The Heart of the Phoenix

by Brian Knight

  The girls squealed in unison, tripping over each other to get away, and Zoe swept the door closed.

  “I hate you, Zoe,” Katie said, moving toward the nearest of the fire pit boulders and dropping onto it.

  “No you don’t,” Zoe said, recovering from the shock and tittering nervous laughter.

  “Is there a point to you scaring the crap out of us?” Penny could still feel her heart pounding. It had been at least two months since she’d had a scare like that, and she was getting used to a calmer life. “Or was it just for entertainment?”

  “The point is you can see them,” she gestured around the hollow at the others, “and I can see them, but no one else can.”

  “Like Ronan,” Ellen said, catching on first.

  Zoe was distracted from the point she was making, looking around the hollow more closely now. “Where is the little hairball?”

  “Who knows?” Penny had known the mysterious Ronan for more than a year and was used to his frequent and sometimes lengthy absences, but she didn’t like it when he stayed away for so long. Twice his absences had been prompted by attacks that had banished him back to his own world, and in times when the girls could really have used his help, and Penny lived in dread that someday he simply wouldn’t come back at all.

  Katie, determined to avoid more digression, steered them roughly back on course. “You were saying?”

  “For some reason I couldn’t do magic anymore, but I could still see things no one else could,” Zoe said. “I wondered why, and thought that maybe it was because I was away from Aurora Hollow for too long. This place is special.”

  Zoe’s words sparked something in Penny’s recent memory.

  “Ronan told me Aurora Hollow is a thin place. A place where the worlds almost touch.” Now that the thought had occurred to her, Penny was surprised it had taken so long. “If the Birdman and Turoc and the Reds come from another world then maybe our magic comes from there too. Through Aurora Hollow.”

  “So how do we keep you from losing your magic once you go back to Oregon?” Ellen looked from one to the other, but there were no answers forthcoming.

  A sudden lively chittering broke the uncomfortable silence, and Rocky rejoined them, splashing through the shallow waters of Clear Creek and stopping before Zoe. He held his cupped hands up to her. They were full of water from the creek. He lowered his cupped hands to his lips and mimed drinking, then raised them up to Zoe again.

  They all remembered the making of the circle, drinking the water from Clear Creek and the surge of power through their bodies as their minds were peeled away from the moment and refocused on a slice of frozen time where they found themselves facing their element spirits; Penny with fire, Zoe with earth, Katie with water, and later, when they had repeated the ceremony with Ellen, she had been greeted by the spirit of air.

  Zoe grinned and dipped her face down to drink from Rocky’s cupped hands.

  Chapter 3

  Old Friends

  The next morning dawned overcast and damp, autumn peeking around the next calendar page to give the world a raspberry. Penny awoke muzzy from her late night meeting at the hollow.

  “Get up, sleepy-head,” Susan shouted from below. “It’s almost noon and you promised to help me with deliveries today.”

  “I’m up,” Penny said, and made herself a liar by pulling her blanket over her head to block out the weak light shining in through her windows. She was close to drifting again when another voice roused her, hushed but much closer.

  “Hey, Red.”

  “I’m awake,” Penny blurted, and threw her covers off. Her first attempt at standing failed, and she plopped back down onto her bed.

  The other voice in the room, coming from the mirror in the top drawer of her bedside table, giggled.

  Penny pawed her drawer open and fumbled out her mirror. Zoe stared up at her from its flat surface.

  “Is Susan home?”

  “Hello to you too,” Penny said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “Hello… is Susan home?”

  “Yes,” Penny barked.

  “Good!” Zoe’s grin widened. “Talk to you in a few.”

  And then she was gone, and Penny was staring down at her own reflection. She watched it for a few seconds, curious to see if it would begin to act independently of her, as her reflection had started doing for the past couple of weeks. She turned her face left, right, moved it closer to the glass, then retreated a few inches. Her reflection seemed in lock step this morning, and that made her feel better. A lot of weird things had happened to her in the past year, but it seemed the one thing she just couldn’t cope with was a rebellious reflection.

