Miss Enchanter - Ophelia's Story

Cover by: [email protected]

The boulders opened
and Thelma and Ophelia, in human form now, ran for the opening.
Cooper barked and when Thelma turned around to make sure he did not
follow them, Cooper nudged the urn hard with his nose and knocked
it off of the rock and made it roll down the hill, right to
Thelma’s feet. She smiled and waved and then the scene changed as
suddenly as it had when the gust of wind first started blowing.

Jim guided Sarah back
to the van and Cooper jumped in. The temperature outside of the van
had made them so cold that all they could think about was to put
their hands up to the warmth of the heater.

Riley finally
looked up from her video game. “Can we go home now?” she
asked.

“
Most
definitely!” Sarah and Jim said in unison, neither one even
thinking about how they had just left the urn on the rock. They
were totally exhausted and their new and only mission now was to
get home safely.

Only Cooper and
Suzanne were looking out the window at the area they were now
leaving. Suzanne had a little tear in her eye and as she looked at
her little puppy, she could see one on his cheek as well. “Bye-
bye,” she said.

Excerpt From
Ghost Cat – Thelma’s Dilemma

“
We are free,
we are
finally free, and we
are home!” Ophelia yelled at the top of her voice as she flung her
arms out and danced in a wide circle!

Thelma looked
at her much younger cousin and said, “For a moment there a moment I
didn’t think that we would make it! We have the red ring and the
urn; all survived unbroken. It seems like forever since I was last
here.”

“So this is
Enchanted.” Ophelia said. ”It is amazing! The snow is so white and
the trees are even beautiful bare. Which way do we go from
here?”

“
The actual
Village of Enchanted is this way.” Thelma said, pointing to her
right. “We have about five miles to walk. We just have to follow
the lake and it will take us right there. It will be so good to be
home again!” Thelma said, doing a little happy dance
herself.

Thelma and Ophelia
started to walk, but then Thelma stopped and turned around. “We
forgot the urn!”

Ophelia stopped too
and turned. “I’ll get it. I guess I just got so excited to be here
that I left poor momma!”

“
If it weren’t
for Cooper, she would still be sitting on the rock near the
expressway. For a little dog who was truly a little dog, he
understood quite a bit. I can honestly say I will miss him, I will
miss Suzanne as well.” Thelma said, thinking of the little girl who
was Cooper’s owner.

“Well, I don’t miss
anyone from the other side.” Ophelia said, picking up the urn which
contained her one hundred and three year old mother’s ashes. “I
hated every minute of living with that old Mrs. Johnson.”

“She treated you well
enough, fed you, and kept you warm and safe.”

“
Her house felt
like a prison to me, she rarely went outside of the house so I
never had time to be myself. I had to stay in kitty cat form for
what seems like forever!” Ophelia said firmly. “If I even look at
any kind of cat food ever again I will just puke!”

“
Well, that
actually was on you, dear cousin. You were the one who jumped into
her car to do some major damage with your cat claws and got stuck
in Mrs. Johnson’s car from Tennessee to Michigan. She could have
thrown you out when she first noticed you.”

“
I guess, but
that was a lot of my life wasted on all fours!” Ophelia said. “Oh
look – a deer and a woman riding it
! Do you think there are other deer around here that we can
ride so we won’t have to walk?”

The very large buck
deer with the massive rack of horns walked up to Thelma and
Ophelia. “Hugo” The woman said to the deer. “I told you we would be
late!”

To Ophelia’s
surprise, the older lady in the blue dress dismounted the deer and
she and Thelma embraced each other warmly. Ophelia stood there and
watched as the two older ladies told each other how much they
missed each other and had been worried about each other. The lady
from the deer then turned to Ophelia.

“Hello Ophelia. It
has been a very long time. Welcome to Enchanted, we hope you will
be happy here. I am Luna, Thelma’s sister and your mother’s niece.
You, Thelma and I are cousins.”

Ophelia looked
at the gray haired lady with the kind light blue eyes and very big
behind and smiled. “I remember you now – sort of. I was very young
when we saw each other last. I can’t tell you how happy I am to
finally be here where I belong. I just wish momma could have
brought me herself. She would have, but there was this kid named
Donald and…”

Thelma and Luna
smiled at each other as Thelma took Ophelia’s arm, causing Ophelia
to stop talking and look at her. “Ophelia, this is Hugo, he is
Luna’s husband.”

“
Where?”
Ophelia asked, looking around them.

“At your service,
madam.” The big deer said and curtsied.

“
You married a
deer?” Ophelia asked Luna, her eyes wide.

Thelma cleared her
throat. “Why don’t we get back to the Village and then we can have
a nice long talk. Ophelia, don’t lose the urn on the way
there.”

With those
words, Hugo bent down and all three ladies climbed aboard his broad
back. Ophelia was very surprised that they all fit quite
comfortably. Although there was snow and ice in the lake and on the
trees and ground, Ophelia did not feel cold. Not even with her
shoulders and arms bare in the blue dress she wore. She bent her
head to the urn and whispered “We are home, momma.”

