Spellbound

by Samantha Combs

  “Anyway, thanks for the offer. I just overheard you – I mean I was walking by and overheard you and I wanted you.” She looked right at me. “I wanted you to know, Logan, that there were no hard feelings about this morning. I thought it was kind of funny.” She giggled again and it sounded like wind chimes.

  “I’m just glad I didn’t hurt you.” I tried to sound serious.

  She laughed again. More wind chimes. I loved that sound.

  “Oh, you couldn’t hurt me. I mean...” she stammered. “Just that you wouldn’t hurt me on purpose. That’s what I meant.”

  Could she be blushing? I couldn’t believe it. That was my thing. Something I knew I had done this morning, like a madman, in fact, when I almost flattened Serena like a pancake.

  “Well, have a nice lunch you guys.” She beamed at my friends who were looking back at her mostly with shock. She pretended not to notice. Dave especially sat there with his mouth almost hanging open until Tamera jabbed him again, hard, in the ribs.

  “You too.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “See you later.”

  My words were lost in a chorus of goodbyes from my friends and we all watched Serena walk across the lunchroom and rejoin her sisters at their table on the other side. She slid in between both her sisters and the dark-‐‑haired one right away began talking to her in sharp, hushed tones. By the way she jerked her head while speaking, she clearly was unhappy with Serena talking to any of us, but it also looked like Serena didn’t care. Oh, she hung her head and nodded in what must have been all the right places, but every now and then she snuck a peek over at us. I hoped she was looking at me.

  ****

  After lunch that day, the clouds gathered and it started to rain again. In class, Ms. Tobie talked about the three branches of government, but the rain pounding the roof succeeded in drowning her out. By the time class ended, I realized I hadn’t learned one useful thing about our administration. The rain didn’t stop all the way through my afternoon classes, and when school let out for the day I had to run to my car in order not to get totally soaked. I popped in a CD and cranked up the volume as I pulled out of the parking lot. I made it almost all of the way out of the lot before I spotted her. Serena stood by herself, in the pouring rain, no sisters in sight. I slammed on the brakes, leaned over, and threw open the passenger door.

  “Get in!” I hollered over the pounding rain. “You’re getting drenched!”

  She grabbed the open door, but just stood there for a second, looking right through me, as though in a trance. Then she said the strangest thing.

  “The dresser. Tell her to check behind the dresser. Tell her there’s a crack in the molding and it fell in there. Her ring fell in there,” she said all this in her same buttery smooth voice but with no life to it, in a monotone, and so low I almost couldn’t pick it up.

  “Serena! You need to get in the car! You don’t even have a coat on!” I guess my high-‐‑pitched voice finally got to her. She stared at me and scrambled into the front seat, shivering. I reached over her, closed the door and snapped the heater on high. Serena buckled her seatbelt, and then met my gaze. The heat in the car must have snapped her out of her stupor. She stared at me for a few moments before she spoke.

  “Did you understand what I talked about? With the ring.”

  I didn’t answer at first. I needed a minute to think too. I swung the car out of the parking lot and maneuvered it onto the street. To Serena’s credit she didn’t say anything. She just let me drive and that gave me the time I needed. We’d driven almost three blocks before I answered her.

  “Yeah, I do. After my dad died, like three months after, my mom wanted to clean everything. I mean everything. She took all her jewelry off and got out all these cleaning products like Ajax and bleach and Pine Sol and just kept scrubbing and scrubbing everything in the house till it sparkled. My Grandma said she had to cleanse her soul or something like that.” I had never told this to anyone and I couldn’t believe I could be telling Serena now, but somehow I knew she could be trusted with my secrets. I glanced over at her to see if she could tell. Serena stared back at me with the most caring expression on her face. I took a deep breath and continued.

