The Sisters swooped down on me last night in a haze of Chanel and cigarette smoke. They asked me to set down a record of what has happened to us from the beginning. I was resistant to the idea at first but I seem to have nothing better to do and I have never been one to take idleness gracefully.

I realize I am a logical choice for the telling of this tale, although this story did not start with me and seems very unlikely to end with me. I am but one piece of this puzzle.

I suspect this is but a tactical maneuver staged to keep me sedentary and healing. Three more formidable women you may have never met. But, we will leave that for later…

I am sitting pool-side, my leg in a splint. I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. I’m chasing pain meds with Grey Goose and smoking my way through a pack of Marlboro lights. I’m watching the snow pile up on the glass roof. You see, I was foolish enough to break my leg but that is yet another story. They’ve left me here to lick my wounds and reflect upon the error of my ways. One kind soul took pity on me and dropped off a bottle of high shelf vodka and a carton of smokes to keep me company. Even my dog has abandoned me for the less surly company of those in the big kitchen. That’s okay; I wouldn’t want to be around me either. I’m grumpy.

Please bare with my poor grammar, I am out of practice. It’s been quite some time since I wrote down more than a materials list.

Even now, it seems like the passing of time was but the blink of an eye.

I suppose; to do an accurate job, I will need to go back to the summer my cousins and I bought a tumble down, abandoned wreck of a resort in northern Michigan leaving our mundane nine to fives. Intriguing, is it not?

First though, my family is a little different from yours, maybe. You see, most of us have what you might call gifts, a little extra mojo. You might call us freaks of nature; you might say we're witches. It's a natural thing; we're all born with it. Most of us. We're casual about it, nobody really knows. A person might just think we're extra lucky and that's because as a group we're not all about magic. We don't do rituals or dance naked under the full moon. At least we didn’t before. Some of us didn't ever use our powers on purpose or even attempt to develop them into a useful tool but their always there like a great shimmery well under the surface, ready to be drawn on at all times.

I didn't even know the things I could do were different until I reached high school age. As a small child, I got a lot of “Don’t do that in public, Charlie!” Our mothers never said; not everyone can do what we can do, you will scare them. The sisters three never made any of us feel like our gifts were a curse or even odd. I grew up thinking everyone could levitate things with their mind, start a fire with a thought or pull down the lightening.

I now thank the powers that be for the gifts I can draw on in times of need as these same gifts my family has tried so hard to hide or squelch out have enabled us to survive.

My name is Charlise. My people mostly call me Charlie. The boys call me Chuck. I’m thirty five years old.

When my cousin came to me one bright and shiny day in late July I was living in a little stone house I had bought from the husband of a former client. In my old life I was a caregiver to elderly people. My daughter and I moved in to the little house when I was employed by Clarence to care for his wife Maude. We called him Pops. He insisted. We loved Pop’s and he loved us. He lived at the end of our little dead end lane in a big farm house surrounded by old barns and corn fields. He was the type of guy that needed to have people to take care of and my daughter and I fit the bill. Pop’s fixed my plumbing, plowed the drive with his tractor and filled in the grandfather position for my daughter. I mostly dragged him to his doctor appointments and nagged him about taking his medicine and cooked a big sit down dinner at my house on Sunday afternoons.

He insisted I buy the little stone house after his wife died. Pop’s practically gave it to me. It was his mother’s house before it was mine and he said he liked to see us there for the rest of his life. Besides all that, a house will go to ruins if nobody lives in it for any length of time and considering that all the stones that went into the construction he had picked with his own hands from his fields the first two years he and Maude lived there.

Pops built the house for his mother the year his father made her a widow. He told me she would have loved what I had done with the place but I’m in a position to know she hates it. She used let me know when she came to visit. Last time she was there she made her presence known by turning on all the taps in the house in the middle of the night and howling like a banshee. I had stripped all the tea rose wall paper from the walls in the dining room and painted it a nice happy shade of yellow. Apparently we didn’t see eye to eye on color schemes. Clara’s ghost wasn’t all bad though. One night when Rain was sick with influenza Clara came and sat by her bed through the night. I could hear her in there singing lullabies, she would float through the wall and shriek at me to get my daughter fresh cold compresses, cups of lemon honey tea and make sure I brought it in the rose china I had squirreled away in her china cabinet. Quite nice of her really but neither Rain nor I got very much rest that night.

