"The Good Witch"--Paul Carroll

Many years ago, a boy named Ned grew up in a small town in the far North. Ned was a kind and handsome boy, and everyone who met him loved him. The village witch, who was a good witch, was especially fond of him, as he was one of those people who isn’t afraid of magic, and he liked to visit her and listen to her stories.

Ned noticed that the witch’s cottage was a long walk from the town well, and that it was difficult for her to fetch water. So he began to bring her water every day. The witch was so grateful that she fashioned him a bauble of spider webs and beeswax. When he wore it, people listened to him, good luck followed him, and when he sang in the forest, the birds sang with him.

When Ned came of age, he fell in love with a beautiful girl who lived in the center of the city. He courted her for six months and arranged to marry her on the first day of spring. He was so love-struck that sometimes he forgot to visit the witch, but she didn’t mind. She was happy that he’d grown up and found love, and she blessed him.

Then, on the night before their wedding, the girl became very sick. For six days she was delirious. Not even the witch could heal her. On the seventh day, she died, and Ned grew hysterical. The witch found him in the forest, just as he was about to stab himself. “Stop!” she cried.

“Leave me,” he said. “I’m going to the Spirit World to marry her.”

The witch immediately thought of the hemlock plant in her garden. Now hemlock is very poisonous, but, when transformed by certain spells, the death that it induces is temporary, so a person who eats it can cross over to the Spirit World and then come back. The witch explained this to Ned and offered to prepare it for him, so he could go to the Spirit World and marry his fiancée, on one condition: once he came back, he could never try to commit suicide again. Moved by her love for him, he agreed.

The witch prepared the hemlock and Ned ate it at midnight, when magic is strong. At once, the world faded. The witch became a shadow of a witch, and her cottage became a shadow of a cottage; but his body seemed as distinct as ever. Suddenly, a crowd of people appeared before him. They looked perfectly solid, like humans, but he knew they were spirits because his finance was among them. When he explained that he had to return to the world of the living very soon, she brought him to a priest who married them on the spot. Then they spent a few happy hours together before she faded and he had to return to the witch’s cottage.

For a few months, he was content. He mourned his wife with the knowledge that she was waiting for him. But when his friends began to marry and have children of their own, his own life began to seem barren. He knew that he couldn’t renege on his promise, for he was an honorable man, but he cursed his shortsightedness and grew to despise the witch for binding him to this world. He even stopped bringing her water.

Finally he went to her cottage and demanded, “You must let me go to the Spirit World or I will die."

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He pushed past her into her garden and pointed at her hemlock. “I will eat this at midnight,” he said. “If you love me, you’ll cast your spells on it and save me.”

“You would break your promise to an old woman?” said the witch.

“No,” he said. “If you won’t charm the hemlock, you will be the one who has killed me, for it was in your power to save me and you did not, and I will be liberated from that accursed vow.” And he took the bauble she had made him and threw it at her feet. Then he left, for he had nothing more to say to her.

The witch knew that he was right in saying that it was in her power to save him. But she also realized that if she charmed the hemlock and let him return to the Spirit World whenever he wished, he would be eternally miserable, for he wasn’t a spirit and didn’t belong there. So she went to her garden and ate the hemlock herself. This way, he could never escape his promise. She hoped that in time, he would remember how to live on Earth.

That night, when he found her body in the garden, he screamed so loudly that he woke the whole village. He buried her and spent a year mourning her. For the rest of his life, he was a kind, humble, and generous man, as the witch intended. And after he reclaimed his bauble, which she’d left for him by the village well, he often walked in the forest, sang with the birds, and remembered the women he loved.