Love Potion

Jordan had grown up with his two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. The three of them lived together with his parents in a five room flat. The flat, consisting of three bedrooms, one living room and a balcony with a connected dining area was divided out as such; his parents got one room, his sister got another and he shared the last with his brother. Their family was close to one another and everybody confided in everybody else. Of course there were generation gaps and sibling rivalry, but that was part and parcel of living together. Jordan had been twelve and his sister fifteen at the time the incident occurred. He remembers how weird she had been acting. Not weird in a sense of being unnatural though, she was simply acting the way every fifteen year old female would act when they were 'in love' so to speak.

For the past two months, she had been walking around the house as if in a day dream, not hearing anyone till they repeated her name at least four time. At dinner, she would play with the food on her plate for a full half hour, smiling to herself before she started eating it and would buy a new CD filled with love songs every week. Jordan's parents knew she had a boyfriend. They did not want to probe, knowing that since they had just got attached and they would probably want that time to be for them and them alone. They knew that she would bring him home when they are ready. Jordan's mother was getting curious though. She trusted Carol, knowing she knew how to make right decisions. But as far as she was concerned, no teenage boy would be good enough for the task of being Carol's first boyfriend. Unfortunately, the reason why Carol did not tell her parents was not that she had wanted to wait. Regarding not thinking that any teenage boy was good enough, her mother might have changed her mind about that had she found out the real reason why Carol was not sharing with her what seemed to be the happiest experiences of her life so far.

Jamal was not a teenage boy. Jamal was thirty two. She could not imagine telling her parents that the ring she wore on the chain around her neck was not just any ring. Jamal had given it to her as an engagement ring at their two month anniversary dinner. Jamal was a romantic. He would bring delicious food from his house just for her and would feed her lovingly. He spent on her whims and fancies. Three months later, she told Jordan about what was happening. She told him about Jamal and how they had been together for the past five months. She told him about his age. 'Are you crazy?' He had shouted out loud, his eyes almost bulging out. 'Hallo! He's practically Dad's age!'

Carol rolled her eyes. 'Yeah Jordan, but age has never been an obstacle for love.' 'Still? He is too old for you, sis. Actually since you are crazy enough to even consider marrying this joker, I should be saying you are too young.' 'h shut up, I knew I should not have told you.' 'I'm telling Ma.' Apparently, this possibility had never even occurred to Carol. She jumped at him and pinned him on the floor, holding him down by the arms and looking straight at his face. He finally gave into her due to the sheer factor of pain and, saying that he would not tell. But unable to sleep that night, he stared up at the ceiling. He got up from bed and walked over to his parents room. Waking them up as gently as he could, he told them. After being woken up from her dreams she could not remember, Carol was startled to open her eyes to what seemed like her parents. Jordan had cleverly gone back to his room so he would only have to face her wrath the next day. After three hours of shouting, threats and theories, her parents boiled it down to one thing.

'Listen here Carol,' her father had said, rubbing his temples which were almost visibly throbbing by then, 'if you don't promise to break it off, I will personally withdraw you from school and make you take your 'O' levels privately. You will stay at home where we can see you and you will not go out unless it is with us. You will not see your friends because we won't know whether it's them you are actually meeting and you will not speak to anyone on the phone that even sounds like a man. Now give me that ring around your neck and go back to sleep.' She cried the next day when she broke up with Jamal, telling him what had happened the night before. He was angry beyond belief. In fact, she had never seen him so angry before. He reassured her that while he was sad about having to break up with her, he was not angry with her. It was her parents that made him lose his temper. 'I know, Jamal. I told you. They said you were too old and that I was being stupid and that I was at an age where I should be getting to know more people and all that crap. My dad took the ring. You have no idea how sorry I am, about everything. Yesterday was the worse day of my life.'

Jamal being angry was an understatement. The word 'furious' might have been more appropriate. What right did her parents have to do this? He thought this as he rung his grandmother's doorbell. When his grandmother opened the door, he greeted her, asking her how she was and whether she was busy. She was actually with her elderly friends. They were chatting and laughing away, her usual get together every once a week. But for her favourite grandson, she would do almost anything. She excused herself and gave her full attention to Jamal. The grandmother knew he was engage and that he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish school before they got married. Of course he never told her that she was only sixteen. She had assumed she was in the university and that they would be getting married once she had got her degree. When she asked to meet her, he would simply say he did not want to ask her about things like that now because she was very busy; even he had not met her parents.

