by Dani Corlee
“I'm not an astronomer!” she exclaimed.
She could only analyze and resolve one problem at a time.
“Ravyn, can you come here?” She got in contact with her elder granddaughter who was turning more and more into her right-hand woman.
“Yes, Granny, I'm here.” she replied, appearing in front of Isidora.
“Do me a favor. We need to gather the healers' group again. Contact the appropriate masters and have the healers come here by tomorrow morning. I need to rest a little.”
“Are you OK, Granny? You look pale.” Ravyn approached her grandmother and gently touched her forehead to feel the heat.
“I'm fine, my dear. Only a little tired. Please, arrange everything for tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir!” Ravyn replied. She gave a military salute and disappeared.
CHAPTER 11
Kim was nervously tapping her foot on the floor while shuffling papers on the table of what was now officially considered her meeting room. She looked around, waiting for the healers' group to arrive. She had been told to furnish the room as she pleased, and so she did. After many attempts, she had chosen a table for eight people made of dark green wood. The small chairs were comfortable, of a lovely shade of cobalt blue.
Besides the lights recessed in the ceiling, she had picked a designer floor lamp with adjustable light intensity. The pictures hanging on the four walls were windows on other places. She particularly liked an Irish emerald-green wood, with a thin rain that was a pleasant and relaxing sound and the warm and bright-gold color of an African desert, where the eye could go beyond the horizon.
She drummed her fingers on the table, snorting. She had arrived earlier, but she hated to wait, because she was often overwhelmed with anxiety. Finally the door opened, showing the group. She had imagined she would have received them with a relaxed and polite manner, as she thought suitable for a queen. But as soon as she saw them coming in, smiling at her, happy to meet her again, she couldn't help standing up and going towards them. She was glad they could be together once more. And she was especially happy to see Samia, who, pushing through the others, reached her first and squeezed her in a warm hug.
“Back together again! I've been told ours is a very powerful group. Oh, sorry, I meant a circle. And being experts about shields,” she giggled, “this time we have to create one, instead of destroying them! It isn't something easy. We won't even be able to know if our shield will work until babies born under its effects are big enough to show their magical powers, or the lack of them. We will have to rely only on what we learned last time, and on our instincts.” She stopped, looking quickly at each of them. “Questions?”
Francesco spoke. “First of all, I wanted to let you all know that thanks to what we did I was able to manifest some of my latent magical powers. I'm working a lot on them; it isn't easy, but I'm on the right track.” He stopped because of the giggles and applause that welcomed his declaration. “Then I wanted to ask,” he turned to Kim, “have you already studied a strategy, or shall we be fumbling around in the dark?”
Kim felt like blushing, feeling guilty. She had waited for the group to start thinking about what they should do, taking for granted she wasn't able to come to any conclusion only by herself. She answered quickly: “The problem we are facing was raised only two days ago, and I haven't had time to study it yet. I hope we'll be able to manage it together, starting from the beginning.”
“Great powers come with great responsibilities,” Isidora once told her. Or it wasn't her. Or maybe the sentence wasn't even exactly like that. But for the first time since she turned into a witch, Kim had one of those a-ha moments.
She looked at the group, gazed in their eyes, fearing what she would see. They sat silently and motionless, barely breathing, waiting for her. She remained silent for few seconds, aware she was the one who had to give the input and decide.
OK, she thought. This is my task and I cannot let them down.
She cleared her throat, taking the time to think what to say, what to do. She tried to visualize the problem and see the steps to be taken. She wasn't feeling guilty anymore when she started talking again. Her voice was getting stronger while she talked.
“Now,” she said, while again organizing the papers she had in front of her. “Let's start from the beginning. Can we recap about the shields? We need to create one and therefore we need to find out what we know about them. Who wants to tell us what we know?”
Francesco looked at the others and then talked: “We don't know much. We know for sure newborns were able to develop them by instinct, probably in response to feeling some discomfort, maybe a sort of tickle. We don't know, really. In any case, the shields must have grown gradually and while they probably protected the babies from the ailment, at the same time it didn't allow their magical powers to develop. We suppose those shields blocked the energy which helps the powers to grow.”
All the other attendees nodded in agreement. Kim looked at the group, waiting for anyone else who wanted to take the floor.
Ivy cleared her throat. “But now we need to do the opposite.”
“Yes,” Tyler added. “Now we need to block the antennas' effects while leaving their function intact. We cannot have all the antennas not working anymore!” He raised his eyebrows and his piercings gleamed under the lights.
William adjusted his glasses on his nose and said, “I suppose the first step to take is trying to understand how mobile phones work. Besides, I keep on reading they increase the possibilities of various illnesses.”
