Page 70 of Impractical Magic

But first, he squeezed her shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?”

She shrugged him off. “Don’t give it a thought.” She marched toward her mother without turning back.

***

Mama’s lecture began before Scarlett could even offer a hello. “Scarlett, I realize you’ve built your own glamorous life out west . . .” she paused to direct Belinda Chatterjee “. . . that’s wonderful, Bel; please take those over to the EMS team, all right? But, Scarlett, when you are in Oak Haven, you are a Melrose, and therefore—”

“Therefore, I have a responsibility to honor the generations of Melrose leaders who have come before,” Scarlett recited. “Yeah, yeah, I know. So, do you think this is going to work? Just de-infesting the entire grove by hand?”

Mama drew closer to offer a confession. “It’s a band-aid at best. We’ll never be able to remove them all manually. But panic was starting to set in. People needed something to do. So tell me, did you learn anything from your visit with Louise?”

“Uh, sure. Apparently, the answer to the infestation has been inside me all along. I just need to click my heels three times and find it.”

“Hmm,” her mother said unsmilingly, “I suggest you get on with it then.”

Scarlett noticed a makeshift refreshment table set up under a wide elm tree. A brightly patterned tablecloth was laden with steaming mugs of apple cider, a large urn of coffee, and baskets overflowing with pumpkin bread and cider donuts. Polly was manning the table, verbally sparring with her daughter, who was clearly supposed to be helping but was clearly not.

Violet spat out a list of vile insults at her mother, which she capped off with a hearty “I hate you!” before storming off. The teenager plunked down under an oak on the far edge of the grove, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled low, and her head squarely focused on her phone.

Scarlett watched this play out from a distance, debating whether or not to approach. She had settled on no way when Polly noticed her standing there and gave an exhausted half-wave.

Ahhh, nuts, Scarlett thought. I’ve been spotted. She ambled over to Polly’s table.

“I suppose you saw that fight,” Polly said before Scarlett could greet her.

Scarlett raised her hands. “No judgment. My mother and I have really gone at it more than once or twice in public.”

“It’s just the age, I suppose. Do you want some cider?”

“Sure, love some. Look . . . Polly . . . I just want to say . . . About your store, and um, everything that happened there.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Certainly, I don’t want to talk about it with you. Your mother said she’d help me rebuild once magic is restored, so, I’ll survive.”

“I just wanted to offer an apology.”

“Right, well.” Polly looked away. “Not really wanting one at the moment.”

“Sure.” Scarlett nodded. “That’s fair. Okay, um . . . would you mind if I tried having a talk with Violet?”

“Do I mind. No, I don’t mind. But did you bring a shark cage with you?”

“I’ll be careful.” Scarlett pointed at the cups of cider on the table. “I assume this is family-friendly cider and not the hard kind?” Polly nodded, so Scarlett took two cups and headed over to Violet’s tree.

The teenager didn’t look up.

“Brought you some cider,” Scarlett offered.

“Not thirsty.”

“Okay.” Scarlett sat down beside Violet anyway, putting a cup of cider beside her. She sipped her own drink for a while, watching in silence as the townsfolk worked tirelessly to contain the infestation.

Finally, she glanced over at Violet’s phone. “So . . . learned any good TikTok dances lately?”

“Don’t try to relate to me,” Violet growled.

“Okay, fair. I won’t relate to you. I’ll just be blunt: what are you doing hanging out with Maximillian?”

Violet glanced up ever so briefly, but then her head swiveled back down. “I don’t know who that is.”