Witches in Flight (18 page)

“Good.”
 
Marion
nodded in approval.
 
“The more
gorgeous the yarn, the simpler the pattern should be.”

“Marion’s fifth rule of knitting.”
 
Helga spoke in a stage whisper clearly intended to be heard
on the other side of the store.
 
“She’s got a lot of rules, that one.
 
I’m more the loose and freewheeling type, myself.”

Elsie giggled as a twenty-year-old conversation reared its head
yet again.

“Some beginners need rules,” said Caro calmly.
 
“Some need inspiration and
encouragement to go a little wild.”

Some needed both.
 
Elsie fingered the yarn in the next cubby, realizing just how fine a
teaching team Helga and Marion made.
 
One that had obviously had a lot of practice.
 
“How many beginners come in here?”

“More every year.”
 
Caro flashed a rare grin.
 
“These two are my best advertising.
 
Remember that poor woman who wandered in last year thinking
this was the wine store?”

Helga winked at Elsie.
 
“She left a little yarn drunk.”

That wasn’t at all hard to imagine.
 
Elsie regretfully stacked the last skein of silky Malabrigo
on the shelf, giving it an extra pat.
 
She’d be back.

Right now, however, something intrigued her more than yarn.
 
“How did you get started?
 
With the teaching and the shop, I
mean?”

She looked up to see three sets of eyes, full of sharp
interest.
 
Elsie blushed.
 
“I’ve been thinking about my purpose in
life.
 
You all seem to have found
yours, and I’m interested in how that happened.
 
How did you know it was right?”

Marion shrugged.
 
“There were people who needed teaching, and we were here.”

Elsie hid a grin.
 
That fit the matter-of-fact Marion down to her toes.
 
There was a need, and she had filled
it.
 
Simple as that.

“Had too much yarn.” Caro shifted her ledger aside.
 
“When my stash grew out of my second
bedroom, it was either time to buy a bigger house, or start a shop.
 
The shop was cheaper.”

The words were still matter-of-fact, but Elsie could hear the
echoes behind them.
 
Love ran deep
in Caro—for people, for yarn, for art.
 
The shop had given her an outlet for all three.

You see well.
 
Caro’s mindvoice
held approval.
 
Can’t count,
though—you’ve inventoried that orange Malabrigo twice.

Elsie sighed.
 
It
was hard to do a job properly when the yarn was so pretty and distracting.
 
Not to mention her company.
 
She’d recount the Malabrigo, but first
she wanted the last answer to her question.
 
She cast an eye toward Helga.
 
“And you?
 
Why
do you teach?”

“For joy.”
 
Helga’s
smile was uncharacteristically soft.
 
“There are moments in our lives when we open—when our eyes and
hearts see a little more clearly and our souls float a little closer to the
surface.”
 
She reached over for
Elsie’s hand.
 
“Those who teach get
to see them more often.”

For need.
 
For
love.
 
For joy.

Elsie tucked the words away in her heart.
 
She didn’t know yet where they
led.
 
But she would.

~ ~ ~

Jamie walked into the Headbeater Cafe, amused.
 
He spied Josh at the coffee bar.
 
“Fascinating choice of venue.
 
Trying to send me a message?”

Josh grinned.
 
“Jennie invited me here a while back to give me the Witch Central
once-over.
 
It seemed kind of
karmic to come back.”

He hadn’t known about that particular visit.
 
Not that it surprised him—Aunt
Jennie was a champion meddler.
 
“Witches are kind of a nosy lot.”

“You take care of your own.”
 
Josh stirred his coffee, eyes suddenly serious.
 
“And Lizard’s one of your own now,
isn’t she.”
 
It wasn’t a question.

Jamie knew that look.
 
He saw it in his wife’s eyes all the time.
 
He’d be lucky to keep up with this conversation.
 
“Yeah.
 
Not every witch ends up on our radar, but once they do,
there’s lots of opportunity to belong.”
 
Witch Central might have its warts, but they didn’t lack in
welcome—something Josh was likely to figure out in a mighty way fairly
soon.

“So, this mind-power stuff…”
 
Josh turned on his stool, getting down to business.
 
“Can it be used to hurt her?”

Jamie blinked—and then gave the guy serious props for both
guts and clear thinking.
 
“To
control her or anything like that?
 
No.
 
The biggest hazard to a
mind witch is information overload, particularly before they get well
trained.”
 
He was walking a dicey
line here, but Josh deserved some answers.
 
“Lizard was in good hands when she came in to her
power.
 
Her life took a crappy turn
after that, but she has good magical roots.”

Josh nodded.
 
“It
must suck sometimes to have the ability to know what everyone’s thinking.”
 

More props for a clear head.
 
“Yeah, it’s not all roses, especially if you hang out with
unfortunate company.”
 
