The Woman with a Mole Part 16

“What is it!?” Snapped the old woman. “Have you come to stare at my mole too?!”

Beyond the doorway an old woman was standing before us. It was the most hideous thing that I have ever seen! Upon her face was sitting, or rather, living just above her upper lip a humongous brown, purple, and black mole.

Cupped within the old woman’s hands, however, there was a light brown fuzzy creature about the size of a gerbil. It’s a mole, I realized.

I didn’t know how to respond to the old woman’s question.

 

“Ah…” Chris seemed to be having an equally difficult time articulating what it was that she wanted to express. Both of our eyes were darting to and from the hideous mole on the woman’s face to the fuzzy creature within her cupped hands. So I did the best thing I could think of when you don’t know what to say: Change the subject.

“Wow, what a lovely night it is tonight,” I said lamely.

The old woman cocked her head in confusion.

“Uuumm yes,” Chris said picking up where I left off. “It is very lovely, but it’s just a bit cold outside, and you see we don’t have any place to stay for the night in this dangerous rabid weasel infested forest. When we saw your cottage we wondered if you could spare us a room until morning.” Chris smiled hopefully.

The old woman glared at us with her beady black eyes suspiciously.

“Where did you two come from?” She asked. “There isn’t another town around here for three days… Unless…” She said musing.

“We came from Liberty,” I responded. “Mr. Thumb was helping us to train with our powers. Perhaps you know him?”

“Mr. Thumb,” The woman said growling slightly. Her eyes narrowing and her teeth were grinding as she hissed his name.

I suddenly had the feeling that it wasn’t a good idea to mention Mr. Thumb’s name in front of the old woman.

“That blundering fool! I bet he wasn’t much help to you considering that the man can only use magic!”

“Magic,” I said in wonder. “But there’s no such thing…”

“Ha! Don’t be so naive child,” The old woman scoffed. “You live in a world in which random people around you are endowed with strange talents, and some are even given invisible friends. Of course there is magic in this world! Mr. Thumb, as if happens, is one of the only males in the world who can use sorcery. That idiot is a part of the Secret Society of Sorcery for crying out loud! But I suppose he forgot. He is rather forgetful sometimes.”

I shook my head feeling more and more as if our time spent with Mr. Thumb had been a complete waste of time.

“Oh, well, dearie. There was no way that you could have known, no need to get down on yourself. Come on in, I suppose, it is cold outside lets have some tea.”

The old woman invited us into her cottage. But after our conversation I had almost completely forgotten that the house indeed had chicken legs beneath it, and that the woman, perhaps, could not be trusted.

Shudder....

Just in case you ever have a mole like that old woman here is a useful link: "Curad MediPlast Corn Callu and Wart Remover (Case of 150)"

To Be Continued…