Rebecca's Quest, page 15
part #8 of Finding Magic Series Series
She braced her feet, fisted her hand, and quickly raised her forearm across her body. She pushed her forearm toward him, unleashing an invisible force, as he’d done to her on the rooftop and at the garden party.
He noticed the movement too late to move aside. The force shoved him backward, knocking him slightly off balance for just a moment. Long enough to prove that Rebecca would no longer be pushed around.
“You don’t want to fight with me, Rebecca,” he warned in a thunderous voice.
“That’s true. I don’t.” Her tone was as hard as forged steel. “But know this. I will fight you, if you interfere with my life again.”
“How dare you!” he bellowed. Without moving a single hair, he violently tossed her high into the air.
She tumbled, head over heels, all the way up. Her body paused briefly and plummeted toward the ravine floor again but twice as fast.
Inches above the punishing rocks, Rebecca regained control, angrier than ever. She stopped and glared into the icy blue eyes that had terrified her much too long.
“You’re stronger than me. You’re older than me. You’re more powerful and more ruthless than me. You can definitely kill me, if you wish. Perhaps you should. Do it now, while you can.” Rebecca waited, breathing hard.
He made no further move to harm her.
After a while, she said, “I thought not. Stay away from me and my family. Goodbye, Russell.”
Rebecca stood strong a few more seconds, prepared to do whatever was necessary to finally break free of Russell’s invisible hold, should he come after her again.
There was only one way to escape this ravine. She took a deep breath, unsure but determined.
She’d seen Brent simply disappear. Anything he could do, she could do—she hoped.
Rebecca visualized herself standing in her bedroom at Gray Cliffs.
Half a moment later, that’s precisely where she was. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. Not quite midnight. Yesterday.
“Yes!” she jumped up and fist-pumped the air.
Chapter 23
Shortly after midnight, Mortal Time, Rebecca heard the goat bleating on the precipice across the ravine. A herd of goats had found sweet grass on a tiny patch of flat land a couple of weeks ago. She’d marveled at how they were able to navigate the peaks and sheer rock cliffs, eking out an existence nibbling the few edible plants available up there.
This young billy goat had somehow wandered away from the rest earlier in the day. Now, it was dark and windy and cold, and he was stuck. Some people say goats never sleep. He might find his way out in the morning, she supposed. But he’d be up there bleating all night and she wouldn’t sleep much while she worried about him. And if he fell into the ravine...the vultures... She shuddered to think about that.
She wasn’t bound by the First Law of Magic yet. And she might never be if she chose Mortal. But she could save that little goat. Without a second’s hesitation, she waved her hand and moved the little billy goat back to his tribe, and then she went to bed.
Rebecca awakened on after a restful night’s sleep, and a little later than usual. She jumped up, excited to complete her time at Gray Cliffs. After a quick shower, dressed in her blazer and skirt and the ugliest brogues she’d ever seen, she skipped yesterday’s battle in the corridor with Simon the cat. Instead of passing him the hallway, she simply transported to Professor Kell’s physics class and settled into her seat.
Princesses Jennifer and Virginia came in, followed by the usual gaggle of boys who trailed them night and day. Becky wondered how they would get on in life after they all graduated. More than fine, probably. They were the kind of girls who lived as if the world owed them everything good that life had to offer. Perhaps things would work out that way for them both, although the mortal lives had been less kind to Olivia and Julia. For Jennifer and Virginia, mortal time would tell.
The bell rang and Professor Kell tried valiantly to instill knowledge into mortal brains that should have absorbed it long ago. For Magic brains, the lesson was worse than useless.
Rebecca tuned him out and happily daydreamed the hour away. She relived the garden party with Paul first and then water skiing with Brent.
At the end of the hour, she saw a group of students moving toward Headmaster Auster’s office, as she walked to her next class. The day passed uneventfully and each day after that until she’d aced all of her final exams.
Paul and Brent whisked her away to Paris to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. They did all of the touristy things. Ate amazing food, visited the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eifel Tower. They toasted her new adult status in the mortal world with French Champaign on a midnight cruise along the river Seine. She returned from the long day and evening happily exhausted.
The rest of her short time at Gray Cliffs flew by in a flash of senior activities. Parties and concerts and packing consumed most of the students as they all prepared to leave what most would recall as one of the greatest experiences of their lives.
At graduation, Rebecca collected her diploma and flipped her tassel from one side of the mortar board to the other with a flourish as she left the stage. She might have seen Livy with Paul and Brent in the audience, but she wasn’t sure. Livy was no longer able to use her own Magic, of course. But someone might have brought her along for Becky’s big day.
More parties and a yearbook signing and tearful goodbyes with promises to keep in touch followed, as happened at high school graduations everywhere. Rebecca’s friends had plans to pursue predictable paths. Some were going off to college. Some were entering family businesses or places like West Pointe. A few planned a gap year to travel the globe or work with the Peace Corp. Fewer still would take their places on various thrones in smallish countries where their lives were carefully mapped out from cradle to grave, with very little wiggle room.
