Authors: Shauna Granger
Steven
eventually stopped crying and they were just hugging each other. They sat that
way long enough for the sky to shift from bright blue to a deep indigo as the
sun made its way toward the west.
“What are we
going to do?” Jodi whispered.
“Something,”
Steven said.
“But what?” Jodi
pressed. “Steven, what if we can’t figure this out?”
“We will,” he
said, sitting up to look at her. “We can do this.”
“But if we fail,
I mean, what do you think is going to happen?” Her voice shook, and as she
started to crack under the pressure, Steven seemed to find strength. He squared
his shoulders and looked into her eyes.
“I know what
you’re thinking, and that’s not going to happen,” he said. Jodi opened her
mouth to argue, but Steven continued, “No, Jodi, Shay wouldn’t want that, and I
won’t let it happen.” It was a little strange watching them dance around any
word that would imply death, as if just saying it out loud would give it more
power over them. But then, we’d always believed that words, even thoughts, had
power.
“I know you’re
stubborn,” Jodi said, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand, “but if we
can’t figure this out, just wanting to save us won’t do it.” They were both
quiet again, dropping their eyes. Eventually Steven broke the silence again.
“You said you
invoked Air to get your powers to do something, right?” Steven asked. When he
pulled his arms from around Jodi’s waist, he caught her hands, not wanting to
lose contact with her.
“Yeah,” she said
with a sigh. “It wasn’t much, but two sparrows came to me.”
“Right,” Steven
said with more life to his voice suddenly. “Maybe we could do that with Shay.”
“Shay isn’t”
Jodi closed her eyes and pressed her lips together before gritting out, “wasn’t.
Shay wasn’t Air; what good would that do?”
“No, no,” Steven
said quickly, shaking his head, “no, not invoke Air or any of the tangible elements.
What if we invoked the Spirit?” Jodi stared at him for a long moment, and as
the silence stretched between them, my stomach knotted up against my spine. I
was sure the edges of the looking glass were cutting into my fingers, but I
didn’t care.
“You mean invoke
Shayna,” Jodi whispered.
“Yes,” Steven
said, “exactly.”
“We’ve never
done that before,” Jodi said, shaking her head.
“We’ve done
things close enough to that though. How much different can it be? We did that
huge thing with the Angels of the North Wind, remember?”
“Yes, Steven,”
Jodi said in a careful, measured voice. “But that’s not the same thing as
invoking a spirit, and besides, we had help with that.”
“Yes, from
Shay.”
“No, that was Deb’s
coven. It was their spell, their power, that those angels answered, not us.
Besides, we invoked the angels’ power, not them.”
“Yeah,” Steven
said after a few silent moments, thinking about what Jodi had said. “I guess
you’re right. I didn’t really think about it that way.”
“I’m sorry to
burst your bubble,” Jodi said, shifting her eyes away from Steven, gazing off
into nothing.
“Still though,”
Steven said, bringing Jodi’s attention back to him, “we know the general idea,
right? We cast a circle, we call on the powers of the four tangible elements,
and we summon the entity we want to answer us.”
“Shay,” Jodi
supplied, and Steven nodded.
“I think we can
do this.”
“But, Steven, you
and I, we can’t write spells. That was always Shayna’s gift, not ours.”
Steven nodded,
pursing his lips together as he thought. “So we’ll just find a spell that Shay
wrote.”
Jodi scrunched
up her face and started to shake her head.
“Yes!” Steven
said with so much conviction that Jodi stopped shaking her head. “Shay’s
grimoire is just sitting in her room!”
“What if we
can’t invoke her?”
“We won’t know
if we can or can’t if we don’t try,” Steven said. “And Shay has dozens of spell
books in her room. I’m sure we can find something in there to help us.”
“True,” Jodi
said slowly.
“C’mon, I’m sure
her parents will let us in,” Steven said. He pushed to his feet, pulling Jodi’s
hand.
