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CHAPTER 5: Where Its Easier

  Salem couldn’t figure out where that horrible screech was coming from. It sounded like a scream. It sounded like her scream. She opened her eyes and realized it was no scream at all, only the horribly irritating shriek of their alarm clock. She rolled over and slammed her hand down on the snooze button to silence the beeps until her sleepy hands fumbled for the off switch.

  “I hate that sound,” she said.

  “I don’t know why you have that archaic machine,” David growled beside her.

  “A clock?”

  “Why do you not just use the alarm on your phone?”

  “Because I always forget to charge it,” she replied.

  “Plug it in on your nightstand every night before you fall asleep.”

  “No room. The alarm clock and lamp are plugged into that outlet.”

  “You are so ridiculous,” David grinned rolling over and stroking her hair. “You getting up first or me?”

  “You are,” Salem yawned. “And throw the clothes in the dryer please.”

  “If you feed Michael,” David whispered into her ear.

  She rolled over to look her husband in the eyes. “Why do I always get the big jobs?”

  He laughed and kissed her nose. “Well, if you weren’t so bossy throwing laundry duty in with my shower you might not get saddled with the large jobs.”

  “Next time I’ll remember to volunteer for the small jobs and let you tackle the big ones.”

  He pulled her on top of him and gave her a real kiss. “You, my love, are not quick enough to think of that this early in the morning.” He rolled over on top of her now and kissed her again, longer this time. Then he hopped off the bed and went into the bathroom to turn the shower on.

  “Hey!” Salem called from the bed. “What about the clothes in the washer?”

  David poked his head out of the bathroom and grinned, “Oh I forgot. Since you’re gonna be up anyway feeding the baby, you won’t mind.”

  Salem threw a pillow at his head, which he quickly dodged. She crawled out of bed, swatting her unruly auburn hair out of her face. Walking into the bathroom she reached into the shower and slapped his bare bottom before she flushed the toilet needlessly and walked out.

  “Hey!” he called out, cringing from the change in water temperature.

  “You had it coming.”

  Salem was in her fluffy white bathrobe sitting at the small kitchen table looking out of the window onto Piedmont Park while she drank her coffee. Michael was in his highchair playing with his cereal more than he was eating it. David came into the kitchen wrapped in a towel, dripping water all over the floor. She didn’t say anything. What was the price of a few puddles when she could see her amazingly handsome husband wrapped in a towel? He still had a great body, despite their recent laziness. There’d once been a time when they’d already be out with the other morning joggers on the park paths or playing afternoon tennis on the park courts. All that changed with Michael. After working all day and chasing a one-year-old around all night, neither of them had the energy to exercise anymore. Salem glanced down at her own stomach.

  “I need to lose weight.”

  “Here we go again,” David sighed, pouring himself some coffee.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Every couple of days you look at yourself and say you need to lose weight,” he said.

  “Well, I do. I’m fat.”

  “Yes, honey you are.”

  “What!” Salem shrieked. “I’ll have you know, David Lane, that I only went up two sizes when I was pregnant with Michael, and I am almost back down to my original size. I think I look pretty damn good for a 28-year-old mother.”

  “Then stop bitching about it,” David said kissing her forehead and starting back down the hall, pausing only to yell behind him, “And you’re 30!”

  Damn, she thought. I walked right into that one.

  Salem carried Michael into the nursery to dress him for the day. He was such a happy baby, most of the time. As she laid him down on the ottoman to remove his pajamas he laughed and shook his arms playfully at her. David came in already suited up for his day at the office.

  “I’ll get the baby ready,” he said. "You get ready for work.”

  “Are you taking him to daycare today, or am I?” Salem asked her husband.

  “I can take him,” David said, holding his son. “You have that big meeting this morning. I’m gonna go on and leave as soon as I get him dressed. Kiss me.”

  She did. It lasted seconds longer than most couples probably kiss goodbye because their kisses always lasted longer than most. In the years they’d been together, their passion for one another had not diminished—not even after the baby. Whatever fueled their love showed no signs of ever burning out, and Salem was very grateful for that gift. Most of her friends already found their husbands to be a nuisance or talked about them as if they were the dumbest creatures God ever placed on earth. Salem still adored David, and he her. They felt profoundly lucky to be as much in love as the day they married.

  “Don’t forget you have those notes you made last night on the nightstand,” David shouted as Salem disappeared into the bathroom. “Love you!”

  “Love you too!” she yelled from behind the door.

  After battling the ever-congested roadways of Atlanta and only swearing at three people along the drive in to work, Salem rushed into the office, almost knocking over her assistant as she came in the door.

  “You’re late. They’ve already started,” Cindy whispered.