She couldn’t begin to imagine living those lives. Nor did she want to.
Chapter 24
Becky finished packing before the graduation ceremony yesterday. After lunch in the dining hall, she’d returned to her room to change and collect her few belongings. Dressed in jeans, she put the duffel bag containing her prized possessions on the bed. There was very little inside. Her diploma, her yearbook, the three favorite photographs she’d brought from home years ago. And her graduation mortarboard with the tassel on top.
The strange amulet that had dropped into her pocket that day on the roof when her life changed forever had been located and now hung on a platinum chain around her neck. The Gray Cliffs crest at the top sparkled at her throat. The cabochon stone was a large fiery opal. Other graduates received pins in the same style but manufactured with only pewter and glass.
Everything else in her room belonged to Gray Cliffs or would be donated to a charity of Miss Hettie’s choice. Becky looked at the duffel on her bed briefly before she smiled and flipped it away with her hand.
The duffel instantly vanished and Rebecca laughed. “What a great way to ship things.”
Since her return to Gray Cliffs, Russell had removed the cloaking spell, which allowed her to see the school’s lovely island setting and a lot of other things she hadn’t seen before. For example, the bus, which she’d seen coming and going across the bridge several times in the past few days, would arrive soon to take the graduates to the airport.
She hurried through the corridors to say her final farewells to her friends and professors. A few of the professors had been genuinely kind to her when she had been struggling so. Rebecca wanted to say a proper goodbye.
She saved Professor Kell for the last. When she came around the corner before his classroom, she instinctively slowed her pace and looked for Simon and his gang of felines. The last thing she needed was a showdown with those cats in her final hour at Gray Cliffs.
Sure enough, two of the wretched creatures were stretched out on the paving stones. Simon wasn’t there, which didn’t mean her grandfather was gone from her life. She gave them a wide berth though as she hurried around the corner.
Several other students were hanging around in Professor Kell’s classroom. The two princesses, Jennifer and Virginia, were holding court for the boys, as usual. Rebecca shook her head and grinned. Nice to know she hadn’t imagined everything at Gray Cliffs. These kids would all go on to fulfill their own destinies as movers and shakers in their realms, she knew. Maybe she’d check in on them some time. Then again, maybe I won’t.
Rebecca waited near the front of the room until Professor Kell finished his conversation with another pair of graduates. She glanced at the big clock above the doorway again. She suspected the clock would be as baffling to the new students as it had been to her.
She’d spent countless hours applying the laws of physics to that damn clock. The clock was no mystery now. Magic was the solution. She’d have saved herself a lot of grief if she’d simply admitted as much the first time it occurred to her. Laughter bubbled from her mouth and she made no effort to squelch it.
Princess Jennifer flashed a sharp scowl in Rebecca’s direction. Snidely, she demanded: “What are you laughing at, charity girl? We didn’t give you permission to enter.”
Two of the boys rose to defend their damsels. It might’ve been interesting to match wits with them, but she didn’t want to miss her opportunity with Professor Kell now that the other graduates had left the room.
“Call off your dogs, Jennifer,” Rebecca said sweetly as she smiled and nodded toward the boys. With a flick of her hand the two boys became docile basset hounds and plopped on the floor at Jennifer’s feet. The sight of their big ears and droopy skin broadened Rebecca’s grin.
The spell lasted but a moment. Only long enough for Jennifer and Virginia to become horrified. Above their long and graceful necks, Jennifer and Virginia nodded like bobble heads, mouths gaping, fingers pointing.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows in question, as if she’d seen nothing out of the ordinary at all. The two princesses were plain mortals after all. “I thought so.”
Rebecca flicked her hand again and the boys reverted to the human lapdogs they’d always been. Jennifer and Virginia recovered their poise and flounced out of the room, their faithful hounds following behind them.
Rebecca laughed again and the professor joined in heartily. No one else was in the room. Now was her chance.
“Professor Kell, do you have a moment?” Rebecca felt some of her old shyness returning as she stood waiting for permission to speak. Habits learned at Gray Cliffs would linger for her lifetime, which wasn’t such a bad thing. Polite behavior was too often in short supply as far as she was concerned.
Professor Kell had laughed so hard at her little practical joke that tears still ran down his cheeks. He pulled a clean linen handkerchief, monogrammed with his initials, from his breast pocket and wiped his face.
“I’ve been waiting for you to handle those girls since the moment you arrived here, Rebecca. I began to worry that it might never happen.” He chuckled again and returned his handkerchief to his pocket. “I haven’t laughed like that in a couple of centuries. One of the best parting gifts I’ve received today, my dear. Thank you.”
She reached for his hand and squeezed. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“I’ve been here a long time, Rebecca. I’ve seen flocks of students come and go over the years. Few have been as worthy as you are. I’ve been holding my breath for you to claim your power. Now that you have, I’m very interested to see how you deal with it.” He squeezed her hand in return as more students came in to say their farewells.