They pried open
the trapdoor and made their way down the twisting rungs of wood my dad affixed
to the aged tree over ten years ago. My mom was at the back door by the time
they hit the ground, a small smile on her lips. When they asked her if it would
be okay for them to visit my room, she looked at them with eyes shimmering with
unshed tears. She just nodded and stepped aside to let them pass.
The image in the
looking glass followed them through the house, never letting them out of sight as
long as I kept concentrating on them. My room was dark when they opened the
door, and when Steven flicked the light switch, I saw that, after however many
weeks it had been, my parents still hadn’t touched a single thing in the room. Except
my mom had obviously made my bed because it was made neater than I had ever
bothered to make it in life, and there wasn’t so much a speck of dust anywhere.
My mother must’ve been keeping it clean since I’d passed. Like a shrine.
Steven and Jodi
went straight for my bookcase. I kept my books on spells and magic on the
bottom two shelves, where they were least conspicuous. Obviously most people
who came into my room were people I trusted, but I wasn’t open about my magic
and abilities to the whole world, not even everyone in my family knew about it,
so I tried to keep things inconspicuous. I didn’t want anyone’s negative
reaction leaving that kind of energy residue on my spelling supplies.
Jodi picked up
my wand, a gift she’d given me when we were thirteen years old and thought
things like that were necessary to successfully perform spells. It was a smooth
piece of light wood with different precious stones glued to it, set apart so
that my fingers would slip between them when I grasped it. At the ends were two
pointy, clear quartz stones. Jodi ran her fingers over the cool stones, her
eyes hooded, hiding her thoughts. Steven was quiet, letting her have a moment,
while he browsed the titles. There were many volumes neither of them had ever
touched because the magic was difficult and time-consuming and things I hadn’t
thought we were ready to try yet. I always thought there would be plenty of
time to get around to things like that. I guess we always think that.
Steven pulled a
couple of books off of a shelf and laid them on the bed before he crawled up
and laid on his stomach. Jodi set my wand back on the shelf, being very careful
to put it exactly the way it was before she picked it up. She shook herself and
reached for two other books, careful not to touch anything else. When she
scooted back to put her back against the bed under Steven, I saw her wipe her
face with the back of her hand and sniff quietly. She opened the first book,
dipping her head to hide her face as she read.
After a while,
my mom came in with a couple of sodas and sandwiches, insisting they had to eat
something since they’d missed dinner.
“How do you
think they’re doing?” Steven whispered to Jodi after my mother had pulled the
door mostly closed behind her, leaving it ajar out of habit since they were a
boy and a girl alone in the room.
“As best as they
could be, I guess,” Jodi whispered back. They both stared at the slightly open
door, holding their sandwiches, neither taking a bite yet. Steven recovered
first, his forgotten hunger rearing its ugly head with a particularly loud
grumble from his stomach.
“Okay,” he said
around a mouthful of turkey sandwich, “so, do you think we can do this on our
own?”
“What? You think
we need more people?” Jodi swiveled until she faced the bed.
“Well, if we
still had all our powers, no,” he said, “but as weak as we are now? I mean,
this is high magic, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I don’t like
the idea of doing magic with other people either, but we may not have a
choice.”
“Deb?”
“That’s what I
was thinking,” Steven said, popping the last bit of the half sandwich in his
mouth.
“Suppose they
won’t help?” Jodi glanced at Steven over the rim of the soda can.
“Dude, what is
it with you? ‘What if we can’t?’ ‘Suppose they won’t?’ Where the hell is
Tinkerbell? Can we please have some positive thoughts right now?” Steven
demanded, though there wasn’t much force in his voice.
“I’m just
saying, don’t get your hopes up. Deb doesn’t like it when we try to meddle with
things that would put the natural order out of balance or things she thinks
we’re not ready for,” Jodi said. “And trust me, this is something she’ll think
will put the natural order out of balance. I mean, remember? She only helped us
with the nymphs on a technicality.”