  “Anyway, after she exhausted herself from all the cleaning, she went to put her wedding ring back on and couldn’t find it. She looked everywhere. I mean she tore that house apart. It didn’t even seem like she cleaned it anymore, you know? But she couldn’t find the ring. It had vanished into thin air. It killed her. She cried for two hours and she didn’t come out of her bedroom. When she finally did, she came downstairs and told me and my sister, “Now he’s gone.”

  I felt Serena’s hand on my arm and the feel of her touch felt like the most perfect thing in the world. I didn’t want her to ever move her hand.

  “Will you search for it when you go home Logan?” she asked it like a question but her voice sounded like she already knew the answer.

  So I didn’t answer. I asked her a question instead.

  “What were you doing standing in the rain?”

  She blinked at me. “I don’t know. I guess I might have been waiting for you. Since we live so close I guess I thought you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride home. I didn’t realize it would rain so hard. Anyway,” she continued, “even though I got soaked, I didn’t mind. It was worth waiting for you.”

  I watched her, about to ask if insanity ran in her family when I realized that she was drenched. Her hair hung in damp ringlets around her face and a sheen of moisture on her skin somehow made her even more beautiful, bringing out a kind of naturalness to her that I hadn’t noticed before. She gazed at me with a smile bordering on a laugh and I figured I must resemble a drowned rat. I snuck a quick peek in the rear-‐‑view mirror where my worst fears were indeed realized. My hair shot out every which way and my nose blazed bright red from the cold. Oh, yeah, I just screamed handsome devil. For some crazy reason, I started to laugh, then Serena started to laugh and just like that, we were both rolling in hysterics. Parked right there on the side of the road in my car, rain thundering the top of it, we just laughed until we couldn’t laugh anymore. When the rain stopped, I started the car and we drove home to our houses.

  ****

  I dropped Serena off in the driveway to her house.

  “Logan. I could have walked across the street. See? The rain has let up. You didn’t have to do this.” She leaned down and began to gather her books. I threw the car into park and scrambled out and around so I could get to her door before her. I yanked open the passenger door a split second before she did and offered her my arm, the way I had seen my dad do for my mom about a million times.

  “Let me get that for you, Serena.” Amused, she placed her hand on my arm and let me help her from the car. I couldn’t tell if anyone was watching us from her house but I could feel them watching our every move. Everything in me wanted to walk Serena to her door but I sensed somehow it wasn’t right. Patience, Logan, I told myself. Instead, I leaned into the car and gathered the rest of her books and handed them to her.

  “So, um, if you want a ride to school or anything, you know, because we live so close and all, that would be okay. I usually leave about a quarter till. Eight, I mean. Quarter till eight.” Oh great, real smooth. Why don’t I just stutter or something?

  But she wasn’t looking at me like I might be a circus freak. In fact, she wasn’t looking at me at all. Her eyes were trained across the street at my house. She had a wistful expression on her face, so I tracked her gaze and found her staring at my mom and my little sister Jade, who were just getting out of my mom’s car. They had shopping bags in their hands and they were both chattering and laughing about something. They moved into the house with their arms around each other. Neither one had seen either Serena or me.

  I turned back to Serena but she had crossed the street and begun walking quickly into her house, too.

  “Okay, then,” I said. “Bye.” I heard the sound of her heavy front door clo
sing. I wondered what I had done wrong. Maybe it was a case of shyness. I hoped she would be outside waiting for me in the morning.

  I went in the house and the sound of my mom and sister’s laughter wafted in from the kitchen. I detoured and headed upstairs.

  “Logan! Is that you?” my mom yelled up at me.

  “Yeah it’s me. But I stink. I need a shower bad, Mom. I’ll be down in a minute.” I deflected any more questions and took the stairs two at a time. I had to know. At the top of the stairs I stood and listened to my mom and sister. It didn’t sound like they were coming up anytime soon. The sounds of bags being torn open and paper being crushed filled the downstairs. They were dragging out their purchases and laying them all over the living room couch, trying things on, and jabbering about what they bought and didn’t buy. I had time. I twisted the shower on in the bathroom and then I crept into my mom’s room. As quietly as I could, I lifted the end of her dresser up and away from the wall. I lay down on the floor and reached my hand behind the dresser as far as it would go and felt around for the crack in the molding. I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be there or not.

