by A. G. Mayes
‘It’s mostly spells, but some of us have magic wands and crystal balls to help us,’ Lena said.
‘Is that your magic wand?’ I pointed to the long purple stick that held Lena’s hair in a messy bun. It sparkled in the light.
‘No, dear. That’s just a fashion statement,’ she said.
‘I’ll teach you,’ Aunt Erma offered.
More magic questions tickled my throat, but I swallowed to save them for another time.
Flora brought up the latest ‘Ask Elodie’. I glanced over at Henry who was leaning against the wall holding his fingers to his lips with a small smile. I returned his smile. He might be safe from the rest of the town, but he would definitely be hearing from me if I didn’t agree with his advice. He might prefer it when I thought he was a serial killer.
Holly burst through the door. ‘You’re OK!’ she cried, throwing herself into my arms. ‘Why didn’t you tell me what you were going to do tonight? I could have helped.’ She squeezed so tightly, I thought I heard a couple of bones crunch.
‘Holly,’ I gasped, and she released me. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you might try to stop me.’
‘I would have. What you did was very dangerous,’ she scolded. ‘But Erma, I’m so glad you’re back.’ She hugged her too, and then Flora, and then everyone else. ‘You’re not going to leave us now that Erma’s back, are you?’ Holly turned to me, her brow wrinkled with concern.
I froze. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
‘I was hoping you’d stay here with me for at least a little while,’ Aunt Erma said. ‘I have so much I want to show you. So much catching up to do.’
I glanced at my mother. Instead of seeing the anger I expected in her eyes, she looked a little sad.
‘I think you should stay,’ my mother said.
‘There’s room in this town for you as well,’ Aunt Erma said. ‘I’d like you to stay too.’
‘Maybe,’ my mom conceded with a small smile.
I agreed to stay, for at least the foreseeable future. I sat back in my chair surrounded by the warmth of family, friends, and pie. A magic glow was in the air.
Epilogue
‘Oh, this one smells good.’ I inhaled deeply over the lemon buttermilk tart I had just pulled out of the oven.
‘You’ve said that about every pie,’ Aunt Erma laughed.
‘And I’ve meant it,’ I said. We were preparing pies for Thanksgiving dinner. We had been busy all week with holiday orders. Today the shop was closed and Aunt Erma was using the opportunity to test my newly learned magic. Some of the pies we were baking were for a Thanksgiving lunch at the nursing home and the rest were for the Thanksgiving dinner we were having here.
I surveyed the kitchen full of pies trying to figure out where to set this one down. Even with the two events, I think we had enough pies to feed three times as many people as we needed to.
‘Here, there’s room for that one by the blueberry blast,’ Aunt Erma said, giggling as she slid a couple pies around. It was bad enough she was calling it that, but did she have to giggle every single time?
I glared at her, then smiled. While both my baking and magical skills were definitely improving, I’d had a slight setback this morning when I combined two spices incorrectly in a blueberry pie and the pie exploded in my face and all over the kitchen. I learned quickly and did better on the second two pies, but that didn’t stop Aunt Erma from calling them the blueberry blast pies.
‘Some magic complements each other and creates an even stronger result, but when some magic is combined it has more explosive results,’ Aunt Erma explained as I wiped blueberries out of my hair. We went over which spices did what. There was one that increased happiness, one that increased honesty, one that increased helpfulness. She told me she usually tried to direct people towards the flavor of pie that she thought they needed in their life that day. I wasn’t sure I would ever have the same instincts she had, but she assured me I would.
She was also teaching me the special incantations that she said would help focus the spice’s magic. On top of that, she spent a lot of time showing me how to make the perfect pie crust and how to find flavors that worked well together. I wasn’t a fast learner, but she was a patient teacher. I was beginning to gain confidence in my baking and I no longer cringed every time someone took a bite of a pie I had made.
In between the lessons, we spent a lot of time drinking coffee and catching up on the last twenty years.
