Blue Moon

What happens to witches as they get older?

Welcome to Blue Moon Nursing Home, where residents turn into rabbits, vacuum bags fill up with bits of potion ingredients, and residents, despite never seeming to age on the outside, still suffer from the pains of aging.

Here, Mrs. Tivoli keeps herself company with the image of a man she releases from a small bottle in her room, an image from a future which she will have no power to change.

Care staff patrol the kitchen to curb Thursday practising hours and keep familiars confined to private quarters, working around fresh paint and rubbery carpets.

In room 3B, Mrs. Tivoli conceals her walking stick and nurses an aching hip, her dresser cluttered with glossy magazines, dried clay, and the tank of her scaleless catfish.

Rows of sauce bottles and vinegar jars fill her wardrobe drawer, preserving old regrets and memories bedded down in newspaper.
Magical Realism: Knotted ropes of wind sold to harbour fishermen and salt pentagrams that resist vacuums ground ancient witchcraft in the quiet rhythms of institutional life.Dark Fantasy: A tiny scarlet-capped bottle in room 3B holds the living vision of a gaunt visitor in a green jumper.Folklore: Eccentric rituals spill into daily care, from anxious locals burying beef scraps in the soil to a witch charming away a visitor’s wart with a pin and trapped breath.Also by This Author: Diving Belles and Of Mothers and Little People.