Page 12 of Brews and Banishments
Tessa raised a quizzical brow. “Why?”
“Personally,” Daisy said as they drew nearer, “I’m not interested in having my love life spread across town ifsomeonehappens to be listening.”
“I see,” Tessa mused, the corner of her lip perking up as she peered into Old Lady Witherford’s front lawn. “What do you mean you don’t want a gossip hearing about your exciting first date with heartthrob silver fox, Ethan?”
Daisy tugged on Tessa’s arm. “Speak a little louder, Tess, andI’lltell Old Lady Witherford about that time you went into her backyard and -”
Tessa clamped a hand over Daisy’s mouth within an instant, her slender face beginning to look like a ripe strawberry. “There is a time and place for that,” she said, holding back her laughter, “and it is definitelynotnow!”
As they kept walking, entirely on the opposite side of the house, Daisy looked over her shoulder at the house. From the sidewalk, they could see into the Witherford household’s backyard. A grand willow tree sat in the middle. Daisy couldn’t stop herself from glowering.
“I’ll tell you,” she muttered. “The next time I see Old Lady Witherford putting her ladder up to snoop into my backyard, I’m dropping a sealed lips tonic into her tea.”
Tessa’s brow shot up. “Is she still doing that?”
“Don’t tell me you thought it was only a phase!”
“I could hardly believe it in the first place,” Tessa said. “Till I saw it myself, of course.”
Standing on the precipice of Daisy’s driveway, she shook her head and wrapped her arms over her chest as an odd chill swept by them. “I just wish she couldn’t do it anymore, you know? Ican’t remember the last time I had some real privacy in my own home.”
“Well, you know what they say,” Tessa began. “You can’t always get what you -”
Boom!
Daisy flinched, her jacket falling onto the ground. “What was that?”
Before Tessa could respond, a series of screams and wails erupted from the back of Old Lady Witherford’s house. Daisy gaped and ran towards their back gate. She flipped open the latch and yanked it open, Tessa following close behind her.
The wide backyard was full of blossoming flowers and vines crawling up the side of the house. It was like a fantasy wonderland. For a moment, Daisy hesitated, believing they had to have stepped into the wrong house.
That is, until her eyes landed on Old Lady Witherford herself. The older woman was dressed in denim overalls, a flowery shirt poking out beneath it. She laid with her back against the ground, her elbows and knees smudged with dirt and soil.
Daisy ran forward. “Tessa,” she shouted, “fetch Mr. Witherford!”
As Tessa shot into the back of the house, leaving the backdoor wide open, Daisy tended to the older woman, gingerly crouching down at her side.
“Mrs. Witherford,” Daisy said in a loud voice, remembering that the woman was notoriously hard of hearing, “where are you hurt?”
“D-Did that girl leave my door open?” the lady shouted, her voice hoarse and scratchy as if she hadn’t drunk water in days. “I’ve got the air conditioner running, you know! And the bugs! Oh, thebugs!”
Daisy bit back her laugh. “Mrs. Witherford, have you taken a fall?”
Old Lady Witherford glanced over at her as if she had just noticed her presence. “What does it look like I’ve done?” she squawked. “Had a nap with my tomatoes?”
“W-What?”
“My tomatoes!” Mrs. Witherford gestured boisterously to the vines that scaled up the fence, a few harvested tomatoes crushed beneath her back. “My state-fair-winning tomatoes!”
“Can you tell me what happened, Mrs. Witherford?”
“That silly old ladder,” Mrs. Witherford snapped as she pointed to the rusted-over ladder that was now laying in a bush of petunias. “Jumped out from right under me!”
Daisy pressed her lips together. It was exactly like she assumed. Old Lady Witherford was trying to get a look into Daisy’s yard when something happened to her ladder. Though “jumping” didn’t seem like the right word for it.
“Did you slip off one of the steps?” Daisy asked.
Mrs. Witherford thrashed about, the tomatoes splattering across her clothes. “Did I say slip?” she snapped. “I said jumped!Jumped,I said! When I say the ladder jumped, I mean the ladder -”
