Chapter 19

What Shade is Sky Blue

Luke

Just as I finished knocking on the door for a second time it swung inward, the Witch standing on the other side with a cool expression on her face. For a couple uncharacteristic seconds we just stared at each other, as if in a standoff over some unspoken dispute. "Why don't you come inside." She said gently, stepping back from the doorway.

My voice caught in my throat and my hands twitched at my sides as I stepped towards the door. Something about this meeting felt foreboding, although I knew it was likely all in my head. "I'm sorry for not coming by yesterday" I started, only to be promptly interrupted.

"You were sick." She said firmly, moving towards the little table set with tea and pastries as though this was a non-issue. I was slightly startled by her having known that, but I wasn't about to question the powers of a Witch. She sat down at the table, crossing her long, stocking clad legs, and gave me a hard look. "Don't let yourself get sick."

Don't let yourself get sick. The words almost seemed to echo as I sat down across from the Witch, puzzling over those words as she lifted her teacup to her lips and I looked down into the light blue china that sat at my own seat. Then the pieces seemed to slide together and I started slightly, my back thumping into the chair as I sat up straighter. The scent of pine. Choked whispers and the soothing feel of liquid trickling down my raw throat. The flash of long silver hair disappearing out my window. My eyes widened and I gave the Witch a look that was met with an arched brow. "Did you heal me?" I asked slowly, not quite believing that I was putting my fragmented memory together correctly.

"Of course I did. It was child's play. Did you think I was going to let you get out a contract with a magical being just for having a little flu?" She asked haughtily, taking another sip from her teacup before setting it back down on the saucer with a little clink. "Granted I think we need to have a little talk about our agreement?"

"A talk? ..."

"Hmmm, yes." She said simply, uncrossing her legs and leaning forwards against the table. Her delicate fingers formed a steeple that she studied closely as a tense silence grew between us. "I think it's time we cease from this arrangement. You are released from your obligation to visit me."

"Wait but – shouldn't I – I mean you – You healed me so shouldn't I owe you even more time?" I stumbled over my words, my brows drawing together in confusion. I ought to have been rejoicing, freed from the slew of tasks and forced visits that I'd been subjected to for months and instead I was insisting that she make me stay longer.

"No I think I've kept you long enough already. It's my price and I'll decide how steep it is. Your debt has been repaid, consider yourself a free man. Now shut up and eat the cookies I spent my precious time baking for this little celebration." The Witch roller her eyes, leaning back from the table and gesturing loosely to the sweets.

I picked up a cookie and chewed it slowly, feeling awkward in the Witch's presence for the first time in a long time. I looked everywhere but at the beautiful and intimidating woman in front of me, instead opting to survey the room. "You redecorated." I noted quietly, taking in the walls which had transformed from bare to densely decorated with pictures and portraits. Some of them seemed to be old paintings but others were newer photographs.

"Yes… It was… It was time for a change." She responded quietly.

I stood from my chair and started to walk around the perimeter of her home, looking closely at all the different people in the pictures. The Witch was in some of them, sometimes wearing a different outfit but always with a cloak and her hat. About halfway around the room I found a picture with a familiar face, a woman with a light blue braid hanging over her shoulder and an orange bandana wrapped around her head like a headband. "Is this a picture of my mother?!" I exclaimed, rounding on the Witch and pointing wildly towards the photo.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't you recognize your own mother?" I frowned at her and turned back to the wall, only to realize there was a whole cluster of pictures of my mother, two of them even included the Witch. The one that really caught my attention though was one that I recognized from my own house, a portrait of my family when I was about 2 years old.

"Why do you have these?" I asked, reaching forward to trace my mom's particularly wide smile in a picture where she couldn't have been much older than I was.

"Is it wrong to have pictures of one's friends?" The witch snorted and I heard the clink of her cup returning to the saucer again.

I couldn't help but turn around and stare at her when she said that. "You were friends!?"

"The best of friends." She said, her tone distant and the edges of her lips turned up in the barest of smiles. I walked back to the little table and sat down across from the woman that had only seemed to have more secrets the longer I knew her.

"Tell me about her." I said simply, reaching forward for another cookie. "Please."

"What's there to say?" She laughed bitterly and broke a cookie between her fingers, grinding it down to crumbs on her plate. "She was bright and sunshiny. She used to visit me and we would go hunting for potions ingredients and cook pies together. Then one day she just stopped visiting. The end."

"That – that's it?"

