Spirit

Full House

"Well I've been afraid of changes, 'cause I built my life around you."

-Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac lead singer), "Landslide"

Today is the 20th of March. This means it is Ostara, the Wiccan holiday of congratulating the Earth and all its life. Not only am I celebrating with Sarafina, but I am also celebrating with my soon-to-be step mapa, Carl and Darren, and my Aunt Gloryhaven, Uncle Lavenderstream, and cousins Celene and Maria. Needless to say, the house is pretty crowded.

"Has Sarafina blessed the milk and honey?" Asks Aunt Gloryhaven. "It has to be blessed before we offer it to Mother Earth." 

"Yes, I blessed it!" I hear Sarafina calling to me and my Aunt from the kitchen. 

"Did you do it correctly?" Aunt Gloryhaven calls to her. 

Sarafina looks at her with sarcasm in her eyes. "No! I, a healing witch, who was basically built to cleanse and bless energy, did not bless the milk and honey correctly," she says in a low monotonous voice.

"All right, jeez! I was only asking, since you're new to witchcraft and all," Aunt Gloryhaven says. "Sarafina, you bring the honey outside and wait for us in the back yard." 

Sarafina nods, and walks out the back door, a bowl of milk and honey in her hands. 

"Try not to be so uptight with my friend," I tell my aunt. "Yeah, she's still learning the ropes, but she deserves respect." 

"I'm sorry, I just don't like it when new witches bless things," She says. 

"You were a new witch once, too," I mumble. 

"Where are all the purple candles?" I can hear Celene yell. 

"They're in my room," I call to her. "All the ritual candles for holidays are in my room. Make sure you get a green one and a yellow one, too!" 

My mom and Asher are in the kitchen, cooking lemon rosemary pie for our feast. Maria is in the entry way with Darren, Carl, and Uncle Lavenderstream. I join them, and realize Darren and Maria are having fake sword fights with my mom's expensive obsidian wands. Carl and Uncle Lavenderstream are texting away on their phones, pretending not to notice anything. 

I am fed up. My mom uses obsidian wands for only her most important spells. She will be super pissed off when she sees 2 third graders playing with them like they are worth nothing. 

Maria jumps, and her curly brown hair comes out of her ponytail. She still has a good grip on the wand, which surprises me. Those things are heavy. 

"Guys, I need you to PUT THE WANDS away, and calm down. Carl, Uncle Lavenderstream, put your phones down," I demand. 

The younger ones obey. They head to the closet where they found the wands, and put them away. The older, and supposedly "more mature" ones ignore me. They keep staring at the bright screens of their shiny new iPhones and act like the only thing that exists is technology. 

"PUT YOUR PHONES DOWN!" I yell. 

This gets their attention. "Anna, what the hell?" Carl says. He looks at me, and finally takes his eyes off his messages. Uncle Lavenderstream does the same. They are still holding their phones, so I take them out of their hands. 

"Hey, why did you do that?" Carl asks angrily. "That's my phone." 

The boys cross their arms and pout their lips. They are protesting, silently. They think they are being effective and defensive. They believe they will convince me to give them their phones back, but I won't. They look like helpless little toddlers.