Witch's Brew

“Dance in a bath of Ocean’s Breath and dry with a cloth of fresh plucked cotton”.

-Cressa Candles

Willow dropped the brown and red-stained bandages, used for salves and ointments in the shop, into the boiling pot. The sanitary detergent wafting up in the steam. A young man and woman were laying on the table next to the fire. Both fair-haired and beaten black and blue. Cressa was waving a feather through the smoke of a sunflower, rose, and sage bundle. Willow was pretty sure there were more herbs mixed into the bundle, but Cressa liked to keep her healing remedies close to her heart. She had shared a few with Willow over the years but told her it was best to create her own – which she had. However, Willow suspected Cressa was into a lot more things than herbal concoctions, but she wasn’t going to pry. Cressa was a good soul who had taken in so many lost souls and given them hope. The two injured people on the table most likely to be added to that number.

“Hand me the bottle of Naked, please,” Cressa said. Her voice was angelic and went well with the sounds of chimes and drumbeats playing across the speakers. Placing the feather into the shell next to the bodies, she reached out her cream-colored hands. Willow noticed the age of Cressa’s hands didn’t quite fit the age of her face. Though Cressa was young, you could see the pain of her path in her hands and eyes. Willow grabbed the brown container next to the pot of soiled bandages and passed it over to Cressa’s opened hands.

“You’re not speaking much tonight, Willow Bee. Is everything OK?” Cressa asked as she continued to work.

She was methodical in her movements. Removing the old bandages, placing the healing salve on the wounds, and then re-wrapping them.

“I’m okay.” Willow responded, smiling slightly at the nickname Cressa had adopted for her. “I was thinking about these two,” she continued, “What’s their story?”

A light giggle came out of Cressa. “I’m not sure exactly,” she said as she finished the last of the bandaging. She clapped her hands together as though dusting them off. “I do know, whatever happened to them… this is not the first time they’ve been through it. In fact, I would bet that this,” she motioned to the two on the table, “is a regular occurrence. C’mon, let's allow them to rest. When they wake up, we can ask them their story.”

Cressa pulled Willow by the arm with a hook of her own. Stepping through the floor-to-ceiling curtains that separated the tarot room in the shop from what Willow had dubbed the Med room.

*** 30 minutes later ***

Willow sank into the high-backed velvet cushioned chair. The fresh cup of chamomile and honey tea warmed her hands. Over the brim of the cup, Willow watched Cressa relax into the matching chair across from her.

“So you’ve been doing a lot better over the last few years,” Cressa said starting a conversation Willow knew was coming.

Willow had managed to avoid the conversation for a while, finding ways to be too busy to talk using the work at the shop as an escape.

“Yeah, Cressa.” Willow started, “I’ve been doing good. Mostly staying busy with the shop.” Willow finally responded.

“Mhm,” Cressa nodded, “That’s good.” She said as a thoughtful expression crinkled her eyebrows. “How have you been feeling? Still in the dark? Or having negative emotions?

The tone Cressa used implied she knew more about what she was asking. Willow knew Cressa had a talent for knowing things people preferred to keep hidden. She had taught Willow how to protect herself from people with her talent. She called it shielding. Unfortunately, Willow’s emotions were so strong that shielding didn’t always work. Cressa would sometimes stop what she was doing to watch her work around the store, and on multiple occasions send her on errands to get her out of the store. At first, Willow thought it was because she wasn’t doing a good job. But, after a while, the errands started feeling good, to the point she looked forward to them. Coming back to the present, Willow smiled at Cressa.

“I could lie to you and tell you no, but we both know you would know better than that,” Willow responded.

Cressa leaned forward, her chin resting on her fisted hand that was propped on her crossed legs. “True,” Cressa mused, “However, we both know I try not to intrude on my friends’ inner workings.”

Willow snorted a laugh. Yeah, she knew all too well how much Cressa hated one of her gifts. Yes, it helped with her work, but it many occasions she had issues keeping other people’s emotions separate from her own.

“I’m doing OK, Cress,” Willow said, “Some days are harder than others, but being here has helped a lot.” Willow set her cup of tea down on the table in front of her. “What’s going on though? You normally don’t ask – talk about it, yes. But straight ask, is a no.” Willow asked her.

Cressa leaned back into the chair, her legs still crossed under the black lace skirt. She held the left armrest with one hand and rested the side of her head against her right forefinger. “I want to promote you. You’ve been doing an amazing job around the shop and doing your shadow work. But, before I make this offer I have for you, I want to know where you think you are – Mentally, Emotionally, and Metaphysically.” She said after a few moments. She crossed her fingers over her knee letting Willow know she had the floor.

Willow leaned back, chewing on her thumbnail. She took stock of where she was emotionally, which was considerably better than ten years ago – when she arrived at the shop, broken down… a shell of her former self. Mentally, she was the same. She still had moments of self-doubt and insecurities. Other than that, she felt confident she had healed enough mentally to be able to handle herself. The way she viewed the world had even changed. Not everyone was bad or had cruel intentions towards her. Some people, like Cressa, had the purest intentions and meant good things towards others. If she was being honest with herself though, she finally felt safe again – emotionally and mentally thanks to Cressa’s help. It’s one of the reasons she stayed so close to the shop. Why she threw herself into her esoteric studies. The books and small things she did before coming here were nothing compared to what she knew now.

