by Dani Corlee
Kim walked around the table to get close to the ball and came across a chair with a high seat-back. She stopped in surprise. On the chair there sat Mrs. Daisy.
How can it be? Kim was sure Aurora couldn't have forgotten her beloved favorite doll, because she barely went out for a few hours without it. She couldn't sleep without it. Why was it at home? And how could it be in that room?
She looked again at the table. There was a thick, old notebook there with dense, elegant handwriting. Kim leafed through those yellowed pages, feeling guilty as if she was intruding into somebody's secrets.
“But this is my house!” she exclaimed aloud, deciding after all that she had the right to check whatever there was inside.
Some of the writings were like chemical formulas and some others looked like recipes for what were probably magical potions.
Some others were notes about things she couldn't quite understand. At the beginning of some pages there were writings that looked like dates, but which didn't make much sense, the numbers being impossible as dates.
Lucille! she mentally called. She waited a few seconds that seemed endless to her. Lucille! she repeated, but again she got no answer. Isidora? she tried. Please, answer. There was no connection at all, as if she had suddenly lost her powers.
She gave a searching look around, deciding what to do.
Looking at the crystal ball, she decided to take it upstairs. She touched it carefully. It was very heavy, much more than she could have imagined, and she wondered if she could take it upstairs. She laid down the ball, took Mrs. Daisy and put her under her arm, and again picked up the crystal ball.
She headed upstairs, leaving the hidden door open, her steps unsteady because of the load. She thought she should take the ball to the Club to show it to the witches.
She left Mrs. Daisy on the couch, then went outside and managed to carefully place the ball on the passenger seat, unaware of her neighbor Michelle, who had stopped setting her Halloween stuff all over the front garden to watch every her movement.
“Pssst...” Michelle whispered to her husband, who was peacefully reading his newspaper on a comfortable armchair on the porch.
“Uh-huh?” was the laconic answer.
“Look! Look at our neighbor!” the woman continued. “She has a crystal ball with her. I told you she was weird. She's a witch!”
“Listen, dear,” the man replied without taking his eyes off the news. “You have a skull in your hand. Are you Hamlet?”
Michelle snorted and kept on staring at Kim, who was driving away.
CHAPTER 7
The short drive to the Club saw Kim busy looking at the houses she passed by, and for a few minutes she didn't think about the hidden room and the crystal ball at all.
The air was full of anticipation. Many of the residents had already started decorating their houses and gardens for the upcoming Halloween. Kim had been told that every year the town planned large community events and everybody was eager to participate. During the night in question, the town, otherwise quite calm, was animated by street costume parties, and children and adults alike going to and fro for “trick or treating”. The night culminated in the main square with dances and a parade of costumes. Over the years, an unofficial election of the King and the Queen of the party had become a well-established and anticipated event, and everybody was eager to participate.
Kim looked around. One house's yard was decorated with gravestones and a few skeletal arms emerging here and there out of the ground. Kim wondered why that person had ruined his grass for a single night’s festivity. Another house had its porch filled with carved pumpkins, Kim couldn't say if they were real or made of plastic. A little further, a whole family was busy taking big cardboard boxes outside, surely full of decorations. One of that family's children took a huge plastic mouse from a box and put it in front of his little sister, who ran away screaming. Kim smiled, watching the scene in her rearview mirror.
One of the most beautiful houses of the area had a well in the front yard, and now there was a body sticking up from it, only two shoes and a pair of legs dressed in jeans, as if somebody was falling inside. Just a little ahead, there was a witch crashed into a tree while a big cauldron was placed under it. Kim wondered how the community viewed such a parody of their life.
An old man, unsafely grabbing at a thin ladder, was hanging ghostly shapes to his house's eaves, with a woman holding the same ladder to prevent it from sliding back.
Kim opened the window to adjust the side mirror and was hit by a strong smell of freshly baked chocolate cookies. She sighed. She was sorry Aurora had to leave just then. She would have loved to decorate the house and to go around to trick or treat, which was something that in their old city they had never done. And she didn't feel like decorating the front yard at all without Aurora, but she wondered what the neighborhood would think. She needed Isidora's and Lucille's help on how to manage the situation.
When she saw the Magic Club in the distance, she diverted her attention to the present problem. Was she still willing to stay in that house knowing somebody was using it secretly? Who was this somebody? And why were they using her house for their own purposes, whatever these purposes were...
She parked and mentally called for help.
Lucille?
Ya ....
I'm in the club car park. Can you get down to give me a hand? Kim thought, while opening the passenger door of her car and trying to pull the crystal ball up.
“Here I am.”
Kim halted, feeling somebody behind her, her neck hair standing with fear. She turned and looked at Lucille. “Brat! I still cannot get used to this! Please, next time tell me how you are coming.”
