Auntie’s Island

Chapter Six – What Little Girls Are Made Of


FRED: 

I lay with Auntie in post orgasmic splendor, holding her, stroking her back. She had collapsed on top of me, her breasts pressing into my lower chest, her face snuggled into the side of my neck. She sighed, brought her arms up between us, and propped her chin on the backs of her hands, staring up into my eyes. 

“I was SO afraid last night,” she told me dreamily. “Now, I feel silly.” She paused. “I am very much in love with you, Professor Fielding.”

“What on earth were you afraid of?” I asked.

“You.”

“What did I ever do to make you afraid of me?”

“Just some more of that ‘psychic shit’ you don’t believe in,” she told me.

“What did you think I was going to do to you? Eat you?” I contemplated that. “Hmmm. Not a bad idea at that.” I slid my hand down and squeezed her ass.

She laughed and then became serious. “You, Fred, are going to be the cause of my death.”

I was truly taken aback. “Well, that’s a hell of a thing thing to tell a new lover!”

“It really doesn’t matter anymore,” she told me pleasantly.

“It doesn’t matter that I’m going to kill you?” I asked, exasperated.

She laughed out loud. “You’re not going to KILL me!” she said.

“But you just said that you thought ….” 

“Oh, you don’t understand at all! And it simply doesn’t make any difference anymore, anyway. It’s already been done! AND, I’m not afraid anymore!”

I breathed a ragged breath. Why did I always have to get involved with women that were … odd?  What was it about me that attracted them? Thankfully (or not), she chose to change the subject entirely.

“I’ve decided to grant you three wishes,” she said, smiling.

I barked a laugh. “Wonderful! Do I have to tell you what they are now, or can I have a little time to think about them?”

“Oh,” she answered, “I’ve already granted them. You don’t have to tell ME what they are. I’m a psychic, you know.”

I gave her my most patronizing look. “Oh yes, I know. Only a psychic would tell ME what MY wishes are.”

“Don’t be impertinent,” she chided.

I started stroking her flawless bare back again. “Okay, okay. Please tell me, what were my three wishes?”

“Well, you never actually put them into words, but I know what they are. First of all, you have changed, my dear Fred.”

I nodded, giving her a smirk. “Right. Changed how?”

She shrugged her naked shoulders. “Changed to the way you wanted to be.”

I nodded and rolled my eyes. “Well … thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And my second wish?”

“Your second wish is one of the greatest I could grant you,” she said, smiling up at me. “I’m going to tell you how YOU can grant a wish for the one you love!”

“Okay,” I nodded, “I get it. What is it that YOU want?”

“Not me, you fool … though … thank you; I love you, too.”

“Who, then?”

“The person you love most in the whole world, of course.”

“I don’t like to categorize such things,” I told her in a placating tone.

“You don’t have to make a list .. you KNOW who it is. Everybody knows,” she replied. I was a bit surprised to see that she appeared to be suddenly serious.

I found myself being serious, too. “Alright, then … Brenda. In all this world, I love Brenda the most. I have from the first moment I laid eyes on her, I think. And from the day that she told me she was mine, I … I became whole.”

“Very good, lover,” Auntie said, smiling again. “Now, what is it you could do for her that would make her happy … happier than she’s ever been? How could you change your relationship to make her truly content with her place in the world? With her place in your little harem? With her association with YOU?”

I blinked down at her. “I … I … don’t know,” I said quietly.

“Sure you do … you’ve already done it for a very brief time. I can tell, just be looking at her. Think, Fred … what wish could you grant her?”

“I could turn the bunch of bananas over,” I said to myself out loud. Why hadn’t I seen that? I had played a game … a silly game … in which Brenda had to be the “lowest slave” in the household, doing exactly what everyone else said, no matter how embarrassing. And she had LOVED it! She had THRIVED on it.

“I don’t know what ‘bananas’ means,” Auntie remarked, “but I think maybe you’ve figured it out. Whatever freedoms you have granted her, take them away, and she will be truly happy. Grant her that wish, Fred.”

I shook my head at such a notion. Why did everything in my life have to SOUND so insane? I kept stroking that naked back, feeling those breasts pressed into my lower chest, but thinking about other things. Finally, I came back to the present. “Alright,” I sighed. “That’s a good wish, I have to admit. And my third one?”

“Ah … that,” she replied, suddenly looking sad. “That I will tell you the NEXT time you come to my island. I’ve already granted it, but I’ll wait until then to reveal it to you.”