‘Help me with this last one,’ Aunt Erma said. ‘It’s a pear crumble pie.’ I helped her pour the filling into the crust. She handed me one of the spice bottles. ‘Use this one,’ she instructed, ‘and repeat after me.’ I repeated the words she said. I could feel the rush of energy tingling down my arm as I sprinkled the spice across the top of the pie. We topped it with my favorite part, a layer of brown sugar crumble topping.
As I put the pie in the oven, I asked, ‘What does that spice do?’
‘I thought you could bring that pie to Henry,’ she said innocently. ‘It enhances the feeling of love.’ A wicked smile spread across her face
I felt my face turn red. ‘Henry and I don’t need a pie like that,’ I sniffed. ‘We’re doing just fine on our own.’ We had gone out a few times. We were taking things slowly, and I couldn’t stop smiling anytime I thought about him.
‘You come home pretty early from your dates. That’s all I’m saying.’ I threw a pinch of flour at her, and she laughed. ‘Just think about bringing him that pie,’ she said.
‘Fine, I’ll think about it.’
She put her arm around me and we stood at the edge of the kitchen for a moment to survey our work and try to decide which pie to slice into for our post baking snack.
Keep reading for sneak peek at Christmas in Hocus Hills in the second book of The Magic Pie Shop series…
A Slice of Christmas Magic
Prologue
There was a cottage nestled in the snowy countryside at the bottom of a hill. From the outside it looked like it belonged in the pages of a storybook, but inside life was no happily ever after.
Dennis and Stan, a father and son, were playing chess by the fire. A woman with greying brown hair and sharp green eyes walked in. The younger man felt all the muscles in his body tense.
“Did you get it?” she asked.
“No,” Stan answered quietly. Dennis stared at the board.
“What?” she asked sharply. Both men flinched. “We would be in control of all the magic in Hocus Hills by now if you two blundering buffoons didn’t fail at every little task.” She spoke as though all the magical residents in the town of Hocus Hills were just objects for her to possess.
“Alice set us back when she got caught. I should have never let her convince me she could control people through altered magic spices. She didn’t have the skills, and I don’t think her heart was in the mission. She was too distracted by the loss of her sister.” Sometimes Brenda just liked to hear the sound of her own voice.
“We can try something else,” Dennis offered, never taking his eyes off the chess board.
“Of course, we’ll try something else,” Brenda snapped. “We still have two days before Ivan gets here. We’d better have some new recruits by then. That shouldn’t be hard. There’s always magical people who want more than to hide out in a small town.”
She paced up and down the room. Her shoes clicked sharply against the floor. Stan watched his mother pace.
“Erma — she’s going to be the problem,” Brenda was muttering under her breath now. “But think of how happy Ivan would be if we got her magic.”
She went to the fireplace and threw in a couple of logs. Sparks flew, and heat poured out as the flames rose higher.
Chapter 1
I wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand and surveyed the display case. It was packed full of pies. Only ten minutes until we opened.
Aunt Erma came out from the kitchen carrying a blueberry pie, her specialty. She wore a hat wit
h felt antlers and jingle bells.
“What do you think? Do we have enough?” She stood next to me.
“Not if business keeps up the way it has,” I said. We’d sold out every day this week. Now that Aunt Erma was back and could teach me her secret recipes with her magic spices, customers had been pouring through the door.
I went back into the kitchen to bring a load of garbage out to the dumpster. I jumped back a little when I saw a black and white spotted cat sitting just outside the back door in the alley. Just one month ago, before I knew anything about magic, Aunt Erma had been the cat in the alley. An evil woman named Alice had turned her into a cat and tried to steal the spells for Aunt Erma’s magic spices. Now, Alice was in some kind of magical jail. The exact details about what magic jail meant were still a little fuzzy to me and no one seemed eager to fill me in.
“Meow once if you’re human,” I said in a low voice. She meowed, and my eyes widened.
