by Sharon Pape
“Merlin is Merlin,” she said, shaking her head. Three words had never been truer, but they posed more questions than they answered.
“Please tell me he didn’t turn himself into some creature again.”
“He didn’t, but he’s been making my life a trial nonetheless.”
“What has he done?”
She threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know yet. He has some grand news that he’s refused to tell me until you returned.”
“I was only gone overnight. What grand news could possibly have happened over the past twenty-four hours?”
“As we’ve both learned, it doesn’t take much for Merlin to go overboard. If he’s to be believed, he’s been nearly crawling out of his skin with the need to impart his news, but he insists we must both be present.”
“Where is he now?”
“In my shop, burying his frustration under a pound of brownies.” At that moment, the wizard strode into Abracadabra by way of the door that connected to Tea and Empathy.
“Aha!” he said marching over to us. “I thought I heard Kailyn’s sweet voice.” He was all smiles as if he hadn’t driven my poor aunt batty waiting for me.
“I hear you have some good news to tell us.” There was little point in reprimanding him. He wouldn’t absorb a word of it until he’d regaled us with his news.
“Good news—humph,” he said, taking umbrage at my remark. “It’s grand news. Make no mistake about it.” Tilly rolled her eyes.
“I’ll thank you to be more respectful, Matillda. Now ladies, please accompany me next door where you can both be seated.” Tilly and I shrugged at each other as we followed Merlin.
Sashkatu joined the parade, trotting past us to catch up with the wizard.
Once we were all installed at a tea table and Sashki had crawled into Merlin’s lap, he cleared his throat and began. “As you know, I’ve been studying and translating your family’s ancient scrolls, in particular the sections that dated back so far that the words were incomprehensible to you. Not long after you left on your jaunt, Kailyn, I came upon a section that is quite remarkable. It is not the type of information to be shared in helter-skelter fashion. It is to be revealed to a family as a whole, if at all possible. Since you two are the only remnants of the once thriving Wilde clan, I waited for both of you to be present.” He paused as if waiting for applause or a cry of Huzzah, neither of which was forthcoming. He managed to swallow his disappointment and continue.
“According to the scrolls, you, Matillda Wilde, and you, Kailyn Wilde, are my progeny, my great, great, great and so forth, grandchildren.”
It took a minute for his words to sink in and for my brain to sort out their full meaning. I glanced at Tilly, but she was still busy digesting the news. Merlin was braiding and unbraiding sections of his beard while he waited for our reactions. “It is grand news, momentous news,” I said, choosing my words with care. “But are you absolutely sure? It’s the sort of news you don’t want to have to take back. That kind of disappointment would be devastating.” I was overstating the issue, but Merlin thrived on drama and pumped up accolades.
He looked as if he was caught between delight at my initial words and indignity over my doubting his translation skills. “I would never have told you if I had the slightest misgiving about its veracity.”
“Great Grandpa!” Tilly said, grasping his hands in hers.
He pulled them away. “Don’t call me that. It makes me sound old and feeble.” Tilly apologized, with a wink to me.
“But you are our grandfather, although many generations removed. Exactly how many, I wonder…” She started counting on her fingers, which quickly proved insufficient.
“Stop it!” Merlin thundered. “Stop it this instant! I will not be mocked by ungrateful children.” Tilly had pushed him too far.
She bristled. “I am not ungrateful, humor simply helps me cope with sudden changes. And you, my wizardly, greatest grandfather, are far too thin-skinned.”
“If that was an apology, it was sorely lacking.”
“I never said it was an apology. It was an explanation and a statement of fact.” I recognized the signs—their sparring could go on for hours, especially since Merlin was well-fueled with sugar and caffeine. But I had a store to run despite my new illustrious parentage. I also had questions dancing on my tongue.
“Excuse me,” I said, raising my voice to be heard over theirs. “Merlin, I read somewhere that you never had children. The stories—”
“Are wrong,” he said, turning to me. “I sired a number of male children during my life, but they were either stillborn or perished shortly after their births. I always assumed my magick was too strong a burden for the wee ones to bear. It was the deepest regret of my life—having no heir to carry the magick on to future generations.”
His face brightened. “But now through your family’s records I am reborn. They write of a baby girl I fathered. Her given name was Cerelia. She was strong enough to survive, although her mother had tearfully assured me that she too had perished. Mayhap the woman was afraid I’d take the child to live with me. And she was right. I would have wanted to help her magick grow to its full potential. In any case, Cerelia grew up and had three daughters of her own and so on down through the centuries—to both of you.”
“It sounds like females are the only ones strong enough to carry the magick,” I said, “and yet you were the first and a male.”
“Do you know how I came by the magick?” Tilly and I shook our heads. “When I was old enough to understand, my mother told me about the night she was visited by a supernatural being who lay with her. In the morning, she told herself what she remembered of that night was only a strange dream. But when she gave birth to me exactly nine months later, she could no longer fool herself. As for my ability to survive with the magickal DNA, perhaps I was simply stronger by dint of being the first.”