“Right,” I said, resorting back to my skeptical self. “That makes sense … grant me a wish, don’t let me pick what it is, and make me wait for it.” But then I got serious again. “Why do you look so unhappy all of a sudden?”

A tear came to her eye. “You’re going to be angry with me. I … I think you’re going to hate me a little.”

Women! Why did they all have to be so melodramatic? “Nothing you can say is going to make me hate you. Tell me.”

“You have to leave,” she said simply.

I sighed. “Yes, I guess it is time to go back to my own room.”

“No … I mean you have to leave the island. You have to leave today.”

I frowned, wrinkling my brow, trying to figure it out. “You want me to leave you?”

“No, no,” she implored. “I don’t WANT you to … but you HAVE to! You have to take your girls and leave today. It’s imperative! Please don’t ask me why! I’ll explain it all when you come back, later this year. I’ll tell you then, and it might make sense to you … maybe. But you would NEVER understand if I told you now. You can think me mad, if you want … or odd, or abnormal or egocentric, or whatever you’d like. Please don’t make me explain further. Just go, please.” She was really crying now.

I thought of a dozen things to say, but at the very least, the only thing they would have accomplished was to make her cry harder. At the worst, they would have taken a situation I disliked and made it even more hurtful … for both of us. I wrapped my arms around her naked body while she sobbed, and I thought a hundred thoughts. But I said nothing. I just held her.


………………….



WILLIE:


I didn’t know what was going on. I HATE it when something happens, and I don’t know why … or in this case, even what! All I knew was that we were leaving the island!

I had run into the house looking for Frederick, almost overwhelmed with guilt about what I had done with Daddy John during the night. I HAD to tell him! I HAD to seek his forgiveness … or at least his counsel. But when I ran into our bedroom, I found Dee there, packing. 

“I don’t KNOW what happened,” she told me. “I came in here to ask Fred to forgive … I mean to tell him that I …. Oh, Willie, I DID something last night, and I should TELL him about it! But before I could tell him, he told me to pack! He said that we were leaving today … right away!”

And then Brenda came in, looking sort of frightened. “Where’s Freddy?” she asked us. “I have to see him right away! I have to talk to him about … about … something that happened last night.” She looked at Dee. “Why are you packing?”

And so, the insane night gave way to an insane day. I thought that Fred and Auntie must have had some sort of horrific fight, but when I found them in the kitchen, they seemed all lovey-dovey, as if everything was alright. I begged Auntie to let us stay. I mean, I’d only been back for two days, and it just didn’t seem FAIR that they’d make me leave again so soon, but she told me that I’d be coming back lots of times (when she said that, she cast a sort of dopey, infatuated look at Frederick). Oh, I HATE it when I don’t know what’s going on!

Mr. Smurd was bringing out a new kid, she told us, and should be arriving any minute (Mr. Smurd had a boat in Barbados, and brought supplies to the island from time to time). I was used to “new kids” showing up. They all had psychic abilities of some sort, and they came here looking for guidance and counseling from Auntie. Some were teenagers; others were very young. I remember once when a baby was brought here because things kept floating around her crib … rattles and toys and baby bottles and stuff, sort of hovering in the air above her. Cute little kid, too. Anyway, we were going to go back on Mr. Smurd’s boat, just as soon as he had refueled and had gotten something to eat, which he always did when he came.

And so, I went back to our room to help pack things up. Dee was busy with the baby, and we were all sort of lost in our own thoughts. I looked down at the dock in the lagoon and saw the boat pull in and some people start up the trail.

When Frederick came in, we all tried to talk to him at once; each, seemingly, with our own urgent problem to discuss with him, but he told us that we would all talk later, after we had gotten started on our trip back to Illinois. We gathered up all of our stuff and moved it into the living room, arriving just as Raul brought in a man and a little girl, about five years old. Auntie rose from her favorite chair to meet them. Mama Ann came in, too. As usual, after the introductions (which included us -- much to the confusion this new gentleman), Auntie turned her attention solely to the little girl, making friends, which, in Auntie’s case, is VERY easy to do.

The man, however, kept butting in, telling us all how the little girl could “see” things in a crystal ball … how she could see the future! “Show them, Juanita! Show them what you can do! Show them what you can see!”

Little Juanita was having none of it. She had just made a new friend, and if there was some sort of “friendship scale” for little kids, Auntie would be right up there at the top. “No, Daddy. Not now,” she told him, accepting a small stuffed bear from Auntie.

