Coffee and a Caper
Mallory woke up, got dressed, and put on her makeup. She walked into the kitchen and saw Liz checking off a grocery list for the BBQ. "Hey, Mallory! I'm so excited about the BBQ. I was checking off some of the lists of things for the caterers. What do you think I should get for Dawn? She still doesn't like to eat red meat, does she?"
"No, she doesn't. Maybe cucumber sandwiches? I know some other people would eat those too. Or avocado toast, that's a thing with Californians I think."
"Avocado toast. Got it."
"I'm going to invite Ben to the BBQ when we go for coffee tonight."
"That will be nice."
"I think so. He will like to see everyone."
"We are just having hamburgers out on the patio tonight. We wanted to keep it casual since it is just the three of us and I know you and Watson will want to get started on your Stoneybrook project. Do you prefer writing things down or using your iPad? I heard Stephen King still uses an old typewriter to write his novels. We have one of those in Watson's office. I doubt it has any ribbon in it though."
"I prefer pen and paper."
"Well just write out a list and we will get you what you need."
"Just the girls I wanted to see! Mallory let's go get some grub and talk history!" Said Watson.
They all went to the patio where the table was under a red umbrella. They grabbed plates and silverware and headed over to the buffet-style layout.
"Mallory I know you are familiar with the Stoneybrooke book that's in my library. I also have a Who's Who for every year it's been in publication. I would suggest you start updating the book from yearly Who's Who. We also want you to branch off into a few lesser-known people like that young girl that died they made a memory garden for, that obviously won't be in Who's Who."
"Gotcha. Let me get my pen and paper and start writing things down..."
The next day Mallory woke up early and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. She went into Watson's library to get the old Stoneybrooke book from its special place in a glass case and took it out. She wanted to get an idea of what was already in the book to get a sense of the format she needed to follow.
As she sipped her coffee her mind started to wander. The previous night with Ben had gone as well as expected. They sat out on the patio of the coffee shop and caught up on each other's lives. Ben had a pretty good lineup of gigs for his band shortly with the few bars and clubs in and around Stoneybrook and hoped to establish a residency at the best nightclub in town. He enjoyed teaching music to the elementary school kids during the school year. She had asked him to Watson's BBQ and of course, he accepted. They had been friendly, but it was still taking some time for them to be more natural with each other after not having seen each other since Christmas, where they had gotten the most serious they had ever been since knowing each other. Something about him seemed uncomfortable but she couldn't put her finger on it.
She glanced back down at the book and began to turn its pages. It was fun to see the old pictures of what Stoneybrook used to look like. Just as she was turning the page of photos from the 40s she heard a noise outside the library window. She looked up just in time to see Morbidda Destiny, Watson's eccentric old neighbor they used to think was a witch when they were growing up. She was in Watson's herb garden picking things out of it and holding them in a basket she was carrying. Mallory watched her for a bit. She was carefully looking over each item she picked from the garden.
Mallory made a mental note to go out and see which herbs and things she took after Morbidda left. As Morbidda turned, her earring caught the sunlight and it was a glowing green emerald. Mallory gasped because it was so pretty and bright. She didn't know how loud it must have been, except Morbidda turned to her and saw her in the window. She turned and ran back into her house mumbling to herself along the way.
Mallory decided to take the book and go upstairs to her room where she could keep an eye out for Morbidda from the window. She knew she was up to something and vowed to find out if she was a witch once and for all.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the block, Dawn had woken up with an idea. She had been trying to come up with a plan to figure out who exactly dumped that uranium and wanted to talk to Bart more about it. Everything had been so heavy lately that she had taken time to sign up for the Rainforest marathon. She knew she would need to train for it and walking always helped her clear her mind to focus throughout her day. Last night she had the strangest dream. She was around a campfire with Bart, Mary Anne, Logan, Shannon, and Robert. They were roasting marshmallows around the fire with their arms out, skewers in hand holding the roasting marshmallows, and walking counter-clockwise in a circle around the campfire. They were chanting the lyrics to "Turn Back Time" by Cher when something creepy happened. The fire exploded in a fireball and smoke and out of the smoke came the ghost of her dead friend Maggie. She was see-through ghostly blue and got right in Dawn's face and said "Morbidda Destiny" over and over until she faded and Dawn woke up with a start.
She tried to push aside the Maggie aspect of the dream and that's when she has her idea. What if she (and whoever wanted to help) conducted a sort of nightly campout session for kids in the park (it had one of those giant fire pits) and tell ghost stories? She couldn't wait to tell Bart.
Dawn immediately got dressed in short running shorts and a neon blue tank too and sneakers and took off down the street. She was about halfway to the park when she remembered the house that was just bought and the SHS letter sweater.
When she reached the house, the moving vans were gone. There was a football in the front yard. Dawn picked it up and rang the bell. No answer. She set the football on the porch and continued to the park to try to find Bart.
Bart was down by the baseball field clearing out some litter down by the bleachers.
"Bart! Bart! I have an idea! Do you have a minute?"
"Sure Dawn. You want to help me clear out this debris and tell me about it?"