  Just as I thought I might give up, I found it, a jagged piece of wood that felt like peeling paint under my fingertips. I inched my fingers along the top and grasped the edge back about a half-‐‑inch.

  So tight against the baseboard, it felt like it might snap back. My first and second fingers wiggled in. At first I felt nothing but the wood and then, the tip of my middle finger brushed it.

  Unmistakably, my finger felt cold, hard gold. As I lay there on the wood floor of my mother’s bedroom floor, I could trace the top half of the circle band of my mother’s gold wedding ring, right where Serena said it would be. I made a quick decision. I pulled my fingers out and left the band there.

  I stood up and pushed the dresser back into place. My mom and sister were still giggling together downstairs and distantly the teapot was whistling as well, signaling she had put on a pot of tea for the two of them. I padded down the hall, shed my clothes and jumped in the running shower. I didn’t know why I left the ring there, just that doing it felt right. I lathered up and started thinking.

  How did Serena know about it being there? Something was definitely special about Serena. What that might be, I didn’t know.

  And perhaps, I didn’t even care.

  Chapter Three

  SERENA

  I closed the front door of our new house and even before she started talking, I could feel her disapproving stare.

  “Serena, you know that boy is going to be trouble.” My older sister Elizabeth sat on one of the overstuffed chairs in the living room with a cup and saucer and she appraised me with her cool blue eyes waiting for my reply.

  Tabitha lolled on one of the lounge chairs on the other side of the room. Apparently, they had both been lying in wait for me.

  “He’s so cute, Serena. Do you think he has a little brother?”

  My sweet little sister Tabby had gone boy crazy, as all fifteen-‐‑year olds do. She giggled and pined for all teenage rock stars. She annoyed me so much sometimes.

  “No Tabs, he does not have a little brother. He happens to have a little sister.” Did they see me with him? Did they know? I just needed to be cool and collected and maybe they wouldn’t be able to tell how crazy about him I already was. Oh right, who was I kidding? My sisters were witches.

  Tabitha rolled to a sitting position and breathed, “Perfect! I can have a best friend. That’s way better than a boyfriend!” The priorities of a fifteen year old, I thought, suppressing a smile. Short-‐‑

  lived, as it turned out. It seemed Elizabeth had an agenda.

  “Oh no, you don’t. I’m putting a stop to this right now.”

  Elizabeth set her tea down and leaned forward in her chair.

  “Serena, I think you know that becoming even a friend to this, this boy, is not a good idea.”

  Well, too late, I thought, we already are friends. More than friends, I hoped.

  What does that mean?

  Great! Now she wasn’t even bothering with speaking.

  Can you please get out of my head? I told my sister. I hate it when you do that.

  When you tell me what it means by ‘more than friends’?

  Just what I said. Friends. Anyway, I like him. Why can’t I be friends with someone I like? I demanded inside my head.

  You know why Serena. Don’t play dumb. Because you’re a twitch.

  And twitches shouldn’t be ‘friends’ or anything else with a Regular. The Council wouldn’t like it.

  Well, I don’t get the problem. And anyway, I’m seventeen now, almost eighteen. Isn’t it about time I got to start making some decisions for myself? Why is my life the Council’s concern?

  I don’t know. I just know they won’t like it. And until I know more about this boy, I am going to be monitoring you more closely.

  NO WAY ELIZABETH! I yelled hard enough in my head to hurt my eyes. You stay out of my head and out of my life or I won’t be responsible for my actions!

  I am only looking out for your personal safety and for ours as well Serena! You know that! Now her volume in my head nearly matched my own.

  “Hey!” We were both startled by Tabitha’s outburst. “Stop doing that! I don’t think it’s fair to mindspeak in front of me until I learn that power too.” Tabitha crossed her arms and glared at us.