Personally, I think he had fallen in love with my daughter Rain. Not in the creepy pedophile way but the way of an older gentleman and his first and only grandchild. He couldn’t bear to part with us and we couldn’t bear to part with him. How I miss that old man.

Charlie decided it was time for a late morning cup of coffee. She walked on raspy house slippers to the kitchen and brewed a fresh pot. She stepped over her dog, Murphy, to get into the dining area of the house. He raised his big head with a questioning groan and lifted eyebrows. She caught site of Jack’s pick-up pulling into the drive out front and she silently counted off the seconds before Murphy sounded the alarm.

She gave up counting when Jack let himself inside the front door, his bear-like frame filling the opening. Murphy jumped to his feet and let out a joyful bark, stampeding as only a one hundred and twenty-pound Labrador retriever can to the entryway. The dog jumped up, placing his paws on Jack’s chest, nearly knocking the big man off his feet, licking his face.

"Eww Murphy, what’cha been eatin’ man?” Jack turned his squinched up face, making enthusiastic spitting motions. Jack shoved the dog off his chest and scratched the canine’s wide head. "Who’s a goooood boy?” He asked the dog. Murphy threw up his massive head, eyes lost in the chocolate brown of his face, grunting with canine enthusiasm.

Charlie shook her head mumbling "Good guard dog you are…" and turned back into the small kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. She grabbed a dish rag and wiped down the counter tops.

"You want coffee?” She asked swiping an extra mug down from the hooks under the cupboard near the coffeepot.

"Got any Irish Cream?" His deep voice coming from what she thought sounded like the living room.

Charlie filled his cup with a liberal dose of Irish cream and coffee. He took it from her in his mitt-like hands with a mischievous grin. The clock had not yet struck noon. She thought what the hell. Dosing her own cup of the fragrant, steaming brew she looked at him with a raised brow. She saw the sun shining in his full head of blond hair through the large windows, sparkling in his red beard. It brought back memories of him as a small boy getting up to all kinds of trouble. He’d been naturally sweet but highly mischievous.

"Hey, where’s Mister Missionary?" Jack asked, speaking from the side of his mouth. He looked around with interest. His blue eyes twinkled. Charlie knew he was laughing on the inside at his double innuendo.

Charlie laughed softly with some chagrin. "Gone."

"Oh yeah? Did the curse get him or is he off huggin’ trees?" Jackson did not like her ex-boyfriend. Kyle was a much loved topic of derision amongst the family. As a matter of fact none of her male kin liked the man. Charlie didn’t like him much anymore either.

"Huggin’ trees...” She turned her gaze to a point on the far wall. "He was pissed about me buying the truck. He said I bought myself an environment ruining, gas guzzling, redneck piece of crap. Then he got all wound up on the fact that I don’t recycle. I’m not Eco-friendly enough with my packing materials, blah, blah, blah. He took off for South America to teach English, and I was glad to see him go. I’m hoping he contracts a healthy dose of Malaria and croaks”, more than a hint of biting sarcasm laced her voice.

"Awe, don’t hold it in. Tell me how you really feel..." He swatted her on the shoulder with a good natured laugh. "You kick his butt out or did he leave ya?"

It doesn’t really matter. Charlie thought to herself. Whatever I say will be out on the family grapevine within moments after he leaves.

"Packed his crap and kicked him to the curb. Murphy didn’t like him anyway”.

“The guy was a little weenie, you’re better off without him.”

"I know you’re not here just to drink my booze, so what’s up?” She leveled a no-nonsense look his way.

Jack chuckled. "Never could put you on for long Chuck."

She waited patiently; this was one man who liked to tell it like a story, even if it was about a trip to the corner store. She perched on the arm of the overstuffed leather sofa to sip coffee. Charlie knew instinctively that the big man was nervous. Hmm, this ought to be good. He’s awful twitchy.

"Umm, maybe better I show you. Hang on.” He ran out the front door to his truck.

Charlie watched him through the window from her position on the couch.

He returned with an olive green file folder and tossed it down on the coffee table. She sipped her coffee and looked him in the eye as if to say Go on, you got my attention.

Jack chuckled. He was nervous, avoiding eye contact. She reached for the folder.

