Page 4 of Flirty Fall Fling

I carry the food inside and set it in the oven to keep it warm for when we have dinner in a few hours. By late afternoon, we’ve moved two sets of mattresses upstairs and unloaded all of our boxes. My back hurts, and I dream about taking a hot bath in the deep claw-foot bathtub.

After we devour the food Doris gave us, we return to our rooms. Winter stops and tries to push open the door to the cupboard under the stairs. She slams her shoulder into it the same as I did at the front, but it doesn’t budge.

“It’s stuck,” she says.

“Let me try.” I turn the knob, and the door opens with no effort.

“Is that a party trick?” Winter stares at me.

“Just the house being stubborn,” I tell her.

“Wow. Look at all the Halloween and Christmas decorations,” Josie says behind us, amazed.

Winter pulls a tangle of plastic bats on a string from a box and holds them up. “These are so cute.”

“My auntie used to go all out. The first week of September, she’d spend every free minute she had decorating, wanting to be the first one in town ready to ring in the equinox.”

“We should put all these out,” Winter says. “She’d want that.”

“She would.”

Josie picks up a large box of lanterns and foam, battery-powered carved pumpkins. She takes them and sets them around outside. I place a wire wreath of fake leaves on the door, then hang some of the plastic bats across the front window. When Josie switches on the last pumpkin, the porch light flickers with approval. Charlie watches from the front window with his tail flicking, but I don’t think it’s approval.

The three of us stand by the wooden fence meant to keep tourists from entering the lawn or the cemetery next door.

“Can we take a picture?” I ask, already pulling my phone from my pocket.

They squeeze in, and I hold my arm out as far as I can, capturing all of us smiling wide in front of my aunt’s big, beautiful house that we quickly decorated for autumn.

“Thank you for going on this adventure with me,” I tell them, trying to keep my emotions in check.

“I’m excited for a new beginning,” Josie admits.

“Hell, me too,” Winter says.

Some tourists take pictures around us, so we move inside, giving them access.

Once inside, I turn to them. “If you need anything, just come get me, okay?”

They nod.

“Good night!”

“Night,” they say, and we go our separate ways.

Once I’m inside my room, I realize how damn exhausted I am. Why couldn’t I have been a witch who could wiggle her nose and make things happen?

I go to the double doors of the balcony and open them, allowing the cool September air to flow inside. It smells like pine and rain as the streetlamps click on in town. Music drifts up from High Spirits—the bar down the road where all the tourists and locals hang out throughout the year.

On the opposite end sits Charmed Cauldron. From up here, I can see the glow of the palm-reading sign in the window, lit up even though it’s not open. Everything inside is exactly how my aunt left it.

Over the weekend, I have to get my mindset right because on Monday, I will unlock those doors and find out whether I’m the witch this town needs or just the one who was handed her hat.

The breeze brushes against my cheeks.

“Thank you, Auntie,” I whisper. “Thanks for believing in me.”

I’ve always dreamed about this, but never in exchange for my aunt. I imagined she’d retire, get the camper van she always talked about, and watch me succeed from the road while she explored. I always believed she’d be here for the transition.