nancy werlocks diary s02e14 (3 page)

“I’m trying hard not to.”

“Nancy Clarice!”

“What?”

“Can I finish my story?”

“I wasn’t interrupting you!”

“Anyway, so your father pulls me off of Ted, thinking I’m the crazy one. But then he sees Ted’s eyes have gone completely black and he smells of sulfur. The imp starts trying to convince your father to help him dispose of me, promises power, money, blah blah blah.”

“What did Dad do?”

“He punched him square in the jaw and said ‘Get the Hell out of Ted!’ then stepped aside and let me finish my business.”

“Good for him!”

“So, I finally got the imp exorcised and managed to stabilize Ted. But now I’ve got this witness to the entire thing, but instead of freaking out about what just happened, he is yelling at Ted for being an idiot.”

“That definitely sounds like Dad.”

“Now here I am, listening to him go on at Ted and going through my head how to handle this situation when he finally turns to me and asks if the creature is gone for good. I tell him it is and that Ted will be fine. The possession was too short to cause any long-term damage, but he'll need to rest for a while. Then he asks me if I want to go get pizza. Just like that.”

“What did you do?”

“
I said yes.”
Mom chuckles. “
Your father was quite handsome, you know
.”

“So you went and got pizza instead of filing a report?”

“Never reported the incident. Ted didn’t actually remember much of what happened, so we convinced him it had been a bad dream. He ended up dropping out of college not long after that and joined the army.”

“Wait, was he the guy at Dad’s funeral in the uniform?”

“I’m surprised you remember him.”

“Is that what made Dad hate magic?”

“No, it was more like the first in a long string of things he saw that didn’t set well with him. Realizing how easy it was for a mundane to get caught up in those kind of dangerous situations. He felt we didn’t do enough to police our own and to keep things out of the hands of mundanes.”

“I guess Dad never met a Justicar.”

“On the contrary. Your father felt Justicars didn’t have enough authority and weren’t proactive enough. He felt the Colleges treated mundanes hurt by magic as collateral damage instead of real people. All the strategic decisions of how far to go to save innocent people versus the risk to the Veil. In his mind, saving people was never a question. If magic was responsible for the harm, it was magic’s job to save them.”

Mom's presence flickers in-and-out for a moment as if she is losing concentration. "You still miss him," I say.

“Before my accident, I used to pity mundanes. The thought of losing who you are and everything you knew once you died; being given a completely new life with no memory of the people you loved and everything you worked for; it always struck me as cruel. I don’t believe that, anymore.” She flickers again. “Tell Scott…tell Scott I swear I won’t go against his wishes. I swear on his father’s grave. I just…I just want to see Megan. I just want to see everyone together and happy.”

“I’ll talk to him again.”

Mom slips back across the Veil.

November 9
^th
,

“Nancy? What a surprise!” says Laurie as she lets me in the house.

“You weren’t in the middle of anything, were you?”

“Good God, no. I’m glad to have company. Being home all day is making me crazy.” Laurie has been having some complications with the pregnancy, and her doctor has recommended she not work until the baby is born. Thankfully, she owns her spa so she can just give her employees more hours to cover her not being there. But it’s obvious the stay-at-home thing is not working for her.

“Anastasia insisted I should bring you a care package from the shop, so…” I place the basket of bath salts, lotion, candles, and assorted comfort items on the table.

“Oh, how sweet. She’s such a doll.” Laurie pokes at the ribbon and clear wrap to see what is inside.

“She also said I should get your unbiased opinion what you think this is worth, as she wants to make a bunch to sell for the Christmas season.”

“I’ve never known anyone to be so happy with a job in retail,” says Laurie as she rips off the wrapping. “It really isn’t healthy, I think.” She pops the lid on one of the lotions and sniffs it. “Mandarin Ginger? Nice.”

“She did a great deal of research to make sure she only selected fragrances that were pregnancy-safe.”

“I’m sure she did.” Laurie laughs. “Let me make a pot of coffee.”