The man turned nasty. “Listen, you little brat!” he snarled, grabbing the girl by the shoulder and spinning her around to face him. “Show these people what you can do! Don’t argue! Sometimes, you’re just like your bitch of a mother! If you ruin this for me, so help me, I’ll kill you!” And he struck the girl across the face.

I never saw it coming. It’s not the sort of thing I ever expected him to do. In the blink of an eye, Frederick had strode the three steps to the man, filled his fists with the guy’s lapels, hoisted him about six inches off the ground, and just kept walking until the man’s back slammed against the living room wall. A hanging needlepoint picture shook and fell to the floor. The guy’s eyes were as big saucers and his arms sort of flopped out and back against his sides.

“Don’t. Hit. The little. Girl,” Frederick said between clenched teeth. We all stood, aghast.

“Ann,” Auntie said sweetly, “would you mind getting Sr. Jimenez a nice cup of tea? You know the kind I mean.”

“Um … certainly, Auntie. Please, Senior, let’s go into the kitchen for a nice cup of tea.”

But Frederick still held the man aloft by his lapels, glowering at him. Dee and I both stepped forward at the same time. She took hold of Frederick’s left arm with both of her hands, while I placed both of my hands on his right. “Fred,” Dee implored, “let him go. Ann’s going to make him a cup of tea!”

This surprised me. How did Dee know about Ann’s tea? “Yes, Frederick,” I said. “Ann’s tea will help. It always does.”

Frederick finally took his murderous eyes off the man’s face and looked questioningly from Dee to me. Finally, he heaved a sigh and set the man down. “You’re not going to hit the little girl again, are you, pal?” he asked in an uncharacteristically stern voice.

“I give you my word, sir,” the man stuttered, “I didn’t hurt my daughter, and I have no intention of doing so. I was just making a point, you know? Sometimes,” he shrugged, “they just don’t listen, you know? You have to get their attention.”

I could tell that Frederick was contemplating seizing the guy again, but Dee and I were urging him back across the room. Ann took Mr. Jimenez’ hand and led him out into the kitchen.

“What the hell is all this talk about tea?” Frederick asked, looking at the two of us.

“Ann’s tea is rather special,” Auntie told him, while picking up the crying little girl and putting her on her lap. “I guarantee you, Fred, Sr. Jimenez will never strike his daughter again. And his relationship with his wife is about to undergo a marked improvement, as well. Ann has a tea for just about everything.”

Frederick nodded and took a breath. “Okay,” he told her. “If Ann has some kind of ‘don’t-hit-the-little-girl’ tea, then I’m all for it.”


………………….



FRED:

The aftermath of our last night and morning on Auntie’s island left us all a little shell-shocked, I have to admit. I don’t know what made me do it, but, after having each of the girls plead for some time alone with me to admit to some terrible sin, I wound up making them wait until we were all together in a hotel room in Barbados, and then forcing a public confession. We were, after all, a family, and there were no secrets among us.

I had half-expected some sort of liaison between Brenda and Raul. There had been “looks” between them, and Brenda was so very innocent that a seduction was easily imagined. It only made sense that she believed herself to blame. That’s just the way she is.

“Ann and Dee” sort of threw me for a loop. Dee had never really had any lesbian notions until I started screwing with her pretty little head, but her devotion to the lady was irrefutable, and once again, I had to admit that her “sin” was certainly no more onerous than my own actions with our hostess.

But a sexual liaison between Jonathan and his adopted daughter was something that I NEVER saw coming! Was that island some sort of modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah? I’d never heard of so many sexual aberrations since San Francisco in the Sixties! Talk about free love!

I confessed my “sins,” as well, though, of course, the girls didn’t see it that way. And, oh man, I missed Auntie! The whole thing seemed like some kind of dream, but the memories were sharp and vivid and achingly real. 

As I kissed her goodbye, Auntie had told me that she wanted us all back on the island for another visit in October, and even though I was still pretty upset about the whole “you have to leave now” routine, I gave her my word that we would see her then. 


………………….



DEE:


Two things happened just before we left Auntie’s Island. First, I snuck back to the kitchen to say goodbye to Ann. We were almost alone in the room. (Senior Jimenez sat at the kitchen table with a totally blank look in his eyes and an empty teacup in front of him.) I held her and told her that we had to leave; and she hugged me and kissed me passionately and said that, yes, she had heard, but didn’t understand why Auntie wanted us gone. We cried.

