by Natasha Lowe
Turning back, Lucy saw that she was smiling again. But it was a nice smile, not a “making fun of Lucy” smile. “I do.” Lucy nodded and then said, “My friend Ella doesn’t. She used to, but she gave it up over the summer.”
“That’s too bad. Especially when there’s so much magic in the world. It’s everywhere,” Chloe said. “Magical things happen all the time. You just have to know where to look.”
Lucy stared hard at Chloe’s face. “Do you really believe that, Chloe?”
“Course I do.” She pointed at Lucy’s nest. “That’s a piece of magic right there. And whenever I come up with a new design, I get all tingly and excited.” Chloe looked down at her dress and touched one of the leaves. “This idea just floated into my head.”
“Like magic,” Lucy whispered.
“Exactly. And the way my mom met her boyfriend, right after saying how nice it would be to have someone to go to the movies with again. She bumped into him outside Valley Donuts that very afternoon. They were both eating honey glazed crullers, and they both love sappy romantic comedies. Now, don’t tell me that wasn’t magic.”
“What about gnomes?” Lucy asked rather breathlessly. “Do you believe in those, Chloe? Because I think I saw one in my closet.”
“A gnome?”
“Well, he could have been an elf or a dwarf. I don’t really know. He was wearing a red jacket, and he had these sparkly gold shoes with curly toes, and a long white beard.”
“Wow!” Chloe laughed, and Lucy could feel herself blushing.
“I’m not making it up,” she insisted. “That is what I saw.”
“I’m not doubting you, Lucy. I just wish I could have seen him too. You know, in Iceland over half the population believe in elves and dwarfs.”
“They do?” Lucy said, breathing hard. “You’re not making that up?”
“I’m not. They have actually rerouted roads to avoid disturbing rocks where dwarfs are supposed to live.”
“So it’s possible?” Lucy said. “That my gnome was real?”
“It’s definitely possible,” Chloe agreed, which was all Lucy needed to hear.
For the next few minutes, while Chloe went back to reading, Lucy sat with the bird’s nest in her lap. The sun warmed her head, and there was a lovely smell of apples from the windfalls on the grass behind her. When Chloe shifted her legs, Lucy noticed a little gray elephant tattooed on the outside of her shin, right above her left ankle. Once Lucy had discovered it, she couldn’t drag her eyes away.
“So is that your best friend who doesn’t believe in magic anymore?” Chloe suddenly asked. “The girl you’re always with?”
“Yes, that’s Ella.” Lucy sighed. “She’s become a sparkle girl, and now she has new friends she’d rather be with.”
“Ahhhhh.” Chloe nodded, picking at her nail polish.
“It was awful at school today,” Lucy admitted, surprised by how easy it was to tell Chloe stuff. “I didn’t know who to talk to at recess.”
“Take a book with you tomorrow. That’s what I used to do. Then you can read or pretend to read. It makes recess whiz by for lonely kids.”
“There’s a girl in my class who reads at recess,” Lucy said, feeling guilty that she hadn’t been friendlier to Rachel. Lucy had never thought of Rachel as lonely before, just as quiet and a little bit unusual, always lugging around her accordion case as if she were about to head off on a trip. “Well thank you for the advice,” she added, thinking this was a good time to leave. “And good luck with getting into college.”
“See you around,” Chloe replied. “And good luck with your gnome. I hope you see him again.”
“I hope so too,” Lucy said, regretting all the times she’d run into her house whenever Chloe had appeared outside. That was the one good thing about Mrs. Minor’s horrible fence. It had helped her make friends with Chloe. She wasn’t nearly as intimidating or weird as she looked. In fact she was actually really nice. And she believed in magic!
MRS. CASTOR WAS STILL LYING on the sofa when Lucy came bounding back inside. She managed a weak “Hi, Lucy,” and groaned. “This nausea is just the worst.”
“Perhaps I could make you a potion?” Lucy suggested, feeling inspired to try some spell making again. “A little brew to help you feel better, Mom.” Before Mrs. Castor could answer, Lucy had dashed upstairs to her bedroom and tugged Nature’s Magic out of her bookcase. When she reappeared with the big, dusty book, Mrs. Castor eyed it suspiciously.
