by Tegan Maher
"Baby, what did you do?" Hunter asked.
I snapped my attention to him at the tentative note in his voice. I was grateful when his expression reflected confusion rather than fear, because to be honest, I was terrified. Then I noticed that people weren't exactly frozen; they were just moving super slow. It reminded of the scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past when Quicksilver moved so fast he managed to arrange all the bullets and projectiles so nobody was killed.
"I don't know," I said, watching as a blob of Slurpee floated up out of a cup she'd dropped. "Either we're moving super-fast, or I slowed down everybody else."
Hunter proved once again why I loved him when he shrugged and reached for Katie before she could face plant into the asphalt. There wasn't much I could do about her mom's nose, but I did grab a wad of napkins from a nearby food cart and stuff them in her hand. I shoved it up and put it to her nose so she wouldn't walk around looking like she'd just killed somebody.
Rather than put Katie on her feet, I motioned toward the stroller. "In for a penny, in for a pound. We're not going to be able to explain it anyway, and it's not like the woman's not going to go home and drink half a bottle of wine after they're asleep anyway." Or at least I would.
We buckled them into the stroller while Max finished the caramel apple, and I muttered a whopper of an anti-anxiety spell over both of the beet-red, precious little dolls. Yes. That was sarcasm. In about five seconds—in real time—they should be out like a light. I did it as much for the rest of the people at the fair as I did for the mother.
"Okay," Hunter said, scooping the Slurpee back into the cup and shoving it into a trash can. He'd tried to toss it, but it just hovered mid-air. "Now what?"
I took a deep breath and chewed my lip, looking at all the fair-goers inching along around me. "I honestly don't know. I have no idea how I did it to begin with, let alone how to undo it."
Movement out of the corner of my eye was accompanied by tinkling laughter. A woman wearing a colorful peasant's dress, a ton of jangly bracelets, and a long, flowing skirt strode from a tent not too far away. She bore a resemblance to Cheri Lynn, except the heavy makeup made it hard to determine her real age.
She righted a cup of coffee a man had knocked over at a nearby table, then looked at me, her eyes twinkling. "You must be Noelle," she said, then turned to the guys. "And you must be Hunter, and Max."
I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering if this was some of her hoodoo rather than mine. "How do you know our names?"
She flapped a wrist. "Not the way you're thinking. I'm Billy's mom. He told me he met a witch with a talking donkey, then I had a wonderful conversation with Cheri Lynn yesterday." She looked around. "Since you've managed to freeze the entire carnival, and the donkey commented about it, it wasn't hard to figure out."
"Oh yeah," I said, feeling silly because I hadn't put much thought into the question before I'd suspected her.
"I'm Serena," she said, holding out her hand.
I shook, but shivered when a little jolt of electricity shot up my arm. She jerked back, too, and rubbed her hand down her skirt. Searching my face for a moment, she said, "That's not a typical reaction. There's something special about you."
If possible, I was even more freaked out that I had been a couple minutes ago. Something in her gaze made me feel like she could see my soul.
Rubbing her hand, she said, "You and I need to talk, I think, but for now, put everything back on track. It's dangerous to mess with time."
Hunter stepped up and slipped his arm around me. "She didn't mean to. She was just trying to catch the kid, I think, and this happened." He motioned around us.
She heaved a deep sigh. "Well whether she meant to or not, she did. And she shouldn't do it again."
I threw up my hands, frustrated. "I didn't mean—" The sounds and bustle of the fair erupted around me again, causing me to jump backward into Hunter. Good thing he was half a foot taller and fifty—okay forty—pounds heavier than me, or I would have knocked him over.
Serena just smiled and turned back toward her tent, calling over her shoulder, "Come see me."
The little heathens in the stroller let out a couple final, ear-splitting screams, then shoved thumbs in their mouths and crashed. Their poor mama pressed the napkins against her nose and looked from them to me, confused.
