The Witch's Key

Author's notes: This book is based entirely
on fiction and its story line derived solely from the imagination
of its author. No characters, places or incidents in this book are
real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places,
events or locales is entirely coincidental. No part of this
publication may be copied or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy or otherwise, without the expressed written permission of
the author or author’s agent.

Copyright Dana E. Donovan 2007

Smashwords Edition

Published by Smashwords

I read how the train slowed as it neared the yard,
its headlamps lapping the wooded bluff in a broad sweep ahead of
the bend, blinding the squatter punks and angellinas waiting to hop
aboard. Further along the tracks, a young man sat Indian style,
hands clasped resting on a cloth bindle.

I turned to Lilith, pointing to the article in the
newspaper where the engineer admitted he had been drinking, but
claimed he would not have been able to stop the train in any case.
“Can you believe this guy?” I asked. “How can he say alcohol wasn’t
a factor?”

Lilith brushed the question aside as though I had
never asked it. “Look,” she said. “I made this.” She handed me a
little white box.

My first impression was that the box contained
jewelry of some sort. It was about the right size. But then, our
relationship had not made that leap since our still-recent return
to prime. The rite of passage ceremony we participated in had given
me the body of a twenty-something year-old, an easy forty years
younger than the man I was. And although I had made no secret of my
romantic inclinations for Lilith, she had yet to express anything
remotely mutual towards me. For that reason, I dismissed the idea
of the gift representing any significant intimate value. Still, the
giggle in her voice made me wonder. I took the offering and shook
it to my ear. It sounded empty.

“What is it?”

She smiled, teasingly, and then she sat down on the
couch, opposite my end. She leaned back on a stack of pillows,
propping her feet up on my lap. “Go on, open it.”

The coo in her voice intrigued me. My heart
fluttered, I think. I mean, admittedly, it had not done that in
decades, but I’m reasonably sure that’s what it was. I pulled on
the ribbon that made up a bow and untied the neatly wrapped
package. My eyes darted back and forth between Lilith and the box,
hoping to catch a glimpse of what she was up to. With most women,
you can take a moment like that at face value, embrace it, delight
in its spontaneity and treasure its tenderness. But with Lilith,
you cannot do that. It is not to say that she is not spontaneous.
She is. Or that she is not tender, because she can be. I have seen
it. But Lilith, witchcraft and magic notwithstanding, is definitely
not like most women. When Lilith presents you with a gift, you must
take it gratefully, but with quiet reservations.

“It’s not going to bite me,” I said jokingly, as I
prepared to lift the cover. “Is it?”

She kicked her shoes off and cupped her hands behind
her head. “Course not, silly.”

Great
, I thought. She called me silly. I knew
I was in trouble then. Silly is something a girlfriend says to her
boyfriend, or maybe a wife to her husband when she’s feeling
frisky. I did not want to accept her gift with my guard up, but I
didn’t want my hopes unnecessarily dashed either. I lifted the
cover on the box and looked inside. A faint whisk of air shot out,
making me blink, but otherwise provoking no unpleasant surprises. I
looked back at her. She seemed satisfied, but curious.

“Is that it?” I asked.

She nodded.

“But it’s empty.”

“Yes. Now it is.” She wiggled her toes, and at once,
I began rubbing and massaging her bare foot.

“You know, you’re going to think this is crazy,
but…”

“Yes?”

“Well, I thought maybe you were going to give me
something special.”

“Oh?” Her smile remained suspiciously stuck. “Like
what?”

I stopped working the ball of her right foot and
began thump presses on her left. “Yeah, I thought for a moment you
were presenting me with…I don’t know, a ring maybe.”

“A ring?”

“Yes.”

“Like a friendship ring?”

“Yeah, maybe, something like that.”

She pulled her foot away and inserted the other back
into the rotation. “And you’re disappointed now?”

I shrugged. “A little, I guess.”

“Oh, Tony.”

“Tony, nothing,” I said, sounding discouraged, I’m
sure. “You know how I feel about you, Lilith. You don’t need to
tease me with empty boxes.”

“That wasn’t an empty box.” Curiously, her smile
broadened.

“Wasn’t it?”

“No. That was a whisper box.”

“What’s that?”

Now the laugh came out, spilling like a secret she
could no longer keep. “A whisper box is a vessel containing a
spell, which is cast upon the recipient who opens it.”

“You cast a spell on me?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of spell?”

“Oh, it’s harmless. There is only one kind of spell
that you can hold in a whisper box.”

I must say I was getting a bit perturbed at that
point, but for some reason, I could not stop smiling. “Lilith?” I
had worked my way up to the top of her foot and was about to wring
her big toe. “Tell me, now.”

“It’s a will-chill.” She said, and before I could
ask, she explained, “It slaps a momentary freeze on your freewill
and allows a predetermined command to motivate your actions. It is
pretty cool, really. It’s the only spell I know that keeps in a box
until you’re ready to use it.”

My smile was gone now. The thought of anyone screwing
with my freewill just did not sit right with me. “So, you used it
on me?”

She drew a tight bead with her lips and perked her
brows. “Ah-huh.” No apologies insinuated.

“Nice. And what is it you’re going to have me
do?”

She gestured toward her feet with a nod. “You’re
doing it already.”

I looked down at my lap and saw that my hands were
full of Lilith’s feet. “Lilith!” I pushed them off my lap. “Not
funny!” I barked. “Not funny at all!”

Apparently, she disagreed. She rolled up on the sofa,
laughing and squeaking and snorting in a manner most unbefitting a
witch. I gave her a moment to enjoy herself before condemning her
righteously.

