‘Okay, okay. We’ll attract romantic love and great sex to ourselves, and we trust the gods to bring us what we need.’ Faye smiled and raised her eyebrow at her friend. ‘Good enough?’
‘Aye.’ Annie wriggled on the rug.
‘Let’s get started, then. Get out your poppets.’
Each woman laid a doll onto the rug in front of them. Aisha put hers in front of her shyly. She had drawn a big red heart inmarker pen on the white T-shirt material she’d made her poppet of. ‘He’s got a good heart,’ she explained. ‘And I stuffed him with cut-up copies ofRolling Stone. So he’ll be intelligent and into music.’
‘Okay, well, that makes sense. Annie?’ Faye turned to Annie. ‘What have you got?’
Annie placed a Barbie in front of her. ‘This is her.’
‘Barbie?’
‘She’s got big tits, she’s blonde, she’s into fashion and she’s, like, had about a million professional careers. What’s not to love?’
Aisha laughed. ‘That’s so cool. I love it.’
Annie picked up the Barbie and smoothed out its little T-shirt, on which she’d writtenGIRLS RULE. ‘So, I gave her a kind of activist T-shirt because I want someone who cares about politics. And I gave her this miniskirt and cowboy boots because she still needs to be hot. And she’s carrying some little books I made because she’s intelligent and she likes reading. And, look, I coloured in all her chakras.’ Annie pulled up the doll’s T-shirt to show exploding stars in the colours of the rainbow going from red at the Barbie’s groin to dark blue on her third eye. ‘So, she’ll be spiritual. Into yoga or something at least.’
‘Cool!’ Faye nodded. ‘Okay. So, we present these poppets to the Good Folk and ask them to bring these qualities to us, or something better.’ She placed hers next to the other dolls.
‘Faye, that’s beautiful!’ Aisha gasped. ‘How long did it take you?’ She picked it up and turned it over gently in her hands.
‘Oh, not long,’ Faye murmured, and looked away, embarrassed. Her poppet had actually taken a week to make; she’d neglected restocking the shop because she’d been sitting at the shop counter, stitching it for days.
She had made a man’s shape; tall, long-legged, strong in the shoulders, but not too meaty a figure. It had dark-blonde hairmade of a golden wool with a dark copper fleck in it that she’d found in Moddie’s old mending basket, which she’d woven into braids. She had embroidered blue eyes and, as it had turned out, quite a pouty mouth. She had taken inspiration from the man in her dreams; the one she had had such erotic dreams about.
On the body of the poppet she had sewn her wishes in blue and gold. The stitching was fine and delicate; as a child, Moddie had taught her how to embroider: chain-stitch, cross-stitch, open-leaf, fishbone.
In a fine running stitch she’d written a long line of rhyming words, wrapping around the doll’s body.Let him be kind, beautiful, magical, free; let him be loving, gentle and in love with me.
Aisha read out the words; the fire crackled as her voice wove the magic that had already begun with the stitching.
‘That’s lovely, Faye.’ Annie smiled gently and took her friend’s hand. ‘I hope he comes for ye, I really do,’ she said.
‘Thanks.’ Faye blushed, and placed all three poppets on the altar. ‘Right. So, now we’ve created our poppets, we charge them with the elemental energy to give them life. Starting with air in the east, go clockwise and imagine all four elements flowing into your poppet.’ Faye closed her eyes and saw each element immediately, flowing and combining into a golden-white light that surrounded and filled her little doll. ‘Now! Say with me:
Bring love to me; so mote it be.
Fill my heart; so let it start.
Satisfy my desire; by earth, air, water and fire.
Blessed faerie realm, bring love to me.
Blessed Good Folk, bring me the satisfaction of
my desire.’
Faye took each poppet and wafted it through the incense smoke, then replaced them on the altar, then she took up the blue chalice of champagne and drank. She focused as hard as she could on the desired outcome, but her mind shifted every time. It was like trying to look through bevelled glass. She knew she wanted someone. A lover, someone who would pull her heart open and deserve the love that lay there, dormant, waiting. A lover who would dispel her loneliness and fill her life with companionship, sweetness, affection… yet, her mind kept straying. She couldn’t seem to focus.
Still, she had made the doll at least. That would do its work if Grandmother’s book was to be believed.
‘So mote it be,’ she intoned, and passed the cup to Aisha.
‘So mote it be,’ Aisha repeated, and passed the cup to Annie, who sipped twice before passing it back to Faye. ‘What now?’ She looked at the door as if she expected someone to walk through it immediately.
‘Now, we close the circle and wait,’ Faye said quietly, feeling the magic spiralling around her, big and powerful. Something would come of this. She knew it, deeply, inside herself.
