Enchantment Emporium

Michael had received a family phone the same day Allie’d got hers—the day they left for university. Although the phones began as the cheapest pay-as-you-go handset available, by the time the aunties got through with them, they provided free, reliable cell service. There was a strong suspicion among the younger members of the family that the aunties were using the technology to eavesdrop, but—given free, reliable cell service—no one tried too hard to prove it.

Michael’d accidentally flushed his down the toilet during the first party they’d thrown in their shared apartment. Four days later, it had arrived in the mail; plain manila envelope, no return address, still working if a bit funky smelling.

“He said if I moved to Calgary, it’d be easier for us to get together.”

“For what? Cappuccinos?” Charlie snorted, sounding frighteningly like Auntie Jane.

“For…” Sitting cross-legged in the tree house, Allie waved a hand, knowing Charlie’d get the intent even if she couldn’t see the motion. “Why do you think she left her business to me?”

“Because you’re unemployed with no emotional commitments that have any connection to reality.”

“You think she saw that?”

“I think your mother called her when your grant ran out and, as your grandmother, she’s understandably concerned about your creepy obsession with your gay best friend and thinks you should get a life. And I’m on the phone, dipshit!” Charlie’s volume rose. “Keep your pants on, I’ll be right there.”

“I’m interrupting something.”

“Not really. Just a prima donna who’s sucking all the life out of this track by insisting it be perfect!”

Allie didn’t quite catch the prima donna’s answer, but it seemed to involve inserting instruments where they clearly wouldn’t fit.

“This,” Charlie added with a weary sigh, “is why I hate session work. So what are you going to do? You’ve never been that far away from home.”

“I know.” Allie picked at a piece of splintered wood; swore as it drove in under her nail. “I think I’m going,” she mumbled around the taste of blood as she sucked at her fingertip.

“You think?”

“I am.” Staring across the moonlit pasture at the dark line of the woods, she wondered if Granddad was still hanging around. “You’re right, I don’t have anything better to do, and I’d like to know what Gran’s up to as much as the aunties.”

“Doubt that.”

“I actually believed she was dead, Charlie.” Her reaction lingered; like the phantom pain of a missing limb.

Charlie was quiet for a long moment, then she sighed. “All right, then.”

“Besides, I can always come home when I need to.” Like Charlie did. Well, not quite like Charlie did, but there were plenty of aunts and cousins out in the world. As each generation got larger, more of the Gale girls spread out, came home for ritual, spread out again. “You know they have these things called airplanes now.”

“They smell like ass and they make you check your guitar.”

“I don’t have a guitar.”

“It’s not all about you, sweetie. Hey, you want me to come with you? You could be Nancy Drew and I can be the snappy sidekick with the gender inappropriate name. I always figured they were getting it on.”

Allie grinned and leaned back against the tree house wall, the faded catalog pages that covered it crinkling under her weight. “You also figured Daphne and Velma were getting it on. If I haven’t solved the mystery of the missing grandmother by the time you’ve finished the demo, come out then, okay?”

“Okay. And now we’ve got your life sorted, I’m needed elsewhere. Someone found two brain cells to rub together, and we might actually make some music tonight.”

“Have fun.” But she was talking to dead air. Again.

Flat on her back, feet out over the edge, she stared up through the latticework of branches and wondered why, at twenty-four, she still felt as though she were waiting for her real life to begin.

Off in the darkness, a small animal screamed and died.

She decided not to consider it an omen.

Allie left Wednesday morning. Aunt Andrea, Charlie’s mother, who ran Darsden East’s single travel agency, got her a last-minute ticket at a deep discount and her father took a personal day to drive her to the airport.

“They’ve all got reading to catch up on, Kitten,” he told her, getting into the truck. “It won’t kill them to sit quietly and make the attempt. Besides, I had a word with Dmitri. He’ll keep our lot under control, and you know what they say…”

“It’s better to follow a Gale than get in their way.” Allie fastened her seat belt, twisted to wave at her mother and the aunties on the porch then settled back in the seat with a sigh as they started down the lane. “Dmitri’s in charge at the school?”

“Fought Cameron for it back in the fall.” They drove in silence for a few kilometers, gravel pinging up against the undercarriage. Then, as they turned onto the paved county road, he added, “I think Dmitri’s after your granddad’s job.”

“Dad, he’s eighteen.”

“Granted, but that’ll change. He’s looking ahead. Building alliances.”