by Fiona Roarke
They ushered him down a hallway toward the back of the house, leaving Ruby in the parlor. At the end of the long space was a fancy glass door with a design cut into the edges.
Beyond the door, Max could see what looked like a very large garden behind the house. On his left, an ornately carved door led into a bathroom the size of a small bedroom. A clawfoot bathtub perched under a silver oval frame attached to the ceiling, supporting a crimson curtain tucked inside the tub. The urge to pull the curtain back and ensure no one hid in there became a new compulsion, but he fought it.
There was even a nice wooden table and fancy padded chair with arms situated between the toilet and sink and a divan-like padded bench behind him by the door.
First Helen said her spell, ending with a dramatic, “Foop!” Then Matilda whispered hers and finished with, “Zam sha!” Not quite backward but close.
Helen pointed to the huge oval mirror over the sink. “Look into that mirror, then open the scroll and recite the words written.” She pulled the fancy chair away from the table and turned it sideways. “Once you’ve recited the words, sit here with your eyes closed for at least ten minutes.”
“How will I know when ten minutes has gone by?”
She picked up a small rectangular device from the table. “Here. I’ll set this alarm for fifteen minutes. That should give you enough time to do what’s needed. Whatever you do, don’t open your eyes until this alarm goes off. Do you have any questions?”
“How will I know if it worked or not?”
Helen frowned. “Well, when you are done, come back out to the parlor and you can decide if you still love and want to marry Miss Hart. That should be proof enough, right?”
Max nodded. “Okay. See you in a few minutes.”
“Just make sure you keep your eyes closed for at least ten minutes. I can’t control exactly what happens if you don’t.”
“Got it.”
Max stood in front of the mirror, stared at himself for a few seconds and then opened the scroll. “Hither and there. Dither and yawn. Please make me just like I was, not Don Wan.”
He dropped into the chair and closed his eyes, waiting for some sort of magical feeling to encompass him.
Max felt a brush of air and squeezed his eyes shut to keep from looking. Probably a vent had started pushing air into the room from the air-conditioning system. He was sure no one had stepped from behind the shower curtain to get him.
Almost sure.
The thought that a monster had come out from behind the crimson curtain made him want to open his eyes to ensure a boogieman wasn’t about to slay him where he sat. Instead, one of his heels lifted and came down onto the tile in the bathroom without a sound. Nothing happened, so he tapped his heel as if the sound of his restless leg shaking out a beat would keep any and all monsters at bay while he waited endlessly for the sound of the alarm and a spell he wasn’t sure he wanted gone to…well, leave.
Fifteen minutes was certainly longer than expected.
The sudden pain in his head was very unexpected. He wondered why they hadn’t warned him it would hurt, but Max kept his eyes slammed shut, teeth gritting through the throbbing ache.
Chapter Fourteen
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Ruby squirmed on the sofa, unable to sit still during the reversal spell. Fifteen minutes seemed an endless amount of time to sit still. She jumped up and paced the floor after the first five minutes.
“Why so jumpy, dearie?” Helen asked.
“I’m not jumpy. I just want him to be okay.” She started to walk toward the hallway, but the older witches shot to their feet and physically restrained her. “He must follow the letter of the spell. Don’t disrupt him or else he could suffer worse consequences. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No. I guess I’m not as good at waiting as I thought I was.” Lie. My whole job is usually about waiting. Why am I so fidgety now?
“Would you like a cup of tea, dearie?”
“Sure. That would be great.”
“Come into the kitchen.”
“What about Max?”
“We won’t be gone long, dearie. And besides, keeping you from thwarting the spell reversal is more important.”
Probably true. “Good point. Okay.” She followed Helen and Matilda into the kitchen, which was right next to the parlor. If Max came back, they would surely hear him.
To keep her occupied, the two women showed her a large floor-to-ceiling shelf with their collection of fancy teacups beside their kitchen table. Next to the sink was a smaller counter-to-ceiling shelf with a collection of fancy spoons. On the other side of the sink was yet another shelf, only this one had hundreds of thimbles. There were a variety of ceramic, wooden and metal ones, decoratively painted, from many different places all around the world.
The sound of a distant and muffled alarm came from the direction where Matilda, Helen and Max had gone earlier.
Helen perked up. “The alarm. That means he’s done.”
Ruby strolled quickly back to the parlor, pacing across the rug several times before asking, “Where is he?”
Two red spots formed high on Matilda’s cheeks. “Maybe he had to—you know—go.”
“Go where?”
“To the bathroom.” Her whole face reddened further to about the shade of cherry pie filling.
Ruby didn’t want to disturb Max if he had to go, but found she couldn’t stop from marching down the hallway to ensure he was okay. She noticed the glass door leading to the garden was slightly ajar. She peeked out, looking around the lush garden space, but saw no one and nothing out of the ordinary.
Closing the door tight, she stepped to the ornate door and knocked on the frame. “Max? Are you okay?”
“Just a minute,” he said from behind the closed door. His voice was muffled.
