“No problem. See you later!”
As the door closed behind her, blessed silence descended over Aunt Cora’s Closet. I leaned back against the door and sighed. Maya met my eyes and smiled.
“They’re wonderful,” I said as I brought the bag with the wedding dress over to the counter.
“They are,” Maya replied.
“And it’s a great cause.”
“It is.” She nodded, spraying the glass countertop with my homemade vinegar and lemon verbena all-purpose cleaner. A lovely citrus fragrance filled the air.
“And they wear me out.”
“They do.”
We shared a laugh.
“Do you think the wedding dress will work for you? It was so sweet of Wind Spirit to bring it.”
“It looks a little... eighties,” I said as I extracted the wrinkled heap from the bag. It was made of inexpensive materials that felt unpleasant to the touch.
“Not exactly your favorite fashion era, the eighties,” Maya said with a nod. “Still, it was thoughtful.”
“It was. And you never know.... Your mother’s pure magic with a needle.”
“So, where are the grandmas this morning?” Maya asked, stashing the cleaning materials under the counter and turning to the large paper map of the western United States that we had tacked up to a bulletin board behind the register.
What had started out as a joke had developed into a morning ritual: putting a tack in the map to indicate the progress of the busload of witches heading to San Francisco from my hometown of Jarod, Texas. We traced their zigzag route with red string, linking one thumbtack to the next. I told Maya their most recently reported location was Salinas, and she pushed another tack into the soft cork.
“I can’t wait to meet them.”
“Yes, they’re... characters, all right,” I said, applying the nozzle of the steam machine to a 1950s ecru linen blouse and watching the wrinkles miraculously disappear. Stifling yet another sneeze, I concentrated on my breathing and tried to project an air of calm, because, deep down, I was nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof.
As if the imminent arrival of my grandmother and her coven sisters weren’t enough, mymotherwas also on that bus.
My mother and I had... issues. First, she had sent me away to live with my grandmother Graciela at theage of eight. Then, when I was seventeen, she tried to “save” me during a nightmarish snake-handling revival meeting designed to drive out the demons she believed to be responsible for my strange powers. Things got out of hand, people got hurt, and I was essentially run out of my small hometown on a rail.
I sent my mother a check every month to help with her expenses, and very occasionally we exchanged an awkward phone call. But I hadn’t seen her since that awful day.
“Did you figure out where everyone will be staying?” asked Maya.
“Calypso agreed to have them at her place, thanks be to the heavens. She actually sounds pretty excited about it. Graciela’s coven sisters are a font of arcane knowledge about healing herbs and botanicals, so they’ll have a lot to talk about.”
Calypso Cafaro was an expert in botanicals who lived in a large farmhouse outside Bolinas, about half an hour’s drive up the California coast. Calypso had also offered to let me and Sailor have our nuptials in her lush garden surrounded by redwood groves. It would be an enchanted place for a handfasting—a witchy wedding.
Bronwyn had sent away for her license to officiate, and if it got here on time, she would be able to legally marry us. My heart fluttered at the thought: part eager anticipation, part pure nerves.
“Oh, good,” Maya said with a quiet chuckle. “I kept imagining them all snoozing on yoga mats here in the store.”
“You don’t know how close we came to that.” I winced at the thought of having thirteen elderly witches—and my mother—literally underfoot.
“How long will they be staying?”
“I’m not sure, but they want to be here for thewedding.” On the one hand, it felt as though Sailor and I were rushing into this. On the other hand... it meant a lot to me that Graciela, her coven,andmy mother would be there. At the very least we could have an unofficial handfasting with them all in attendance, and later make it legal at city hall.
I wanted—Ineeded—the strength of my womenfolk around me as I embarked on this new phase of my life.
I sniffed loudly.