Again on the
dicey line.
 
“But most mind witches
learn to barrier pretty fast.
 
And
Lizard has good ethics—if anything, she doesn’t use what she has as much
as she could.”

“What do you mean?”

Jamie reached for his incoming coffee.
 
Headbeater baristas tended to toss orders—it was smart
to have your hands ready.
 
“Most
mind witches browse outer thoughts fairly often—we’re kind of lazy that
way, and we’re used to hanging out with people who know we do it.”
 
He wondered how far to go.
 
“Lizard’s default barriers block a lot
of channels most of us leave at least partly open.”

“Why?”

Jamie stayed quiet and let Josh work out the answer for himself.

When he did, the quick anger on his face spoke volumes.
 
“She’s lived in places where she didn’t
want to pick up stuff from the people around her.”

“Yeah.”
 
Jamie felt
his way very carefully.
 
“A lot’s
changing in her world now, but that much history doesn’t just vanish.”

“I’m getting that.”
 
The anger was still there, but Josh was already tucking it away.
 
“Does she know how I feel about her?”

His wife was going to really like Josh.
 
Jamie took the first, gut-searing sip
of espresso and decided this guy could handle the whole truth.
 
“She probably doesn’t want to know.”

Josh contemplated the contents of his cup.
 
“She’s not going to get that choice
forever.”

Jamie grinned and tossed back the rest of his espresso
shot.
 
He knew the right venue for
part two of this conversation.
 
“There’s
a big spaghetti fest at my house tomorrow night.”
 
Or at least, there was now.
 
“Drop by around 6 p.m.”
 

Josh blinked.
 
“Okay.
 
Single guys don’t
turn down home-cooked food, but why?”

“Because single realtors don’t turn down spaghetti either.”
 
Jamie grinned.
 
If Witch Central was going to meddle,
at least some of them should be on Josh’s team.
  
“Just consider me an investor.”
 

Most of the coffee landed back in Josh’s cup as he rumbled with
laughter.
 
“Damn.
 
I have to stop drinking coffee with witches.”

Jamie clapped a hand on his shoulder.
 
“I think you’re just getting started.”
 
Witch Central wasn’t going to need much
of an invitation to adopt Joshua Hennessey.

~ ~ ~

--------------------------------------

To:
[email protected]

From:
Vero Liantro <
[email protected]
>

Subject:
Re: Nothing for me to do.

--------------------------------------

Jennie
dear,

Melvin is indeed laughing, although perhaps not for the reasons
you think.
 
He said to tell you
that a guide’s job is never over—and applauding from the sidelines is a
delightful and important role.
 

It’s like parenting.
 
The hardest, most intensive time comes at the very beginning.
 
We still love those babies as they grow
into daredevil children, recalcitrant teens, and parents setting eyes on their
own babes for the first time.
 
We
just get a little more sleep while we do it.

I believe what he is trying to say is that he loves you.
 
And he will always love you, even as we
mostly applaud from the sidelines.

He also says you’ve all missed the deeper point of Nat’s little
flying exercise.
 
Elsie is learning
to reach out a hand—and Lizard is learning to take it.
 
The lovely Nat gave them both a push.

Your students still have some interesting days ahead of them, I
think.
 
More adult passions are
pulling on our Elsie now, and those can be fraught with challenge, especially
for a woman who has never fantasized about a garret in Paris.
 

And I believe Lizard will get hit with some of those same
choices whether she wants it or not.
 
I studied the very impressive Josh Hennessey as he watched her recite
poetry.
 
Take it from a woman with
a lifetime of experience with passionate men—the waters run deep in that
one.

Melvin is laughing again, at me this time.
 
He tells me young Josh isn’t in need of
a cheerleader.

Ha.
 
I’m a silly old
woman, and if I want to cheer for a sexy man with his eyes on a delightful
young woman, then I will.

On a different note, Jamie has just invited us for spaghetti
dinner—and the estimable Joshua Hennessey is the unofficial guest of
honor.

Stirring things up, is our Jamie.
 
As Melvin says, while the meddlers at Witch Central tend to
be of the female persuasion, if Jamie Sullivan really gets rolling, he could
outdo the lot of us.

Walk
in the light,

Vero

Lizard walked into Berkeley Real Estate, hoping her boss was
having a bad morning.
 
She’d had
about all the perky she could handle for one day, and it was only 8:30 a.m.

“Good morning,” said Lauren, sounding gratingly chirpy.
 
“I could hear you cursing at Elsie a
block away—what’s up?”

Freaking mind witches, always listening to everything.
 
Lizard started yanking things out of
her backpack.
 
“She’s all bubbly
and happy and cooking breakfast and mentally swooning about some dude with
curly hair and sexy hands.”
 
She
looked up and glared.
 
“Which is
way more than I ever wanted to know.”