She wanted to back away and give him privacy, but couldn’t. What if he didn’t love her anymore? What would she do? Beg? Grovel? Follow him around telling him she loved him and wanted to marry him even though she wasn’t spellbound? She lasted about five seconds before knocking again. The hollow rap of her fist on the wooden door somehow sounded like an ominous harbinger of what was to come.
“How do you feel, Max? Do you need any help?”
“Don’t come in!” his anxious voice came through the wooden door.
There was a muffled sound she couldn’t identify. Was he mopping the floors in there? Cleaning up after an unfortunate accident?
Suddenly the door was flung open and Max stood in the doorway. His expression seemed panicked, but shifted quickly to a serene one. The subtle change in his demeanor was recognizable even at first glance.
His gaze took her in, eyes moving from her face to her feet and back again. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. And he did not wink at her, either.
“Is the spell gone?”
His eyes narrowed, but he nodded. “I think so.”
“Do you want to say anything to me?” Please wink.
He looked puzzled. “No. I have nothing to say to you. I should get back to the Sheriff’s office and pick up Uncle Milo.” Spell-free Max had certainly become abrupt. He put a finger to the center of his upper lip and rubbed the spot beneath his nose.
He glanced at her eyes once more and Ruby winked to help him remember their signal.
Without returning the wink or even waiting for her to say something, Max dropped his hand from his face, brushed past her and walked down the hallway toward the parlor.
Ruby glanced inside the empty bathroom. It was huge. There was a makeup table with a fancy padded chair between the toilet and the sink and a crimson shower curtain so long the bottom edge pooled on the floor. She almost stepped inside to see if there was a clawfoot tub behind the super-long shower curtain, but stopped herself. Now was not the time to be the nosy investigator she usually was.
She was heartbroken and trying not to show it.
Ruby turned to follow Max to the parlor, doing her best to suck it
up and face the reality that he obviously didn’t love her anymore and would likely stop asking for her hand in marriage. A wave of sadness hit her like a load of pavers slammed into her breadbasket.
In the parlor, Matilda and Helen stood as Max walked past them toward the front door. “Thank you,” he said without looking at them, opening the front door to leave as if nothing of importance had just happened.
“I’m so sorry, dearie,” Helen said as Ruby followed Max, trying to catch up with him. His powerful, long strides were already eating up the brick sidewalk out front. She would have to run to catch up with him as it was.
“I am, too,” she said, trying to be brave in the face of her sudden loss. She waved at the two older witches, trying not to cry buckets of tears at this unexpected turn, and closed the door on her way out.
“Wait up,” she called out to Max’s back. He was several yards ahead of her and moving fast toward Main Street.
Max’s head turned to one side as if acknowledging she’d spoken, but he didn’t stop or slow to let her catch up. He kept marching forward like getting to the Sheriff’s office as fast as possible to see his uncle was the most important thing in his life.
Perhaps he was embarrassed by his previous behavior. Perhaps this was his way of telling her they were over and he never wanted to see her again. Perhaps if he walked fast enough, he could lose her and not have to deal with taking back all the gushy declarations of love and marriage proposals. No wink. No love. No future.
Ruby slowed her rapid steps, trailing farther and farther behind him. If he didn’t want her anymore, she wasn’t going to force herself on him. Forget that. She hadn’t been the one who started this whole thing. He had. But the loss she felt was more profound than she planned.
Had she been falling in love with him? Or was she merely in love with the idea of having an attentive boyfriend? A guy who up to now always looked at her like she set the full moon in the sky for them both to enjoy.
Maybe then, but it was all over now.
She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “I’m going back to my office. Since you don’t need me anymore.” Wow. Saying that out loud really hurt, but Max wasn’t impacted at all. Without turning around or slowing, he lifted one hand in the air, waved a couple of times and then sped up, if that were even possible.
Ruby slowed to a stop, hands landing on her hips, trying not to blubber like a child who’d lost her best friend. She sniffed hard as hated tears spilled from her lower lids to her cheeks and resumed walking at a more leisurely pace. When she got to the end of the block, she turned left, taking a different route to her office to avoid following Max.
Tucked in the sanctuary of her workspace, she officially closed the pro bono file she’d started for Max and filed it away. Something bothered her. What was it? Ruby pondered a bit, but nothing came forward to relieve the itch at the back of her brain. Best to let it go for now. Eventually it would come to her.
Her mind wandered to practical things. Would Max still meet her for lunch at Howlers tomorrow? Given his current “I can’t even look at you” attitude, it didn’t seem likely.
Her cell phone made a noise, surprising her. She retrieved it from her pocket and Uncle Milo’s name popped up in the window.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I just called to thank you for all you did.” His voice was low, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear him.
“What? Oh. Sure.” Whatever. She wondered if he’d known or ever seen the guy on the video. Now that her love life was a shambles, her mind went straight to work. “Did you recognize the guy on the video feed?”
“He looked a little familiar, but I can’t say that I did. No.”
“What did the Sheriff say?”
“About what?”
“About Max being the number one suspect.”
“Oh. Max had a private conversation with the Sheriff before we left. Turns out the Sheriff isn’t going to pursue charges against him. On the way back to the motel, he told me that Sheriff Merrow told him he could go.”
“Well, that’s good news anyway.” Too bad the rest of the news today is so sucky.
