Last Witch Standing

chapter 11



The Present

Earth



Would the disguise hold? Candice Strong walked back along the path she had taken the night of her disappearance. This time it was midday and she was on a mission for Queen Annalisse: to contact the man and his son in Melville and have them wait on standby for the queen’s summons.

She fingered the magic emerald necklace Queen Annalisse had given Candice to screen her appearance. Candice had been missing on Earth for nearly a year; her sudden appearance would cause a tremendous stir which could compromise her mission for the queen. Besides disguising her, the necklace would also allow her to do minor conjuring trick – tricks that would be necessary to convince Dan Edwards of what, Candice was certain, he would see as a fantastical story – his little sister, Katie, who died forty years before was now a sorceress in another universe and wreaking havoc throughout the Cosmos.

Karen, from the Citadel, had provided ample U.S. currency for Candice to meet her needs. Still, it would take all the skills she had gained over the course of her law enforcement career to conduct an operation while living on a cash basis and without an identity.

At a variety store near the park, she purchased a digital camera, a cream-colored bed sheet and some tacks. Back at the park, she sat on a bench near the restrooms and waited until the ladies’ was empty and nobody was in the area around it.

Water ran down the side of the concrete ramp leading to the bathrooms. Either there was a leaking pipe, or somebody left the water on. Once in, she would turn off any faucet still on in the ladies room; no point in attracting the attention of park maintenance.

A large oak, with its gray-brown bark, bright olive-colored leaves and unripe acorns, towered over the bench upon which Candice sat. Midnight black crows cawed from the tree’s innumerable appendages, raising a racket. Ambient sound from the nearby freeway created a background hum, punctuated by the roar of powerboats as they sped along the river parallel to the park, wakes trailing behind. The smell of engine oil and gasoline, from the boat launching ramp behind her, mixed with the scent of grass, oak leaf and wildflower, creating a hybrid odor Candice found unpleasant.

Hard to think, I used to see this park as a quiet, peaceful place. My dear sisters among the Mountain Witches did not have such hideous devices as gas engines, and the trees held singing robins, sparrows, blue jays, and other colorful and musical birds.

Ten minutes passed without anyone entering or exiting the restroom. Candice dashed inside, turned a corner faucet off, the culprit for the flooding, and surveyed the inside.

Light from the front windows illuminated the far end, which, thankfully, remained clean and dry, its log wall perfect for her purpose. Candice unwrapped the sheet and tacked it to the wall, adjusted her hair, programmed the camera in front of her for an automatic shot, time-delay set at fifteen seconds and returned to the wall. The camera flashed.

Candice checked the resulting photo on the screen at the back of the camera. Good, but she could do better, so she shot several more, hastily pulling down the sheet when she heard voices approaching.

“Hello,” Candice said to the three teen-aged girls who entered.

“Oh, hello,” one answered. She wore tight pants and a shirt that exposed her navel. The other two were similarly dressed.

The others gave Candice a quick smile.

How different children are raised today compared to my day; I would never have been allowed to leave the house dressed this way.

After she was certain the pictures would do, Candice called a taxi from a payphone in the park.

“Where to?” the driver, an older man of middle-eastern descent, asked Candice as she settled into the back seat.

“Uh, the Melville Mall,” Candice stuttered.

The cabbie looked at her from his rear-view mirror, and Candice knew he was evaluating her sobriety and ability to pay the fare. She would have to get used to this world again and the human interaction that came with it. Simple questions like where did she want to go? couldn’t trip her up.

Candice took out her wallet, visibly counting out several twenty-dollar bills. The driver relaxed into his seat and they pulled onto the freeway.

The first stop was an electronics store where she purchased several pay-as-you-go cell phones and prepaid debit cards. The mall had a copy place and Candice printed out half a dozen 2 x 2 inches photos. Next, she used desktop publishing software on one of the shop’s computers to produce an employee identification card. She fumbled with the mouse and cursed. The mountain witches did not have computers and she was out of practice.

Using the computer’s Internet access, Candice activated the first of her cell phones and entered the number onto her employee ID. The company was Lysse Corporation. No such entity existed, but she needed some sort of ID in order to function in modern society. Using her real driver’s license and other identification were out of the question.

From the mall, she took a bus downtown and checked into a weekly motel.

“I’m so sorry, I was carjacked and my purse stolen. If I didn’t have this employee ID around a clasp around my neck, they would have got it too. It is all the identification I have right now.”

The hotel clerk examined it closely, comparing the picture to Candice. “Okay. Can you pay the week in advance, plus a security deposit of $150.00?”

“Yes, my husband Western Unioned me enough cash.” Candice removed six hundred dollars from her front pocket and handed it to the man.

His breath smelled faintly of brandy, causing Candice to wonder if the hotel was too inconspicuous.

“And a newspaper please.”

The man removed a copy of the Melville Times from behind the counter and handed it to her without looking up.

Once inside the hotel room, Candice closed all the curtains and turned the “Do Not Disturb” sign on. She removed the emerald from around her neck and held it in her open palm. Green light shot from its facets. Candice concentrated. The bed turned into a Christmas tree. A moment later, the bureau became a staircase with two children, a boy of eleven and a small girl of four, peering out from behind the rails. The room’s lights dimmed as Candice channeled the Power through the gemstone. The images flickered, going in and out of focus, returning to their natural state, then back to the illusion. She focused and the view stabilized. Her breaths came slowly; a bead of sweat rolled down her face. Candice relaxed and the illusion disappeared. She would need more practice. Much more. This had to be perfect.

Candice collapsed on the bed and spread the paper before her. It would take a few days to get up to speed on current life. She had lost eleven months of Earth time. The fate of the Cosmos hinged upon her ability to complete the task Queen Annalisse of the Upper Mountain Witches had set her to.