  “I know,” Salem whispered. “David took Michael for me this morning but somehow that always makes me later. I guess I keep thinking I have more time, and then somehow, I end up without any at all.”

  She rushed down the hall to the conference room. She could hear the voices from the other side. The meeting was already in progress. She wasn’t too worried about it; they couldn’t get very far without her in on things. She whisked open the door and found her seat.

  “So sorry guys. Working motherhood and all.”

  “Quite all right Salem,” her boss Travis Dandridge nodded, pouring her a cup of coffee from the pot in the center of the table.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “We were just discussing the layouts for the Mitchell job. I’m meeting with him at lunch,” said Ray Conners, the head of the concept department.

  “So, Salem,” Travis began, “As our art department head, do you have any ideas for the Mitchell campaign?

  “Several,” Salem nodded. “I’m not sure what direction he wants to take his ads, so I ventured out into different directions. I have them all for you to present to him on this thumb drive and there are materials and mockups at Cindy’s desk. Once we get input from him as to which he prefers, I can flesh his picks out more.”

  “Fine. Fine. What about the Louden layouts?”

  Salem reached into her satchel and withdrew her sketches. “Right here. Exactly as he wanted them. But I also made another set with changes which I think are even better than what he asked for. I thought Neil might want to present them as well when they meet.”

  Neil Thompson, the rep for the Louden account, flipped through Salem’s sketches. “Salem these are really fantastic. Way better than what he asked for. I love these. Thank you. I’ll make sure he considers them as well.”

  “You know we really need to promote Salem and give her her own client accounts. She’s wasted in the art department,” Ray smiled.

  “No thanks,” Salem laughed. “I’m good where I am. If I had to meet with the clients personally, I’d never see my husband and son. And with that, I need to go. I have an art department meeting at 10 o’clock, and I need to get my notes ready for the staff. Things were so much easier when I was the art department.”

  “Progress my dear, progress. This company has grown a lot over the last few years,” Travis said, walking her to the door. “By the way, Molly has a blanket she crocheted for Michael. It is in a bag in my office by my desk. Grab that before you leave today. And speaking of Michael, how is my great nephew? Haven’t seen that boy in a while.”

  “He’s growing and growing,” Salem said proudly. “If you’d leave the office some time you and Molly could come over for dinner the way you used to. And you could go fishing with David again. You need to remember you have family that misses you. I’m the only one that ever sees you anymore.”

  “Well, tell that nephew of mine that I promise we will get out on the lake before summer is over. Maybe next weekend.”

  “Can’t next weekend. I’m hoping we can sneak home to Daihmler and see the family.”

  “Well if you do, please let your aunt know that cream she made for me worked. My arthritis is completely gone now!”

  Salem went to her meeting and handed off the necessary assignments to her staff. The remainder of her day was spent sketching layouts and approving sketches made by her underlings. She was so immersed in her work that she didn’t hear the knock at the door. Looking up she saw Travis holding baby Michael.

  “Say hello to Mommy,” Travis said in baby talk to his great nephew.

  “What’s my big boy doing here?” Salem beamed.

  “Hey, Red,” David said, stepping inside her office himself.

  “I called David after we chatted this morning and asked him to drop by after work. You were right, it has been way too long since our little family was together. I called Molly and she made a reservation at the Laurence. I’ll pick her up in a few minutes and we can all have a family dinner.”

  “Just leave your car here,” David suggested. “Ride with us and I’ll bring you to work in the morning.”

  “Actually, I still have about a half hour left on this,” Salem said. “David why don’t you take Michael to go pick up Molly, and I’ll ride to the restaurant with Travis.”

  David walked over to her desk and kissed his wife on the cheek before leaving, and whispered in her ear, “Michael has been moving toys around again with his thoughts. The daycare lady thinks she’s going crazy.”

  Travis hadn’t overheard their exchange. As close as Salem and David were to David’s aunt and uncle, they’d never confided in them that Salem and Michael were witches. It wouldn’t have made any difference to them, but Salem preferred to keep some things private. Back home in Daihmler there was no escaping the label in a town where everyone knew everything about her family. Everyone knew Salem Blanchard was a witch. But in Atlanta, she enjoyed the obscurity and anonymity of simply being Salem Lane.

  Travis was a great man. She respected him immensely. She’d been working for him about a year when he introduced her to his only nephew—his only living relative—at his annual Christmas party. Salem and David were married by the following Christmas. It was a good marriage. More ups than downs and always laughter and love. David was never afraid of her powers. He wasn’t frightened by a family of witches. In fact, he rather enjoyed having a wife who could stop time itself when necessary. Or a wife who could levitate furniture so that he never had to lift anything heavy around the house. He didn’t even mind very much when she froze him during sex. Although he preferred to think that she didn’t have to resort to that very often. He learned over the years to save his pride and not look at the clock.

