Potion Problems

by Cindy Callaghan

  “Do you know where?” I asked.

  “Well, not exactly, but I have a clue. She said she hid it inside the tomb of my oldest relative.”

  “That sounds like a cemetery,” I said.

  “Sí,” Señora P said.

  “That’s not rocket science,” Hannah said. “If we find the cemetery plot for her oldest relative, we’ll find the secret. There can’t be many cemeteries in Wilmington.”

  “Let’s do it,” Darbie said. “Then we can master the potions, fix Coach’s problem, buy this building from Mr. Barney, and turn Charlotte into a frog,”

  “But,” I said, “we would have to know who RS is in order to find her relatives. And what if her relatives aren’t from Delaware?”

  Darbie asked Señora P, “This would be so much easier if you would just tell us who RS is. Why not just save us the time, huh?”

  “I cannot. I made a promesa.”

  “Promesa, schmomesa,” Darbie said, then noisily slurped the end of her Swirley. “And I schmomesa that this is darn good stuff, cross my heart.” She made an imaginary X on her heart with her finger.

  We all laughed. I took another sip of my Swirley and brought up a topic that wasn’t quite as funny.

  “What’s happening with Mr. Barney and the property company?” I asked.

  Señora Perez’s mood immediately went from Swirley happiness to gloom. “I really don’t know how I can afford the new rent. I’m going to close and just retire in Mexico.”

  “Oh no. You can’t,” I protested.

  Hannah added, “Wilmington needs you. We need you.”

  Our phones chirped with a text.

  “It’s from Charlotte,” I said.

  23

  Our Most Major Hex

  The text said, You have twenty-four hours to offer me membership, or the recipes go viral.

  We explained Memory Maker Part One to Señora Perez. She said, “I know Memory Maker Part Two because I wrote that one.” She stood, the crow immediately landing on her shoulder to come along for the ride, and walked through the beaded curtain to the front of the store, where she reached for a bottle. But it was too high, so Hannah got it for her. It was dark amber. She unscrewed the cap and showed a dropper. “This is Cedronian tryptophanberry elixir. Very powerful. Mix it into a lotion, and it is absorbed through the skin.”

  “What does it do?”

  “It will put her into a walking trance. She will go through the motions of a regular person, but she will be entranced and do what you tell her.”

  “This is perfect! I love it,” Darbie said. “We will control Charlotte Barney. This is going to be hours and hours of fun. Can we go do it right now?”

  “Um,” Hannah said. “Let’s think about this one a little bit.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “Are you kidding me?” Darbie asked. “You’re not sure if you want to control Charlotte? Do I have to remind you of every mean thing she has ever done to us? I don’t think I have enough time for that.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I love the idea, but this is the biggest hex we’ve ever considered.”

  “The Return could be huge,” Hannah added.

  Darbie raised her hand. “I’ll take that one. I know it’s not my turn, but bring on that Return. Any price is worth entrancing Charlotte Barney.”

  “We have twenty-four hours, let’s at least sleep on it,” I said.

  “In the meantime,” Señora P said, “you can try this for your coach.” She pushed bottles around, perched her reading glasses on the tip of her nose, and read the bottoms until she found one she wanted. “This should drive away hostility.”

  Hannah twisted open the cap and poured a few of the pointy seeds into her palm. “How am I going to get him to eat one of these?”

  “He does not eat it,” Señora P said.

  24

  Cloves and Bug Spray

  The next day at soccer we ran up and down the hill, which no longer had grass because we’d stomped it all out.

  Charlotte and Misty slowed down so that we could catch up to them.

  “Oh, such a shame about your friend’s store,” Misty said. “But the town can really use a Sneaker Studio in that little strip mall.”

  “Your dad already has a new tenant ready to move in?” I asked.

  “We Barneys move fast.” Charlotte glanced at her watch. “There’s no telling what might happen over the next four hours.” She sped up to get ahead of us, then turned and called back, “Hannah, you wanna pick up your pace and run with me? Coach is picking the starters for the next game based on who does best with this workout.”