  Penny was about to put the mirror back in her bed stand when it blinked.

  Suppressing a shudder, Penny put the mirror away and slammed the drawer closed.

  * * *

  She was showered and dressed, skipping down the steps toward the kitchen when the phone rang. She was reaching for the hall extension when it stopped ringing. She paused with her hand hovering above the phone, suspecting that Zoe was on the other end of the line but unsure if she should take the chance and pick it up. A moment later Susan settled the debate.

  “Penny, phone!”

  Penny picked up and heard strange voices already speaking on the other end.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Penny!” Zoe’s voice rose above the others cutting them off momentarily, and when they continued, Penny recognized the deep baritone that was Zoe’s father.

  “Hi Little Red. We’ve been talking about what’s best for Zoe when school starts again, and we’ve decided she should go back to her school and her friends in Dogwood. Susan said you have room for her but you should have a say in this decision.”

  “Yes!” Penny almost shouted, deciding to forgive Zoe telling her parents about her embarrassing nickname. “We always have room for her.”

  There was a brief snuffling on the line, the barest moment of silence, and Zoe’s mother spoke, her squeak of a voice barely audible.

  “I wanted to keep her with us and home school on the road, but she does love you and her friends in Dogwood. We’ll be there to visit more often than we were before.”

  Zoe had heard that line from her parents before, a promise of visits that never seemed to materialize, but Penny kept silent on that point. There were times in the past when she hated Zoe’s parents for leaving her with a grandmother who barely tolerated her, parents who never seemed to visit, and other times when she hated them for coming and taking Zoe away, but Susan had cautioned Penny to keep those feelings to herself. She didn’t know the whole story behind Zoe’s family life, and it wasn’t her responsibility to judge Zoe’s parents, only to support Zoe.

  At that moment Penny could have leapt through the phone lines and kissed them both.

  “You guys can always stay here when you come to visit,” Penny said, then cringed when the words were out, knowing she’d overstepped her bounds and wondering if Susan might have a few private words for her later on the subject.

  Susan laughed.

  “Of course you can… any time.”

  “So when is she coming back?” Penny began to jump in place, her excitement barely contained.

  “When school starts,” Zoe said. “I’m going to spend the rest of the summer on the road.”

  Another month, Penny thought, and felt some of her excitement drain, but not too much of it. Wherever Zoe happened to be, Penny was sure they would still get to visit many times before she officially returned to Dogwood.

  * * *

  Penny made the rounds around town with Susan, running orders to the offices still standing on Main Street after the fire that had taken Susan’s shop and a half dozen other businesses the previous spring. Next was the home offices in Dogwood’s residential neighborhoods, and then they stopped at the park to watch the work on the building that used to house Home Fries, the coffee and pastry shop Penny favored, the accountant next to Sullivan’s, Golden Art
s, the gem and jewelry shop Zoe loved, and Susan’s stationery and bookshop, Sullivan’s. She avoided Trey when she saw him and a group of his friends in the park. She thought he’d seen her too, but he’d taken the hint after weeks of her avoiding his calls and visits.

  “Why was your shop called Sullivan’s?” It was an old curiosity of Penny’s, but one she’d never questioned Susan about.

  “Because it used to belong to Cagney Sullivan. I worked for him in high school, managed the place when he retired. When he died it went to his kids, but they didn’t want it so I bought them out.”

  The east half of the building took the worst damage, the insides gutted by fire, but the fire had been stopped before it could destroy the building, thanks in large part to Penny and Katie’s intervention. Now those spaces, including Sullivan’s, were being renovated, and the businesses on the west end of the building were already reopened for business.

