A Touch of Water (Touch of Magic Book 1)

by C. K. Johnson

  “I’m not going up there.”

  “How do you know until you try it?”

  “Dying cats sound better than me. I’ve sung in the shower. An experience my family will agree I should never repeat.”

  “Maybe our next date, we’ll go to the library.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him, and he laughed. “Best get you home before you turn into a pumpkin,” he said as he stood and held out his hand to help me up.

  I shook my head and glanced at the crutches. People were kind enough to move out of the way, so it was easier to get out than it had been to get in. He did open the café door for me again as well as the car door, despite the fact he almost fell over the curb doing so. It was all I could do to let him do it.

  “Carriage,” I said as we drove home.

  “Carriage?”

  “The carriage turned into a pumpkin. Not Cinderella.”

  Chapter Ten

  I hung up after two rings. What am I thinking, calling Melissa? I slid the dreaded hiking boots back on and laced them up. Why hadn’t I burned these? They were torture devices—legal forms of pain for $129.99. It pained me to think how much they cost. The plan: Go up the cursed mountain, find the stupid broken water bottle, and hide that sucker too. I was going to start a collection.

  My phone rang and I jumped, dropping it. It vibrated on the floor. Melissa’s name flashed on the screen along with her number. I shook my head and picked it up. “Hello.”

  “You called. And then you hung up,” Melissa stated.

  “I changed my mind.”

  “About what?”

  “I need to go get the water bottle I used to help Tyler out. Now that I know it can skip around, I don’t want some poor eco-friendly hiker to find it.”

  “I’ll be over in twenty.” The line went dead. This was going to be interesting.

  .o0o.

  The afternoon light shone through the swaying white aspen trees, casting sprinkled shadows that might have looked idyllic if we weren’t hunting for the bottle of liquid pain.

  “It was over here.” Melissa stood a few feet away and waved me over to a scruffy bush that did look more squashed than the ones around it.

  I ambled over, trying to figure out why I was following her. She hadn’t even been there for Tyler’s fall. Then again, all the trees and bushes looked the same to me. I knew some were lime green, dark green, and some were just dead, but beyond that, everything I remembered centered around Tyler.

  I grimaced as my boot sank into something that didn’t feel like grass or dirt. “I think I stepped in something.” I rubbed my boot in a spot of clean dirt. It didn’t seem to help much.

  “Deer poop,” Melissa said, not even trying to hide her smile.

  Had she called me over to make me step in deer turds? I wouldn’t put it past her.

  “Great. What if some poor frolicking deer drank from the water bottle?”

  “Deer killer,” she said as she walked to another clump of scraggly bushes.

  “There!” we both shouted at the same time.

  “See, I told you.” She stomped over, sending a bunch of purple wildflowers to their maker. I think she aimed for them.

  “You were going in a completely different direction,” I added as I did my share of squashing in an attempt to reach it before her. I failed. In my defense, my short legs were half the length of hers.

  The blue bottle looked dustier than it had that day. I didn’t remember the cracks going so deep. Melissa picked it up gingerly, as if it would bite her any second. A thin film of water skimmed the bottom. Goosebumps prickled my arms.

  “Here.” I held out my hand, and she cautiously handed it over. I didn’t relax until I held the banged-up plastic in my hand.

  No poor woodland creatures were withering in pain nearby so I might have made it in time.

  “So what’s the plan?” she asked as I started back to the trail.

  “The plan is to hide the sucker in the deep dark nether reaches with the other water bottle and pray no one ever finds it. In the meantime, I’ve got to go buy a new water bottle for Tyler, so he thinks that’s what we keep talking about, and a new one for Caitlyn because I’m never giving hers back.”

  “That works. You have time to go now?”

  I glanced over, but she seemed intent on checking out the shrubbery along the trail. Too late to use that as an excuse after her mass squashing of wildflowers earlier.