“Are you talking to a cat,” Henry appeared from around the corner. His brown eyes twinkled, and his wavy brown hair stuck out from under his dark green stocking cap. Henry was my almost boyfriend. We had been dating for a few weeks, and I think we were nearing that point in the relationship when I could begin to use the B word.
“How do you know that this isn’t a person?” I asked, greeting him with a quick kiss.
“I’m magic,” he said with a smile. “And I know that’s Mrs. Peterson’s cat.”
I leaned in for another kiss but pulled back when I saw Violet rushing towards us. Violet and I had a rocky relationship. Back when I was running the pie shop alone, she kept coming in looking for Aunt Erma and making accusations. At the time, I thought she was a health inspector. Violet’s eyes were wild and her usually perfectly slicked down tight bun was a frizzy mess.
“Where’s Erma?” she asked.
“She’s inside,” I said. “Is everything OK?”
Without a word, Violet rushed through the backdoor into the kitchen. I looked at Henry, and he shrugged. We followed her inside.
“What’s wrong, Violet?” Aunt Erma had rushed over and put her hands on Violet’s shoulders.
“It’s happened,” Violet said.
“Take a breath and tell me everything.” Aunt Erma’s voice remained calm, but I could see fear in her eyes.
“Dennis and Brenda. Stan. The missing spice bottle. They’ve finally figured out how to make the altered spices on a larger scale, and they’re testing them out,” Violet’s words rushed out. Dennis and Brenda were Stan’s parents. Stan had been the delivery man in town until a month ago when we found out he and his parents were working with Alice to try to steal Aunt Erma’s magic spices.
“Oh no.” Aunt Erma’s arms dropped to her sides, and she took a step back to lean against the kitchen island. “What can I do?”
“We need you to help us track them down,” she said. “We’ve been working on it since they disappeared, but they’ve evaded us so far. You might be able to trace the magic better since it was your magic in the first place.”
“Let’s go to Flora’s and figure out a plan,” Aunt Erma said, leading us out to the front of the shop. The pie shop was supposed to open in two minutes, and already there were a few early birds waiting outside the front door. They perked up as they saw us approaching.
“Sorry, folks. We’re going to be opening a little late today.” We all stepped outside amid the groans. “Come back later for your pie and a free cup of coffee,” she said, locking the door behind us. I could still hear a few grumbles as the people shuffled off down the street. If only they knew the reason.
Aunt Erma had let it slip once just how dangerous it was that Stan had the bottle of spices. We had gone to Sal’s bar one night to celebrate. We were celebrating a lot of things these days — our reunion, the fact that Aunt Erma wasn’t a cat anymore, years of missed holidays and birthdays. Aunt Erma had introduced me to a drink called a Fairy’s Foot. I was a little hesitant because the name did not sound appealing at all, but it was actually quite delicious. Like drinking a chocolate milkshake. The smooth sweet flavor hid the fact that the drink packed quite a punch, and by our second glass, Aunt Erma had completely lost her filter and was sharing information about her love life that would have made me blush if I wasn’t already flushed from the drink.
“Make sure you find someone with good hands,” she was saying firmly. “The hands are just as important as the…”
“No,” I clapped my hands over my ears. “Tell me something else.”
She giggled. “Fine.” She took a deep breath. “I’m worried.”
“About what?”
“The missing spice bottle. Spice number three. Three, three, bo, bee,” she paused to take a sip of her drink. “The things they can do with that magic.” She shook her head.
“Like what?” I asked. My experience with the spices was limited, but I didn’t understand what would be so bad about them.
“The magic in them is so powerful because of the secret ingredient. That’s why you have to be careful to use just a little bit in the pies and make sure you’re focusing on the proper intention when you add them. I’ll explain it more to you one day. Maybe when I’m sober-er.” She clinked my glass with hers and began talking about highly inappropriate things again before I could ask her what the secret ingredient was.
