Friday Fiction: She Was the Most Powerful Witch of Us All

 

16. She Was the Most Powerful Witch of Us All: (Dream 2017)

A boy and his teenage sister have gone to stay the week with one of their mother's old aunts who has agreed to watch them. One day the aunt has to go out. Suddenly the sister, who is bored, wants to have some friends over for a party, and her boyfriend is curious and disruptive about the property. The boy, who has been respectful and even a little awed by the aunt and her house, goes around trying to restore things, discovering as he does that he has certain powers and calling on other relatives to help. In effect he cleans up but, in the process, must rearrange things, which the aunt, in the process of years, has allowed to get shabby, disorganized, and hoarded. Another Aunt, who arrives to help the boy ("I couldn't help hearing about your troubles, people and THINGS kept talking about them") reveals that the group of aunts were all witches, and the one they were staying with was the most powerful witch of them all but dedicated her powers to making herself the "perfect" home. The boy's own mother didn't want him to be part of that nonsense and made the family swear never to mention magic, but now he has learned how to do it himself out of desperation. When the first aunt comes back, he apologizes for all the changes, telling her all the things he had to do, including "bringing back Caer Oom and the old time" for a bit. The aunt is delighted: he has brought together family that has been scattered for a long time, learned about his own powers, and actually reminded her of her own goals which she has lost sight of for many years.

This is one of my recorded dreams that I culled out onto a list as a possible short story or a Young Adult novel. It was set in a more contemporary time than the illustration I've used.