  “You don’t need to.” I gazed at the rocks to my left as if they had suddenly become fascinating.

  “Do you even know where to find that kind of water bottle?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her gazing at the bottle intently as if it had turned into a crystal ball.

  “The same place I bought my shoes.” I kicked at a small rock. It skittered down the trail in front of us.

  “Fine. You want to do it alone.” She walked past me and started down the mountain without looking back.

  “No,” I replied before she got too far.

  .o0o.

  “Get her this one.” Melissa tossed me a metal one with purple skulls printed all over it.

  “Cute.” I set it down on a shelf beside a row of energy bars. “How about this one?” I picked up one that looked exactly like the one hidden in my closet right now, with fewer scratches.

  Melissa rolled her eyes. “It looks like her old one.” She tossed a green one at me. “For Tyler.”

  I dropped it in the basket and nodded. “I like it.” I picked the skull one back up and added it to the basket. Maybe Melissa was right. She smiled and followed me as I wove through a field of top-of-the-line popup tents toward the front.

  She stopped at a smaller tent and picked up a box. The people on the front looked way too happy standing by a tent that in no way could have held both of them. He was at least six feet and would have to curl up in a fetal position to fit in it.

  “Really?” I asked as she picked up the box.

  “How can you hate it?” She tucked the box under her arm and started for the backpack section.

  “I don’t hate it. I’d just rather be doing something else.” When we reached the backpacks, I eye the canvas and aluminum monstrosity she hoisted onto her shoulders. “That could fit more than half my closet full of clothes. You planning on running away?”

  She set the backpack and tent down but didn’t answer. I started for the register when she didn’t move.

  She followed. “So how do you—” She stopped talking as a sales associate walked by.

  “I’m not sure. I mean, I have an idea, but the exact details are—well, I always thought it was a joke, that my Gran was crazy, so I didn’t pay attention as much as I should have.”

  “What about your mom?”

  “My mom didn’t believe her either. I think she tried to ignore what Gran said more than I did.”

  “Okay, so everything you’ve done has been based on the few stories you remember from your crazy grandmother? Yeah, definitely don’t tell anyone.”

  I went through the checkout and swiped my debit card, cringing at the price. By the end of this, I was going to need a job.

  “You going out with Tyler again?” she asked as we got in her car.

  “Tonight. I’m still trying to figure out what to tell him.”

  “Do you realize what could happen to any of us if someone finds out what you can do and that you already experimented with us? You’re the one who watches movies. But this time, it’d be real and we won’t win.”

  Melissa’s warning left my nerves singing and kept me silent on the drive home. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was best for everyone I didn’t tell Tyler.

  .o0o.

  I grinned as Tyler pulled up that evening. I let go of the curtain I’d been peeking out of and stepped back from the window.

  “Mom, her boyfriend’s here,” shouted Charlie, almost inches behind me.

  I turned to shove him but only caught a glimpse of his sandy brown hair as he raced to the kitchen. I rubbed my e
ar and reached for the doorknob, hoping to sneak out before my dad noticed.

  Tyler knocked at the same time my dad stepped out of the kitchen.

  “Wait,” my dad ordered. I reluctantly stepped back and let him open the door.

  “Good evening, sir. I’m here to pick up Lilly.” He grinned and leaned on his crutch.

  “You’re down to one crutch? When did that happen?” I asked.

  “I’m a fast healer,” he said.

  That would be my fault, I thought as I inched closer to Tyler.

  Dad folded his arms. “Have her home by midnight.”

  “Yes sir.” Tyler turned.

  “And Tyler, if you go for muffins again, bring me back one too,” my dad added from behind us.

  “Ignore him,” I replied

  “I don’t see the hiking boots,” Tyler said as he shut his car door.

  “I assumed you were joking. Before we go any further I need a hint where we’re going.”

  “No, I thought we’d do something more adventurous, now that I’m down to one crutch and all.”

