by Mara Webb
Kate took the tape out of the plastic case and pushed it into the machine before hitting play.
“You cut through me like a knife, beneath the noodle of my heart you are the sauce of white.”
“NOPE!” Kate barked, hitting stop immediately. “They didn’t say lasagna yet, but they were describing it, so it still counts. Strike them off the list.”
“What list?” I asked.
“Oh, did I not mention that we should be keeping track of the good ones?”
“There has only really been one good one so far, and we don’t know who sent it in,” I pointed out.
“True,” Kate nodded.
“Is Miller entering this year?” Effie asked.
“Has he ever?” I replied.
“That guy can hit a few good notes, Sadie. I have heard him sing at the karaoke bar and his cover of ‘Drop it like it’s hot’ would bring a tear to your eye,” Kate teased. “But seriously, I have been pushing him to give it a go and he is not interested. I think he doesn’t want to risk embarrassing himself in front of his new girlfriend.” She winked at me.
“I’m not responding to that,” I hummed. Effie ejected the first cassette and inserted a new one. We tapped our feet along to the tune and waited for the song to really kick in. We waited some more. We waited all the way through a four-minute instrumental intro and then the song ended.
“I’m pretty sure I made it clear that there needed to be singing,” Kate shrugged. “I mean, it was good and all, but they can’t get through with just the music, right?”
“Dude, it’s your competition,” Effie said. “You decide the rules, don’t you?”
“Hmm, I think probably reject that one,” Kate replied. We listened to song after song about lining up at the post office, one whole song complaining about a woman called Molly and another that was a poem read over a rattling tambourine. A delicate, feminine voice was accompanied by a choir in harmony to describe the difficulty of changing a fitted sheet on a mattress.
“Lyrically, 0 out of 10, but they make some good points,” Effie smiled.
Kate inserted a cassette and pressed play.
“This is a good start,” I grinned, nodding along to the guitar.
“Yeah!” Kate agreed. Effie was tapping her hand against her knee in time to the music happily, all the way up to the point when the singing began.
“Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!” Effie shrieked.
“What happened?” I said, jumping out of my seat moments after Effie had done the same.
“It’s Max,” Kate answered as she hit the stop button. “Effie’s ex-boyfriend. I didn’t recognize the band name on the tape, the handwriting is all looped and curly.” Kate squinted at the tiny white label on the cassette and grimaced. “Sorry, Eff.”
Effie was still on her feet, looking as if she had escaped from a burning building. She was almost hyperventilating, and her eyes were wide and wild.
“What should we do?” I asked Kate.
“Give her a minute,” Kate said. “They broke up a year ago but it’s like, you know, a whole thing.” She stopped herself from rolling her eyes, but I could sense that she thought her sister was being overly dramatic.
“We didn’t just break up, we exploded apart!” Effie gasped. “I can’t go over this with you again! I need a drink.”
“There’s a few cans of soda in the fridge down the hall,” Kate said, pointing through the door. Effie stumbled out of the room and Kate turned back to me. “I honestly am surprised you’ve lived here so long, and she hasn’t explained the whole ‘Max’ thing.”
“I haven’t lived here all that long.”
“Long enough. Look, it’s probably more complicated than she has ever let on, but they were together for a couple of years and he’s, you know…” Kate trailed off.
“Did he cheat?” I asked.
“Oh good grief! Why would you guess that? No, that wasn’t what I was going to say at all! He’s human! I just didn’t want you to think that I meant it as an insult. You thought you were human up until a few weeks ago,” Kate laughed.
“True. So they broke up because he was human? Surely, she knew that when they got together,” I said, furrowing my brow.
“I did,” Effie said. I flinched at the sound of her voice; she has silently re-entered the room with a can of cola in her right hand and three candy bars in her left. “It was because he was human that I had to end it. He knew about my magic and, well I guess he thought that he had to try and become something that he wasn’t to keep me.”
Effie tipped cola into her mouth and drank until the can was empty. When she looked back at us, I could see her eyes watering from the fizziness of the drink.
“He tried some magic and hurt himself,” Kate said. Effie nodded frantically before stuffing a whole candy bar into her mouth. “Effie figured he would only be safe if they broke up. She told him to date a human, he didn’t want it to end. Very romantic and sad and awful, but it’s been a whole year and she still won’t say his name out loud. Like it’s a bad curse word or something.”
“That sounds horrible,” I sympathized.
“He was in a band and, well they weren’t all that good, but I supported him. I would recognize his voice anywhere though and that was definitely him. I mean, he sounded better than the last time I heard them perform,” Effie said, frantically unwrapping candy bar number two before pushing it into her mouth all at once.
“Yeah, even the music sounded tighter. They got way better!” Kate said. “I don’t mean to be that guy, but I got dragged to see them a ton when y’all were dating and I used to stuff cotton in my ears because they were dreadful. This sounded great!”
“Yeah…” Effie said. She looked as if she was working through some tough math problem in her head and I looked at Kate inquisitively. We shrugged at each other. Effie lifted a finger in our direction as if she was about to say something, but she was still chewing. We waited, then waited some more.
