Paper Wishes (#1)

Chapter Six: The She-witch Approaches

(Revised version of Chapter Six posted on October 29, 2015)

"Viiiiillv!" Jez exclaimed as she ran toward me with arms open for a hug when I entered the store.

"Jeeeez," I said, drawing out her name just as she did with mine, "what's up?" I returned her enthusiastic hug.

I was a little surprised that she drew out my name when she said it, again, because it wasn't an everyday thing. She'd only done it a handful of times but twice in the same week made it some kind of record. I wondered what she was so excited about or how many cups of coffee she'd had today. She certainly didn't earn her gold Starbucks card by not loading up on caffeine on a daily basis – not that she even needed it; the girl was a fireball!

"Nothing, I just missed you," she said, practically bouncing up and down.

"We just saw each other!" I laughed.

"Did you see that Kai bought you the other dress? Did you like it? Were you surprised?" Jez was rapid-firing questions at me as I filled out my time card and tucked my wristlet into the drawer with it.

"Of course I loved it. I loved that dress the moment I laid eyes on it. You really know me," I said, complimenting her fashion sense.

Jez stopped bouncing, and took a minute to look at me. I mean, really look at me – we were practically nose-to-nose. "Why do you look so gloomy today? Is it something you'd want to talk about?"

"Oh, there was just some drama at the theater today," I shrugged, trying to come off as nonchalant but obviously failed.

"It's that bitch Ann, isn't it?"

"You know her?" I sputtered, completely taken aback. I'd never, ever heard Jez use a bad word before. She usually used euphemisms when she swore. I had once heard her call someone a remote without batteries, which I assumed meant they were either lazy or annoying or both.

"Well," Jez said, tapping her pointer finger on her cheek as she gazed ahead of her as if deep in thought. "I don't know her personally but I do know of her. I'm pretty sure most mall employees have heard of her and her witchy ways." There it was, I thought, she said witchy instead of the b-word. She must have caught herself.

"I hadn't heard of her until today."

"Honey," she said as she reached out to grab my shoulder, "that is because you are a sweet, sweet girl and so completely oblivious. I say that with love, so it's okay. I mean, you know I'm coming from a good place, right?" Jez smiled at me, as if to punctuate the fact that she wasn't trying to be offensive.

"You're right. I mean, I don't know about the sweet part, but I'm definitely oblivious."

She winked, smiling as she said, "That's okay - we all have our short-comings."

I stared at her for about half a second before I burst out in a fit of giggles. "You have no idea. My list of short-comings is so long, I could write a book, or two! Wait, no, I could write a trilogy. I'm certain of it."

Jez rolled her eyes at my terrible joke. "So what did the she-witch do to you?" She asked trying to route us back on topic.

"It's not so much what she did to me, but it seemed like Kai thought there was something to be worried about."

Jez wandered away from me for a minute to grab two stools from the back and placed them behind the cash wrap. "Let's sit while you catch me up on things. I don't have anywhere to be, so take your time."