  “Adventurous—do you remember what happened last time I tried bonding with the outdoors—ugh?”

  “I do.” He glanced back at his crutch before flipping on the radio. He hit scan and kept driving.

  “Aren’t you going to stop it?” I asked as it went through the round again. I’d never done this before, and it was a little grating.

  “It’s sort of like Russian roulette for music—what are you going to land on.” He hit the button again and it stopped on a commercial. I glared. The idea sounded cool but the execution, well, what if we ended on talk radio?

  An old twangy country song came on about love, loss, and tractors. Tyler glanced at me. Within moments, he sang along, his voice horribly exaggerating the accent. “Come on,” he said, hitting a note that made him sound like an old dog baying for its companion.

  I cringed and shook my head. According to Caitlyn, my singing voice could be used as a torture device. I didn’t want to cause Tyler to swerve and fall off another cliff.

  “Come on,” he repeated, elbowing me.

  Maybe she was wrong. What do you care what Caitlyn thinks anymore? I thought as I met Tyler’s eyes.

  “You don’t have to do a thing.” Well, it could have been worse.

  “He loves you more than sunshine after rain,” he countered, his word just a titch off the beat.

  “You are her diamond heart.”

  “He’ll follow you to the stars.”

  I glanced over and noticed he’d edged a fair share into the other lane. “Watch the road, buddy.” I grabbed the seat as he swerved back into our lane.

  “Who told you your voice was horrible?”

  “Everyone who has ever heard it.”

  “You’re not horrible.”

  “Maybe I grew into it.”

  “You grew into it.”

  I blushed and looked out my window. The clear sky showcased the constellations. I didn’t know if I could put up with too many more compliments before I either started to believe him or found out what a good liar he was.

  “Why do you do that, Lilly? Come sing karaoke with me next week.” He shifted around in his seat and I was tempted to glance over but wasn’t sure if I could meet his gaze again. Hopefully, now that I was looking away, he would watch the road a little more.

  “Don’t plan on it.”

  “I wish you’d change your mind. It’s really fun,” Tyler added, his voice tinged with laughter.

  “Sounds almost as much fun as hiking,” I muttered, which got him laughing even harder.

  He pulled onto a winding dirt road that slowly climbed its way up the mountain. In the dark, the drop beside me looked even steeper. I gripped the seat tighter.

  He glanced over. “Nervous?”

  I nodded and kept my eyes ahead. He should be the one skittish of heights. I sighed as we pulled into a turnoff. The city lights below lit up the valley.

  He pushed a button and the cover over the moonroof rolled back. “Pirates used to navigate by the stars.” He tossed a blanket at me and leaned his seat back.

  I inched my chair back and wrapped the blanket tighter. “I used to know more of the constellations.”

  He pulled out his new phone, twice the size of mine, and pressed an app. The next thing I knew, it had scanned the stars and flashed Orion’s Belt across the bottom. A few stars later, Tyler reached behind my seat and pulled out a thermos full of hot chocolate and a bag of marshmallows.

  “So, what do you think? Are you ready for a game of memory?”

  “What?” I sipped my hot chocolate. He still hadn’t handed over the marshmallows, but he hadn’t taken any for himself either. Marshmallow hog.

  He smiled and began taping large black cards to the glass roof, covering the stars.

  He pulled out a stack of hand-written papers about the size of a deck of cards and flipped the first one over. “Find the little dipper.”

  I pulled of a black card directly over me and pointed.

  He held out the bag of min-marshmallows. “Grab one.”

  I debated grabbing more but stopped with myself. I flipped the next card over. “Orion’s belt is also known as?”

  “The Three Kings,” he said, grabbing a marshmallow for himself.

  By the time we reached the bottom of the pile of cards his cup was overflowing with fluffy white goodness. Mine had five.

  The drive down the canyon didn’t seem as bad. Maybe because I was staring up at the stars instead down the steep sides.

