'd you know it's your doing, though? Maybe some people got lost before us and did that."

"With my magical signature in it?" Cordelia picked up the stone at the top, pushing it into Misty's palm.

The doubt on Misty's face vanished in an instant. The trace of the Supreme power was too evident to ignore.

"Right?" Cordelia said.

With tight lips, Misty sighed through the nose. "Alright, Miss Gretel. You're right. We've been going in circles."

"Hansel. It's the brother who leaves a trail of breadcrumbs. Not the sister."

Misty's sigh turned into a groan. She sat on the protruding root, folding up the map in surrender. "I wish I had a bagel right now."

They had bought blueberry bagels at the supermarket along with her favorite sesame ones. But everything was left in the car.

"Why isn't there a spell for conjuring food up?" Misty said.

"Witchcraft doesn't work miracles, as regular people think. It has to abide by the law of the universe like everything else. You can't create something out of nothing."

"We make fire out of nothing."

Cordelia smiled. "Not exactly. There are certain molecules in the air that produce heat. Magic just helps you collect those molecules, pack them so dense that they start to combust."

"I understood none of that." Her stomach grumbled as if in agreement. "Are there molecules that could produce food?"

"No." Cordelia sat next to her on the root. Her hand reached for the folded map in Misty's hands. "May I?"

Misty obliged to the request without a word, too tired and hopeless. It pained Cordelia to see her like that. It was way better when Misty was rambling on all gibberish.

Cordelia ran her hand up and down her shawl-clad back. "It'll be alright, Mist. I promise. Now, can you tell me where we might be?"

It goes without saying that the swamp map didn't compare to the sophistication of the city map. It only had a few markings here and there. But it still showed the circumventing highways and the bodies of water spread across the place. Until now, it was more than enough.

Near the center of the map was a cross mark. That was their goal.

Misty's index finger hovered over the area between the cross and the south-east edge of the swamp. "Around here, I think. The car is parked somewhere here, because this is the road we were driving on, and-"

"Wait, no." Cordelia's index finger joined over the map. Her eyes scrutinized it as if it was a Latin spell book. "No, Misty. This is our highway"-She pointed at the one almost on the opposite side of the map-"We were supposed to go east. But we've been . . . going west."

Misty held the map closer to her face, turned it upside-down, and looked at Cordelia with deer-in-the-headlights eyes.

"Misty."

"Hmm?"

"Have you been reading the map upside-down this whole time?"

In grave silence, Misty gave a slow, thoughtful nod. "It appears that it is the case."

It was Cordelia's turn to let out a groan.

"I'm sorry, Miss Cordelia." Misty took her hands and blinked her puppy eyes. "Please, don't be mad at me."

Cordelia swore Misty knew that look could get her away with anything, at least, as long as the Supreme was concerned.

"I'm not mad, Misty. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes." She gave gentle pats on the back of Misty's hand before returning her attention to the map. "Okay, so, the river we walked by earlier is not this one, but more likely this one. If we follow the water, we may be able to get out."

But the look on Misty's face betrayed her apprehension. "What if- Not that I doubt you, but what if the water led us deeper instead of out? How'd we know if we should go upstream or downstream?"

"Shit, you have a point." That was a possibility that Cordelia didn't like to dwell on. "But you know what? Either way, the swamp would end if we kept walking."

Misty's stomach grumbled again as her expression turned into that of despair. "I should've had an extra begel this morning," she said, standing on her weakening feet.

Cordelia wrapped her arm around her waist in support. "You can have as many bagels as you want when we get home. I won't stop you."

To their delight, the edge of the swamp came into view in less than an hour of their turtle walking.

The signal bars on Cordelia's smartphone also came back. As expected, she had several missed calls and messages from both the Mayor's office and Zoe. But kicking them off the priority pyramid, she called a cab in order to find their car.

When they returned to the comfort of their car at last, it was beginning to drizzle.

Folding the rear seats flat, they both lay among shopping bags. Misty salvaged her blueberry bagels and finished one within half a minute.

Cordelia kicked her swamp shoes off. The sound of the rain against the car roof was too hypnotizing. "Maybe we should camp out here. I can't drive home."

Misty said something unintelligible with another bagel in her mouth. But Cordedelia got the general message as Misty pushed one of her bagels into her hand. She watched Misty gulp orange juice out of its container.

"Satisfied?" Cordelia said with a grin.

Misty took a deep breath and lay her head near Cordelia's knees. "I'm too full. I think I'm gonna be sick."