  Penny saw Susan’s attention had been diverted and followed her gaze to a man standing on the sidewalk not too far away, watching the workmen putting up new sheetrock in Home Fries. Penny gawked in unashamed shock at the man, a stranger to Dogwood she would have bet, since she had never seen him before, and if he had lived in Dogwood she would have noticed him before. He stood out.

  The man was short, shorter even than Penny, and stout, strangely built with arms and legs that seemed slightly out of proportion to the rest of his body. He wore a long coat with a split tail over baggy pants, and a very long and baggy knit cap. Long black dread locks hung down his back.

  “Who’s that?”

  “No idea,” Susan said, and continued to stare. “I’m sure I’ve seen him around before… years ago.”

  The old proprietor of Golden Arts burst from his storefront, shouted something neither of them could understand, and ran for the peculiar little man with the dreadlocks.

  “Oh my,” Susan said, and tensed.

  Penny braced herself for what looked to be a very weird fight on Main Street, but the old rock shop guy threw his arms around the shorter man and lifted him off the ground in a very enthusiastic hug.

  “Looks like Bowen knows him.” Susan said, relaxing.

  Susan and Penny started back toward the delivery van, but were distracted by Bowen shouting at them.

  “Susan! Someone you should meet!” Bowen waved them over.

  Susan favored Penny with a bemused little smile, shrugged, and crossed the street to see Bowen and meet his interesting stranger.

  “Hi Susan,” Bowen bent down and put a hand out for Penny to shake. “And you, Penny. You should come by some time. I haven’t seen your face in my shop since Zoe left.”

  Penny shuffled her feet but made no promises to visit. Zoe could have spent hours peeking through the rough stones and minerals in the Golden Arts back room, but Penny had enough crystals and rocks at home in her mom’s old collection to keep her happy.

  Bowen’s expectant smile wilted a little at the edges at Penny’s non-response. “How is Zoe doing anyway? I sure miss seeing her in the shop.”

  “You won’t have to miss her for much longer,” Susan said. “She’ll be back in a few weeks.”

  “Fantastic!” Bowen seemed genuinely pleased with the news. “She’s a kindred spirit, that girl. No one else around here to talk rocks with.”

  Penny had to smile at his genuine excitement, and vowed to visit Golden Arts soon and buy something for Zoe.

  Bowen turned his attention to Susan and clasped her arm in his hands.

  “Susan, meet our new landlord.”

  “What?”

  The little man had stood facing the new picture window opening on the empty Sullivan’s storefront, but turned then. He seemed to stare somewhere just to the left of Susan’s face, but smiled widely, then gave her a little bow.

  “Good to meet you ladies,” he said. “Erasmus Pi, at your service.”

  He stuck out a hand as if to shake but it came nowhere near Susan. Penny had to duck to avoid having an eye poked out. Susan stepped closer to Penny to intercept the offered hand and shook awkwardly.

  “Erasmus is an old friend of mine from Seattle, a retired entrepreneur with too much time on his hands. He’s decided to come to Dogwood and complicate my life again.”

  “I could never resist a fire sale,” Erasmus said. “I heard Mr. Price was desperate to liquidate and it was my pleasure to fleece him.”

  “I hope you fleeced him well,” Bowen said with a venom Penny would not have believed the friendly old man possible of. “You’ve restored my faith in karma, and you’re putting this old wreck back together in good time.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it, old friend,” Erasmus said. “I can’t see any difference.”

  The strange man spun on his heels to blindly face the building and wave a red tipped white cane at it.

  “It’s coming along nicely,” Susan confirmed, favoring Bowen with a strange smile. “But I’m not sure if I’ll be reopening.”

  Susan’s statement took Penny by surprise. She’d been closed mouthed about any plans to close.

  Erasmus flinched back, as if horrified by Susan’s words.

  “I hope you’ll reconsider, Miss Taylor. Good tenants are hard to come by, and Bowen tells me your shop is a Dogwood staple.”

  “Old Cag Sullivan was a good friend,” Bowen said. “It would be a shame to see his old place close.”