"How—" Glancing at the sleeping kids, she said, "Never mind. Just, I'm sorry. Thanks," and turned the stroller with one hand and her hip, then hustled toward the parking lot.
I still had my back pressed to Hunter, and he wrapped his arms around me, giving me a comforting squeeze.
"So," Max said, "does that count as my candy apple, or can I have another that wasn't gnawed by a brat and rubbed in my hair?"
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"I THINK MAYBE TALKING to Serena is more important than getting you more candy," I said, heading toward her tent.
Max trotted along beside me. "They're not mutually exclusive. Besides, look at the line."
He was right. There were at least ten people lined up waiting for "Lady Serena" to tell them their fortunes. I turned on my heel, feeling a little discombobulated. "On second thought," I said, wobbling a little, "I think I need to sit down."
Hunter put his arm around my shoulder and led me to a picnic table. "Let me get you something to drink," he said, moving toward a food truck a few yards away.
He brought us both large, fresh-squeezed lemonade and sat mine in front of me. After sucking down a few big gulps of the sweet, tart drink, I regained a little bit of my equilibrium.
"Better?"
"Much," I said, unwrapping the candy apple he'd gotten for Max. "I have no idea what happened. I didn't even know such a thing was possible, let alone that I could do it."
He shrugged. "I'm not even sure what really happened. Why weren't Max and I affected?"
"You'll know as soon as I do." I tried to think of a single, rational explanation for what had happened but came up blank.
"I don't mean to be cynical, but I don't know if it's a good idea for you to talk to this Serena chick, at least until you've talked to Addy," he said, holding the stick so Max could bite off a chunk of his apple.
Max nodded. "I agree," he said around a mouthful. "I've seen some crazy magic over the centuries, but I've never seen anybody do what you just did." He chewed thoughtfully. "Though, it's hard to say whether I have or not, considering it may happen all the time and I just don't know about it."
I considered what he meant, looking around at the people surrounding us. They seemed oblivious to what had just happened.
"But I do agree with what the seer said, though. It's not something you should mess with. You could have just altered the entire timeline," he said.
"How so?" I asked, snorting.
"No, he's right," Hunter said, rubbing his chin. "Look what we did. You gave the woman napkins to staunch the bleeding. You stopped the kid from landing on her head on the asphalt. I moved the Slurpee, which she could have slid in, and we knocked the girls out, thus keeping them from doing any number of things before their mother could have wrangled them all the way back to the car. Plus, they'll sleep all the way home, and not distract her while she's driving."
I failed to see a single downside until all of the superhero movies I'd ever seen came crashing down on me. The ripple effect. Even the slightest change could affect the world as we know it, if it was the right change.
"You guys are right. Let's go back to the trailer and find Addy."
Max scowled as the llama stretched its neck toward Hunter in an attempt to steal the rest of his apple. "Watch it, you giant bird-donkey," he snapped, pulling the remainder of his snack from the stick.
We stood and Hunter tossed the stick in the can. I took another gulp of my lemonade and thought about what, exactly, I'd done when I slowed down time, then fixed it. Or I assumed I'd slowed it down. I wasn't even sure about that, but it seemed that if I'd sped me up, then Hunter, Max, and Serena wouldn't have been affected.
Just thinking about it was giving me a headache. I texted Anna Mae and told her we were going to see Bobbie Sue and Earl, but she didn't answer. Hopefully, they weren't stuck upside down on some God-forsaken ride, waiting for a half-tightened bolt to snap and hurtle them to their deaths.
The barbecue grounds backed right up to the carnival, which gave the vendors the chance to catch the overflow of hungry people looking for something that wasn't deep fried or served on a stick, and some of the competitors from other categories, such as baked goods, had even brought food trucks and were selling their wares.
We stopped on the way and bought a mixed bag of turnovers and a couple funnel cakes that were twice the size and half the price as the ones at the carnival so we could at least contribute dessert to the free barbecue dinner we were planning to beg.
