Complicated Blue: The Extraordinary Adventures of the Good Witch Anaïs Blue

The Nanny

Anais carried around an entire file system of notes stuffed in her pockets. If you're a small child, a letter from your mother can get you places. Even better is if you are able to compose the letters yourself. Then you have total control. The things you were able to do would only be limited by your own imagination. You would have permission to do practically anything. Anais didn't have a mother to write her notes. Instead, she had Nan. And even though Anais had her notes, Nan rarely let her go out on her own.

Her nanny, or Nan for short, was in her early thirties. She was tall and slender and quite beautiful, but had a coarse edge. She was strict and certainly not someone to be crossed. She was not what you would expect from a nursemaid. She had been with Anais since she had been separated from her mother when she was six years of age. It was at this time that Anais began to display the first traits of a witch. The Organisation had elicited the help of Nan and sent Anais to live with her.

It has been said that with great power comes great responsibility. This is especially true in the case of witches. It is generally accepted that women rule the earth. They are the mothers, and not only in a biological sense. They are the caretakers of the planet, in some cultures the earth itself is considered a mother. They make sure that men don't stuff it all up. In order for this to be successful there has to be some form of quality control. There has to be a structure or formal skeleton to work from. Everyone can't just run riot. Hoping for the best won't work. Some form of management is required. There needs to be an organisation.

As with many planet-wide administrative bodies the World Witch Organisation grew organically out of a need. In the beginning the world was not fully aware of the rest of itself. Each country or area was self-managed. Some were more successful than others. Some were complete disasters. There were wars and such with immediate neighbours. They were all like little islands fighting to maintain their individual independence and way of life. In more recent times this has all changed and the islands have been bridged. There is now much more freedom of movement. This presents its own set of problems. Sometimes it's necessary to have something or someone to supervise it all. Freedom has a price. In order for it to survive it needs to be managed.

The history of the world for witches has been no different. Like the rest of the peoples of the world, it took quite some time for the individual witches on the planet to realise that they weren't alone. This revealed primarily itself through inclement weather. Basically, too much psychic power gathered in one place is unmanageable and has the tendency to be incredibly destructive. But we won't go into the specific details of that right now. Needless to say, witches realised that they weren't alone. Over time their numbers grew and it became necessary to manage their affairs and bring in some form of committee as overseer. The World Witch Organisation grew out of this necessity.

Nan was one of the few mortals who was party to this inner circle of witches. This honour was not readily bestowed on just anyone. You needed to have a specific skill-set. Nan had this, she knew a great deal about what made a witch tick. She was the daughter of one. She could relate to Anais through her own experiences. Not that she was forced to be apart from her mother. For Nan it had been a personal choice. Not all families live in a constant harmonious state. Kin that don't have disagreements are practically as rare as witches giving birth to other witches. Nan and her mother couldn't stand one another. But apart from her own mother, Nan liked being around witches. She wished that she had been born as one. She needed a substitute. She found one in Anais.

It wasn't an easy relationship. Quite often Anais thought Nan was a pain in the butt. She grappled with the usual things which a child has to deal with when under the supervision of someone older and perhaps wiser:

Who was this person?

What right has she to order me around?

She isn't the boss of me.

I know what I'm doing.

Stop telling me what to do.

You aren't my mother.

Leave me alone.

Perfectly normal reactions to a caretaker. As Anais had aged she struggled more and more with the restrictions of her physical self. Her mental self wanted freedom. It wanted to roam. It was sick of being stuck in the same place. It wanted to see the world. It didn't want to be mothered. It wanted to be treated like the growing adult that it was. It couldn't though. The five-year-old body she was wrapped in needed help, it couldn't do it alone. It required assistance.

Nan liked her role but could see that the same rebelliousness she had experienced with her own mother was going to create problems. She didn't want to lose Anais in the same way. She didn't want to ostracise her or make her the enemy. She wanted to be friends. But being a friend and a parent is a difficult balance to maintain, like a precarious wander on a slack-wire. Nan was in the position where she couldn't truly be either one. She was more like the hired help. Twelve years was a long time to be together with someone who you weren't related to. She felt morally responsible, but then again, if she really wanted to, she could walk away. She had begun to think what it would be like to have a life of her own. She wondered if she still had it in her to find someone for herself, or even if she was capable of having a meaningful relationship out in the real world.

Essentially both women were in the same situation. They were beginning to rub each other the wrong way. There was an anger brewing. Nan knew that she had to curb her own personal desires. She had to reduce the friction between them or it might get out of control. She didn't know what an angry witch was truly capable of. Maybe it was something to be feared. She had thought to consult The Organisation about these developments but decided to attempt to solve it herself. At least for the time being. After all, she knew Anais better than anyone else. She had formulated a plan. They needed more time apart. She had decided that it would be better for them both if Anais was let out on a longer leash. Possibly Anais could find some new friends. She certainly needed to do something useful and she should develop her skills. Nan couldn't really help her in that department. Although Nan despised the thought, she knew the time had come. Anais should do more things on her own.

Anais was in a similar position. She wasn't particularly lonely. She had Nan to talk to. This helped but one person didn't really provide enough to fill her world. It would be much better to have different people to bounce stuff off. She regretted there wasn't anyone her own age to hang out with. But therein lay the whole problem. It was a bit difficult. There were certain physical barriers to her making friends. If you're only a metre tall and look like you have just graduated from nappies then you are not going to attract the sort of attention you want. A bunch of adults cooing over you and calling you cute doesn't cut it in the teen stakes either. There is no honour in that. It's uncool. Apart from the change of name Anais simply just wanted to grow up.

She had spent too many years trapped in her petite prison. It was getting on her nerves.

Thanks for reading.

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