"Yes that's it. What, do you want to wheedle me from details that you ought to be getting from someone like your father? Yes I was close friends with your mother. Don't presume that being her son obligates me to disclose her personal, or mine. Now get out of here, Luke. If you're not in the mood to celebrate your freedom I'll start celebrating mine. Go on, out with you!" She shooed, standing from the table with one hand on her hip and the other waving in the direction of the door.

"But –"

"No, I'll not hear it! I'm telling you to leave! Out!" The Witch stamped her foot and pointed more firmly at the door. Not about to risk inciting her wrath when I had just finished my punishment and stood from my chair and walked right out the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." I threw over my shoulder with a halfhearted smile, and snapped the door closed behind me.

The first snow of winter started to fall as I walked home and the chill seeped into my skin enough that I pushed my sleeves back down and zipped up my sweater. The Witch is a rude and disconnected recluse, I reminded myself bitterly as I tried to ignore the snowflakes catching on my eyelashes and the tingling in my toes. Frosty dead leaves crunched beneath my boots as I walked out of the forest, trying not to give too much thought to the Witch's dismissal of me or why I intended to return the next day with or without her approval. I tried not to give too much thought to her unceremoniously telling me to leave, either.

But there was one thought that I couldn't escape as I walked over the suspension bridge and towards the soft glow still shining from my home despite the late hour. Details that I ought to be getting from someone like my father. I mused sullenly, digging my hands down further into my pockets. She was right. If I wanted to know about my mother I should be asking her husband, my own dad. But it wasn't really so simple, seeing as my dad avoided talking about her at all costs. Any mention of my mother at all had practically been taboo since the day of her funeral, the day my dad took her orange bandana and tied it around his neck.

When I walked through the door of the carpentry pops was slumped at the table, looking over blueprints and floorplans for house upgrades. He had a pencil held loosely in his hand and his head nodded slightly every couple seconds, as if he would fall asleep right there at any moment. I smiled and walked over to the table, taking a seat across from him. The sound of the door closing and the sharp scrape of my chair across the floor seemed to wake him up some and he gave me a slight smile before turning back to his paperwork. I took a deep breath.

"Hey pops can we… Can we talk about mom?" My voice was soft and low, unsure. I couldn't bring myself to look at him when I uttered the words, watching myself scratch my fingernail across the wood of the table instead. I heard the rustle of fabric and looked up only to see him standing from the table. "Dad!" I said, the tightness in my chest increasing as he turned away from me. "Pops we can't run from this forever. We can't just pretend like she didn't exist."

"Son." He said, his voice firm, like he was done with this conversation before it had even started. He stayed turned around, his broad back presented to me and shaking so slightly that I thought it might be my imagination. "If you think I pretend that she didn't exist then you have never been more wrong in your whole damn life."

"Then sit back down and talk about her! You haven't even said her name since I was 6 fucking years old! This is getting ridiculous…" I trailed off, my hand curled into a fist against the surface of the table and tears pricking at my eyes. The silence between us grew as and I was about to stand from the table myself when he scraped his chair back across the floor and sat back down.

I was expecting his voice to be gruff like usual but instead it was quiet and slow, almost broken. "What do you want to talk about?" He didn't say anything else, just rubbed a hand down his face and studied the whorls in the woodgrain of the table.

"I don't know just…" I had to stop and clear my throat. "Just tell me about her… I can… I can barely remember anything about her…"

"Your mother…" He trailed off, leaning back in his chair and exhaling slowly. He looked over to me, his eyes tired and slightly bloodshot. His mustache twitched a couple times before he started talking. "She was amazing. I don't know what else to say. Your mom was the first woman I ever loved. The girl of my dreams. And she was a great mom. There's not a single day that I don't' miss her like hell."

The silence was back, but not so tense this time. "When did you meet? How did you guys fall in love?"

"Hmm…" He started, the noise rumbling from deep in his chest and his eyes crinkling in a slight smile. "I grew up in this house with my uncle, who was the Master Carpenter here before I was. Your mom moved to Castanet when she was 16, with her parents. They lived in that little house above Ramsey's place and she got a reputation pretty quickly for doing all sorts of odd jobs and stuff around the area. She'd climb up on your roof to patch a shingle or help you out in your fields or chase the birds out of your attic. Her family was pretty poor but she never took any money for the stuff she did, said she just wanted to help. Pretty much everybody liked her and she was a pretty little thing but I remember they used to always complain that she wore pants!" Pops paused and let out burst of laughter. "What a thing to complain about! 'She'd be so beautiful if she would just put on a skirt already' they used to say!

