by Simon Archer
“I guess I just have a knack for quick shopping!” I told him, careful to keep my tone lighthearted. Glen did not know about the genies or magic.
“I’m taking you with me next time I have to buy a present for my wife, in that case!” he laughed. The girls and I climbed in the car, and Glen closed the door. He got in his seat, started the engine, and soon we were on our way back to the house. It took less time to get home than it had to get to town. When we pulled in, I looked in the rearview mirror at Glen.
“You want to come in for a beer?” I asked politely. I felt awful that all I really wanted to do was get away from Glen to figure out what had happened to the man in the store. I knew if I didn’t offer, however, that it would be extremely out of character, and Glen may think something was wrong.
“No, thank you,” he answered. “The wife is cooking, and she’ll kill me if I don’t get home and help her with the rest of the house.” He laughed and got out of the car, opening the door from the girls and I. I got out, shook his hand, and stepped back from the car as he got back in. He leaned out his window and shot me a smile. “It’s good to see you, Bennett.”
“You are coming back for the housewarming party tonight, aren’t you?” I hadn’t invited him because, of course, I didn’t know that he was there on the island with us.
“We’ll be there,” he answered.
“Glen, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’ve decided to make the move,” I told him.
He tipped his head in my direction, gave a lazy salute, and drove off. A moment later, we could hear loud island music blaring out the windows of the car as he drove away.
I turned to the girls and pointed to the front door. “In!” I directed them.
6
“Okay, what the hell was all that? From the beginning, please,” I said to both Andi and Vila.
Andi sat upon a stool at the kitchen counter. “It was like magic just suddenly got into the old man,” she tried to explain. “He wasn’t spelled or enchanted.”
“So, you’re saying he accidentally had a message for you?” I wasn’t making sense out of her explanations, and I was still mad at Vila.
“Think of it more like stepping in magic,” Vila started. “Like a message was sent out, and all it took was a nearby person to ‘step on it’ and become the messenger. It was obviously harmless magic, too.”
“How do you know it was harmless?” I huffed at Vila.
“Is anyone here harmed?” she retorted as she openly rolled her eyes at me again. I couldn’t argue with her, as much as I wanted to.
“Listen, the man said that something is looking for something undetected and something about evil putting up a wall,” Andi said. “Does any of that mean anything to either of you?”
I thought it through, and there was only one thing I could think of.
“There was a wall when I got into the cave with the lightning stones in it. It collapsed under my hand,” I told them.
“And those stones might be considered ‘something undetected.’ Maybe we should go check them out again,” Vila suggested.
“Maybe the man was sent to get us to go back because my wish will work on the stones now, for some reason,” I ventured to guess.
“I don’t know, but we have a few hours to find out, so if we are going to go, it has to be now,” Andi pointed out.
Twenty minutes later, Andi, Vila, and I were crawling into a hidden hole in the beach. The narrow passage got wider the lower it descended, and before long, the three of us could stand up. It was completely dark until the passage opened up wide enough for us to stand, then a faint blue light shone from the end. A few steps further, and we found ourselves in a massive cave covered from ceilings to walls with glowing, blue stones. I stepped further into the cave and marveled at how the stones all seemed to glow at different intensities and go on forever.
“Do you have any idea how far back this goes?” Andi asked.
When I’d first discovered the cave, I’d had the chance to go back a couple of times but hadn’t made it much past the first large cavern. In fact, I hadn’t seen where the cave extended in the back until the very last time I had visited it. Unfortunately, at the time, I had a plane to catch and could not explore further.
“I don’t have any idea,” I answered. “We won’t be able to find out today, though. We have a party to throw.” I was suddenly bitter about my housewarming party.
“No worries, we will have plenty of time for that later. After all, it’s one of the reasons we moved here, isn’t it?” Andi noted.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, staring up at the walls, wondering if each segment of rock had its own history, or if they were all the same.
“You ready to find out if your wish finally works here?” Vila asked, turning circles looking at the top of the cave.
“Let’s give it a shot,” I said as I stepped near the largest stone in the cave. It was attached to the wall and jutted out at least thirty feet. I took a deep breath and reached out my hand, placing it gently on the stone.
At first, nothing happened, which I was half-expecting since I hadn’t been able to see the history of the stones prior. Then, my hand started getting warm, and the stone’s light shifted to outline my palm and fingers. The entire rock went dark except for the concentration of light surrounding my hand.
“Are you seeing this?” Vila asked Andi in amazement.
“That’s a bit different from last time for sure,” Andi replied in wonder.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. As I started to exhale, images began to flash before my eyes. My wish was working. The images flashed by so fast that I couldn’t actually see any specific one. However, once they were all in my mind, I would be able to recall each one as a memory. The images from the rock were flashing much quicker than other items whose histories I’d read. It felt like I stood there for hours, receiving information. The warmth on my hand was comforting, and it relaxed my entire body. My connection to the stone was powerful, and I found myself hoping I would never need to let go.