Kim nodded thoughtfully. “This is not the right moment, not the right place, to think about it. What we can do after we resolve our immediate problem is to see if we can develop a sort of protection against eventual damage caused by mobile phones. For now, let's stick to our issue.”
“Are we really sure the problem is caused by the antennas?” Fiona intervened. Pulling back her curly red hair, she continued. “I'm still not totally sure. We all found witches who didn't develop their powers, even though not living near antennas' influence. And the opposite, too. Could it be something else? Or something in conjunction with antennas?”
“Yes,” Kim admitted. “I’ve often thought the same. Let's divide the tasks. First thing, everybody should contact his community and get an official statistic report about the people who didn't develop the powers. Or better, an official statistic about the last 25 years relating to antennas, place and date of birth, the degree of powers, if any, etc.... Fiona and Olga, please prepare a detailed list of the information we need. William and Tyler, please start gathering information about how mobile phones work. Ivy, we might need to talk to Isidora and find a better place to work. I think we might need a real antenna to make our experiments. Samia and Francesco, please gather as many pieces of information as you can about any unusual facts during the said period in your communities and I'll do the same for here. Anything like big storms, changes in the weather, but also electric or magnetic storms, eclipses, and even sun flares... anything you might think of.” Kim didn't miss Samia's slight smile of satisfaction and Francesco’s brief glance to Samia when she told them they were going to work together. She had thought whether to let the two be a team because their evident and reciprocal attraction could be to the detriment of the work, but at the same time she believed they could give 110 percent, thanks to their feelings.
A light knock on the door stopped her thoughts, taking her by surprise. Who could it be?
“Kim? May I come in?” One of the receptionists peeped out from behind the door.
She hurried near Kim and whispered something to her, who paled. “My mom? Are you sure?”
“Yes, I've been ordered not to disturb the meeting and I contacted Isidora. She told me to take your mother to her office, and once there, she mentally told me to warn you. She is going to tell her you are holding a lesson about art history. She wanted to give you the time to be prepared, to change the room accordingly because she will be here with her in few minu
tes. She is presently taking her on a tour around the club.”
Kim bit her lip and looked at the others, who were still unaware of the little drama she was living.
“Er... Listen. I'm sorry, my mom is coming here.”
“Nice!” someone exclaimed while the receptionist exited the room.
She sighed. “It isn't good news because we have to stop our meeting for a while. She doesn't know what the Magic Club is in reality, and most of all she doesn't know I'm a witch, and I have no intention of letting her know. She has been told I'm giving a lesson about art history, so please, help me make the necessary changes to the room!”
“I'll do it,” Olga exclaimed. “I've given many lessons and know well what we need. Not many changes are necessary. Kim, move there, please.” and she pointed at the head of the table. Kim was sitting in the middle of the table, feeling more comfortable with nearly all the group in front of them, but she obeyed Olga.
“OK, now a little transformation.” She quickly moved her hands accompanying the movements with whispers. The windows on other parts of the worlds turned to framed photos. Then she made a big screen appear behind Kim showing Fields of Poppies by Monet and on the table in front of her a computer with the same image. “Let's pretend you were talking about Impressionism. It's my favorite artistic movement. You can display all his other paintings with just the touch of the mouse,” she smiled. A pad full of notes and a pen appeared in front of everybody. “Now you can start telling us about Monet!” she exclaimed and sat looking at Kim.
“Oh, well, why not? I love Impressionism, too. Do you know why the movement is called Impressionism?”
There was a knock at the door and she interrupted her fake lesson. “Yes?” she said in a hesitant voice. Her mother always had the effect of undermining her self-confidence.
“Can we come in?” Isidora asked. “Look, Kim, I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh, mom, what a surprise!” She stood up and went to her mother, kissing her on the cheek. “I'm giving a lesson, and...”
“Yes, Isidora told me.” Linda greeted everybody with a sign of her head. “She was so kind as to show me the Club and all the activities one can do here. I'm missing my gym and my swimming pool and I thought I could do some stretching here. And I was getting bored alone at home! I'll see you later. Bye, everyone.” She went away with Isidora, who winked to Kim as if to say that everything was going well.
“I'll take care of her,” she whispered while closing the door behind her.
Kim plopped on her chair with a big sigh of pleasure at the narrow escape, but still nervous because she didn't feel totally safe until her mother was gone.
“OK, where were we?” she asked.
CHAPTER 12
“Lucille, I'm in the park with the car, get down here! Samia is coming too.”
“Yeah, coming,” was Lucille's quick reply.
Kim looked at her watch. She was looking forward to a walk in the center with her friends. Since her arrival, she hadn't had time to look around the town and she still didn't know it well. Moreover, she was looking forward to having some time with Samia, to learn what she had done lately and what was going on with Francesco.
