Who Needs Magic? (31 page)

I nod.

“Good. We continue.”

And then it happens again. When we arrive at the Elegant Imprint, Fawn rushes out and hugs me.
Me!
Ariella’s glower intensifies, turning her cheeks a scary, scorching shade of hot pink.

“They’re going to put three of my poems on that newspaper website you told me about! And I used some of my illustrations to make greeting cards, and the manager said she would sell them at the store! Thank you, Delaney. Without you, I never would have had the courage to do any of this.”

Ariella is now steaming. Any second, puffs of fury are going to shoot from her ears. Her grandmother pats her shoulder soothingly, but this doesn’t help—possibly because it’s the same shoulder she’d been squeezing to death earlier.

Then Fawn hugs Ariella too. Ariella’s anger diminishes and her cheeks resume their usual pastel pink color. “Thank you,” Fawn tells her. “This whole ordeal has taught me that my writing is way more important to me than boys. I hope Ronald doesn’t feel too bad about me not liking him back. Will you tell him for me?”

Ariella pauses, not sure how to answer. “But he—”

“Sure,” I say. “We’ll break it to him gently.”

Fawn smiles, gives us all a little happy wave and returns to the store. Ariella’s grandmother folds her arms. “
Extremely
unusual.”

It’s like instant replays, with new players substituted in each time, because here comes Ronald, bursting out of Jump Kicks. No hug this time, though. Instead, he throws up his hands in a defensive mode. “Hey, we don’t need any trouble here.”

“We’re only here to say we’re sorry,” I explain. Ariella’s grandmother had insisted we apologize to Ronald too.

“Right,” Ariella says. “I would’ve said it first if I’d had the chance.” She glares at me. I sneer back. Ariella’s grandmother makes a pinching gesture with her thumb and index finger and we both quickly spin forward to face Ronald.

He lowers his hands. “Truth is, you did me a favor,” he says.

“We did?” Ariella perks up and sneaks a peek at her grandmother, who lets out a huff of disbelief.

“Yeah. You girls almost wipe out the whole mall just to get me together with the wrong girl—wrong girl times
two
—and I can’t work up my nerve to tell the girl I really like how I feel? Forget that.” He turns to me. “The ‘follow your muse’ stuff you said to Fawn at the poetry slam—it
got to me. I wrote a song and sent it to my girl. I’m just waiting for her answer. I never would’ve done that if not for you.”

“If not for
both
of us,” Ariella insists.

“Sure. Whatever. I gotta get to work. You all take care now.”

Ariella’s grandmother takes in a deep breath and lets out a long, exasperated sigh. “This day was not what I expected.” She taps a finger against her lips, pensive.

“Do we get our powers back now?” Ariella asks.

Her grandmother doesn’t answer. Instead, she says, “Perhaps we have all learned something today. Ariella?”

Ariella frowns. “Delaney won.”

Her grandmother shakes her head. “No, that’s not—”

“She granted everybody’s wish!” Ariella flings her arms out in frustration. “Three! In a row! Without magic!”

“Not on purpose,” I protest.

“Girls.” Ariella’s grandmother waves the discussion away as if it were not worth commenting on. “Delaney? What did we learn?”

“That nobody needs a fairy godmother. F.g.s just get in the way.”

“No, no, no!” Ariella’s grandmother shuts her eyes for a moment, then reaches out to place her hands on our shoulders. I cringe, but she sets her hands down lightly this time. She guides us back through the mall, toward the fountain. “You young people with your hurry and your
‘more, more, bigger, better.’ You dilute the purpose and meaning of our work. You need to have patience. Look at me. I take a year sometimes with one beneficiary.”

“I thought that was because you were old,” Ariella says.

“
No
. It is because doing a proper job takes time. A wish is a nuanced thing. It needs to be teased out. Carefully. The initial yearning you feel with your beneficiary is only the first, superficial layer. The true wish is deep down, in the soul.” I should ask her to give this lecture to Dad. He needs it. “It is quite exhausting, yes. But this is why it may take me five or even six months between beneficiaries, to rebuild my strength and sensitivity.”

Wow, and I was worried about three months going by between clients. If only I’d met Ariella’s grandmother first, not Ariella. When we reach the fountain, Ariella’s grandmother stops and steps around to face us. “You two don’t realize how fortunate you are to have stumbled into each other’s lives. You should be allies, not enemies. I’m going to let you have a few minutes to yourselves while I shop for a sarong.” She walks off toward Fiji Escapes.

Ariella doesn’t speak and neither do I. Does Ariella’s grandmother expect us to become friends now? That seems beyond the power of even her magic. Ariella turns to face the fountain and puts her hands on the top of the stone wall. I lean my back against it and send a text to Lourdes: “I’m sorry. Call me. I have a lot to tell you.” Because I don’t know what else to do, I turn around and face the fountain
too. It’s between songs, so the jets are low. Their little bubbles of water create soft ripples along the surface. It’s pretty and peaceful, and I realize I don’t feel suffocated here in Wonderland anymore. I know now that it’s just one small part of my new hometown, of my new life.

“You did win, you know,” Ariella says.

“You helped.”

Ariella lets out a sad laugh. “No, I didn’t. I’m nothing without magic. But you don’t need your powers back. It’s like
you’re
the wand.”

I think about this. It’s sort of what I’d been trying to do, but I’m not sure it counts if I still can’t get the wish right. “I don’t feel very magical,” I tell her. “And don’t forget, Ronald hasn’t actually gotten his wish. The girl he likes could turn him down and he’ll be worse off than he was before. It happens.”