Right then, everything stopped and went back to normal. The stone turned cold under my palm and the light distributed itself throughout the rock once more. I left my hand in place, hoping I could get back the reaction touching it had caused, but nothing happened.
“Is that it?” Vila’s voice made me jump. I spun around and looked at her.
“Is what ‘it’?” I asked distractedly, looking at my hand.
“Normally, it takes a little longer for you to get the history off things,” she answered. I tilted my head and shot her a quizzical look.
“It felt like I was standing there for hours,” I told her.
Andi stepped up beside Vila. “You were touching the rock for approximately two-and-a-half seconds. The first second was when the light changed, and then you were just done.”
I looked at my hand, and at the rock. Two seconds?
“What did you see?” Vila asked through my confusion. I thought about the stones and the cave and waited for the memories to pull forward.
“I see that the spellbook was here at one time,” I started as images came to me. “It continually gains power with every evil human that ends up getting a piece of their soul trapped inside. It got quite a juice-up when I sent all of Dave into it.”
Dave was a descendant of Andi’s horrible uncle, who tried to kill Andi and her mother. Vila had saved Andi from her uncle by making her a genie. When Dave got a hold of the book, he’d tried to use it against me to undo the magic in my life and ruin everything I’d built, but I trapped him inside it instead. I still had the book. The girls and I had considered burning it, but I wasn't sure what would happen to the souls trapped inside. We didn’t want to let evil out into the world but also had no way to find out if that would happen upon the book’s destruction.
“The stone showed you the spellbook?” Vila asked, confused.
“Yeah, a little strange since that wouldn’t be the stones’ own history. It was mo
re like something that was observed here in the cave,” I answered.
“What else did you see?” Andi prodded.
“The wall, the one I fell through when Lottie and I first discovered the cave. It has apparently been built several times,” I told them. “Each time I can see it being built of solid rock, though. The wall I fell through was sand, not rock.”
“Again, not actual rock history,” Andi said, irritated. “How in hell are the stones overriding our genie magic? You should be able to see the history of anything!”
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling the man who gave you the message was somehow sent to you by the magic in this cave,” I told her.
“How do you know that?” Vila asked, her curiosity piqued.
“I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. It is simply a feeling, and I’m certain of it,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders.
“Here I thought we were going to get some clarification by coming here. What a fool I must be!” Andi huffed. She glanced over at me and frowned. “What else?”
“You aren’t going to like it,” I warned her.
“What? Did bears live here or something, and you got to see the cave observe those too?” she replied sarcastically.
“No, nothing like that. In fact, nothing more at all,” I told her. “Absolutely nothing. I can see the book and its aura getting stronger with each added evil and the construction of the door. I can feel that the old man was sent to you by the magic here, and that is it.” Andi and Vila both stared at me.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Andi burst out so suddenly that Vila and I jumped. “I had to stand while some magically zombied creep croaked a cryptic message at me so that we could climb all the way down here for you to see that?” Vila quickly moved to Andi’s side and put her arm around her.
“A little on the dramatic side, don’t you think, Andolyn?” Vila only used Andi’s full name when she was either pissed or trying to comfort her. That time it was the latter. Andi looked down, and her shoulders slumped a little bit.
“I just thought it would be something great, not some vision of my family members’ evil souls gaining strength in a book,” she whispered.
“That book has absolutely nothing to do with you,” Vila comforted her.
“How do you know that?” Andi asked Vila. “For all I know, the only reason I didn’t end up one of the evil souls in the book is that you made me a genie before I showed my real legacy!”
“Is that what you think? That you are inherently evil?” Vila asked, shocked. “There’s no way in a thousand dying suns that you could be evil!”
“I second that,” I added, walking over to the girls. I wrapped both of them up in my arms and held them until I felt Andi straighten her shoulders and lift her head. I looked down at the two of them and smiled. While I was initially irritated at the minimalistic nature of the history I was shown, that irritation was gone. “Let’s go home, brush the cave dust off, and have ourselves a party.”
With that, the three of us exited the cave and crawled back up the tunnel to the hidden hole in the beach.
7
Lottie was home when the girls and I returned to the house, and she looked like she’d just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine. I first saw her from behind when we walked into the kitchen. Her royal blue pantsuit was made of flowing material and tailored to show off the curves of her small frame elegantly without being too revealing. Her raven hair fell down her back in loose curls, and when she turned, a sunset-pink set of lips smiled at me.
“There you are,” she said, strolling over to kiss me.
“You look like a queen on vacation,” I whispered to her. “Did you enjoy your spa visit?”
“Thank you, sir,” she replied, winking at me. “I did! I can’t wait to take Andi and Vila back with me.” The girls’ attention was captured.
“That sounds like such a fantastic idea!” Vila chimed, a smile of excitement crossing her face. She looked at Andi, who was also smiling finally.
“As long as they don’t talk me into one of those honey-wraps,” Andi chuckled. “I had one once, and it was the most dreadful sticky thing to get off!”
