Strange Lights

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December 15, 1986

Old Gwen told me recently that life is a circle. We always end up where we begin. It took a tsunami to bring me back to where I began. I was born in Kansas. Traveled around the world. Settled in San Francisco. Wrote books of all of my travels and adventures. My publisher sent me to the far end of the Pacific. Where I encountered the tsunami in Kamaisha, Nippon. My guilt at surviving a disaster where 27,000 people were killed is what brought me back.

Not to Kansas City, but to my Aunt's old estate in Lake Haven, Missouri. She was murdered as part of a conspiracy. Aunt Hattie was avenged by her servant and both the servant and murderer died. After this I was allowed to continue my life in relative peace. There is the problem of witches who meet across the lake, but they haven't bothered me lately.

Old Gwen has taught me how to stop their rituals from mesmerizing me. It was not their fault, it appears that I am sensitive to their chants and rituals. I had to learn how to 'ground' as Gwen called it. She says that I am a 'natural witch'. I think she is hoping to groom me to eventually lead the witches. I have no present plans to join their coven, so I fear they will be disappointed.

It is cold during December in Missouri. We have had a fair amount of snowfall. I had been trimming a fine young pine tree we had found near the lake. It now sat in a bucket in the parlor. As far from the fireplace as possible. I learned in San Francisco what happens when you put a Christmas Tree too near the fireplace. I nearly burned down my little bungalow up in the hills outside the city of San Francisco. I had also put candles on the branches. Another mistake.

My tree had tinsel, ribbons, and strings of glass beads decorating it. A tin star decorated the top of the tree. I wondered how I could light the tree up without candles. It seemed to me that there had to be some form of solution. It just wasn't coming to mind. Possibly because I was distracted by the simple beauty of the scenario before me.

I sat near the fire in a rocking chair that was my Aunt's favorite. My dear friend, Melody and her husband Andrew sat on the sedan together. We drank hot tea made from blackberry leaves. We were talking, admiring the decorated tree.

Mellie, as I have begun referring to Melody, has begun to understand the local ecology and she had learned how to make medicine and teas from the local plants. She gathered and dried a number of herbs before winter delayed further research. Despite her reservations about Old Gwen, Mellie has found herself drawn to the old woman's knowledge of herbal lore.

Beautiful and smart Melody Spicer was a very accomplished biochemist. Melody was never allowed any formal schooling. Melody learned her skills through experience, books, and experimenting with different plants. One thing she knows well is poison. Add that to her ability to learn languages quickly, her aptitude for puzzles, and it would be fatal to underestimate her.

Melody had accompanied me to my finishing school in Maine. She was my servant, Melody was treated worse than she should have. I had grown up with Melody, defended her, and taught her everything I was taught, while she was being abused by the staff there. Once I learned the extent of the abuse, I insisted that she live with me, in my room, and that she answered only to me. She had been like a sister to me, and finding out how they were abusing her had made me angry.

My trip to England occurred when Red Jack was haunting White Chapel. Not long after that we encountered Andrew during the dock riots in London. He was a rough looking individual with a bald head, scars, and a earring in one ear. Not long after that Andrew and Melody were married.

I didn't think a lot of the first flash through the window. There was a second flash. That caught my attention. "Is that lightning?" I said, looking out the window.

"Not this late into the season." Andrew said. "I don't know about weather in the United States, but this deep into winter, there shouldn't be any lightning."

Both Andrew and Melody were looking out the larger window behind the couch. I looked out the smaller window facing the front part of the building. It looked out onto the road leading up to the Hilltop House, my Aunt's estate. I saw no one traveling down the road with a carriage lantern.

Another flash lit up every window in the house this time. My companions and I ran outside. As we shivered in the cold night air we saw another flash and heard a muted, but powerful boom. It Cracked several window panes in the house.

These flashes didn't resonate from the usual meeting place of the witches across the lake. Rather it came from the direction of the town of Lake Haven. Beyond it, somewhere in the rocky hills that had once been mountains in the ancient past. After the booming sound, the flashes of light stopped. I had to wonder if someone had used a powerful explosive out in the forest somewhere.

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