Chapter 29: Violet

I took a couple wrong turns before I finally arrived at my new cabin. The wooded roads all looked the same as I got deeper into the forest. And without Wilber to show me the way, it was easy to get lost.

I parked the Jeep in front of the cabin and hopped out. I was excited to get started on cleaning so I can relax in my new home. I used the key that Wilber gave me to open the door. Without him here I could feel the full essence of the cabin. It had a history that I could feel as it whispered to me. This cabin was alive, and I was more than happy to have a home whose history wasn’t death and destruction.

I walked around the cabin and took it all in again. It was better than I remembered from earlier. The afternoon sun was hit the lake, and made it look inviting. I knew it was fall so it was going to be cold, but it was still tempting.

“Ok, there’s nothing left to do but get started!” I said and turned and went to the Jeep to grab all my bags. A buzz came from my pocket that made me jump. I wasn’t used to having a phone, being contacted at any point in the day was a new sensation. I dug into my pocket and pulled out my phone. A message popped up. Amy’s name shown with a message that said, “How’s the cleaning going?”

I smiled down at my phone and typed. “Just starting.” I was slow as I typed, I had to correct what my phone auto populated to ‘justice’ and ‘stars.’

Three little bubbles formed as I looked down at the screen. “If I were you, I would rock out to music!” She added a smiling face with tears that looked like laughing.

“I don’t have a radio.” I typed back, I corrected my words as I went.

“You can download an app and listen that way,” Amy responded.

“What’s an app?” I typed back.

“On your phone go to the app store it looks like this.” She sent a picture of a blue square with an A on it. “Then look for Pandora. It will look like this.” She sent another picture of a square that was white and had a pinkish P on it.

I looked at my screen for the blue square. I toggled through the squares on the phone and found it. I opened it up and, on the bottom, I found search and typed in Pandora. A list of items came up and the second square looked like the one she sent. I clicked on it and started downloading. After a few seconds, a blue button showed up that said “Open.” I clicked it and it pulled up a page that says to log in.

“Ok, I have it, but I don’t have a log in.”

“You can just create one.”

“How do I do that?”

“Click create account and then you can find music that you like to listen to.”

I went back to the app and created an account with the username ‘Violet.’ After a few attempts at a password, I finally got an account created. It pulled up a black screen that had a search bar.

The question remained, what did I like to listen to. I hadn’t listened to music since I was a kid, before the takeover. My parents listened to oldies and when I was in my room I would listen to pop. What was that famous person’s name? I thought back to my childhood and put myself in my room when I was ten dancing like a crazy person on my bed. I screamed, “Oops I did it again.” Britney Spears, that’s what her name was. I typed it in, and a radio was dedicated to her. I clicked on it and music streamed from my phone, it made me jump. It wasn’t something that I recognized but it had a good beat.

“Did you find it?” Amy messaged; the message popped up on the top of my screen. I clicked on it, and it brought me to our conversation.

“Yes. Thank you!”

“Rock out with your cock out!” Amy messaged sending a crazy looking face.

I laughed at her message. “I’ll do my best.”

I put my phone back into my pocket and opened the hatch to grab my bags. I loaded up my arms and brought them into the entry way. I sat the bags on the seat that was by the door. Before I could put anything away, I would need to clean.

I dug through the bags and found a couple with cleaning wipes and a duster. I started to wipe down the counters in the kitchen. The fresh scent of lemon filled the space. The music had me shaking to the beat and I moved throughout the cabin and wiped down all surfaces. With each wipe I used, would come out grey. The wipes started to pile up in the corner of the cabin. Somewhere in my bags I had trash bags. For now, I could use one of the Target bags.

I took the duster and started to dust the furniture. I stopped abruptly and looked out the back window that faced the lake. I felt a presence there as it stared at me while I danced and cleaned. It was a werewolf. A powerful one, but I didn’t see them. I only felt the aura. They didn’t feel hostile, just curious.

