"Your spen'ing much time wit' the girlie." A man said next to his apartment building, half hidden in the dark of the ally. "In a dark forest much least." The man started to laugh, Ernest frown, his brow pulled tight.
"Watcha been doin' in their boy? The witches girlie got you spelled boy!" He clenched his fist and rammed the man in to the wall, pining him there but the man just cough out another horse laugh. Ernest could smell the alcohol on him, drunk fool.
"Don't you dare say that again." He wanted so much to shove this man into the dirt at his feet. Drunken laughter comes again and this time Ernest does shove him to the ground before he leaves. He could still hear the laughter behind him, but the words he said echo in his head. The witches girl has me spelled. He heard the rumors, you would have to be deaf to not hear them some times. The townsfolk suspected that MadMa was a witch and her daughters were her little minions. But this was the first someone had said any thing about him being 'be-spelled' by them, it worried him.
After work his troubles still hadn't left and he slowly made his way back to his home to get ready for dinner. He took extra care to clean up, guessing tonight would be a special evening. I even wore cologne and went to the town gardener and bought a bouquet of bright colored flowers.
"I hope you know what your doing, young man." The florist said in a warning tone as she grudgingly gave him the flowers. He left a bit put off, no one even knew the family, though now that he thought it they shouldn't meet MadMa. It wouldn't help their suspensions if they saw how she acted time to time.
"Ernest!?" A voice called from inside the house before he even knocked, he guessed Mel by the sound of it. She opened the door with a huge grin, her eyes landed on the flowers and she sighed dreamily. "Awe..! Ernest, you shouldn't have!" He gave her the bouquet and she ushered him inside, she closed the door behind him but when her head was turned he saw something.
"Mel..?" It was only a second that he saw it before her head turned back and her hair hid it. Her eyes widen slightly, waiting for the question.
"Yes, what is it?" Mel asked politely as he moved the hair over her shoulder. "Oh, this!" She reached for the chain, "I pierced it myself and found the chain, adding the feather. Do you like it?"
A thin chain about four inches long was attached to a small link that was pierced into her earlobe. A long black feather added to the end that reached to her shoulder. I reached out to it and ran my fingertip along the entire length. Mel watched be with a solemn expression, saying nothin.
"Well," I say slowly, "it's different that for sure, but I love it."
She beamed and pecked my cheek with a quick kiss before going towards the sink. When I turned I saw Amy seated at the table at her usual seat at the right hand side by the head of the table with paper before her. Amy was drawing a hand it looked like before she quickly closed the book and looked up.
"Hey Ernest," I was brought up short-again. The left side of her face, which was hidden until now, revealed a enteric design. I stepped closer and moved a lock of hair aside to observe it. "I found a way to keep a mixture of paint and ink on skin without it coming off temporally. What do you think?"
"It's beautiful that certainly true," The design looked like a half mask with small blossoms, feathers and vines with thorns that circled with small Roman numerals along the inside. A clock he guess, he touched it and indeed it didn't come off on his fingers. "But can I ask why you did this?"
Amy was about to answer when MadMa spoke up, now all of the sudden at the head of the table watching them. "Lia told us that you had trouble keeping them apart." She said honestly, I flinched at her bluntness at my stupidity. "Isn't that right Lia?"
She was looking pasted his shoulder, her turned and there in the hallway was Lia. In the darkness you couldn't tell but alas soon as Lia stepped into the light of the dinning room I could see her change clearly.
Ernest stood up abruptly, "Lia, you-you cut your-" her eyes silenced him.
"Yes, Ernest, you got us thinking about ways to change," she ran a hand through her wavy hair. "I cut my hair before I even knew what I was doing..." Lia's hair was barely to her shoulders now, she fingered the shorn ends.
"She just stepped in front of the mirror, grabs ahold of it and took a blade to it." MadMa sighed sadly, "I had to go in and even out the ends, never done that before. You see they love their hair long..."