“Is that the one you found at the Put and Take?”
“It is,” Lucy said with great confidence, sniffing the pages. There was a strong whiff of mold clinging to the paper, but behind the dampness Lucy was certain she could smell spices and herbs and something distinctly magical. She had always believed this was a real spell book, and after her conversation with Chloe, Lucy felt determined to give it another go.
Last year she and Ella had pounded mint leaves into a potion to try and cure Ella’s hiccups. This was one of the remedies listed in the book, but it didn’t really work, because Ella was laughing so hard she kept hiccupping even faster. Although now Lucy realized what the problem might have been. They probably should have said a little spell to go along with the potion.
“Lucy, what exactly are you planning?” Mrs. Castor said rather anxiously, watching Lucy flip through the pages.
“Mom, please don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. How about this?” Lucy suggested. “A remedy for upset stomachs?”
“What’s in it exactly?”
“Ginger and honey, and a dash of cinnamon.” Lucy gave a small sigh. “I just wish they used proper ingredients like eye of newt and spider’s breath. Things like that.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t be drinking it if they did.”
“I’m going to write you out a spell,” Lucy said. “To make the magic work. And you have to say it when you drink the potion, Mom.”
“That’s fine, Lucy, but no added surprises, please. I don’t want to find a fly wing or a spider leg floating in my drink.”
Since Mrs. Castor didn’t have any fresh ginger lying around, Lucy decided to use powdered ginger instead. She followed the directions for the recipe, pouring boiling water over the ginger and stirring in some honey and cinnamon. It smelled quite nice, more Christmassy than magical, so while it cooled a bit, Lucy sat down to write a spell. She used a purple pen, because (Lucy felt quite sure) purple was a magical color, and surprisingly the words sort of popped into her head, as if she had no control over them. As if they had definitely arrived there by magic.
“Here you go,” Lucy said, handing her mother a mug and a piece of paper. “It’s quite safe,” she added as Mrs. Castor peered into her drink.
“Just ginger, honey, and cinnamon. Right, Lucy?”
“Yes.” Lucy nodded at the bit of paper. “And that’s the spell, Mom, which is very important, so please try to use a proper chanting voice when you say it.”
Under Lucy’s eager gaze Mrs. Castor took a tiny, cautious sip, and then holding up the paper she said, “Bubble, boil, a magic brew, to make me feel as good as new. Soon I will be up to bake, Lucy’s favorite chocolate cake.”
“Very good.” Lucy beamed at her mother, who had started to laugh. “How do you feel? You definitely sound much more cheerful.”
“It is rather soothing,” Mrs. Castor agreed, taking another sip. “Thank you, Lucy.”
Even though Mrs. Castor said she felt better, there was still no sign of chocolate cake baking by the time Mr. Castor came home from the high school.
“Hey, it’s Monday,” Lucy said as her father put a pizza box down on the kitchen table, along with a stack of papers he needed to mark. Pizza night was always on Friday nights, half cheese, half pepperoni, and Lucy looked at her mother in alarm. “Mom, where’s the spaghetti?” Lucy asked. “We always have spaghetti on Mondays.”
“Can you make an exception, Lucy?” Mr. Castor said, rumpling up his hair. His eyes looked red and his shirt had come unt
ucked. “Your mom isn’t up to cooking right now.”
“Well, she should be,” Lucy said. “I just made her a very powerful magic potion.”
“And it has helped my nausea,” Mrs. Castor insisted. “But I’m not quite ready to face spaghetti yet, Lucy. Plus, I’m so behind on my kangaroo features page.”
“Which is why we need to find someone to come in and help out a bit,” Lucy’s dad said, glancing at Lucy’s mom. “With the cooking and cleaning, I mean, so you can get your work done. At least until you feel better.”
“Hope they can make spaghetti,” Lucy whispered.
“I thought you’d be pleased,” Mr. Castor said. “Pizza is a treat.”
“A Friday treat,” Lucy pointed out softly, but she didn’t complain anymore, because her father looked as if he had had a difficult first day of school too.
