Witching Hour (complete)

(16) A hidden place

Last time:
*knock knock*
'Are you there Alana?' I recognize Christine's voice, who else would it have been.

'Michael, will you let her in?' I ask. He nods and stumbles down the stairs to the door. I hear them talking for a while before they walk to the kitchen whilst chatting. I start scrubbing myself hastingly.

Now:
After I finish scrubbing I stand up and scramble around for a towel. Where did I throw the damn thing to? Then I hear Michael knock on the door.

'Under the tub, Alana,' he says through the door. I look under the tub and indeed there it is.

'Thank you, I am almost done,'  I say to him. I walk around drying myself whilst collecting my clothing. I wrap up my hair after drying myself off and start putting on my clothing. I hop to the stairs as I put my socks on. Then I walk downstairs. I find Michael and Christine in the living room.

'Well, that would be the first time I'd be sitting here,' I say.

'The same goes for me. I wondered, did your parents have a study?' Christine asks.

'Well, I didn't have time to explore the house a lot so I don't know. But bearing in mind that my dad really liked a special place to sit and do his work, it might as well be possible,' I answer.

'If there is one, it probably is upstairs. Maybe even in the attic, if this house has one,' I continue.

'I guess we are going back up then,' Michael replies. Together we walk to the stairs, go up and spread across the hall to check all the doors. There are six in total. As I remember four of them are bedrooms, but one opened to a room that looked like a storage. I walk over to that door and open it to give the room a closer look. Inside, under all the boxes and other stuff that had been put in here, there is a desk with some drawers in it. I walk through the room and open the window because it smells weird in here.

'I guess I found it,' I say as I call the others. Christine and Michael walk in.

'Well, looks like we have to sort this out and then we can start!' Christine says enthousiastically. It ended up taking us the whole afternoon to sort the boxes out and get everything clean and tidied up again.

'We don't have much time left now...' Christine mumbles.

'I guess it's best to start the cooking lessons then,' she continues.

'Okay, we'll go to the kitchen then. But I don't believe that I have much food in the cabinets,' I say.

'Good thing I brought food with me then. Did Joshua tell you where you can find the shop?' Christine asks.

I answer while we walk downstairs: 'No, he didn't. He said we would have enough time to find it. I know where the bakery is though,'

'Ah yes, I figured. After all it is Joshua who is showing you the village. He's really jumbled sometimes. But if I am going to teach you how to cook you bet I'll be eating with you!' She replies.

'I expected that...' I mumble. When we arrive in the kitchen she fetches a bag with all kinds of greens in it. She spreads them out on the counter.

'Okay, so tell me what these are,' she says.

'Veggies,' Michael tunes in, with a grin on his face.

'Yes, very helpful, thanks. Now, Alana, which kinds are they?' She asks. I have to think before I answer. Most of the vegetables I have seen and eaten before, but some of them I only recognize from the store.

'Errr, I believe this is a bok choi, and that is a turnip cabbage. The rest of them are obvious, carrots, green beens and some sort of mushroom,' I say.

'Well, the mushroom is actually a boletus, but the rest you answered correct,' she continues.

'First of all we are going to cut and wash the vegetables, no suprise there I think, then I will show you in which order to cook them and what they need to taste the best,' she says. I think we were busy for half an hour. We cut the veggies and cooked them accordingly. As I found some potatoes when I was looking for a cutboard, we cooked them too. Now we are sitting at the diningtable.

'Michael, Dinner is ready!' I shout to him. He doesn't answer immediately, but I hear something tip tap towards me.

'You have been sleeping on the couch like that, haven't you?' I ask. A proud mew is my answer. I pick him up and scratch him under his chin. A loud purr arises from the cat.  I don't know if I like him more this way, I love my cat but I might be loving Michael as well. I set him down on the ground and give him some space. Then he changes back and walks over to the table.

'Well, what's for dinner?'

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Oh my gosshh,

I just saw I made it into the rankings of teenager and coven! thank you so much for reading and I hope you will help me grow from here.

I love you all!

Anne