He told his grandmother that day that upon finally meeting her parents, they had disapproved of him straight away and that they were not allowing them to get married. He said that they had not even bothered to get to know him and that if he ever went near her again and they found out, she would be locked in the house and never let out. His grandmother was angry as well. She was thinking about the unfair way her grandson had been treated. She told him that she would take care of it and that all she needed was her parents first names and their home address. Three days after the incident at home, Jordan's parents got up in the morning to go to work. Jordan's mother ran to the toilet to throw up. She assumed that something had gone wrong with her stomach because she had not even eaten anything. By the time she had finished, she was so weak that she didn't even want to think about going to work. Her husband tucked her back into bed, kissed her good bye and then left for work. Despite the fact that his mother was sick, Jordan did not sense anything being wrong. He started to get worried only when the same thing happened to his father the next day. He was worried that it was something the family was doing and that soon, they all would be sick.

As far as he knew, stomach problems were not contagious. The thought of something horrible and virus like crossed his mind but he threw the horrid thought out straight away; paranoia was the last thing everybody needed. But the things got steadily worse. Soon, his parents were both sick and because of that, the family was in a state of turmoil. His father had started to find tiny bumps on his skin that looked like tiny boils. Touching them would cause him great pain and even lying down was difficult because of the ones on his back. Obviously, tempers were flying within the household and everyone was shouting at each other. Carol was really upset and she did not know what to do about what was happening in her house. She could not concentrate on anything and she dreaded going home. It came to a point where she could not stand it and she finally dialled the number she had been forbidden to dial, on the public phone downstairs. She told Jamal what had been happening and asked whether they could meet to talk.

When they met that day she had been so happy to see him. She cried when she told him what had been happening at her house and when she started crying, she could not stop. Jamal could not take watching her like that and even though he knew it was a stupid thing to do, he confessed to her the fact that he was the one who had cause all her problems. He told her about his grandmother and that she had special powers. She got up from the park bench where they had been and stood in front of him. Her eyes were filled with both anger and betrayal. She was angry with her parents but she knew what they had done, they had done with good intentions. What his grandmother had done, she had done it out of spite. He had tried to calm her down as she started shouting, saying that he would get his grandmother to reverse the spell she had cast. He apologized over and over again that it was not his fault. Carol turned away and walked over to the side of the road, hailing a taxi. She had never felt so lonely. It took awhile for her parents to get better. She wondered whether he had hesitated in asking his grandmother to reverse the spell. For a whole week, she watched her parents health take a plunge for the worse before their bodies started to heal even remotely.

Strangely, a week later, Jamal came to their house with a fruit basket to enquire about their health. What was more strange was that her parents welcomed him with open arms. her father even called him son-in-law.

Teenage Witch

Demi had always been strange; but Julie was about to find out just how strange she actually was. Julie and Demi were fourteen years old and were in the same class. Their entire class was separates into groups of four for their geography project ad Julie had ended up with Jensen, Celine and much to her despair, Demi. She had nothing, of course, against making new friends. After all, that was what teenagers were supposed to do. But Demi was not just any teenager. From the first day of class, Julie had been very wary of Demi, not because she thought Demi was out to get her, but because she was just so afraid of her.

Demi always seemed to be lost in her own world, and yet very aware of what was going on. She could be staring at her nails for an entire hour and when the teacher asked her something about what was going on, she would look up and give the teacher the entire analysis of the lesson. She was very intelligent and yet very withdrawn. In every class, she would sit alone at the back with her bag as her sole companion. When they were thirteen, there was something about Demi's eyes. They had been very defined and very penetrating. Her lashes were thick and dark and her eyebrows always seemed to be arched in question or condescension. A teacher had once called her up in front of the class and told her to take off her eyeliner. She had told her that she was not wearing any. The same teacher had come back up two periods later with make up remover and cotton from the monitors room and found out that she had been telling the truth. Some people thought that she was eccentric and some people thought that she was just plain crazy, silly. Julie however, had no opinion about her; she just did not want anything to do with Demi.

Besides the fact that she was weird, many people had commented about how hard she was to work with. The project was due in one and a half weeks and they got together in the canteen that day. Jenson, despite the fact that he was the only guy, had the nicest handwriting of the three and was writing everything down. Julie was planning the format of their write up and Celine was dictating things to Jenson. The three of them wrote or read furiously because they were hoping to finish this early and be done with it so they could have extra time to spare. Demi just sat there, pushing back her cuticles with her thumbnail and occasionally adjusting the hair-bun on her head. After about an hour, she suddenly looked up and glared at the three of them. 'Can we go home now? I have better things to do than sit here with you all.' They were taken aback and all stared at her in disbelief. Jenson and Celine opened their mouths to speak but closed them when they realized that they had nothing to say. Julie on the other hand had been getting increasingly irritated with her for the past hour and had been noticing her blatant attitude towards the whole project. She had not so much as lifted a finger except to look on. It did not look like she was going to be doing anything anytime soon.

