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Kat had not thought it through, she will admit. Some people would say that she usually doesn’t. Some would also say that it’s a family trait, but it’s neither here nor there.
The fact is, when she hears about the Bloody Mary thing, she is sure it’s not true.
Yes, she herself had somehow returned to life centuries after her death, but that is different.
After all, people talk about her ghost haunting Hampton Court and she doesn’t remember anything of that sort. And considering she remembers her first life perfectly, no matter how much sometimes she wishes she didn’t, she can’t see why she wouldn’t remember her first....afterlife too.
And if sightings of her ghost are invented, surely apparitions in a mirror are false too.
Just the idea of the first queen to rule England in her own right being at some random person’s beck and call...Her– well, Mary would hate it. Probably throw a fit at the mere suggestion of the possibility.
Of course Kat was going to try.
For old times’ sake if nothing else. She always had a penchant for annoying Mary, and she can admit that she enjoyed it most of the times.
So she thought she’d try it out. Just for fun. For laughter. It was not going to hurt anyone, after all.
And one can say all they want about reading the fine print before signing or whatever…. except there was no contract or anything specific written down anywhere. She looked. Granted, that was after the fact, but she did.
Just a bunch of legends, and hearsays, and different versions of how the summoning should go, and more or less incredible stories of said conjuring working.
Absolutely nothing about...let’s say, the permanence of ghosts.
Anyway.
The first time Kat tries it, she stands in her dimly lit bathroom, chanting Bloody Mary.
She sees a flash of an imagine in the mirror, Mary scowling at her, exactly as she remembers her from 1540.
Kat thinks it’s a trick of her mind. Just her seeing what she wants to see. What she expects to see. So she shakes her head, and, eyes downcast, she leaves the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Next time she does it, she is, admittedly, tipsy. And nostalgic. Her chants are slightly slurred as she calls upon Mary.
Once again the other queen appears in the mirror, glowering at Kat.
‘You took your time...always inconveniencing other people, aren’t you?’
Kat reels back. ‘What?’
‘Didn’t even have the decency to send me back,’ Mary carries on, voice sharp.
‘What??’
‘Do you know how humiliating is to be stuck in a mirror, in a bathroom mirror to boot?’
‘Are you perving on me?’
‘You trapped me here! It’s not like I wanted to get stuck into your bathroom!’
‘It's not like I wanted that either!’ Kat slams her hands on the sink.
And ouch.
The pain gives her some clarity.
She must be more drunk than she thought, if she is arguing with myself in the mirror.
She better go to bed and sleep it off.
She tries it again days later. Completely sober. To put the matter to rest once and for all. She is not going to leave the bathroom until she is sure without a trace of doubt that chanting Bloody Mary in a mirror does NOT summon Mary I, Queen of England, in her bathroom.
‘You were deeply annoying then, you are deeply annoying now,’ it’s how a spitting image of how she remembers Mary greets her from the mirror, after only three invocations.
‘You’re real?’
‘Can you please send me back,’ Mary hisses, ignoring the question. ‘If I never see the tiles of this bathroom again, it will be too soon.’
‘I don’t know how,’ Kat admits.
‘Of course you don’t,’ Mary mutters. ‘It’s just like you to ruin my life and not even on purpose.’
‘If you tell me how...’
‘Just will me away. Shouldn’t be that hard for you,’ Mary sighs tiredly.
‘Will you away?’
‘The summoning only works if someone really wants to see me. Which...I don’t want to know why you would. And more than once.’ Mary ignores the blush spreading on her cheeks. ‘But once I appear, the few ones who actually manage to do so, well, they are terrified and immediately wish they never did, wish I would go away...and I do.’
‘So you were stuck in my mirror because...’ Kat tries to wrap her head around what Mary is explaining.
‘Because you didn’t want me to leave.’
‘To be fair, I didn’t believe you were actually there in the first place.’
‘Well, now that you do,’ Mary almost spits out the words, ‘can you please let me leave?’