“Are you done?” I asked. “Are you finished toying
with me now?”

She sat up and pulled the wrinkles from her blouse.
“Relax. It was a harmless prank. Why are you getting so uptight
about it?”

I looked at her from across the room, and for a
moment, wondered the same thing. Pranks like that are what make
Lilith, Lilith. I had come to expect that from her. It is that
vitality for excitement that drew me to her in the first place. I
walked back to the sofa and sat down beside her.

“I don’t know. I’m uptight about everything,” I said.
“I guess I’m having trouble adjusting to the new me. Things are so
different now. I have all this pent-up energy and I do not know
what to do with it. Is that normal after going through the rite of
passage? I mean, I feel like we’ve been on this incredible journey
together. I should be exhausted from it, but I’m not. Instead, I’m
agitated.”

She laughed a little and brushed my cheek with the
back of her hand. “It’s not so much the journey, Tony, but the
destination. You returned to the physical prime of your life, but
metaphysically, you are still an old guy.”

“Hey!”

“You know what I mean. Listen, your brain thinks it
knows how your body should feel, but your body is young and alive.
It won’t listen. Give it some time. You’ll adjust.”

“You think?”

“I know. Trust me.”

As I looked into her eyes, I began to believe that
she could tell me the world was flat and I would trust her on that.
I wanted so much to let those eyes just draw me in until our noses
touched, our lips met and our kiss solidified a love she secretly
harbored but staunchly denied. I leaned into her slowly, pulled by
the gravity of her aura. But as I neared her face, she pulled
back.

“Tony. No.” She pressed her fingertips to my lips.
“Look, what you need is a diversion. What do you say we go out for
a while to break the monotony? I know this nice little place around
the corner. It’s called the Cyber Café.”

“You mean, Cyber Crapā?”

“Come on. You’ll like it. It’s open twenty four
seven. I go there all the time.”

“Is that where you head to when you sneak out of here
in the middle of the night?”

“I don’t sneak out. I go there to use my computer
when I don’t want to wake you.”

“Oh, it’s that computer place.”

“You’ve heard of it, then?”

I wrinkled my nose some. “Yeah, it’s a geek’s nest,
isn’t it?”

“Please,” she said, making that tisk sound after it.
“You’ll love it. You can get some coffee and muffins while I go
online and cruise the Web.”

“Cruise for what?”

“For cool sites like Witchit. That’s where I learned
to make your whisper box.”

“You’re kidding!” I said, sensing another prank in
the making. “You can learn witchcraft online?”

“Witchcraft? Hell, you can learn how to make nukes
online if that’s what you’re into. Now, what do you say?”

I winced again and gave a little shrug. “I thought
you wanted to keep a low profile for a while.”

She stood and made her way to the closet where she
grabbed a denim vest for her and a windbreaker for me. “Don’t worry
`bout it.” She tossed me my jacket. “I go there all the time. No
one knows me. Like you said, only geeks go there.”

“Maybe someone will know me.”

That made her laugh. “Tony, you’re forty years
younger. Who’s going to recognize you?”

I thought about it. She had a point. Even if I didn’t
look forty years younger, nobody I knew would be seen dead in a
coffee shop that catered to computer geeks. I grabbed the jacket
and followed her out the door.

I had driven past the Cyber Café on Lexington a
million times before, but never once had I the inclination to stop
and go inside. First off, trendy little muffin shops like those do
not interest me. I prefer real coffee to cappuccino and donuts to
fluffy muffins any day. Secondly, I just don’t get computers. My
old partner, Carlos Rodriquez, and his new partner, Spinelli, are
handy with them. I suppose you have to be these days if you want to
succeed in detective work. I am just glad I didn’t need to rely on
them too much in my day.

It was still before noon when Lilith and I walked
into the place. They were doing a brisk take out business, but the
majority of small tables and computer booths were vacant. Lilith
ushered me to a table in the corner closest to the restrooms.
“You’ll thank me,” she said of our seating arrangements, “after
your first few cups of coffee.” A heavy-set guy seated next to us
at table four overheard the comment and confirmed her logic with a
nod.

We sat down. I watched Lilith unpack a laptop from a
black nylon tote and fire it up. The machine made a few beeps, rang
a little chime or two and then welcomed her on line. It even let
her know she had mail. When I questioned how she was able to do
that without plugging anything in, she just laughed.

“What?” I said, a little indignant. “Did I say
something funny?”

She rocked the machine up on edge to show me its
bottom. “I don’t need to plug it in. It runs on batteries.”

I pushed my chair back and crossed my arms to my
chest. “I know that, Lilith. I’m not a complete moron. I meant, how
are you getting online without plugging into a phone jack?”

“It’s wireless. You don’t need a phone line.”

“So, why do you need to come here then? Can’t you get
on the Internet back at the apartment?”

She shot me a sour look, which I took to mean that
she did not have a good answer. Evidently, I was wrong. She set the
laptop down flat and squared it to the table. “Tony, you’re about
one step away from spending the rest of your natural life as a
toad.”

“Hey, it’s a logical question.”

“Is it? Or are you just being difficult to piss me
off?”

“No!”

“Really. I knew I should have pushed you out of that
circle the moment you grabbed my ass.”

“What?”

“Look. First of all, we don’t have wireless service
at the apartment. Secondly, the whole point of coming here is to
get you out for some fresh air so that you don’t go stir crazy. But
that doesn’t seem to be working, now, is it?”

I hate when she is right, and unfortunately, she
usually is. “Lilith,” I unfolded my arms to soften my body
language. “Let’s start over. You know I’m not trying to piss you
off. What would be the point in that? You think I want you to turn
me into a toad?”