March 1978
Jay and I had lost our home. Well, it was a bed sitting room owned by the landlady from hell! A tribunal had told us that we had to move out. However, we could not yet move into our new flat. So, we were homeless. Our new friends, the local witches, stepped in to help. Considering our friendship was barely a month old, their generosity in offering us a roof over our heads was unexpected and well above and beyond what could reasonably be asked. Given everyone's antics at Raven's party and the sexual energy that permeated every corner of that house, I was not certain it was a good plan. Oh, well! Need must.
***
"Hey, we'll all be able to go to Thena and Bram's together, now you're living here." Raven, real name Patricia, peered over one of our boxes, which she carried into her house, now our temporary home.
Thena and Bram, given names Athena and Abraham, were a couple, and members of the same coven as Raven and her parents. They were the first Black couple I'd met. Well, the first Black anything that I'd ever encountered, though the polite term for people with dark skin in those days was "coloured." Times change. Athena's Jamaican parents had arrived here with thousands of others in the nineteen fifties, and settled in Oxford. Both generations suffered hard times because of their skin colour - a concept I'd never understood. She was probably the most beautiful woman I'd encountered. Bram, on the other hand, arrived in Britain from the Bronx to study. Speaking with a very recognisable Black Bronx accent, he was one of the politest men I could remember meeting.
Though they'd met us but once, at Raven's nineteenth Birthday Party, they had invited us to their home for the equinox celebration, which was in a few days' time.
"Well, you two, there's your stuff in." Raven put down the last box among three others and a few bags of clothes. "We'll leave them there and you can come and pick your room while dad puts the car away."
We followed her up the stairs to view the guest quarters, most of which we'd already seen. Well, I had, but I wasn't sure Jay had got that far.
"So, here's the one you're quite familiar with." She gave us both a wink. "Right opposite mine, with a bathroom across the landing."
"We'll decide when we've seen the others." I hadn't wanted to say no straight away, but I didn't think the room right opposite Raven's, and down the hall from George and Jenifer, was a great idea, given the antics from the previous weekend.
"Or the one next to the bathroom across the landing, also a big one. Then there's the bedroom with its own, en-suite," Raven winked at me; Jay looked puzzled. "Or we'll have another look at the smaller ones upstairs."
The room with the en-suite bathroom was the one we settled on. Okay, it was still on the same floor as Raven's and her parents' rooms, but a bit more out of the way, and less spooky than the top of the house. Jay was not aware of the secret door and stairs as yet.
It didn't take us long to move in. After all, the biggest thing we possessed was the stereo record player. The rest were clothes, a few records, toiletries, and stuff. The accommodation felt a little smaller than our bedsit, but not by much.
"So fucking posh!" Jay said, looking through the other door. "Our own bathroom."
"Well, you have seen it before," I replied.
"Oh, yeah. The house tour."
"Mm!" I didn't labour the point about him and Raven.
"Here," Raven walked in holding two very plush bath robes. "Mum said to let you have these. No need to towel dry with these on."
I felt my mouth drop open. "Wow. Thanks. They look expensive."
"Probably. They're a bit more respectable for wandering round the house," Raven suggested. "And she said to come down to the kitchen for dinner."
We did. It was a long time since someone had cooked a meal like Jenifer did. We chatted about nothing in particular over dinner and generally got to know each other.
***
"You going to your mum's today?" Jay asked. I was still in bed and Jay had been down to the kitchen to make me a cup of tea.
"No. Dont see why I should. Her and dad offered no help to us. Not my favourite people at the moment. You going to see yours?"
"I think I should, seeing as how they're lending us the money."