Sucking in a steadying breath, Jackson took the folder and opened it. A slim pile of eight by ten photos slid onto the tables’ glossy surface. Charlie’s clear blue gaze took in the image in the first photo. It was a straight-on view of what appeared to be a rustically elegant, rambling log structure.

Charlie picked the photo off the top of the pile and examined it. The image was a cabin, but on a much grander scale than the average single-family dwelling. She supposed it would be called a Lodge if a person were to be particular. “Well?”

Jack answered her with another photo, this one a close-up of massive double doors with some kind of ornate metal strapping. The area around the entry constructed of logs and large field stone. It was to her eyes quite rustic, beautiful. Another photo replaced the one in front of her.

"Here is the clincher for me," he whispered, pointing at the long angle shot of the building, barns and a sizable stretch of wood line in the distance.

"What is it Jackson?”

"It’s an abandoned resort property up north, town called Shadow Lake”, he replied.

"Hmm. It’s very pretty. Looks like it could use some elbow grease and a good handy man. I like the front doors". Charlie made eye contact and waited for him to answer the unspoken question hanging in the air. Why are you showing me this? Intuition had already told her the answer, but she wanted to hear him speak it.

Jack shifted and leaned a little closer. "I want to buy it.” He paused, cleared his throat.

“I mean I want us to buy it. The place sits on two hundred and fifty acres. You can see the structure of the main building is in pretty good shape. It’s been empty for thirty or forty years… furnished. If the critters haven’t gotten in too bad..."

"Okay, what are you planning to do with it?"

"I, well, me and Cole want to restore it as a family resort and do guided hunting in the fall and winter. There should be a good spot to put in campsites and the paperwork shows twenty cabin units on the southeast section of the property. They kind of wrap the lake in a half moon. Those could be rented by the week or weekend, year round for tourists. Snowmobile enthusiasts, hunters, etc. etc. There is also the lake that could be stocked with sport fish depending on lake temperatures and water pH, scientific stuff." He paused for a big breath and looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"Now, it’s furnished but everything has got to be at least fifty years old or older. Nineteen fifty’s type stuff at best and the equipment is all that old, maybe way older, the mechanical stuff anyway. It was shut down after the owner passed away and the family just let it sit. Locked it up, walked away. It’s cheap.” He continued, scratching the back of his neck. "The people didn’t need the income from the resort and that was back when people came to Michigan for a couple of months in the summer. They kept it as a vacation home until the mid-seventies but it’s been closed up since then.”

"You want me to invest? Wait, why is it cheap?” Charlie rifled through the stack of real-estate fliers looking for the brochure.

"It’s supposed to be haunted….” Jackson snagged the photos and straightened the pile. "Well, you do have that nest egg and I hear you have the old lady’s farm on the market. We have some of our own money but it won’t be enough. Not really invest; we want you there helping to run it all, at least in the summer."

"Have you been to see it?” Charlie stretched, releasing some tension, something about the situation made her uneasy. Haunted hunting lodge, indeed. She could tell he had been prepared for these questions.

"No, we were waiting to see if you would be willing to go with us and have a look."

"When?” It’s not like I have any plans for that money… It had been left to her unexpectedly when her last client passed away. The woman had died childless and given everything to Charlie, who had been Mathilda Rothchilde’s only family in the last years of her life. Charlie had not asked for or wanted it, but it was what it was. She also hadn’t known her cousins were aware of the Nest Egg. Family grape vine. “Where is Shadow Lake?” Charlie asked, holding up her hand in the way all Michigan lifers explain where in the state they live.

Jackson held out his own hand symbolizing the Michigan mitten shape and pointed with his other hand to a spot between his ring finger and middle finger at the first knuckle lines. “Think above Gaylord, below Petoskey but on the east side of Interstate 75. Kind of near the Pigeon River State Forest Area.”

“That about a three and a half hour drive?” she asked.

"Cole thinks closer to four hours on the road but he drives like an old woman. We want to leave tomorrow morning, ’bout nine a.m. Have a look around and meet the realtor at four o’clock."

Sneaky little buggers.

Jackson grimaced at her. Charlie knew then that she must be broadcasting her thoughts. She picked the stack of photos up looking at each again. The last two were stuck together; she had missed one.

In the left hand side of the landscape stood a large stone structure. The photo’s grainy quality made it hard to make out, but Charlie was sure she was looking at a medieval stone tower.