  “I’ve been practicing but so far all I can do is eavesdrop on the old lady next door trying to remember where she put her glasses. So if you don’t mind, knock it off! It is TOTALLY uncool!” And with that, my little sister spun on her heels, threw her nose in the air and marched out of the room.

  Elizabeth and I exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

  The tension broke. It was hard to be serious with that one around.

  But, I was sure this conversation wasn’t over. One look at my older sister confirmed it. Elizabeth got up and walked over to where I stood. I couldn’t tell what was coming, so it surprised me when my sister gave me a hug. I couldn’t help thinking; maybe this new home would be good for us all. I hugged my sister back.

  ****

  The next day at school I knew Elizabeth would keep tabs in my head all day unless I worked hard to push her out. She knew it, too, and gave up trying to monitor me by mid-‐‑morning. Hah! I was getting stronger! After we got to school and I dropped Tabby with a group of her new friends, I went looking for Logan. I spotted him before he caught a glimpse of me, so I hung back and studied him.

  He wore jeans and a dark grey t-‐‑shirt, standing with a group of friends near his car, talking easily with them. He seemed to do everything easily. His dark hair was ruffled by the light breeze and his cheeks had a reddishness to them from the slight snap in the air.

  Maybe he wasn’t a Roman god or anything, but to me he equaled perfection. He glanced over just then and noticed me. Sweet spells, I had nowhere to hide! Wait, what’s that he’s doing? Oh-‐‑oh. He had waved me over. He wanted me to join him and his friends. This could be interesting. Quickly, I slammed my mind shut so Elizabeth couldn’t get anywhere near this and casually I walked over to where he stood.

  “Hey Serena! I waited for you this morning,” Logan began.

  “You know, in case you wanted that ride.” I wanted that ride but being engaged in an all-‐‑out battle with my sister interfered. Instead I said, “Oh, thanks. But my sister wanted to drive Tabby and me.”

  And control me until I die. I didn’t say that last part out loud either.

  “You know Logan, I think Tabitha’s the same age as your sister, Jade.”

  Logan pretended to groan and roll his eyes. “Great. That’s all the world needs is another fifteen year old. I’m kind of up to my eyeballs with the one I’ve got.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I’m sort of with you on that one.”

  Logan gestured toward the group of friends with him. He pointed to each of them.

  “So, let me introduce you to everyon
e. This is Tamera, Patty, Dave, Natalie, Nicole and Sully.” Each one of Logan’s friends introduced themselves to me when their turn came. Tamera seemed wedged into Dave, so I guessed they were a couple. Patty appeared a little lost. Sully wore a baseball jacket and cap, so it wasn’t hard to guess he was one of Logan’s teammates. And the other two girls, well, they were just easy to read. They hung around because they liked Logan. I sneaked a quick peek inside Nicole’s mind and found it to be pretty empty, except for some concerns about how she looked, how she could look and how others thought she looked. Natalie though, she was a different matter altogether. A quick jump into her mind became scary. She put on a good front, smiling nice, and welcoming me…doing everything one would expect a new friend to do. But there were some dark corners and shadowy recesses in there that warned me to not take her at face value. I jumped out quick.

  As if he sensed my sudden discomfort, Logan came to my aid again, in a gallant and touching way.

  “Can I walk you to class, Serena?” He had reached down and slung his backpack over his shoulder and now he looked at me, arms outstretched to take my books.

  Well, time to take this bull by the horns. I took his hand instead of giving him my books.

  “Yes, Logan. Thank you.” He positioned my hand in his, then announced to his friends, “I’m gonna walk Serena to class now.” His friends Dave and Sully were grinning like fools and Dave’s girlfriend Tamera had a dreamy expression on her face.

  Patty still acted lost, only now she seemed haunted and sad as well.

  Nicole stared off into space, no doubt planning her next outfit.