Kat obliges. She knows how it feels to be trapped, someone else in charge of your freedom. She wouldn’t wish it on her worst enemy. Not that she considers Mary that. Maybe it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, because she finds that she has missed her, snark and all.
That’s why, as she finishes scrubbing the stove, the stainless steel shiny enough that she can see her reflection in it....an idea crosses her mind.
‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bl–’
Mary’s face appears on the cooker counter. She takes a look at her summoner.
‘No.’
She disappears, only to return seconds later. ‘Don’t want a repeat of last time...Send me back.’ They stare at each other. ‘Please,’ she adds through her teeth.
Later that day, Kat starts to wonder what else would work...
As she stares at the droplets of water running down the bottle and she sees her reflection looking back at her...
‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Blo–’
Mary’s face is slightly distorted by the rounded glass. She narrows her eyes at Kat.
‘No.’
.
Kat crouches down, making sure that nobody is around to see her mumbling to a puddle.
‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody M–’
Mary glares at her from the pavement.
‘No.’
.
Kat’s face ripples slightly in the clear water filling the sink.
‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bl–’
Mary merely turns around and disappears.
.
Kat always makes sure to will Mary away. She is not so cruel to keep her trapped, although she is curious to know where she goes when she isn’t visible despite being still around. And of course, where she stays in between her…“calls”.
She would try to ask, but she never manages to get a word in, the other girl vanishing as soon as she sees who is the one who summoned her.
Still, she is not deterred. And just getting a glimpse of Mary sneering at her, it’s…nice. Almost comforting in a familiar way.
Then one day she calls for her, for the first time again in front of the bathroom mirror, and Mary appears and her hands, somehow corporeal, shoot out of the mirror, ready to grab her.
Kat is not afraid, but Mary in all her murderous glory is certainly a sight.
‘Before you kill me, did you know that they named a drink after you?’ she rattles off.
‘What?’ By now Mary is fully out of the mirror, her fingers wrapped tightly around the plackets of Kat’s shirt.
‘They named a drink after you,’ Kat repeats. ‘I’d be happy to take you to a bar to try one, if you’d be interested.’
Mary is perhaps a little bit interested, but mostly she is taken aback.
‘I could give you some clothes to change into,’ Kat adds seeing she is contemplating her offer.
Mary looks down at herself. She is still wearing a 16th-century dress. And it’s then that she realises that she is crouching in the sink...and promptly falls down.
‘Not a word,’ she hisses as she stands up and dusts herself off, trying to be as dignified as possible in the situation.
Kat barely contains her laughter, but wisely chooses not to say anything.
.
‘This is the most disgusting concoction I have ever tasted,’ only ingrained manners stop Mary from spitting the drink out back into the glass.
‘I know.’
‘You know?’
‘I tried it once.’ Kat grimaces at the memory.
‘You knew it was revolting and yet you had me drink it?’
‘If they keep selling it, there must be people who buy it and like it–’
‘Clearly with questionable tastes.’
‘–and I thought perhaps you would like it too?’
Mary glares at her.
‘It is named after you...' Kat trails off sheepishly. She hadn’t necessarily meant to imply that Mary had questionable tastes.
‘I should have known better than to trust you,’ Mary mutters.
‘Would you like some water to wash it away?’
‘Are you trying to poison me??’
‘Water is safe now. But...perhaps ale? It’s not exactly the same but–’
‘Get me that.’
Kat doesn’t move.
‘Well?’ Mary nudges her head towards the counter. ‘What are you waiting for? A royal invitation?’
‘The magic word?’
Mary’s expression is genuinely confused. ‘Now?’
‘Please.’
They stare at each other.
‘You can’t order people around anymore.’
‘Say who?’
The colloquial expression sounds weird coming from Mary, but it doesn’t deter Kat.
‘Say me. And everyone else. It’s a matter of manners.’ Kat looks at the other girl expectantly. ‘I know you can do it.’
‘Please,’ Mary spits out through gritted teeth.
