AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For a witch, Nana Fee died a shockingly normal death. Her heart was old and simply couldn’t give any more. When the body is unable to carry on, there’s only so much magic can do. She was tired of fighting nature and decided to let it take its course.
So on one unremarkable evening a few weeks ago, she sat propped up in her bed, the same one where she’d spent a lifetime alone, well aware that she was breathing her last. She sent everyone from her cozy little bedroom except me. My uncles, aunts, and cousins did as they were told, knowing it was likely the last time she’d boss them around, but they weren’t happy about it. Death was rarely a solitary event in the McGavock family. We were practically our own Greek chorus.
Nana tried to keep a stoic face through the whole affair. Although the family had never held an official election, Nana was definitely the leader. And somehow they’d gotten it into their heads that I was inheriting the position, no matter how much I pleaded for someone else to step in. Nana insisted that we dress her in the lavender bed jacket that Uncle Jack had given her for Christmas. Her snowy-white hair was piled high on her head. The fire was burned down to embers, giving her pale-blue eyes an unearthly glow. “It’s time,” she said, her voice steady but weak. “I made a mistake, putting it off for this long. He’s gone now.”
“Who’s gone?” I asked.
Moving slowly, she pointed to the foot of her bed, to the space between her mattress and box spring. I reached in and pulled out a well-worn manila envelope. She smiled, a slight lift of the corner of her mouth. “Your grandfather.”
“Gilbert Wainwright?” I read the address on the envelope, listing a resident in Half-Moon Hollow, Kentucky, and looked up at Nana, a million questions burning the tip of my tongue.
“He was a good man. Smart, just like my Nola.”
I emptied the envelope into my hand and found several black-and-white photos of a much younger Nana laughing into the camera, her arms slung around a slight man with light hair and dark eyes. He was grinning down at her, a look of fond admiration on his face.
“He didn’t love me,” she said. “But I didn’t care. I was young. A little foolish.”
“You got his name tattooed on your bum?” I asked, sniffing as I sorted through photos, letters, and what appeared to be Nana Fee’s journal.
“Impudent chit,” she muttered. “Shouldn’t have expected anything less from you.”
“You would worry if I was behaving any other way.”
“He has them,” she said, leaning back against the pillows. “Had them.”
“Them?” I stared at her, not comprehending. My eyes widened. “Them? Them them?”
“Yes. I gave them to him for safekeeping,” she said, tapping a photo in which Mr. Wainwright stood next to a packed motorcycle, giving the camera a sad little wave. “On the day he left.”
“Nana, the whole family has wound themselves up over this for decades. How could you—why would you? Why in God’s name would you—”
“Don’t curse at an old woman on her deathbed.”
“Stop calling it a deathbed!” I exclaimed.
“That’s what it is, sweetheart,” she said, squeezing my hand between her dry, brittle fingers. “No use pretending it’s not. It’s my time, you see, it’s run out. And your time is just coming. I’m sorry this has fallen to you, the responsibilities, the burden. But it couldn’t be helped.”
“Nana, I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Promise me,” she said. “Swear that you’ll go to America to retrieve them.”
“How do you even know he still had them? He could have lost them on the way back to America. What if he sold them?”
“He swore he would keep them safe. He knew how important it was. I contacted him every few years, to check on him. The last time I called, they told me he was gone.”
“And what if his family has sorted through his effects and sold them off?”
“He had no family.”
“He had a daughter and a granddaughter,” I snapped. I was immediately sorry for my tone and pushed a stray lock of hair away from Nana’s face.
“It was better this way, Nola,” she assured me. “There was no reason to tell him about your mother, although I know it caused her pain. I had all of the best bits of him, right here. How could I ask him for more? I couldn’t ask him to spend his life with someone he didn’t love. And if he knew there was a baby, he would have come back.”
“I’m sorry, Nana, I really am, but maybe it’s best just to leave the past in the past. There’s no reason for me to go halfway around the world and open old wounds—”
“If you don’t go to America and find the Elements before they do, the whole family will be bound. No magic, no healing, no more help for our neighbors when they need it. Have you seen what happens to a village when they’re suddenly without magic after generations have lived under its care and protection?”
“Let’s not talk about this now,” I told her.