It was fully dark by then, and the atmosphere was festive, though it was much less chaotic on that side. That is, until we were almost to Bobbie Sue's. Two pint-sized forms came crashing toward us, one chasing the other, and the one in front hooked Hunter by the arm and swung in behind him. Justin darted to one side of him then the other, using him as a human shield so that Billy couldn't tag him.
"Hey," Hunter said, sloshing his lemonade, but they'd already streaked off down the aisle and were almost out of sight.
"I remember those days," I said, thinking back to the parties Aunt Addy and Uncle Calvin used to throw at the farm for one occasion or another. We always hosted the entire town for Halloween and Labor Day, and sometimes just had random get-togethers in between. We always spent those times doing exactly what Justin and Billy were doing—playing with other kids and having the time of our lives.
Of course, we also hosted the summer and winter solstice parties for the regional councils, which was another crowd altogether. Those were fun because we could use magic to disguise ourselves or otherwise enhance our chances. It ended up being a wash usually, because one gift would counter another. Not always though, and the smaller kids would get mad because they hadn't come into their magic yet.
We rounded the tent just as Bobbie Sue snatched up her ringing cell phone and stuffed a finger in her ear. She motioned toward the fridge and the food, implying we should help ourselves, then walked out the back door, listening close to whoever she was talking to.
I made a couple plates and we'd already sat down to eat at the end of the truck by the time she came trudging back.
"What's up?" I said after I washed down a mouthful of food with the last of my lemonade.
She scowled, then plopped onto a cooler and rested her elbows on her knees. "What's up is that Louise just went into labor. I managed to get ahold of Rae and she's closing for me tonight, but she doesn't know the store and couldn't run hers and mine both, anyway."
She took a deep breath then huffed it out. "It looks like we're gonna have to pull up stakes and head out early. Probably oughtta leave tonight, truth be told."
"Wait a minute," Hunter said, knowing how important the competition was to them. "There's gotta be a way around it."
She dropped her head between her shoulder blades. "If there is, I shore ain't seein' it," she said. "Y'all are here, Sarah's still vacation, and Louise is in labor. The new girls I got are good, but I don't know 'em well enough to trust 'em yet, and even if I did, they don't know what they're doin'."
"There's one person you haven't thought of," I said. "And she'd do a bang-up job for you."
"Who?" Bobbie asked. "Cause I shore would like to stick it out here. We're in the top three right now, and Justin's had his little heart set on the kids' competition for months."
"Shelby," Hunter and I said together.
"She knows the restaurant inside out," I said.
"And she works with Will, so I'm sure he and Cody can do without her for a couple days." Hunter added. Will was our local vet, and Cody was his nephew as well as Shelby's boyfriend.
For the first time since she'd sat down, a little hope colored her face. "That's right. And she knows how to do the paperwork, and has the combination to the safe, too."
I nodded and picked up my phone. "She should be finished feeding. Lemme call her."
It only rang a couple times before she picked up and I explained the problem.
"Hang on a sec." She didn't bother to put her hand over the phone as she asked Cody if there was anything they'd need her for over the next couple of days. He said no, and she returned to the phone.
"No problem. Who has the keys? And is the schedule full besides Louise?"
I handed Bobbie Sue the phone so they could discuss the details. When she handed it back to me, she actually had tears in her eyes.
"Thank you, sweetie. You don't know what this means to me." She wiped the corner of her eye with a knuckle, then mumbled something about onion juice.
Lifting one corner of my mouth in a half-smile, I handed her the funnel cake and pretended like I didn't see a thing.
CHAPTER TWELVE
"WITH ALL THE STRESS of this murder, that would have just done me in," she said.
"Why are you stressed about it?" Hunter asked, sucking the last of the meat off a rib.
She looked at him, brows drawn down, like he was half-simple. Then her expression cleared. "That's right. You haven't been down here today. They up and told Earl he couldn't leave."
I about choked on a mouthful of beans and took a swig of Hunter's lemonade. "Say what?"
