Magical New Beginnings

by Brenda Trim

  I wished Violet had more time. It was nice living in the same town as her now, but she owned a bookstore and didn’t have time to hang out with me all day. I thought about asking if I could help at the store but didn’t want to overstep. It was one thing to talk daily on the computer and another to stop by all the time.

  It doesn’t help that the warm welcome I experienced when I first arrived at Pymm’s Pondside had subsided. It was more that it seemed as if some force was trying to get me to leave. The house seemed to want me there and be pushing me away at the same time. It was an off-putting game of push-pull.

  I was able to take a deep breath as the pinging stopped. That was when the knocking started up. It sounded like the water heater was about to explode, but I was reluctant to call the plumber from the city to come back out here. The last time he came, he told me he saw no reason for the sounds. It didn’t help that in the hour and a half he was there he never heard it.

  Deciding not to give it a second thought, I poured a cup of java and sipped the caffeinated beverage as I looked out the window at the pond. Mornings here were my absolute favorite. The greenery surrounding me spoke to a part of me that I rarely got to feed living in Salisbury. Not that it was as barren as Texas, but Cottlehill Wilds put both areas to shame in terms of plant life.

  The quiet solitude surrounded me. I’d gotten used to living alone but there was always noise. I lived close to downtown which meant I heard vehicles all day long. It never occurred to me how much noise pollution there was where I lived.

  Opening the back door, I stepped out and crossed to the table set under a large maple. Sitting at the wrought iron table, I drank my coffee while planning my day. I needed to figure out if there was something I could do in town. It was the other thing I loved about living here.

  There was a main street filled with quaint businesses. The bakery had the best clotted cream I’ve ever tasted, and Violet’s bookstore was stocked very well. Maybe I’ll ask if they need help at the liquor store. They carried a fabulous selection of merlots.

  The excitement over this new phase in my life still bubbled just below the surface. Never before have I spent so much time on me. It felt decadent to spend so much time wondering what I wanted to do with my time now. Up to this point decisions had always been a no-brainer. Selecting the college that I wanted to attend had been an easy one and I met Tim during my first year. Things just happened from there.

  Not that it was love at first sight, but I knew we were going to get married. When he asked me in our final year it was more a formality than anything else. Having three kids, a career and a husband kept me busy enough that I hadn’t brought my twins to visit my grandmother very often. Guilt over that took some of my excitement. I should have visited more.

  I should have made an effort to come every few years. I knew better. When my parents were killed in a car accident during my second year in college, I regretted not picking a school closer to home. I missed so much of the last of their lives.

  That made me think about the decision to stay here. I wouldn’t see my kids much. I had enough money to buy them plane tickets once a year without draining my savings, but so much would happen in their lives between visits.

  At least I had Violet here. She and I had been friends as long as I could remember. I met her during my early visits to my grandmother and we’d kept in touch throughout the years. She’d been the first one I called when anything happened, and a big reason I visited the few times I had throughout my adult life.

  And then there was Aislinn. I hadn’t spent a ton of time with her this past week, but she’d come around several times and I watched her tend the garden while we chatted. I liked how she spoke her mind, even if she was odd and talked about potions. I was still adjusting to the terms the English used for home remedies.

  Then there was the mystery man I’d seen the day my kids left. Violet informed me his name was Sebastian and that he lived close by Pymm’s Pondside. I’d seen him lurking about several times, but he never said anything as he stood there watching me.

  My eyes scanned the forest surrounding me. The guy had haunted nearly every waking moment. I knew nothing about him, but his grave expression and sexy body wouldn’t let me be, so I kept chewing over why. I hate not understanding. When I got a puzzle, I couldn’t put it down until I figured it out.

  With a sigh, I got up and went to grab a breakfast biscuit. The second I entered the house the knocking started up, followed by the stairs creaking. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. That was the first time the stairs made any noise.