We settle in at her kitchen table with coffee and lemon pound cake. Laurie shows me the latest ultrasound images. She also shows me Megan’s list of suggested baby brother names. “Maybe you can get off cheap for her birthday and let her pick the name as her gift,” I jokingly suggest.

“I will not have my son going through life with the name Clawd or Gillington, thank you very much!”

“Maybe as a middle name?” I take a bite of the pound cake. “Scott tell you we talked yesterday?”

“No, but I guess that is why he was in a sour mood when he got home?”

“He got a little defensive. I offered to host Thanksgiving this year so you didn’t have to do all the work.”

“Oh.” She fills her mouth with a huge piece of cake and looks down at her plate.

“I’m not here trying to go behind his back, Laurie. I just realize there is something wrong and I was hoping you could tell me what it was.”

“There is nothing wrong, Nancy. We decided not to raise the children with magic. I’ve stopped casting around Megan and I don’t even talk about it around her anymore. The only thing wrong is that nobody seems to respect our decision.”

“I respect that decision. I walked away from the craft for a while myself. My offer had nothing to do with pushing magic on Megan.”

“I’m sure Wanda had nothing to do with it.”

“My mother respects your decision, too. She just wants to see everyone together for the holidays.”

“Scott says Wanda is practically living…if that is the word…with you these days.”

“She visits often, but only because she was helping me take over the shop and take care of some loose ends. I was away from the craft for a while so I needed help getting back into the swing of things.”

“You took your Rank Two Trials not four months after your mother died. That is a little more than just getting back into the swing of things.”

“It wasn’t really my idea....it was complicated and a lot of crazy stuff was going on and…it doesn’t matter. The point is I respect that as Megan’s parents it is your right and responsibility to make decisions for her. I understand why you would want to delay exposing her to more magic than necessary. And I have no intention of telling you what to do. And neither does my mother. Believe me, I am the first person to admit that my mother can be as manipulative and conniving as anyone else’s mom. But she isn’t a liar. We can have Thanksgiving at my house. You can take it easy. And Mom can see the family without doing anything that would alert Megan to her presence.”

“Nancy—”

“She swears on my father’s grave, Laurie.”

“She said that?”

“Yeah. Would you at least just let Scott know that? I doubt he’ll take another phone call from me anytime soon.”

“What did my mother do at your shop?”

“What did Megan tell you?”

“Nothing, but I sensed the residual energy on that figurine. And I’m pretty sure you didn’t do it.”

“Megan wanted a fairy with red hair and I didn’t have one in stock. I was going to order one, but—”

“I’m going to kill my mother.” Laurie stands up and walks out of the kitchen. I follow after her. She picks up the phone.

“Don’t call her while you’re angry,” I say as I place a hand over hers. “Nothing good comes of having this conversation when you are angry.”

“Why is she doing this?” Laurie starts to cry. “And for such a petty little thing? Is that the lesson she wants to teach her granddaughter? That we should abuse magic for trite, stupid little things? Does she want her to grow up into one of those damn fairy princesses that is so lazy she leans on magic for everything?”

“I’m sure that isn’t her reasoning, Laurie.”

“Then what is her reasoning, Nancy? That I’m too stupid to know what is best for my own children? That I’m not good enough? That what I want doesn’t matter and she can do whatever the Hell she wants?”

“It’s okay,” I say and hug her. She sobs into my shoulder.

“This is all your fault!” she suddenly pushes me away. “The prodigal daughter returned to the Craft to carry on the family name. Goddamn Rank Two Warlock right out the gate. Do you even know how many times she has thrown that in my face?”

“I’m sorry, Laurie.”

“Every time I tell her I had no interest in returning to the Craft, she makes some snide comment. ‘Oh, I guess I’ll have to die first before you change your mind.’ Or ‘Well, Nancy said that for years too and now look how successful she is.’ I hate it.”

“Laurie, I am sorry. You have every right to be upset…with your mother. She has no right to use my decisions against you. What I have chosen to do has nothing to do with you, and doesn’t devalue you in any way.”

“Tell that to her.”