  Hannah looked at Darbie and me. She really wanted to be a starting player and was much better than us.

  “Go on,” I said. “You should start.”

  Darbie added, “Don’t want to hold you back, Han-Flimflam—” She was going to say more, but she couldn’t find the breath.

  Hannah jogged ahead to keep up with Charlotte and Misty.

  “I hate Charlotte.” Darbie had no trouble finding air for that. “What did you decide about the lotion?”

  I didn’t answer her, because I was still a chicken about it. “How about we start with cloves? You have it?”

  She patted her pocket.

  At our water break I asked her, “Now? You have a plan?”

  “I’m the man with the plan, Kell-Bell-Farmer-in-the-Dell.”

  I laughed—I was probably in the minority, but I thought Darbie was funny, and she never jazzed up my name. She probably did it to Hannah just to annoy her.

  Darbie sipped her water and walked around casually, slowly getting closer to Coach Richards. She reached into her pocket, and I saw her carefully position the clove in her hand so that the pointy part was poking out.

  Coach Richards flipped pages on his clipboard, studying plays and lineup notes.

  That’s when Darbie made her move. She slapped Coach on the back of his arm.

  “Ouch!” he screamed.

  All the girls on the team looked at him.

  He said, “What the—?”

  “A bug,” Darbie said matter-of-factly. “I got it. It was a big sucker too. Those characters carry all kinds of viruses.”

  I added, “It is crazy buggy here today.”

  He rubbed his arm.

  “It feels like it bit me,” he said, but he couldn’t see the back of his arm. He looked at his hand. “Viruses?”

  Darbie looked down in the grass. “Oh, I see him. He’s the harmless kind.”

  “How do you know?”

  Darbie whispered to him, “I’m kind of a bug lover. I read about them. Look at pictures and stuff. It’s my secret nerd hobby. Don’t tell the other girls.”

  Darbie walked over to me. “Mission complete.”

  I was impressed. Poking Coach with a clove sounded impossible, but there we had it.

  We watched him carefully. He hopped up onto a bench and called out, “Gather round. I have a surprise for you.”

  “He’s gonna end practice early,” I said. “I can feel it.”

  “And give us tomorrow off.” Darbie high-fived me. “We are so good at this stuff.”

  “Listen up,” Coach said. “I was able to borrow these vests from my friend at the police academy.” He held one up. “They are filled with ten pounds of weights. And there is one for each of you. You put it on like this.” He slid it over his head. “And then you lunge like this.” He jumped off the bench and put one foot in front of the other and bent his other knee to the ground, then moved that foot forward and put the other knee to the ground.

  “I drew a path with white chalk starting at the parking lot and going all around school and the surrounding neighborhood. Get to it.” The rest of the team started sliding vests over their heads. “And if you don’t come back with your knees scraped, you did it wrong.”

  Hannah joined us. “What are you waiting for? Poke him with that clove.”

  “She did,” I said.

  �
��Maybe,” Darbie said, “we aren’t that good at this stuff.”

  “Ugh,” Hannah said. “What are we doing wrong?”

  The team started following the chalk path, except Charlotte, who dawdled and played with her phone.

  “Barney, get moving!” Coach yelled at her.

  “You got it, Coach. I just need to post this one thing. I was going to do it later, but you know what they say, there’s no time like the present.”

  I did my best act of being calm, cool, and collected. I turned away from the rest of the girls, picked up the three remaining vests, and handed two to Darbie and Hannah. I whispered, “Act totally normal.”

  They each took a vest.

  I smiled and asked Darbie, “You have the elixir?”

  She nodded.

  To Hannah, I asked, “You have the bug spray?”

  She nodded.

  “Get them.”

  Charlotte said, “I’m getting ready to do it. . . .”

  We ignored her.

  “Twist open the bug spray.”

  Hannah did.

  “Add the elixir.”

  Darbie poured the liquid into the bug spray container, then screwed the top tightly to seal it.