“That thing had toffee in it,” Kate laughed, pointing at the candy wrapper. “We’ll be waiting all day!”
Effie finally finished eating and took a deep breath in before speaking. “Something’s off,” she blurted. “There is no way that Ma—” she stopped herself before saying his name. “How could he sound so different after such a short time?”
“A year isn’t that short,” I offered. “Maybe he had some training?”
“Maybe he is dating a voice coach?” Kate said. Effie’s bottom lip started to quiver, and I nudged Kate to prompt her to say something to remedy the upset look on her sister’s face. “Or he had surgery? Surgery on his vocal chords, yeah that’s it. He had some work done then went home to recover alone because he is alone. Single and not dating anyone!”
“Nice save,” I scowled. Kate shrugged, but Effie seemed to be pulling herself back together. I hadn’t seen any signs of weakness from Effie since I moved here, she seemed so strong and powerful. I guess a broken heart can hit anyone. I knew the feeling.
“We need to go and spy on Timmy boy, look at the time!” Effie said. She pointed up to the clock; she was right.
“I don’t know why you are getting so excited; you guys are going to hide behind menus and pretend you aren’t even there. Effie? Are you listening?” Kate warned.
“Yeah, whatever. Look, I don’t have all day to waste because I think there is some business to take care of later and, yeah, come on,” Effie said. She was distracted by something, but she was keeping it to herself. I wondered if this was just about Max, I suppose if you just heard your ex boyfriend’s voice after a year then your head would be all over the place.
“Do you wanna split some tater tots at the restaurant?” I asked Effie. We were on our way out of the studio and I could feel my stomach grumbling.
“Sadie, it’s a fancy place. They call them ‘potato croquettes,’” she laughed.
“Look, how are we doing this?” Kate said, spinning on her heels to face us. The midday sun was high i
n the sky and our shadows were like dark pools at our feet. “I think you guys should go in first and sit down. Don’t look at him at all.”
“If you insist, sis!” Effie smiled. “Come on, if we stand here for one more second, we will all be walking in there with sunburn.”
Effie and I ran inside and spotted a guy sitting by himself in a window booth. The shades were pulled down on the glass to prevent the customers from being cooked by the sun. I glanced around the room quickly to see if there were any other guys by themselves here. No. We slid into the booth behind Tim and pulled open two large menus to hide our faces.
I heard the sound of Kate’s footsteps approaching the booth, it sounded like he had stood up to greet her with a kiss. Dang, I wish we could just turn around to see what was happening. Effie and I ordered a second helping of ‘potato croquettes’; Kate still hadn’t asked Tim about the clearing.
“This is getting ridiculous!” Effie whispered across the table. “I have stuff to do!”
“Shhh!” I hissed back.
“No, enough’s enough!” Effie said. She stood up triumphantly and stomped her way towards the booth with Tim and Effie. I turned to see what was about to happen but could only see the back of Tim’s head and the horrified look on Kate’s face.
11
“Effie, please!” Kate pleaded. Tim was looking between the two women, likely struck by their visual similarities. They looked like twins. Were it not for the differences in their brightly colored hair then it would be impossible to tell them apart.
“What’s happening?” Tim muttered to Kate. Effie was standing at the side of their table with a wild look in her eye and I wondered what she was about to accuse him of.
“You!” Effie began. “You are up to something and I won’t let you drag my sister into some nonsense, do you hear me?”
“I…” Tim tried to get a word out, but Effie was making it clear that she was performing a monologue rather than engaging in a conversation.
“You are all the same, you people. Men sneaking around doing weird, sneaky business. That’s when the crying starts, let me tell you. And another thing! Fire? Please! You don’t see any normal people with gasoline on a hike, not to mention keeping it a secret from me. Me! Can you even believe? I mean…”
She was speaking to the room now, facing the crowd of fellow diners and leaving Tim and Kate to stare at her back. I slid out of the booth and placed a hand on Effie’s arm.
“Hey, let’s steer this back to the point. Why were you in a clearing with gasoline? Something is going on up there and I need to know about it,” I said. Tim gulped loud enough for me to hear.
“You must be Sadie,” he replied. “It’s an honor.” He extended a hand in my direction. I reached forward and shook his hand. I could almost hear a growl coming out of Effie. It seemed obvious that she was worked up over the whole Max thing and was looking for an outlet. Tim was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Gasoline, Tim!” Effie barked.
“You see, my friends had gone out on their quadbikes and it seemed that one of them had forgot to fuel up before the trip. They gave me a call and I hiked up to find them. I bumped into Kate and, well, I’m an incredibly lucky man,” he answered. He looked over at Kate who was almost glowing with delight.
“Why weren’t you on the quadbikes with them? Why weren’t you invited?” Effie asked.
“I was, but I had some things to do at home. Tidy house, tidy mind!” he smiled. I realized I was still holding his hand and it had gone on for an awkward length of time. I pulled away.
“Well, all right then,” I said.
“You guys are nuts,” Kate laughed. “Effie clearly needs to have a bath or something. Why not do one of your expulsion ceremonies?”
I screwed up my face in confusion, but saw Effie let out a long sigh before nodding.
