My Grandmother was a Witch
Chapter 2
I woke up in the middle of the night. Partly because the noises here were different. There were no sirens. That and my toes were cool so seeing that the fire had died down a fair amount I got up and added wood from the wood pile. I had seen the woodpile outside under this shed-like structure and wow, did Grams have wood! She had wood coming out her ears.
"There, that should warm up my toes nicely." Kate had it roaring in no time.
"Grams?" She was up and coming down the stairs and into the living room. "What are you doing up?" It was really early and the fire was going strong.
"I have a lot to teach you, Katie, and today is all I have to work with so I can't afford to sleep."
"O–kay." Kate didn't get it but whatever.
"Follow me." She walked to the kitchen and sat at the table. "Sit here." She patted the space next to her. "Now this book here is all you're going to ever need. Just follow the directions to the letter, be very careful, and this book will serve you well.
"How are your cramps?" Anna asked her.
Kate smiled. "All gone. I was telling myself I need to get you to teach me how to make that drink."
"I'm going to teach you that and a lot more. All I can." Kate watched her open the book and saw pages full of words that were handwritten; there were even diagrams. "This is the potion I made to relieve you of cramps for 24 hours. Read this and make your own. I made it all the time for your mother. I'll watch so get started."
"Now?" Kate looked askance at her. She still had some sleeping to do. "All right." Grams looked serious. Soon Kate was adding wood to the stove, filling a pot with water as directed, and searching for the things listed on the page.
"Careful, not too much. Instead of getting rid of your cramps it'll give you diarrhea. Worse, it will last for hours," Anna cautioned Kate as she watched.
"Yikes." Kate looked at the directions again and measured everything twice before adding it and watched it boil. She strained away what she didn't want to drink and handed it to her grandmother since she asked and watched her taste test it.
"Very good. Here, you made it, you drink it." She handed it back to Kate who sipped her drink to prevent the cramps from coming back.
"What else is in this book?" Kate stepped over to her and looked down at the book that was actually rather thick. It was thick, she soon learned, because the pages weren't paper. They were skins. Scraped thin and dried animal skins, no less.
Anna smiled at her. "Lots of things. Most are potions for this and that. You can make just about anything you want."
"Potions? You mean like potions that a witch makes in those movies?" Grams had to be joking.
"Yes, exactly like that. I'm a witch." Anna saw the look on Kate's face. "Don't look at me like that, Katie. There are good witches just as there are bad witches."
"You're serious?" Kate stopped drinking her drink. It was a witch's potion, after all. God only knew what it was really doing.
"Very much so. And no, your mother isn't a witch. Being a witch skips a generation. Your mother isn't a witch but you are. If you have children your girl won't be a witch but her daughter will be. Now if neither of you have girls." She shrugged. "Our heritage dies with you or her. That's just the way it is."
"You're really serious. I'm no witch. I don't do anything." Kate hadn't done anything to even suggest that she was a witch.
"Because you haven't been taught, Katie, and that's my job. I have from now till the day you leave to teach you all I can. What I don't have time for you can read from this book. You'll get to hand it down to your grandchild and teach her."
Anna eyed her. "Your cramps are totally gone, are they not?"
"Well, yeah." She had her there.
"Drink your drink, it's good for you." She turned back to her book and changed pages. "Here. This potion will get you to believe and you might as well make it."
"Me?" She made a drink to get rid of her cramps, not a potion.
"It's an invisibility potion," Anna told her. "You drink it and it makes you invisible for a while. You come back slowly starting with your head. Your feet are last. I think I have enough slug eggs to do this."
"SLUG EGGS!" Kate wasn't eating or drinking slug eggs and that was that.
"If I don't have enough all it'll do is temporarily turn you green instead of invisible. If this doesn't convince you I don't know what will. Just follow the directions. Naturally you need to be naked to be invisible since it won't make your clothes invisible. That said, I don't recommend doing this while it's 40 below outside."
"No kidding. Fine, I'll humor you. But it better not taste like slug eggs or you can keep your book." Kate pointed her finger at her and saw her smile back at her.
_/\_
"Slug eggs!" Kate made a face of disgust as she poured them in then went back to the book and looked at how long this was supposed to boil. She finally strained the liquid into a cup and smelled it. It didn't smell bad but it didn't smell all that good either.
Anna stirred it a bit. "Let it cool a little so it doesn't burn your mouth but that's one thing about potions. You have to drink all of them hot. If you let it cool too long it loses its power. So blow and drink."
Kate simply sipped in case it tasted like it sounded. Snail eggs came to mind. "I drink this?" Kate wondered if she really should. A hospital was a long ways away and did she trust her grandmother this much?
