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Excerpt:
“Thank you very
much.” Keeping tight rein on his excitement, he reached for
them, intending to put them inside his backpack and peruse them
at his leisure, when a bolt of electricity shot up from his
fingers. He jerked his hand back. “Yeow.”
“What’s the
matter?”
The envelopes
bit me, was his first reaction but
fortunately, he wasn’t the type to blurt out what was on his
mind, because he could just imagine what she would say to that.
After a moment, he said carefully, “I think it’s static.”
She looked at him
as though he were crazy. “Of course they’re static. Do you
expect them to move by themselves?”
It took him a
moment to realize what she was referring to. “No, no. I meant,
static current, you know, when you brush against somebody and
you feel that slight jolt of electricity?”
“Oh, that static.”
“Yes, only this
time, it’s a hundred times stronger.”
She frowned. “I
didn’t feel it.” She reached for the envelopes and he had to
quell the urge to tell her to be careful. “See?” She dangled
them in front of him.
“Let me try it
again.” He felt like a fool but he knew he didn’t imagine it.
“Take them from my
hand.”
He lifted his
hands, disconcerted to find them shaking. Was this how lab mice
felt when they were being experimented on? He stilled the
trembling with effort and touched the envelopes with his
fingertips. Fire burned down his arms. He jerked away.
“Yeow!”
“Hmmm.” She stared
at the envelopes, perplexed.
“Maybe they don’t
like me.”
“Hmmm.” She
transferred her gaze to him, considering him with her
nondescript brown eyes.
What did she see?
After that remark, maybe she was thinking he had flipped.
“Let’s try this.”
She separated the two envelopes and placed them side by side.
“Pick one, any one.”
He shrugged. “Okay
but this is the last time. Perhaps, it’s just not my day
to-day…” His voice trailed off as he stared with incredulity. He
was holding one white envelope between his thumb and forefinger
and nary a zap shot up his arm. Thoughts tumbled in his head.
“That’s it! Perhaps I shouldn’t touch them together.” Energized
once again, he laid down the envelope and reached out for the
one inside the sealed plastic. Hardly had he touched it than a
jolt of electricity rendered his fingers numb. “Damn it!”
Elise rubbed her
face with her hand and sighed. “Okay, now I know what happened.”
“What?” he barked,
hopes plummeting like a crashing spaceship.
“Mattie must’ve put
a spell on the plastic.”
“A spell?” he asked
incredulously. “Magic?” He began to laugh. “In case it escaped
your notice, this is the twenty-first century and it has been
the age of science for some time now.”
She sent him a
contemptuous stare. “Mattie was a witch—”
“Witch!” he burst
out. “How dare you call my great-aunt a witch! I may not have
known her—”
Her scornful
laughter cut him off. “I don’t mean that she was an ugly, mean,
old woman, which was obviously what you thought. I was actually
giving her a compliment. She was a witch of the highest order, a
powerful magic-user but I guess you wouldn’t know that, would
you, since none of you came to visit her. Ever. For that matter,
I don’t understand why she would leave you anything at all.” |