“That might help actually,” Effie said. “I just need to clear my mind. Come on, Sadie.”
“Bye!” I hollered as Effie dragged me out of the restaurant.
We were soon back out on the sidewalk and Effie was walking so quickly that I had to jog to keep up.
“You must be excited for this!” Effie said.
“I have no idea what’s happening,” I chuckled.
“An expulsion ceremony! It’s a bit like meditation I suppose, only it involves magic. Do you have anything from your past that is haunting you?” she asked.
“The only thing haunting me are ghosts,” I laughed. “What do you mean?”
We turned a few corners and marched downward towards the lower ground. The cemetery was on our right and I had a flashback to the day I arrived on the island and found a body there. Maybe I was haunted by some dark memories, but isn’t everyone?
“Any crazy ex-boyfriends that you would rather not think about ever again?” she said. “Because, let me tell you, I have helped Kate perform this ceremony, like, a hundred times. I wish I were joking.”
My dating life back in Virginia didn’t involve a whole lot of people. I’d only dated one-person long term, and when that fell apart, I jumped on a plane and brought myself here. With all the chaos of finding out about magic and ghosts and werewolves, Justin had been at the back of my mind.
“You are going to remove Max from your memory?” I gasped. “Is that safe?”
“It’s not permanent, it just dulls the memory a little for a few hours. It’s like taking a break from it, I don’t know how to explain. Look, it’s all written in my book. I can show you a bunch of stuff. Have you looked at any of the spell books in your house?”
“What?” I laughed. “There are spell books in my house? Where?”
“Sadie, you crack me up,” Effie laughed. “We’re almost at the house. You are about to have your mind blown!”
Kate had once explained that the houses in the lower ground were built on stilts because the whole area was prone to flooding. She also told me that weirdos lived down here. Kate and Effie lived here together, so they were obviously weirdos too.
Effie pushed open a small iron gate into the front yard of a strange house. Just inside the fence that surrounded the property were piles and piles of sandbags. Giant wooden beams were holding the house twenty feet above the ground, the lower half of them looked darker from water damage. Effie was climbing the metal stairs that led to the front door and whistling an unfamiliar tune.
“Are you coming up or what?” she called.
I ran up the stairs behind her to catch up. “This house is…” I began.
“Legendary? Awesome? Mind-blowing?” she laughed. “You’re gonna love it in here.” She turned the key in the door, and we stepped inside. “You wait here for a minute, I’ll be back.”
As Effie rushed off into another part of the house, I stood gawping at the living room. There was a huge stone fireplace built into the far wall. Above the log pile in the bottom of it hung a giant cauldron from a thick chain.
The walls around the fireplace were decorated with paintings of the moon in different phases and a large tapestry of a blue eye. I wondered how the wooden stilts were able to support the weight of all the stone, but I supposed there was some magic involved.
Strange sculptures lined the shelves, prints of text in a language I couldn’t read were framed on a side table and the whole place was heavy with the scent of lavender. Somewhere in the house it sounded like Effie was throwing stuff around. I could hear her muffled grunts of exertion along with a few curse words.
This house was so different to my house on the beach. It seemed more cluttered, but in a way that made sense. There was so much to look at, paintings, fabrics, figurines, precious stones. Every single thing looked like something that Effie and Kate would be into, there was no mistaking who lived here.
“Darn it!” Effie shrieked. I made my way along a hallway that branched off from the living room and found Effie stood outside an open door.
“What’s going on?” I asked. She was running her fingers through her brightly colored
hair and closing her eyes as if trying to shut out my question.
“I’ve lost something. I mean, I haven’t seen it in a while, but it is really gone. This is, like, the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s bad,” she said. She brought her hands out of her hair to rest them on each hip. I saw her fingers trembling.
“What have you lost?” I pressed.
“I don’t suppose you remember Kate making a silly joke about a black book earlier?” Effie said. “A black leather with a tiny little gold crescent moon on the front?”
“Vaguely,” I answered.
“Well it seems that she wasn’t joking. I thought maybe she was just goofing around the last few times I asked her where it was. It’s not in my room, not in her room, not in the living room… This is like, a situation,” she sighed.
“What is it?”
“The black book? It’s just a handwritten book of spells with some black magic in there, you know, standard stuff,” she shrugged. “The expulsion ceremony instructions are in there. I suppose if we are talking about white and dark magic, it’s closer to dark than white, you get me?”
“No,” I answered honestly.
“I shouldn’t really be doing it, that’s my point. Anyway, if the whole book is missing then we have a problem. That has centuries worth of my families magic in it. If someone else has their hands on it then they could do some real damage!”
“Maybe we should look again, where else could it be?” I offered.
“It doesn’t leave this house. Kate and I both agreed that we never take it outside of this building in case we lost it. I know I didn’t take it anywhere,” she huffed. We heard the sound of footsteps bouncing up the metal staircase outside. A few moments later, Kate bounded in through the front door.
“Oh, Effie. There you are,” Kate panted. She was out of breath as if she had sprinted the whole way here from the restaurant.
“Kate,” Effie acknowledged. I could sense a tension between the two of them, but still had no idea what was going on.