Way of The Wand
Chapter 21

Jira took one of the seats near the counter and made her order.

“Red please.”

The bartender smiled. “Celebrating the victory, are we?”

Jira forced herself to smile, hoping the bartender wouldn’t notice how fake it was. She wasn’t celebrating anything, she just needed something much stronger to deal with the heavy emotions weighing her down.

Who could have guessed victory would make her feel so miserable?

She hunched over her cup of wine, draining the red liquid down her throat, and prayed for the alcohol to kick in fast.

She was supposed to meet Chidi here tonight. They’d agreed on it, yet he was no show. He’d stood her up.

Just like him not to be there for her when she needed him most. What a good reminder of why they broke up, and why they had to stay broken up.

A tear dropped from her face and she quickly wiped it with the back of her hands, chugging down more of her wine.

She was intent on drowning her emotions in alcohol until she felt nothing but numbness.

The alcohol however, proved to be no respite. She needed someone to talk to, someone to hold her, someone to make her feel better about that confrontation.

Her need for consolation won over her anger at Chidi.

She told herself he could have forgotten about their meet-up and decided to call him.

“Do you have a connector calabash please? I’d like to make a call.”

“Of course,” the bartender replied, pulling out a small calabash and an even smaller container of spirit salt. “Here.”

The bartender filled the calabash with water and went to serve another customer.

Jira sprinkled some spirit salt into the water and called Chidi’s name. The water bubbled up but collapsed again into the calabash.

No answer.

She tried again, and again, but the result remained the same.

Jira felt her eyes getting wet again and raised her cup of wine only to realize she’d emptied it.

“Refill please,” she called the bartender’s attention.

As she was about to drink her refill, Jira heard someone call out her name.

Her heart spiked with hope that it was Chidi.

She turned to see someone else, but it was someone she really needed to see all the same.

“May I?” Kano asked, pointing to the empty stool beside Jira.

She nodded and Kano sat.

“Hey,” Jira greeted, trying to infuse some happiness into her voice. “How’d you find me?”

“This city isn’t that big.”

“I heard about what happened.” Kano cut to the chase. “First off I want to say that old witch was way out of line. She had no right.”

“Oh, come on,” Jira countered. “You know she’s not all wrong.”

Jira sipped some more wine before she continued. “You said it yourself Kano. Mum set this whole thing up to embarrass me into returning to Airad. But if this goes south and we lose, I won’t be the only one who gets embarrassed. Every witch in Edoh gets affected, and unlike me, their mothers don’t run the top wizarding school in the land. They have nothing to fall back on. I’m trying to make things better for witches, but I might end up making their lives even harder. And then, like the old witch said, I can walk right back into Airad to be welcomed with open arms without ever having to deal with the consequences of my failure.”

“When you put it that way…” Kano scratched behind his ear. “You’re missing something though. This happens only if you lose, so, just don’t lose.”

Jira chuckled. “How am I supposed to make that happen? Daila is way stronger than Tomi. You know that; I know that. Everyone knows that. I raised the hopes of witches in this land, but those hopes will be dashed soon enough.”

“Don’t talk like that. You can do this. You’re the greatest witch I know Jira.“

“Aren’t I the only witch you know?” Jira asked looking intently at Kano.

“Fair point.”

Jira managed a weak smile and rested her head on Kano’s shoulder.

Kano put an arm around his sister and let her stay that way till it got time to leave.

He walked her home, insisting it would be wrong to let her go home by herself after having two cups of wine.

When they got to Jira’s house, Jira noticed some figures moving around inside the building and figured she was being robbed.

“Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.”

She whipped out her wand and stormed to the door, ready to bring down hell on the misfortunate fools.

“Jira wait!” Kano tried to stop her.

Jira blasted the door open, expecting to find thieves. She found herself staring into her pupils’ faces instead.

Her hand hung in mid-air. “What…what, what…”

“Um, surprise!” Lila exclaimed.

That was when Jira noticed the big cake in Tomi’s hands.

Timi stepped forward and explained the situation. “We heard about what that woman at the arena said and we knew you felt bad. We wanted you to know we don’t agree with her. You’re a witch to us.”

“The best!” Tomi added.

Jira’s expression softened.

“Well, at least, until we grow up and all become better witches. Then we’ll all be the best witches,” Tomi said.

A genuine laughter found its way out of Jira’s throat. “Oh, come here all of you.”

She gave her pupils a group hug. Alcohol might have failed to make her feel better, but this certainly got the job done.

She broke off the hug and turned to Kano. “Did you know about this?”

Kano rocked side to side like a shy kid.

Timi answered for him. “Yes. It was his idea.”

Jira threw herself into Kano’s arms. “You know you’re the best brother in the world.”

Kano grinned. “I don’t know that I am, but I’m certainly in the running.”

Everyone laughed.

Together they went to the dining table where Timi cut and served the cakes.

Jira whipped up something for them to drink.

That night ended with smiles, cheer and laughter.

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