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Chapter 1

Once upon time there lived a little girl and her mother. It was just the two of them living together. They were alone, with no other family. This was also in a time when some adults thought the things happening were very exciting and cheered that it was about time things changed. Other adults, like the mother, shook their heads and thought things were growing more and more troubled and it was worrying. The little girl was ten years old and didn't think about the things adults thought about. 

Soon the girl would have very big thoughts. Thoughts about witches.

Chapter 2

It was a Saturday morning, the first day of June. Lu was lolling on the porch swing, with one leg dangling off the side, the tip of her shoe barely touched the porch to rock the swing. She had a book by her side, a new one her mother had bought for her recent birthday, "Little Witches," but she had not yet started reading it.  

She was waiting for the mailman.

Her mother instructed her that as soon as the mail came, to bring it in to her right away. Since 9 o'clock, her mother had been in the kitchen with papers scattered on the table, chewing on a yellow pencil. She was budgeting. Rather, she was re-budgeting because things were now quite different. She had taken a new teaching job in this small town and also rented this small two bedroom green house at the edge of town. The rent was much cheaper than the old apartment in the city and, in fact, many things here would be cheaper. More importantly, the mother thought, it would be safer. So, Lu’s mother was happy to re-budget. Her mother was like that, a careful planner who always chewed her pencils.

The night before, Lu finished emptying the moving boxes of her things. Now her pajamas and undies and socks, her t-shirts and shorts were organized in the chest of drawers, her school dresses were on hangers in the closet, her shoes on the floor below the dresses. Her puzzles and games were neatly on the top shelf of the closet. In a drawer in the nightstand beside her bed were her watercolors, crayons, pens, pencils, erasers, tape, glue, scissors, and several new notebooks. Her toothbrush, hairbrush, and bathrobe were in the bathroom where they belonged and her bed was made, although not especially neatly. 

Best of all, though, her books were once again lined up on her bedroom bookshelf and those were very tidy. Besides her own books were many books that had been her father's when he was a boy and those were sweetly well-worn. On top of the bookshelf was his photo in a frame, the one Lu looked at often. He was in the middle, smiling, and beside him were two men, also smiling, all three were dressed alike. The picture looked as if they had been goofing around when the camera clicked. Her mother said the picture was taken by her before the men went to a place called Viet Nam. Even when she wasn't looking at that picture, Lu could see it. Could see him. Always.

It was now 10 in the morning and Lu was still on the porch. Her light brown hair was still a bit of a rumple, her hazel eyes still a little puffy, and the scab on her knee was still without a band-aid because the little tin of them hadn't been found yet, being somewhere in the two unpacked boxes marked "Misc#1" and "Misc#2." She was wearing a white t-shirt with an American flag across the front, a pair of faded jean cut-offs, and tennis shoes that used to be white but now were more a tan hue, the edges around the top were frayed.  Lu may have looked only half-awake, and maybe not dressed very well, but inside she felt good and wide awake. 

While pushing the swing with her toe in her shoe, and waiting for the mailman, there was one thing, a big distraction and it was why she wasn't reading. She couldn't take her eyes off it. 

It was the house across the street.

She had barely noticed it yesterday when they were moving in, unpacking boxes, and singing to the radio. But today, it was quiet, it was sunny, her things were all unpacked. Now she noticed the house across the street and it looked like a fairy tale cottage. 

The cottage (it wasn't just a "house" to Lu) was white with two chimneys and a weather vane of a rooster on the roof. It had a cute wooden door with a little round glass window in the middle of it, and two big windows on either side of the door, painted around them were red swirly shapes. There was a honeysuckle growing up the side of the big porch, so tall that it was beginning to grow up onto the roof. 

On the right side of the cottage was a grove of short trees that were attracting bees and butterflies like mad. Lu counted at least four orange chickens roaming free in the yard. Further back in the yard were two garden patches, both very green. She thought once she saw a pair of rabbit ears quickly sticking up from one patch quickly before disappearing.

Further back still she could see a clothes line with colorful dresses lightly moving, looking like ladies waltzing in a row. All the way in the back were stacks of four white wooden boxes that Lu didn't know what could be in them but thought there would be something special, like maybe new baby kittens or little turtles like the ones she saw at the pet store once. Or maybe, gold coins and gems!