Kate drank it down and it didn't taste so bad until the aftertaste hit her. Kind of like the aftertaste on some wines she had tried. "OH, that's disgusting. The aftertaste is terrible." Kate smacked her lips and wondered what she could take to kill the taste.
"Wait for it," Grams told her.
Kate stood there with her cup in hand when suddenly her hand started disappearing.
"MY HAND!" One hand was gone and the one she could see, she touched. And then that one was gone. Kate pulled her top open so she could look down but didn't see her breasts. "NO WAY!" looking down she couldn't even see her feet. Lifting one foot to touch the other told her that both of her feet were still there.
"It really worked! Where's a mirror?" Kate looked around and remembered there was one in the pantry so she went in there. "NO FUCKING WAY!" An invisible hand was touching an invisible face. Kate came back out. "How long does it last?"
"At your weight? A little over an hour. How much you weigh when you drink it dictates how long it will last. Take off those jammies and give it a try." She watched as Katie's pajamas ended up on the kitchen table.
Suddenly Anna found herself being poked by an invisible granddaughter and then the door opened and closed and she was gone. She picked up the book and put it back in its hiding place for later.
_/\_
She was back to sitting at the table when the door opened by itself, the pajamas got picked up, and soon she was looking at an invisible Kate in pajamas sitting next to her.
"What else can I do?" Kate was hooked now.
"So you believe me?" Anna asked her granddaughter.
"Well yeah, you made me invisible. How cool is that? So what else can I do? Witches in movies have a wand. Can I use a wand?"
"You have to find out for yourself what kind of wand works for you. Everyone's different. All of the directions are in the book you will be going home with."
"So I'm a witch. A real witch." Kate chuckled lightly. "And Mom isn't. Does she even know?"
Anna shook her head. "No, she knows nothing. I knew when I had her that she wasn't going to be a witch but when she had you that you would be or could be. I hoped that I could get her to bring you out here so I could teach you."
"Do I ride a broom or something? Please don't say a vacuum cleaner." Kate made a face of disgust at that idea, not that her grandmother could see it.
"You've been watching too many movies. Though you can fly. All you need is the correct piece of dead wood that's large enough to fly with. We'll have to do some trial and error to find the right wood type for you. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be the same tree as mine. Just pray I have that type of tree on my land or you'll have to find it on your own.
"Mostly a witch is a potion maker. Just remember you have to drink them warm so you can't really make one ahead of time. You let it boil too long and you ruin it.
"And I can see your hair," she informed Kate who promptly raised her hand and pulled some of her long brown hair around to see it.
"It's wearing off." She was going to be visible soon. "So what else, Grams? This is amazing!" Kate couldn't believe this. She hadn't wanted to come here in the first place and while some of that had to do with her cramps, that were gone now, but there were other reasons. Now she was so glad she had come.
"It's mostly all in the book. We'll practice some if it while you are here. The rest will be up to you." Anna looked at her sternly. "Remember, your mother knows nothing about any of this. I'm just her mother that helped her using my little potions on occasion."
"I understand. So we're witches, huh? I never saw that coming. So there are really good and bad witches?" Kate inquired and suddenly she could see her own hands.
"There are. Just like in the movies the bad witches are bad. They'll try and kill you if they get a chance. Just remember a bad witch will look just like you do. They are not ugly."
"So not the Wicked Witch of the West like in Wizard of Oz?" Kate questioned and listened to her grams laugh.
"Definitely not. She could be your next door neighbor. They live literally anywhere. Out here, downtown Manhattan, anywhere."
"Great! So are they just like me? I mean they do things using hot potions and a wand?" Kate questioned her.
"Correct. So your best bet is to assume she's a witch whose hot potions she tries to get people to drink so watch for that."
Jo walked into the kitchen thinking she needed to be up early to start on breakfast. Her mom had a lot of meat down in her freezer so bacon, sausage, or something was entirely possible. "You two are up early."
Anna smiled at Johanna. "I got a little cold so came down to check on the fire and found her stoking the fire so I stayed."
Kate grinned at her. "Grams is full of stories, Mom."
"Oh, God!" Jo rolled her eyes and groaned and heard her mother laugh at her.
"I need to get dressed since I'm up and about to lose my bed." Her bed was the sofa for them to sit on. "Thanks, Grams." Kate kissed her cheek and retreated to search her suitcase and then went upstairs where the only bathroom was located.
_/\_
"First riding lesson." Jo showed her how to get the horse ready with bit and bridle first, blanket and saddle and how to keep the saddle cinched in place so she didn't fall off.
"Always mount from the left side. Insert your left foot and push with your right leg and push with your left and pull with your hand." Jo showed her how. "Your turn." Jo kept an eye on her.
"A slight kick with your feet gets him or her moving slowly. The harder you kick the faster he'll go so just a light kick for now and we'll walk." And they began moving.