'Maybe if you started helping us instead of living in your little alternate reality for a minute, we would get all this done much faster.' The minute the words came out, Julie wished she could have swallowed them. She looked at Demi's face. It became a shade darker and her eyes were ablaze with anger. Quickly, Julie tried applying damage control and tried to take back her words. 'Okay, okay. Forget it. You go back; we'll stay here.' Demi stood up and took a step towards her. Seeing this, Julie took a step back. 'Do you have a problem with me?' 'I said for...get... it. Just go home, okay?' Julie sighed. Demi opened her mouth, as if to speak but thought twice about it. She smiled a mysterious smile at Julie and turned towards the exit. 'You'll be sorry,' they could hear her say as she left.

In the minutes after she had left, all three let out a sigh of relief. 'We have only two more days, and the whole thing is far from complete!' Celine uttered in despair. They were seated together during recess, in order to discuss the project. Celine and Jenson were eating, but Julie had her head against the tabletop. Her stomach was twisting painfully, and that killed any appetite she had. She had been to the doctor twice, but nothing he prescribed helped. It felt as if knives were twisting through her guts. Another jolt of pain shot through her and Julie bent over the side of the bench, groaning. 'Sorry,' was all she could managed as Celine laid her hands on her back. 'This is ridiculous,' said Celine. 'How are we going to finish without her? We all live so far apart, whereas her home is right across the street from school. The least she can do is provide her house for us to finish up today and tomorrow. Not to mention that Julie has been sick for so long.'

'Do you really think Demi would let us into her house? Julie laughed weakly. 'We have no choice. The school gates shut at five and we will have to do it elsewhere,' Jenson added. 'Yeah, I'd guessed we hove no choice,' the two girls replied. Julie and Celine were looking at Jenson intently. He knew their intention and sighed. Getting up from the bench, he walked over to Demi who was sitting alone at another table. Five minutes later, he returned, with a rather surprised look on his face. He told them that she had agreed quite readily, but made it very clear that she did not want to be bothered at all. They all considered that reasonable, considering the circumstances and agreed. Jenson added that she did not actually want to do anything; they were only going there to use the house. Celine groaned and Julie rolled her eyes but they knew they had no other choice. They were in Demi's living room that evening, sticking things on a piece of vanguard and typing on the computer outside. They had stopped to take a break after they all thought they would suffer from burnout and just sat and talked for a little while. They looked around the living room and commented about how normal everything looked. Jenson shook his head and asked whether any of them had a red marker. They shook their heads in turn and Jenson opened his mouth to shout at Demi who was in her room, but thought better of it.

Demi had left her bag in her living room; or rather she had just dumped it there after locking the door and then stalked off to her room. Julie took her bag and opened it, looking for her pencil case. She searched for awhile and then found something cylindrical and round. She thought that maybe it was a whiteboard marker and fished it out of the bag. It was only when she took it out and looked at it that she realized what it was. She looked at the smooth white candle over and wondered what it was doing in her back. She turned it around and found part of their class photo pinned to it. She squinted and to her horror she realized that the part of the photo that had been cut out was that of her face. Her face had been pinned to the top of the candle and the vague outline of a body carved out, perhaps with an ink-less pen, beneath it.

She looked at it and quickly zipped the bag. She stood up with it in her pocket, checked whether Demi's door was closed and then showed it to the others who were as speechless as her. Jenson opened his mouth to speak. 'So you think it is, you know, one of those voodoo things?' Julie shook her head as he passed it to Celine and said how voodoo usually involved pins. 'Besides, why would she do that to me? It's not like I did,' she faltered. 'That day I shouted at her.' 'Julie, take a look carefully at this.' She handed the candle to Julie who looked at where her finger was pointing. She squinted and looked at the tiny spot around the belly. She ran her finger over it and realized that there was a pit in the candle surface. A pin was inserted into the candle. The pit was just so deep that she had not seen it. She could not see a way to take it out without digging her nails into the wax and peeling a bit of it off. She slipped the horrid thing back into her pocket and stood up, wondering what to do.

'I'll help you. Give the thing to me.' They turned around and were shocked. Demi was sitting on the armchair. How on earth she had entered the room without being noticed is still a mystery. Within minutes, Julie was cured. No one ever talked about it or Demi, ever.