Twisting her lips to the side, she said, "Yeah, somehow they got wind of those recipes. Even though they're not even sure they're the right ones cause nobody wants to shell out a hundred bucks to find out, they said it was still enough, given his temper for them to consider him a suspect. They even talked about pullin' him from the contest because of it."
Hunter scowled. "That's not right. There's a whole campground full of people who figured Moore got what he deserved. What drove them to narrow it down to them?" Hunter heaved a deep sigh and tossed his empty plate into a nearby garbage can. He was introspective for a few minutes, munching on the funnel cake.
Max, who'd flopped down by a fan Bobbie Sue set up, said, "Why don't you see if you can learn anything from that sheriff, Hunter? Maybe he'll tell you, if you offer something in return. Quid pro quo, if you will."
"What do I have to offer in return?"
"Your inside track, of course," Max said, as if it were obvious.
"But I don't have an inside track," Hunter said.
"Sure you do. You're sitting in it right now. Offer to listen around and see what you can learn from the inside. That's how we did things in my time. We knew everything about everybody, and it was all via a group of us keeping our ears open. Otherwise, we'd have been overthrown in no time."
Bobbie Sue's glance was eager. "That's right. He'll trust you more because you're a cop. He'll tell you stuff he wouldn't tell us."
Hunter shook his head. "It doesn't always work that way. When I was investigating Hank's murder, I didn't tell anybody all of the details."
I raised a brow at him, because there were some things the rest of the town knew before he did. "And how did that work out for you?"
He turned his hands over, palms up. "I'll talk to him, but I'm not making any promises. If I were him, I wouldn't be turning loose of any details that hadn't already made the circuit."
Grinning, I said, "That's just it, though. I have no doubt it's already made the circuit. It just hasn't made it all the way down to us yet.”
I thought back to how overwhelmed he seemed at the scene. “Besides, he may welcome the help."
The guy was a small-town sheriff just like Hunter was, and he probably hadn't dealt with too many murders, if any. One this scale had to be taxing his resources as well as his brain just because of the sheer number of suspects.
I patted him on the leg. "You do what you can with him, and I'll keep
an ear out, too. As a matter of fact, maybe we should call in some backup. I need to talk to Addy anyway."
We finished eating and said our good nights. By the time we made it back to the camper, I was whipped, but knew I couldn't wait 'til morning to talk to Addy about what had happened. Considering I didn't know what I'd done to make it happen, I didn't reckon it was a good idea to risk doing it again.
Once we were in the camper, I called to her. It took a couple minutes, and when she popped in, she was wearing a Hawaiian print shirt and khaki shorts.
"What on earth are you doing?" I asked before I could stop myself.
She looked down at herself and giggled. We're having a luau party over at the old Holsteader place. He just died after bein' sick for years, and was so happy to pop up on this side healthy, he threw himself a welcome-back party! Last I saw of him, he was doin' loop-de-loops through the windows and hittin' on the Widow Stephens!"
I blinked a couple times at the visuals. Really, what was I supposed to say to that?
"Well, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I had somethin' weird happen to me today, and I thought you could help."
She brought her brows together and lowered her voice. "You didn't find no rash or anything did you?"
"What? No! Ohmuhgawd, Addy! Why would you even think that?"
She shrugged. "Toilet seats."
Shaking my head in disbelief, I said, "No, I'm talkin' about witchy weird."
With that, she became serious. "What kinda witchy weird?"
I explained the situation to her and she scrubbed a hand over her face.
After a few seconds, she still hadn't said anything and I was getting impatient. "Well? What do you make of it? What did I do, and how do I not do it again?"
"Babydoll, I have no idea. I've only heard tell of one witch in our family—at all, in fact—that had a handle on time, and she refused to use it after she royally mucked things up."
"Define mucked things up."
"There's no way to know for sure, but she thought she set a murderer free." She held up a hand. "Before you even ask, I don't know the full story, or why she thought that because it was way before my time, but I think maybe it's time you learned about our history."