Chapter Six
MONDAY, the 21st of SEPTEMBER - THE AUTMNAL EQUINOX
As I write this final chapter, I am sitting in one of my favorite places in the whole world: Mama's library, at the big table in front of the window overlooking Lake Michigan. As little girls, Jean and I would come in here and try to imagine what marvelous spells were contained in the old volumes that line these walls. Women in centuries past have been burned for possessing such books. Today, with freedom from persecution and the freedom of curiosity born in my generation, Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the country, though I guess most people consider it more of a curiosity than a religion.
It's time, I guess, to tell you what really happened that night, exactly six months ago, and the incredible events that have taken place in my life since. It's best, they say, to start at the beginning. I, of course, do things the hard way; so I'll start at the end (though I consider it a beginning, of sorts).
I told Molly as I sat in that motel room that two separate souls could not occupy a single body after the moon was full. That was true. I also told her that, with her help, I would transfer her consciousness into the body of the kitten. That was also true. My lie was actually one of omission.
As I read and reread each of the spells (actually a continuation of the spell my sisters had used to bring me back), my mind kept going back to something that Jo had told me when she gave me the book. She said that Mama "knew I would do the right thing." That struck an unsettling cord in my mind. Mama had never approved of ANYTHING I did. She saw me as wild, impetuous, rebellious, untrustworthy, selfish, and a whore. And she was right, of course. I was all those and more. Did she really think I was going to change now, even having just returned from the dead?
As Molly read her little Latin phrase, all that remained for me to do was to utter a single, closing word, and she would be transferred into the body of the cat for the rest of her days. I had KNOWN she would say those words! I knew her type. She was Jean's type! Hopelessly romantic, unbelievably innocent, unselfish to the very end. Just one word, and I would have been rid of her forever. What I had omitted to explain, of course, was that, in the event no spell was cast at all, our souls wouldn't occupy the same body separately; they would merge and occupy it TOGETHER! With Mama's words echoing in my mind, for the first time in my life, I did not act at all. Call it a moment of faith, I guess.
And now, at last, it's time to remind you of the strange little statement I made at the beginning of this rambling missive. I said that the most difficult aspect of writing this was its tense. I've done it (up until now) in the first-person singular. But to do so, I have had to completely disregard half of the sum total of my knowledge, my experiences, and my beliefs. It has been, quite frankly, the hardest thing I think I've ever written, in either of my lifetimes.
Oh yes. One final point before I tell you the rest of the story of that night. It is, by far, the most amazing aspect in the merging of myselves. I find that I marvel at the concept even months later, but I swear it's true. Submissiveness is a dominant trait! Perhaps the truth is that "submissiveness" is not the trait at all, but only an aspect of many traits, that include an overwhelming discomfort for all those things I told you Mama didn't like in me. At the moment of my merging, they simply lost their importance to me, and all those things that make me Molly became the most important.
All I know is that the first thing I did that night (after I stopped laughing at Jean's question) was to throw myself into my husband's arms and kiss him. The second thing (after becoming cognizant of the growing number of people flocking to our room to see what the commotion was about) was to ask him for his jacket so I could cover my nakedness.
The hotel security guards arrived in less than a minute, and Herman (always a sharp guy, my Hermy), concocted a spur-of-the-moment story about seeing me choking on a piece of my salad and he broke down the door to administer the Heimlich maneuver. This, plus his credit card to charge the damages, seemed to be sufficient to placate the motel administration, and we were soon established in another room, complete with carefully drawn window curtains and a working door.
After assuring them that both of me were inside me, I refused to answer any more questions until learning how they had found me. As it turned out, it wasn't so hard after all. Jean had given the other sisters the slip at a gas station outside of town and had gotten a lift from a trucker back the other way. (That was amazing! To my knowledge, Jean had never done anything so bold in her life!) She had entered the house through the garage door, which I had left open, and finally roused Herman from his little "nap" and told him everything about the spell, and what she suspected that I (Jane) was about to do to me (Molly).
Jean was a computer major in college, and she spent some time with my PC and finally located my credit card number through something called a "cookie." (I had used the credit card to buy the silk robe from an on-line lingerie store.) Then Herman called a private investigator in Chicago that he had used once, and gave him the card number. Within an hour, they knew about the purchases I'd made at the mall. In Herman's pickup truck, they used his cell phone to stay in touch with the PI, and tracked the me first to the gas station where I'd filled my car's tank, and finally to the motel.
