Magic Touch: Chapter 1, Scene 1

“Hey, it’s not the end of the world. It’s only your twenty-fifth birthday.”

Hearing the words ‘twenty-fifth birthday’ sent a shiver up Aurora Chandler’s spine. It wasn’t that turning twenty-five was such a bad thing, but being a twenty-five-year-old unbonded witch was as good as being dead.

Suddenly, her best friend Sandra Lennox cupped her hands to her mouth and commanded “Robby Miller! Get down from there right now!” Sarah doubted she ever would master that voice common to elementary school teachers and military drill sergeants the world over. Robbie looked down at her from the top of the monkey bars. “I mean it Robby. Get. Down. Right. Now.”

After Robby reluctantly climbed down to safety, Sarah continued as if she wasn’t interrupted. “I didn’t find the perfect man until I was your age, and look at me now.” She twirled around with her hands on her hips. “I’m happy as can be!”

Yeah, but when was the last time you saw your husband? Aurora wondered silently. She genuinely felt sorry for the couple. He’s always away on business and you never get to spend any time with him. I’m not sure I could live with a husband who’s gone so much.

“He may be away on business a lot,” Sandra said, “but there’s a special kind of bond between us. We’re always together, no matter what the distance between us.”

“Huh?” Aurora crinkled her brow in confusion. She was certain she hadn’t said a thing about Sandra’s husband aloud, and yet it was as if she had heard every word of it. Could Sandra read minds? Only a bonded witch had the power to read minds…

A small voice called out, “Look at me, everyone. I’m magic!”

Aurora’s eyes shot upward in the direction of the voice. Robby again. But this time Robby was dancing around on the edge of the school’s roof with a broomstick between his legs. Damn those movies about that little geeky wizard kid. If it weren’t for them, Robby wouldn’t have tried to fly that ratty old broomstick.

Glancing around the walls of the school, Aurora found the ladder that the painters used to reach the top of the building. That must be how little Robby climbed up onto the roof. Knowing that he could fall at any second, Aurora raced toward the ladder.

“Wait right there, Robby!” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t move. I’m coming to get you” Standing at the bottom of the ladder, Aurora stared up at the roof and felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She wasn’t big on heights, but she also wasn’t big on seeing children in her care get hurt or, God forbid, worse.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Chandler. I can fly!” He jumped up and down excitedly, his feet landing ever closer to the edge with each jump. “Do you want to see?”

“No, Robby,” Aurora called back as she placed a hand on each side of the ladder. “I want you to stay still until I get there.” Aurora began the climb. “Promise me you won’t move, Robby,” she insisted as she placed a foot on the second rung. She didn’t stop to hear his answer. She just kept climbing. Aurora didn’t realize how rickety the old ladder was until she felt it sway half way up the side of the building.

Knowing that the painters had already used the ladder didn’t do much to calm Aurora’s fears. But one look at Robby and Aurora pushed her fears behind her as she continued her climb.

Robby turned to face his teacher. “Do you want a ride on my broom too?”

“No Robby. Just wait. I’ll be right there.” Aurora looked down and saw that a small crowd had gathered below them. Mostly students, teachers and staff, but the news must have gotten, because she also recognized a few parents and other people from their small community. Now everyone would see how bad of a teacher she was, Aurora thought sadly.

But she couldn’t – no, wouldn’t - let anything stop her from reaching the child. Aurora focused her eyes on Robby as she walked slowly along the edge of the roof. Fortunately the roof was as flat as her shoes, so the journey wasn’t quite as scary as it could have been. “Robby, why don’t you take a few steps back from the roof.” Her voice was shaky with the plea.

“Buy why, Ms. Chandler? I can fly gooder if I jump from here.” He stomped his foot to mark the spot.

As she surveyed her surroundings, Aurora felt that pain in her stomach again. It was somewhere between a sharp stab and an overwhelming nausea.

Only ten more feet to go, she told herself. You can do this! Now five. Three. One.

“Bye, Ms. Chandler. See ya down below!”

Just as Aurora was about to reach her arms around Robby, the boy jumped. In that instant, time slowed for Aurora. An eerie silence accompanied the change in time. Robby’s fall was sort of like one of those slow motion dream sequences in the movies. She focused her attention solely on Robby. Her focus was so intense, the rest of the world didn’t even exist for her. Robby’s fall slowed immensely.

Aurora followed Robby’s path with her eyes and saw that he was going to hit the concrete sidewalk with disastrous results. Expanding her focus slightly, she Sandra standing near where Robby would land. An idea popped into Aurora’s mind. But to make it work would take serious magic. Not being a full-fledged witch yet, Aurora had no idea if she could pull it off, but she had to try. For Robby’s sake as well as her own.

First, she slowed time even more. Robby’s fall almost stopped completely. She then summoned all of her magical skills and visualized Robby falling into Sandra’s arms. Then Aurora shifted her attention to Sandra. Sandra had already started to open her arms as if to catch the child.

Aurora kept that image in her mind and let time speed up a little bit. Robby’s fall shifted a bit toward Sandra, but not quite enough. With another mental nudge, Robby was right on course. The young teacher continued to watch her student fall. Fall right into Sandra’s arms.

For the first time in what seemed like hours, Aurora took a breath and let time return to normal. Her senses were assaulted with the noises that came from the everyday world. But all she could think about was that Robby was safe and all was right with the world.

Looking down, the people had crowded around Sandra, clapping and cheering. She was a hero. With a smile and a sigh of relief, Aurora decided it was time get off the roof and back onto solid ground.

Suddenly, the wind blew just hard enough to shake Aurora’s balance. She realized just how close she was to the edge of the roof. Taking a couple of wobbly steps back from the roof’s edge reminded Aurora of the price she had to pay. Using that much magic physically drained her body.

A few deep breaths helped Aurora regain her composure walked back over toward the ladder. Her steps were short and tentative. With only a little difficulty, she managed to climb over the edge of the roof and back onto the ladder. For some crazy reason, she glanced down to the base of the ladder. It was then that a gust of wind blew the hem of her skirt into the back of her head.

Damn! I forgot about the skirt!

Ignoring the whistles from below, Aurora shrugged and began her descent, one tentative rung at a time. When she reached the halfway point of her journey downward, the ladder began to sway. Her pulse raced despite reminding herself that the ladder had to be safe or the painters wouldn’t have used it.

But the ladder continued to sway. The line “I think I can” from this morning’s story time kept running through Aurora’s mind. And with each step she moved closer to the ground and safety. But with only six feet to go, something snapped, and she fell to the ground, scraping her legs and arms and ripping her skirt to her waist. But the biggest injury was to her dignity, as she noticed somebody standing nearby with a camera taking her picture.

Of all the days to run out of clean panties.