“Your cancer is in your back and stomach, Gigi,” Sadie said, trying to be consoling.
“Potato potahto,” Gigi coughed. “That’s all I can take.” She stubbed the cigarette out having only taken three puffs. By the time she was back on the couch, she was shivering. Bambi stood sentinel beside her. Uncle Brian built up the fire, and Sadie layered blankets over her, but ten minutes later she was sweltering and babbling. She tried to push herself up off the couch, but Seth rushed over.
“What is it? What do you need?”
“Vegas. Have to go to Vegas. Have to pack,” she babbled.
“Mom, you’re not going to Vegas,” Uncle Brian said in a stern voice. “Do you know where you are?”
“I have to get to Vegas.” Her voice was getting more agitated as she tried to push herself off the couch.
“Listen, Gigi, you stay here. I’ll go get your suitcase. Don’t worry—we’ll get you all packed,” Seth assured her. But of course, he didn’t move.
“Okay.” Gigi nodded and settled back into the couch. She closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed, her chest falling flat. Seconds passed before it rose again. Seconds that lasted an eternity. She slept fitfully for an hour. At times Seth and Uncle Brian would have to restrain her arms while she tried to fight them off, until finally her breathing grew more rapid, and she opened her eyes. When they landed on Sadie, they cleared fully.
“Hi, sweetheart,” she breathed.
Sadie forced a smile, unable to speak even if she could find words.
“Now you listen to me, all of you,” she croaked. “There’s to be no funeral. If you do, I’ll come back and haunt you from beyond, you hear me? I’ve detailed what I want done,” she wheezed. “Already paid for cremation service. Sadie, under my bed there’s a green metal file box. You’ll find everything you need to know in there. There’s a notebook with all the ailments of folks around town, and what they need. The recipes and spells too. You’ll need to take that over.”
“We’ll do whatever you want,” Sadie told her.
“Take my hands,” Gigi demanded. “I’m too damn weak to reach out for you.” The twins took her hands. “My curse,” she started, but her eyes filmed over, turning distant again. Her next words floated softly in the air between them, clinging to their skin like confectioners’ sugar. “Part of my curse was that I would drive my own daughter away. It was my punishment for what I’d done, taking justice into my own hands. The rules of magic are clear on that, and it nearly destroyed me. But then it turned out to be my biggest blessing. Because I got to raise the two of you. You were both born with magic in your veins and a knowing in your souls. When the fire of ancient wisdom burns in you, you will know that it’s me there with you, urging you on.”
When her eyes closed, they didn’t open again, but her labored breathing continued for hours. Sadie took Gigi’s pulse religiously, her own heart beating wildly when she could barely feel her grandmother’s. Her body temperature dropped, and the skin on her hands turned a mottled purple.
“It’s almost time,” Seth whispered.
But Gigi kept hanging on, her breathing interrupted by gasping until there was a rattle in her chest that tore Sadie’s heart out. Her grandmother’s spirit had already gone on, she knew, but her body remained, unwilling to relinquish its hold, as stubborn in death as in life. Her heart kept pumping, though slower and slower still. And so finally, moved by some calling within her, Sadie smoothed her grandmother’s hair and folded her hands on her chest. Getting on her knees, she placed her hands on Gigi’s shoulders.
“It’s okay,” she whispered to her grandmother. “You can let go.” She murmured the twenty-third psalm, and by the time she’d spoken the last verse, “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” Gigi took her last, shuddering breath.
At the same moment, two hummingbirds flew in through the open window and performed an intricate dance over Gigi’s body before flying away.
And now, there were thirty days until they had to satisfy the balance of magic, or one of them would pay with their lives.
Harvest Soap for Luck
Ingredients
unscented castile soap
vitamin E oil
clear cold-pressed Mexican vanilla
Essential oils
clove
cinnamon
orange
lemon
Directions
1.?In a 16-oz. glass pump bottle, combine 2 T. castile soap, a squirt of vitamin E oil, and a splash of the Mexican vanilla.