Chapter 3

On sacred ritual nights, bay laurel is sprinkled over moon water to cleanse a witches alter or evil from an item. Branches can be hung to purify surroundings.

I wonder if what I saw was a vision, because it clearly wasn’t real.

My mother has a great power, especially if you’re in the tree business. Her power is hydrokinesis, which means she can control water. Her power is strictly limited to being able to manipulate existing water and she cannot create water that is not already there. She can even pull water down from rain cloud to make it rain.

Being able to redirect water is very convenient when you are taking care of an orchard of this size.

“What’s in the agenda for today” I asked.

A moment passes and my mother finally answers me. “I don’t think the trees are getting enough water in the new peach section. I am going to see what I can do about rerouting some of the water.” She has her hands on her hips, and I know she is serious.

I chuckle under my breath.

“What was that?” My mother asked.

“Nothing” I say not wanting to start an arguing. I could only sense it last week and I mentioned it to her at the time, but she shrugged it off. I am just glad she has finally agreed and has decided it is worth doing something about considering how easy it would be for her to manipulate some water to move that way.

That is the thing with my mom something has be her idea, or she will not agree with you. It is very frustrating.

“Yes mother” I say rolling my eyes. She can pull water from rain clouds and if she would have listened to me, she could have done the work on the last rainy day. I turn on my heels towards the door to leave.

“You should work on your attitude; you know the trees can sense it” she said right as I shut the door.

My mom is a real pain sometimes, but I love her. My dad died five years ago, and it’s been hard on both of us.

But as usual, she is right about the trees being able to sense my feelings. I have a strong connection to all trees, but especially the trees here. After-all, I am the reason they grow so well.

The connection I feel with nature is unique and I will always be eternally grateful for it.

I get to work and start walking through mature trees to the back end of the farm, where we planted the peach trees. The flowers sway gently in the cool mid-morning breeze, and the wind carries the smell of the fruit.

The peach trees are already about five feet tall, which is great for how early in the year it is. The leaves are bright green, and I can already see a couple of small white flowers growing on the branches.

I am surprised there are so many flowers most fruit yielding trees take, on average, three to seven years to bear fruit.

The trees here don’t take nearly that long, typically they only take about three to four years, but these small trees were planted this April and are still incredibly young. I think it is peculiar that these ones already have a few small flowers on them.

I was out here two days ago, and I did not notice any flowers. Next, I glance up and notice the trees are taller than me, making them now almost six feet tall.

This is wonderful news, but it will cause a lot of questions on our school tours and with the other local farmers. It might be a good idea to keep this section out of the public for a while to avoid raising any suspicions.

I keep protection crystals in my bag for times like this. I pull out the green crystals and I begin placing them around the section with the small trees. The crystals should make the trees invisible unless you cross through their line.

Once the crystals are in place I finish walking through the trees, they look and feel great.

I decide to find my mom to see how she is doing with moving some of our water irrigation for the trees. Her power makes rerouting substantial amounts of water effortless. I can tell from the distance that she was successful. There is a small stream of water headed towards the new patch of peach tree, this should ensure they have enough water even though they are doing well without it.

I walk up to my mom and say “the new trees are doing well, almost too well. They are already starting to flower. “

“That’s weird we only just planted them a month ago they shouldn’t be flowering until at least next year.” She said questioningly. “Maybe your powers are getting stronger, and we didn’t realize.”

It is possible, but I have been in complete control of my powers since I was a young child, and I could always feel them growing in the past and nothing seemed out of place.

Usually by the time witches are teenagers their powers have grown to their full extent.

It’s been a long day in the sunshine.

“If you don’t need anymore help here, I’m going to head out” I said to my mother

“Okay try to be in time tomorrow” She gives me a hug and head for my car.

I get into my trusty focus and drive to my cottage. The drive home never gets old; the trees are majestic. As I drive through the trees, they whisper about the rain in the air.

I pull down my rocky driveway and put my car in park, getting out I head to my front door. I can feel the thick vines on the walls of my cottage; they are happy to see me.

Most people do not know this about plants, but they are sentient beings and can sense the people who plant and take care of them. A garden is more than just roots and dirt. It is a magical place.

Since I did not get to take a shower this morning, I decide to run myself a nice hot bubble bath. I get in the tub and close my eyes trying to relax. But I cannot get you off my mind. I have a strange feeling I am going to see that strange man again and I hope it comes true.

After my fingers and toes have wrinkled, I get out of the bath and put on my purple silk robe.

I am not ready for bed yet.

I want answers and I decide to do a tarot card reading. I grab my cards from my desk and light a white candle.

I say a small blessing to keep me safe “please help me see and keep me free from evil” I chant.

I shuffle the cards and focus my energy of the man I met today. Once the deck is shuffled, I put the stack in the middle of the table. The first card I pull is the witch card.

The first thing I notice when I see this card is the infinity symbol and then the witch. You can tell the Witch has confidence by the way he is smirking. He has done this before! He is a worker of all magical elements, and he can alchemize other powers.

The witch card is rare. I have never pulled it while doing a reading before.

The colours in this card pull me back in, they are beautiful and vibrant, like he is in the full swing of spring. This card tells us anything is possible and to look of for what the future holds.

The only person I can think of is Charles.

Is it possible that Charles is a witch or does he know I am a witch?

You can’t always count on the accuracy of tarot card readings. These readings are not always what they seem, and it could mean anything. The future is always changing, and the cards are never set in stone.

While we were together, I couldn’t sense anything about him, but we hadn’t been together long enough for me to get a good sense of anything about him.

The reading had made me more confused. Leaving me with more questions than answers.

I head to bed. I toss and turn for a while before finally falling into a restless slumber full of dreams.