“But…” Steven
paused. “But she’ll want Shay back too, right?”
“Of course, but
that doesn’t mean she’d do something like this, let alone ask her coven to help
us with it,” Jodi replied.
“Maybe if I tell her Shay was still hanging
around, but I banished her…” His voice trailed off as he heard how it sounded
out loud. He knew it wouldn’t do much to sway Deb’s decision.
“All we can do
is ask,” Jodi said. “I mean, we can tell her we think Shay hadn’t moved on, so
we want to help her come back, but…” She trailed off as well, ending her
statement with a shrug.
“Don’t get my
hopes up, right,” Steven finished for her.
They finished
their dinner of sandwiches and chips mostly in silence while they continued to
page through the books. Jodi grabbed a pad of sticky notes and a pen from my
table to make some notes and mark some pages with the hot pink squares. On
their way out, after they had slipped their chosen books into Steven’s
messenger bag, Steven grabbed the braided bracelet he’d given me and tucked it
into his pocket.
Steven insisted
on doing the dishes before they left. While Jodi helped with a forced smile,
she obviously would’ve rather let my mom do them when my mom said not to
bother. Standing outside Steven’s car, they discussed the merits of calling Deb
right then versus waiting until the morning. Finally they agreed since this was
such a big deal, talking to her in private rather than in a store full of
people, even if they were in the private room in back, might be best.
“Right,” Jodi
said, “because if she reacts the way I think she will, that door isn’t going to
be enough to keep everyone in the store from hearing her scream.”
“Shut up,”
Steven hissed as he pulled out his cell and called Deb.
“Hey, Deb!”
Steven said brightly into the phone, sounding more like his old self than he
had since I died. He went on to tell her that he and Jodi had something
important they needed to ask her, but they shouldn’t talk about it over the
phone. Deb seemed to agree to them coming over without much hesitation.
When Steven and
Jodi got into his car, the vision in the looking glass became foggy and
difficult to follow. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping the handle of the looking
glass hard enough to mottle my fingers, and concentrated on Jodi and Steven’s
images until I felt a small prick of pain behind my eyes. I peeked with one
eye, a wave of relief crashing through me when I saw Deb’s house materialize in
the black glass.
It looked as
though every light in the house was on, illuminating it against the dark
neighborhood street. Deb stood on the porch, a black shawl wrapped around her
shoulders, waiting for Jodi and Steven when they pulled up. Deb’s long brown
hair tumbled past her shoulders, down around her waist, the curling tips
fluttering behind her when she hurried down the steps to greet them as they got
out of the car.
They all hugged
and took a moment in greeting before Deb waved them up the walk and followed
them, the hem of her floor length grey dress snapping around her heels as she
went. Following them into the house took more concentration than it had
earlier, but soon the familiar, warm toned living room materialized as I
watched. Bookshelves overflowing with books, crystals, and charms lined the
walls. An overstuffed couch covered in pillows was along one wall with little
Trisity curled up asleep, and a rocking recliner that I usually sat in was
cocked in the corner. At Christmastime, Deb would have a beautiful Christmas
tree in front of the huge picture window facing the street.
“We didn’t know
you had company,” Steven whispered, not wanting to wake Trisity.
“It’s fine,” Deb
whispered back. “Come into the kitchen.”
When they
entered the kitchen, they found Jane, Trisity’s mom, and Jane’s sister, Sherry,
leaning against opposite counters with steaming cups of tea in their hands.
Jane looked up first, her heart shaped face brightening when she recognized
Steven and Jodi.
“Hello, kids,”
she said in a soft voice, setting her cup down before holding her arms out for
a hug. Steven moved forward quickly to accept the hug. Not much for hugging
people she hardly knew, Jodi slipped into a chair at the kitchen table tucked
into the corner. She was a lot like me in that regard. Steven on the other hand
didn’t mind displays of affection from most anyone. Sherry gave Jodi a
sympathetic smile and a small wave, which she returned.