Therapy.We need to talk.
Ishall be home for the remainder of the day. Feel free to stop by.
You'restill at Nana's?
Ofcourse. Where else would I be?
"Oh,I don't know, Mother. Building a candy house to lure children into your oven?"I wanted to type it, but my fingers wouldn't let me. Sometimes, my fingers weresmarter than I was.
"What?"Yuki was staring at me like I had lost what little of my mind I had left.
Ishook my head at her. I'llsee you this afternoon,I texted to my mother and stuffed my phone back in my pocket. "Let's getthe coffee and get out of here. I have a hag to banish."
"Banish?"
"Yeah.She needs to get her ass back home before she doesn't have a home to go backto."
"I'llpretend I know what you're talking about if you buy me an iPad."
"Mymother, but I'm not buying you an iPad," I said with a laugh, thinking shewas joking. She might have been, her face was all smiles, but I could feeldisappointment wafting from her in waves. A scene played itself out in my mind.Yuki, in an effort to defy her father, cut off her beautiful, waist length hairand bleached the tips to hold the purple dye better. In a fit of rage, he had destroyedeverything in her room, including her first-generation iPad. The one she hadsaved for and bought on her own. It had happened just before he had sent her tolive in Cedar Falls in disgrace.
"Iknow. I was just kidding, Master."
Weturned down the coffee aisle and she ran ahead to replenish the three boxes ofcoffee we'd gone through since the last time I made it to the store. By thetime I made it to her, she had them stacked in her arms and set them on thefloor, shoving them on the bottom rack of the cart one by one. "That's it.To Grandmother's house we go."
"Onemore thing." I pushed the cart and headed to the back of the store insteadof toward the registers.
Whenshe saw we were headed for electronics, she started getting antsy. When Istopped in front of the Apple display, she growled, shook her head, and startedpulling on my arm. "I told you I was kidding! You're not buying me aniPad. I was really joking!"
"Iknow you were, but then I saw what your father did."
Shehissed and stepped back away from me. "No."
"Yes,"I said sternly and started looking around for one of the sales associates. Twoof them were hovering around another female employee with pink pigtailsstocking the DVD rack. "Can I get some help over here?"
"Coming,"the older of the two headed in our direction. "What can I get for you?"
Ipointed at the largest tablet on the display. "One of those, please."
"Surething."
"That'san iPad Pro!" Yuki stared in awe, clearly having a vocal debate in herhead about shutting her mouth or continuing to protest.
"Yep."
"Seriously,Master. You can't!"
Theassociate unlocked the sliding glass door on the display and pulled out thematte white box. "You want it?"
"Yes,"I answered.
"No,"Yuki protested.
"I'mpaying." I ignored her, and after my proclamation, so did he.
Hestepped behind the kiosk and rang it up, and I held out my card before Yukicould utter another word.
Ihad seen something else in the brief moment I'd been in her memories. SomethingI didn't know about Yuki. She loved to draw. Her dream had been tobecome a graphic artist. The fight between her and her father had boiled downto one thing. She wanted to go to night school. He had adamantly refused. Andthen made her life a living hell when she rebelled.
Theassociate stuffed the purchase into a bag and handed me the receipt. "Comeon. Let's go pay for the rest of the stuff and go torture my mother." Ihanded her the bag and leaned in close to her, whispering in her ear, "Drawme something pretty." I kissed her cheek and ruffled her hair, and thendropped the whole topic.
"Thankyou, Master." She was shuffling her feet and I barely heard the words thatescaped her lips.
"Don'tthank me. I'm going to put you to work."
Clearlyconfused, she asked, "How?"
"Well,first I'm going to find you a local art school. I'm going to get you enrolled.And then, you're going to pay off your tuition by creating all the graphics andadvertisements for the bookstore. Then, you're going to start writing anddrawing the graphic novels that you've always loved, and then I'm going tostart selling them once we figure out how to get them published."
Shealmost dropped the iPad. "Are you serious?"
"I'dnever joke about your dreams."
"Yousaw?"
"Sawand felt." I sighed and put my hand on her shoulder.
Shesniffled and nodded, but still had enough in her to give me a little smile ofgratitude. That alone was worth what I had paid for the stinking tablet. If Ihadn't already turned her father to ash, I would have animated his corpse, hungit in my garage, and taken up boxing.
∞∞ ∞
Mygrandmother finally answered the door after the twelfth round of knocking. "Dorothea?"
"Hey,Nana. Where's the witch."
"Whichone?"
"Thewicked one of the West."
"Entertainingsome guests…in her room."
"Ewww."I stopped and stared at her in horror, hoping to the Lady that she was joking.
Yukimade a gagging noise behind me.
"Wouldyou care for a cup of tea? Glass of wine?"
"Wine."
"Dear?"She peeked around me to look at Yuki.
"I'llhave a glass of wine, please. Ma'am."
"Oh,shush. Call me Nana."
Yukiblushed and hid behind me. Nana scared her. And me. And the neighborhood,county, and tri-state area, so she wasn't alone.
"Howlong is she going to be entertaining?"
"Foras long as they can keep her occupied, I would imagine." She led usthrough the modest house and into the kitchen. "Sit," she said andpointed to the kitchenette table in the alcove. "I'm assuming this isabout the coven."
"Youknew?"
Shenodded and waved her fingers at one of the bottles of wine on the counter.Wiggling its way out of the top of the bottle, the cork ripped through thetinfoil and plopped merrily on the counter while Nana pulled three glasses fromthe cupboard. "The question is, how did you find out?"
"Stoppedby Tir Na Nog for a drink."
Sheblinked in surprise. "That's a long way to go for a drink."
"Neededto get away for a bit. I ran into Nestor and some of the other coven. They're ahot fucking mess,
