Haunting & Hexes Helpline

20260305

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“No problem! Good luck out there! Goodbye!”
Nathan leant back and took a leisurely twelve-second break staring blankly at the ceiling. Then hit the button for next call. “Hello, this is ‘Haunting & Hexes Helpline’, what’s your magical malady?”
“‘Ello.” The voice was soft, and somehow damp. ‘Squidgy’ was a good descriptor. “I, uh… this is awkward…”
Turned into a frog? Nathan almost asked, but that would be in breach of protocol - no leading questions. Instead he encouragingly said “Don’t worry, I’m not going to laugh or judge. We at triple H are here to help.”
“Right.” Deep breath. “I… think… I might have cursed someone?”
After a moment’s helpless flailing, Nathan offered his most professional “Mm-hm?”
“Y-y’see, they surprised me, like. I was snoozing under my favourite bridge and just, no warning, round the corner in waders with this big claw thing in their hand…”
Ohh. Some kind of river spirit?
“I, um, once I got a moment to think, realised they were probably picking litter off the bank. Which I appreciate. Makes me feel worse, if they were helping like that. But at the time, woken up with a shock, it was, was reflex, y’know?”
“Ah, er, yes, none of us are at our best on a sudden awakening.”
“Yeah.” They sounded relieved. “So, um, you know about lifting curses and all, right? I was hoping you could…? Cause, see, I’ve never cursed anybody before, and I’m not sure exactly what I did.”
“Did… you…" Nathan was having to riff significantly off the standard scripts for this one. “Observe any symptoms?”
“Errrr… hm.” Pensive burbling. “I jumped under the water real quick, but I think their hair fell off?”
“Fell off?”
“Yeah. Tumbled into the water in one big clump.”
That… was very strange. Hair loss, even expedited by magic, caused the strands to shed apart. Perhaps if the person had a lot of hair product in…?
“And, uh, they looked a bit green?”
“Ah.”
“I, I did ask around if anybody had seen a new frog, and nobody had, and I couldn’t find their clothes and all anywhere… those would’ve been left behind, right?”
“Generally, yes.” Nathan’s fingers were flying through the database entries, his brows furrowed right down to his glasses. “Sorry, I’m not seeing anything in our standard list. Our best bet would be contacting the, uh, afflicted directly, but I assume you don’t have any…?”
“No.” They sounded despondent. Guilty.
“I could put a message out in the local community bulletin on your behalf?”
“Oh! Could you?”
“Yes, no problem, just a moment…” An online search, a few clicks, and - oh. “I have very fortunate news.”
“Eh?”
“There’s a post here from one Samantha Greene, talking about having been ‘blessed’ by a spirit as a reward for cleaning the riverbank. Apparently she had some severe skin conditions and much prefers having healthy scales.”
“Oh!” While bemused, they also sounded relieved. “That’s wonderful, that is. I… huh. Maybe I was trying for healing and it came out askew, with me all muddled and half-asleep? Or maybe we both got lucky. Either way, thank you - put my mind right at ease.”
“Happy to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us if anything else comes up.”
A wry snort. “I’d rather not chance it. Going to keep trying to avoid casting magic at folks, thanks! But, if another, er, accident does happen, I’ll be hoping this phone booth still works.”
“Sounds good. Have a nice day!”
“Righto.”
A click. That exchange had brought Nathan’s average call time right up, no time for a break, but he cast a cheery glance at Samantha’s gushing post as he pressed the button for next caller. You rarely encountered happy stories, in this line of work. It was a pleasant change.
“Hello! This is ‘Haunting & Hexes Helpline’. What’s your magical malady?”

Prompt was “Write a story starting with a goodbye and ending with a hello.”