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HI! I'm SissOHlee the Cute Witch. No, silly, not a pretend witch in a Halloween costume—a REAL witch like the three sisters in that Shakespeare story, MACBETH, only way cuter than them.

I'm not real sure how I came to be named SissOHlee the Cute Witch. For some reason my folks liked SissOHlee, although it has no special or secret meanings I know of.  The "Cute Witch" part got added on when I was just a little kid and it stuck. "Cute" fits me, though. I am nothing if not the cutest witch around . . . ask anyone who hasn't been turned into a three-eyed toad and they'll tell you.

I am also a city witch, which means I live in a city—well, it's more like a town, but it is still way better than hanging around some dark old castle a million miles from bright lights and fun. A girl needs fun, even a witch girl. And music. Gotta have music, but not that old "bubble, bubble toil and trouble" stuff. I keep my iPhone loaded up with top-of-the-charts artists, like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift—you know, the happening guys.

Well, I guess that's everything you need to know about witches before we get down to business, except for one little thing, but it's kind of important: There are TWO KINDS of witches in the witching world. There are GOOD witches and EVIL witches. Good witches help people. Evil witches are just the opposite—generally nasty and no fun at parties. Since you still have most of your body parts and haven't been turned into something slimy and disgusting, you can assume I am a good witch.

Now for my assignment. We should be called "do-gooder witches" because we help people. We get our help assignments from the dispatchers at Witch Central. In fact, I just got one.

My assignment's name is Brickley, and from his picture, he is handsome in a cute sort of way, well put together, and has a super-great smile. The only problem is he doesn't believe in himself. Brickley is a young man with mega self-esteem issues, but that's right up my alley. As you may have noticed, I am tops when it comes to ego. The first step in my assignment is to meet Brickley in person. I was told I would most likely find him on a quiet beach at the south end of town. So after a moment of thought about the type of transportation I needed, I did a Tabatha Twitch and conjured up a brand new Mustang convertible. Bright yellow.


Hey, nobody said I had to take public transportation. Besides, if Brickley is a typical guy, a Mustang convertible will catch get his attention ALMOST as fast as me walking by in a bikini . . . and I'm told I look really hot in a bikini.

I was having so much fun cruising along the beach with the wind in my hair I almost missed Brickley. He was right where Witch Central said I would find him, on a bench next to a quiet stretch of beach. As I parked on the street behind his bench, I heard music. It kind of sounded like a flute, but sweeter. It wasn't like anything I ever heard before.

Then I realized where the music was coming from. Brickley had his own soundtrack. He was playing an ocarina, or a "sweet potato" like my grandpa Ambrose used to play. The notes were soft and light, and floated like feathers on a gentle breeze, blending with the surf sounds to make a melody that was mesmerizing. And it takes something pretty special to mesmerize a witch!

(CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON TO HEAR BRICKLEY'S SONG)

I stood there behind Brickley's bench listening and sort of hitchhiking along with his song until he finished. I mean, it didn't seem polite to interrupt him. Besides, I wanted to hear the whole song. When he stopped, I casually sauntered around the bench and stopped in front of him. Casual sauntering is one of my specialties. Striking a pose that was ten percent sexy and ninety percent wholesome, I said, "Hello, Brickley, may I sit with you for a while?" He sat there for a few seconds with his eyes wide open looking up at me with an awestruck expression. I know I'm awesome, but Brickley's reaction was over the top, even for a reaction to me. I was about to repeat the question when he came to the party. Sliding the blue windbreaker next to him out of the way, he said, "I . . . I guess so. Yes. Yes, you can sit with me."


On my way to the beach I twitched into a pair of denim cutoffs that showed off one of my best assets—well two of my best assets—my legs. Brickley was so bewildered, though, I don’t think he even noticed. Instead of my legs, Brickley was staring intently at my face like he'd never seem a cute girl before.

To get the conversation going, I asked another question. "Brickley, that was a beautiful song you were playing. What is it called?"

"Oh, it doesn't have a name or anything. I was just making it up as I went."

I beamed my friendliest smile at him, which I'm told can melt icebergs. "Was it about what you were feeling as you played?"

He nodded with so much enthusiasm I was afraid his head might fall off and roll away on the sand. "Yes! How did you know that? Have I met you before?" Then other questions popped into his head. "Do I know you? How come you know my name? I don’t think I know your name . . . but I want to."

"My name is SissOHlee."


As Brinkley contemplated my name, I sensed a rapport forming between us. Sort of like he was succumbing to my charms. I hoped so. I could already tell getting through to Brickley might be difficult. He wasn't dense or stupid or anything like that. Brickley just seemed kind of bewildered by everything that happened in the world around him.

His hand was resting on the bench between us, so as a way of getting him more focused on me, I reached over and put my hand on his as if it was the most natural thing in the world. After a few seconds of hesitation, I felt his fingers close gently around mine. That was the desired effect, but I felt something else happening that surprised me big-time.

While I was concentrating on making Brickley succumb to my charms, I suddenly realized I WAS SUCCUMBING TO HIS CHARMS! Whoa! Slow down, SissOHlee girl, the charm thing is only supposed to work in one direction!