“No,
you’ll
tell that to her. But not right now. You need to get your thoughts together and focus on the real issue.”

Laurie sits down on the loveseat. I sit next to her. Laurie leans back and rests both of her hands on her pregnant belly. “And on top of everything else, I feel fat.”

“You’ll feel better after that beach ball exits your tummy.”

“I’m sorry, Nancy. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to getting yelled at for stuff I didn’t do. Occupational hazard from my family counseling days.”

“Do you think in twenty years Megan will be crying to her sister-in-law about me?”

“Most likely. But in the end, she’ll realize that despite the fact that you are being overbearing and controlling and completely irrational, that you love her very much and really do want her to be happy.”

“Maybe Thanksgiving at your place would be a good idea after all. If Wanda really does plan to behave, I could use that against my mother.”

“Oh, good thinking. Nothing like pitting the mother-in-laws against each other to get the pressure off you.”

Laurie sits up straight and mimics her mother’s voice flawlessly. “So, honey, how was Thanksgiving at Nancy’s? Did Wanda appear?” Then in her own voice. “Not at all, Mother. In fact, Wanda made it clear she completely supports our decision regarding Megan’s exposure to magic and didn’t manifest at all.”

“I like it. I’ll back you up completely.”

“I’ll still bake the pies, though. You’re a good cook, but your baking sucks.”

“Even Superman has his Kryptonite.”

“I’ll pitch the idea to Scott as a means of getting my mom off our case. He’ll go for it.”

“Good deal.”

“You’re still coming to Megan’s birthday party next week, right?”

“Yeah, 4 PM?”

“We’re moving it to 5 PM because we’re going to have it at the Chuck E. Cheese's.”

I wince. “Why?”

"Because it is a public place and, therefore, Mother won't be free to cast spells or discuss my poor magical parenting."

I sigh. “Chuck E. Cheese's. Oh joy of joys.”

Wrath of the Turkey God

November 8
^th

Houston has been laughing non-stop for almost five minutes.

“I don’t understand why you find this so funny,” I reply.

“
You
are cooking Thanksgiving dinner?”

“You eat my cooking all the time!”

“Yeah, but there is a difference between making pasta for two and Thanksgiving dinner.”

“By the gods! You are ridiculous. I’m only cooking for four people, Houston.”

“You didn’t invite Laurie’s parents?”

“No, why would I invite them?”

“Isn’t she an only child?”

“What does that have to do with anything? Laurie didn’t even bring it up.”

“You know you have to use real plates, right?”

“Like Hell I do. I bought some adorable Thanksgiving paper plates.” He starts laughing again. “They wouldn’t make them if they weren’t acceptable to use!” He just laughs harder. “You need to go back to Florida or something.”

Houston finally stops laughing long enough to work the remote and turn on the TV. I go into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and go through the mail. My homeowner’s insurance will cover Harlan’s medical expenses (after I pay the $1000 deductible). I’m just waiting for them to send me the claim forms to sign.

“Hey, Nancy! Come see this! I know where you can get your turkey cheap!”

“I’ll pick one up at Shoprite, Houston!” I yell back.

“No, no. Come here. This is funny!”

I walk back into the living room and look at the TV. There is a news reporter standing on the side of the road gesturing at what looks like three or four dozen wild turkeys walking down what looks like Route 55.

“…in 1977, the NJ Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation reintroduced wild turkeys to the state with 22 of the birds. Since then, conservation efforts have watched the population grow to an estimated 20,000 in New Jersey,” says the reporter as speeding cars slam their breaks and beep their horns behind her in an effort to avoid colliding with the birds. “While the birds have become minor nuisances for suburban areas over the last few years, as you can see from the scene here, they’ve now gotten dangerous.”

The news cuts to a statement from someone at the Division of Fish and Wildlife explaining that wild turkeys are aggressive and that citizens should try to avoid approaching the birds. Then back to the news reporter who says that the State will be extending Fall hunting season for wild turkeys to help level the populations near suburban areas.

“Fresh turkey! Let’s get a hunting permit!” says Houston, who is in the middle of a fresh laughing fit.