“Noted,” Lottie giggled. “Now, where did the three of you run off to? I saw the lanterns you picked out. They’re perfect!” Her approval of the centerpieces was a larger relief I was expecting.
“We had to go to see the lightning stones,” I told her. Her face fell just a bit. I knew she’d wanted to go back and see them herself. “Come with me upstairs, and I’ll tell you all about it while I get ready for the party.” Her eyes lit up again at the mere thought of hearing details of my impromptu trip to the cave.
“We’ll go get ready as well,” Andi piped up. She raised her hand in the air, and just before she snapped her fingers, Vila pulled her arm down.
“How about we do it the old fashioned way this time?” she suggested. Andi raised a brow at her.
“Like curling irons and stuff?” Andi asked, sounding confused. “Why?” Vila giggled and put an arm around her.
“Yes, like curling irons and stuff,” Vila started. She pulled Andi along as the four of us walked out of the kitchen, through the foyer, and upstairs. “It will remind us of why we usually use magic to do it.”
Andi was nodding as the two of them headed down the hall, and Lottie and I exited to the master suite. I recounted the excursion to the cave to Lottie while I showered. I tried to talk her into showering with me, but she regretfully declined due to her spa makeover. Just as I was turning the water off, an old Irish tune sounded out through the house. It was the doorbell. When we’d moved, Andi had insisted on keeping the same tune, one of her favorites, as the way to signal we were being beckoned to the door.
“I’ll go get that,” Lottie said. “It will be the caterers.” I heard her light footstep pad out of the room.
I made quick work of getting dressed in the clothes laid out for me on the bed. It would be light beige khakis and a forest green button-up that evening. I hadn’t picked out my own clothes in over a year, for the most part. Andi and Vila always had them ready for me. Now, Lottie had joined in on their habit. When I finished getting dressed, I headed downstairs to see if they needed help with the set up for the party.
Upon reaching the foyer, I quickly saw that my assistance would not be needed. The place was a beehive of activity. Young men and women scurried about, carrying carts and trays, and dishes. A long buffet had been set up surrounding the water feature in the middle. String lights had been strewn from one side of the upper balconies to the other, creating a sort of lighted ceiling. Sound testing was going on in the back of the house by a guitar quartet slated to play near the firepit. Just as I was about to go look for her, Lottie walked through the front door.
“Anything I can help with?” I asked, feeling as though the most help I could give would be to stay out of the way.
“We are good. This company is fantastic!” Lottie chirped as she whisked by, pointing to where she wanted the young gentleman who was following her to place something. I stepped back to allow room. I was about to make my way to the kitchen when Andi and Vila leaned over one of the balconies overlooking the foyer and waved at me.
“Come on up here!” Andi called down. All signs of her past sadness disappeared as she waved me up. I made my way back upstairs and joined the girls.
“Don’t they all look like little worker ants rushing around, building their mound?” Vila commented cheerfully. I glanced down, and she wasn’t wrong.
“They do indeed, but I would not mention that to them!” I laughed at her lack of tact. “What are you two doing up here? I figured you’d be down there somewhere, bossing people around.” I winked in their direction.
“We have an idea,” Vila whispered. She took me by the hand and pulled me into the nearest doorway, which led to one of the guest suites. Andi closed the door behind us and locked it. The two of them stood in front of me as though they were about to give a presentation.
“What’s the idea?” I asked when I realized they were waiting for me.
“We want to do a memory spell,” Andi blurted out excitedly. She seemed more excited about it than I would have expected knowing that since they’d learned more about memory magic recently, they had done dozens of memory spells.
“Okay,” I answered. “What are we remembering?” I found a nearby lounger and sat down.
“It was Vila’s idea. She knew my family’s history upset me and suggested we do a spell to see if there was some kind of tie between my family and the spellbook,” Andi explained.
“Whose memory would you be going into to figure that out?” I inquired, intrigued by their line of thinking.
“Oh, we aren’t going to do that. It led us to a different idea, however,” Vila added. I rolled my eyes at their complete lack of linear storytelling.
“What are you going to do, then?” I prodded.
“We are going to go into your memory,” Andi squealed, jumping up and down.
“What?” I was suddenly on the nervous side. “Why?”
“We thought about it because we figured you were probably too busy to do the thinking just yet and noticed something about the vision you got while in the cave. They didn’t really seem to be anything about the history of the stones. It was like the stones were telling you a different story,” Vila explained. “So, we want to go in your memory and see if there was anything the book told you that we can correlate, but that perhaps you aren’t actively remembering.”
I thought about the book, and instantly the history of it started coming to mind. I had chosen to know the book’s history in order to keep that Dave character from ruining my life. It was the book’s history that had shown me how to trap him inside it.
“I can remember everything the book showed me, though,” I pointed out to them. They both sat crossed-leg in front of me on the floor and looked up with big eyes.
“We thought about that too, but…” Andi started and then looked at Vila.