  Penny could see trouble brewing in the lines on Susan’s forehead and stepped in to rescue her.

  “We should get back to our deliveries.” Penny grabbed Susan’s hand and tugged her back toward the street. “Bye.”

  She waved at Bowen and Erasmus. Bowen smiled and waved back, and Erasmus swept off his hat and bowed in her direction.

  * * *

  When they arrived back home the day was just as overcast, only darkening slightly on the eastern horizon, and Penny was almost comatose with boredom.

  “Any plans tonight?” Susan asked as they trudged up the steps to the front door. Susan deposited a large empty bin on the floor and fumbled for her keys. Penny stood behind her struggling with an identical empty bin.

  “I don’t know,” Penny said. She’d planned on calling Katie or Ellen when they were finished with deliveries, but was now thinking longingly about her bed.

  “Do you think I should re-open the shop?”

  Penny hadn’t seen that question coming.

  “I don’t know,” she said again, but felt she owed Susan more. “It sucks that there isn’t a bookstore here anymore, but you have to do what you want.”

  Susan grunted a response and pushed the door open, letting Penny inside before she retrieved the big plastic bin and followed. They dragged the containers up to Susan’s second floor office, and Susan plopped down into the chair facing her computer.

  “Pizza for dinner,” she said. “I don’t have the energy to cook.”

  Penny grunted her assent, and Susan picked up her phone to order as Penny retreated out into the hall. She unfolded the lift stairs to her attic bedroom and trudged upward, thinking a nap before dinner would be the best thing in the world.

  She saw the note outside her window, flapping around like an origami bat and butting its head against the glass. When it saw her, it turned around and showed her its back. The words Read Me were etched across the top of its wings in a black script. It turned to face her again and hovered, waiting.

  Penny paused for a second, then went to the window and let it inside. She’d seen and experienced too many weird things in the past year to let a flying origami bat freak her out.

  It whizzed inside, past her head and up to the ceiling, then circled the room like a hyperactive hummingbird. Its thin rice paper wings crackled with each beat. It finally landed on her writing desk. With a sigh and a look of longing toward her bed, Penny settled herself down in her chair.

  When she reached for the paper bat, it fluttered toward her and landed on her open palm, then quickly unfolded itself on her hand.

&nbs
p; Dear Penny.

  Meet me at Aurora Hollow at midnight tonight. Bring Zoe, and don’t be late.

  Penny reread the note, as if hoping to glean more information from the terse message. It was an unfamiliar scrawl, unsigned, and enchanted with a spell she’d never seen before. She wondered briefly if one of the old Phoenix Girls had returned, but put the hopeful notion away at once. The previous generation no longer had any memory of their old magic. Susan herself had been in that group and had no recollection of her past exploits, only a gaping hole in her memory that sometimes troubled her. If the old Phoenix Girls ever got their memories back Penny was sure Susan would have given her a sign by now. She would have to know what Penny and her friends had been up to.

  A stranger and a magic user, and one who knew who she was.

  Penny didn’t like it, but thought that if it were a new enemy, they would hardly reveal themselves by invitation.

  The note began to refold itself, not into its previous bat shape, but into an ever-diminishing square. Smaller, smaller, and smaller, then it was gone and she was left staring at her empty palm.

  Penny plopped down on her bed and closed her eyes. If she was going to be spending another late night at the hollow she definitely needed a nap first.

  * * *

  Penny stepped through her wardrobe door into the hollow with ten minutes to spare, lit a fire in the pit and searched the trees at the perimeter. Next she searched the granite wall and the mouth of Ronan’s cave and spotted Rocky’s blinking eyes in the stone just above it. She put a finger to her lips, and the eyes blinked closed. There was no sign of Ronan, if he was back in his cave he would have heard her arrival and come up to investigate.

  The door creaked open again as she settled down to wait, and Katie stepped through. She seemed not at all surprised to see Penny waiting.