If I Could Love You Again

The Singed Hair

“Taylor is staying here tonight, again, you say?”

Nanna’s voice sounded a little accusatory from behind him, and Garrett winced before he quickly made his face go blank.

There were times when he’d considered sealing his sister’s mouth shut, and these were one of those times. What a shame he wanted to be nice to her now.

He continued chopping carrots and potatoes as if he didn’t feel the stare boring into the back of his head.

“Yep,” he said as casually as he could. “Midterms are in two weeks, and we’ve got lots of studying to catch up on.”

“Just studying?”

Garrett froze, his hands stilling on the knife and vegetables. He looked behind him at his Nanna, knowing that she couldn’t have possibly insinuated what it sounded like she was insinuating, but his Nanna wasn’t looking his way. She was brushing out Lily’s long tresses, getting her granddaughter ready so she could teach her a new way to braid her hair.

He gulped and turned back, trying to banish the naughty thoughts he’d just conjured in his mind. “Yeah, just studying. I mean, we might play games as a break…” he said, trying to convince himself that that was what he’d thought she meant.

“I see,” Nanna said casually, “And when will he be coming?”

“A-After supper,” Garrett said as he continued cutting the vegetables. Stop it, Garrett.

“Good,” she said as her hands went to work on his sister’s locks, “Then we have just enough time.”

Garrett was wise enough not ask what she meant in front of Lily, so just continued what he was doing and tossed all the vegetables in the pot of boiling water he’d already started on the stove. His mother wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours so that should be plenty of time for the stew to cook.

While Lily and Nanna were chatting and finishing Lily’s new hairstyle, Garrett was able to slice the pork and sauté it in garlic, butter and seasoning, before popping it into the stew pot as well.

With that done, Nanna and Garrett left Lily to her reading and Garrett followed Nanna out to their garage, trepidation building as he had no idea what to expect when he got inside.

“Okay, Garrett,” Nanna said as she moved over to a bag she must have left in there earlier. “Now that you’ve been awakened, we had best get a handle on your power before you use it accidentally.”

“Awakened?”

“Yes, you travelled through time not by my power, but your own. I just gave you the ingredients to do it.”

“But I don’t even know how—”

“Knowledge is necessary, that is true, but it’s your will,” she tapped him on the chest, “Your wish to do something that is what actually makes it happen. You wished to help Taylor, and so you are here.”

Garrett gulped, and looked down at what she settled into his hand.

A crystal ball.

He blinked.

Seriously? “Uhh…”

“Hold on, not done.” Nanna also pulled out a couple vials of clear fluid with little labels on them and showed them to him. They had dates on the labels, stretched back multiple years. “We’ll start with something simple. This one is from my backyard in the morning last summer.”

She popped the cork and let a couple of drops fall over the crystal ball. “Now, just focus and see if you can spot anything in the water.”

She backed up a couple steps and folded her hands before her, nodding at him encouragingly.

Taking a deep breath, he tried not to feel ridiculous as Garrett focused on the water reflecting his face back at him, squinting his eyes for good measure.

Nothing happened.

He held his breath and squinted some more.

All he could see was his own reflection squinting back at him.

Abra cadabra, he thought sarcastically.

Suddenly the smell of wet grass filled his nose, and he heard rain coming down around him as birds twittered, wings fluttering through water. He looked up in surprise, looking around him, but, of course, he was in the garage, and it was not raining, and no birds were with them.

Wow, he thought, in shock, his eyes dropping with new appreciation at the orb still resting in his palm.

Nanna smiled over at him. “You saw something, didn’t you?”

“I heard the rain, and birds bathing or something, and smelled grass, I think. I didn’t see anything though.”

“That’s because you looked up away from the ball. And now it has dried, and the memory gone.”

“Memory?”

“Yes, of sorts. You witnessed the last thing the raindrops experienced before they were sealed into the vial.”

“But water can’t hear or see…”

“No, but we only see and hear because our brains turn the messages bounced off our bodies into vision and hearing.”

“Wow, Biology in witchcraft?”

Nanna shook her finger at him. “Don’t I always tell you that you need to study to make it in life? Now you know why.”

Garrett blew out a breath and palmed the crystal ball in his hand. “I’ve gotta say, if you had told me earlier that the studying was all to become a witch, I just might have—”

“Nonsense. You might not remember what you were like at 17, but to me it was only two days ago. Why do you think I hadn’t told you about your ancestry before now?”