My cell
pings
. I glance at the screen: Lourdes, returning my text.

“It didn’t happen
this
time,” Ariella says before I can read the text. I look up from the phone and Ariella tilts her head toward the movie theater. In the shadow of the marquee, Ronald holds someone’s hand in both of his. He pulls the girl to him, bringing her into view.

“Oh my God, it’s Lourdes!” I say. Lourdes leans toward Ronald and their foreheads touch, their silhouettes forming the outline of a heart. I check her text: “I have a lot to tell
you
.”

“You know her?” Ariella asks.

“Yeah. And I knew she and Ronald were friends—and she was always talking about this guy she liked, but I never … I should’ve figured it out.”

Ariella throws up her hands. “You granted her wish too! That’s four. Actually, Jeni’s boyfriend makes it five.”

“If you’re going to count them up that way, then you have to double all of yours. That puts you way over a hundred.”

Ariella brightens for a moment, but her happiness doesn’t last. “I’ll never have another one, though.”

If I had a wand that worked and I could grant a big wish for anybody, I’d restore Ariella’s powers. I realize now how much more the magic means to her than it ever has to me.

“How about we go over to Treasures,” I suggest. “We can call your grandmother and tell her to meet us there.”

“No, thanks.”

“But I found an angel pin for you. It’s a really well-made pin. No way will the wings ever snap off.”

Ariella gives me a puzzled look. “Maybe later. You have other things to do.”

“Me? No, I—”

“Boo,” a voice whispers from behind me. Flynn!

I spin around, and it’s really him, standing right in front of me. “I thought … How … I don’t …” Oh my God, I’ve turned into the old Jeni.

“Ariella called me this morning. We had a
long
talk. She
wouldn’t let me off the phone until I swore to come here and see you.”

“She can be very persuasive.” I look around, but she’s vanished. The fountain jets have grown taller, gearing up for their next musical number, and I wonder for a second if she’s somehow dissolved into drops of water, fairy-like.

“So, I’m here, Delaney, but—”

“Oh my God. There’s my client! See?” Behind Flynn, Jeni and Kevin emerge from the Nutri-Fizzy Bar, arm in arm, on their morning break. “Jeni!” I call out. Jeni waves.

“So that’s Ronald with her?” Flynn asks.

“No, that’s Kevin. Ronald’s over there.” I gesture toward the movie theater, where Ronald and Lourdes now have their arms wrapped around each other and are deep in new-love conversation.

“I don’t get it. Is that girl a different client?”

“No, that’s Lourdes. There
was
another client, Fawn, but she was—Oh, there she is.” I point across the fountain toward the mini-lawn, where Fawn walks with Ariella, who is intently reading something from Fawn’s notebook. “I guess she wanted to apologize on her own,” I say.

“Who?”

“Ariella.”

The fountain song starts, this one all violins and trumpets and a chorus singing about throwing coins in the fountain to make wishes come true—which is probably a better way to do it. No human—or rather, f.g.—error.

Flynn shakes his head. “You know, this is really—”

“I know. But I can explain it all. And the only reason I didn’t tell you what’s been going on all summer is that I didn’t want you to think I was a loser.”

“Why would I—”

“Because I made such a big deal about being an f.g. and everything, like I was so special, when really, everything was going wrong. I just wanted to wait to tell you until everything was going right.”

Flynn studies me, the water jets swaying behind him. “Why would you think I would care about that?”

“Because the whole g.f. thing is new to me.”

“Don’t you mean f.g.?”

“No.”

Flynn thinks a second and then smiles, getting it. “The b.f. thing is new to me too, you know. And I guess I should confess that the reason I didn’t invite you to come with us that night when we went to see the lighthouse was because I didn’t want you to know that at the beginning of the summer, Skids and I were just gofers. I was carrying camera bags, not taking photos, and Skids was getting coffee. I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to think
I
was a loser.”

I can’t believe this. “So you let me think your job was more important than me?” Flynn shrugs apologetically. “Loser!” I say, but it’s hard not to laugh when I say it.

“Sorry.” Flynn grins his adorable crooked grin.

“So …,” I say.

“So …,” Flynn says.

Now what? Do I make the first move? Does he? Will this stupid bubble of resistance between us never burst? Will we stand here like this for all eternity, like the bronze statues on the mini-lawn?

“Flynn, I—” Suddenly something yanks at the back of my boot and my ankle twists. I lose my balance and tumble into Flynn, who catches me in his arms.

“Are you okay?”

“What was
that
?” I glance down, but there’s nothing there. No hand grabbing me, no reason for me to fall at all.… As I raise my eyes, the fountain jets lower and I spot Ariella and Fawn, watching me from the other side of the fountain. Ariella holds up a bamboo skewer from a nearby vendor cart selling cooking supplies. She shouts at me and although I can’t hear her over the violins, I can read her lips: “It works!” And then she and Fawn vanish behind a wall of water as the fountain jets rise up for the finale of the song.

I smile. Her magic powers have returned. But how could she make me fall if I wasn’t wishing it?

I straighten up, but Flynn keeps his arms around me. Okay, maybe I
did
wish it.

Our faces are inches apart and his eyes stare into mine. His gaze holds me as close and firm as his embrace. “I’m ready to tell you everything,” I whisper.

“Later,” Flynn says, and then he kisses me. For a second, I can’t help wondering if my powers have returned too.

But then the internal fireworks begin, and I forget about my powers. I kiss Flynn and forget about pretty much everything except for this kiss, which I’m determined to commit to memory, even though I know it’s only the first of many, many to come. So many I won’t have time to flash back to them, or flash forward. I’ll be living them in the present.