Last Witch Standing

chapter 4



Sunday, April 2, 1972

Earth



“What are you doing?”

Dan flinched. “Don’t do that!”

“Do what?” Katie asked.

“Sneak up on me.”

“I’m not sneaking!” Katie looked up at her brother.

“I’m straightening the top.”

“Are we gonna fly it today?”

“How? How are we going to fly it, Katie?” Dan turned towards the window, where the rain beat down in torrents. “It would be ruined.”

“Don’t they fly airplanes in the rain? It was raining when we went to pick Dad’s friend up from the airport and they were flying planes then.”

“Don’t be stupid. Those were real planes. This is a model. The rain would kill it. If the wind didn’t tear it apart first.”

“I am not stupid!” Katie put her fists on her waist.

“Sorry. You’re not stupid, Katie. Could you please go and let me work on this alone?” Dan forced a smile.

Katie hopped off the bed and left the room without a word. A few moments later, Dan could hear his little sister on the stairway making plane sounds. She was probably pretending to be a plane taking off.

“Dinner, children,” their mother called from downstairs.

Dan put his model down. The imperfections had been filed out, the decals straightened, and a second coat of paint added. It looked good. Now, if only he could fly it. He looked out the window. The wind whipped the nearest limbs of the oak in the front yard against the house; rain came down in a flood, nearly horizontally. Even if, by some miracle, the weather cleared, it would still be too wet to risk flying.

“Darnnit!” He stood up and started for the stairs.

The places were set. That should have been Dan’s job, but his mother probably recognized his preoccupation with the model airplane and discouragement at not being able to fly it.

The macaroni was still steaming, and after saying grace, Dan served himself a large helping. In the flower decorated crockpot mini sausages kept warm, the aroma of the barbecue sauce marinade inviting. For vegetables, they had a mix of corn, peas and carrots.

“Katie, slow down,” Patricia Edwards said, after watching her daughter skewer one sausage after another and put it into her mouth.

Katie put her fork down and chewed and swallowed what remained in her mouth. She was a definite carnivore, Dan observed for the hundredth time.

“You want to play a game?” Katie turned to Dan.

“No.” Dan put another bite of macaroni in his mouth.

“Now, Dan, you can play one game with your sister.” Patricia Edwards covered the remaining macaroni with tin foil.

“Mousetrap! I have a new idea I want to try.” Katie stood up and moved towards the closet that contained the family’s board games.

“Great. Katie gets to make a new creation.”

“Now, remember you were four once,” his mother reminded him.

“Four and a half,” Katie corrected.

“Four and a half,” Patricia repeated.

“Okay. Just one game, and she can’t move the pieces until it’s her turn.”

“I don’t!” Katie protested.

Dan had to grab a stool from the kitchen to reach the game, which was on the top shelf of the closet, lodged firmly under Battleship and Candyland. He wiggle it sideways to loosen it, before pulling it out with one hand and using the other to prevent the top games from sliding off. Finally, he had it and brought it to the coffee table. Katie opened the box and started setting it up while he closed the closet and returned the stool to the kitchen.

An hour later, Dan was behind four mice. Almost every time the cage lowered it was on one of his mice; rarely did it land on one of Katie’s. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were cheating some way, Katie.”

“I’m not cheating. Just winning.” Katie grinned. “We can play Which Witch if you want.”

“No way! You slaughter me on it.”

The scent of popcorn drifted in from the kitchen. “Mom’s making popcorn,” Katie said.

“Good.” Dan didn’t look up. He was concentrating on the board. Only one of his mice remained.

A few minutes later, Patricia Edwards entered the living room carrying a large yellow Tupperware bowl filled with popcorn. The butter and popcorn smell was too inviting to ignore and Dan looked up from the board.

He dipped his hand into the steaming popcorn. A moment later, he lost his last mouse and with it the game.

“Which Witch,” Katie said.

“Okay,” Dan answered. May as well lose another game while he ate popcorn—