  Travis and Molly practically raised David after his parents died. The situation was very similar to how Artemis had raised Salem and Seth. It was just one of the many areas Salem had in common with her husband. She felt lucky to belong to two very close, even if very different, families.

  Salem finished her sketches and set everything aside for tomorrow. Travis was waiting in his office for her. She found the crocheted blanket Aunt Molly had made for Michael. It was truly beautiful. She couldn’t wait to cover her son with it that night at bedtime. They locked up the office and soon Salem and Travis were driving down the streets of Midtown Atlanta towards The Laurence.

  She was just beginning to realize the screech she heard sounded an awful lot like a scream when she awoke to discover the sound was actually the alarm clock. She had only been dreaming. Salem rolled over and slammed her hand down on the snooze button to silence the beeps until her sleepy hands fumbled for the off switch.

  “I hate that sound,” she said.

  “I don’t know why you have that archaic machine,” David growled beside her.

  “A clock?”

  “Why do you not just use the alarm on your phone?”

  “Because I always forget to charge it,” Salem replied. Wow. I’m having Deja veux.

  David rolled over and gently patted her head. “Because this is how things go every morning. So, are you getting up first, or me?”

  “You are,” Salem yawned. “And throw the clothes in the dryer please.”

  “If you feed Michael,” David whispered into her ear.

  She rolled over to look her husband in the eyes. This had all happened before. As he got out of bed, she already knew he was going straight into the shower.

  “Hey!” Salem called from the bed. “What about the clothes in the washer?”

  David poked his head out of the bathroom and grinned, “Oh I forgot. Since you’re gonna be up anyway feeding the baby, you won’t mind.”

  This has happened before. I think it’s happened two or three times already. This is when I throw the pillow at him.

  She threw the pillow at his head, and he dodged it. She walked into the bathroom. She slapped his rear end as he stood in the shower, then she flushed the toilet on him. Just like last time.

  Salem fed Michael in the kitchen and then had a pointless conversation about her weight where she was actually fishing for a compliment, but David turned the tables and didn’t give her one. He offered to drive Michael to daycare. Salem knew he would. She also somehow knew that Michael was going to move toys around the room with his powers while at daycare that day. But how could she know that? He hadn’t even gone to daycare yet. What is going on?

  Salem went to the shower to get ready for work. She heard David caution her to not forget the notes she’d made for work and set on her nightstand. Then he called out “I love you.” She was just about to say, “I love you too”, but instead she bolted from the bathroom and ran stark naked down the hall towards her exiting husband.

  “Wait!” she shouted.

  “What’s gotten into you?” David smirked.

  “I love you, that’s all,” she said.

  “Well, don’t you think you need to put some clothes on in front of our son?”

  “Please,” she sneered. “He’s dined on these.”

  He kissed her lips. “I love you too, you know.”

  “David? When was the last time we made love?”

  “I don’t know?” David said. “A few days ago. Yeah. In the kitchen, remember?”

  “A few days is too long ago,” Salem wrapped her arms around him. “Come to the bedroom with me.”

  “Salem,” David gasped. “We have to go to work.”

  “Work can wait,” Salem replied, kissing him passionately. “Daycare can wait. The world can wait.”

  “What about our son?” David asked. He stared into his wife’s eyes. Slowly they were changing from dutiful mother to the lover he so enjoyed spending time with.

  He sat his son down on the floor. “Do it,” he said with a coy grin.

  Salem waved her hand over their son. Michael froze in place, completely still. His eyes didn’t move, his breath didn’t inhale or exhale. He was paused in time and space. David heard the clock in the hall stop ticking. All time everywhere had halted in place.

  “A witch should do little things like this sometimes for her husband,” she smiled.

  David pressed her against the wall, kissing down her neck to her chin. He continued moving downward inch by inch. Salem peeled off his jacket, shirt and tie, then his pants. Soon they were entwined in each other’s arms on the living room floor. The passion between them was just as intense as the first time they’d ever made love.

  Salem showered after David and Michael left the house. She was definitely going to be late to her meeting, but she didn’t care. She only knew that for some inexplicable reason, she and her husband had needed that moment together this morning.

  She stepped out of the shower and reached for her towel. She grabbed it from her grandmother’s outstretched hand. It startled her. She jumped backwards, nearly falling into the shower.

  “Hecate!” she cried. “What in the world are you doing here?”

  Olympia stood solemnly before her granddaughter and placed her hands on Salem’s wet shoulders. “Child, the real question is, what are you doing here?”

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