Three Mothers

Jade's leg began acting up just as winter break ended and track was starting again.

She ignored it for weeks, hoping it would go away on its own, but then her times started steadily increasing, and her coach told her to do something about it. Eventually, Jade's parents started to notice too.

"You need to see a doctor, Jade," her mother, Annie, said at dinner, a month after Jade's leg had started bothering her. Annie took the bowl of salad from her wife, Lynn, and placed it on the table. "This has been going on for too long."

"It's fine," Jade insisted, setting out plates and arranging napkins carefully beside each of them. "It's not a big deal."

Lynn entered the room holding a pot of steaming hot soup. It smelled delicious, like tomatoes and onions and oregano. "Jade, sweetheart, it's hurting you," Lynn said with the gentle insistence that always made Jade cave. "I can see you limping when you think we're not looking."

"We can set up an appointment for you," Annie offered, sitting down at the table.

"I don't want to see a doctor," Jade said. She sat across from Annie and slumped in her seat, picking at a hole in the tablecloth.

Lynn sighed. She ladled soup into Jade's bowl. "Oh, Jade, be reasonable."

"Jade, a doctor is the only option," Annie said, a little more severely. "A real doctor. I won't hear your excuses anymore. If track doesn't work out, it'll be very difficult getting you into college."

Jade glared at the table and stabbed at her salad with her fork. Her coach had said the same thing earlier that week. Jade had been making real progress, but there was no way she'd get a scholarship if her performance continued to suffer.

"Not that I really want the scholarship anyway," Jade said to her best friend Kalia as they climbed into Jade's car the following afternoon. "But my parents will be pissed if I just give up on it without warning."

"So are you going to see the doctor?" Kalia asked, tossing her backpack in the back of the car.

"Better," Jade said. "I'm going to see a Witch."

The Witch's shop was a few miles from Jade's house and had been there for several years. Jade had never been there; her parents, like many people, were wary of any type of Witchcraft.

"I hate Witches," Kalia said, slumping in her seat as Jade jerked the car to a stop at the edge of a parking lot to avoid hitting a satyr and the two nymphs ahead of him. "They're all so old and mean. Remember that Witch we met in Madison last year? She offered us memorization potions for our finals—those would have gotten us expelled."

Jade rolled her eyes. "I'm sure they're not all like that," she said.

"But how do you know the potion she gives you won't kill you, or turn you into a fox, or make you go blind, or—"

"Kalia, cut it out," Jade said, exasperated. "It's going to be fine. Why would she want to turn me into a fox?"

"Who knows? Nobody understands Witches. A Witch gave my cousin a bad potion once and now he can't walk anymore. Witches are bad news."

"You don't have any cousins who can't walk," Jade said, finally pulling out of the parking lot. "Stop making stuff up. Look, it'll only take a minute, okay? And then we can stuff our faces with popcorn at my place."

The Witch's shop was tucked away in the middle of downtown. The bell on the door tinkled as Jade pushed her way into the shop, surprised by the warm lighting that greeted her. "Hello?" she called, approaching the front table, stepping past shelves of trinkets and books and bottles. Her arms brushed against pots of thriving plants stretching their limbs. "Anyone here?"