A Touch of Magic

Chapter 5: Magical Me

She looked more bemused than angry. Wearing a dark velvet dress and her hair pulled back in a bun, she had all the appearance of a medieval Mary Poppins.

I nodded, too stunned to speak. Gladys Jones, I presumed.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come." She raised her hand in the air as she spoke and more lights came on around the room. I'd been caught breaking and entering.

"It is fine. I expected you." Gladys drifted forwards, but sensing my state of shock, didn't get too close. She raised an eyebrow. "I expect you to have some questions for me, do you not?"

"No," I blurted out. Then I thought, and nodded for the second time.

"Well. I do not expect you have much time tonight, so let us begin." She sat down on a box and placed her hands in her lap.

Finally coming to my senses, I shook myself awake. "How come you expected me, Mrs Jones?"

Gladys's eyes smiled, her mouth barely moving. She wasn't giving her feelings away easily. "Gladys, please. Your great aunt told me you would come. She knew you would sense the need."

Several things struck me at once. Gladys was much younger than my deceased great-aunt, she spoke with a strong welsh accent and had eyes as bright as Gam's used to be. You couldn't help but get lost in the deep pools of colour. Gladys's were hazel. Minty's had been green.

I waited for more. After a few seconds silence, and realising Gladys was spilling on a need to know basis, I asked my next question.

"I don't understand why Gam, I mean Great Aunt Minty, would expect me to come back to the cottage."

Gladys' face softened, ever so slightly. "You understand more than you think, Araminta. I expect there have been changes in your life recently. Happenings and feelings you cannot quite put your finger on or explain away."

I sucked in my lips and put my feet flat on the floor. The charm, the sense I'd experienced exactly what certain people were feeling. Then there were the odd moments of calm. I didn't say anything.

Gladys breathed in deeply. I'd the unnerving feeling she could tell exactly what I was thinking. "Do you believe in the supernatural?" The question was so sincere I burst out laughing. Gladys became more expressionless than before.

I coughed and tried to straighten my face. "If you'd asked me a few days ago, I'd have said no, but actually, I can safely say the jury's out. In a big way."

"Go on," Gladys said, turning the tables. It seemed she'd had enough of spilling.

I was ninety-nine percent sure nothing I'd say would shock the middle class hippy. "I found a disc in a bag with Gam's-, I mean, Great Aunt Minty's runes. I chucked away a real rune to pick it out, so it was meant to be. It seems to bring me luck." I hesitated, it was all or nothing and I'd already told her the strangest bit. "Actually, I seem to be lucky since I found it."

"There's no such thing as a lucky charm. We make our own luck," said Gladys leaning back and shaking her head.

My heart sank. Gutted, and fairly glad Zara wasn't here to gloat; I closed my eyes in embarrassment. I'd felt stupid enough saying it, but then...

"Magic, Araminta. It is the piece of the puzzle you keep glimpsing, but cannot hold on to long enough to make sense of it. You have the ability to practice magic. Others are talented at Science or Mathematics; you are gifted at magic. It is in your ancestry.

"My Great Aunt could use magic?" I said, not entirely surprised and not really registering.

"Yes, and she sensed it in you the first time she held you and asked your mother to name you Araminta. Everything is in a name my dear, I can tell you that now."