Instructions In The Cauldron - Serena Longhi Gelati

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more and more beautiful! Miss Sarah, Miss Anne, how are you?”

      After a long bow, he took two strawberry candies out of his sleeve. I can’t remember seeing him without them, even once. “The sweets after the pizzas, girls. Now wash your hands and lay the table.”

      “You’re so demanding with them, Susan.”

      “Rules, Mal. Rules.”

      “Yes, Madam! I see that the production for the stall has taken off: there’s violet wool everywhere. Don’t overdo it, Susan.

      Mal was looking around himself bewildered: when our granny did something, she always put her best care in it. “I don’t want to cut a poor figure, it’ a honour for me to join it. Who is going to get the proceeds this year?”, she asked him, handing  him the glasses and the cutlery to lay the table.

      “The proceeds will be partly used to build a town gym and partly for research on multiple sclerosis.”

      “Excellent Mal, as usual.”

      We spent a pleasant evening, between pizza with cheese and frankfurter, a Scrubble match and the old man’s jokes. He didn’t go away late, however we were already exhausted.

      “Granny…”

      “Yes Anne, tell me.”

      I was in my bed, but before she turned off the light, I had to tell her something: “When I come here, it seems to me I’m getting into another reality.”

      “What do you mean, my child?”, she asked me, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

      “Here at yours, I feel like Harry, when he goes through the wall at King’s Cross Station.”

      It was something difficult to admit for me, my part involved not believing in those things.

      “It might be like that…maybe it’ s the old oak out there, next to the gate…”

      My granny was smiling satisfied. Her big green eyes were shining and the light of the abat-jour made her red hair still brighter. She looked incredibly like Molly Weasley, Ron’s mum in “Harry Potter”.

      “Why the oak?” I didn’t understand what the oak had to do with it.

      “You should know that oak is Duir in Gaelic, which is where door comes from. And what’s a door? An opening between two worlds, a passage. The ancient oak can open a passage for you, towards something nice. I’m happy, Anne, that you’ve told me. You are two special kids and I have the duty of teaching and passing all my knowledge to you, as time passes by.”

      She leaned and kissed me on my forehead.

      “Will you teach us to make the best chocolate cake in England?”

      “Not just that Sarah, not just that. Now you just have to enjoy your age. Childhood is a special time, you must play and stir your fancy. Good night my little girls, shall the Goddess bless you now and forever.”.

      Granny always talked like that before we fell asleep, I’ve sometimes heard my mum saying it too. I knew other children told Mary or Jesus their prayers, Alison and her mother lit a candle before Buddah’s statuette, Aysha’s family celebrated Ramadan instead…

      Granny kept saying: “The important thing is to feel at ease with a deity, we can call and fancy it just as we wish to.” She called it Goddess Mother, or sometimes Brigid or Ecate…I had sometimes heard her name also a Pan, which was in my mind Peter Pan.

      III. Days, colours and the wheel of the year

      Three years went by. We were finishing primary school and we were already eleven years old.

      Sarah had discovered pink nail polish, I, instead, hid myself into large black hoodies whenever I could. I had insisted upon having a school uniform one size larger than mine.

      In these years we have witnessed Alison’s mum’s illness close, she fought hard against breast cancer; it seems she managed at last.

      Sarah was shocked when she saw her without hair for the first time, she cried all night long. Mum explained to her that some treatments were really strong, but absolutely necessary.

      “That’s not fair, her hair were so beautiful!”, she said between sobs.

      “I know, darling, but they will grow again, don’t worry”, she comforted her.

      “We should pass our positive energy to her”, granny claimed when we told her what was happening. “Following the doctors’ instructions is right, but she needs something more.”

      It was a cold Saturday afternoon at the end of October, the autumn colours in the garden were wonderful. The fireplace was lit and I could already breathe the typical Halloween atmosphere.

      “I wish to explain something to you, girls”, our granny began while she was putting into the oven her traditional apple cake, “I’m going to talk to you about the power of colourful candles and of the days of the week. It’s really simple. We are going to lit some candles for Stella, she needs them.” That’s how Alison’s mother was called.

      “She always keeps some stones next to herself…”, I added, thinking that was a fundamental detail in order to understand a person better.

      “I’m going to explain  that as well, one thing at a time, Anne! You called them colourful stones some years ago and I promised I would talk about their powers; you know I always keep my promises! All in due time.”

      “I still believe they are just colourful stones! And it looks absurd to me that some candles lit on certain days could help someone ill. Days are all alike!”, I burst out as usual.

      “That’s not true…let’s say that most of the energy, if not all of it, is strictly connected to moon cycles: waxing Moon and waning Moon. During the waxing phase, we have a growth: our nails and hair grow faster, we have a tendency to put on weight or to swell, so we should work on a growth energy; on the contrary, the wining phase moves away. You know, Anne, in the past people lived in close touch with Nature, they respected it and learnt from it. Every time in a month or in a years has got a different energy, we should understand when we can take advantage of it. Colours send powerful spurs to our brain”, granny went on, “I’ve always told you that violet helps me  relax and concentrate. Colour therapy is a serious science…” Not all the things she said appeared clear to me, she sometimes spoke about things I couldn’t understand, but I would keep everything she taught me as a treasure, as time passed by.

      “In this particular situation”, she went on, “I want to help Stella to increase her physical strength and to detoxify from the remedies she had to take, poor woman. So I’ll have to work both on a growth energy and on a moving away one; I’ll try hard during the whole twenty-eight-days moon cycle. Have you understood, girls?”

      “I have, granny”, Sarah nodded. She liked listening to those things, they had always charmed her.

      “Go on…”, from my personal view, I felt attracted and reluctant at the same time. The influence of the Moon on human life was undisputed.

      “Why are you doing it, granny? You don’t even know her”, my sister said while she was making Kiki play with a small ball.

      “It doesn’t matter if I don’t know that woman, Sarah, I know she’s feeling bad and I want to help her with the tools I have at my disposal.”

      “But she hasn’t asked you for help.”

      “Good remark, Anne! By the way, don’t you think it’s evident that she wants to live, since she underwent an operation and such invading treatments, like chemotherapy? What’s more, you told me she’s keeping some stones next to herself, so she believes in the same energy as I do. She doesn’t need to ask for my help, I know in the bottom of my heart that’s the right thing to do.” My granny’s argument wasn’t wrong. “Let’s go back to ourselves, girls, make yourselves comfortable and take some paper and a pen, if you like.”

      She

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