And secondly, as we were just about to board the boat, Auntie took me aside and asked me to promise her that I would not stop breastfeeding Lizzy until she was a year and a half old. I asked her why, but she wouldn’t tell me. But, of course, I gave her my word. A year and a half! I don’t think my breasts are EVER going to be the same again!

After our little “tell-all” in the hotel room in Barbados, I felt sort of weird. It was almost as if we were all leaving some chapter in our individual lives behind. The homecoming in Illinois was nice, I guess, as homecomings always are. It was great to see Maxine, our little dog, again, even if it really had only been six days since we left. (It seemed MUCH longer, somehow.) 

But things had changed. At first, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was … and that was because it wasn’t just one thing … there were LOTS of them. It started that night before we got home, after our little mass-confession. I had BEGGED Fred to hypnotize us, since it had been SO long! He pointed out that it had only been two days, but, oh man, I craved it! I REALLY needed it! Willie and Brenda wanted it, too, of course. It took almost a week after we got home for Willie and I to understand it. Before we went to the island, Brenda was the one that was most addicted to the hypnosis. I mean, we two wanted it, too. We really did. But not like Brenda did. Not until now, anyway. (I really think Auntie changed us that first day, when she walked in on us and we were all in our trance, like Fred had left us.)

That first night back home, Fred chose Brenda to go to bed with, while Willie and I made love in our bedroom at the other side of the house. And the next morning, Brenda had a sort of “floaty” look about her. Whenever she was given a moment to herself, she’d get a kind of dopey gleam in her eyes and smile to herself. That night, after Willie had begged for the release of Fred’s hypnotic control, and he had made me go SO deep into my trance; after he awakened us, he announced it was my turn in his bed. But before I went down the hall to his room, Brenda took me aside and said “Stand by for wild ride!” I told her that I didn’t understand, but she just laughed, took Willie’s hand, and walked down the hall to the other room, checking the baby’s room first, since they shared “baby duty” on my nights with our Master.

I went into the master bathroom and primped for my evening. I don’t know why, after all this time, that for me, a night with Fred feels almost like I’m a high school girl going out on a hot date. It’s so silly to have hormones flowing like a heavy rain after all I’ve been through with Fred and Brenda. But I DID want to look my best for him, and I brushed my hair until it shone, and bit my lips to make them redder. He didn’t allow me (or any of us girls) to wear anything to bed at night. Often, he told us to put on nightgowns for the evening … but when bedtime came, whether when we were paired with him or another girl (or all four of us together in the big bed), we were always naked. So I was nude when I opened the bathroom door and stepped out … right into his arms.

He attacked me. I think I issued a surprised little cry before his lips silenced mine with a kiss that was so forceful that it left my head swimming when our lips finally parted. Before I could say anything, he spun me about in his arms, and I found myself facing the bed, him behind me, with his arms around me, one clutching my right breast, and the other sliding up and down my belly, from the base of my breasts to my bald pussy. He nuzzled his lips into a spot just below my right ear, kissing the top of my throat at that side, sending wild shivers through my body. He was propelling me toward the bed, and my feet got tangled up somehow, so that he sort of picked me up and carried me the last few feet, laying me across its surface. I felt my breasts flatten on the sheets as he leaned into my back side, crushing me. Then, he lifted me slightly, so that he could again clutch my breast in his powerful hand. I had never known him to be so rough! And, as it turned out, he was just getting started.

My legs had fallen apart as I hit the surface of the bed, and now, he was between them, seeking out and finding my sex from behind. He leaned forward and up, impaling me in one firm thrust. I moaned loudly as he filled me, much more deeply than usual because of the position. He gave three quick forceful, driving thrusts, pound-pound-pound, so hard that my hips were physically lifted from the surface of the bed’s edge, and while my pussy was off  the bed, he snaked his left hand around my belly and slid his fingers to my upper slit, right on my clitoris. He pinched and rolled my nipple with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. “Oh, my gosh!” I shrieked.

Pound-pound-pound, stroke, pinch …. Groan. “Oh, Master! OH!” Pound-pound-pound, stroke, pinch …. moan. “OH! That feels so ….” Pound-pound-pound, stroke, pinch …. whimper. “Master! You’re going to make me ….” Pound-pound-pound, stroke, pinch …. whine. “I’m going to …. I’m going to ….” Pound-pound-pound, stroke, pinch …. Boom!

