Yeah.
He really didn’t want Tuesday to leave.
Once the sun had set,Ozzie brought Tuesday over to his altar in the corner of the living room. Tuesday had told him dinner was as ready as it could be without actually cooking anything, and he wanted to learn more about how Ozzie celebrated.
Ozzie’s altar was an antique secretary desk he’d found at a yard sale. He had candles set up on top of it with artificial season greenery, and inside the desk itself were more candles, four bowls, and a miniature cast-iron cauldron.
He opened the desk to show the setup to Tuesday, smiling shyly. “Well, here it is.”
“Oh wow.” Tuesday leaned in curiously, but he didn’t touch anything. “This is beautiful. This is great.” He paused. “What am I looking at?”
“So, uh, this is my altar.” Ozzie gestured to the small desk. “It’s decorated for Yule right now. That’s why I have that mistletoe and holly stuff up there. It’s just plastic, but hey, it’s the thought that counts, you know. “ He waved at the bowls. “These are all here to represent the elements. The salt is for earth, the quartz for air, and oh, this little frog is water. It’s made out of paper. Got it in some gift shop years ago, but since it’s blue, that’s what I use it for. And for fire, I have these little pieces of wood.”
“They’re… burned?”
“Yeah. From the very first ritual I ever did.” Ozzie smiled shyly. “I made a little fire outside, took some time to meditate and think about what I wanted to do, what felt right to me. And well, that’s when I decided to pursue witchcraft. It felt really special, so I kept a bunch of the little charred bits.”
“That’s nice.” Tuesday kissed the top of Ozzie’s head. “Can you really use anything for the elements?”
“Pretty much.” Ozzie chuckled. “Some people might tell you that you have to do shit a certain way or it’s not right.” He rolled his eyes. “But I just do, well… what feels right to me.” He gestured to the candles. “Like, for Yule, you can have red and green? But I like red better, so that’s all I use.”
“Red is very nice. Very close to pink.”
Ozzie snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah.”
“You know, we have a holiday kinda like this where I’m from.” Tuesday smiled fondly. “It’s the longest night of our year, but it lasts for three whole days because of our weird-ass orbit. Everybody gathers around with their families and feasts, and we burn this special oil in clay pots instead of using electricity. To remind us what it used to be like, you know, before we had all that.”
“Really?” Ozzie beamed. “That sounds nice.”
“It’s called Sluth.” Tuesday chuckled softly. “Well, that’s the nickname for it anyway. You wouldn’t be able to pronounce the real name. But yeah, it’s fun. Not everybody does the oil these days. A lot of people kinda think of it as being old-fashioned, but you can buy incense and candles with the same scent, so some people just do that.”
“Yeah? They can just do whatever they want?”
“Yup. There’s even those who don’t celebrate it at all.” Tuesday chuckled. “I mean, they still feast though. I don’t think there’s anybody on the planet who doesn’t like all the food.”
“That’s cool. Everybody can kinda do their own thing.”
“Exactly!” Tuesday beamed sweetly. “Nobody cares if you do or don’t, just as long as you’re nice to the people who still celebrate it. My family are Sluth-candle kinda people.” He chuckled, leaning in to sniff at the altar. “The oil kinda smells like that.” He pointed at one of the red candles.
“I think that’s cranberry scented.”
“Okay well, then Sluth oil smells like cranberries!”
Ozzie chuckled, wrapping his arm around Tuesday’s waist. “It’s nice there are so many different ways to celebrate. It’s honestly part of what drew me in to become a witch—knowing I could make it my own, in a way. I like that.” He smirked. “Oh, and still totally gonna burn a Yule log though.”
“Oh, you had me at burning things.” Tuesday laughed. “What’s that for?”
“Well, it’s kinda like your oil for Sluth. See, the winter solstice is the longest night of the year here, so people would have bonfires to symbolize the light returning because the days get longer again after tonight. What kind of wood depends on who you ask. Like, some say it should be birch or cherry, but I always just get a piece of firewood from the grocery store.”
“Is that what this is?” Tuesday pointed down to a large piece of wood underneath the altar that was nestled in a basket with a bag of oranges.
“Yup. That’s my Yule log.”
“Why does it have oranges all around it?”
“Because I was gonna make sun wheels and never did.” Ozzie sighed dramatically. “Sort of been busy with this alien invading my house.”
Tuesday beamed. “Why don’t we make them today?”