  Then, more loudly, I said, “These vests are heavy. . . . What!? Man, I just got bit again! I hate these bugs. Can I use your bug spray?”

  Hannah gave me hers.

  Charlotte said, “All I have to do is push this button.”

  I walked over to her with the bug spray and confronted her. Charlotte loves a confrontation. “You know, Charlotte—”

  “What, Kelly Quinn? All I need to hear is that my membership is confirmed, and I don’t have to post anything anywhere.”

  “I was going to say, that it’s very buggy today.” And I sprayed the bug spray all over her neck and arms.

  “Kelly Quinn! I don’t need bug spray!”

  I said, “Yes, you do.”

  She repeated back, “Yes, I do.”

  25

  Finding RS

  The next morning Mom made pancakes. Bud poked holes in his and lay it on his face like a mask. (Boys can be so gross.) He laughed so hard that the pancake flopped off his face and onto the floor, where it sat for only a hot second before my dog, Rosey, grabbed it and ran out. Rosey was supposed to be on a diet, on account of Bud giving her so much table food, so I chased her down to get the pancake.

  On our pancake chase, we bumped into the hall table, knocking the mail to the floor. By the time I got to Rosey, the pancake was gone and she looked like it had never even existed. I pointed to her because I knew the truth. “Don’t do that again,” I said to her sternly. She pretended she had no idea what I was talking about, but she didn’t fool me. She knew.

  I picked up the mail, including a few letters and things that weren’t for us. One was for Regina Silvers. I always thought Mrs. Silvers’s first name was Gina, but I’d never thought about it. As I studied it more, the initials jumped out at me. RS.

  RS. KE.

  Could Mrs. Silvers be RS?

  Suddenly some things made sense:

  The spices in her yard—maybe she was trying to grow her own potion-able spices.

  Maybe her knee healed so quickly because she used a little magical ingredient on it.

  Her age—it seemed to match with Mrs. Eagle and Señora Perez. Could they have been best friends that summer so long ago and made the Secret Recipe Book?

  I tingled all over, because it all fit together.

  “I’m leaving!” I called into the kitchen. I ran past my bus stop and continued to the next one a few streets away, where Hannah and Darbie were waiting. I guess all that soccer training paid off, because I got there really fast without even breaking a sweat.

  “What are you doing?” Darbie asked.

  “Silvers,” I said. “Regina Silvers. RS.” I showed them the unopened letter.

  Their mouths flapped open.

  “Unbelievable,” Darbie said.

  “It was literally right in front of us—her house is across the street, right in front of yours—the whole time,” Hannah said. “But why would her book be in your attic?”

  “Remember?” I asked. “Her basement flooded, and we’ve been storing her stuff?”

  They nodded.

  “For as long as I can remember, you’ve thought she was a witch,” Hannah said.

  “I said that because she was a mean old lady. But she’s nice now that her knee is better.”

  “Subconsciously, you knew all along,” Darbie said.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “That’s how the subconscious works,” Darbie explained. “If you’d known, it wouldn’t be sub. It’s the sub part.”

  Maybe she was right. Who knew about the sub part, really?

  We got on the bus and saw Charlotte and Misty in the back. Usually we sit as far away from them as possible, but today Hannah kept walking toward the back of the bus and sat down just two rows away.

  Darbie sat next to her and whispered, “What are you doing?”

  “I want to hear how this whole trance thing is panning out,” Hannah said. “Shh. Listen.”

  We eavesdropped on their conversations.

  Misty said, “You’re quiet today. Everything okay?” When Charlotte didn’t respond, Misty added, “Are you mad at me?”

  I turned around and said, “She’s not mad at you, are you, Charlotte?”

  “No,” Charlotte said.

  Misty asked, “Were you listening to our private conversation, Kelly Quinn?” It was like she was trying to sound like Charlotte.

  “Charlotte doesn’t mind, do you, Charlotte?”

  “No. It’s fine.”

