Double, double, toil and…

-        It’s my turn this time. It’s been ages since I went.

Fine. Go.

-        Dribble dribble, frolic and fribble.

Frolic and fribble? What the hell does fribble mean? You made that up.

-        Did not. It’s a real word. Foolish person.

Suzanne?

·       I concur. It is a real word.

Fine. Continue… But you’re not stirring it fast enough. The bat won’t melt.

-        Dribble, dribble, frolic and fribble,

-        Add mustache and take a nibble.

Mustache? Snake, newt, frog, bat, dog. Those are acceptable. Those make potions. Make portents. What does mustache give you?

·       (mumble mumble mumble)

Sister! I…I…I’ve never!

·       Don’t know what you’re missing. Especially like a Tom Selleck ‘stache. Mmm. Mmm.

Sister!

-        Can I continue?

If you must. Though I must insist on at least a lizard leg or owlet.

-        It’s my turn this time.

Suzanne!

·       It is her turn.

Fie.

-        Cheesy potatoes

-        Chicken glazed in spicy mead

-        Salt, oregano

POOF!

What just happened? What’d you do to the soup? It “poofed”. It’s not supposed to poof. It’s supposed to spit and hiss. Cause holes in our shrouds. Your ingredients are all wrong. All wrong.

·       Hmmm. Tastes delicious.

-        It’s the spicy mead. Saw a recipe for it online.

·       I’d do it again. It’s yummy.

Yummy? It’s not for us, for consumption. Unless the person is supposed to die from consumption because that’s what we foretold. It’s for casting fates.

-        I was hungry.

·       You know what else would be great?

-        What?

·       Letting the sun in a bit. This fog aggravates my sinuses. And I can’t ever see where I’m walking. I tripped twice yesterday. Think I twisted my ankle the last time.

Scale of dragon will fix that.

-        Or you could take a diclofenac. There’s some in my purse over there.

Double double toil and…

-        Give me the spoon back. It’s my turn. And I have more ingredients still. I stopped at Whole Foods on the way over here.

·       Oh, I love their stuffed peppers.

Double double toil and…

-        You know the trouble with you? You’re stuck in the past. You know one recipe and it does one thing. I’ve got a book here that does a thousand things. Look! Soups for sad times. Pies for pep. Salads for sex.

·       (Mumble mumble mumble)

-        Very much, sister. Very much… I’m making something we can all eat later, together. And if there’s leftovers, we’ll freeze it and eat it again next week or the week after.  That’s what I portend. I portend microwaving when I’m too tired to make something new.

This is not what we witches are supposed to do!

-        Fuck that!

·       Yes. Fuck that. I think I’m going to make a quiche when it’s my turn.

I won’t allow it! I won’t! I refuse to –

                                                            PLOP!

-        Dribble dribble, frolic and fribble

-        In goes bitch, let’s take a nibble!

*    Much better. You’re right. That’s just what it needed.   

M Mary Sullivan is a writer and performer based in Richmond, VA. He dropped out of Holy Cross, NYU, UCONN, Norwalk Community College, and…. he thinks that’s it. All throughout his half dozen or so careers he has written, publishing works in such places as Bridal Guide Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Highlights Magazine, which awarded him a Pewter Plate for outstanding contributions to children’s literature. He has been in several short story and poetry anthologies. For more than twenty years he performed in schools, libraries and arts festivals as part of The Brothers Grinn, an improvisational storytelling troupe based in NYC, and then in FOOLS, a similar collaboration with his wife Kerrigan. They have three children, seven chickens, a snake, and a dog and no idea how to raise any of them.