Inheritance

Chapter 2: Jack (Part 2)

Someone knocked on his door.

"You awake?" Crow said.

"Yeah." Jack rubbed his eyes.

"Olive needs you."

Jack climbed out of bed pulling on some army green cargo pants, a gray t-shirt and a brown thermal with holes. He touched the wolf head earring in his ear, tied on his boots, roughed up his hair and scratched his hairy chin. He stepped out to a darker day than yesterday, and not just due to heavy clouds in the sky. The memory of Derrick, dead and cold in a ditch, followed after him.

"Storm blow in?" he asked Olive, who stirred strange goo in the pot. It glistened and bubbled. Unlike the nasty things most witches brewed in black caldrons, Olive's potion steamed with a bright swirl of gold, orange and red mixed with a few iridescent hints of yellow, green and white.

"Yes! And such a mighty fall storm it is! Jack, this has to sit for a few hours before it is ready and I am going to go out in the rain and dance in the storm. There is one last ingredient that I need."

"What is it? And what are you making?"

"I need you to pick it up at the tobacco shop in the mall. I already called it in and I told him you would be coming to get it. This is a potion Dream gave me to help with the birth of the twins. I'll drink it right before labor."

"TMI Mom. It's Gomez, right?"

"Yes, I need the aged leaf, flavored with vanilla and just a hint of earth to finish this spell."

"Will do."

She smiled at him. "Be careful and take your coat. Oh, and Jack, you have to be back by 4:28, or the spell is ruined."

"Gotcha." Jack went to his room. He loved how Olive sounded like everyone else's mom and then threw a curve ball like potion ingredient shopping in the mix just to remind him of her powers. Jack clipped his holster onto his pants nestling it in the small of his back. He checked the load of his Glock 17 and slipped it into the holster. He threw a couple of extra magazines in his pocket, and pulled on his coat and gloves. He fit his Glock 19 into a secret pocket in the coat's lining, and wrapped a scarf around his neck.

"Where are you going and can I come?" Zephyr said as she flew in the room. Jack explained his errand while he tied his black bandana around his head. She did a double flip in the air.

"Can I come?" she sang.

"Did someone give you too much honey?"

"Fortunatus and I had a drinking contest last night while you were sleeping," she said as she climbed in his pocket.

"How old are you two?" Jack put his wallet and cell phone in the other pocket. "And why didn't you wake me up?"

"It's a magic thing, you wouldn't understand," Zephyr said kicking him in the ribs.

Jack grabbed his side with a dramatic groan.

"You still should have got me," he said and headed out to his car.

He glanced out the kitchen window as he passed through and saw his parents dancing in the back yard. Crow sure did some strange things as the man married to the witch of seasons. Things Jack could not see himself ever doing, like dancing out in the yard with a very pregnant wife in the middle of a cold, autumn storm. Just did not make sense.

Jack drove through the rain, his windshield wipers on high, music up loud. Life seemed to pulse through him and he sang at the top of his lungs with no one to laugh at him but Zephyr, who sang too. Jack hunted for a parking spot in the busy mall, filled with teens enjoying their Saturday. He parked at the edge of the shopping complex unable to find a closer spot. The dash to the mall left Jack soaked through and through.