Time with Magic

Written with a prompt:

A woman drops her wallet on the street, and it falls open. You pick it up and are about to return it to her when you notice a strange picture inside.

“It just doesn’t make sense!” you whine staring at the open book.

“If everything in life made sense right away, no one would ever have to study and we would all be geniuses!” Almendra responds in her usual snappy tone.

“I just thought witchcraft would be more intuitive than this, but instead I feel like I’m studying chemistry.”  You slump your shoulders and fall nose first into the old, thick book.  The binding is tattered and the brown of the leather cover has started to sneak onto the pages.  You mumble something into the crease of the pages and Almendra lets out a heavy sigh.

“Fine, we can finish early today, go home Celeste.” With that Almendra slides the giant book out from under your nose and closes it, a dust cloud forming from the loud thump of the cover.  As the dust cloud dissipates the book begins to move slowly towards the bookshelf on the wall, where the other books squeeze apart to make room for their fat friend.

You gather your things from the table and slide them into your over the shoulder backpack.  You had hoped and hoped that after turning sixteen your summons would come and you would be able to leave the mortal world.  One by one, the other girls of the witch families got their summons, completed their studies and got to leave this city to further their education in more specified craft.  You were now thirty, your summons had come five months ago and you just couldn’t wrap your head around any of the studies.  Almendra was your assigned tutor, she having the gift of precognition, the ability to see glimpses of the future had requested you as her student when your summons finally came.

You were so tired, over the last five months Almendra had thrown you off a bridge to see if you would levitate, lit your hair on fire to see if you had elemental control, cut open your hand to see if you could heal, put you on awkward blind dates to attempt hypnosis, asked you to obtain all sorts of vapid ingredients for potion brewing and now you’d spent far too much time in morgues trying necromancy.  All of this while drinking potions Almendra made to help discover your path.  Today Almendra had created a new concoction for you to drink before the lesson.  It had made you gag, but you managed to gulp it down as quickly as possible, holding your nose with your thumb and index finger.

“This feels so pointless, maybe I’m not even a witch, maybe I’m broken.” You say picking at the edge of the mahogany table with your fingernail.  Almendra smacks your hand.

“You’ll ruin my table! If you weren’t a witch, Celeste, you wouldn’t have received a summons from the majestry, you know they see everything.  They have no time to waist with mortals and you would have lived on your life and died like all the others in this realm.”  As a witch, you aged much slower than those of the mortal world.  At the point of receiving your summons your biological clock would slow down significantly and you would remain the same for years at a time.

You grumbled, moving slowly out of the Victorian mansion and onto the landing of a simple apartment building.  Working for the majestry had its perks, from the outside, Almendra lived in an old apartment complex advertising studio, one- and two-bedroom availability.  But if she invited you in, really invited you in, you would be welcomed by a butler into her two story, old fashioned home.

The door closed behind you and you hovered for a moment letting the light wind sweep your short, black bob into your face.  As you inhaled the sweet flavor of spring and began down the steps you noticed a middle-aged woman passing by.  Her red lips pressed tightly together in dissatisfaction and her graying hair tied in a ballerina bun. She was fumbling around for something in her purse and as you passed her wallet came tumbling out onto the pavement. 

“Oh, ma’am, you dropped this.” You said sweeping down to pick up the wallet. It had fallen open as it hit the pavement and revealed several credit cards, drivers license and a photograph of a beautiful ballerina.  The photo was aged and had an etching on the bottom that read “Celeste, you have been removed from the order of the majestry for breaking the time law.” Your eyes widen.  You look back at the middle-aged woman, but in her place stands a young, elegant lady.  She takes her wallet from you, replacing it into her purse, with a brief “thank you” she glides away.

Your hands ice over as you run up the stairs and fling open Almendra’s door, you are greeted by an empty, studio apartment.  You’re shaking now, but you manage to stumble back out onto the landing.  The building is brand new, freshly painted with a large “grand opening” sign hung across the balconies.  You slowly walk down the stairs unsure of what to do next. Time had been turned back, but a witch on her own wasn’t capable of such antics, a combined power was necessary.

You start to walk, there is a diner down the street you know has been open for ages, you could re-assess there and maybe get a hold of the majestry? How does one get a hold of the majestry anyway?  As far as you knew, they were the only ones capable of finding you if the need were to arise.

The bell on the diner door jingles to announce your entrance, you walk in keeping your head down until you reach the furthest booth by the window.  You sit down, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings, everything looks so shiny and new, but old at the same time.  You drop your head on into your palms trying to rub away the oncoming magic induced headache. 

There is a tap on the window from outside, you look up. Almendra stands on the other side, more youthful than before, her left hand in a thumbs up sign.  She has a huge smile on her face and you can make out her lips forming the words “it worked.”

You smile and raise your arm to order yourself a victory latte.

Author's Note

Another brief into remembering how to write

Reviews

[emipoemi]

This - was - something. I don't mean that in a bad way, I was actually hooked. This had potential of being something grand - like an entire novel rather than a vignette. For starters, you have strong characters, and the second person narration is intriguing, though you have to be very careful with such a tactic given not many readers would identify as a "Celeste", so naming the character and not allowing the readers to really get a sense that they ARE Celeste is a bit dangerous. So if you want to keep it short, take out the name and the specific descriptions, but if you choose to lengthen the story and really delve into this world and story, you could def play around with these factors to really make the readers feel that they are this character. Making this longer would also help readers understand the rules of the two realms, as by the end, what exactly worked? She was kicked out of the order according to the notice, so what exactly happened that Almendra (fantastic name for such a character - love it!) appears to tell "us" that "it works"? I may have to read it again to see if I missed something, but getting a sense of the rules and regulations prior would help a lot (for we never really understand the "time law" prior to the "expulsion" so why should we care?). Thirdly, you have a bit of a sentence oddity when she's throwing everything over her shoulder (kind of like two sentences mishmashed together).

Other than that, this is enjoyable. It felt at the start like it was going to be a metaphor for something (for why need witches worry about what to do with a lost wallet?), but then the witch factors actually came into play, and that was fun and then you swing around to add the wallet factor in at the end, which was nice, but the metaphorical factor would have driven it over the top. But this has potential, and I strongly encourage you to make this a novel of sorts, for you would have so much fun playing with this world more. A whole lot of fun!

Bueno....¡muy buen hecho! me ha encantando.

[yanacolors]

I really appreciate your feedback!! I'll take another look at this and see if I can take it somewhere. Writing is a new world for me and I'm excited to see what I can create!

[emipoemi]

just feel, that's my motto. Give yourself to the piece, and it will guide you. The moment you think, you ruin everything. If you feel, you'll hit gold every time

[Vin]

Just realised these kind of writing can stay long with a reader.

Keep pushing the limits dear.

Vin ( https://vinajith.blogspot.com/ )

[LitStar]

this was cute to say the least

I'm always amused by anything with Sabrina the teenaged witch so I found this literary jaunt fun


this has a unique writing style too I find

haven't seen it used here before in fact


very kool



-L.S