I went about my dusting while they watched. I looked down at the duster, it was already covered and needed to be changed. “There has got to be an easier way to do this.” I said to myself.

A smile spread across my face. “Magic?” I asked. “Yes, magic. What was the point of having all of these powers if I didn’t use them?”

I grabbed the duffle bag and pulled out the spell book, I thumbed through the pages and found the elemental spell. I would be able to call upon the element I would need, and it would come to my aid. I had to chant this:

“I call upon the wind. I wish it to blow. Let the wind spin, let it ebb, let if low. I call upon the wind so it may blow.”

Nothing happened. I looked around and saw the doors were closed. Maybe I needed to open them to conjure the wind. I opened the front door and then the door that led to the deck. I felt a slight breeze flow through the cabin.

I stood in the middle and repeated the chant louder. On my exhale the wind picked up a little, but not enough to get the dust moving.

Maybe if I blew out it would conjure up something that would help me get this dust out.

I said the chant again and blew a sharp gust of wind through my lips and clapped my hands together. At that moment, a gale force wind picked up through the cabin. It spiraled around and lifted the dust from the furniture, and it blew out through the opened door that faced the lake. As the wind blew through the door it caused the lake to create waves, it pushed to the other side close to the pack house.

“Oops!” I said with a sneeze. “I hope they don’t freak out too much.”

I looked around. The spell seemed to work. The dust that once covered the furniture was now gone; it left the cabin so much closer to being clean.

I continued to work around the cabin, swept, mopped, cleaned the bathroom, and I put fresh linens on the bed. I had set up candles around the cabin to make it cozy. I even set up the television that Amy insisted I buy along with the firestick. By the time I finished, the sun was setting, and I was exhausted and starved. I needed a shower. But first, food.

I didn’t have the energy to go out and get anything. Maybe I could get something delivered. As a kid, my parents would order Hawaiian pizza on Friday nights, and we would watch movies. My mouth started to water at the thought of Hawaiian pizza. I looked through my phone and started searching for pizza delivery in the search engine. Only one popped up, ‘Mama Maggio’s Pizza.’

In this small town, I was surprised that they even had one pizza delivery. I clicked the call now button and listened to my phone ring.

“Mama Maggio’s Pizza, where we bring the pizza, you want to eat. How may I help you?” A young woman’s voice came over the phone.

“Uh, hi. I am looking to get delivery.”

“What’s the address?”

“Oh shit. Give me one moment.” I say over the phone. “Sorry, about that. I’m in the small cabin on Dark Forest Falls Lake. I don’t know the address. Sorry.”

“No worries, take your time.” I heard her click a pen on the other end.

I never thought about needing the address. I looked up my maps and saw a pulsing blue dot. I clicked on it, and it gave me my address.

“Ok, 1367 North Route 19.” I say to the girl.

“Ok, great.” She pulled away from the phone and I could hear her talk to someone and said, “near the packhouse.”

Another werewolf, this town was really close knit. I liked that, it meant that they were a family and worked together.

“Ok. What can I get you?” She said and clicked her pen again.

“Do you by chance have a Hawaiian Pizza?” I asked.

“Yes, we do. What size?”

“Let’s do a large.”

“Would you like any breadsticks, cheesy sticks, side salads or anything to drink?”

“Oooo, let’s do cheesy sticks and what do you have to drink?”

“Sprite, Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade, tea or water.”

“Can I do a Sprite and a water?”

“Of course. Anything else I can get for you?”

“No that should be it.”

“Can I have a card number please?”

“Card number?”

“Yeah, credit card number to charge for this food.” She sounded slightly irritated.

“Oh, can I pay cash when it’s delivered?” I would need to figure out my credit card situation. I knew not a lot of people carried cash anymore.

“Of course. Please note that the delivery person will have limited change upon delivery and larger bills may be hard to break.

“Ok.”

“Your total is thirty-two twenty-five. It should arrive in about forty-five minutes. Have a great day.” She hung up the phone.