Garrett winced. “Because witches don’t awaken until they are 21?”

“No, Garrett,” she said with a sardonic smile, her hands on her hips. “Because you were not ready to accept the responsibility.”

“But now I am.”

“Maybe.”

Garrett looked at her, eyebrows rising in affront. “Maybe?”

Nanna smiled with an eyebrow lifted. “Maybe. We’ll see.”

She came over and took the ball from his hand and put it back into her bag. “At least you are a natural at divination, it seems. That could come in handy one day.”

She pulled out a matchbox and a small fire extinguisher. “Now, shall we try transmutation?”

---

Okay, Taylor, just do it and get it over with.

As Taylor finally walked up the steps of his home, he cast his eyes again towards the single car in the driveway, and he couldn’t help the chill it sent up his spine.

He hated when David was home and his mom was not.

He’d avoided the house until now for that very reason, opting for a sandwich from the convenience store instead of whatever supper David may have planned.

Just seeing that car and knowing what he might face inside nearly made him turn around and leave again.

But he had to get his stuff from the house so he could sleep over at Garrett's.

Garrett definitely would ask questions if Taylor came over again without so much as a toothbrush, when he'd specifically said he was going home for this very reason.

Come on, Mom, when are you coming home?

Pausing despite himself with his hand on the doorknob, he breathed in deeply.

Let’s just get in and get out.

Hoping David was miraculously not listening for his return, Taylor silently opened the door and walked over the threshold, ignoring the clenching of his stomach as he did so.

He closed the door behind him as quietly as he could and shucked off his shoes, holding his breath as he started moving down the hall to the stairs.

Just maybe, David hadn't heard him come in, and he could be here and gone without trouble.

But just as Taylor reached the bottom step to the stairs, David walked out of the living room, ruining his hopes of an easy escape.

"Hey, bud, welcome home!" David said with a smile, in his hands a big bowl of popcorn. "I found a show about gladiators and Romans that we haven't seen. Come on in and watch it with me!"

Taylor was very glad he could shake his head and say, "Not today, thank you. Garrett and I are going to study again tonight."

"You aren't staying over again, are you?" David asked, clearly put out, setting down the popcorn on the end table out of sight before turning back to Taylor. But Taylor hadn’t waited and had already started heading up the stairs two at a time.

"Yeah, we get more done that way," Taylor called out as he strode quickly to the washroom and started throwing his toiletries in his bag, working as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, David came up the stairs after him. "Why the sudden study frenzy? You're a smart boy. Don't let your classmate slow you down."

"He's my best friend, and I want to study with him," Taylor said, quickly sliding past David and heading to his room.

His heart was racing, and it was getting hard to breathe, but that was the usual feeling he got nowadays whenever he was alone with his stepdad.

"Friends come and go, son. Don't forget that your family wants to spend time with you, too."

You are not family, Taylor thought, as another shiver went up his spine, knowing David's eyes were on him from the doorway.

David didn't enter the room anymore, thankfully, not since Taylor had demanded in front of his mom that David stop coming in uninvited. But his eyes on Taylor's back while Taylor grabbed clothes and stuffed them in his backpack felt like very unwelcome fingers crawling up his spine.

It hadn't always been this way.

Once, Taylor had been excited to come home. Excited to hang out with his new dad, who honestly wanted to spend time with him.

But a couple years ago...

Taylor quashed the memory.

He was going to Garrett's tonight, and he didn't want anything to get in the way of the peace that he felt being next to his closest of friends.

But David grabbed his arm as he tried to push past him out of his room.

Taylor glared down at the offending hand, but David ignored it as he told Taylor in a low voice, "Your mother asked you to be friendly with me, Taylor. Can't you respect her wishes and come watch the show with me? Just an episode. Your friend can wait another hour, can't he?"

Taylor tried to gulp past the bile rising in his throat at the silky tone of David's words, but his own voice trembled slightly with suppressed emotion as he answered stiffly, "Garrett's waiting for me outside."

David immediately let go in surprise and Taylor didn't waste time. He barrelled down the stairs, shoved his feet into his shoes and rushed out the front door, racing down the street towards Garrett's house because, of course, Garrett was already at home, where they'd planned to meet.

---

Garrett sighed, looking at himself in the mirror and wincing.

It had been hard to explain away the singed hair to his mother.

She had been certain that he'd gotten it smoking cigarettes and even Nanna coming to his defense hadn’t made his mother believe him.