“Sorry you and Max aren’t going to see each other anymore.” Wow. Hearing those words out loud from someone else really hurt, again. How many more times would that sentiment be repeated? How many more times would she want to cry like a baby when she did hear it?
“Yeah. Well. What can I do?” Cry buckets of tears alone in bed tonight.
“From experience, I can tell you long-distance relationships don’t work, so maybe it’s for the best things turned out the way they did.”
What did that mean? “Long-distance relationship? I don’t understand.”
“Oh? Right. Well, Max and I are headed back to Alpha-Prime by way of Alienn, Arkansas tonight. There’s a flight out of Georgia in the next hour or so and then an interstellar ship leaving for our home planet in about five hours. We can just make it there if we leave right away and catch this small airplane ride from the local Nocturne Falls airport. Actually, I’m looking forward to trying out an Earth-styled plane. Last trip I rode down here in a car.”
“Max is going back to Alpha-Prime to visit his parents?” That was a big surprise. He hadn’t even wanted to be pen pals with them before. Maybe the spells had done more than just make him tell her he loved her and speak the truth.
“Yep. Guess he wants to mend things with them before it’s too late. Plus, he wants me to go back with him for moral support. I agreed, of course.”
“Right. Well. Good.” I guess. That answers the question of whether we are still meeting at Howlers for lunch tomorrow. Big fat no. At least she and Max wouldn’t be running into each other here in town for awkward encounters. That was something.
“Could I talk to Max for a minute?” Stupid. You don’t want to hear his cold-toned, I don’t love you and I don’t want to marry you voice, do you? Stop being a glutton for punishment.
Milo made a sympathetic sound. “No. I don’t think so, Ruby. He said he wanted to make a clean break. He thought it would be better not to let you think there was any future between you.”
Wow. That hurt a lot.
Tears welled up in her eyes and slipped over the edge onto her cheeks. “Right. Good. Okay. Good call.”
He sounded forlorn when he responded, “I’m sorry, Ruby. I truly am.”
In the cell phone’s background, she heard Max’s voice call out, “Are you ready, Milo? We need to leave now if we want to make it in time.”
Milo lowered his voice. “Oops. I better go. Anyway, thanks again.” The line went dead.
Before she could break into loud gasping sobs, wink or even put her phone back in her pocket, it vibrated with another call.
Ruby let it ring as she shook off her melancholy, and looked at the caller ID to determine if she should even take the call. A surprise caller. One she wouldn’t have expected.
“Hello?”
The caller was very excited, talking so quickly that words piled on top of one another until she barely understood any of them.
“Slow down,” Ruby broke in. “And say that again. I only caught every fifth word.”
The caller started out again more slowly, but sped up after only a sentence. Ruby stood up when she realized what the caller was trying to tell her. Her eyes widened. Something had been bothering her. She hadn’t known what until now. She cleared her throat, trying to keep her emotions steady.
“Okay. Calm down. I’ll be right there.”
Chapter Fifteen
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Ruby stood quietly in her hiding place at the Nocturne Falls airport, determined not to waste another second on regrets or wishing things had turned out differently.
It is what it is.
Filled with nervous excitement, she felt like if she flapped her arms fast enough she’d be able to take flight. That was such a fanciful picture she almost laughed out loud.
Settle down. It’s almost time.
She watched for her cue, staying hidden until everyone was in place. As soon as the nod was given, Ruby took a deep breath and headed into the ticketing area. She marched straight up to Uncle Milo and Max where they stood in line waiting for their turn to get their boarding passes and check in their luggage.
Sheriff Merrow had graciously radioed ahead to stall them if needed. However, a large family ahead of them in line provided ample chaos and distraction until Ruby reached them.
“Max,” she said, tapping him on the shoulder.
He spun around so fast he almost tripped over his feet and fell to the ground. Milo also turned, his expression filled with surprise.
“What are you doing here?” Milo asked.
“I needed closure.”
“Closure,” Max echoed with a touch of venom in his tone.
“Don’t you love me anymore, Max? Even a little?”
Max rubbed a finger several times on his upper lip as if trying to think of a response to her angst-filled, possibly drama-inducing question.
Milo smiled fondly at Max. “That’s funny. My valet Hayward does that.”
“Does what?” Ruby asked, although she knew the answer.
“He rubs his upper lip whenever he gets nervous.”
“Where is Hayward?” Ruby asked, never taking her eyes off Max’s face. “I would just love to meet him.”
“Oh, he left already. He usually leaves a day or two ahead of me, but there was only one earlier flight and he took that.”
“Huh. Interesting.” Ruby glanced up at the bucket hat perched on Max’s head. Behind his ear she could see a very slender strand of red hair. “Why are you wearing that hat, Max? Most people remove them when indoors.”
He frowned. “I’m cold.” His surly gaze darted between Milo and Ruby before he turned his back on her, like a pouting child pretending you don’t exist if they don’t look directly at you.
Ruby snatched the hat off his head in a second. Beneath it was a familiar hair shade, and it wasn’t Max’s. “I see you took the time to dye your hair red.”
Faux Max turned around and grabbed the hat from her fingers, slapping it back on top of his head askew.