Charlie had the distinct feeling she had been in that place before. Déjà-vu swept through her raising every hair on her body. She sank boneless into a vision. Fighting disorientation she told herself, get your shit together Bitch, this isn’t your first rodeo. Girding her mental facilities and that obscure part of the brain that functions separate from the rest during a vision she started cataloging what her eyes were seeing.

Dressed in cold weather clothes and sturdy boots, she stood on the hill adjacent to the hulking stone tower. A small primal voice way back in her subconscious whispered Power. She was momentarily giddy, rolling, wallowing in the limitless well boiling in the caldera of her soul.

Each breath dragged hard, as though she had just run a marathon. She fought down the feeling of dire urgency that churned her guts. Iron gray storm clouds scudded across the turbulent fall sky. The wind blew with gale force, her hair streamed away from her face whipping out behind her like a tawny flag. She raised her arms, humming and called down the lightning. It struck a short distance away from her; the fog of brimstone burned her eyes and nostrils. Too close…take your time. A knowing smile slid across her face.

She drew in another shaky, gasping breath, focused and lightning struck the form of a man who was running from a large dark wolf. The explosion was blinding. Thunder rolled over her, leaving behind a deep, black rage, engulfing her in a hell storm of fury. She had just used her gift to kill a fellow human. Charlie knew with crystal certainty that this wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last. The gentle portion of the soul inside her fluttered and quivered. The knowledge that her future self was capable of killing without the slightest hesitation weighed heavy on her.

Head spinning, she came to with Murphy whining low in his throat, licking her face with his very large tongue. Jackson crouched next to her, white faced. Charlie lay on the couch and concentrated on breathing. The disorientation started to fade with the deep breathing and relaxation techniques she had practiced since childhood.

Visions always left her weak in the knees. The sulfur smell of brimstone hung in her nose for minutes after.

“I’ve seen my Mom go off like that Chuck, but... Jesus, your fingertips were glowing blue! Your eyes turned black, you looked like you were gonna kill someone.” Jackson was shaken. “I don’t ever want to see your face like that again Cuz. If looks could kill we’d all be dead.”

Charlie met his gaze; “I did kill somebody, at that resort, by the stone tower in that picture”. Lurching into a sitting position, she hung her head between her knees for a few seconds.

“Pick me up in the morning, I’m going with you.” She said in a quiet, tired voice.

Jack nodded his affirmative and patted her awkwardly on the head. Charlie could feel the excitement rolling off him in waves. He was doing his best to appear calm and solemn after her episode but he was failing miserably. If she hadn't felt so drained she would have been laughing at him.

He stood with his hands in his pockets looking lost. Charlie nodded to him. It’s alright. You can leave me.

Jackson left her with his cell phone pressed to his ear and an absent-minded wave. He was having an animated conversation with whom she believed to be their cousin Cole.

Charlie fell into a doze, waking when Rain came home in the early evening. The girl stood looking at her mother with a solemn expression.

"You look like crap, Mom" Rain said. "What happened to you?"

Charlie smiled sleepily at her daughter and shoved the file folder across the table at her. The expression in Rain’s eyes so much like her father’s struck Charlie hard. She sighed, fighting the urge to give in to the stream of ever painful memories that threatened to drag her down. "Take a look for yourself".

The girl folded her long frame into a chair kitty corner to the couch and began to look at photos. She paused over the shot that triggered her mother’s vision and simply said "Oh” with a shrewd look on her young face.

Charlie nodded a little and shifted her position to relieve the stiffness in her legs.

"It was a whopper."

"I can feel it! The static coming off this thing is major.” Rain was big eyed. "You’re aura is all funky too".

"I’m going to that place tomorrow with Jack and Cole.” Eyes closed, she reclined into the couch’s plush cushion, bones aching with exhaustion.

"Gran-pop said we are going to the County Farmers Co-op Picnic tomorrow and I get to drive the 57’ Chevy!” Charlie cracked an eye and looked at Rain, who was beaming with excitement.

"We found Clara’s wicker picnic basket and we made his super secret chili recipe. It’s a chili cook off too and Gran-pop says he always wins."

"Sounds great. That’ll be a good time.” Charlie sighed; almost wishing she could go to the Co-op picnic instead of going to Shadow Lake and confronting her vision. "What time are you leaving?"

