by Tess Lake
We walked along until we found the junction where Aunt Cass had indicated on our map we were to take a sample. There was a slight bit of argument at that point because the water level was quite a bit lower than we’d expected and someone had to lay on the ground to get the sample, even with the extendable arm. Molly lost that argument, and eventually lay down, extended the arm and collected the water which she quickly dipped the test strip into and then put it into a small case that Aunt Cass had given us. We continued on our way until we reached another junction and this time it was my turn to lay down, get covered in grime and whatever else was on the ground, to collect some water. We still had another sample to collect but now it was time for the detour. We took a junction and walked about two streets underground until we came to a rusting ladder with a small manhole at the top. Molly went first, using the crowbar to lever the manhole up and then creeping out.
“It’s clear,” she whispered down the hole. Luce, Kira and I followed, Luce and Kira extinguishing the floating lights so we were plunged into darkness. We emerged into a small private courtyard behind the Magic Bean. There was nothing much there, just some scrubby grass, a few cobblestones, and the manhole cover. The area was too small for them to do anything with and so it essentially sat there neglected. Because we were overshadowed by the buildings and there were no streetlights nearby, the whole area was in the dark and lit only by the slight amount of moonlight.
“Come on, let’s go,” Kira urged, her eyes gleaming in the dark.
We crept up to the back door which was two doors: a heavy mesh security and then a wooden door behind it. Kira went first, casting an unlocking spell to take out the mesh door, and then when she yawned at the effort, Luce took over, unlocking the next door. We’d all slipped our balaclavas on, an act that felt incredibly criminal, and then Molly opened the door and we crept inside.
The Magic Bean, like many shops in Harlot Bay, had thick blinds that they pulled down at the end of each day to cover their windows. Even so, we couldn’t risk turning on the lights because it would be obvious that someone was inside. So we summoned up small lights instead, letting them drift in front of us, careful not to make them too bright. The back door of Magic Bean entered into a large kitchen space with gleaming shelves, stoves and other cookware. We spread out, careful not to touch anything. On some of the surfaces there were piles of metal bowls stacked up that would make an almighty racket if they were knocked over.
“This way, it’s their walk-in cool room,” Luce whispered. We crept our way to the cool room, opened the door and went inside.
It was stocked to the rafters with all different kinds of produce: salamis, cheeses, olives in jars and the like. There were vegetables, fresh lettuces, tomatoes and some packages of bread as well. Molly and Luce quickly found jars of mayonnaise, one of which Luce said felt highly suspicious. She opened the lid and Molly dipped a test strip in. It immediately turned pink.
“So they’re using magic mayonnaise?” I whispered.
“Oh it is so delicious you wouldn’t believe it and quite nice to eat while watching their very scruffy and handsome guitarist,” Kira said.
“Traitor,” Luce muttered.
“We should take this with us,” Molly said.
“What for? We already know that there’s magic in it. We need to find the source, like what are they mixing into the mayonnaise or where does it come from?” I said.
Luce resealed the mayonnaise and then turned the jar over. On the bottom it had “Made in France” and an address.
“I think this is just ordinary mayonnaise that’s coming from France and then someone’s putting something magic in it,” I said.
“Um guys? If there was an alarm would that be like a red flashing light?” Kira asked.
I was already tense enough but when she said that it felt like every muscle stiffened in an instant. Kira let her light drift up to the corner which revealed the black box with a small red flashing light on it.
“I think that’s a silent alarm, we gotta go,” Luce said.
She took a step, Molly accidently jostled her, and then there was an enormous crack and splatter as the jar of mayonnaise hit the ground and broke into a million pieces.
“Oh goddess we’re dead,” I groaned. Kira took the lead, bolting out of the cool room and back through the kitchen and out the back door. As we went out we could hear voices of two men talking out in the alleyway just behind the back fence. They had flashlights, the light gleaming up the brick wall of the buildings around us.
We were in a frantic rush. Molly left the manhole cover off, but she had to go down last so she could pull it in place with the crowbar. Kira went first, followed by me then Luce and then Molly next. She’d just managed to pull the manhole cover into place when the back gate opened up and we heard the men go through. We all waited there in the dark, panting. We could hear every word they were saying.
“The back door’s open. Maybe they’re still inside,” one of the men said.
“I’ll have a look around,” the other one said.
“We have to get out of here,” I whispered.
No one had to be told twice. We went down the ladder, summoned lights and went racing through the stormwater drains as fast as we could, just short of running. No one wanted to fall off an edge into the water. Soon we were back at the manhole cover where we had entered but as we were climbing Kira whispered “What if the police are driving around? They’re going to see us for sure. We’re all dressed in black. We look like criminals, “ she said.
Molly stopped on the ladder and sighed.
“Okay, we do a concealment spell, get out of here, back to my car, and if we all work together maybe we can get back to the mansion without getting caught,” she said.
“That sounds awesome and all but as you may remember I’m a slip witch and I’m not doing so well on concealment spells right now,” Kira said.
“How are you going, Harlow?” Molly asked.
“I don’t know, I feel okay. It’s one of those things you don’t know how bad it’s going to go until you do it.”