I’d always taken the magick in my family for granted, but now that I knew it came from Merlin, I wondered what it might mean for any male children I might have. Part of me wished Merlin had kept his grand news to himself. I didn’t like the unsettled feelings it left in the pit of my stomach and the unanswerable questions it planted in my brain.
Chapter 16
I didn’t tell Travis about Merlin’s news when I spoke to him that night. I didn’t think of it as being secretive. I considered it a kindness not to burden him until I had a chance to absorb it myself. My clowder of cats must have sensed the whirligig of emotions on tour inside me and they came to give me comfort. I appreciated their motives, if not the way they went about it. They vied for turns in my lap and on my shoulders like they were playing a game of musical chairs to upbeat music only they could hear. Sashkatu watched them for a while from the rug near the fireplace, before taking matters into his own paws. He climbed onto the couch with the help of his custom stairs. With a minimum of hissing and growling, he sent the bunch of them slinking off to other quarters. He settled into the vacancy in my lap like a king who’d beaten back pretenders to his throne. I stroked his soft coat to the peaceful tempo of his purring, which restored some much needed quiet to my soul.
The next morning, he and I were at Abracadabra bright and early, he on his window seat and I at my desk, when there was a sharp rapping on the front door. It was still locked, because I didn’t open for another half hour and I’d planned on using the time to pay bills. No matter what else might be rampaging through my life, bills were as reliable as the dust on my merchandise.
I swiveled in my chair to see who couldn’t wait until the hour plainly posted on the door. Ben Webster? I’d actually expected to find Tess on my doorstep one day, not her husband.
He knocked again with the same urgency. I couldn’t in good conscience ignore him. The bills would have to wait.
“Coming,” I called, as I made my way around the counter to unlock the door.
“That sounds mysterious. Would you like to sit down?” I pointed to the chair I kept near the counter for weary shoppers and bored husbands.
“No thanks, I don’t have much time.”
“Then how can I help you?”
“My wife won’t stop talking about how the kiln moved out of Conner’s way. She’s certain you had something to do with it. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see what happened, but she’s been obsessing about it, talking about witchcraft and maybe even moving again. I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m off base, but I’d like to hear what happened from you.” His tone was pleasant enough, but his eyes were boring into mine as if determined to detect any lies. I made an executive decision and hoped it wasn’t reckless.
“I’ve been learning how to move objects with my mind. I’m sure you’ve heard of people who can do that.”
“Yeah, but I figured it was just a magician’s trick, like you’d see in Vegas or on TV. But you couldn’t have set up a trick like that with Tess there the whole time. And you didn’t get up to push the kiln out of the way, because you couldn’t have reached it in time.” His expression dared me to offer up an explanation.
“Telekinetic ability is rare, but it does exist. People have been pushing the envelope in every field of endeavor. Stretching the power of the mind is no different. That’s what Tess saw. I’m just glad I was able to prevent Conner from getting hurt.” Was I ever going to hear about this from my mother and grandmother!
“I need to see this for myself, if I’m going to help my wife get past her fears.”
“I can’t always do it,” I said. At least not since our magick had become erratic. “My adrenaline must have kicked in that day and helped.”
“Please show me,” he said, despite my disclaimer. “I’m just six months at my new job. I cannot pack up and move again.” He sounded desperate.
“All right, I’ll try.” If I pretended I couldn’t do it, he’d think I’d been lying. I had to give him a little example of telekinesis if I wanted him and Tess to accept it and let it go. “Put a coin on the counter.” Ben found a quarter in the pocket of his pants and set it down as I’d requested. On a good day, I could have made the quarter spin on its edge or do a little tap dance, but I settled for sliding it across to the counter to me and back to him again. He looked at me with open-mouthed amazement.
“It’s taken thousands of hours of practice, and Zen-like mind control.”
He thanked me for the demonstration, adding that he had another question, if I didn’t mind. “Okay,” I said, wary of what was coming.
“What are all these products you sell in here? Tess is concerned they may be illegal or dangerous.” She’d been in our shop on one occasion and she’d seemed delighted with the basket of products I’d given her as a welcome to our town. Why didn’t she see the irony in fearing me, precisely because I’d saved her son from harm? I knew what my mother’s answer would be: “Fear trumps everything.” I didn’t want to believe that, but Tess was making a good case for it.
“I sell only natural, plant-based health and beauty products. Feel free to browse through the aisles.” I had nothing to hide, at least not on my shelves. Ben did a quick circuit of my shop, thanked me and was out the door and off to work three minutes later. Bronwen appeared as the door closed behind him. Her cloud was dark blue with yellow swirls, a combination I’d never seen before. It couldn’t be good.
“Kailyn, why on earth did you tell that man about your telekinetic ability?”
“Nice to see you too, Grandma.” I couldn’t resist—the day had gotten off to a rocky start and I needed to lighten it up.
