“You’re a good friend, Jen,” Simon praised once they got outside onto the street.
“I know,” his classmate called with blue fingers. “Is hypothermia normally this colour?”
“Target located,” Simon suddenly ducked down behind a parked car and raised his father’s binoculars to his eyes. “Get down, Jen - Seal team is a go.”
Jennifer folded her arms, watching, dutifully. “Is this gonna take long? I’m freezing out here.”
“There,” Simon giggled when his second classmate skipped out the store, this week's magazine issue of teenage girl problems tucked under her arms. “There’s the witch - they say if you kiss one then they cure your ills.”
Jennifer sighed and watched her breath dissipate like cigarette smoke. “I’m pretty sure that’s assault.”
“Oh, just a peck on the cheek and I’ll be cured,” Simon tugged at his fingers anxiously and Jennifer thought he might cry.
Cancer.
She’d never met anyone with the disease before and would have hoped Simon to be the last to get it. But the world was unfair, the doctor said he wouldn’t see his fifteenth birthday so she hadn’t moaned when he said he had a secret mission.
Out in the cold.
But enough was enough.
“Simon, I can’t feel my toes and even if it is a silly kiss, it's still a grey area in legal terms.”
“But all the signs are there,” Simon pocketed the binoculars and stood up too quickly against doctor’s orders. His head swayed but he didn’t completely lose his balance. “A new girl comes into school and I get all these presents left at my door? The girl’s in love with me - of course I wouldn’t kiss a witch without permission - she might curse me.”
Jennfier wished this was easier. “You’re ill - of course people will leave you gifts. I just don’t see how you think she’s a witch.”
Simon chuckled like some great magician holding many tricks. “Remember last week when it rained frogs and fish? When you were sick in bed and missed that salmon coming through my window. If I’d slept eight inches more to the right -”
“I wasn’t sick in bed,” Jennifer corrected. “I was sulking because you blew me off in your hunt for Zoe - and the TV already mentioned gales over the lake -”
“Now,” Simon darted forward into traffic as Zoe turned a corner and headed down King’s street. “I’ll make her confess- she’ll kiss me and I’ll be cured.”
“Simon, please - you’re gonna get hurt,” Jennifer waved her hand apologetically at drivers cursing them as she ran after him. “I told you not to steal those fantasy library books. You can’t cure cancer with a witch's kiss.”
“Well, let's find out,” Simon said, stubbing his toe on the curb and limped around the butcher’s shop down King’s street.
He’d hoped the nearby woods would be a perfect private place for a chat. To tell Zoe that he knew her secret and she could confide in him. Maybe kiss him.
But a thousand trees meant a thousand places to hide.
“Damn it, where’s she gone?”
Jennifer hated exercise of any kind. Usually she moved herself around by alternate means but she had never had friends before. Other children had laughed at her, hated her and then Simon had been kind, wonderful… and briefly ill.
“I think I ruptured a lung,” Jennifer hissed, holding the aching stitch in her side as if something would fall out.
“She can’t have gone far,” Simon said and gave chase, leaving the safety of the sodium streetlights to venture into the gloomy moonlight sporadically breaking the thick woodland canopy.
“What have I stood in? What’s that smell?” Jennifer moaned. “This has gone far enough, Simon, I’ve got to tell you -”
“Listen,” Simon raised a hand as if swatting bugs. “Footsteps.”
“With our luck, it's probably a savage dog,” Jennifer moaned. Would it be a quick death? Would she have enough time to tell Simon how she felt?
“Zoe?” Simon called. “You don’t have to be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” someone called. A man.
He came out of the trees, stinking of urine and cheap booze. He only had one shoe, his bare foot was bloody and punctured with thorns.
“W- who are you?” Jennifer heard a small voice and realised it was her own.
“Just a hungry fellow,” the homeless man sighed. “A donation would be VERY much appreciated - how much money do you have?”
“Look, we came the wrong way,” Jennifer said. “We don’t want any trouble.”
The fellow’s tobacco stained beard crinkled as he smiled. “Your friend has nice shoes. Give them to me.”
“My mom bought these,” Simon raised a branch like a knight’s sword challenging a dragon.
“My friend is ill,” Jennifer said. “Please.”
“I don’t care if he dies,” the homeless man saw no challenge, twigs poked into his feet as he advanced.
“Run, Jen - I got us into this. Tell my mom -” Simon stopped talking when the man’s large foetid hand crashed into his temple. For a moment, he trembled and then toppled over like dead wood.
“Give me your shoes, I can get a good meal when I sell them.”
“Leave him alone,” Jennifer said. Everything went white when the man hit her. She fell back on her rump, tasting blood.
The bastard had struck her.
“Yes, I’ll get a few quid for these -” the man giggled. Then when he realised his coat was on fire, he threw his head upward and screamed to the stars. “Help, help me.”
Jennifer’s nose wrinkled at the sickly scent of burning flesh. She concentrated harder, remembering the illegal words that mother said she must never use.
Her hand glowed white hot till it spat sparks. The prickly white tongues of light found the homeless man’s trousers and scorched the fabric.
“Monster,” the fellow squealed. “What are you? Help, help.”
Jennifer watched him flee through the woods like a streaking comet through the sky, tearing at his clothes to save his flesh beneath.
He would live but she doubted that his stinking beard would be as pretty in the morning.
What are you?
“I’m a witch,” Jennifer said.
“Ow, my head,” Simon tried to sit up and succeeded on the fourth attempt. “Oh, god. My head. What happened? Was I brave?”
“Oh, you were very brave,” Jennifer blew the fire from her hands before his eyes righted. “It was a good thing I had my mom’s lighter in my pocket. I set alight his coat and he ran a mile.”
“But you don’t smoke,” Simon said.
“Come on, let's get you home before - “ Jennifer squatted down to help him and lost all sense of the evening’s cold when Simon pursed his lips and kissed her cheek.
“Thank you - for coming with me,” Simon said and picked himself up.
“Huh?” Just a quick and silly kiss that lasted a second but Jennifer could still feel it. It took her a moment more to recall complete sentences. “D - don’t mention it.”
“Do you think Zoe will be alright out here?”
Clouds rumbled and threatened to rain frogs but Jennifer took several breaths and calmed herself down. For now there was no Zoe. Just her and him.
“She’ll be fine, Romeo - come on before we find a vampire or something.”
“But I never even got a cure.”
“I wish you wouldn’t believe these silly stories,” Jennifer said, putting her arm around him to help him back toward the sodium street lights. “You can’t cure cancer with a witches kiss.”
Usually it took months of dedication to magic. A total devotion to the one afflicted.
Jennifer had cured him weeks before and mother would be furious if she gave herself away.
“You’re a good friend, Jen,” Simon said.
“I know,” Jennifer replied and despite the cold, she smiled.
Nothing warmed a dark heart like a sweet kiss.