To hear the narration (and learn how I put the episode together, check out this link:
*****
Two days. If anyone ever asks if things can get messy working as a witch, not only is the answer "yes" but I know how messy. The answer is two days worth of scrubbing, soaking, mopping, scraping, and airing.
Vomit people, while, I'm sure, are quite lovely, they are tremendously messy. And stinky.
As predicted, the cleaning worked my anger out over the doctor's atrocious attitude to my work and the cures, both of them, I effected.
Ok - maybe not completely over it, but at least I can think of him as a difficult patient and not as someone to be shunned. No doubt, at some point, a patient of mine will reject my efforts or not have a cure within their own timeframe and go to the doctor instead. I just hope they're prepared to have their urine examined.
I have to admit that that still makes me chuckle. Like that's going to tell you anything! And the bleeding thing! Keep more of your bits on the inside, I say, rather than feed leeches. Oh well - each to their own.
Anyway, it feels good to finally have things clean and smelling good again. I realize it's part of the job, dealing with magical maladies, but still! Maybe I could ask for a cleanup fee.
Or not. After all, I still have a mess I'll need to handle at some point in the future - that meeting I promised that weird, three-armed Igor and his "marthter", the vampiric necromancer. Named "Count". Although that's probably just his title, just like mine's "witch". I wonder what his real name is. Probably best not to ask - he'd want me to reveal mine and that's just not going to happen.
I didn't give a specific date for it. Maybe that would delay it indefinitely? Watch - some day, an hour or two after sundown, they'll show up on the grounds.
Best not to think that again and tempt fate! However, if it happens, I'll just deal with it. Of course, it's easier being brave here where the cottage and grounds are either living things or connected to something far more powerful than I can comprehend.
Trusting in that, I go to bed, exhausted from my cleaning efforts, wiped from working through my emotions, but enjoying the smell of clean...
*****
... and wake to the morning smells of Spring on the breeze, the sun just rising, the familiar sounds outside, the enfolding warmth of a slept-in bed whose tendrils gently try to lull me back to sleep. In a word, normal.
It's tempting to close my eyes again and give myself a sleep-in day, but a thought struck me regarding my reagents and I'm looking forward to put it into practice. And that, while I might be able to do while lying in bed, head on pillow, warm blanket wrapped around me against the morning chill... zzzzz...
*****
... with the sun shining down, the day well underway... I guess I needed that extra doze!
But enough sleeping, sleepy-head! Time to get doing!
And so I did. And with my morning routine out of the way, it's time to... what's that on the mantlepiece? A basket? How did a basket get there?
Did Dr. Know-It-All sneak in here and drop it off as an apology for being insufferable? I mean... it'd be nice if that were the case and he was truly sorry and all, but how would he have gotten it in here without my knowing?
What a mystery! I suppose I should look for a note.
Oh! It's from Pip! This is a pleasant surprise! And there's something called Coffee Weed, a bit of honey, a bit of tea (her favourite), some Skeleton Dust, some Vampire Venom, and three chocolate chunk cookies!
Strange! I just dealt with an ailment using those last two!
Is it possible she's more here and less not here?
She likes asking questions (this time it's about ducks) so maybe I should ask something and see if she's experiencing the same things I am.
Ok - let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's first brew up her tea (and add the honey - sounds yummy!), and take things one step at a time.
Let's see... maybe a bit of a To Do List.
In no particular order:
- Enjoy tea
- Figure out how to divide up the cookies. The look delicious, so I bet others will enjoy them as much as I will
- Catalogue my reagents, including this new one
- Thank Pip properly
I figure the most important attributes of any reagent is what are its efficacies. So seeing that is a better way to organize a reagent list than most any other way. (Of course, this being totally untried, it may be a bunch of work that ends up being a waste, but I figure I'll try it, have a bit of fun as I do it - maybe enlist MouseEye's help - and see how it works out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained).
But before I do that, I need to focus properly on my note back to Pip. And to do that, I need to sip on some more tea, take a bite of this cookie (Oh my, it's so good!), and compose something appropriate.
I think I'll compose a bit of a poem. It's something I've been thinking about doing, so maybe I'll share my first one with her. And include a bit of Wild Rose since it's growing so nicely in its plot. Ok... to compose... some ideas... like being here but yet here and seeing the sky and wondering if we see the same thing. Hmmm...
The cloud that I see
White, fluffy, free
I wonder, can it be
that you see it too
Or is it only me?
It carries smiles
from me to you
across miles and miles
Hmmm... not bad!
And now, I think, I'm going to do not much. This witch needs her rest!