At the front there was a little white fence and in the middle was a gate with an arch over it. Growing completely over the arch was a rose bush with small red roses and rose buds. 

Yes, it looked just like a fairy tale cottage to Lu. In fact, it looked a lot like a picture in one of her father's books, the one of fairy tales with Red Riding Hood going to her grandmother's house in the woods.

There were only two houses on King's Road, the little green house and the white cottage. Along the rest of the short road were weeds. wildflowers, grasses, and some tall trees here and there where birds chirped. 

The little green house where Lu and her mother lived was just a normal house, a box shape with a small front porch sitting in the middle of a big yard with grass and  blooming clover. There was no fence or gate. No white boxes. No chickens. The single  special thing was a small very nearby creek, made almost invisible by reeds and small willowy trees growing around it. From there could be heard buzzing insects and the tiny tinkle sound of water that sounded like fairy music. 

It is no wonder Lu was not reading. Everything around her was busy, and moving, new and felt magical.

Chapter 3

Finally at eleven thirty the sound of an engine turned from Queen's Street onto King's Road. It was the mailman in his small boxy United States Postal Service truck, the kind with the driver's seat and steering wheel on the right instead of the left. First he stopped at the cottage, quickly stuffed a few large envelopes in the mailbox, and loudly clanked the mailbox closed. Then he revved down the short street and made a u-turn. Lu was standing at their mailbox when he arrived a few seconds later. 

When he saw Lu, he said, "Ha! So someone lives here now!" He looked like he wasn't much bigger than she was but his voice was big.  

"Yes, sir." Lu said with the manners her mother had taught her. Then she said, more firmly, "Our name is Tucker." Lu wanted to clearly convey they were the official residents. The mailman had red hair, a red beard. He then smiled but it was an odd smile, more a grin.

He handed three white envelopes to her, and revved away. Then after just ten feet, he stopped. He hung his head out and shouted back to Lu, "Hey, you better watch out for the witch in that white house!" He made a peace sign with two chubby, freckled fingers, then with a laugh, drove away, revving back onto Queen's Street from whence he came.

Lu stood still with the mail in her hand after the truck disappeared. She was now afraid to move or especially to look across the street at the cottage again. 

Chapter 4  

Lu was startled by the sound of the screen door slam. 

"Lu? Did I hear the mail truck?" Her mother was standing on the porch, her pencil in one hand and her other hand shading her eyes. 

Lu hurried to the porch steps, not feeling the envelopes in her hands. When she reached the step, her mother was looking up at the blue sky as if it was the first time she had seen it. She took a deep breath.

"Do you smell that honeysuckle? Reminds me of when I was a girl." She wasn't looking at Lu, hadn't noticed the startled expression on her daughter's face. She reached for the mail and headed back inside, ripping open the envelopes as she went. Lu followed her and the screen door slammed behind them. Suddenly, before making it back into the kitchen, her mother turned around with joy on her face.

"We have a refund from the old electric company!" She laughed and showed Lu the check. It was for $1.20.

She laughed again and said, "It's a windfall, Lu Bug! Let's blow it all. How about you and I go to the Dairy Queen and share a banana split?" She raised her eyebrows twice.

Her mother calling her Lu Bug, the expression on her face, her laughter, the unexpectedness--all those things made Lu want to laugh too and it had been such a long time since they shared a banana split. Lu suddenly realized that she was hungry. She could see it in her mind: a red long dish with three vanilla ice cream scoops topped in chocolate, pineapple, and strawberry syrup, nestled in between two halves of a big sliced banana, covered in whipped cream, peanuts, and topped with three cherries. And sticking in the ice cream, two long red spoons.

The warning about the witch now slipped to the back of her mind.

The remainder of that day was good, maybe even perfect. 

They did have a banana split together for lunch. Then they planted zinnia seeds along the front of the porch and watered the ground. Lu asked if she could keep the paper package with the picture of a bouquet of zinnias in all colors. She wrote the date on top and then taped the package to the first page of one of her new notebooks. Later she helped her mother unpack those boxes marked "Misc#1" and "Misc#2,” putting the many miscellaneous things here and there, in cupboards and cabinets and closets. Now she had a band-aid on her knee. All the boxes were empty. They were moved in and  evening was coming. 