Not that he could blame her.

Nanna’s idea to tell everyone he’d gotten too close to the engine as he’d been trying to learn the various parts of the car had fallen flat when it turned out his mother had some serious knowledge of car maintenance and repair.

Of course his mother had taught herself how to repair the family car to save money.

He plunked his head against the washroom mirror.

Now his mother was going to teach him everything she knew so he, too, could avoid ‘overpriced car repairmen.’

And he was still grounded for smoking for the next week: “Whether you smoked or not, you were keeping something dangerous from me, Garrett, and that is not what we do in this family.”

He understood her worry… but he couldn’t tell her he was practicing witchcraft. That would surely send her into a panic.

For more reasons than he could count.

He’d just learned today that his father had been a witch, too.

And the only reason that Nanna hadn’t gone back in time to save him… was because a witch could only go back once. After that, their spirit was no longer aligned with the timeline, and the spell would no longer work on them. She’d already tried, which was why she’d had all the ingredients for when she sent Garrett back.

It had taken her five years to find a real phoenix egg, apparently.

Not that she told him where exactly one could get such a thing. “It’s too advanced for you yet, and you couldn’t use it anyway. You can’t go back again either.”

It wasn’t like Garrett had intended to go back in time again. But it was still a lot to take in that no matter what, he couldn’t do it again even if he wanted to.

“But that’s how life is for everyone else. So, take this chance and make the best of it, sweet pea.”

Garrett blew out his breath and looked firmly at his reflection.

That’s just what I’m going to do.

He picked up the electric razor his sister had gotten him for his sixteenth birthday and started trimming away his hair to even it out where his hair was missing from the too successful transmutation.

He still thought Nanna could have warned him that he should think about the size of the flame he wanted before he caused the match to ignite.

“You’re cutting your hair?”

Garrett nearly shaved off one side of his head as he jerked in surprise.

He turned off the razor for the moment and swung around to stare with incredulity at Taylor trying to hold back a grin behind his hand. “You did that on purpose,” he accused.

“Maybe,” Taylor smiled, completely unabashed. “Want me to help?”

Garrett looked down at the razor but then before he could second guess himself, he handed it over. “Okay, but if you mess it up, I get to do yours.” I wouldn’t be able to get the back anyway, he reasoned.

“Deal. But I’m not going to mess it up.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Garrett began sardonically as Taylor moved behind him into the washroom. But the instant Taylor’s fingers threaded through his hair, a thrill shot up his spine, and Garrett had to clamp his mouth closed to keep from letting out a sound.

Oh, s**t, I didn’t think this through. He gulped down the sound in his throat with some effort.

“Here, sit down on the tub so I can reach you better,” Taylor said, his brow furrowing again in the mirror, thankfully already focused on Garrett’s hair.

Garrett mutely obeyed and clenched his hands together in his lap when Taylor’s legs leaned into Garrett’s knees and his T-shirt and athletic arms became the only thing that Garrett could see. Because he definitely wasn’t going to look up right now. Or down.

Garrett closed his eyes and swore at himself. Why are you even thinking of down? What could possibly have caused you to think it was a good idea to think of down?

“I need you to look up a bit.”

Garrett let his head be pulled upward by Taylor’s gentle hands, the whirring of the razor the only thing he could hear as Taylor fell silent again in his concentration. He kept his eyes closed, the only safe option right now, and tried to keep his expression flat. Like he wasn’t being affected by the long fingers that slid around his ears.

Nope, he was not shivering. That definitely wasn’t what was happening.

“Okay, now turn and put your legs in the tub,” Taylor said softly, and Garrett did so with some relief.

At least now Taylor wouldn’t see his face as Taylor’s fingers slid across the back of his neck and caused him such sweet misery.

“All done,” Taylor said soon after. “I guess you need a shower, so I’ll just leave you to that.”

And before Garrett opened his eyes, he heard the door close across the room.

Garrett looked back at the closed door with a bit of bewilderment. Taylor hadn’t even stayed to see what Garrett thought of the cut.

Garrett’s eyes widened. He couldn’t possibly have…

He rushed over to the mirror and looked over his reflection with not a little trepidation.

Then he blinked. Oh. He didn’t do a bad job at all. The way Taylor had left had made him worry his friend had pulled a fast one over him.

But apparently not.

In fact, he looked great.

Garrett smiled as he pulled off his shirt. That went better than expected.