  My breath caught in my throat as I snatched a knife from the butcher block. Holding it in front of me, I searched for an intruder. Tiptoeing from the kitchen, I poked my head around the corner. There was nothing on the stairs.

  A scream left me when one of the doors on the pie cabinet in the sunroom slammed open. This place is freakin’ haunted! “Grandma, is that you? I’m sorry I didn’t come more often over the last ten years.” My cheeks heated and I rolled my eyes at myself.

  The place wasn’t haunted. But I would love to be able to talk to grams again. She always had the answers and at the moment one thing I was certain of was that I was missing something, but I have no idea what. Hurrying up the stairs, I checked the rooms on that floor. There was no one in the house.

  Back in the living room I stood next to the worn sofa with my hands on my hips. “I don’t know what’s going on, but this is my house now and I won’t tolerate any more BS. That means you can stop with the noises and opening doors. I’m a Shakleton and I’m not going anywhere.”

  I blew out a breath, but before I could turn away and grab the food, I was overcome with electricity. It zapped me, sending my heart into SVT. I couldn’t lift my arm to check my pulse, but I was sure my heart rate was well over two hundred thirty beats per minute. It was so fast I couldn’t catch my breath.

  I tried to take a step and at first, I didn’t think I moved an inch. Then my arm smacked into something that sent me reeling backward. I bounced off something behind me next. My eyes were wide open, but I saw nothing in front of me. I swear there was an invisible force field around me and I could see the dust motes falling down around it. Girl, you need to lay off the Star Wars and stop talking to yourself. It makes you sound crazy.

  The electricity turned to energy that filled every cell in my body. I felt them going from shriveled raisins to plump grapes in seconds. I never realized I was dehydrated or depleted until I was restored. Only it wasn’t fluids that filled me. Power. I shivered as the word raced through my mind.

  Had to be a delayed reaction to the caffeine. That was the only explanation, unlike the sounds in the house. My analytical mind told me the plumbing was the reason for what I kept hearing, but the plumber assured me the pipes in my house were is pristine condition. That’s when my grandmother’s influence reared its head and I conjured spirits as the real reason.

  Did I piss the ghost off? Talking to myself and declaring the house likely made me insane, but my mind reacted before I had time to censor what came out. Gritting my teeth against the continued flood of energy, I refused to back down. The house was mine, as was everything in it. I inherited it from my grandmother, and I intended to do proud by her.

  Lights flashed all around me and it seemed as if I was swept up into a funnel. It became even harder to breathe. Am I having a heart attack? It didn’t feel like it. Women’s symptoms of an acute MI were nausea, heartburn, dizziness, cold sweats and being unusually tired.

  The sweat that dripped down my back was the devil’s ass crack hot, and my gag reflex wasn’t pulsing at the back of my throat. Next thing I knew, black spots danced in my vision as the pressure built in my body. My eyes slipped closed and the blackness took over.

  “Fiona! Fiona, are you okay? You have to wake up.”

  “Ughh,” I grumbled at the frantic voice. My head was killing me and I wanted to sleep some more.

  “Oh, thank the Gods. I thought you were dea
d.” The voice was familiar, but my mind was slow to process other than the fact that someone was in my house.

  My eyes flashed open and I sat up in a rush. My hand went to my head while I scanned the room. “Aislinn? What the hell happened?” My blood felt thick as it rushed through my veins. My mind was sluggish, and I was having a hard time focusing on anything at the moment.

  Aislinn sat on the floor next to me and sighed deep and heavy. “I have no idea. I came over to see if you wanted to go to lunch with me. When you didn’t answer your door and I saw the old beater that you bought off George in the drive, so I checked the lock and came inside when it turned in my hand. I found you unconscious on the floor.”

  As if in response to her observation, my back started bitching loud and clear. My side ached and my shoulder hurt, like a mother-trucker. There was no doubt I had been on the floor for some time. God, it was no fun getting older. If I sat anywhere for longer than five minutes, I needed a crane to get me up.

  “I was electrocuted.” I felt my hair, surprised it wasn’t a frizzy mess.

