Whole Latte Magic

by Samantha Silver

  “Well, she’s nearly the same age as I am and she thinks it’s alright to pick on a woman forty years younger than her.”

  “You’re not supposed to argue with an idiot. They’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

  “Oh please. Ariadne might be an idiot, but I have so much experience beating her over the years I can do it in my sleep.”

  “You’re going to end up with another visit from Kyran,” Aunt Debbie warned as the three of us stepped into the kitchen. As soon as the two witches noticed us, they immediately dropped the topic of conversation.

  “Why hello there,” Aunt Debbie said, beaming at us. “Joining us for dinner? We’re doing burrito bowls tonight.”

  “What did Aunt Lucy do to Ariadne?” Leanne asked with a grin, and Aunt Debbie glared at her sister.

  “You weren’t supposed to hear any of that. And it’s none of your business.”

  “It sounds like it definitely is my business,” Leanne said. “After all, I’m the one Ariadne came into the coffee shop basically accusing of murder.”

  “What you don’t know is that this afternoon she went to see Chief Ron and tried to convince him that you deserved to be arrested for what you did. Luckily, he wasn’t alone, and that young detective, what’s his name, came over and sorted everything out. He not-so-politely told Ariadne she was interfering with affairs that weren’t any of her business and escorted her out of the police station.”

  “Ross Andrews?” I offered up hopefully, and Aunt Lucy nodded.

  “That was him. He’s a nice young man. Anyway, I found out about this, and let’s just say Ariadne’s store suddenly found itself to be home to an infestation of frogs that she wasn’t expecting.”

  I stifled a laugh as I imagined the gift shop full of overly-perfumed kitsch being overrun by amphibians, and Ariadne having no idea how to deal with it.

  “Aunt Lucy!” Kaillie cried. “You’re not supposed to use magic like that, not in front of humans.”

  Aunt Lucy shrugged. “How will anyone ever know? We live on an island that’s full of nature. Frogs are par for the course.”

  “Well, apart from the fact that Ariadne came and accused you of doing it,” Aunt Denise said.

  “She thinks I bought the frogs from Tim down on the water. She doesn’t think I used magic,” Aunt Lucy retorted. “Seriously, I did think this through.”

  “I, for one, am glad that my aunt was willing to defend my honor,” Leanne replied with a grin as Uncle Bob walked into the room as well. “Oh, hey Dad.”

  “Hey, sweetie,” the wizard replied, making his way over to Leanne and kissing her lightly on the forehead while giving her a quick squeeze. “I thought I’d come by and enjoy dinner with my sisters, but it’s a nice surprise to have the rest of the family here.”

  “We had a long day,” Kaillie said. “And according to Leanne, Mom’s cooking is better than mine anyway.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true anymore,” Aunt Debbie said. “Anyway, I hope you all like burrito bowls, even though it’ll mean Mexican two days in a row. I was just getting it all ready when Lucy walked in. The dishes are ready to go on the table.”

  Aunt Debbie muttered a spell under her breath and two of the cupboard doors, along with one of the drawers opened up and an extra three sets of plates, glasses and cutlery flew out and launched towards the dining room, landing on the table in perfect formation.

  The six of us made our way into the dining room and sat down. The next few minutes were spent with everyone busying themselves making up their bowls and passing the various ingredients around the room.

  When everyone was settled and had taken a few bites conversation began once more.

  “Do you have any more updates on Karen’s condition?” Leanne asked Aunt Lucy, who nodded.

  “Yes. Dorothy heard from Joe that Karen is out of surgery and the cops were able to speak with her for a few minutes. She has no memory of what happened; the last thing she remembers from that day was the end of the school day and her students leaving. After that, nothing.”

  “So she has no idea who did this to her,” I said.

  “That’s right,” Aunt Lucy confirmed. “It’s too bad, really. It would have been nice to have the person who did this caught.”

  “Karen is expected to make a full recovery, then?” Kaillie asked hopefully.