It felt like Brickley was casting a spell on me, but he couldn't do that. I know how to recognize warlocks, and he wasn't a warlock, or any other kind of Other-Side being. Brinkley was just a boy with an angelic face who was touching me inside . . . touching me in places no one ever touched me before, and feeling him there was scaring—excuse the expression—the Hell out of me.

Reacting purely to the jumbled emotions bouncing around in my head, I jumped up and shouted, "STOP! Don’t do that!"

Brinkley jerked back and looked shocked and a half. He stammered, "I . . . I'm sorry! I didn't mean . . . SissOHlee, please don’t go . . . please stay."

I quickly gathered what was left of my wits and said, "I'm not leaving, Brinkley." In my head, though, I was saying, "You're darn right you aren't leaving. You're hooked, but good." Then, as I realized I was speaking my thoughts out loud, I said, "I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted to."

Poor Brickley looked even more confused. "You couldn't?"

Darn! Darn! Darn! Now, Brickley was looking at me like I was nuts, and I was coming apart at the seams. I've heard of this happening, but I never thought it could happen to ME.

Like water and oil in the physical world, there are two things in the witching world that must never mix: a witch and a male human. In the language of witching, the mixing of a witch and human male is called "co-joining." In the language of humans, it is just known as "falling in love."

To prevent the creation of a dangerous bi-breed with witching powers, a precaution is sort of "built into" each witch as her powers develop. If co-joining is detected, that precaution automatically, instantly, and permanently deactivates almost all of the witch's powers. In other words, she loses all but her most basic witching abilities.

Without realizing it was happening, my efforts to help Brickley turned into a co-joining between us. None of it was Brickley's fault, at least not directly. I let him get inside me and he became way more than a Witch Central assignment to me. Despite the rules, we were in falling in love.

Once I sensed what was happening, I knew the only way to prevent the loss of my powers was to put Brickley "on hold" until I could stop the co-joining. Once a co-joining begins, though, the process works quickly, so I had to move fast. Of course, stopping the co-joining assumed I did not want to fall in love with Brickley and experience a very different life than I was expecting. I thought that went without saying.

Still standing in front of the bench, I took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry, Brickley, I was wrong. I do have to go somewhere. I will come back and see you again as soon as I can."

Those words hurt me more than anything I ever said before, and Brickley looked as if he just lost his best friend. Hell! Maybe I was his ONLY friend.

I did the only thing my messed-up mind could think of. I took off at a dead run, jumped into the yellow Mustang, and after saying a three-second incantation of apology for saying "Hell" in a profane way, I drove as fast as the Mustang would go down the twisting coast road.

I drove like that for about fifteen minutes, and at least once during every one of those minutes my mind ordered me to turn around and go back to Brickley. But if I did what my silly head said to do, it would be the end of everything, including me.

I just pushed my foot down harder on the accelerator pedal. Then the matter was taken completely out of my hands. I ran out of driving skill on a switchback curve and the Mustang sailed off the road into space. The last thing I saw was a line of surf rolling up the beach several hundred feet below me.

By now you must have figured out that driving that poor Mustang off a cliff didn't kill me. If it had, I wouldn't be here to finish telling you this story. I wasn't so sure about that at the time, though. Everything just sort of went black in my mind, but I wasn't afraid. I was just very curious about what was happening to me.

The thing that woke me up was the music . . . a beautiful song played on a ocarina. I recognized the song immediately. It was Brickley's song. Since I wasn't sure I was up to seeing Brickley quite yet, I tried twitching myself to a different place. It didn't work. When my disappearing act failed a second time, I knew for sure our co-joining was complete. Brickley and I were two humans who hardly knew each other, but loved each other with an intensity that made Romeo and Juliet look like a couple of bubble-gummers on their first date.

I wasn't so much surprised by the realization that our co-joining was complete, as I was with feelings of of peace and a love so intense they overwhelmed me. Then, the music stopped and I looked up. Brickley was slowly walking toward me with his arms spread. With absolutely no hesitation I ran to him and we held each other on that beach for a very long time. We had an "official" wedding a little later, but that moment on the beach in each other's arms was the wedding ceremony that really mattered because it was then that we exchanged our complete love and devotion.

It seems to me like a long time since all that happened. I think it was only a couple of years ago, but they say time flies when you're having fun, and Brickley and I were definitely having fun. I can't tell you about all of that fun because . . . well, let's just say once Brickley sorted things out between us, he proved himself a very competent lover . . . a very, very competent lover! I mean it's like WOW every time!

One part of the fun we were having I CAN tell you about was recording his ocarina songs and selling them on CDs so fast the recording company could barely keep up with the demand. At one point they actually topped the national charts!

Another part of the fun is how we spend our evenings on the beach and our nights in each other's arms. The only really odd thing in our lives is Brickley can't remember anything about how we fell in love that day on a bench at the beach.


I was totally honest with him about who I was and what happened to us, and I think I he believes me . . . mostly. The real proof, though, is a new yellow Mustang in our garage that never ages or accumulates any mileage, no matter how much we drive it.

Brickley claims I bewitched him. Maybe I did, but spending the rest of his life with the cutest ex-witch there ever was seems like fair compensation.

THE END

Design Steve Eitzen
Story, header graphic & HPO logo © HPO Productions
Character images © 123RF--Used by license
Music © Reiki Acadamy
All rights reserved by copyright owners

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, locations, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

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