Almost Sally

Sally is away.

That statement, alone, should guarantee that life for her family will sail smoothly along without mishap.

Right?

Right?!

Sigh.

Sally's movie shoot is somewhere in Tennessee. She says it’s beautiful there. And fairly warm.

Certainly warmer than what we are witnessing here in the good ol’ Midwest. I guess I don’t have to tell you that we are languishing in a very chilly 10F.

Sooo…good for them in Tennessee.

The movie they are working on requires Sally to do something decidedly ‘witchy’.

And I’m not talking about being grumpy or nasty here.

Nope.

I am talking about being a part of a coven and doing spells and all that.

Sally is having a grand time.

And Mort is fascinated. The two of them have spent hours—HOURS—on the phone, talking about souls and all the ‘stuff’ Sally is doing. The spells she is casting.

The potions she is stirring up.

Okay, we all know that all the results of said potions and spells on the set are the end result of many, many clever special effects people.

But I’m not quite sure Mort understands that.

And that brings me to today…

Mort had bounced into the house with a couple of large paper bags filled with ‘stuff’, which he then—rather gleefully—began to arrange on the kitchen counter.

Peter and I decided it was a good time to take a gander, so we walked over and…perused.

Now, admittedly, he didn’t have exactly what was required in all cases. Yes, there was cheese, corn starch, avocados and butterscotch (which Peter and I kept snitching till Mort hit Peter with a spoon). But his dragon’s liver was beef. Dragon claws—his own toenails (ew). Eye of newt—heaven knows. It was something dried and shriveled.

Hmmm…maybe it was an eye from a newt.

Moving on.

There were herbs galore.

And also a large beef bone and a cow’s horn.

????

Once he had arranged everything, a happily-humming Mort got to work.

He pulled out the biggest pot in the kitchen, filled it half-full of water and set it on to boil.

Okay so far.

He then smashed the bone with a hammer and threw the shards into the pot. And started adding other stuff.

He chopped and grated and peeled and mashed.

Then, in his best ‘as seen on TV’ manner, he started waving his hands over the steaming pot and—chanting. What Mort lost in actual technique (or knowledge), he made up in theatrics.

Peter and I just stood there, transfixed.

I finally got up the courage to move closer and peer into the pot.

A thick, viscous fluid was bubbling and burping like the famous mud-pots.

As I watched, it stopped its said bubbling.

Just stopped.

Then I saw that the entire mass was…swelling.

“Duck!” I screamed.

Peter and I hit the floor beneath the kitchen table.

Mort disappeared behind the cupboards.

There was a large, wet, rather muffled kablooie! and the contents of the pot…blew.

Fortunately, the hot…erm…liquid seemed to miss anything important (ie. people), but it managed to coat everything else.

And the stench?!

Surprisingly, though, through skill or happenstance, the potion worked.

It made Peter and I disappear.

 

Today’s post is a writing challenge. Participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now...

 

My words this month are hammer ~ potion ~ languish ~ soul ~ bounce ~ happenstance

And were given to me by my brilliant fellow wordsmith, Jenniy at https://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com

Thank you, my friend!

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