"You might as well have swallowed three bagels in one go. Perhaps a little exercise would do you good. How about a casual walk to the shack?" Cordelia only meant it as a joke.

But Misty looked up with expectant gleam in her eyes. "Can we, please? I was half about to give up, but if you are in-"

"Hold on. Really? It's raining outside."

"That's what umbrellas are for." Misty folded the seats up to grab two huge umbrellas from the underseat compartment.

Cordelia threw an uneasy look at the discarded mud-caked shoes. "How about we come back tomorrow, when it's sunny? What's so urgent about it anyways, right?"

Misty's fingers fiddled with the hem of one of the umbrellas, however. "Welp, I have some stuff that I want to get." She looked at Cordelia. "I'll go by myself. You rest in the car, I'll go and come back in a flash. So . . . can you just drive to our usual entrance?"

And there went that signature pleading look that she knew Cordelia couldn't say no to. She had no choice but to relent. They drove to the familiar part of the swamp, driving as deep in as the muddy ground allowed the tires to.

Misty grabbed a whole bag of her sesame bagels.

"I thought you were full," Cordelia said.

"I am now. But I'm not going without food. Who knows I might actually walk through a portal this time?"

As Misty got out of the car, Cordelia followed with her soiled swamp shoes back on.

"You can stay," Misty said. "It won't take long. I promise."

"Well, it's the job of the Supreme to make sure you won't accidentally disappear into another dimension."

In truth, she would choose to strain her body if it meant she could spend another second with Misty. Even in the rain. It wasn't a secret. And Misty's gratified smile told that she wasn't oblivious to it, either.

The rain got harsher when they were halfway to the shack. Misty sang any Fleetwood Mac songs that had the slightest association with rain and storms. The umbrellas almost served no function. By the time they arrived, the only dry parts of their bodies were the top of their heads.

Cordelia made a beeline for the bathroom and turned on the faucet to make a bath. The hot water seeped through her to the bone. She resisted the temptation to take off her drenched clothes and step into the tub. With a bath towel on her shoulders and another in her hand, she returned to the main room.

Misty was rummaging through her chest, still in her wet dress. The clothes clung to her skin, presenting the accentuated curves to Cordelia.

Averting her eyes, Cordelia started a fire in the fireplace with a flick of her hand. "Misty, come get changed. You'll catch a cold." She walked to the dresser and grabbed new clothes for both of them. "Misty, please."

"Coming." Misty scurried to the bed, where Cordelia had put her change of clothes.

"What were you doing?"

Misty patted her hair dry with the towel. "A thing."

Cordelia raised her brow but said nothing. Instead, she turned her back on Misty in order to take her clothes off. "The bath will be ready soon," she said so she had a different thing to focus on. "The nice, warm bath of your dreams."

The only response Misty gave was an absent-minded hum.

Though it baffled Cordelia, she refused to turn around. She instead returned to the bathroom to turn the water off.

"Misty, the bath," she said, walking back into the main room. But her expression grew perplexed as she saw Misty, still drenched, back at the chest again, pulling miscellaneous things out and spreading them across the mattress. "What are all these?"

Misty looked up. "Ummm, things?"

"Yeah, I didn't think they were animals." She tried to sound sarcastic, if not stern, but her lips curled into a smile.

Misty wore a similar smile. "Depends on the definition of what an animal is."

"Misty, please take a bath."

"In a sec. I just need to . . ." She didn't bother to finish the sentence for Cordelia.

That switched the Mother Mode on in Cordelia, which was usually reserved for the small girls at the academy.

"Those things won't disappear on their own, Misty. Or are they somehow more important than your own health?"

Her eyes scanned the objects. "They are, actually."

"Oh-" Cordelia frowned. "What, are they gifts from Stevie or something?" Sitting down on the mattress, she played with some rings and necklaces that lay there.

"No. I collected them myself." As she spoke, water dripped from the tip of her curls and trailed down her arm.

Cordelia couldn't hide her unimpressed grimace. "Misty, I'm sure you cherish them, but objects should never be prioritized over your health. The bath. Go."

"You go first." Misty returned to digging through her chest. "I need to"-Her body shivered-"put them in a bag to take home. But, a bag . . . I don't know if I have one."

It was hardly the first time Misty let her passion consume her and render her blind to her surroundings. In usual cases, such an innocent relationship with curiosity pulled the heartstrings of Cordelia. She would do anything to preserve it, keeping it as pure as her soul. But Misty's teeth clattered as she walked around the room, and that was the last string for Cordelia.

"I'm the goddamn Supreme. My immune system is much stronger than yours, Misty Day."