"He’s picking me up around ten-thirty so we can get the best table. He likes the one right next to the judges’ so they have to smell his aroma all morning before they judge." Rain dropped the folder down on the coffee table with a loud smack and looked at her mother. "So what’s this all about?"

Charlie paused a second to gather her thoughts. "Jackson and Cole want me to go with them to take a look at this property. If it’s as good as they think they want me to invest my nest egg. The boys want to turn it into one of those hunting lodges where people pay big bucks to have a guided hunt".

"Oh, I know some people who have gone on hunts like that for elk and stuff out west. Do you think it will work?” Rain asked, not looking at her mother while she separated and arranged all the photos. She grouped them by location and subject. She placed her index finger in the center of the tower shot. Making eye contact with Charlie, she smiled.

“Pumpkin, I don’t know but I have a feeling that place is where I am supposed to be come spring.” Her voice not much above a whisper.

Rain looked thoughtful and replied "Yeah, me too."

Charlie was curled on the couch in a boneless heap watching the sun sink into the horizon. Rain was in the kitchen making dinner. Charlie had a nagging little feeling in the back of her mind. The epiphany came to her in a pulse of pure psychic energy that crackled behind her ears. She reached out with her other senses and could clearly feel her Mother Corrine, Aunt Natalie and her Sister Lily’s mental signatures traveling closer.

"Grandma’s turning down our road!" She hollered jumping up off the couch with renewed vigor.

Charlie ran to her office and slammed the door closed. Rain could be heard frantically straightening the pots and pans hanging from the rack in the kitchen. A little task Grandma Corinne relished making a fuss of on impromptu visits.

Charlie paused by the front door and went still. "Aunt Natalie and Lily are with her."

"Mom, you seriously freak me out! I wish you would just keep that crap to yourself sometimes!” shouted Rain without pause in her frantic action in the kitchen. Charlie could hear the dishes being flung into the dishwasher helter-skelter. My mother is such a damn freak!

"You better watch that language young lady! Don’t break any thing. We’ve got a couple of minutes!" Her mother’s voice sounded muffled because of her head down, bottom up position. Shoes and boots arranged into a tight, neat line she progressed to a pile of books on the bottom step of the stairs. Lacking a convenient place to stash them, she sprinted to her office and tossed them in. Slamming the door behind the books, she turned to greet her guests.

Three dark haired women stood in her doorway. The elder two women were tall, statuesque and beautiful. The younger woman, Charlie’s younger sister Lily, equally beautiful but shorter with luminous green eyes.

Charlie smiled like a kid who’d just gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Her Mother snickered a little. Aunt Nat stepped out from behind Lily and Corrine. She wiped her feet on the mat and made her way to Charlie. Planting a kiss on her forehead, she sat in a chair and crossed her long legs.

"We’re here!" Corrine warbled. Lily rolled her eyes from behind Corrine’s back. Eyes in the back of her head, the tall woman whirled around and swatted her youngest daughter lightly on the shoulder. "Stop that! Little Brat..."

Lily laughed and ducked around her mother. "So, here we are."

Charlie shrugged her shoulders. She stood taking in her Mother’s exotic outfit. Corrine was ablaze with autumnal color from the shoes on her feet to the scarf tied around her neck. Seeing her daughter’s perusal, she spun a pirouette causing the multi layered skirts to float in a jagged bell around her slim, youthful legs. Corrine sashayed, swaying her hips side to side in an energetic dance, her beaded jewelry jangled and chimed with each movement.

“It’s a little early for Halloween…”

Corrine made a face and shrugged dramatically. “Well, ya know. Little color never hurts…”

Charlie and her sister Lily looked at each other and made identical eye rolls. Eleven years separated them in age. Charlie was tawny and fair where Lily was dark, her American Indian heritage more apparent. Lily was slightly taller, finer boned, and Charlie, shorter and more athletic.

Corrine stopped her impromptu dance and latched onto Rain, "Kiss your Granny, Doll". She embraced her granddaughter and turned her head to meet Charlie’s eyes.

“We brought drinks and chocolate." She intoned with an arched eyebrow. She produced a bottle of wine from a fold in her skirt.

"Yes, so tell us about this vision…" said Nat from her chair Soto voiced.