She sat at the kitchen table watching her mother prepare supper. She was making Lasagna, her specialty. Lu said to her it would be the first time in their new house to have lasagna. Her mother smiled and said, "Yes, the first time," and kissed her on top of her head, then added, "first time of many." Her mother explained each ingredient as she put it in, teaching Lu the recipe. They then sat together at the table while it cooked, and talked about the new school Lu would be going to.

When the lasagna was ready, Lu set the table. They dined with lots of “yums” about  their favorite meal. After cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes, the sun was going down. They sat on the back steps, watching the sunset as if it were a movie made just for them, with sounds of the creek as the day’s soundtrack.

As the sun just dipped below the horizon, the sky glowed a darker red. Her mother said, with a peaceful sig, "This is nice. All moved in. No sounds of traffic, no ugly buildings blocking the sun. You and me, kid. It's all very nice."

Lu leaned her head on her mother's shoulder and answered with her own sigh, "Yes, Mama, it is." 

Oddly that is exactly when she remembered the mailman's warning. She lifted her head. But, instead of speaking, she leaned back on her mother’s shoulder again and decided she would not tell her mother about that at all.

Chapter 5

Sundays had their very own Sunday rhythm, a rhythm that followed them from the city to King's Road. 

Sunday mornings began with homemade muffins for breakfast. They were experimenters, Lu and her mother, master inventors of muffin flavors. Their current favorite recipe was double blueberry with a sugared lemon zest topping. Today they made the simple cinnamon recipe, the one that was especially good when dunked in cold milk. Next Sunday it could be apple or chocolate chip or banana muffins, or even something all new they would invent, like zucchini muffins topped with grape jelly, or peanut butter muffins with pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

After their Sunday muffin breakfast, it was her mother's routine to look at her to-do list, scratch out what had been done, and start a new one for the following week. On her pad, the one with the flower design on top, she wrote:

✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ 🌸 ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

□ Open bank checking account. Savings account for Lu's college.

□ Change driver's license address. 

□ New library cards. Check out books from the 8th grade curriculum list.

□ Buy a large bag of apples. 

□ Bring some apples across to Ms Estefana.

□ Check the creek.

She always put a period at the end like that, as if that made it a special message to her subconscious to do her list. She chewed her pencil thinking if there was anything else she should add. No, that was enough for the week.

After making the new list and throwing away the old one, she took Lu to the creek to explore. The little creek was its own wonderland of sights, sounds, critters. They spent a few hours there, like a pair of adventurers, calling out to one another of things to see. Lu loved best the black tadpoles they discovered, little fat wiggling fish but some sprouting tiny new black legs. It was hard to believe they would magically turn into big green hopping frogs with speckled gold eyes. Her mother also spoke about possible dangers and how to avoid them, like snakes and slipping and falling in. Lu listened carefully. She knew that had been on her mother's mind since first seeing and listening to the creek. Lu promised to always tell her mother before she went to the creek on her own.

That Sunday evening, after supper–lasagna was always even better the second day–they sat on the back porch again for the sunset, the one that was made just for them. Already the days of summer on King's Road were different, not longer but wider than the summer days in the city. Even simple things were now extra because of all the things that happened at the same time, little things that would expand the day, make it fuller, richer. The gentle sounds of the creek always there, the way the sun shone more brightly in every room, the smell of honeysuckle, and her mother’s easy laughs and kisses on Lu’s head.. 

For Lu there was also something else, something trying to nudge into her days, a fear.

That night, Lu opened her bedside table drawer and pulled out a fresh new notebook and pencil. On the first page she made her own To Do list:

1. Read all my books with witches in them.

2. Ask mailman more.

Then, on the next page, she wrote:

What I Know Witches do

Eat kids. 

Make a girl sleep for a long time. Never waking up or growing old. 

Poison their own children cuz they are jealous.

Trick parents into giving up their child then treat that kid badly.

She looked carefully at the list. She thought about chewing her pencil, except it was her favorite pencil with the smiley faces on it. She had to know everything a witch could do. She had to talk to that mailman with the red beard again. Did he know any way to fight or protect against a witch?

Then she remembered, WATER! Like in the movie The Wizard of Oz. Would that work on any witch?

Chapter 6