3 Something old something new

That afternoon, Jana and I went into town for some birthday pampering and shopping. We walked down the sidewalk looking into store fronts and drinking our over priced, yet addictive coffee.

"What do you think tonight will be like?" Jana asked as she stopped in front of a store with cocktail dresses in the window.

I took a big gulp of my iced coffee and shrugged. "You really think Gram would tell me? It's against coven laws for us to know."

"You would think they'd tell us something to make sure we're prepared." She frowned and tilted her head as she eyed a red dress in the window. "You think that red dress would look good on me?"

I leaned closer to the window and saw the price on the dress "For five hundred bucks it had better."

She squinted her eyes then turned to the doorway of the store and skipped in. "Happy birthday to me" she sang.

I shook my head and laughed as I followed her into the store.

We spent the rest of the day shopping and meeting up with friends for dinner and plan our adventure for the next night at the clubs grand opening.

When I got home it was already 8:30 at night. I took my shopping bags up to my room and hung the emerald sequined cocktail dress I had bought for the club in my armoire. I smiled at the dress. It had grabbed my attention immediately at the dress store that Jana bought her red dress from. It reminded me of the green eyed man from my dream, and the feeling I got looking in his eyes.

I looked back at the door as I sensed my grandmother approaching. I closed the armoire just before she knocked.

"Come in." I called

She opened the door and smiled as she held out a brown package to me. " This was your mother's Rachel. It was her wish for you to wear it on this night."

I opened the package carefully and gasped as I revealed a beautiful white gown with golden embroidery around the neckline and skirt. It looked old but at the same time new with the flawless white and gold colors and the old Arthurian style cut of the gown.

"Your mother wore this gown on her Twenty-first year ceremony, she spent months sewing it for the occasion." Gram explained. "She always dreamt that she would pass it on to you."

I held the dress to my body. It looked as it would fit, perhaps a little long in length, but other than that a perfect fit. I tried to imagine my mother in the dress, but I was so young when she disappeared that all I could picture in the dress was myself.

My grandmother motioned for me to go into then bathroom to get ready for the ceremony. I was to shower the days grime off then soak at least 30 minutes in a cleansing bath with her special blend of crystals and herbs.

The bath left my skin with a scent of lavender and honey as I dried myself off and went to my room to dress.

After I put the dress on my grandmother came back in my room with white roses and honeysuckle in a basket. She then motioned for me to sit at the vanity so she could do my hair.

"Come here Sweetheart." She beckoned. I sat and watched in the mirror as my grandmother combed my raven black hair and begin to braid it around the crown of my head, placing a flower every inch into the braids. When she finished the braid and flowers formed a chaplet while half my hair cascaded down to the middle of my back. She then turned me to face her as she applied a light rouge to my lips and cheeks followed by mascara to my lashes. When I turned back to the mirror I gasped as I barely recognized myself.

I looked like the maiden form of the goddess in the painting my grandmother kept in her altar room. My eyes locked with my grandmother's in the mirror and I saw her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she smiled at me.

"You look just like Julia." She said as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

I put my hand on hers and gave it a squeeze as my own eyes began to well. "I wish she was here with us."

My grandmother removed her hand my shoulder and dabbed her eyes quickly and let out a small laugh. "I do too, but she wouldn't want us showing up late with swollen eyes so let's get up and get going." She began to shoo my out the door and down the stairs to the foyer. There we grabbed the cloaks for the ceremony and set off to the private woods the coven owned.

In the center of the woods was a clearing, when we arrived the rest of the coven members with children who turned twenty-one already here, including my uncle, his wife and Jana. They gave me a smile as Gram entered the center of the clearing and stood at the altar that was prepared for tonight.

"Welcome!" She called out, "tonight our coven welcomes, not one nor two, but six healthy children into the adulthood our the coven. This is by far our most successful new lunar year in decades." She gestured for me and the others to stand in a circle around us as the parents and elder members circled around us.

She then began the ceremony.