Charlie shrugged with a resigned sigh and dashed into the kitchen for wine glasses. Returning with a mix matched set of crystal stemware; she found them settled on the rear patio. The third sister arrived while Charlie was frantically wiping the wine glasses free of any specs of dust. Susanna waggled her fingers at Charlie in friendly greeting and disappeared out the sliding glass door to join her sisters on the outdoor deck.

Charlie followed her outdoors musing about how the sisters three always seemed to know when and where they were needed.

"Aunt Sue!" laughed Charlie as she sat down the tray of glasses. "Fancy seeing you here".

Susanna smiled, laughed and shrugged, "I was driving by your road and thought I should stop in. So, what’s this I hear about a vision?"

Charlie pulled up an extra chair and sat. She thought for a minute and decided to show the group of women the real estate folder Susanna's son Jackson had left earlier that day. The women passed it around until Nat stopped on the picture of the stone building.

"This was the trigger. I can feel it vibrating. Don’t touch it Sues!” Natalie, who’s magical arsenal sported the ability to sense items with inherent power or in this case the leftover residue of it triggering Charlie’s vision. Natalie passed the photo pointedly out of her lighter haired sisters’ reaching grasp to Corrine on the other side. Susanna and Charlie shared some of the same extra senses. If it triggered a vision for Charlie, it might well do the same for Aunt Susanna.

Susanna snorted good naturedly at her sister Natalie and craned over Corrine’s arm to get a look at the photo.

"Of course, I knew something was going on the second it started. Felt it right in my bones! I had to sit down. This kid was so far gone I couldn’t reach her no matter how hard I tried." Corrine gushed, hand clasped to her chest. "She came out of it and I knew she was alright so we waited til’ I got some supper made to come over."

"I felt it too. That was some pretty intense energy you were broadcasting Charlie-Girl." Nat leaned back in her chair and sipped from her glass.

"Let’s start with the boys’ plans for this dilapidated, old hotel, Lil’s news and then move on to my little trip to outer space." Charlie made eye contact with every woman sitting on the patio in the twilight.

Natalie raised her wineglass. “Here’s to a successful new enterprise!” She turned knowing eyes on Charlie and smiled. Charlie tipped her chin and spread the photos out on the table. She passed the basic property listing around to each woman. They sat perusing the info sheets for a long minute. Rain gave up on the gathering and said her good nights. She kissed each of the women; aunt, great aunts, mother and her grandmother then slipped back inside the house, only stopping in the kitchen to make a plate. Charlie followed her progress through the house until the girl settled into her bedroom on the second floor.

Charlie turned back to the women sitting around her ratty old patio table. She opened her extra senses and let herself soak in the swirl of latent power, little thoughts and emotions floating in the air. Love, anxiety, contentment, friendship, joy in the familiarity of family all swirled into the mix. The air fairly zinged with energy from having so many power rich beings in one space. She narrowed in on the anxiety and pin pointed Lily. The younger woman’s anxiety was the cause of the dark circles under her eyes.

“Lily, tell us about the dreams”, said Charlie, waving her wineglass for the rest to be silent.

The murmuring fell off until every gaze settled on Lily. She squirmed a little in her chair and shot Charlie a no-thank-you-very-much. Charlie smiled and thumbed her nose at her younger sister. It’s important…

Not really, Lily answered back over their silvery telepathic link.

Just get on with it Lily.

Sometimes, I really hate it that you can get into my head. Lily grumbled through the link.

Get over it Princess, I do it for the love…. Charlie chuckled out loud.

Witch.

Since when, little sister, has that been a crime in this family?

Charlie was still laughing when Corinne snapped her fingers. “If you are both done sniping at one another we’d like to hear what needs said”.

“Eavesdropper!” Charlie and her sister chorused.

Corrine grinned a little and made go on motions to her youngest child.

“Well, I’ve been having these dreams…” Lily faltered, unsure of how to go on.

Aunt Nat leaned forward grasping Lily’s forearm. “Just spit it out, that’s easiest”.

“Way to put me on the spot Chuck!” Lily’s usual smiling countenance was storm cloud dark.

Charlie shrugged, sipped at her wine and whipped a foil wrapped chocolate at her younger sister. She settled back in her chair again and propped her booted feet on the edge of the table. Corrine shot her an irritated glance but held her tongue. Charlie’s eyes danced merrily in the candle light. Ever the rebel….Your sister never gave me an ounce of trouble….