Misty span around with alarm clear in her eyes.

"I may have concoctions for a cold, but they are not to be wasted for something so preventable. I'll say this one last time. Go take a bath. Now, or I will take your clothes off myself-" As the last sentence left her mouth, she heard how it sounded and tightened her lips.

Inside her appeared a vortex of awkwardness and guilt for using her Supreme voice to Misty. She found it unbearable to look Misty in the eye. How would she react? With fear for the Supreme or with a teasing laugh? Cordelia didn't know which outcome would ease this wild vortex.

The following silence told her that Misty equally didn't have a clue. For some moments, she stayed motionless before going to the bathroom at last.

Cordelia dried their clothes in front of the fire while she waited. Her face grew painfully hot. It had nothing to do with what had slipped out of her mouth earlier, she told herself.

Afterwards, she found plastic bags in the cupboard. The collection of Misty's things on the bed looked nothing strange at first glance. Accessories, a book of short stories, socks, scarves- Cordelia raised her brow. Misty never liked the claustrophobic feeling of socks and scarves and strictly maintained her stance despite Cordelia's countless persuasion. On closer look, the accessories also seemed slightly different from her usual style. And when her eyes caught a brand-new mortar and pestle, a new question arose.

It was when Misty came back. She looked warm, sheepish, and uncertain.

Cordelia offered a smile to ease the tense air, holding out the plastic bags. "Are these bags okay for your stuff?"

Nodding, Misty sat down on the mattress. "I'm very sorry for being childish earlier, Miss Cordelia."

Childish wasn't the exact word she herself would use, but Cordelia nodded nonetheless. "Me, too. I didn't mean any of what I said. Of course, I'll take care of you if you get sick."

"I know." Misty met her eyes and smiled. "But, Miss Cordelia, I don't want you to think I'd so easily put myself at risk for any ordinary materialistic things. I'm not educated, but I'm not stupid."

"I never think you stupid."

Misty dropped her gaze. "They are important."

"I know."

"They are for you. For your birthday."

"Oh-" Cordelia's mind went blank. "My birthday is in february." She wished she could have a better response than that. Her stupid mind had no business making her sound so callous.

"Not for that one," Misty said. "I haven't thought what I'm going to get for your next birthday. But these ones"-She grabbed the mortar and pestle-"are for the birthday I missed last year. You said your pestle was getting old." Her hands reached for the other things, pulling them closer. "And them. Well, you know how indecisive I could be. I couldn't possibly pick just one. Then, I realized last year isn't technically the only birthday of yours that I missed. There are the ones you had before I met you, right?"

In complete awe, Cordelia started down at the ocean of gifts.

"It's quite a loophole if I may say so myself." Misty wore a proud smile. "I was going to give them to you at home. I'm still short, though. Kinda running out of ideas." Her inquisitive eyes looked into Cordelia's. "I hate to do this, but any suggestions?"

But Cordelia still failed to find her voice.

"Anything you want? I can't buy you a diamond or anything costly, but maybe a dress-"

She couldn't contain her emotion any longer. She wrapped her arms around Misty's neck. As tears spilled out of her eyes, all the memories of her past birthdays came back flooding her. Ever since her childhood, birthday was never a celebratory occasion. If anything, it reminded her how lonely she was in the world, how unlovable and unneeded.

"You're enough," she said in Misty's curls. "You're everything I need and want."

"You have me every day of the year, silly. It's nothing special."

Cordelia shook her head, nuzzling deeper into her neck. "But I didn't for a long time. Sometimes, I get scared because you could be snatched out of my life anytime, and I'd be alone again like I have always been."

"Hey, hey-" Misty made their bodies separate, cupping her wet cheeks. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? As long as you need me- Hell, even if there comes a time when you don't need me anymore-"

"That's implausible."

Misty smiled. "Then, we got nothing to worry about, yeah?"

Wiping her tears away, Cordelia returned the smile as best as she could. "I'm sorry. What I wanted to say was that you've taught me the happiness I'd never known. And if all my shitty life before you was an inevitable prerequisite for this life with you in it, then, I would go through it all over again."

"No need to," Misty said. "I would've found you either way."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

It was unclear who leaned in first. But Cordelia couldn't care less when Misty pressed her lips against her own with equal zeal. Her eyes threatened to well up again. She traced Misty's jawline with her fingers, and it was the most angelic sight in the world.
Misty's dreamy eyes stared at her lips. "Your lips are cold."

Before she got to regulate her breathing, Cordelia burst out laughing.