It was a quiet meal. Lucy’s mother didn’t join them, and Lucy’s dad seemed to be thinking about other things. There were clock bits all over the table, and the pizza tasted wrong—too much sauce and not enough cheese. Which was no surprise considering it was Monday. Every once in a while Mrs. Castor would lean over Mildred, but when Lucy offered to make her up another potion, she just shook her head and groaned.
Pizza on Monday was bad enough, but when her mother went to bed at the same time as Lucy, it completely upset the nighttime routine. And to make matters worse, her dad seemed to have forgotten to come up and say good night, something that had never happened before. While Lucy waited for him to appear, she checked in her closet to see if her gnome had returned, and then with a heavy sigh Lucy knelt on the floor by her nests.
She picked up the robin’s nest and traced a finger along one of the green sparkly threads, feeling something crackle behind it. A piece of newspaper was tucked underneath, hidden among the twigs and leaves and bits of grass. Very gently Lucy wiggled the newspaper out and unfolded the creases. She peered at the tiny writing. David Ortiz’s grand slam at the bottom of the ninth inning was all the magic needed for the Red Sox to win… . Lucy stared at the scrap of newspaper. Goose bumps broke out on her arms and a shiver tickled its way down her spine.
She wasn’t sure whom the Red Sox had won against, because the rest of the sentence was missing. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter one bit. All that mattered was that one little word, “magic,” hidden inside her nest. A pinch of magic just waiting to be discovered. And Lucy knew this had to be a sign. She couldn’t wait to tell Chloe. What was it Chloe had said? Magic was everywhere; you just had to know where to look.
Being very careful not to rip it, Lucy dropped the scrap of newspaper next to the pile of sparkles in the drawer of her bedside table. Then she got out her notebook and on the page opposite her gnome picture, wrote Magical Signs. Underneath, Lucy started a list.
1. Seeing a gnome in my cupboard.
2. Finding sparkles from the gnome’s shoes on my cupboard floor.
3. Feeling magic in the garden.
4. Making a magic potion that actually worked, because my mom definitely felt less sick.
5. Discovering the word “magic” hidden in my robin’s nest.
Lucy contemplated putting down the thing Chloe had told her about her mom bumping into her new boyfriend outside Valley Donuts, but it felt a bit like cheating, since it wasn’t Lucy’s sign. That bit of magic belonged to Chloe’s mom.
By the time Lucy had finished her list, Mr. Castor still hadn’t come to her room, and it was half an hour past her bedtime. She slipped her notebook back in the drawer and touched the scrap of newspaper. “Magic,” Lucy whispered with a shiver. “Ella’s wrong. It does exist.”
THE NEXT DAY AT RECESS Lucy watched Ella go off with Summer, May, and Molly. It was hard to tell who was who from behind, except that Ella’s ponytail was a little blonder than the others. Ella hadn’t asked Lucy if she wanted to come with them, although she had been perfectly nice to her in math and smiled when Lucy got the right answer to an extremely difficult problem Ms. Fisher had written on the board.
After wandering around the playground for a bit, Lucy took her book over to the large maple tree and sat down next to Rachel. She opened The Hobbit and stared at the page. Somehow, when her parents read the story out loud it made perfect sense, or perfect sense until her dad started falling asleep. But there were too many complicated words, and after struggling through the first paragraph Lucy gave up. Chloe had been right though. Holding a book in your hands was like a shield. It protected you, gave you something to hide behind, and Lucy could watch the sparkle girls practice their hip-hop moves without anyone noticing.
Sitting next to Rachel was actually rather comforting. In fact Lucy wasn’t sure Rachel had even noticed she was there. Not until she started laughing. “Must be a funny book,” Lucy said.
Rachel looked up, surprised to find Lucy sitting beside her. She hesitated a moment before saying, “It’s my favorite book in the world. I’ve read it twice already.”
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
Glancing around, Rachel asked, “Why aren’t you with Ella? You two are always together.”
“She’s over there. She’s become a sparkle girl.” Lucy sighed. “I still can’t believe it.” She picked at a mosquito bite on her leg.
“That is upsetting,” Rachel agreed, and Lucy nodded. She didn’t want to talk about Ella.
“What’s it about, your book?”
Rachel held it out so Lucy could see the title. “I found it at a yard sale when we lived in Georgia,” she said. “I couldn’t read it then. I just liked the cover. And it’s exciting more than funny,” Rachel added. “But I always laugh when I’m excited.”