Chapter
2

Ophelia was
enjoying their ride to the Village. The air smelled and felt very
clean and invigorating.
She
took deep breaths, filling her lungs with the fresh air. For the
last couple of days she and Thelma had to hide under a tarp on the
top of Jim and Sarah Gaunter’s van and the night before they had to
hide in a suitcase. She could hardly believe it herself when she
thought of the events that had brought her here, a place she had
always wanted to be.

After all, it was her
birthright. Her mother, Gertie, had fallen in love with a man from
the other side. He was a widower with a small son named Donald.
This man, his name was John Ellis, had gone off to war and although
he and her mother had never married, he left his son Donald in her
care. It was for that very reason that Gertie could never bring her
daughter to Enchanted. Donald would not be able to go and Gertie
was not going to leave him.

Of course all
this happened years ago in the other side’s time frame. Donald was
now an old man of seventy seven. Gertie
hadn’t been able to use the boy as her excuse to her
daughter in many moons. Truth is, Gertie always expected John to
come back from the war, but he never had.

Ophelia had
been rebellious and had run away from the home Gertie had made for
them on the other side, many times. She did miss her mother, very
much.
She regretted all the
arguments she had with her mother all those years, but she never
regretted wanting to come to Enchanted.

Ophelia knew
that Enchanted was a place where her people lived. She always knew
that
, and in fact, once when
she was very little her cousins Thelma and Luna came to visit them.
That was before her mother met John and brought that awful Donald
into their home.

Ophelia looked
up when she heard the bells. Many bells ringing which were pleasant
to the ears although not playing any tune that she had ever heard
of.
She could see the quaint
Village ahead of them. Little shops and very ornate lampposts on
the streets. There were people walking around and Ophelia noticed
that they seem to all be smiling.

“How does it feel to
be home, Thelma?” Luna asked her sister.

“
Not another
word until I am totally filled up!” Thelma said. Ophelia did not
understand what Thelma meant, but apparently her sister Luna did.
The bi
g deer stopped in front
of a little store front that had big bright lights spelling out
“Thelma’s Chocolate Shop.”

The three
ladies went into the store as the deer walked around to the back of
it. The store appeared to be closed at the moment. Everything was
put away for the evening and the blinds were d
rawn on the front windows. Thelma immediately
went to one of the large coffee makers and proceeded to make
coffee. Luna went into the kitchen and came out with a large tray
of goodies, mostly made out of chocolate although some were
pastries with chocolate filling.

Ophelia sat
down at one of the tables and watched he
r cousins busy themselves. When the coffee was made,
Thelma carried four big coffee mugs to the table. Ophelia heard a
noise coming from the kitchen and she saw a very nice looking older
man walk in, very distinguished, very tall. She was wondering if
she should tell the gentlemen that the shop was closed, when he sat
down at the table and held out his hand to her.

“A proper
introduction is in order here. I am Hugo, Luna’s husband. It is
very nice to finally meet you, Miss Enchanter.”

Ophelia wasn’t
sure why she felt so surprised by this turn of events. After all,
hadn’t she spent the last how many years as a feline? “Very nice to
meet you, Hugo, you can call me Ophelia.” She said. “Was it just
for our transportation that you were a deer?”

Luna answered for her
husband. “No dear, you see, things are very different here in
Enchanted than they are on the other side. Hugo is very often in
ungulate form, it suits our purpose.”

“But this is
Enchanted, isn’t everyone, well, like us?” Ophelia asked, taking a
sip of her coffee and then exclaiming “This coffee is out of this
world!”

“
Thank you,
it’s made from the finest chocolate and coffee beans. Ophelia, we
are not sure how much Gertie told you of our Village, but we
actually have all types of people here, many who do not share our
special abilities or powers. People who are just regular human
folks who have lost their way in life in one way or another and
they find themselves here and we help them.” Thelma said, pouring
her and Luna another cup of coffee.

“
I don’t get
it, then how is this place any different than Tennessee or
Michigan
or anywhere else?
Don’t tell me that I have to turn back into a cat, because I swear,
I won’t do that again!” Ophelia said, defiance in her
voice.

“I was afraid of
this.” Thelma said. “I wish we would have had time for me to go
over everything about Enchanted with you before we left, Ophelia,
but there just was not time.”

“You mean I really do
have to be a cat again?” Ophelia looked as if she might cry or at
the very least jump up and run.

“
Of course not,
dear.” Luna said. “Thelma was in cat form when a mother and son
came into Enchanted. Her name is Catherine and she actually manages
this Chocolate Shop for Thelma. She and her son lived in Thelma’s
house.”

“Lived? They moved
already?” Thelma asked.

“
Time
moves differently here in Enchanted.
Catherine was given the job of running this shop and she and her
son lived in Thelma’s house under the pretense of taking care of
her cat.” Hugo said.