  “Yes. She’s really lucky, from what I’ve heard. She lost a lot of blood. They’re going to move her from the hospital in Seattle back to Enchanted Enclave in a few days. She’ll need to stay there for a bit longer, just to make sure there are no complications, but she wants to come back home and the doctors think it should be safe for her to make the journey back in a day or two.”

  “Good,” Uncle Bob said. “Although I don’t like the idea that the person who did this to her is still walking around.”

  “It’s probably easier for his family if they’re back home as well,” Aunt Debbie mused. “After all, it’s probably nicer for Kyle and the boys if they’re able to sleep in their own beds. Plus, there are more people up here willing to help out. And with Karen’s family having come up from Portland, they’d probably be happier in Karen’s home than in a hotel.”

  “They’re going to have to beef up security at the hospital,” Uncle Bob said, and Leanne shrugged.

  “They’ll do it, but I’m not sure the killer will have a second bite at the apple. Not when Karen’s in the hospital, anyway. After all, this is Enchanted Enclave. If we know that Karen has no idea who stabbed her, then the person doesn’t have to worry about Karen telling on them. At the very least, they would wait until Karen is away from a building with security cameras all over the place,” she replied.

  “Maybe,” Aunt Lucy said. “I still think it’s most likely the husband did it.”

  “We found out you were right about that, too, Aunt Lucy,” Leanne said.

  “That’s not a surprise at all. But right about what specifically this time?”

  I hid a smile as I answered. “There were problems in Kyle and Karen’s marriage surrounding the amount of work Karen had to do. She was working full time and then taking care of the kids as soon as she got home, and she resented Kyle for it. She wanted to move to working part-time but they couldn’t afford it.”

  Aunt Lucy snorted. “That’s always the way, though. Most men still seem to think that even though women are allowed to work outside the home now they should still be taking care of all the household chores, too. It’s one of the reasons I never got married.”

  “That, and there isn’t a man in this world who’d be able to survive living with you for that long,” Uncle Bob muttered under his breath, and Aunt Lucy glared at him.

  “I heard that,” she replied. “I’ll have you know I had plenty of suitors back in my day. Saturn knows I still do now, in the prime of my life. Hit it and quit it, that’s my motto.”

  Kaillie choked on the forkful of food in her mouth and was hit by a coughing fit that lasted a solid thirty seconds.

  “Lucy,” Aunt Debbie scolded. “That’s not appropriate.”

  Aunt Lucy shrugged. “It’s true, though. Deny it all you want, but we both know women still deal with an uneven share of the housework in most families. In a family where that involves taking care of triplets, I’m not surprised that Karen was feeling stressed.”

  “Still, you would think that would lead to her wanting to kill Kyle, not the other way around,” I mused.

  Aunt Lucy shrugged. “We don’t know what happened, remember? Maybe she came at him first.”

  It was always possible.

  “That wasn’t a problem with you though, Dad, was it?” Leanne asked, turning to Uncle Bob.

  “It wasn’t, no. Your mom and I split up for completely different reasons. Although I do have to admit, early on in the marriage I did fall back into traditional gender roles. I would come back from work, crack open a beer and hang out on the couch like I used to when I was single. Your mom would come ho
me from working at the bank, and I’d let her cook dinner and deal with all the chores like laundry and the dishes. She’d ask me for help, telling me she’d spent the whole day working too, and I’d make some noncommittal noise and go back to the TV.”

  “So how did she get things to change?” Leanne asked, and Uncle Bob grinned.

  “Eventually she also just stopped doing any housework. She’d join me on the couch after work, and left absolutely everything. It took about a week before the house got so disgusting that I yelled at her for not doing it. She replied that if I wasn’t going to give her a hand, then she wasn’t going to do it either, and that we could either live in filth, get divorced, or I could carry my own weight.”

  “I’m guessing the third option won out,” Leanne replied, and Uncle Bob shrugged.