  “Tell Misty why you’re so quiet. Go on, tell her how you really feel about the possibility of La Cocina closing. You’re sad about it.”

  Charlotte told Misty, “I am. I’m sad that the store might close.”

  Darbie whispered to me, “Tell her that she wants me to start in the next soccer game, and she’s gonna tell Coach about it.”

  I said, “Charlotte, remember when you told me how well Darbie was doing at practices and you were going to tell Coach to start her instead of Misty, who’s been looking a little out of shape?”

  “I do,” she said. “I’ll tell him that today.”

  “Out of shape!” Misty balked. “Look at these calves.” She propped her leg on the seat in front of her and flexed.

  “Oh my God, I love this,” Darbie said. “Tell her to croak like a frog. I’m going to video it on my phone.” Darbie took her phone out of her backpack. “Oh no,” she said.

  “What?”

  “It’s dead. Well, not totally dead.” She held it out for us to see. It was the World Book Encyclopedia website, but wherever she touched, nothing happened. It was just a frozen home page.

  “Try turning it off and back on again,” Hannah said.

  Darbie pushed a side button. “It won’t even turn off.”

  “I bet it’s your Return. For Memory Maker,” I said.

  “I’m addicted. I admit it.” She put her hand on her heart. “I think I’m having a panic attack,” Darbie said. “I’d rather have uncontrollable gas than go a day without my phone.”

  “Uh, no you wouldn’t,” I said. “That’s not fair to any of us.”

  “How am I going to survive without my phone?”

  “You can borrow mine, if you need to,” I said.

  “Okay. Give it to me so I can record her croaking. And if you can get her to hop, that would shore up the viral-ability of this puppy.”

  She held out her hand, but I didn’t give her my phone.

  “I thought you were going to share,” she said.

  “We can’t make her croak and hop. That would be so obvious, and people might actually believe her claim that I’m a witch,” I said.

  “Fine. Well I need a deed to do,” Darbie said.

  “I won’t be able to get one from the box until after school,” I said.
r />   “Can’t we make one up?” she asked.

  “We’ve never tried that before,” I said. “But maybe it will work. We probably need someone to keep an eye on you-know-who today.” I nodded toward Charlotte. “You know, to make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy.”

  “Or dangerous,” Hannah said. “I’m not feeling good about this hex.”

  “Oh, relax, Hannah-Hollaback. Let’s have a little fun with it.” Then Darbie added, “She’s been terrorizing us for how long?”

  I said, “Okay, but you stay close to her today.”

  “That’s a sacrifice if I ever heard one,” Darbie said.

  When the bus arrived at school, Misty walked past us to get off first. When Charlotte followed, I said into her ear, “Go have a completely normal regular day at school. Act normal.”

  She headed out, but then I pulled her back. “Except be nice. To everyone.”

  “That should be fun to watch,” Darbie said.

  “Keep an eye on her,” I reminded Darbie.

  “I’m on it.”

  “And,” Hannah said. “Today. After school. We’re cemetery hopping. We’re finding the crypt of Mrs. Silvers’s oldest relative.”

  Darbie said, “Um, the thing is that subconsciously I don’t like crypts.”

  “If you know that, then it’s not sub,” I said.

  “True. Then I just don’t like them. Consciously.”

  “Well,” Hannah said. “Consciously, you’re going with us.”

  26

  This Ain’t Scooby-Doo

  We got off the bus at three o’clock.

  “How was she today?” I asked Darbie.

  “Everyone was shocked that she said nice things to them. I told them that she’d had a near-death experience last night, nearly choking on a walnut, but that I’d saved her life, and that she’d pledged to be a better person. They bought it, and they all think I’m a hero.” She took out her phone. “Ugh. Still dead. And I hung out with her all day.”

  “We’ll go get something from the box in a minute,” I said. Then I asked Hannah, “What’s the cemetery plan?”

  Hannah took her iPad out of her pack. “I downloaded a map of the town and circled the cemeteries. Turns out there are a few more than I thought. Four total.”