Then she moved a little to let Lucille look inside her car. “See?” she said, pointing to the ball with her hand.
“Wow!” Lucille replied, chewing her gum loudly. “It's simply magnificent and it seems ancient. It isn't an average ball; it looks like it belongs to a very important witch, but I don't recall that shape.” She turned to Kim. “I wasn't very good at Historical tools,” she shrugged.
“Historical tools? Is that a school subject? I'm not studying it.” She frowned. “Luckily,” she added with a smile.
Lucille turned again to the ball. “Well, you are taking an accelerated course and mostly about practice, not theory, at least not history of magic and the like. You might touch those subjects only when you'll master the basic spells.” After chewing her gum a few quick times, Lucille scratched her chin and said: “Who gave it to you? It's a wonderful present.”
“Nobody. I found it at home.”
“At home?” Lucille looked at Kim open mouthed.
Watching her friend's pink gum clearly visible in her open mouth, Kim sighed, then nodded in reply.
“There's an hidden room in the basement, and...”
“What?” Lucille's voice was so high she had to clear it to continue. “A hidden room? Kim, do you understand the implications of what you are saying? That house belonged to Dolly and has been uninhabited for years, probably due to a spell. This means you have found a treasure because that room must contains all Dolly's tools and secrets! Let's bring this to Isidora, she will know what to do.”
Lucille paused, then she mentally called Isidora. Hey, Boss!
Lucille, my dear, I invite you not to call me Boss, even when nobody can hear you.
“Yes, Boss, but this is an emergency! We will be there in a minute.”
We?
“Kim and I. See ya in a minute”
“Let's teleport,” Lucille said. She looked intensely at the ball, embracing it with her gaze and power, and both of them disappeared.
Kim breathed heavily and mentally ordered herself to teleport too, in vain. A few seconds later she felt a strong grip pulling her by her arm, and she found herself in front of Isidora, in her room, next to Lucille.
“Thanks,” she said with a shy smile.
CHAPTER 8
Isidora was standing near h
er desk, staring at the ball which Lucille had placed in front of her, with her knitting work still in her hand. “Oh my dear,” she murmured, dropping the knitting and bringing her hand to her breast. “This is the most magnificent ball I've ever seen. It is crafted with such a mastery that must be really ancient. I'm afraid to say that nowadays nobody works this way anymore. And when I say nowadays, I mean at least in the last one or two thousand years.”
Lucille nodded, indifferently chewing her gum, and Kim couldn't help opening her eyes wide. Isidora's concept of nowadays was quite different from hers.
“Where did you get it from?” Isidora asked to nobody in particular.
“Kim found it in her basement. There's a hidden room there.”
Isidora's sight moved quickly from the ball to Lucille to Kim.
“What? A hidden room? In Dolly's house? This really is totally unexpected. Dolly's witchcraft room was in her tower, I've been there many a time. And although she usually used a spell to hide her activities, time to time she didn't, and flashes of colorful lightning could be seen for miles, scaring the hell out of her neighborhood.” Isidora gave a loving smile. “She was quite a naughty witch, sometimes.”
Kim told them about the inside of the room and the two witches listened in silence, sometimes exchanging quick glances.
Then the old witch pointed her arm toward the wooden bookcase on her right, and one of the glass doors opened. She looked inside; then her fingers moved like a pianist and after a while her index finger turned round and round, moving quickly, then pointed to a particular book and lowered with an abrupt movement. Isidora’s hand then acted as it was grabbing it, and the book, an ancient tome with a thick leather cover, flew in front of her, setting itself down on her desk.
“Mm... Let me see,” she said. She put on her reading glasses, such a normal gesture which contrasted so much with the whole scene, carefully leafed through those yellowish pages, and suddenly halted, bringing her hands to her head.
Lucille bent and stretched her neck to look at the book, which was on the other side of the desk.
“What's the matter?” she asked, not being able to see what Isidora was staring at.
Kim shivered. She felt Isidora's reaction didn't augur anything good for her and her house. She held her breath waiting for an explanation, not daring to say anything. The only good thing was that at least Aurora would be away for a week, and for now she was safe. From what, she couldn't say.
“What's the matter?” she timidly asked.
“This ball... It isn't possible. Must be a copy! This ball belonged to Akiye.”
“Er... so?” Kim asked, not understanding. She turned to Lucille and saw her friend was motionless, her mouth wide open and the gum nearly falling from it.
Regardless of the warm temperature of the room, a chill ran down her body, from her neck to her toes.
Who the hell is Akiye, she wanted to shout, but no sounds came from her mouth.
Recovering from the surprise, Isidora sat down on her chair and looked up at Kim. Sit down, she gestured both to Kim and Lucille. “How this ball was in Dolly's house is beyond me,” she exclaimed while a loud pop resounded in the room, showing that Lucille too had recovered from the shock.