‘See, so easy.’ Kat grins at her.
Then she scurries off to get her another drink, Mary’s clenched fists a clear sign she is at the end of her patience.
‘So,’ Kat starts again after a while, Mary having relaxed nursing her second pint. ‘Do you...need to go back?’
‘Back where?’
‘The mirror? It doesn’t seem like a genie in the lamp situation.’
‘A what?’
‘Genie in the lamp? I don’t think so because you showed up in any reflective surface, unless you show up but only get out of mirrors, but still. Probably not just mine? So you’re not, you know, bound to an object?’
Mary stares at her wide-eyed. ‘Have you lost whatever little of sense you had?’
‘Never read One Thousand and One Nights? The Arabian Nights? Seen Aladdin?’
‘I was stuck in mirrors for centuries??’ Mary reminds her.
‘And other reflective surfaces.’
‘Nobody had ever tried that before.’
From Mary’s tone it’s clear that she doesn’t exactly mean it as a compliment.
Kat ignores it.
‘You didn’t answer. Do you need to go back? Oh,’ Kat lets out a little gasp, ‘is it a midnight thing like Cinderella?’
‘I still have no blooming idea what you are talking about.’
‘Do you want to come back to my place and find out?’
.
‘This is infantile,’ Mary proclaims as the ending credits run.
‘Many adults like these movies too.’
‘Peasants have always liked catchy tunes.’
‘So you don’t want to watch more?’
She does. So they do.
Days pass and Mary is still there. Until one day, she isn’t.
Kat waits for her.
But as days go by and Mary doesn’t come back...
‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloo–’
‘What?’ Mary appears in the mirror, clearing having been interrupted in the middle of doing something.
‘You’re back in the mirror.’
‘I was not until you called and pulled me back in.’
That would explain the annoyed expression...except that it’s how Mary looks most of the time anyway.
‘So you can stay out but will answer a summon?’
‘Again. No. Idea.’ Mary stresses out each word. ‘Nobody has ever been stupid enough to try.’
‘Don't you want to figure it out?’
She does. So they do.
They find out that Mary can indeed live normally outside, except that if anyone calls for her, she is compelled to show up. Luckily nobody but Kat had been calling her in ages – not properly, anyway. Sometimes Mary would feel her ears heat up, very rarely she would feel a tug, but nothing like the powerful summon of Kat, that leaves her no choice but to respond.
They also find out that Mary can’t get out of a mirror (or reflective surface, Kat always adds to Mary’s chagrin. A mirror is at least somehow dignified. She is not going to emerge from a puddle like a bloody fish on a hook) without help.
‘You need me,’ Kat had cooed, as if it was not her fault Mary had been back in there in the first place, having invoked her.
Their most plausible theory is that just as the summoner needs to really wish for Mary to appear, they also need to really wish for Mary to assume a corporeal form and leave her ghostly realm behind. Only in that case they would be able to work as a conduit.
She must really want to see her, Mary comments once, only to get a shrug and a ‘So what?’ from Kat.
/
‘–so I thought that if I was back, Catherine Parr was most likely back too. She got married after me, but she died before me. So whatever order was followed, she was probably somewhere around just like I was. And I was right. So now she is looking for the others. And I looked for you. I really wanted to see you again.’
God bless the noisy bar, or anyone overhearing her would think her crazy...or already hammered.
‘I'm happy to see you too, Anna,’ Kat squeezes her hand. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t think about looking for you.’
‘Don’t start that again.’ Anna waves her apology off.
‘Will you tell me when you find Catherine of Aragon?’
She looks surprised at the request, but nods. ‘Of course. Parr is really keen on finding her. Did you know she was her godmother?’ Anna shakes her head. The way everyone was connected back then... ‘I’m more interested in finding Mary.’
‘Well, about that...’ Kat picks up her glass. ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloo–’
‘Yes, it’s a Bloody Mary.’ Anna says slowly. It had certainly been an unexpected order on Kat’s part when they had gotten to the bar counter. ‘You asked for it.’