Charlie snorted in to her wine glass. It’s my damn table and settled her piercing blue gaze on her younger sister.

“Okay, so, I’ve been having these really strange dreams, nightmares actually”.

There was a small chorus of Mmmhmm’s all around the table.

“I’m in a building; it’s like an abandoned hotel or dormitory, something where there are all these rooms. It started out that I was alone and scared. I’m running from something. When I’m running and it’s close, it’s just a dark shadow that washes like a wave over everything it passes. It leaves everything dark gray.” Lily paused gulping at her wine.

“Then over like, a month, I’m having more and more people added. They’re just there, I’ll go into a room and there they are. Mostly it’s family members, all of us. We’re getting ready to fight but I’m not sure what it is and I always feel like, this panicky pain in my chest. I know something is coming and when the wave comes we all run for the top of the building. It’s made of glass up there, like a greenhouse but the old kind with the real glass, not plastic. Glass and metal".

“The thing is we are the only people. Everyone else is just gone. Then I have the tornado dream right after that one or sometimes I’m staring out a window watching the tornado come right at me and before it hits it swerves and disappears.” Lily seemed to wake up at the end of her narrative, her eyes coming back into focus.

Corinne reached over and touched Lily’s shoulder, “That all of it?”

Charlie studied her sisters’ eyes for a moment and said, “I think there’s more”.

Lily nodded her head and went on. “Last night, I dreamt I was walking in that section of the College Preserve, ya know, out behind the back forty at Mom and Nat’s?” She heaved a sigh. “Out there with all the great big oak trees? That section right after you pass the part on the trail where the swamp is on both sides and it feels like you’re walking on a bridge but it’s dirt under your feet.” She looked around to see if they were with her on that trail. Charlie could see it in her mind’s eye and knew her Mother and Aunt Nat were as well. She knew that Susannah who lived alone had never been on this particular piece of land.

Charlie could feel Susannah’s questing touch in her mind and pushed the image of the path Lily was describing to the forefront for easier access and left her thoughts wide open.

“So, I’m walking and it’s getting dark. It’s that time of day that is half-light, half dark. Dusk. I hear something behind me so I turn around and there is this woman. I remember thinking that I should be scared shitless and I wasn’t. She’s about my height but I realize that’s because she’s floating about three inches above the ground. I’m starting to get a little scared, my heart is beating fast and I’m in a cold sweat. I want to run and I can’t. I’m frozen. She stops about six feet from me and starts talking.” She took another drink of wine and Nat reached to refill her glass.

“Keep talking before you lose it.”

“Yeah, umm, she says she’s my Great, Great, and Great Grandmother. I might have missed some greats but that’s what she said. She’s beautiful, long light colored hair, red but mixed shades like fall leaves and wheat fields. She’s Irish, she sounds it anyway and her eyes are the same as Charlie’s. Dark, dark blue. She says that she’s the start of the gift. The well our power springs from. Something like that and we need to heed her warning.” Lily’s eyes were unfocused again as though she were reliving the dream.

“She said, we need to find a safe haven, we are facing danger from our cell phones and modern towers. We should hark to the old ways and band together or we are surely doomed. We’re to throw our cell phones in the lake. Our phones are going to kill us.” Lily shook her head a little and looked around big eyed. “I can’t remember the rest…”

Lily sighed with frustration. “And what does hark mean anyway?” she asked.

“It means to look back, listen to a previous point in a story. In this instance, I think she means to learn to do without technology. She said the old ways”. Natalie said staring off in to the night, thinking hard. “Her name is Elisabeth McDonald”.

“How do you know her name?” asked Corinne, eyes bright with interest.

“Well, she’s an ancestress, she told Lily that much. When I did the family genealogy for Mother’s side of our family tree there are a whole string of Elisabeth McDonald’s back there. The records say they all pretty much had reddish or black hair”.

“And something else, they didn’t take the husbands surname either. That changed when they immigrated to America.” Nat paused in her narrative and took a swallow of wine.

“They lived near the area called the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland. That’s right close to a lot of mystical druidy type places.”

“Huh. Who would have thought our ancestors came from some mysterious background?” Corrine mused while toying with the stem ware she held loose between thumb and forefinger. Charlie watched the light from the cluster of candles burning in the center of the table twinkling amongst the diamond rings on her mother’s fingers.