“Well, we can’t stay down here forever, we have to leave! Who knows, maybe they’ll send someone down to the stormwater drains and then we’ll get caught,” Luce said.
With that, Molly used the crowbar to pry open the manhole cover and then peeked out. There was no one in sight but she still cast a concealment spell over the hole and then quickly crept out. We followed, pulling the manhole closed. Molly was fine until all four of us were out of the hole and she suddenly passed out and collapsed on the ground.
Her concealment spell flickered out.
“Hey!” a male voice shouted in the distance.
“Oh crap,” I yelped. Without thinking I pulled on the magic around me and cast a concealment spell. I may have gone a little too far. The magic around me roared, and the four of us disappeared. I mean that literally. When I held out my hand in front of my face I couldn’t see it.
“Holy moly, Torrent,” Kira said.
“Just stand still, be quiet,” Luce said. We saw a man approaching. He was wearing a private security outfit and carrying a torch. He walked up to where we were standing and then walked by, unable to see us. We stood there holding our breaths, hoping he wouldn’t bump into any of us. He soon turned the corner.
“Okay, let’s grab Molly and get home,” Luce said.
That was a debacle of the highest order. It took a lot of shuffling around to find Molly, us bumping into each other until we could finally pick her up and carry her out of the small side street and back to the car.
“Is this spell pulling on you? Are you going to be okay?” Luce asked.
“I can’t feel a thing, it’s like it’s taking no energy at all,” I whispered back.
Molly had the keys which we discovered when we tried to find them and they dropped onto the ground, and then we spent five minutes searching for an invisible jangling set of keys. Finally we found them, unlocked the car and got inside, only
to be presented with our final problem. Although it was close to eleven, there was still traffic around Harlot Bay, including some cars driving around that we were sure were private security that had been summoned by the silent alarm. I tentatively tried to cast a concealment spell to cover the car but nothing worked. There was no response from the magic. Whatever spell I’d cast was too powerful and was dominating everything. We are invisible and we’d have to drive the car out of Harlot Bay that way.
“Let’s just do it. People will ignore it or they’ll glance and think it’s a little old grandma who’s so small she can’t even see over the steering wheel,” Luce said. She started the car and drove as fast as possible out of Harlot Bay. We passed at least three cars and every driver looked into ours with amazed expressions, puzzled as to where our driver was. We finally made it out of Harlot Bay and headed back up the hill. We reached the mansion and drove down to our end where we quickly leaped out of the car and ran inside, dragging the unconscious Molly with us, to find Adams on the sofa watching a documentary about sea lions.
“I’m hungry. Did you bring any cheese?” Adams asked me.
“Can you see us?” I asked.
He glanced away from the television and then back again. “Nope, I could smell you though. Have you been underground?”
“Oh, my head,” Molly groaned from the chair we’d dropped her in. The freakout started a few seconds later.
“I’m invisible? Harlow, I’m invisible, I can’t go to work if I’m invisible!” she said.
“Do you think I can?”
“Well undo it, let it go. We’re finished, we’re safe home,” she said.
I sat down the sofa, closed my eyes and took a breath, trying to feel the magic around me, searching for the spell but I couldn’t find it.
“This is super cool being invisible but yeah, I need to be visible if I’m going to be in the play. I am one of the stars,” Kira commented.
“It’s not working, I can’t feel it. I don’t know what’s happening,” I said desperately.
“Let’s wait. Maybe it’ll wear off by itself,” Luce said.
She made us four cups of coffee, decaf in deference to the late hour, which we all had to fetch off the bench individually because we couldn’t see each other for her to deliver them to us. We all sat in sort of a stunned silence, drinking our coffee (which by the way didn’t magically appear in our stomach drifting there in space; it was invisible too) and watching the documentary on sea lions with Adams. Midnight came and went. Kira fell asleep on the sofa, or so we thought given we could hear slight snoring, and then, just as it hit one o’clock we all reappeared, the spell wearing off with a popping noise like a bubble breaking.
I was bleary eyed but intensely relieved. Luce shook Kira awake.
“Hey Stern, you’re visible again. Come on, I’ll give you a lift home,” she said.
“Keep it real Torrents, it’s been fun,” Kira said sleepily and followed Luce out to the car.
“I need to go to bed. That was a disaster. We shouldn’t do anything like that again,” I said to Molly.
Molly looked down at her black pants, which had been splattered with mayonnaise.
“It wasn’t a complete disaster. We have proof they’re putting magic in food which I’m going to tell Aunt Cass once we’ve thought about things a little more and I’m sure she’s going to be able to do something about it. I know coincidentally it might help out Traveler but really, magic in food? It can’t be safe,” Molly said.
I said goodnight and went off to bed, taking off my pants that were doused in mayonnaise too and rolled them up so Adams wouldn’t be tempted to lick them clean. He soon followed me and curled up at the end my bed as I lay there in the dark, feeling intensely tired but somehow unable to sleep. All I had tried to do was cast a concealment spell and yet I had made the four of us completely invisible, even to ourselves, and then had no way to undo it. What if it had been something else? What if when Kira had leaped out to scare us I’d cast a fireball in fear? I could have incinerated her on the spot or burned Traveler to the ground. It was an unsettling feeling that stuck with me until I finally drifted off to sleep for a night of restless dreams.
