Anne lives alone in one of those brownstones on Camelot.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u2019s third generation Midnighter.\u00c2\u00a0 Her father does things she doesn\u2019t want to know about.\u00c2\u00a0 Anne consorts with witches.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a small coven, and they know they have no real power.\u00c2\u00a0 They don\u2019t even pretend.\u00c2\u00a0 Every Wednesday afternoon they gather for tea at one woman\u2019s house or another–well, never Erin\u2019s house, as her husband works odd hours–and they discuss all the most important issues of the day: fashion, music, and theatre.<\/p>\n
They call themselves the Witches of Camelot because they haunt the Camelot Theatre like ghosts.\u00c2\u00a0 They don\u2019t just go for the shows; they\u2019ve got keys to rooms no one at the theatre can access.\u00c2\u00a0 They know hallways hidden since the second World War.\u00c2\u00a0 They steal mementos from every show, sometimes a bit of costume, sometimes part of a set piece, a prop or a playbill, and store them in what\u2019s become a veritable Museum of Camelot Theatre.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a Friday afternoon, hours before the curtains rise, and Anne slips unnoticed through an otherwise unopened door.\u00c2\u00a0 She descends to the lowest of the basements, below even the makeshift museum, where she opens a bottle of pinot noir and pours herself a generous glass.\u00c2\u00a0 Then she fills a second, smaller glass, and enters the deepest, darkest chamber.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a round room with a domed ceiling into which pearls have been inlaid to mimic the sky.\u00c2\u00a0 Four marble benches encircle a sunken section, at the center of which sits a gold-trimmed sarcophagus, a comfortable chair, and a small, antique table.<\/p>\n
Anne sets both glasses on the table and walks around the box.\u00c2\u00a0 She whispers a name, her grandmother\u2019s name, which is also her own.\u00c2\u00a0 She caresses the polished mahogany, touches each of seven sapphires set along the top, and makes no effort to stop errant tears from escaping her eyes.<\/p>\n
Reaching the chair again, she sits.\u00c2\u00a0 She withdraws a book from her bag.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cPoetry for Anne,\u201d Anne says.\u00c2\u00a0 But the words she recites are lyrics from a Concrete Blonde song, and then something by The Doors, and another Nina Simone did a long time ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Anne reads recipes to her grandmother, and headlines from The Midnight Sun, and a conundrum she cut from a box of cereal.<\/p>\n
By the time she finishes reading, Anne has finished her glass of wine, and her grandmother\u2019s.\u00c2\u00a0 She closes the book, promises to return, maybe next time with actual news, and ascends to the theatre by a secret set of stairs.<\/p>\n
Many of the other Witches of Camelot are there to meet her.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s Erin who asks, \u201cAny word?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne shakes her head.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cNone.\u201d<\/p>\n
After shared sighs of relief and frustration, Erin says, \u201cThey begin Macbeth tonight,\u201d so they can laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anne lives alone in one of those brownstones on Camelot.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u2019s third generation Midnighter.\u00c2\u00a0 Her father does things she doesn\u2019t want to know about.\u00c2\u00a0 Anne […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}