She felt emotional tears welling in her eyes. How she wished she had realized her potential before. She could have had such a great experience here, as her parents had done. Maybe she’d even have fallen a little in love with someone, even though her heart belonged to Paul. Always had and always would.
Rebecca knew the misery she’d felt at Gray Cliffs was totally her grandfather’s doing. For that, he would pay. Soon, she promised herself.
She cleared her throat. “Thank you,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Professor Kell released her hand. “Best of luck to you, Miss Martin. Now that you know how to return to Gray Cliffs, don’t be a stranger.”
Rebecca didn’t trust herself to say more in front of the other graduates filing in behind her. She smiled and turned to go for the last time. Before she took a single step, she glanced up.
“Who takes care of that clock?”
“That’s an amazing timepiece, isn’t it?” Professor Kell replied cryptically, although none of the others seemed to pay any attention. “We have a roster. Each of the faculty takes one day a month to maintain all the clocks at Gray Cliffs. We’re very persnickety about it.”
Of course. Every adult at Gray Cliffs had Magic. All of her professors. Headmaster Auster. Headmistress Lalane. How could I have missed that?
Her lips formed a perfect “O” before she clapped her palm over her mouth to keep the giggles from bubbling out.
Professor Kell gave her one last smile and a little wink before he turned his attention to the next graduate.
Rebecca hurried out into the corridor.
She’d applied every sort of logic to the puzzle of that clock and none of the answers she’d come up with were possible. What was that old Sherlock Holmes thing? When you eliminate the possible, the only answer left is the right one, no matter how improbable? Or something like that. The answer had been obvious all along, but she’d rejected it. She hadn’t believed in Magic.
“Everything’s obvious once you know it, Sweat Pea,” a familiar and beloved voice said.
She saw the vision of her father again, this time in front of her at eye level, and knew she was the one causing him to manifest here, like this, right now. She glanced around the corridor quickly to be sure no one was watching. “I love you, Dad. I miss you.”
“I know, honey. I love you, too,” he replied before he vanished.
It broke her heart to think that she might not see him again as he was when she left for Gray Cliffs. But the life depicted earlier during her visit home back in 1988 might be the life he happily lived now. He might never remember her or all the happy times they’d spent together. Can I live with that?
Someday, Rebecca’s children might attend Gray Cliffs. If they did, would she do things differently than her parents had done with her? That was a question for another day. Right now, she was expected at home for her graduation party. Question was, which home would the bus take her back to?
The bus had arrived from the airport filled with new students just beginning their Gray Cliffs’ education. The school operated year-round, which Becky had found strange when she’d first arrived until she realized that many students liked it that way.
Hallways were flooded with graduates as well as incoming freshman. The juniors and sophomores were already back in classes. The new students seem so young, so unprepared. The graduates had become adults, forever changed in various ways by their time there. She counted herself among them and couldn’t be more pleased.
Rebecca stood to one side and remembered her arrival that first day long ago. She’d been filled with equal parts excitement and trepidation back then. She had expected great things from Gray Cliffs, to be sure. But she had not expected Magic. At least, not the kind of Magic she’d discovered.
She took a deep breath and whispered words she never believed she would say. “Goodbye Gray Cliffs. I actually will miss you.”
Around the corner, she heard the unmistakable sound of attacking felines followed by screams from freshman and laughter from graduates. No one was watching her.
Rebecca grinned and flipped a last wave of her hand. In an instant, she’d transported from Gray Cliffs to her destination.
Chapter 25
Older and wiser now, the childish Becky had matured. She was Rebecca now. She materialized on Front Street in Traverse City. She had walked the same street countless times, but the city of her childhood was not the same as this one. This 1988 version of Traverse City belonged to her parents and Paul’s parents. A different world.
She loved it, though. The historic buildings on the downtown side of Division Street comprised most of the business district back then. The shops were charming family-owned places where shopkeepers knew their customers by name. The fudge shops and gift shops catered to tourists, but the rest were focused on the smaller year-round population.
She knew so many changes were coming in the next thirty years. Rebecca’s Traverse City was a wonderful place and she would always love her town. But in 1988, Livy and Jake were young and lived happily together. Livy had recreated the perfect haven, which suited the childless newlyweds.
These were the final minutes she could be both mortal and Magic. As soon as she made her decision, chose one, she’d lose the other forever.
Rebecca sauntered up the south side of the sidewalk on Front Street, and then down the north side. After that, she turned the corner at Union Street and walked north along the sidewalk. She crossed Grand View Parkway and continued to the edge of Clinch Park on Grand Traverse Bay.
A man with his young son stood on the beach. It was still too cold for swimming. The boy, maybe about six years old, was determined to master the art of skipping stones. His father waited patiently, scouring the beach for flat ones, and when he found them, slipped them into his pocket for the boy to throw.
Speckled Petoskey stones dotted the sand here and there. When dry or unpolished, they looked similar to any other rocks. Only a practiced eye could spot them in nature unless they were in the water. Water brought out their distinctive fossilized markings, almost like Magic. Local jewelers polished them and turned them into all sorts of objects. Everything from jewelry to clocks to coasters.