‘Katherine! It’s not a freaking pager! Just use a phone like a normal person!’
‘Mary?’ She had just one drink so far, definitely not enough to hear the disembodied voice of a long-dead friend.
‘Who is there? Kat! Turn me around!’
Anna had been ready for many things when planning to meet up with Katherine for the first time after centuries...but the last thing she would have prepared for was to see Mary’s face talking to her from a glass of Bloody Mary.
//
When Kat asked Mary if she wanted to go with her to meet Anne Boleyn, a glare was all the answer she got (and needed).
What she didn’t expect was to also find Catherine of Aragon – Catalina, she was told to call her – there.
‘Had I known you would have been here, I would have dragged Mary with me.’
‘Mary? My Mary? She is back?’
Anne snickers. ‘I would like to see that.’
‘Can you call her?’ Catalina continues.
‘Good luck with that.’
Kat looks curiously at Anna.
‘I tried to call her, to tell her about her mother, but she never answered. Not once. Not to calls, not to texts.’
Kat’s eyes widen. She is always careful but... Did she leave her trapped? They had tried and phones don’t work when she is in the ghostly realm (Mary hates calling it that...which is exactly why Kat does it).
‘Quick, give me a mirror. A glass. Anything.’
‘What? Why?’ Still, Catalina stands up, hearing the urgency in her voice.
‘Never mind, got it!’ Kat brandishes the spoon that had been using to stir her tea. ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mar–’
‘No.’
‘Mary–’
‘No. If you won’t stop summoning me like this, at least choose a proper mirror. I won't submit to another indignity like the tin foil debacle again. What is it this time? A doorknob? A CD? No, too small...’
‘A teaspoon,’ Kat admits. ‘But it’s silver!’
From Mary’s glare it’s clear it doesn’t make it any better in her eyes.
‘I think,’ Kat mutters to herself, but from the even more unimpressed face Mary is sporting, she also heard that. ‘I didn’t have the time, alright?’
‘Pray tell, what was so urgent?’
‘I feared I had left you trapped in the last time I called you. Anna said you’re not answering your phone.’
‘Oh. That. I lost it,’ Mary murmurs sheepishly, almost as if hoping Kat won’t hear it.
‘Ah ah! Vindication!’ Kat exclaims. ‘See that this is useful now!’
‘Shut up.’ Mary huffs. ‘What did you want anyway?’
‘Besides checking-in on your wellbeing?’
Mary stares at her silently.
‘Your mother would like to speak to you,’ Kat finally says.
‘Katherine, if this is a joke...’ Mary hisses, warning clear in her voice.
‘You know I would never. Not about that.’
‘Then get me out of here! What are you waiting for?’
‘Didn’t you want a proper mirror?’ Kat can’t help herself, dragging it out for a few more seconds just to exasperate Mary a bit more.
‘Just get me out!’
A few instants later, Mary is sprawled in Kat’s arms.
‘What luck, to have you fall in my lap.’
Mary points a finger at her. ‘I’m going to deal with you later.’ Then she turns around, ‘Mamá,’ she breathes out.
‘You like to live dangerously,’ Anna comments, familiar both with the bickering and Mary’s temper.
Kat smiles confidently. ‘She loves me.’
****
‘And I was right,’ Kat looks down at Mary, who is sitting, staring at her unimpressed. ‘She loves me.’
‘I often wonder why.’
‘Anyhow, that is how I rescued my wife,’ Kat carries on, beaming at Mary, ‘and reunited her with her mother.’
All the wedding guests cheer.
Kat waits until the noise dies down. ‘I did want to serve you Bloody Marys, but it was vetoed–’
‘Thank you, Mary!’ someone shouts, and Mary looks at Kat with a clear I-told-you-so expression.
‘–but regardless,’ Kat ignores that, ‘please raise your glasses to us, because we just got,’ a suspicious cat-who-ate-the-canary grin spreads on her face, ‘bloody married!’
‘I want a divorce.’