Hildegard's New Year Part 1
Of witches, shapeshifters, spells gone wrong and the identities one creates when they have lived for far too long.
‘When you’re eighty-eight, everything is hard,’ sighed Hildegard in a doleful tone. The young couple smiled, yet the girl was staring at her with wide eyes. The man carefully weighed and labelled Hildegard’s bananas, then handed them back, a beaming smile on his face. They mumbled a reply in broken German. Foreign and self-conscious, thought Hildegard. She thanked them and moved on, pulling her shopping trolley.
Bananas, cucumbers, ham, mayonnaise, ice cream. She glanced at her list, squinting and furrowing her brow. A hissing chuckle came out from under her coat, and Hildegard bent over, covering the noise with a cough.
‘Will you shut up, bitte?’ she hissed back.
‘Ssorry, Hildy,’ was the muffled reply, ‘but thiss iss jusst too much. You desserve an Osscar.’
The old lady proceeded towards the till. She saw the couple again in the frozen food section, picking bags of peas. Newlyweds, fresh from their honeymoon, still crumpled from all the travelling that was meant to be relaxing. She directed a silent blessing in their direction.
‘Sso ssentimental. Come on, Hildy, less go home.’ She patted her coat. ‘Ja, Judy, let’s go. We have a lot to prepare.’
Hildegard dragged her feet and her trolley down the road to the entrance of a four-story building. All neighbours were either gone for the holidays or still at work. She opened her coat to reveal a bright red corn snake coiled around her torso.
‘Will you give us a ride, Judy?’
The snake unfurled and stretched up on her shoulders, shaking her head.
‘Am I your sservant, Hildy? How do you assk?’
Hildegard snorted.
‘O most gracious and noble of sisters, will you please help a wretched old person with a ride to the top of this scheisse building that still doesn’t have a verdammten lift?’
The snake nodded.
‘Much better.’
Judy unfurled completely, stood up on Hildegard’s shoulder and began to grow in size until her head could reach the first floor.
‘Come on up!’ she called, and Hildegard climbed on her back, holding her trolley with one hand.
Judy slithered and climbed up the stairs to the attic, then reverted to the size of an ordinary snake.
‘Hurry,’ she commanded, ‘I need a bath. My sskin is parched.’
Hildegard ignored her and opened the door. They entered into a big open space with a slanted roof. The walls were covered in bookshelves or hidden by greenery. Tall plants in big vases, long vines climbing up the walls, the windows, the shelves. The snake headed towards an old-fashioned washstand, coiled herself around the handle of the pitcher to fill the basin with water, carefully placed the pitcher on the lower shelf, and immersed herself with a contented sigh.
Hildegard was placing the food on the kitchen counter.
‘You could give me a hand with dinner, you know,’ she grunted.
‘A hand?’ Judy scoffed, splashing placidly in the basin. ‘How inssenssitive of you to mention handss to a ssnake lady.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Hildegard busied herself around the kitchen, cutting, slicing, slathering, ‘could you at least stop with those dumme ssoundss. You can talk like a normal person, so genug with the comedy.’
‘Fine,’ Judy flicked her tail, sending an arch of droplets towards the ceiling, ‘as long as you stop with the fake German accent. Your little local lady character is getting old.’ Hildegard shot her a deadly glance, ‘Older than she needs to be at least.’
They went on bickering whilst Hildegard prepared the food and Judy bathed. Outside, the sunset painted all the clouds pink and orange, and the streets were emptying of people. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere for the evening. The first hints of fireworks from impatient revellers echoed in the city.
‘It will be a lively one for sure,’ commented Judy. ‘There haven’t been fireworks for a few years now. People will go crazy.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Hildegard, ‘and we’ll have our own private show from the windows.’
‘It will be a nice accompaniment to the ritual.’
Judy had spoken in a casual tone, rolling around a plush towel.
‘Oh, yes, of course, the ritual.’
Hildegard’s grip on the knife tightened.
‘Is mum coming then?’ asked Judy, rearing her head and half of her body.
‘Yes…’ Hildegard suddenly remembered to check the oven. ‘Definitely. She’s definitely coming…’
‘Hildy!’ hissed Judy.
Hildegard sighed and went to sit on a weathered brown sofa in the middle of the living area.
‘I called to her. I sent messages. She hasn’t replied.’
Judy slithered on to her sister’s lap.
‘It’s fine, Hildy. We’ll try by ourselves, like the other times.’
‘It will fail again without her. It always fails.’
‘Then I will just have to keep being a snake and live mooching off you like the past five decades, dear sister.’
Hildegard smiled and extended her arms for the snake to coil around; Judy rose her head up and flicked her tongue to her sister’s cheek like a kiss.
‘Ew,’ scoffed Hildegard laughing, ‘when was the last time you brushed your teeth?’
‘Fifty years, two months and twenty-three days ago, Hildy,’ chuckled the snake, moving to a round pillow on the sofa.
‘Well, I ought to take you to the vet. That stench coming from your mouth is not normal.’
‘Neither is a corn snake with a lifespan five times the average, my dear,’ Judy yawned, coiling around herself, ‘or a human who has to omit the first of her three digits to avoid scaring people.’
‘Oh no, don’t you think you can take a nap and leave everything to me.’ Hildegard started prodding Judy with her fingers until the snake raised her head, hissing. ‘Come help me set the table, you lazy lizard.’
‘You should stop playing the bitter old hag, it’s rubbing off on you,’ grumbled Judy.
They set the table. Red cloth, green paper napkins with gold flourishes, white bone china. Three places. Big plates of smoked salmon tartines, cucumber sandwiches, a charcuterie board. Hildegard placed a candleholder at the centre of the table and Judy declared:
‘The ritual is ready.’ Hildegard scoffed and waved a hand in the air. Ripples of vapour enveloped her from head to toe, hiding her from view.
‘I wish we stopped calling it that.’
‘It is a ritual, though, isn’t it?’
The ripples disappeared. Hildegard now looked taller, younger; her blonde hair was pinned up, and she was wearing a velvet robe.
‘Nice dress Hildy. I swear you don’t look a day over one hundred.’
Hildegard chuckled, and they took their seats opposite each other. It was now dark outside, and the sound of fireworks peppered the air.
They filled their plates and poured wine in their glasses.
‘Should I turn on the candles?’ Judy asked nonchalantly, but her tongue was flickering in and out. Hildy sighed.
‘Fine, let’s get this done.’
‘Don’t get too excited,’ muttered Judy as she cracked a long match and lit up the three arms of the candle holder. The flames flickered and waned, and the snake fell back into her chair, deflated.
‘I guess it was to be expected,’ she whispered.
Hildegard sighed and shook her head.
‘Shall we move on with the…’
A loud crack interrupted her, and the two sisters fell silent, staring at the candles. Two of the flames were burning in a normal way, whereas the third had started growing tall and shaking. Judy carefully slid on the table.
‘It’s not hot!’ she exclaimed. ‘Is it working?’
Hildegard was already up, her arms extended forward, sparks crackling in her palms.
‘Stand back, Judy!’ she ordered. ‘We don’t know who it is, yet. And even if it really is mum,’ Judy shuddered and slithered to the back rest of an armchair in the corner, ‘we ought to be prepared.’
Thank you, readers, for your patience! I am back, and I hope you can welcome my writing in your inbox again after this (too) long break.
Here’s to a year rich in stories and magic!
So glad to see that you’re back, Magnolia!!! I love this magical, witchy, snaky story, 🐍, and cannot wait to see what unfolds for these sisters and their ritual. Keep going my friend! 💚🔮