  “If I’d gone for either of the other two options you wouldn’t be here, and I’ve never regretted the choice I made,” he replied. “Besides, the thing is, Laura was completely right. I was being selfish, and I was just assuming that because Laura was the wife it was her job to keep a home, even though we were both working full-time. I came to understand that eventually. We were partners. I wasn’t “helping her” take care of the home, I was helping take care of the home I lived in. I was just lucky that I had a wife who was willing to call me out on my crap when we were newlyweds instead of one who stewed and let resentment get the better of her. Our marriage probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did if we’d done that.”

  “Well, regardless of whether or not it was Kyle who tried to kill her, I think so long as Karen remains in the hospital she’s safe,” Leanne said. “So the cops will have a few days to try and figure out who killed her.”

  “Yes, the cops,” Aunt Lucy replied, a knowing look in her eyes. I had a sneaking suspicion she was well aware of what the three of us were doing.

  Kaillie suddenly became intently focused on taking a huge bite of her burrito bowl while Leanne stared Aunt Lucy down, as if daring her to reveal what we were doing to the rest of the family.

  Luckily, if anyone else noticed the scene, they pretended not to, and the conversation quickly moved on to other topics.

  Chapter 9

  The next morning at the coffee shop was fairly uneventful, with the day always starting a little bit more slowly for everyone on Sundays. Leanne took the opportunity to start teaching me how to make the different types of coffee.

  “The most common coffee we make with the machine is a latte,” Leanne explained. “That’s essentially stretched milk on the bottom, with about a quarter inch of foam on top.”

  “Ok,” I said, as Leanne showed me how to pour the stretched milk from the bottom of the jug first, and then slow down the pour to allow the foam to come out on top.

  “If you decide to get artistic with it you can do some pretty cool latte art. Don’t tell Kaillie I said this, but I bet you could figure out some spells to make some pretty amazing stuff. Of course, you’re probably a few years away from being able to do that. You’d have to come up with the spells yourself, since I don’t think the family knows any now.”

  “Can witches invent spells?” I asked, and Leanne nodded.

  “I think so, yeah. If anyone would know about that it’s Aunt Lucy, and not me, the one person in the family with no magical powers,” she replied bitterly. “I’m pretty sure Aunt Lucy has done it a few times. I’ve seen her use spells that were so strange I can’t imagine they were passed down through the generations.”

  “That sounds like her,” I said with a smile.

  “Now, another order we get a decent amount of is a macchiato. You pour those into the espresso cups, and then you add just a little bit of foam to the espresso, about a tablespoon’s worth. When you’re making a macchiato, you really can’t mess up the coffee. It’s basically an espresso shot with a tiny bit of milk, so if you’ve burned the beans at all, the customer will be able to taste it.”

  “What do I do if I’ve messed it up?” I asked.

  “You can always just throw out that shot,” Leanne replied. “We’re a coffee company, and that’s the one thing we do. The most important thing for customers is that they get a good coffee every time. My goal every time I pull a shot is to make sure the customer is getting the best experience they can. If that means throwing out a few here and there because I overtamped the beans or forgot to clean out the portafilter before making it, then so be it. Aunt Debbie and Dad will never get mad at you for doing that. We’d all rather you err on the side of caution rather than serve someone a bad coffee.”

  “That’s a really good attitude,” I said with a smile. “I’m glad to know I’m not expected to get it right every time.”

  “We all mess up sometimes,” Leanne said with a wink as the front door opened and we turned to greet our first customer of the day.

  I gasped slightly when I saw him; he was tall, with dark brown hair and eyes like ice. His pointed ears betrayed the fact that he wasn’t human: it was Kyran, an elf I had met and the only paranormal I knew outside of our family.

  “Hey, Kyran,” Leanne greeted him with a smile. “Want a coffee?”

  “I might, actually,” he said.

  “Mind if Eliza makes it? She’s just learning, so it’ll be free if she does.”