“I have often wondered if our little abilities aren’t because we have some Druid High Priestess in our background. If I ever see her, I’m going to ask!” Natalie mused.

Susannah held up her hand, calling attention to herself. Charlie shot Corrine a warning look and cocked an eyebrow at her mother who as the youngest of the sisters was prone to interrupting and steering the conversation to whatever topic held her attention. Let her talk…

“Gram told me a few stories when I was young. I scoffed it off as ancient history at the time but the older I get the more I wished I had taken her seriously because our own mother would never breathe a word about any of this.”

Every head at the table nodded.

“Gram wanted me to learn all the family lore, as she called it and I was fifteen. I had no interest in any of it. She said that her Mother told her the stories and on down the line it should go. Our Aunt Kathleen is the one we need to get the family history from girls. Gram passed it all to her when Kathleen married. She called it passing the book. I think it’s high time she passed the book to us.” Susannah sighed and touched the ring on her index finger. “Anyway, Gram told me that the gift does come down through the female line and that it is only inherited by female children. I don’t believe this to be true. I have seen both of my boy’s use the gift in different ways.”

Natalie, who also gave birth to two male children, nodded her head. “Cole is quite powerful, maybe as powerful as Charlie or you Susannah. I agree.”

Corrine cleared her throat. “What else did she tell you?”

“Well, it was a long time ago and it’s hard to recall nearly forty years later. She also said that our men die young but I don’t remember her reasoning on that one. I can remember asking her if that was true why Grandpa died when he was fifty years old. She said it was because she didn’t love him, not really. I can remember thinking she was horrible for that, marrying a man she didn’t really love, but now I think she was smart. After losing the love of my life and watching the rest of you struggle through it.” Susannah took a sip of wine and sighed deeply.

“She told me practice your magic but don’t get caught by your mother, she doesn’t understand. So much wasted talent in that woman. I remember that sentence as clear as this morning because I knew by that age that our mother was formidable but she refused to acknowledge her gifts. I once caught her out behind the barn blasting that old tractor of Dad’s with energy ball after energy ball. She caught me watching her and the only thing she said was; don’t ever tell your sisters!”

“I remember the money spell she put in that old canning jar she left on the back steps the summer I turned twelve….Sneaky witch!” laughed Natalie.

“Another thing she tried to tell me was that there is supposed to be 3 sisters to each generation, the Sisters Three. She said three in a generation until there are two. It was like a prophecy or something. I can’t remember what she said about that. I bet Kathleen would know.”

Charlie and Lily made eye contact. Until there were two?

Sounds like we need to visit Aunt Kathleen and pretty quick. Charlie made quick eye contact with her Aunt Susanna.

Susanna, ever the shrewd one gave a nearly imperceptible nod. Over the weekend…This is for you and me to do together. No Lily and neither of my sisters.

Charlie nodded back the affirmative and turned her attention to her mother Corrine.

“Alright, now about this vision Doll”. Corrine touched her index finger to Charlie’s temple.

It was Charlie’s turn to sigh. She took a long pause before speaking. “I was playing with lightning… Somebody got dead. I was in a bad way. I’ve never been angry like that. Until now, I never thought I was capable of taking another person’s life”.

“Who?” asked Natalie. The group around the table had grown still and quiet.

Corinne studied her daughter’s face in the candlelight. She deftly blocked her mother’s prying mental touch. Charlie arched an eyebrow and shrugged.

“It might not be relevant and I don’t really feel like talking about it. Seeing myself in that light is a little unsettling. It’s still too fresh.”

“So it’s someone we know. Okay, I won’t push but I am sure all the way to my toes that it’s relevant.” The look on Corinne’s face told everyone present that she was not going to let it go that easy. Charlie knew her mother would bide her time. The vision would come up again and soon if Corinne had her way. To further inhibit her mother’s and Susanna’s prying Charlie left her mental wall in place.

“I will say this; I felt justified at the time. The other thing, I haven’t pulled lightning since I was Rain’s age. I didn’t even know I could even do it anymore”. Charlie’s face was stark. What she’d said hadn’t been true. She had pulled lightening in a desperate attempt to start Nathaniel’s heart that long ago day Rain’s father had drowned in the lake and again attempting to take her own life in abject misery.