The Memory Keeper

Chapter 4

"Ready to get out and stretch my legs," the witch groaned, pressing her cheek to the door frame. Natalie peered over her shoulder, feeling the wind prick her eyes and cheeks.

"Looks like we might get a little sun."

The girls looked up at the sky, bogged down by roiling clouds. The driver looked annoyed, having asked Piper to close the door, but the witch waved it off, grinning over her shoulder at Natalie. "I plan to splurge a little. Winter Wells serves the best fried duck. Let's catch a bite over at the restaurant on the bay."

"Won't argue with you on that."

Once the carriage rolled to a stop at the town's courtesy horse stalls, Piper and Natalie shot out, paying the driver, and locked arms on their way down the road, admiring the round latticed windows of stout cottages with thatched roofs, not unlike a garden of giant mushrooms. The road looped around into a cul-de-sac, where the buildings grew taller, roof tops stacked over the other. In the center was a patch of grass. Wells unique in their own size and shape stood at intervals in it, separated by round stepping stones, and a few women in bonnets and aprons stood at the largest one, balancing the bucket on the lip of the well, peering inside.

They exchanged a few words before the youngest woman reached in, pulling out a shiny quartz. Piper watched, memorized as though they had pulled a rabbit from a top hat. The woman noticed and walked over with a shy smile, holding the quartz out for Piper. "It's a lucky one. Take it for your spells."

The witch smiled toothily, taking it with no hesitation or polite refusal. It shone in the wan sunlight like a shard off an icicle. "Crystal. The most powerful quartz out there. Thank you." Shoving it in her pocket, she asked, "What do I owe?"

The young woman smiled. "Nothing. Just glad to see the witches still come around this way." She skipped away to the older women, and they all waved as Piper and Natalie continued on.

The mind weaver leaned close to her friend, whispering at her shoulder. "That was quite nice of them. How much would that quartz have cost you in one of these shops?"

"Perhaps two silvers." She shook her head. "What a lucky time and place. I did not exactly need a crystal today, but it is always nice to have one at hand." She tilted her head and smiled at the sky.

"The lady called it 'lucky'," Natalie said. "Does that mean its properties are stronger than the average crystal? Because they found it in their well?"

"How should I know? The people of Winter Wells are kind, hard workers and coal miners, but they have the strangest superstitions."

"Like what?"

Piper counted them off on her fingers. "Never kill a spider. Never meet at a crossroads. Put salt on the doorstep of a new house to ward off evil." She dragged out the last word theatrically. "Oh, and accidents happen in threes."

Natalie's brow wrinkled.

Piper chuckled and laced her hands behind her back while she walked, looking ahead.

The mind weaver sniffed. "I do not believe the last one."

"I am serious," Piper said, "but you do not have to believe me."

"What about good luck, like that quartz?"

"That is easy. Buying your best friend lunch. You shall live a prosperous life, well, according to the people of Winter Wells, that is," she serenaded, swinging her hips a few paces ahead, then looked back at Natalie, who watched with a pinched mouth.

"I do not know if I can believe you or not."

"Believe me. And extra luck if you order the best whiskey in town."

***

"The nightmares are back, I think."

Natalie and Piper had finished lunch, on Natalie's dime, who, despite insisting that she did not believe a word out of Piper's mouth about superstitions, secretly liked the idea of a prosperous life.

Full of fried duck and whiskey, Piper swung her arms while she walked, a basket full of much needed herbs and plant extracts in one hand, and less needed but otherwise wanted, new hair brush with a pearly handle.

"The one about your parents?"

"Yes."

Piper turned and snatched Natalie's wrists, forcing her friend into a spin around the shopping square. Passersby moved out of the way, but smiled at the vivacity that was Piper, who was as unpredictable as a wind chime, especially when she was infused with a bit of alcohol.

It was impossible for Natalie to smile while they spun, despite Piper's toothy white grin. Could she not see past the alcohol's blur to the somber topic Natalie had worked up so much courage to randomly bring up?

"Perhaps I need more of those sleeping pills," Natalie quipped, as soon as Piper had released her. "I ran out of them."

"I told you to use them sparingly. They are hard to make," Piper said, moving her purchases around in the basket. "I will need more valerian roots and chamomile." She looked at Natalie. "Do you still have the opal and larimar stones?"

"Yes. I keep them in the drawer of my bedside table."

"Yes, but before bed, put them under your pillow. The opal releases attachments, and the larimar will promote peace and relaxation."

"Glad to have gotten ahold of my serious Piper for a moment."

She made a face. "Serious Piper needs a break, and a raise after what you are about to put her through."

In one of the shops, the young women ducked under low hanging nets of bundled herbs. Piper found the valerian roots and purchased a stock pile. While she waited for the shop keeper to wrap them in a thin wool sheet, she turned to Natalie.

"Just curious. What is his name?"

The mind weaver stopped picking at the clumps of holy basil and puckered her lips in thought, as if realizing where this might go, and wishing to pass it off as casually as possible. "Peter."

"Peter what?"

"Sheinfeld, if you must know."

"Natalie Sheinfeld," came Piper's much unexpected sing-song response.

"Stop it, Piper. He seemed reluctant to continue the session this morning. I invited him back tonight after four, but I am not so sure he will show. Perhaps he will have changed his mind about the whole deal before the day is over." She sounded cool and unconcerned about it, but Piper knew better.

"I am sure you would not mind that a bit, would you? It would save you a heck of a lot of work, and you would keep his money for the first session. Another rule of Colette's."

"I suppose I should not care either way." Natalie pouted. "I refuse to allow myself to become attracted to a man clearly in love with someone else, even if he does not want to remember it." She had not realized that she had started tugging on the holy basil's neighbor, the rosemary, and had absently pulled off some of the stems. Little pointed thumbs went fluttering to the shop's smudged tile floor, and the shop keeper eyed her over her half-moon spectacles.

When the witch and the mind weaver left the store, Natalie held up the bundle of rosemary, unwrapped, and rustling in the icy wind. "Not sure what I need rosemary for."

"Kind of ironic, if you ask me," came Piper's response, as she swung her basket and pushed hair out of her eyes to peer up at the sky, still stuck behind blankets of clouds. The ends of her hair fluttered at her back.

"How so?"

Piper looked back and shrugged, "It improves memory."