"I'm going to not be able to sit down for a week if I keep this up for long," Kate complained.
"You ride using your legs. Press with your legs and sort of stand up as you ride." Jo watched her literally stand up and snorted out a laugh. "Not that much, Katie."
_/\_
"MOM!" Her mother had just taken off at a trot and was leaving her behind. "OH GOD!" She was going to have to kick her horse to go faster and she just knew she was going to fall off and break something! "MOM!" She wasn't cut out for horse riding this fast.
"You want to jump the dead tree?" Jo asked her.
"NO!"Trotting was already too fast. No way she was jumping anything and was back to walking as her mother took off racing for that dead tree and jumped it. "JEEZ, MOM!"
"You never told me you knew how to ride a horse." They were back and Kate was now working out how to get off and watched her mom just get off easily.
"I'm full of surprises." Jo smiled widely at her. "You can get off, you know." Kate was still on the horse.
Kate groaned since she was sure this was going to cause her to end up on her butt. But she gave it a try and yup, she screwed it up and almost did end up on her butt. She frowned and listened to her mother laugh at her.
"That's enough horseback riding for me." Kate was done for good.
"All right," Jo said." Now you have to take it all off your horse and set it free after you check his hooves."
"Of course." Kate rolled her eyes. She was staying in the city. Living out here was not for her. It was pretty but hard work. "You really grew up here?"
"This was home till I went away to college. I only came home a few times after that. Mama probably missed me but I was so focused on my job. I came home when Dad died. Follow me." They were done with the horses and let them go where they wanted after making sure they had enough hay.
_/\_
"This is where we buried my dad. It was one of his favorite places on the property. I just don't know what to do with the place after Mama's gone. It would mean closing my practice and moving out here. Jim is a city boy and hasn't ever been on a horse before. It could be yours if you want it, Katie. We can talk to Mama about it."
"I'll think about it." The place was beautiful and truly unique but did she really want to live way out here? Kate wasn't so sure. She had been born and raised in New York City. It was all she really knew.
_/\_
"Did you two have fun?" Anna asked them when they came back inside and found her in the kitchen with the fireplace burning nice and tall and hot.
"The area is beautiful, Grams. I'm just not sure I want to live way out here. I think I might be a city girl."
"You may change your mind in a few years. Maybe want out of the city really badly." Anna shrugged. "One never knows what the future holds. Maybe your husband will love living out here."
"I have to have a boyfriend first, Grams," Kate countered given the fact that she was between boyfriends now.
"Trust me, that's a good thing," Jo told her mother given some of the boys she had seen her daughter with.
"MOM!" Her past boyfriends hadn't been that bad and watched her mother shake her head so she glared at her.
_/\_
They were all packed and she was holding her granddaughter back as her parents loaded the car.
"Your book. Remember you have to follow the instructions to the letter and don't let the potion get cool and then use it. It will fail and you're going to want to find what you need to make potions with." Anna handed over the big book to her.
"Like snail eggs." Kate made a face of disgust since she had no idea how she was going to get those.
"There's worse in there. Now one last thing." Anna showed Kate an amulet and carefully put it around her neck. "Always wear this. Never, ever take it off. Shower with it on, go everywhere with it. This is the one thing that I can truly give you.
"Read about this amulet in the book, about how to make it work. That might come in very handy. When you use it it will take you back in time by one hour. One hour, not less and not more. You get to re-live that one hour once and only once. One hour per week. Remember, only one hour per week. Not a minute more."
"What would I need that for?" Kate didn't see the need.
"To re-live one hour. The options are endless. You had sex and are afraid he might have just gotten you pregnant. Go back one hour and don't have sex. Life in the city is dangerous. You get hit by a car. You get mugged. There's a drive-by shooting. Go back one hour and change that because you know what's coming. It might just save your life."
"Maybe you should have it, Grams." She lived out here in the middle of nowhere. There had to be wolves, bears, cougars…something dangerous that was going to kill her and eat her.
"No dear, you're the next witch in the family. It's yours. In the future maybe you can give all of this to your granddaughter. She's going to want these things. They've been in the family for a really long time. Take very good care of yourself, honey, and practice your potion making. There are a lot of potions in there." She hugged her and kissed her cheek and watched her leave with her daughter and her husband.
"Good luck, honey. I've done all I can for you." Anna didn't think she was ever going to see her again but she had loved spending time with her. Katie was a smart girl.
"Mama gave you a present I see." Jo could see Kate holding a book tight to her chest.
"Yes, Grams is amazing, Mom! Can we please come back again? But not when there's 6 feet of snow on the ground." Fall was beautiful but she was betting winter was brutal.
"Sure, I'll see what I can arrange." Jo was glad she had liked the visit. She had a great fear that she was going to lose her mom before she could get back here with her family.