“The Lord of the Rings!” Lucy exclaimed, wondering if this were another sign. “My neighbor loves that book too. It has an elf princess in it, right?”
“Arwen!” Rachel clutched the book to her chest. “Have you read this?”
“No.” Lucy shook her head. “I’m not a good enough reader.”
“If you can manage that?” Rachel glanced at The Hobbit.
“I can’t. My parents are reading it to me,” Lucy admitted.
“I love to read. My mom says that’s why I need glasses, because I strain my eyes reading under the covers at night. I’m not allowed to but I do it anyway!”
“When did you live in Georgia?” Lucy asked, realizing she knew almost nothing about Rachel. “That’s a long way from Hawthorne.”
“For a year before moving up here. Before that I lived in Texas and before that San Diego.”
“I’ve only ever lived on Beech Street.”
“You’re lucky.” Rachel made a face. “I hate moving around so much. I was born in Chicago, but I don’t remember that because I was only a baby.”
Lucy couldn’t imagine living in so many different homes. “You must have been to a lot of schools.”
“I have.” Rachel nodded. “And it’s hard to make friends when you’re always about to leave somewhere. I suppose that’s why I love books so much. Because I can take them with me.”
“So how long are you going to be in Hawthorne for?” Lucy asked, thinking that she would be utterly miserable if she had to pack up her nests and move every few years.
Rachel shrugged. “My dad says we’re definitely here to stay this time. We moved around so much because of his job, you see, but he has a different job now, so I’m really truly hoping this is it.” She glanced at her watch and scrambled to her feet.
“Hey, where are you going?” Lucy said rather anxiously. “Recess isn’t over.”
“Almost is. I have an accordion lesson during music class, and Ms. Larkin gets all grumpy if I’m late.”
“Why do you play?” Lucy asked her, realizing this sounded a little rude.
“You mean because I’m absolutely rubbish at it?”
“I didn’t say that.” Lucy looked flustered, hoping she hadn’t hurt Rachel’s feelings. “In fact, you’re the best accordion player I know.”
“I’m the onl
y accordion player you know.” Rachel laughed.
“That is true.”
“It belonged to my great-grandpa,” Rachel explained. “He brought it over with him from Hungary when he emigrated. Everyone says he was an amazing musician, so I’m trying to carry on the family tradition. Which,” Rachel added softly, “I have plenty of time to do. Although it is crazy difficult,” she confessed. “But I kind of love it too.” Smiling and holding The Lord of the Rings, she pretended to play an air accordion. “I like to imagine him belting out all these rousing folk tunes.”
Lucy was extremely glad Rachel had so much enthusiasm because (unless she had improved over the summer) her great-grandfather certainly hadn’t passed along any of his musical abilities.
“Hey,” Rachel suddenly said, stopping to wave her book in front of Lucy. “Can I read this to you next recess? If you like The Hobbit, you’ll love The Lord of the Rings.” Lucy stared at her and Rachel’s face flushed pink. “Okay, that’s weird, isn’t it?”
It was a bit weird, Lucy thought, but at least it would give her something to do during recess. “No, I think it’s a nice idea,” she said.
“You do? Oh good!” Rachel laughed again and Lucy joined in, not understanding what was so funny, but finding the laugh infectious.
Lucy had decided not to share her big sister announcement with anyone. Not talking about it meant she didn’t have to think about it, and Lucy managed to keep the news to herself … until the following Friday morning, when Ella came running up to her as soon as she got to school.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ella shrieked. “Your mom told my mom, and I can’t believe you haven’t said anything yet.” She flung her arms around Lucy and shrieked some more, as Molly, Summer, and May came hurrying over to join them.
“What’s happening?” Summer said.
“Lucy’s mom is going to have a baby!” Ella shouted.
“Yay!” Summer squealed, grabbing Lucy by the arms and jumping up and down.
Lucy wondered if she were a terrible person, because she didn’t feel so much as a grain of excitement. Nothing like Summer and Ella were showing, and it wasn’t even their baby. The other girls started to squeal too, joining in the jumping and making Lucy’s head ache.
