From scratch ✔️

30. Experimenting

The promised books arrived just as doc Evans predicted - two days after he proclaimed that it was time to brew! I envied his enthusiasm, really. We were faced with some real danger here, the crazy Mayor was gathering an army of rogues, a stalker that may or may not be connected to him, a probable active healer acting against us and a dormant healer with absolutely no knowledge or skill whatsoever. And he was still smiling and bouncing around the house like a fan girl at backstage of her favourite band. Sweet. 

The house nowadays reminded me more of an army base, not a cozy B&B I've stumbled upon all these months ago. I was never, and I mean NEVER alone anymore. Most of the time I still was with Lena, but Nick made it his duty to check up on me almost every hour. And if I were to step outside for some fresh air, I was surrounded by several wolfs at the same time, and a couple more patrolling around the house to double check. The only times I was allowed the luxury of solitude was when I needed to go to the bathroom. Even at night I wasn't alone. Lena now shared a room with me. But I didn't really mind if it meant staying alive and unharmed. 

Concerning the books... Being the nerd I am, I managed to read through all of them in a days time. Not that there were many, but still, my brain was exploding from all the information. There were 4 books in total, and they were not that big, and mostly there were recipes of different potions, smears, lotions, teas and stuff, but for now we decided not to go too deep in that, we needed to figure out which ones exactly we needed and read carefully through all the side notes, annotations and explanations. The one factor that seemed to complicate everything - everything was in handwriting. Sometimes I wouldn't get to understand what exactly it said, so from time to time we would gather with 'the grownups', meaning Hannah, doc Evans, Jonathan and Shirley and would try figuring out what the writing meant. At one point I got fed up with trying to sort through the scribbles, took my laptop and started digitalising it all. 

At first 'the grownups' were outraged, because how dared I, a child of corrupted values, how could possibly be allowed to dishonour the traditions like that... That's right, I struggled to understand what they meant as well until I did. Turned out they were just some old fashioned dinosaurs, who didn't really know what a computer was. So with a light laugh and some reinforcements in two identical faces of the twins, who used their social media pretty actively, we managed to lay it all out for the old guys, as to why it would benefit all parties involved. The key argument was the 'find in text' tool. When they finally heard my patient explanations that it would make searching for a specific something easier and faster, they gave up and there it was, almost three days later and everything was typed in a neat excel file. 

At the same time we were banking in our living room doc Evans received a call from Lisa, that the contact with my previous university was established and she would be heading there in a weeks time. Things were happening. Really happening. 

Meanwhile my relationship with Nick kind of stuck a bit. We still would be exchanging glances, touch each other lightly, he would suddenly come up to me to stroke my cheek, or fix a stayed lock of hair behind my ear, but that was all. We didn't talk much, going on dates was out of the question as well. And definitely no kissing. Hell, we were never alone, and kissing in public was not my cup of tea. Mildly speaking, I was upset. I understood that it wasn't the right time for any romantic quests, but still, my heart longed for Nick. I began feeling lonelier than ever and it reflected in my eating habits. Shirley and Hannah thought, that it must be the stress of the situation, but I knew there was another reason for my lack of appetite. It was the lack of my mate. 

The only reason I did put some effort in taking some care of myself was my baby girl. I even started searching for a name for her, the only thing I came up with was Hope. She gave me hope of happiness. Even if Nick decides to back out of all this mess, she would still be with me. No matter the outcome, she would be a constant in my life, my Hope. So I started addressing her by the name, but never shared my resolution with anyone. Frankly, being so exposed to everyone bothered me, thus the need to keep something to myself. 

But back to the pressing matters - the brewing. It was time to experiment. We managed to isolate 7 recipes from all this pile of information, 4 to hide the smell, 3 to reveal. The difference was in the side effects and in the complexity of preparation. We decided to start with some more harmless ones, so I made a list of herbs to collect in the fields and Hannah and doc Evans went to explore mother natures gifts. Obviously because they were the cleverest ones. 

We were now in the kitchen, I was perched on a stool and the twins and Lena were acting as my hands and feet while I commanded. I would say which pot I would need, which tools, how much water to which pot, stuff like that, and they would place everything on the kitchen table in front of me. The hardest part in all this was that I would actually need to move quite a lot, as doc Evans said, it was more probable to work if I were the one to do the actual work, my hands needed to touch the herbs, do the mixing and all. He really hoped that a tiny bit of my powers would wake up and it would all work. I didn't have his confidence, but I hoped for the best. 

Doc Evans and Hannah were back in a couple of hours and we began our experimenting. It was awkward. The twins were acting like my crutches, supporting my elbows and lower back, trying to ease my movements but not bother the process. By the time we finished with only one portion of some gooey looking liquid, I was more exhausted then I've been in years. My back hurt, my bad leg was screaming, I was sweaty from being near the stove for so long, but I hoped it worked. We made a simple masking lotion (according to what the book said), that would work for about 15 minutes. The volunteer was chosen, to no one's surprise it was Simon, the always courageous one, and we went outside. 

Looking around I saw that everyone was nervous. They all wanted it to work. I wanted it to work. It would mean, that we had a real chance to eliminate some danger heading our way. Silently I prayed for it to work. 

So, there we were, standing in our back yard, Simon in the middle, surrounded by family, friends and me. 

"So, uhm..." I started unsurely, "What now?"

"I think you need to smear the lotion on him." said doc Evans. 

"What? Me? Can't he do it himself?" I was confused, wasn't it enough for the lotion to be made by me?

"Honestly, I don't know how it works, let's experiment." doc rubbed the back of his neck unsurely. 

"Oh... Ok..." I mumbled and took the jar with said lotion. Simon approached me with a goofy grin.

"Hey! I knew it the moment you threw an apple in the direction of my ass that we would be THAT close someday!" Everyone laughed, except for Nick, but he didn't say a word. I also laughed, but quite nervously, might I say. 

"Simon, you're a good guy, but I would rather hit you with my cane again... Only for the greater good, only for that..." and with that I squeezed my eyes shut and plopped a generous amount of goo in his bare chest. 

"Hey! I THINK I HAVE SOME IN MY EYE!" Screamed a very distressed Simon, doc only snickered

"Boy, calm down and stop whining like a pansy."

"Oooooh, old man knows the wooooords" Simon taunted in reply. Doc's reaction was only a slight eye-roll. 

"Yeah, yeah, not that old. Now c'mon, smear it all over and let's see if it works."

Simon's face scrunched in disgust, but he obeyed and rubbed he lotion in. Weirdly, it dissolved instantly, but according to slightly disappointed faces around me, they could still smell him just fine. 

"Soooo? Did it work?" Asked an excited Simon?

"I don't think so..." I said sadly. His face fell when he realised that no one is going to argue with me. 

"Well damn..." was his calm reply. "Now I need a shower..."