The Witch's Child - ROBERT ELDON

The piece below was entered into a flash-fiction competition in a magazine. The competition involved using an ‘ideas square’ to generate the characters and the situation. The entry didn’t win or get placed, but you might enjoy it anyway.

From the square:-

Character One: A witch Trait: Gentle
Character Two: A child Trait: Talkative
Conflict: Suffering a Loss
Location: Cave
Object: Sealed Envelope
Word Length: Max – 500 words

A grey-haired woman is standing in the kitchen of her cottage, when there’s a knock on the door.

She opens the door to find a man and a boy standing there.

‘You’ll have been expecting us,’ the man says.  
He hands the woman a manila envelope. ‘I think this covers everything,’ he says. He pauses, looks again at the child, ‘‘I hope we’re making the right decision’ he says, then walks away.

The boy runs into the cottage.  ‘They told me you lived in a cave. But this isn’t a cave, it’s just a house.’

‘Oh, there’s a cave right enough.’

I's it all dark and damp and spooky? Has it got bats? Can I see it? Can I see it now?’

‘You get into it through the cellar, it runs right back into the hillside. And it’s not spooky, there’s even electric light. Come on then, if you can’t wait, I’ll show you now.’

Moving through the house, through the cellar, and along a short passage, they reach an iron-bound wooden door. The woman unlocks the door and they enter. She switches on the lights.

‘Why is the gate locked, why are there iron bars? Is it to keep your victims in?’ He pauses, ‘Are you going to keep me a prisoner in this cave?’

’Why would I do that?’

‘Because you’re a witch. They told me you were a witch. Are you, really??’

‘People say so.’

 She sighs and sits down on an old chair and begins to open the sealed manila envelope.

‘I need to talk to you, child,’ she says.

‘My Mam told me she was a witch’s child. Dad would shout and tell her not to talk nonsense. He’d get really angry.’

The woman looks sad, ‘He never liked the old ways, that’s why he took your Mam away to the city, why you’ve never seen me before. Yes, your Mam was a witch’s child. Now, do you know who I am?’

‘Yes, you’re Mam’s Mam, my grandmother.’

‘Now, do you know what’s in this envelope?’

 ‘Is it a treasure map? Will we voyage to foreign lands and find gold and jewels?’

‘These are the papers that say you are to live with me, that I am to look after you, that no-one can take you away from me.’

‘I’m going to live here, in this house? Does that mean I’ll be a witch’s child too?’

‘I suppose you will.  Is that what you want?’

‘I want to have Mam back, to go home again. But the man said Mam and Dad are gone and I’ll never see them again. He said Mam will never come back.’

‘No, child, she won’t…….’

‘Can’t you bring her back? You’re a witch, don’t you have a spell?’

‘Not for that, child, not for that….’

‘What do you have spells for then?’

‘I can stop us being lonely, child, I can make us both laugh again.’

(486 words)