  Kyran laughed. “Sounds good. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks,” I said quietly as I made my way to the machine. I had to admit, it was a lot more nerve-wracking than I thought it would be to make coffee for someone else, even if they weren’t paying for it. Last night, the stakes were low: the only person who was going to suffer if I messed it up really badly was me.

  I took a deep breath and mentally went through all the steps Leanne had taught me the night before while she had a chat with Kyran.

  “So what brings you to town today?”

  “There were reports that someone in this area used magic to generate three hundred frogs yesterday,” Kyran replied. “Naturally, I thought of Lucy. Is she around?”

  “She’s not here,” Leanne said. “That doesn’t sound like her, though.”

  “That sounds exactly like her, that’s why she was the first person I thought of,” Kyran replied, laughing.

  “Don’t tell Kaillie you found out about it,” Leanne warned. “She’s so sensitive about Aunt Lucy doing things that prove we still deserve our banishment.”

  “Fair enough,” Kyran replied as I finished making the coffee and placed the to-go cup in front of him.

  “Can you let me know if that’s alright?” I asked cautiously, and Kyran nodded with a smile.

  “Sure.” He took a long sip, then nodded and looked at me approvingly. “This is really good. Nice job.”

  I smile of satisfaction spread across my face. I had done it! I had made coffee for someone else, and it hadn’t been completely disgusting.

  “How are you settling in with your family?” Kyran continued. “Are you getting used to being able to use magic?”

  “A little bit,” I said. “It’s hard, though. I’ve been trying some more advanced spells, like changing the weather, which while it’s advanced, should be an easy thing for an air coven witch like myself to do, but I just can’t do it right. The other day I tried to make the sunny day turn cloudy, and all that happened was a single cloud shaped like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes appeared, and he made it rain, just like on those bumper stickers you see. Aunt Lucy fixed it for me, but not before the whole thing went viral on the internet.”

  Kyran bit back a smile. “I heard about that, too. I kind of figured it might have been you, although the image also made me think of Aunt Lucy. If you don’t mind, I might come by with Tina sometime. She’ll be able to help.”

  “That would be great,” I replied gratefully. “I’m sorry I used magic and ended up all over the internet. I swear I didn’t mean it.”

  “I know,” Kyran said. “I’ve reported your situation back to the people I know in the paranormal world, and they’re aware that there’s going t
o be a learning curve for you. However, they also think it’s important that you embrace your magical powers, and so if it results in a few mishaps that need to be cleaned up here and there, they’re alright with that.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew Kaillie wasn’t mad at me about the whole Calvin cloud situation – she understood that I was trying a more difficult spell than I was used to – but I still felt bad knowing that she was so intent on one day proving our family deserved access to the paranormal world once more, and doing something that garnered so much attention. It was really the number one no-no for witches in the regular human world.

  I was going to have to tell Kaillie what Kyran just told me. Hopefully it would put her mind at ease.

  “Alright, I’m going to go find your Aunt and tell her it’s not subtle when she conjures up a bunch of frogs just because she’s mad at Ariadne.”

  I smiled. “It sounds like this isn’t the first time you’ve had to come pay Aunt Lucy a visit for that exact reason.”

  “You’d be right there,” Kyran replied with a good-natured laugh. “Ah, well. I prefer dealing with your aunt than hunting down vampires who murder humans for the underground blood market.”

  I gasped. “That’s a real thing?”

  “Absolutely,” Kyran replied. “I do my best to stop it, but I can’t be everywhere at once.”

  “Well, that’s not a nice thought,” I said.

  “Don’t worry. It’s actually quite rare. A few hundred years ago when I started it was much more common, but the paranormal world has passed some strict laws regarding the use of human blood, and now the vampires know that I’m out looking for them, and that I will come after them. They know it’s not worth it anymore, for the most part.”

  “Good to know,” I said.

  “Alright, I’ll see you when I see you,” Kyran said. “Thanks again for the coffee.”

  He lifted his cup to me as if to toast me, and headed out the door to continue his search for Aunt Lucy.