A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,6

can send you back to your grocery shopping in a minute. That’s a great site, by the way; I use it to order groceries all the time. Beats loading twenty bags into my minivan.

Lauren: It was my first time there. Where am I now? What the heck is Witches’ Chat?

Sophie: It’s an online chat room for witches to gather and talk. I hope we can support and learn from each other as well. Nell, Moira, and I are the founding three. You’re the first new witch found by our fetching spell, so congratulations and welcome!

Lauren: You’re witches?? What’s a fetching spell?

Nell: We laid out a little online sniffer that would detect power and pull witches here. We didn’t want to invite everyone who thinks they’re a witch; that can get messy.

Lauren: I think your sniffer goofed. I’m not a witch. I’m guessing the online grocery people won’t be thrilled at you hacking their site, either.

Nell: If I’d meant to hack, they’d never know. The spell isn’t specific to that site, it just happens that I did my grocery shopping this morning, and you must have crossed over the spell trail I laid.

Lauren wondered if this was a good time to shut down her wireless connection and run a virus scan. However, that sounded like about as much fun as the square-footage calculations she was already trying to avoid. The sales guy at the Apple store had assured her Macbooks were almost impossible to hack.

A screaming kettle interrupted her train of thought. Time for tea, although she wasn’t sure a little chamomile tea was going to get her very strange evening back on track. Not that she minded a little strange, but witches? Were there seriously women in this century who thought they were witches?

Lauren considered and rejected the soup. It was bagel day at the office tomorrow; she could last until then.

She poured water into her favorite blue mug and set the tea ball in to steep. Looking at the whimsical and lopsided mug with affection, she suddenly found humor in the left turn her night had taken. Witches 2.0. Crazy, but probably harmless, and definitely entertaining. The fetching spell was a nice touch. If nothing else, it would be a great story to share with Nat over lunch tomorrow.

Carrying her mug back to the couch, Lauren settled in and prepared to have fun. She’d always been a sucker for the slightly loopy.

Lauren: Sorry, I had to go make my tea.

Moira: Ah good, we thought maybe we’d lost you, child. I have a cup of tea myself, although it’s morning tea for me.

Lauren: Morning?

Nell: She’s on vacation in Ireland. It’s 5 am there.

Lauren: Yeesh. I don’t do 5 am. Ever.

Nell: Me neither, but I’m in California and Sophie’s in Colorado, so it seemed like the best compromise on time for all of us. Tell us about yourself. Maybe you have some minor talents you’ve never thought of as witchcraft.

Lauren: I’m pretty good at selling real estate, and I make a mean pasta sauce. I think that’s about as special as my talents get.

Moira: Lauren, you must be a witch, love. Nell doesn’t often make mistakes with her spellcasting.

Nell: Gee, thanks, Moira. I think the spell’s fine. I tested it on my kids—Nathan and Aervyn got fetched, the triplets didn’t, although a few strange things happened for Ginia that make me wonder. Maybe she’ll grow into power yet.

Lauren: You have triplets??? Wait, I’m losing track of the—Moira, I’m definitely not a witch. No cauldrons or broomsticks or pointy hats anywhere.

Sophie: Aunt Moira might have a cauldron somewhere—she’s got a talent with herbs—but you won’t find a lot of modern witches with pointy hats, and very few of us can fly. That whole broomstick thing has always been pretty much a myth. Harry Potter didn’t help us out there.

Lauren: That’s too bad; I thought Harry was kind of cute. If you don’t fly, what do you do?

Sophie: My talents are with plants and a bit of healing. Nell is great with complex spells. Moira has a little bit of lots of things. She trained me. Do you happen to have a garden?

Lauren: I live on the fourth floor of a walk-up apartment building. The closest lettuce leaf is probably miles away. Scratch that; nothing grows in February in Chicago. Does that fail me on the ‘am I a witch’ test?

Sophie: Oh, no. Most witches can do a few of the same basic things, but our stronger talents often vary quite a bit.