A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,3

fetching spell, and Moira can entertain us with her grumpy-patient routine while we wait.

~ ~ ~

Sierra sat down at the library computer and looked around furtively before grabbing another bite of the bagel in her hoodie pocket. She always needed tons of carbs after a winter swim.

Not as badly as she needed a job, however. And if there weren’t any on the Oregon Coast, then she needed to start looking further away. Maybe California. She had vague memories of a couple of fun days riding the streetcars in San Francisco with Momma. It cost a lot to live in California, though.

She logged into her Monster job-search account and widened the search parameters to include every city she could find that was on the coast in California. A quick scroll showed the same brain-numbing jobs that were available in Oregon—but at least there were a lot more of them.

Taking the lucky red dice out of her pocket, she shook them and rolled a seven. She counted down to the seventh job listed—poodle-grooming assistant. Didn’t sound very likely, but she clicked anyhow. Momma had always said some of the best decisions in her life had been made with the lucky red dice.

This didn’t look like one of those times, however. A job where unhappy dogs tried to bite you all day long needed to pay better than eight dollars an hour.

The next job listing was for a Spanish translator. Her Spanish was pretty decent. She clicked on that one—all good until the part about a university degree and translator certification. Ugh.

Stunt double. Ick. Shower scenes were not stunts.

Then she spied one that sounded pretty cool. Indie-film gopher. But crap, they just wanted people willing to work for lunch and possible future fame. That didn’t pay the rent.

Frustrated, she started clicking at random—and suddenly got a rainbow swirl on her screen, followed by a chat interface. What the heck?

Sophie: Hi, Sierra—we’d like to welcome you to Witches’ Chat. Thank you for joining us!

Sierra: I’m where?

Sophie: Nell, Moira, and I are the three founding members of an online chat group for witches. It looks like our fetching spell found you.

Sierra: Fetching spell? You’re doing magic online? Seriously?

Sophie: Just a small spell to locate people who actively use magic. You’re free to stay or go, but we’d love to chat with you for a bit.

Sierra: You can tell I’m a witch? That’s really cool. Do you have any spells that could fetch me a job?

Nell: Hi, Sierra. Looks like you were running a job search when we found you. What kind of job do you want?

Sierra: Anything close to the ocean that pays well enough to get an apartment. Oh, and where nobody bites, requires a university degree, or wants me to get naked.

Moira: That last bit sounds rather shady, my dear—surely we can find you something better than that.

Sierra: Doubt it. I’ve been looking for months now, and I’ve only got four days left.

Moira: Ah, rather an emergency then. Perhaps there’s a reason our spell fetched you today.

Sophie: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Nothing too personal, but maybe some of your skills?

Sierra: I don’t know. I’m eighteen, I speak bits of a lot of languages, and I learn pretty fast.

Moira: Eighteen? Sweetheart, don’t you have family who can help you out?

Sierra: No. And that’s all I want to say about that.

Nell: Smart. How are you at herding cats?

Sierra: I don’t have much experience with animals.

Nell: Sorry, I was trying to be cute and didn’t do a very good job. I might be able to find you a job. My brother and I run a gaming website called Enchanter’s Realm, and—

Sierra: OMG. You’re Nell Walker. You made Realm.

Nell: With my brother, yeah. You play?

Sierra: Can’t anymore. The library computers block your site. But I used to play while we traveled. It kept me from being too bored in the train stations and stuff.

Nell: Were you any good?

Sierra: I got to the third witch-only level. But I was twelve, so I could probably do better now.

Nell: That’s pretty fancy. Only my daughter has made it any further that so young. So—you need a job that pays enough to cover your living expenses, you’re open to learning new things, and you’re a pretty good gamer.

Moira: And she needs it in four days, dear. It sounds rather urgent.

Nell: Let me talk to Jamie. Sierra, is there some way I can reach you?

Sierra: Yeah. [email protected]. Are you serious about this?

Nell: Yup. I’ll get back to you