Candle Out

A charm for someone who is not coming.

You need one candle and one name.

Set the candle where you can watch it. Say the name out loud. Do not write it down. Writing is what turns a name into a leash, and this charm is about letting go of one.

Then leave it burning and get on with your evening. It burns at the ordinary speed of candles. Slowly. Which is to say, exactly as long as you can stand it.

When it goes out (and it will go out) the waiting goes with it.

Not the wanting. Nothing that kind. You will still want them the way a room wants a lamp. But the standing at the window, the checking, the door held open for someone nobody is walking through: that part closes. Clean. And here is the sharp bit I won't pretend away. You cannot open it again. That is the trade. One flame for the end of one wait.

People ask who it's for. It's for the one who stays after everyone else has gone home. The one who says they'll come at the hour when that has stopped being reasonable. It is not for making anyone come. It brings no one. It pretends no one is there. It only ends the standing.

Light it when you are ready to stop standing.

Then let it go out on its own.

from the notebook of Shadow, who writes charms.