Once we were inside Flora’s, she led us back to a small door in the back of the shop. I hadn’t noticed this door before. That wasn’t surprising. Flora’s shop was packed full of books. It had probably been behind a stack or a shelf the other times I had been in there.
We went down a dark narrow staircase to a room below. It was warm and cozy with a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with old volumes. Mr. Barnes and Lena were already there. Mr. Barnes was cleaning his thick rimmed glasses on the corner of his bright blue sweater. Lena reached over and patted down a stray chunk of his white hair that stuck straight up on his head. How had they beat us there? There was a quiet anxiousness in the room.
Henry and I sat in chairs next to Lena, and Violet strode quickly to the front of the room. There was a computer with a large screen on the desk. I smiled at Lena, and she flashed a quick smile back at me. Her white hair was piled on top of her head in its usual bun, but her bright blue eyes lacked their usual twinkle. Violet stuck a thumb drive in the computer, and a black and white video started playing. It was a group of people walking along in a line down the street. They took slow even steps, and something about the sight made me shiver a little. Henry reached over and took my hand. Then suddenly everyone stopped walking. People looked around as though confused, and then the crowd dispersed.
“They must be having trouble making the effects last very long,” Mr. Barnes said. The video skipped ahead, and Stan’s parents popped up on the screen. Even in the grainy footage, I could recognize them. They were walking along, stopped, and looked straight into the camera.
“That’s strange,” Flora said, her brown eyes narrowed. “They know the camera is there. Why don’t they hide themselves better? They could have erased the footage if they really wanted to.”
“I thought so too,” Violet said. “The only conclusion I could come to is they wanted us to find them. That can only mean one thing. They’re trying to draw you out, Erma.”
All of our heads turned towards Aunt Erma. Her eyebrows were pinched together with worry, but she quickly rearranged her features into a brave face.
“If they want me, they’ll get me,” she said with a determined edge to her voice.
Chapter 2
“I’m going with her,” I’d said amongst the protests.
“Neither of you is going anywhere until we figure out if this is a trap or not,” Flora pulled out her stern librarian voice that made me shrink back a little.
“I have to go,” Aunt Erma said almost matching Flora’s firm tone. “Someone has to stop them before they figure out how to make the effects last longer. I’m best suited to do that since it’s my magic they’re
altering. You know how dangerous it could be if they’re successful. For everyone. We need to stop them before it spreads.”
Everyone was silent for a minute.
“I think she’s right,” Violet said.
“Susie, I’m not sure you should go, though,” Lena said. “I think I should go along with you.”
I bristled a little at her slightly condescending tone. I might be new to this magic thing, but I knew I could be helpful. I had taken karate for three years when I was in elementary school. There were some problems magic couldn’t solve.
“We should all go,” Mr. Barnes chimed in.
“That might draw too much attention,” Violet said.
“Susie will come with me,” Aunt Erma said firmly. “She’s ready, and I know you’ll all be here ready to back us up if need be.” Everyone nodded. “But that won’t be necessary,” she added with a confident smile towards me. I noticed that when Aunt Erma talked, people tended to agree with her.
“And I’ll keep an eye on you through the security cameras,” Violet said, pointing at the computer screen. She had paused the image on Stan’s parents, and I glared at them trying to build up my confidence. If I could keep myself from being afraid of their image, then I could definitely take them on in person, I assured myself repeatedly.
I winced as I realized Henry was gripping my hand tightly. “Hey,” I said, gently. I put my other hand on top of his and began to carefully pry his fingers loose.
“Sorry,” he said, softening his grip. “I hate the thought of you going, but I understand why you are. Just promise you’ll be careful, and call me if you need anything.”
“Of course.” I kissed his hand, and he smiled at me in a way that made my heart flutter.
The crowd dispersed, and Henry squeezed me tightly before heading off to his job at the nursing home.
“Come with me.” Aunt Erma grabbed my hand and led me to her car.
“Are we going now?” I asked, unable to keep the panic out of my voice.