Page 30 of Big Witch Energy

“Maybe it’s connected to the purple lady in the bar?” Alice suggested.

“It feels…like it’s connected to me,” Caroline said. “And I know that sounds weirdly conceited, but it just does.”

“Well, you were the one hit with the moped,” Edison noted.

“It just feels important, all of it,” Caroline said, yawning. “And maybe the purple lady…maybe it’s about her, too.”

While she blinked off to sleep, Caroline stared at the flowers at her bedside. Sunflowers, while cheerful, meant “false riches.” Caroline wondered what Plover would have made of that.

***

It had taken many promises from Riley, Alice, and Caroline herself to keep Caroline away from the Rose before Ben would allow her to go home. Both women agreed to sleep over at Caroline’s tidy little bungalow down the hill from the Wiltons’ larger house, Caroline’s great-grandparents’ answer to a mother-in-law suite. Riley would have gladly taken Caroline to Shaddow House for full supervision—something Plover almost demanded—but with Caroline’s ankle, there were just too many stairs for her to stay there.

The two of them checked on her and fed her regularly. They’d agreed to help her with the daily ritual of unwrapping the bandages around her ribs for her shower. This morning’s episode had been colorful both in language and in contusions, but she was comfortable—at ease on the sage-green couch she’d specifically chosen for its squishiness and “reading position back support.”

Even when Ben stopped by with his kids in tow, to relieve her friends from duty and prevent her from trying to join her mother in the Rose cleanup effort, she stayed calm. When Josh handed her roses with hands that looked exactly like his father’s, she’d shrugged it off. But then Mina, who was basically Ben reborn with his big hazel eyes and fine-boned features, started to cry, and Caroline lost her composure.

Mina looked just as pasty pale as she had at the scene of the accident, her remorse obviously genuine as she whispered, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for hitting you. I’m so sorry this is how we’re meeting. The bike just got away from me—the roads are never this slick in Phoenix—and I couldn’t control it, and the next thing I knew, you were standing in front of me and everything seemed to get so loud all at once and I swear I saw—”

“It’s OK,” Caroline reached out with her untethered hand and wrapped it around Mina’s cold fingers. A warm electric sizzle ran up Caroline’s arm, to her chest, and in her addled state, her first thought was that it was a blood clot or a cardiac incident with offbeat comic timing. But then she remembered the flavor of this particular sensation—strange and alien, yes, but not scary. It was the feeling of coming home. She’d felt it when she’d touched Riley’s shoulder that first time, the same moment that Alice had touched her hand. The three of them touching physically had cemented their magic, something they hadn’t realized until weeks later.

Did this mean Mina had magic, too? What did this mean for Riley and Alice? Ugh, her head hurt too much to try to figure this out on her own. Josh sort of lurked in the background, observing the scene with a solemn expression. Caroline respected that. She’d learned more eavesdropping at the bar than she had in all her years of school.

For her part, Mina only looked confused at the zap. Caroline understood the desire to write this feeling off as static electricity or nerves.

“You didn’t mean to do it, and I’m going to bet that you will be the most careful driver on the island for years to come,” Caroline told her, as Mina nodded tearfully.

“I don’t think that I’m going to drive again, ever,” Mina swore.

“Well, then you moved to the right place,” Caroline replied, making Josh snicker. Mina glared at her brother, but the tension in her narrow shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.

Ben eased Mina away so he could do the super-rude penlight stuff to her eyes again. And to Caroline’s shock, Josh went to her sink and began putting away the breakfast dishes Riley had left on the drying rack.

“Um, the tall one is putting away my dishes,” Caroline noted as Ben checked the swelling on her ankle. “Why is the tall one putting away my dishes?”

“Because he’s the only one who can reach the high cabinets?” Mina suggested, a smile quirking the corner of her mouth for the first time since she’d entered the house. “And you have a splint on your wrist.”

“And because for the next several weeks, my kids are going to be your arms and legs, so to speak,” Ben told her.

“It’s an appropriately ironic punishment for Mina,” Josh told her cheerfully. Mina looked like she wanted to hiss at him but hid her face behind her curtain of dark hair. “And I’m coming along because when I’m left unsupervised for too long…bad things happen.”

“But that’s—What about school?” Caroline spluttered.

“We’re registered for in-person for the fall. But it’s sort of too late for us to join classes this year, so we’re wrapping up the spring online,” Josh said. “Mina actually prefers it.”

Mina waggled her head back and forth. “I’m a self-starter.”

Caroline asked, “But what about when I go back to work?”

“Um, that’s not going to be a consideration for several weeks,” Ben insisted. “I doubt you’ll be back on your feet before the repairs to the Rose are completed. We went over this when you were released. With your ribs, you can’t lift anything heavier than a cup of coffee. You can’t put weight on your ankle. You can’t bend. You can’t move too fast. Hell, if I could, I would forbid you from sneezing too hard.”

“Not sure how she would prevent that, Dad,” Josh said, pressing the Brew button on her coffeepot. A few seconds later, the smell of percolating water hitting grounds filled her kitchen.

“What the useful and tall brewer of life-giving coffee said.” Caroline pointed at Josh. He grinned at her.

“I didn’t say it was a rational direction,” Ben admitted. “So, for now, my kids are going to help you around the house. And when it reopens, around the bar. Mina in particular will work until she repays the approximate cost of what you would have been charged if you had to pay for medical treatment as a result of the accident.”

“And she’s agreed to this?” Caroline asked.

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