"Oh goddess she was beautiful." He trailed off wistfully. "One day I asked her to help me out in the forest, help me carry the lumber or something, and she said she'd rather do the chopping! And I let her!" He laughed again, wiping at the moisture that was collecting in his eyes. I couldn't help but smile at him. I'd never seen him so relaxed; I'd never had the balls to sit him down and make him talk before. "I gave her my axe and she felled her first tree right there. She was so cute, cheering for herself when it came crashing down. She didn't make it through piecing up the whole thing, got too tired, so I cut up the rest and she helped me haul it all back. We were standing out back of the lumber shed, all dirty and sweaty, and she kissed me. That was the beginning of it all. We dated for a few years and got married when I was 20 and she was 19. My parents came to Castanet for the wedding and then she moved in with me here. And she never stopped wanting to be the one to cut down the trees."

Neither of us said anything for a few minutes, I was too busy processing the story of my parents and he was no doubt lost in his thoughts. Then he started again, his voice sounding tired this time.

"We always knew about her heart. That's why her family had moved out here, thinking the fresh air and change of scenery would be good for her. They'd spent a lot of money on doctors and different procedures to try to help her but nothing worked. This was their last ditch effort, to just give her the best chance at a long and happy life. They were older folk but they lived long enough to see you born. I don't think any of us had seen your mom happier than she was after you were born. She practically glowed with love. Doctors had told her that she might not live through a birth but she got pregnant she was so excited, nobody ever could tell her no to something. And she made it just fine through the birth and all the rest. You two were inseparable for months. I guess the rest is history really. None of us were expecting her death when it finally came. We thought she'd make it so much longer…"

"I remember she used to always smile. Was she really that way?" I asked, leaning forward on the table and propping my head up with my hand.

"Every second of every day."

"Did you guys ever think about having more kids?"

"Your mom wanted to, but I couldn't bear the risk."

"What was her favorite color? Her favorite place to go?"

"Red." He said with a smile. "She looked great in it too, always used to wear red shirts. She liked the woods best I suppose."

"With the Witch?" I said softly, unable to meet my father's eyes as the question whispered past my lips. The last time I'd asked him about a witch in the woods he hadn't wanted to hear a word of it. But we were already talking about uncomfortable subjects tonight and I wasn't about to let him tell me I was being ridiculous this time.

"Son." He said, a warning tone in his voice that I met with a hard stare.

"Pops, don't try to do this. Last time I asked you about a Witch you convinced me to let it go but that wasn't the only time I met her. I'm in the wood every damn day and you know I get into my fair share of trouble but that lady is a bigger hardass than even you've ever been." His mustache gave one twitch, then another before it rumpled into a frown and his eyebrows drew together in a scowl. Still, I continued. "I didn't say anything because I know how you get about the supernatural or whatever the hell but I've spent every day for months with a fucking Witch! Now tell me if she was telling the truth when she said she knew mom!"

"Yes, alright! Yes!" He roared. "There's a Witch! A pretty little thing hiding away in the woods that doesn't look a damn thing like her age who hardly ever steps out of her fucking swamp. Yes, your mother met her there when she started being the one to cut the trees and yes they were friends. I only ever met her once, when your mom was pregnant and I was scared that she wasn't going to make it. I spent a whole day in the forest looking for her. When I finally did I asked if there was anything she could do and she laughed and said 'there's nothing a Witch Princess like me can't do'. Well goddess damn it all to hell she was wrong and here we all are now!" He stood from the table, his chair scraping back across the floor as he stalked toward the door. He paused in the doorway, his hand gripping in the doorknob with white knuckles. "Magic is better off left to other people, son. All the magic in the world couldn't save Cara. No amount of praying the goddess could heal her heart. Whatever witch there is in those damn woods can stay in there and leave me the hell alone."

The door slammed shut behind him and I was left in the silence of the kitchen dead at night, with nothing but my own heartbeat and breathing to keep my company. I let out the breath I'd unconsciously been holding in a slow stream and wondered if I'd made the right decision, wondered if I'd heard what I wanted to hear.

Author's Note: So after another little break I managed to put together a nice long chapter. I'm sorry it's kind of a train wreck. I've been working on it and it's better than it was but I kind of just got sick of it and wanted to move on to the next chapter. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements. Thanks for your kind reviews after my last post, even thought I was gone for so long! Unfortunately, updates won't really be picking up again since I'm taking Organic Chemistry for the next 6 weeks and that's sure to be hell.

I'm still working on Witch's chapter. Hopefully I'll finish it to post tomorrow, but it might be a little while. Sorry.