I exploded. I shook. I saw bright sparks swim before my eyes. Every muscle in my body clenched, and I heard him roar out behind me while his cock began to swell and jerk inside me. Oh, how I wished I could hold him while he fed his seed into my womb, but pressed against the bed like that, I was helpless; so deliciously helpless! He collapsed atop me, shivering.

Eventually, I felt him pull his deflating cock from me, then he reached his arms around my hips, hoisted me up onto the bed and climbed in after me. He lay on his back, and I snuggled into his body, holding him. 

“That was … wonderful!” I told him.

He was silent for a long time, and eventually, our breathing returned to normal.

“Dee,” he said evenly, “we need to talk.”

I was suddenly very alert. “Um … that sounds sort of ominous,” I said.

“I’m about to change our situation here … the way we live … the way we are. I’m not sure you’re going to approve.”

I pushed myself up so I could see his face. “You’re not … not going to make me leave?”

He chuckled and put an arm around my naked body, holding me to him. “I would never make you leave, Dee. I love you. I’m going to keep you with me forever.”

I took a breath. “I’ll do anything for you, my Master. Anything.”

“It’s really about Brenda,” he began. “She is my wife. As important as you and Willie are to me, I find that I must think of her first and foremost.”

“Of course,” I agreed. “Brenda should ALWAYS come first. Our whole family revolves around Brenda.”

“I’m glad you agree,” he said. “You seem to be the most subservient of our group … and yet, I can’t help get the feeling that Brenda would really like to be.”

I blinked. “I never thought that … I never meant to take something that she … I mean ….”

“It’s no one’s fault, Dee. It’s just something that I’d like to change. But Brenda sort of … runs things in our household. People turn to her for almost everything. People rely on her. They seek her support. They lean on her. If I put her into the level of submission that she craves, then who will take that place?”

I thought silently for a long moment, then bolted upright into a sitting position beside him. “I could!” I almost yelled at him. “I could do that! I could do that for you! For US!” I found that I couldn’t suppress my excitement. “I ran a HUGE household before I gave myself to you! I made ALL the decisions! I could keep the schedules … assign the chores … manage the money … invest the funds ….”

“I didn’t think you ever wanted to be in charge of money again,” he reminded me.

“But … that was when it was MY money! I wouldn’t mind doing it for someone else! I … I could be … like … your personal assistant! I could be your personal secretary! I … I could SERVE you! That’s IT, Master! That is absolutely the BEST way I could serve you! Serve our whole family!”

“Okay, Dee,” he said soothingly. “Relax now. Let’s go to sleep, and we’ll talk about it more in the morning.”

“And I could start doing the investments again!” I urged, really wound up now. “I know that’s what you make me do every week when you hypnotize me in the study. But you won’t have to do that anymore! As your secretary, I could ….”

“Enough, Dee! Go to sleep. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

“But … you could just work on writing your book! I could do EVERYTHING ….”

He reached out to his bedside table, fumbled with something, and held up the pocket watch in front of my eyes. I froze in mid-sentence. “It’s time to go to sleep, Dee,” he said gently.

“But … but ….” Suddenly, my eyes were as heavy as lead, and my shoulders slumped forward. “But I just want to tell you that I could ….”

“Time to go to sleep, Dee,” he intoned quietly. My head bobbed forward, and I began to slump slowly over his body. “Time to go to sleep.” But I couldn’t tell if his last words were real, or part of a dream. And such a wonderful dream! I was serving him … the best way I possibly could.


………………….



BRENDA:


My life was a wonderful dream … except for one thing. It had been three weeks now since we had returned from Auntie’s Island, and I had to admit that everything was PERFECT! Well, except for …. I decided that I wouldn’t think about it. Not for … I looked at the timer … eight more minutes. I would think about something else instead. 

I thought about Freddy … so strong and so … FORCEFUL, since we had returned. Oh, he could still be sweet and tender when he wanted to be, but in the bedroom … Oh, Golly! And around others … well, people noticed him now. They couldn’t help it. He just exuded a sense of power and influence!

And Dee! I couldn’t believe what had happened to her … and to ME, too. I was just where I wanted to be in our household, now. I did what people asked me to do, I served everyone … and that meant sexually, as well. I was in heaven!

The timer dinged. I took a deep breath and pulled the little plastic indicator stick from its holder.