  Aislinn tilted her head and glanced at the outlet closest to us. We were in the middle of the living room at least five feet from every wall with no appliances or lamps nearby. “Ummm. That makes no sense. What exactly happened?”

  My shoulders lifted and fell. “I was convinced a few minutes ago the house was haunted and for a second thought maybe a ghost attacked me, but that makes no sense.”

  Aislinn chuckled and got to her feet. “That’s not how ghosts work. They aren’t capable of producing energy like that and they aren’t conductors either. They barely have enough vitality to manifest most times.”

  I accepted her hand and grunted as I got to my feet, as well. She made it look so much easier than it actually was. “What do you mean they don’t have enough power? Are there actual ghosts?” I recalled all the stories my grandmother told me, but none of them revolved around spirits.

  Aislinn watched me closely for several seconds. The silence coupled with the way she was looking at me was highly uncomfortable. “Ghosts exist and I have thought for weeks now that your grandmother must be hanging around in some form. It’s the only thing that makes sense. You haven’t shown power until now and something has to be keeping the protections in place.”

  A million thoughts and questions scrambled through my mind at once. What did she mean grams was still around? And, what power? I couldn’t decide which question to ask first, so I headed into the kitchen and grabbed the tea from the cabinet. After filling the kettle with water, I put it on to boil.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned to find Aislinn had followed me and was sitting at the island like I used to as a kid. “Ok. You’re going to have to explain this to me slowly. I know something is going on here, but ghosts don’t exist. Right? Whatever it is I want to understand.”

  Aislinn smiled and bobbed her head. “I’m probably not the best one to explain all this, but I’ll do my best. Violet is at the bookstore or I’d call her over to help me. You know magic exists right? And, you have it.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” The scientific part of me spoke up. I wanted to guffaw and dismiss her outright before asking the crazy lady to leave. But I forced myself to truly consider her words. “Since moving here, I’m not so sure that’s right. Stuff keeps happening that I can’t explain.”

  She had to be wrong. I’m nothing more than an ordinary middle-aged widow. Something niggled at my mind from when I was a kid. Unless my memory was playing tricks on me my grandmother used to light candles with a snap of her fingers. And then there was the time she turned the pond turquoise. For the longest time I believed she was a witch. Then I started high school and went to college and realized she’d used some kind of dye to change the color.

  “Your grandmother was one of the strongest witches in our town. She surpassed anyone else, and we all expect you to as well. Although, I admit some have assumed you’re nothing more than a mundane seeing as you haven’t displayed any abilities or produced potions to sell at Staves and Stoves.”

  I grabbed two mugs and placed tea bags in them. “Grams was nothing more than a normal, but eccentric, grandmother. What is Staves and Stoves? And what do you mean by potions? I’m not into home remedies. I’m firmly on the side of modern medicine. Although I admit many plants have healing properties and are used in many medications.”

  Aislinn chuckled and shook her head. “One thing at a time. First, have you ever done something odd or made something happen when you were angry or scared?”

  I paused the racing thoughts and considered her question. There was no truth to what she was saying. Or was there? “Does blowing up tires count?” My tone was teasing as I picked an unrealistic phenomenon only to realize the reason that I selected that very particular example was because of an incident I couldn’t explain from college.

  Aislinn lifted one eyebrow as she smirked at me. “Now that you have to explain.”

  The kettle started whistling and I poured the hot water into the mugs then handed her one. I added three spoons of sugar and a splash of milk while I tried to recall everything and silence the denial screaming over everything else.

  “When I was in college there was this girl that lived in my dorms. She believed the world should revolve around her. One day she asked my husband Tim, only he wasn’t my husband at the time, to meet her at the restaurant where she worked and take her out dancing after her shift. Neither knew I was listening from my car that was parked two stalls over from hers. I was so mad I wished her tire would go flat and she’d miss work. To my surprise a few seconds later her tire popped, sending her on her ass.”

