Violets and Ash

Chapter 2

I tossed my backpack on the kitchen table, the numerous pins attached rattled as they bumped into one another. There was always a small pang of disappointment when I made it back home from a hectic night at Jeb's to find Elijah's car still missing from the driveway.

Most of the houses in town were styled after cabins, and all had massive fireplaces built for the harsh winters. The cold and I had a love hate relationship, which is why Elijah made sure we were always stocked up on wood and I made sure we had plenty of hot cocoa.

He spent a good portion of his time at the tiny clinic that was always understaffed and overpopulated. I used to tag along when I was a kid, back when he would do house visits. It had taken one particularly nasty family, who refused to have the cursed child step into their home for me to realize how uncomfortable I made people.

Elijah stopped taking house calls that day, and I stopped asking to see more of his job.

He was the only one who didn't pester me about my past. He gave me time to process this new place I was in, to process the fact that my old world—the memories of where I had been before, they were gone.

I'd been lost in the tune I was humming when I wandered past the kitchen, nearly missing the lavender index card stuck to the fridge.

I snagged the card off the fridge and shouted, "Jackie! You here?"

A headache throbbed at my temples as I stared down at his messy handwriting. He always tried to neaten it up for me by writing slow and steady. I had spent countless hours teasing him and his doctor friends, wondering how they could read a jagged line so easily.

Violet – Code blue at 1am. Come armed.

"Something wrong? I was finishing up Elijah's laundry. Not that he wears anything other than those button downs and god-awful ties." Jackie said, appearing from around the corner.

She had worked as a nanny for the previous owners of the house, who had long ago moved out and went elsewhere. Mind you, she wasn't a very good cook, but she had improved drastically in the two months I'd been teaching her.

Jacki's primary job was to keep the house clean and to provide me with some much-needed company, not that she would admit to the second part.

"Another family meeting?" She chuckled, her laughter warm and comforting after a long night. "You two and your secret notes."

Along the countertop sat a bunch of various cookbooks, all themed in some way. At the front was my favorite, the first book Elijah had ever gifted me. The antique looking cookbook, themed after witches and wizards, was what propelled me into my passion for baking.

"Let's see..." I trailed off, pulling two from the shelf at random. Colorful pictures jumped out at me until I chose one from each book, as I did every night. "...how does bacon jam burgers and a black forest pudding cake sound?"

"Sounds like I need to start paying you instead of the other way around. You keep spoiling me like this, and I might not want to retire." Jackie teased, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "Next time you make some of them cheesecake bars, I'll take another pan. Phil went crazy over those things."

I laughed and promised her as many as her heart desired, even though that familiar ache started in my chest. Jackie's husband, he was like the rest of the adults in town.

Still, I refused to let them turn me bitter and cold. I'd smother them and shovel my kindness down their throats until they finally realized they were just mean people, hating and isolating a child.

"How was the library?" Jackie asked, pulling out some of the things I'd need for our late-night dinner.

Our towns library was open twenty-four hours, but only because the owner lived in a small apartment in the back. No one else in town felt the need to go past 5pm, which meant it was the perfect cover for my nights working the bar.