Henry was not waiting for me in the hall to the apartment. Disappointed, I silenced the voice of doubt that wouldn’t go away and consoled myself with the thought it was still early, and that he would come find me when he could. For all I knew, he could still be arguing with his father, telling him in no uncertain terms what a stupid old fool he was, and how could he even think I’d do such a thing? Because I wouldn’t.
Banana Peel, I thought angrily. The door banged open, and I stamped inside. It slammed shut behind me, bringing me to my senses. “Sorry,” I said to no one in particular. No need to take my mood out on Sylvia’s apartment fittings.
The apartment was eerily silent. I tapped politely on Sylvia’s bedroom door, and when there was no answer, I opened it. She wasn’t there. I tried knocking on my door, wondering if perhaps Isabella was asleep, but again, when I popped my head inside, no one was home.
The shop wouldn’t be open today. Maybe they had gone out for lunch together?
More exhausted than I should feel, I slumped down on the sofa and stared at a window. If only Sylvia had put in a landline. I felt so lost without my cell phone. How had anyone survived before those things existed? I hoped Henry would be quick about bringing my things.
Maybe I could call to him telepathically? True, I didn’t have any of the Egyptian pixie dust he’d used on me before, but then he’d said you only needed to use it the once, just to get things moving. I closed my eyes and concentrated. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t sense him. I guessed it would help to have some idea about where he was, to have a point of reference. I kept thinking about the Abbey, but if he was there, I wasn’t reaching him. Perhaps the enchantments blocked my reach?
When the girls got home, I’d be able to make some calls, but until then, there was nothing I could do. I thought about hunting for a public payphone. After all, there had to be one somewhere in New York, but I wasn’t sure I could remember Henry’s number, and I doubted his number would be listed anywhere.
Frustrated, I grabbed the remote and flipped on the television, but it was just noise that couldn’t grab my attention. I got up and wandered over to the refrigerator. Bottles clinked as I opened the door, but there was hardly anything on the shelves. I guessed no one had done a shopping run. Perhaps that’s where they were now?
Bored rather than hungry, I decided not to pop out for a bite of anything. What if Henry showed up while I was shopping and I missed him?
I poured myself some water, numbly watching as the cool liquid sloshed against the side of the glass. After taking a sip, I sat down at the kitchen counter. Normally it was covered in clutter, but someone had taken the time to tidy everything away. Sylvia, I guessed, rather than Isabella. I took a deep breath to clear my mind. If only I’d had my magic book with me. I was pretty sure I’d find something in there to help me.
Weariness turned to anger as I pondered my situation. The General was right to be upset at what he thought I had done, but he was totally out of line throwing me out like that without giving me the chance to explain. He had been wrong about me and had abused his position of authority, tossing me into the street without any of my things. Who did that? What kind of a monster was he? Poor Eleanor. No wonder she’d sought comfort elsewhere.
Thinking of Eleanor made me think about my promise to her mother. My spell book contained plenty to help me with the dead, but what about the living? I didn’t recall seeing any detection spells, but then, I hadn’t really been looking for one. In any case, my promise wasn’t to find her so much as to bring her back to the Abbey. Even if I found her, reconciling her with the General would have been no easy task, even before he flung me out on my ear. But now? In hindsight, I realized I’d been stupid to make that promise, but I had, and now I’d have to figure out how to make good on it.
If only Henry were here. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to depend on him until now. His was the voice of reason, the voice I trusted, my best friend. I tapped my foot impatiently on the bar of the stool. “Come on, Henry, where are you?”
The specter of doubt resurfaced. How long had it been since I left the Abbey? Surely Henry had had it out with the General by now. I mentally calculated how long it would take him to pack my things and then come downtown to find me. Traffic had been moderately light on the road with Wally, but it was later in the day now, so things might have changed. I stared at Sylvia’s oversize magic clock on the wall. It rarely registered with me, since Mom had one just like it. In fact, most magic families did. Like most clocks, the face told the time of day, and like some, it depicted images of constellations and would pulse a beautiful shade of blue at the start of a new lunar cycle. The divination hands pointed to the optimum place for you to be, be it work, home, play, travel, dining, and so on. Right now, it was set at Sylvia’s apartment, but as I stared at it, the divination hand began to pulse. The clock began to whir and chime, and then the hand began to spin. It turned almost a full clockwise circle and came to rest at the 3-D image of my house. It thought I should go home?