  Aislinn was laughing by the end of my explanation. “That’s definitely magic. Tires don’t just explode like that. You made that happen. It seems like you did inherit your grandmother’s magic after all. I was right. And, the rest of what happened this morning is probably because you were just appointed as the new Guardian. But there’s more. Or I wouldn’t have felt the flux earlier.”

  “Guardian? What the hell are you talking about?” I was quickly reaching my limit. I didn’t want to get upset with the only other person in the town that spoke to me, but I hated being taken for a fool.

  I opened my mouth to chew her out for thinking I would be so gullible as to believe the tall tale she just told but snapped my mouth closed. The energy bubbling through my body told me she was right. It fizzed like antacid tablets in water. That was not normal. And, neither are you. I flinched at the voice inside my head. It sounded an awful lot like Grams.

  “Like I said, I’m not the best to explain all this, but you are the Guardian of the portal. Your family has been in charge of ensuring Dark Fae don’t cross to this realm for over a hundred years now. And you have stepped into that role.”

  My jaw dropped and my heart skipped a beat. There was a part of me that knew she was right, but my scientific mind refused to believe it. I stood there while my mind battled itself. The part of me that made me an excellent nurse pointed out I likely hit my head and was still unconscious suffering from a brain bleed. That none of this was real.

  A hidden part of me rose to the surface. It was something that only came out when I was at Pymm’s Pondside. The part recalled all of the oddities I’d seen from my Grams coupled with the incidents that had occurred since I took over the house.

  I pinched my arm to see if I was, in fact, awake. “Ow! Oh my God. That’s why I was hit by the electricity after I informed the house it now belonged to me and it wasn’t going to drive me away. Although, I’m not sure I believe in magic or whatever. This is all too freakin’ much.”

  Aislinn grabbed the cookie jar I kept in the middle of the island and lifted the lid. Grabbing an oatmeal raisin cookie, she took a bite. “What do you mean too much? Isidora never told you anything? How could she leave you out of the loop when she knew it would fall to you?”

  I shook my head. “So, there’s magic? And Fae? Are those like tiny Tinkerbells?”

  Aisl
inn’s jaw dropped and she shook her head side to side. “Not all of our kind look like Tinkerbell. I’m a Fae. Well, half anyway. And there are all kinds of creatures in our world. Goblins, pixies, nymphs – both wood and water, barghests, grimms, and so much more. By the way it was a pixie that revealed herself to Walt Disney years ago that inspired Tink.”

  I pursed my mouth and narrowed my eyes. “You’re one of these Fae? Are your ears pointy?”

  Aislinn finished her cookie and brushed her hands off. Standing up, she crossed to the sink. “Indeed, I am. I am not as powerful as a full blood, but I have some abilities. And, no I don’t have pointy ears. My human side diluted that trait.” She reached out and touched the end of the aloe that had been half dead when I arrived. The thing perked up and turned vibrant green instantly. Gone were the drooping, browned stems.

  I slumped against the counter and barely kept myself from falling to the wood floor for the second time that day. “What the hell am I supposed to do with all of this? It’s insane. Wait,” I gasped as I was hit with a ton of bricks. “All of my grandmother’s stories are true!” There was no question if what Aislinn was saying was right, then my Grams had been preparing me my entire life without coming out and saying it. “Holy shit.”

  “Knowing Isidora, they were indeed experiences she’d had. I used to love hearing all the creatures she had encountered. She was infamous for kicking Fae ass and denying them permission to enter our realm.”

  “Is that what a Guardian does? Is that what I’m supposed to do now?” The idea sounded exciting. I was bored out of my mind and considering taking a position working at the wine shop.

  Aislinn nodded and picked up her mug. “You will decide which Fae to allow to cross and which to keep out.”

  My heart raced at the mere thought of denying some evil asshole the ability to come to Earth. “I don’t know what is more shocking that there are other planets from ours or that it’s up to me to say who can come here. Or that magic exists. I can’t wrap my head around it all.”