  “Want to go to dinner for our next date?” he asked.

  “No squid.”

  “Got it. And a movie?” The answer came too readily. He must be up to something, but dinner and a movie didn’t seem too odd. “What kind of movies do you like?”

  “Would you think I’m a dork if I like black and white movies marathons?” I asked thinking of when they did old movies in the park during the summer.

  “No, but I haven’t seen anything like that at the theaters. We can however have dinner and have some kind of movie-a-thon.”

  When he pulled up to the house, we sat outside in the car for a while. I kept seeing the curtains twitch back, followed by the porch light flipping on and off. Real subtle, Dad. “Wait,” I said, almost forgetting what Melissa and I had been up to earlier. I dashed out of the car and inside before waiting for his response. I opened the front door so fast, my parents had to jump back. My mom had the sense to look a little guilty, but my dad was grinning with glee.

  “It’s not over yet,” I said as I raced past them and to my room. I dove for the bag by my bed and pulled out the green water bottle. After everything that had happened today, I’d almost forgotten it. I raced back to the car and got inside, gulping a few breaths of air before trying to pretend I hadn’t just sprinted away and back again without a word.

  “Hmm, and what do you have here?” he asked, as he must have spied the piece of plastic in my hands.

  “Well, your old one got broken. I had Melissa help me find a new one. That’s all the secret water bottle talk. I guess I was going to get you the completely worst one ever and she saved you.”

  “I see. Well, like I said, my memory is a bit fuzzy from when you visited me in the hospital. But I do recall you saying something about using water to help people. So I don’t believe it was all about a new bottle. I’d wish you’d talk to me.”

  Melissa’s warning flashed through my head. I kept my mouth shut, shrugged, and handed him the bottle.

  His hands brushed against mine and my fingers tingled at the touch. He smiled and leaned closer.

  “Tyler,” I whispered, leaning in.

  “Yes?” he said, stopping inches from my lips.

  The porch light flashed again. Out of my peripheral vision, it looked like little sparklers going off.

  “My parents are watching.” I inched my hand away, reluctant to let go of his touch even with the audience.

  His lips met
mine, and now it felt like real sparklers going off in my head.

  The front door slammed.

  He sat back. “Better let you go. Thanks for the company. And the water bottle.”

  I smiled, unable to speak, and nodded. Wow! Dinner and a movie were going to seem boring after that.

  Chapter Eleven

  The next morning, my brain felt like I’d binge watched Jane Austen movies all weekend. Just thinking about Tyler made my heart skip a beat. The day seemed to agree because the air still smelled crisp and clear of the inversion that so often settle in the valley. I slipped my backpack over the other shoulder and pushed open the school doors.

  Melissa pounced on me like a shark that smelled blood in the water. “So, did he take the bait?”

  “Sort of. He still thinks something’s up, but he said he’s willing to wait to find out until I feel like telling him.”

  She pulled me out of the flow of students and pinned me up against a locker. “Of course he thinks something’s up. You’re an incredibly bad liar. However, as long as you can keep your mouth shut, we’ll be fine. Because if you don’t, who knows what will happen to us.”

  “You mean happen to me.” I shook my head at her jump to drama and tried to remain relaxed, but the words made me wonder. What would people do if they knew about me? Would I be dragged into some lab somewhere, never to be seen again? It wasn’t like my skill was particularly useful anyway. What good would it be to remove emotion from a person? Caitlyn was still a mess.

  “It’s not just you, dummy. You tried it on me. They’re going to lock us, and anyone else close to you, up. We’ll disappear into some Area 51. I don’t want to disappear.” We might have made steps toward a tentative friendship, but the glare she gave me smashed what was left of my romantic floating feeling and brought me firmly down to earth.

  “Neither do I,” I bit back.

  “Good, then keep your mouth shut—even to him,” she finished as Tyler rounded the corner. The smile she flashed me didn’t quite meet her eyes.