“Brenda!” Dee screamed. I looked up. I hadn’t even heard her and Willie come into the bathroom. I must have left the door open a little. “Brenda! Is that what I THINK it is?”

I looked back down at it … back up at them. “I’m pregnant,” I said dumbly.

They shrieked and squealed and ran to me, jumping up and down in their excitement, until they suddenly saw my tears.

“What’s the matter?” Willie asked, concerned.

I started crying in earnest now. “It was Raul!” I bawled. “I KNOW it was!”

“Nonsense,” Dee chided. “How could you possibly know that? You did it with Fred just as soon as you got home!”

I looked frantically at Willie. “Can you read your cards and tell me?” I pleaded. “Can you read them and tell me whose it is?”

She looked between the two of us and shook her head. “On the island … Auntie did something to me. I think it was when Frederick left us all hypnotized that first day. Remember? Auntie came in and took us really deep. Anyway, ever since then, I haven’t been able to read the cards about US … about you or Dee or Frederick or me or Lizzy, I mean. I can read about everybody else. I can see into the past, or the present or the hazy future for everybody … everybody except us! It’s like a physical block of some kind. I think it’s permanent. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it again … just for us, I mean. So, no. I can’t tell you, Brenda. I’m sorry.”

“I KNOW it was Raul,” I whispered through my tears. “I think I knew it the second I felt him cumming inside me.”

“Now, listen to me,” Dee said forcefully, taking me by the shoulders. “I doesn’t matter who conceived this child! The baby belongs to you and Fred. Period. Tell him about your fears, and I can absolutely guarantee you that is what he’s going to tell you. He’s going to be happy and proud and very, very much in love with the idea of you giving him a baby. And we are, too!”

Group hug time.

And Dee was right, of course. Recently, I’ve found that Dee is ALWAYS right.


………………….



WILLIE:


We were all really nervous, of course, but I HAD to get things moving with our new profession. It had been more than three weeks now since we had been back from the island and Auntie had given us our “assignment.” I’m not really the bossy type, you know? So I went to Dee and told her that we simply HAD to begin the thing that Auntie had planned for us to do. And she scheduled it! That makes it sound so formal! But that’s what she did … she put it on the calendar … right after Brenda’s doctor’s appointment.

The three of us did it together, of course. We HAD to do it together. Dee cleared it with Frederick, and we took the car, and first, we drove to the doctor’s office for Brenda’s official test. And it was positive, naturally. But we already knew that. And so Brenda filled out all of the medical paperwork stuff and they all congratulated her and everything, and they scheduled her for another appointment in a month.

And then we drove to the mall.

We went into the food court and found an empty table where we could all sit and watch everybody go by, and there was enough room for the baby in her stroller while we waited and looked around.

“Alright, Brenda, do your stuff,” Dee ordered. But Brenda just shook her head as she checked out the girls and women sitting around us … and those walking past our table.

“This isn’t going to work,” she told us. “ALL women are in pain, to some extent or another. I mean, EVERYBODY has problems! How am I going to be able to tell some woman who really NEEDS us from some teenager who just THINKS she has a broken heart?”

“You’ll know,” I told her gently.

“I don’t see how,” she groused. “I mean, if I’m suppose to ….”

She froze, staring at something. I tried to follow her gaze, but I didn’t see anything. Without a word, she got up and started walking out of the food court. I jumped up and ran after her. I looked back to urge Dee to follow, but she was already moving, pushing the stroller in our direction.

Brenda crossed the crowded pedestrian passageway outside the food court and made her way to a bench where a lone figure sat. The woman was in her early twenties, and she was just sitting there, staring at nothing, a glazed look in her eyes, a grim frown on her lips. As I got closer, I could tell that her slim hands were shaking, clenched in her lap. Brenda stopped in front of her, but the woman didn’t look up until Dee and I were also standing there.

“Who are you?” she asked, looking up in consternation at the three of us. “What do you want?”

Brenda sat down beside her. “My name is Brenda,” she said softly. “And I’m going to help you.” She smiled at the girl, then nodded at Dee and me. “WE are going to help you.”

The woman put on an indignant expression and opened her mouth to make a remark, but stopped and seemed to look pleadingly into Brenda’s eyes. Her lower lip began trembling, and then, with a loud sob, she threw herself into Brenda’s arms and held her tightly.

It’s going to work, I told myself. We can do this!

And so begins the legend of the Three Witches of Northern Illinois!