" I had a dream last night and it was kind of creepy but I will tell you about that later. I was wondering if we could have a kids camp at the park this summer."
"What, like Camp BSC?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not really. More like a gathering of kids around the campfire at night telling ghost stories."
" Well, Dawn, it's alright with me on two conditions. One, I get to come too, and two, you let me take you to dinner tonight."
"Yes and yes! Thank you thank you! Now, what time and where are we going?"
" 7:30. Cabbages and Kings?'
" You got it!'
"We will discuss the camp then and I also wanted to tell you some things I found out about the uranium case."
"What kind of things?"
"I will have to tell you tonight when I pick you up.'
" Well ok"
She hugged Bart and decided to walk back down by the bridge. It seemed it all worked out after all. Dawn walked down by the book. She was so happy her head was in the clouds and she was dancing around, smelling the flowers. She looked down and saw the area had been blocked off where the uranium was found. It was her jolt back to reality. She started to wonder what Bart would tell her that night about the case. She was deep in thought when...
Snap!
She heard the branch of the tree breaking and turned a few feet away from the brook and she couldn't believe it! It was Morbidda Destiny. Her back was turned to her and she was leaning into a tree. She couldn't tell if she was taking something out or putting something in. Dawn had a thought. What if Morbidda Destiny had something to do with the uranium?
Dawn decided to double back a bit and hide out by the bridge where Morbidda couldn't see her. She decided she was going to watch her carefully for as long as she could.
Morbidda proceeded to carry a basket and looked very closely at flowers, herbs, leaves, rocks, everything. From time to time she would put one of them into her basket. She made her way out of the Park and back down the street toward her house. Dawn followed.
Morbidda went into her house closing the door behind her. Dawn knew that Mallory should have arrived at Watsons by now, so she walked up to the house and rang the bell.
Shortly after, Dawn and Mallory had gone up to Mallory's room. They quickly discovered they were both on the same mission after noticing Morbidda's behavior. Dawn filled Mallory in on the uranium case too. They had just decided to open Mal's window to keep an eye and ear out for activity over at Morbidda's house. Just as they were sitting back down, they heard her back porch door slam.
"There she goes! Quick let's follow her!" Yelled Dawn.
They were both on their feet, down the stairs, and out the door as fast as they could. This time Morbidda had a big messenger bag across her shoulder. She walked quickly and steadily down the street. She occasionally stopped to pick up a stone or leaf and put it in the bag.
"She's got to be a witch", Dawn whispered, " she is gathering stuff up for spells."
"I don't think that's all she's doing. Look she is heading towards downtown."
They followed her into downtown and directly into Karen's witch shop! They went ahead and went all the way inside. It wouldn't be unusual for them to be in there, Karen sold Mallory's books there and Dawn was her best customer (even when she wasn't in town). Aside from Mal's books (published under the pen name Bonzer Sheila) she also sold rare collector Harry Potter books and memorabilia, and an assortment of spellbooks, herbs, flowers, crystals, and all kinds of metaphysical things.
"Mallory! Dawn? Omg!" Karen shouted from behind the counter. She was gorgeous in a long flowing tie-dyed dress, sandals, and lots of turquoise jewelry, and a diamond nose ring. "Mallory come look at your bookshelf! I just got a shipment in!"
They followed her but weren't paying attention. They were more focused on what Morbidda was doing. Karen continued to talk but she was aware of it, too. It always made her uneasy and intrigued when Morbidda showed up in her shop. Morbidda was in the rare book section looking at antique spellbooks. She took out an old French spellbook that Karen had acquired from an estate sale online in France.
Next, Dawn picked out a few of Mallory's books to buy as well as a crystal ball and sage.
Morbidda came to the checkout counter and Karen rang up her items. Morbidda never made small talk when shopping in the store.
As soon as she left they all gathered around the counter to talk about her.
"What do you think she is doing?"
"I don't know but I saw her in your dad's garden today."
"And I saw her at the park near where discovered the uranium. That reminds me. I had a dream last night. Do you have any books on dream premonition?"
"Over there on the back shelf."
Dawn went over to look.
That's when Mallory notices the gigantic map on the walk-behind Karen with red thumbtacks on it and multi-colored Post-It notes stuck on it.
"Did you hear about JK Rowling?"
"Yes, I've been following the stories and joined a group on Facebook about it."
"I've been tracking where people have had sightings."
" Will somebody please clue me in?" Dawn asked taking a dream book to the counter.
"There was an article written, at first, in an obscure newspaper in London. Kind of an underground fanzine for Harry Potter fans. It was talking about how she disappears at various times throughout the year, no one knows where and it is rumored that this is where she goes to get ideas for her stories. The whole thing went viral, with a bunch of copycats articles coming out. Now she has left again, at least left London. She was seen in New York and some smaller towns. She always denies that she has been anywhere when she returns home. They think it is the secret to her writings."
"Oh wow! It's a mystery!'
Another one thought Dawn. This is getting intense.
Mal didn't tell them, then, but she knew something they didn't. JK was last seen in Stamford a week earlier...
No comments:
Post a Comment