The Change

by Kirsten Miller

she knew she’d found someone she’d needed to meet.

gentleman friend.

‘Witch’ is the label society slaps on women it can’t understand or control.

“Jesus, Harriett.” Jo fanned the smoke away from her face. “It’s not even nine.” “Did you come to tell me the time?” Harriett replied with her gap-toothed smile. “I know this might surprise you, but I do own a clock.”

Jo did her best to keep Nessa distracted while Harriett tossed an assortment of leaves, roots, and something that looked like it might be alive into a blender.

“If I’m the light, what are you guys?” Nessa said with a sniffle. “I’m the punishment that fits the crime.” Harriett returned to her work. “Jo is the rage that burns everything down. Nessa will have to talk to the dead girls’ mothers. But we’ll all have our parts to play.”

That afternoon, Celeste watched from the prow of her boat as the three women made their way down the dock, with Harriett in the lead. Even in a plain white shirt tucked into a pair of old jeans, Harriett looked like a visitor from another realm. The two women walking side by side behind Harriett couldn’t have appeared more different. One was pretty and plump, with a wide smile punctuated by two girlish dimples. Her manicure suggested she wasn’t a fan of manual labor, and her fancy silk blouse wasn’t made for sailing. Her companion was a compact little redhead with ripped limbs, a tight ponytail, and an outfit that suggested she might drop and do thirty at any moment. Yet the fact that the two women belonged together was perfectly clear. They were a matching pair.

“I called ahead and told the whales we were coming.”

Nessa shrugged. “I don’t know what he’s interested in, anyway. I’m nowhere near as attractive as I used to be.” Harriett’s head rolled back down and her gaze fell on Nessa. “By attractive, you mean young and thin?” “What else would I mean?” “When someone calls you attractive, it means you draw people to you,” Harriett said. “You think a tiny waist and wrinkle-free skin are the only things that can do that?” “Yes, I know. I have a lovely personality.”

some of us don’t need all the crap at Sephora to draw others to us. And like it or not, you are one of those people, my friend.”

“You’re fucking hot, Nessa. Just like Jo. Just like me. And unlike Jo and me, you have that gorgeous big ass.”

pumping sunshine.

“You’re planting a giant poisonous bush on this girl’s grave.” Jo didn’t know what to say. “Yes, because when the plant is in flower, it’s impossible to ignore.” Harriett pointed past the cemetery’s fence at the highway that stretched from the city to the end of the island. “I want everyone passing by to look. I want whoever did this to know that the girl buried here hasn’t been

forgotten. I want him to see what we can do. And I want that motherfucker to worry.”

Nessa watched until she was sure Harriett was out of earshot. “She seem a bit off to you?” she asked Jo. Jo laughed. “Are you kidding? Harriett’s never been on.”

“Fucking witch. You say that as if it’s an insult,” Harriett replied.

After Nessa drove off, Harriett greeted Chase with all the enthusiasm she would have shown a chin hair.

Do you think I’m that stupid?” “Yes,” she said honestly.

every recipe is a spell. And all cooks are witches.”

Why do you think women are designed to outlive men? Why do we keep going for thirty years after our bodies can no longer reproduce? Do you think nature meant for those years to be useless?

No, of course not.

Our lives our designed to have three parts. The first is education. The second, creation. And in part three, we put our experience to use and protect those who are weaker. This third stage, whi...

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