Kim felt like pointing out that the house was hers, not Dolly’s, but decided that wasn't the right moment. She cleared her throat. “Can you please explain? I don't quite understand the problem.”
“Oh, sorry, my dear.” Isidora was quick to answer. “Akiye was the chief witch at the time that group of witches was banned.”
“That group—do you mean those who lost the war, those who wanted non-witches to be slaves?”
Isidora nodded. “Exactly.” She gently caressed the page and read: “The base of this ball is the most precious base ever made for a crystal ball. This delicate artwork was made of the purest and precious metal in the word, Orichalcum, which cannot be found anywhere anymore.”
“Orichalcum?” Lucille asked and chewed loudly.
“Yes, I know it.” Kim said. “It's the legendary metal of Atlantis. As far as I know it was an alloy of gold and other metals, therefore it cannot be more precious than gold because...”
“If the book says it was the most precious metal, it must have been.” Isidora cut her short. “Who wrote this book was there, Plato who wrote about Atlantis thousands of years after its destruction, wasn't. I trust this book much more than Plato. What was I reading? So...”
“OK!” Kim mumbled, a little offended, crossing her arms over her chest, but Isidora didn't notice.
Isidora started reading again. “The three hands were crafted after the real hands of the wise children who ruled the witch community at the time.” She stopped and looked at Kim and Lucille over her glasses. “I remember the legend,” she told them. “It says that they ruled during a period of great climatic changes, at a time when the whole human population was far less than one million in total.” She scratched her chin and thought for few seconds.
“The rings the hands wear are the real rings of those wise children, each ring with a unique feature. The wise children sacrificed their rings to concentrate the abilities and give the ball immense power.” She stopped. “Oh no!”
“What?” Kim and Lucille asked in unison.
“The book continues, saying that the original papers the information was copied from were ruined during the Great Fire of Alexandria and the rest of the story became illegible.”
The three witches concentrated their attention to the crystal ball, whose images kept on changing.
“What shall we do now?” Lucille asked. “Shall we call for a meeting?”
“No, not yet. I don't think it's wise to alarm everyone.”
“Alarm? Why should they be alarmed more than I am?” Kim was getting quite nervous. “Don't forget the enemy's main ball was found in my house!”
“I think we should have a look at that room. Let me warn Ravyn that we leave and teleport at Dolly's house. Er...” She looked at Kim. “I mean, at your house.”
“I have my car here. I'll drive home. I don't want to teleport and then have to come back to pick my car.”
“I can help you with teleporting the car as well,” Lucille offered.
“No, thanks. You know that some of my neighbors spy on me and I don't want to give them the slightest reason to think there's something strange about me.”
“OK, my dear.” Isidora replied calmly. “I haven't used a car for a long time and it will be a nice change for me. The few minutes’ drive will also give me the time to think about the whole matter.”
“Let's go, then. I want to solve the mystery as soon as possible.” Kim said and they went to the car. Then, totally changing the subject to enlighten the atmosphere, she asked, “I see nearly all the houses near my house have been already decorated. What's the conduct code here?”
“Conduct code, my dear?”
Kim smiled and explained. “I'm new here and don't know how to behave. Shall I have my house decorated too, and wait for children on the porch with a huge cauldron of candies? Or else can I skip it? I don't know if I want to celebrate Halloween without Aurora.”
“Skip it?” Lucille answered without waiting for Isidora to talk. The old witch sighed but didn't protest at Lucille's lack of good manners.
“You cannot skip it,” Lucille continued. “There will be a great street party and you must come. We’ll all be there.”
“Yes,” Isidora intervened. “Even though I don't quite appreciate the fun they make of us...”
“Oh, why not! After all, non-witches make fun of the iconic witches, which have nothing to do with us. And I love to make fun of them as well. I've seen a very sexy witch dress but I might also dress as a vampire. Wow! I'm sure I would be very sexy with it.” Lucille laughed, foretasting all the men's gazes at her passing by.
“Look there,” Kim said, pointing to the house they were passing by, the one with the witch crashed on the tree. Isidora rolled her eyes. “Exactly,” s
he said. “That's what I mean.”
When they arrived home, Michelle was sweeping the porch, her husband still reading the newspaper, holding his legs up to let the wife sweep under them.
The house had been perfectly decorated, with lots of skulls and pumpkins scattered all over the front yard and small cemetery candles along the two sides of the lane.
Kim noted her saying something to her husband, who turned and looked at her from above his glasses and waved in her direction. Kim replied with a smile and shouted, “Great decorations!” Michelle's husband smiled back while Michelle was clearly annoyed by her husband’s politeness toward her and kept on staring at Lucille and Isidora with a sort of disgusted pout.