“To be honest,” Willow started, “I’m in a lot better place than I was. But I’m still improving and getting better.” Willow had moved on from her thumb to her other fingers.

Cressa nodded and stood. “I’m going to make more tea. If you could, check in on our guests and finish washing those bandages.”

“Yeah… Yeah, of course.” Willow said slightly taken aback by Cressa’s response. She wasn’t normally so short with Willow… or anyone for that matter. Willow got up and walked through the curtain behind her.

The crisp scent of the cleaning concoction boiling away. The two wounded bodies laying there, unmoved. Willow picked up the wooden spoon she used to clean the soiled bandages and dipped it into the pot giving them a good strong stir. The abrupt end of the conversation shook her. Cressa wasn’t one to just end a conversation, much less the way she just did. It was very out of character for one of her kindest friends. Hell, the only friend Willow really had.

Willow was so deep in thought about it she hadn’t realized she started to lean on the pot, which tipped over its boiling contents all over the front of her. “Fuck!” Willow shrieked as she jumped away from the stovetop, swiping at her clothing. Cressa came running into the room.

“What happened, Willow?” She asked as she rushed to the dresser behind Willow and grabbed handfuls of cloth.

“I spilt it on myself,” Willow said removing her top as Cressa pressed more fabric to Willow’s skin.

Cressa looked at Willow, a sadness in her eyes Willow had never seen before.

“Cressa,” Willow started in a small voice, but movement from behind her silenced her. Her eyes grew round, and her lips formed a thin line. Her brows crinkled her face as fear and concern filled her.

Cressa’s face became stern, much like a mother’s to her child, “What do you think you are doing?” Cressa snapped, nudging Willow to the side, rather forcefully. Willow side-stepped and turned as Cressa started fussing over the larger of the two bodies. The gauze-wrapped hands tried to pull at the gauze-wrapped head. Willow had to fight a nervous laugh, choking on it while making an awful snorting noise. The image of a mummy from old cartoons raising its arms and walking stiffly from side to side playing in her head.

Cressa shot a sharp look her way as she tried to force the torso of the body back down. “You mustn’t take those off just yet, dear. You are still healing,” she said.  Muffled noise came from the head as the gauze where the mouth should have been moved. “She’s next to you still sleeping and healing as you should be,” Cressa responded. Her care for her patients verged on motherly. Willow wrapped her arms around her bare middle as she chewed her bottom lip in frustration. She wanted to help, but this was the first time anyone had ever come to the store this badly wounded.

There was a high chance should she step in and help, she would mess up some part of Cressa’s work. That could leave them more wounded than when they arrived. Which now that Willow thought about it, seemed to have been literally out of nowhere. One moment she is out front restocking sage and lavender bundles, the next she’s rushing to the back to help Cressa turn her potions room into an infirmary.

Ha-ha. Potions room, Willow thought to herself then made a face of confusion. Her entire facial features going from smooth to scrunched in the center of her face. Great, now I’m losing my mind, she thought to herself. The sound of her inner monologue being played outside of her head a second time startling her. She grabbed the wall behind her and backed into it.

“Don’t be frightened, Willow,” Cressa said calmly, her back to Willow. “It’s the girl’s ability.” Cressa nodded to the smaller of the two bodies. “She’s a telepath. Sometimes when they are in danger or dangerously unconscious, they project what they hear from others. It’s the subconscious way of protecting themselves,” she further explained as she checked the bandages along the male’s body.

Willow was still shaken but forced herself off the wall. Timidly, she approached the other side of the table. Across from her, Cressa waved a smoking bundle over the body, her hands alternating in the motion.

“What can I do?” Willow asked.

Cressa looked up through her lids at her. Her normally hazel eyes an amber gold. “See that thick bundle of herbs, next to the girl’s left hand? Breathe in and exhale all negative emotion and pick it up.”

Willow stood for a moment, just simply breathing. She focused on exhaling all negativity within her, her eyes closed as she intuitively picked up the bundle of herbs. In her mind's eye, she saw Cressa’s movements over the body in front of her – so she did the same, focusing the healing properties of the herbs into the smoke and onto the body. This was to help spiritually and physically. The energy in the room shifted from a calm, peaceful charge to an energetic, bouncy charge. The energy rolled across Willow’s arms, raising the fine hairs there. Warmth started to spread from her palms up to the core of her chest. Closing her eyes, a smile spread across her lips. She collected the heated energy between her arms, pulling it through her arms and core. Once the energy was too heated to contain, she spread her arms wide, the energy spreading with them. She placed her right hand above the wounded woman’s head and pointed her left fingers towards her feet. Opening her eyes, she felt more than saw the healing energy she had just conjured fall over the body like a blanket – one in which the young woman embraced, absorbing the energy into herself.

Willow exhaled a breath she had not known she was holding, her skin slightly damp with perspiration. She looked up to meet Cressa’s eyes. A small smirk displayed on Cressa’s lips, who went back to working her healing on the male’s body.

“You should go rest,” Cressa said, nodding towards the curtained doorway. Willow smiled and turned towards the doorway, a sudden wave of exhaustion taking over. Sitting back in her velvet high backed chair as exhaustion took her.