Instructions In The Cauldron. Serena Longhi Gelati

and she buys it, if she needs basil she goes to Tesco and gets it. She can’t wait for the plant to grow, to pick it up, dry it and then wait as long as it is needed to macerate and give an herbal oil. I’m her mother, I know my Rebecca! I would have wasted my time showing all these things to her. But I really think she can do that all, since she saw me do it.”

      I wasn’t as sure as her about that.

      I wished I could know what she thought about me, if she really believed I would be able to work with herbs and stones. Maybe in the bottom of her heart she had already understood she could hand on  her knowledge just to Sarah. I preferred on my part to avoid certain subjects, fearing I wouldn’t match up, I preferred hiding myself and not believing in those things.

      IV. Christmas with Major Arcana

      It was a cold Wednesday at the end of November,  we were going to the volley club after school, as usual. We didn’t expect to meet our parents when we went out.

      “What are you doing here?”, we asked them at the same time.

      “Has anything happened?”

      “No volleyball tonight girls, we are going home, dad and I have to talk to you.”

      That was something absolutely new. It could just mean something bad, but they looked relaxed and smiling instead.

      “Are our grandparents well?”

      “Of course, Sarah. Who’s better than them?!”, our dad stated. “All day long in the sun and on the edge of the swimming pool.

      There are still twenty degrees down there in November, can you fancy that? That’s wonderful.”

      “And what about granny?”, I asked agitated.

      “She is ok as well, my dear, don’t worry. Nothing serious has happened.”

      “So why did you come and see us to talk?”

      “Let’s go home now, Anne, we’ll have a good tea all together and then we’ll tell you the news.”

      “Are you pregnant?”

      “No, Sarah, I’m not pregnant. You two are enough for me!”

      Mum might have been pregnant actually, there would have been nothing wrong, but she had always been emphatic about the fact that her supply of energy and patience had come to an end after two twins.

      When we got home and we were sitting all together around the table, as we had hardly ever  done, we discovered what the news was: we were going to move to Sonning Common.

      “Where the hell is Sonning Common? And above all, why are we moving there? We’re at our last year at school. How can you think of taking us away?”, I burst out. I flew into a rage, I didn’t want to go anywhere. I liked Newbury, we were born there and we had all our school mates there. Moving away was something absurd!

      “Sonning Common is north of Reading, near Henley-on-Thames, we’ll be just thirty minutes far from your granny’s house!”

      “Yes, but why? We’re so well here in Newbury”, I went on astounded.

      “Your mother and I are going to open a bio-veg café. It’s a great opportunity. Don’t worry about school, you are ending the year here and you’ re starting college there.”

      “So everything is already fixed…”

      “Yes, Anne, everything is fixed. Mum has got two more good news to give you.”

      “Ok, fire away…it can’t be worse than that!”

      “The good news is I spoke with Stella about our move, you see, I didn’t know how to face up to the question with you, so I asked her for advice too…Well, you see, she decided they are coming too! Isn’t that wonderful? She is still under medical supervision and she needs to be looked after at a good hospital, the one in Reading is surely one of the best in the whole Berkshire. What’s more, it’s just twenty minutes far from London by train and her parents live there…So, we’re going there all together. Are you excited, girls?”

      The fact that Alison was coming too, was surely the best side of the situation. The three of us had been always very close; she was able to counterbalance my relationship with Sarah: she was balanced, methodical but at the same time sweet and sensitive.

      Even if she had grown up according to hippie/new age ideals, she looked absolutely ordinary.

      However, I wasn’t quite persuaded about moving house.

      “And what is the other news, mum?”

      “They’re coming to spend Christmas Eve with us at granny’s! Stella wants to meet her. Don’t you think that’s a great idea?”

      “Luckily old Mal will be there, otherwise I would be the only man among wonderful, but absolutely crazy, women”, our dad claimed.

      He wasn’t wrong at all, actually.

      That was certainly one of the funniest Christmas in our life.

      In the afternoon we helped Granny to make Christmas pudding, stirring and making wishes, according to our family’s tradition, while she told me how much fun she had had with Mal at the gym opening. She had even danced latin-american music and played bingo till midnight. Mum had laid the table with traditional red and golden colours, putting creakers on every dish. Dad and Mal were instead trying to make the fire brighter in the fireplace, using Yule’s log.

      At exactly 6 pm Alison and Stella arrived with a Christmas poinsettia and a bottle of rosé.

      “I’m very pleased to meet you, Susan. I’ve heard so much about you”, Stella told her with a hug.

      “The pleasure is mine, dear.”

      “Sarah has told Alison about the candles…I was really moved, thanks a lot! You’re a wiccan, aren’t you?”

      She had the bad habit of making people lots of questions. Alison said her mother had no philtre between her mouth and her brain. She was pleasant, always smiling and what’s more she could listen to people, just like granny.

      “No, darling, I’m not. I know the Wicca religion very well, I’ve spent my first years in Glastonbury…”

      “That’s where your strange accent comes from! That’s great. But can I ask you, why do you live here now?”

      “My husband inherited this cottage and I agreed to leave the “Apples island”, I haven’t been there for so many years…”

      “This house has got a certain energy in fact, it looks as if we are in a different reality…” Stella was looking around herself, like little girls before dolls houses.

      “That’s strange, Anne said the same things some years ago!”

      “I’ve been to Glastonbury too, soon after they had diagnosed my breast cancer…I needed to rediscover myself. A spent a whole afternoon sitting at Chalice Well, I stared at the well, the Tor, the water flowing: I was shuttered. I would never have expected such a difficult trial in my life. I do yoga, I’m master Reiki and crystal- therapist, I followed meditation courses in India when I was younger…I blame London air, it’s so polluted. I don’t know…Oh, I’m sorry, I’m talking freely about my problems…That’s because you make me feel really at ease, Susan.”

      “I’m really pleased about that and you don’t have to apologize at all”, my granny comforted her. “You must be happy you’re here now. Everything has come to an end; enjoy every moment of your life with your wonderful daughter and with your friends’ fondness. Don’t blame London air, that’s true, it’s polluted, but unfortunately some illnesses happen also if you live on top of a mountain! One of my cousins was vegetarian, she didn’t smoke, she walked a lot and she lived in the South, near the sea; she fell ill all the same.”

      “I’ve learnt a lot from this experience”, Stella went on. “It made me understand how frail we are. My