Chapter 10
“These fifteen years! By my fay, a goodly nap. But did I never speak of all that time?” Aunt Cass said in her costume of Christopher Sly.
“Yes, yes! Perfection. That’s exactly what I want,” Emilion said, shouting out loud and clapping his hands.
I watched from a distance and groaned to myself. I certainly had enough on my plate and things were chaotic enough without Aunt Cass getting involved in the play but here she was having apparently auditioned successfully to play the role of Christopher Sly, the drunken Tinker.
“You have it, you’re perfect. I don’t need to see any more,” Emilion said.
I have to admit that Henry G had done an incredible job of making up Aunt Cass. She did in fact look like a man who had lived rough for many years. Her nose was red from too much drinking and she looked to be in her forties with a light stubble and bedraggled hair.
It had been quite an incredible transformation and one in fact that I’d been unaware was going to happen until I arrived at the theater and found Aunt Cass in makeup with Henry G affixing her new eyebrows. With everyone around I couldn’t unload on her as to why exactly she was in the play. When Christopher had dropped out after being hit with a sandbag, the director said that they would find someone else and for some reason Aunt Cass had taken it upon herself to fill the position. As I watched, Aunt Cass stood up on the stage and took a bow and then went off, her audition over, so Emilion could continue rehearsing the rest of the play.
I sat back in my chair and let out a sigh. I hadn’t caught up on last night’s lost sleep whatsoever, being forced out of bed in the early morning by Adams meowing and scratching at the door like a lunatic. For a cat who could appear and disappear anywhere he wanted, there were times he simply reverted to pretending he was a cat who needed every door opened for him by hand. After that I couldn’t get back to sleep, the anxiety of last night returning. I had faced my two exhausted cousins in the morning, who were both a little shell-shocked that we’d been pursued and almost caught the previous night but at the same time they were both happy that they’d discovered the mayonnaise and had collected samples on their clothing. For my part, I was worried that we’d get caught. It seemed obvious if someone had broken into the Magic Bean wouldn’t it be a good guess that the culprits were the only other coffee shop in town who was their direct rival?
Molly and Luce had both dismissed this, a little too quickly for my liking, appearing to think that if they didn’t say it out loud then it couldn’t possibly come true.
I yawned, unable to help myself, as teenagers came on and began rehearsing another scene. It was going to be another ridiculously long day. Today was a slightly early finish from the play but then I had to work at the library, which meant I wouldn’t be finishing until a least eight. Although I would be sitting and sorting papers, I know what I’d much rather be doing: eating food at Jack’s and then sleeping for a hundred years.
Thinking of Jack, I realized I hadn’t told him what had happened last night. This was not one of those conversations you have over the phone where you admit to crimes. I’d have to tell him in person but I still wasn’t seeing him until at least maybe tomorrow or on the weekend.
As I sat there watching the rehearsal, my mind drifted. I realized there were quite a few things I just simply didn’t have the time for. I hadn’t been back to my lair in some days, I hadn’t written anything on my story, I hadn’t seen John Smith except for that time he’d jumped off the three-story building in town. My poor office was sitting vacant and abandoned. I don’t think I’d been back there for at least two or three weeks now. Under the rules of the free rent program you had to use your office at least three days out of five or risk losing it, given that one of the key points was to make sure the buildings were occupied to stop vanda
lism and to encourage other businesses to start. I knew I was breaking the rules but I simply didn’t have the time to go back to my office, nor any real reason to. I’m sure if I returned there I would likely find a pile of twenty dollar notes sitting on the desk from John Smith, who still arrived for therapy sessions. That was just something else to feel guilty about but it was a small pain only. I hadn’t been able to help him, not at all, and even though Ollie had given me a list of names and newspaper articles of acapella groups, I hadn’t been able to find anything in them that would lead me to discover who John Smith had been in his life. The sad thing was that John was under the delusion that he wasn’t a ghost, that he wasn’t dead. There had been something he’d shouted at me the last time he remembered something from his past.
Speaking of things I was letting slide by, I hadn’t talked to the moms or the rest of the family about Coldwell and the mall either. Carter had requested that I do but with everything happening there just seemed to be no point to it. The moms were busy with the bakery and now Aunt Ro and Sheriff Hardy’s upcoming wedding. The protesters were still in residence and I’d been avoiding going down there and so I’d barely seen my mom and aunts either. I sometimes felt like I was back in high school and hadn’t done any of my homework from multiple classes and now it was piling up to such a degree that I was paralyzed, unable to move on any of it. That included talking with Hattie Stern about the fact that her ancestor’s journal had shown me the past and then given me a weapon to defeat the Shadow Witch. I hadn’t spoken to Hattie about it, hadn’t told her what I’d seen, I guess perhaps relying on the idea that she and Aunt Cass, although apparently mortal enemies, seemed to communicate with each other.