The two friends arrived and Kim thought they couldn't be more different, even though both were fascinating.
“Get inside. Are you ready?”
“We gotta talk! Still don't understand why you want us to take a car. Can't we teleport?”
“Oh, Lucille! You know we cannot! Isidora has been quite clear and, by the way, her orders are for you too! She doesn't want anyone to have the slightest suspicion about magic.”
Lucille snorted and after a while, winked, smiling. “Who would tell her?”
The center of town wasn't too far from the Club, and it took only a few minutes for them to get there even with Kim's slow driving, because she didn't want to miss looking at everything while going there.
“Turn on the right, yep, we can leave the car here. Ladies, be prepared to take a wonderful tour of the most beautiful shops in our town. And with the most beautiful guide!”
Kim was very excited. She had gone downtown few times and she had always been in a hurry. There was an entire new world for her to discover. The streets were busy with cars, but the traffic seemed to move smoothly. Many people were walking along the streets. People walking quickly busy on their errands, friends lazily taking a stroll, looking at the shops' window, couples sitting at coffee shops, slowly sipping their drinks.
How many of those people were witches? But that town was nothing more than any other place in the world, and the chances of bumping into a witch had always been the same her whole life. How many of her friends and acquaintances were witches?
Lucille diverted her attention. “This is Main Street. It's quite long and full of nice shops. Over there is the street I told you about, where the best fashion shops are located. We have lots of brands and stylists here.”
She turned on the other side and pointed to a low building. “That's one of our historical places. It's our theater, which opened back in 1910. The first star was a witch!”
“Shhhh...” Kim exclaimed. “Aren't you a little bit too careless about what you say aloud?”
Lucille laughed and whispered, “Sorry. Is that any better? But nobody is going to care about what I'm saying. I use a spell and any incriminating word will be misunderstood.”
Kim rolled her eyes and mumbled, “I should have expected it.”
Lucille kept on showing them shops, tourist places, the big, historical public market, ancient churches and buildings, and other places important for witches.
Kim looked everywhere, feeling like a tourist. She was so happy to finally explore downtown and even more to not to have to spend the entire afternoon with her mother. And she hadn't even had to excuse herself because her mother, even though she was on vacation, had to quickly prepare a report that afternoon for an important client who had suddenly called her. It was so nice to check out a new place, especially with two friends she liked a lot.
“So, any news?” Lucille asked winking at Samia. Nobody could help but notice that Samia and Francesco had a thing for each other.
Samia smiled, pretending she didn't want to talk about it while it was clear in her gaze she could hardly wait to talk about it. “No, nothing...” she said, acting as if she didn't understand what Lucille meant.
“What about handsome Francesco?” Lucille insisted.
“What about him?” Samia stopped in front of a shop, looking at the window, and answered with a smirk which really made a statement about it.
Kim looked at her friend with an amused grimace. “I would have never believed you could feel embarrassed to talk about such a subject.”
Samia turned serious. “No, it isn't like that, it is... it's different. From the other times I was interested in someone, I mean. I realized I thought a lot about him after the training here. Then he called me once, and I was really happy to hear from him. When my master called me telling me Isidora required my presence here once more, together with all the other healers who had been trained by Kim, I'd been very happy because I was going to meet you all again.” She smiled at Lucille and then turned to Kim and tightened her arm in an affectionate gesture. “But my first thought was that I was going to meet him again.”
Kim felt happy for her friend and was sure Francesco reciprocated the feeling. She was even proud because in a way the two had met thanks to her, after she asked for the presence of healers to resolve the problem with the shields.
“Well, you two now have the opportunity to know each...” She couldn't end the sentence because she was knocked down by a bare-chested man hurrying out from a side street. She was so much concentrating on what Samia had told her that she wasn't watching her steps.
The man stopped, looking at the three women. He made a gesture with his head to Lucille, as if he knew her, looked for a second to Samia, and then gave a deep gaze to Kim, who was scared stiff.
&nb
sp; “They should give a license for walking on the sidewalk too.” He laughed. “Did I hurt you? Did I get you dirty?”
A perfect pronunciation and the tone of voice of someone used to command contrasted with his filthy dungarees and his hands, arms, and chest dirty with grease.
Kim glanced down to look at her yellow dress, luckily still immaculate. “No, don't worry. I'm sorry, I was absent-minded.” She realized she had blushed and was unable to stare back at that man who was looking at her, intrigued. He was handsome. Extremely handsome. A tanned complexion bringing out his gray eyes, broad and mighty shoulders, a muscular chest. A lock of hair fell into his eyes and he shook his head to smooth it off. Kim couldn't help noticing his neck. Even his neck was perfect!