When Buddy left Mr. Claus knew this was not the last word. It never was with someone like Buddy.
He sat down on the couch in his living room and patted the cushion next to him to invite Peanut up. She jumped up immediately and got settled with her head resting on his leg. She wagged her tail and it made an audible thump every time it hit the couch.
Mr. Claus looked out at the huge Japanese maple in his front yard that was in full Fall blazing sunset mode. He thought back to his encounters with Veronica and Buddy and wondered how things had gotten so fast out of hand. To help he decided to look back at the pictures from the dog park. He took so many of them that he rarely looked at them all.
He fished his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen to activate the facial identification. His phone only contained one picture of the woman in black. When they were in the park Mr. Claus had only pretended to take several pictures by pushing next to the actual button on the screen. It was meant to wind her up after the warm welcome he got at the dog park and obviously had succeeded— and then some.
Mr. Claus looked at the single image, which was a good side profile of her black labradoodle with a leash bowing down behind it and up to stomach level of Veronica. But there was no image of her whatsoever— not even a shadow or slight refraction of light.
He knew something was off about her but he had thought it was just her attitude. Now it all started to fall into place. It was not possible for a normal human to make themselves invisible. It could happen in comic books and parallel worlds but was rare in the current constellation of time and space.
“So, dear Veronica is actually a witch then, huh? I have never been fond of witches, or black magic in general,” he said aloud to Peanut.
After a second to think he continued, “Okay, Peanut, so maybe we have gotten ourselves in a little deeper than I thought.”
Mr. Claus remembered stories of one sect of Eclectic Witches with the peculiar talent of not appearing in pictures. But that was over a century ago he had last witnessed something like this. He wondered if this was still the same in the digital world. And then shook off the thought because it was very apparent that it was the case with her.
He also recalled this particular sect being adept at concocting potions and spells. Most of these were love potions and the like if he remembered correctly. But he supposed that if one were gifted enough it would be possible to branch out from there.
Mr. Claus sighed and considered for a brief second about calling William and J.J., but quickly changed his mind.
“She’s a witch. So what. She’s probably just a wannabe— it is Berkeley after all. And besides I have done battle with worse,” said Mr. Claus to Peanut and reached down and petted her stomach.
