Angelina

Collins and I returned home later to hear the rest of the story of how grandmother met a witch in Japan.

Eric was no longer there. Grandmother said he left angrily.

There was another urgent matter to listen to anyway, so I let it slide and focused on my grandmother's story.

She told us about it — how she went looking for witches and how she failed to find one everywhere she turned.

After my grandfather died, she found out she was pregnant and started having nightmares. So she started asking around for help. She was scared to ask in the country, too. No one would admit they were a human with dark magic and expect people to clap and not lynch them.

Grandma said she traveled to Japan because she had heard some people talking about a witch. She told Collins and me about her journey and how she went round and round before she found the man. She didn't finish the story that night because she was tired and needed to sleep.

But she continued the next day and told us everything about Japan and the witch.

He was a sixty-nine-year-old man. He lived in a small town and had a wife, who could be a witch, too, but the man didn't say. Grandma spent two weeks with him while the man tried to cast a spell on her, but he didn’t succeed after many attempts.

The man offered an explanation: the spell had a duration. Grandmother should come back after ten years.

By the time my grandmother wanted to go back, my mother was already nine years old. So she went back with my mother.

The Japanese witch tried again and failed.

Grandmother was sitting on her bed and looking at the window all the time she was talking. "So permit me to say I didn't want to try again after that. But I still went again after another ten years. Your mother was nineteen by then, going twenty. So I went to Japan, spent two weeks there, and this man couldn't undo the spell. I was there, terrified. He did all he could, made sacrifices with his blood, my blood. I would lay down, and he would say his incantations…." She stopped and looked at Collins, who sat on the floor beside grandmother, listening attentively. "We couldn't undo the spell again and again."

"So, a witch can't undo it," I asked.

"A witch can," my grandmother said. "But we don't know when he will be able to. It could be the next hundred years or the next five years. We won't know."

"So, it's a matter of knowing when the spell could be broken," I asked.

"Yes, exactly. The witch who cast the spell was angry at your grandfather and me. She could have made it a hundred years long or till when I died. She's the only one that could tell."

“But who is this witch?” I asked.

“It's better you don't know. She's dead now.”

I walked around with this new revelation throughout the day and the few days that followed. I pondered on the possibility of finding a solution. There were many probabilities. What if the spell could only be broken by the one who created it? What if the man in Japan died, or he tried and failed at it again? We would spend another few weeks of our lives in a hopeless spell exercise.

But… what if he could break the spell this time? It had been thirty years since the last attempt, and I wasn't born by then. So there was a chance that we could get lucky.

I had hopes and fears, but I was willing to try.

Carefully, I got all the details I needed — the man’s famous alias, his town, and how to get there. We would be spending days in Japan, so I needed time to plan our trip.

I needed to put things in order with my boss — my soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend — so that even if I traveled, I would still have a job as his accountant when I returned.

So Collins and I agreed to move to California to plan things. Then we would go to Japan. Or, if we were lucky, we could find another witch in the city or the country. I had plans to ask around and even set an anonymous page on the internet to ask for recommendations.

I really would have wished to remain in our town. It was small, and people looked at my grandmother as an angel, the true daughter. It would have been a perfect place to hide, protect, and keep an eye on Collins. My mother and grandmother could somehow protect us.

But I needed to return to California, where I had a job. Collins needed to become a full hybrid like me. He should be able to become a human or a wolf whenever he wanted, which was the plan.

So the weekend after the new year, l left our town with Collins for California.

I had to make fake reports that Collins was missing so that no one would suspect what had happened. The sheriff promised to help in every way he could. He had my number and would reach out to ask questions that needed answers.

We left our town and I drove us to California.

My house was as quiet as I had left it, all the furniture arranged, the rooms in order. I knew Collins would often be hungry. So I left him at home and went out to get a few items. When I got back, I stocked the fridge with fresh meat. Later, I would try my best to fry the meat so he wouldn't often eat them raw. The smell of raw flesh can be so inviting to him, but it wouldn't taste as good as fried.

It was our first night at my house. I took him around the rooms, showed him the restroom and the garden, and promised that this would be our home until we could find a witch. We could be together, but not the way we wanted. But there was hope, and as fickle as it seemed, I still wanted to believe we could help him become a hybrid.

In the evening, around 8 pm, we sat outside, watching the stars and listening to Rihanna's song on my phone.

I spoke while he listened.

"Do you know we used to sit after school while we ate sushi? You and me. The mountain was our refuge. We would sit and watch."

I was a wolf, too, and I understood what it meant when he stamped his left foot on the floor and wagged his tail. He was calling my attention, telling me he knew what I was talking about.

I smiled at him. Then I sighed when I remembered I would resume work the following day and explain to my boss why I have been avoiding him and refusing to answer the phone and the text.

Quietly, I feared for us. My boss would be angry when I told him it was over. He might fire me. He would want to know the other guy.

Collins placed his paws on my knee and stared into my eyes.

“I remember how it used to be,” he said with his mind.

"I missed that, too," I said, looking back at him. "When I first moved here, it was quite lonely for me. I wish you were here. I desperately wanted you to be here."

He growled slowly beside me and wagged his tail. He was here now.

"I know. You're the best part of my life. And I am glad you are here."

I shifted towards him and hugged him. There would be no calling at night just to hear his voice, to complain about how my day went. He was here in the flesh; we could talk and spend most of our evenings together. It was just me talking most of the time while he would listen and watch me.

"I wish we could find a witch easily here," I said. "But no one would admit they were a witch or knew who could have dark magic. And the cost of going to Japan was not part of the plan."

He stood all of a sudden and began to walk towards the road.

It was dangerous, so I got up and ran after him.

"Hey, Collins… Cole. Stop."

I needed to stop calling him Collins. It could bring all the attention, and people could start asking questions. Cole — I would call him Cole.

He wasn't stopping, though; I had to run after him to get his attention.

I ran faster and crossed him.

"What are you doing? You can't go around here without a leash." I was afraid that someone would see us and ask questions. It was too early to attract attention, too dangerous for him and me. History told us that humans were always afraid of humans and creatures with more power and abilities than them. We could be killed.

He walked past me.

"Wait, Cole..." I said in the most pleading voice I've got. "This is California. Going out like this can be dangerous for both of us."

He nodded but walked away even further for a few feet and then stopped. He looked back at me, nodding as if he were inviting me to join him. I didn't want to listen to what he had to say in his mind, but I had no choice. He wanted to walk with him whether I wanted to listen or not. He was a wolf, and he could speak to me without opening his mouth.

He wanted to go for a walk.

"No, we can't. It's not a good idea."

All I wanted to do tonight was to sit at home and watch a movie with him. But would it be a bad idea to go for a walk?

He began to walk away, and I ran to catch up with him. We began to stroll side by side in silence. He would look up at me, and I would look at him, then smile as if he had both said something funny. These were the things Collins would make you do if you were with him. When we were in high school, he wouldn't want me to feel bad, moody, or sad about trivial things like losing a debate. So he would make me laugh by holding my hand, compelling me to dance, or swirling me around in circles.

"You really know what I wanted tonight," I said.

He wagged his tail slowly and began to jog while I tried to keep up.

When we got to a busy part of the street, I told Collins to wait in front of a church. He sat on the church's stairs and promised he wouldn't leave. He raised his right paw, and I folded a punch and touched his paw in a friendly gesture. Then I walked forward and went to buy ice cream.

I returned and held his ice cream for him to eat while I ate mine. Then we watched the people and the street. And God, it was much better than thinking of how to break up with my boss.

I didn't know Collins had another ridiculous idea in his head.