I shook my head, not caring for that particular forecast. I wanted to be here, needed to be here. This was where Henry would come for me, after all. But the hand remained obstinately still, no matter how much I hoped for a different reading.
Waving my hand dismissively, I took another sip of my water and slipped off the stool, carrying the glass back with me over to the window, where I looked out on the street below. It was just another day down there. No sign of any heartache anywhere. Like you could see it. I would have laughed at myself if I didn’t feel so lost and alone.
I must have fallen asleep on the sofa. I woke to the imprint of the cushion on my face and peeled my cheek off it as I pushed myself up. My unfinished glass of water still rested on the windowsill where I’d left it.
It was almost dark outside, and the apartment felt quite empty, even with me inside it. I reached across and turned on the lamp. What time is it? The clock registered a little after eight. I’d been sleeping for hours.
Could I have missed Henry? Anxious, I ran over to the door, looking for any signs he might have been here, like a note under the door or pinned outside, anything. But there was no note, even though I flipped over the welcome mat to be sure. Nothing.
Discouraged, I turned on some more lights and returned to the refrigerator. I was a little hungrier now, though not much. The only thing that looked half appealing was a block of cheddar cheese. I pulled it out, and taking a knife from the drawer, I cut off a small chunk. It was an effort to chew, and the heavy cheese was hard to swallow.
Where is everyone?
Something was wrong, I knew it. Too much time had passed for Henry to be held up by traffic. I had to face the fact that he wasn’t here because he chose not to come. What other reason could there be? He must have known this was where I’d run to, and he must know I’d be anxiously waiting for him to arrive. Could it be he was more like his father than I’d supposed him to be? Like Mom always said, The apple never fell far from the tree.
Anger stirred in me again at my banishment and neglect. The General had no right to hold my belongings hostage like this. Sylvia would go ballistic when she found out. I smiled a little, imagining her going off at him when he showed up for work. If he showed up. My smile faded.
I thought about taking a taxi back to the Abbey, but what was the point? I could stand on the sidewalk and rattle those gates for hours, but they might not answer me, might not even hear me. And those enchantments might make me forget why I’d gone back there in the first place. No. At this time, there was little I could do but wait and see. I hated feeling this helpless. I was a doer, not a waiter.
After swallowing the last of my cheese, I slipped into my bedroom, sat down on the end of the bed, and opened the drawer in the bedside table. I’d been careful not to spend all the money Sylvia had given me, and I flicked through the envelope now, counting how much I had left.
Where on earth have they got to?
There was just enough for a bus journey home and perhaps something to eat. That calculation had come unbidden, and I shook my head, not quite ready to concede defeat yet. But what choice did I have? That darned clock was ticking, and for all I knew, Sylvia and Isabella might be gone for days. And I couldn’t blame them if they had—after all, I couldn’t expect them to sit around and twiddle their thumbs, waiting for me to return from the Abbey. I supposed they’d have to come back at some point for the magic shop, but it wasn’t as if Sylvia kept regular hours.
Defiant, I returned the money to the drawer and closed it. But I had to be practical too. The first rule of magic was you couldn’t conjure something from nothing, and a witch couldn’t live on cheese alone. And Gaia help me, the fact of it was, I needed my family right now. Maybe they couldn’t help me, but they could love me, and I needed to feel some love. More than anything else in the world. I reached up and touched the silver necklace Dad had given me on my coming-of-age birthday. I thought about his wisdom and what he would have wanted me to do, if he were in my shoes.
I made a decision: I would sleep on it. And if when I woke, if I was still alone, I would trust the magic of the clock and buy a ticket and leave New York. Fully dressed, I fell back on my bed and curled up around a pillow. I closed my eyes and dreamed of Henry. The swine. Where in Hades was he?