“It’s always lovely to see you, but putting me on the defensive doesn’t change the question.” Although it did soften her tone. “Why did you admit to having telekinetic power?”
“Because lying can raise more suspicions than being honest. Tess saw what she saw. I hope my explanation puts her concerns to rest.”
“Your intentions are fine, dear girl, but you’re mistaken if you think that tiny bit of truth will put an end to her probing. And don’t tell me I’m being old-fashioned. Those who ignore the past will make the same mistakes—or something like that.” My grandmother had never been very good at remembering quotations. Apparently, death hadn’t helped.
“I promise to keep that in mind,” I said, trying my best to sound contrite. Tess, please don’t make me regret my honesty.
“We’ll keep this conversation between us,” Bronwen said. “No need to involve your mother.” I thanked her—one less lecture felt like a gift. “There is another matter I wish to discuss with you. I’ve noticed that you haven’t pressed on with your teleportation skills.”
I had no rebuttal; I was guilty as charged.
“I keep meaning to, but then I run out of time.”
“And yet one must never rest on one’s laundry.”
“I think you mean laurels,” I said.
Bronwen looked surprised. “Well that makes a whole lot more sense than laundry. In any case, you have to practice teleporting with an object, a breakable object, increasing the size and weight over time before you can consider trying it with a living creature.” I promised to get on it at the first possible opportunity. “That’s my girl. Now is as good a time as any. I’ll leave you to it.”
I didn’t want to argue with her, but teleporting in and out of my shop when a customer could walk in at any moment wasn’t the best idea.
The rest of the morning was quiet. I had time to pay the bills between customers and do a bit of dusting—two of my least favorite chores. When lunchtime rolled around I decided to stop in and chat with a couple more shopkeepers, part of my continuing efforts to find out if any of them knew something that might be useful to our investigation. Since my stomach was grumbling about being empty, I promised it a tall vanilla ice cream soda at The Jerk. It was a weakness I blamed on Morgana. She’d instilled in me the belief that ice cream was a perfectly acceptable lunch from time to time.
My first stop was the new candle shop and its proprietor, Lucy Gale. Although she’d never met Ava, she thought her death was sad and tragic and about ten other adjectives. She was a human thesaurus—wonderful to have around if you had a thesis to write, but hard to break away from when there was an ice cream soda in the offing.
Next was the train shop, a favorite of kids and dads alike. I’d never cared much for the trains. I was all about the miniature villages the trains passed through and the tiny people inhabiting them. Ollie Ollifson, who was proof that some parents shouldn’t be allowed to name their children, was a big barrel of a man who’d never outgrown his love of trains. He didn’t know Ava by name and didn’t recognize her photo, but he stared at it for some time as if trying to summon up a memory that wasn’t there. He was sorry he couldn’t help me, but would I like to play with the trains before I left? When I declined, his face fell in utter disbelief. Most people who walked into his shop probably did so because they shared his love of trains. I was the odd one out.
Chapter 17
“Your buddy just walked in,” Margie said as she set the soda down in front of me. I followed her line of sight to the front door and saw Elise Harkens waiting to be seated. “Back here,” Margie called, waving her over. When Elise saw me in the booth, she burst into laughter.
“I want exactly what she has. No, on second thought make mine strawberry.”
“You got it.”
“You should have told me you needed a lunch date,” I said. “I always have time for you.”
“You’ve been working the investigation during your lunch hour and I didn’t want to put additional pressure on you.”
“It’s funny that today is the first day in a while that I decided to treat myself instead of eating my brown bag PB and J.”
“And today was a half day for parent/teacher conferences or I wouldn’t be here either.”
“So… tell me what’s going on in your corner of the world—kids okay?” I’d been their babysitter until they were old enough to be home alone without killing each other.
“They’re good. I have some news about me though,” she said coyly.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’ve been holding out on me.” We kept in touch by phone even when we couldn’t meet in person, but she hadn’t told me anything in weeks that would have made her eyes twinkle like they were twinkling now.
“I wanted to see your reaction in person.”
“Well here I am.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sort of seeing someone.”
My eyebrows took flight. “Sort of?” I couldn’t contain the grin that was spreading across my face. “Isn’t that like being a little pregnant?”
“Sort of—meaning I’ve had dinner with him a couple times now. I really need some input before I commit to more. I talked to my sister, but she sees everything in black and white, yes or no, take it or leave it. I need you and the way you see things with the whole color spectrum.”
The busboy brought Elise her ice cream soda. She took a sip that went on and on. “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was or how good an ice cream soda can taste.”
I snatched the soda away from her. “Who. Is. He? I’m not giving this back until you tell me more.”
“His name is Jerry, short for Jerome, Simmons. He’s tall and nice looking, of course not in the same league as Travis, but not too many men are.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s a dentist who recently joined the group I use for the boys. Their regular dentist was away when Noah chipped a tooth a couple of weeks ago—I told you about that.”