Eleanor was atalker.
My phone rang, so I put the brooch down and picked up the phone, but I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer. As soon as I sent the call to voicemail, though, it rang again. Same number. And then a third time. I finally picked up, worried that it was bad news.
"Dead End Pawn. Hello?"
I heard breathing, and then a man's voice some distance from the phone said something I couldn't make out.
"Hello?"
The call clicked off. I shrugged and put the phone down, and then my sister Shelley stormed into the shop, her face a thundercloud.
"Tess! You need to tell Aunt Ruby?—"
Aunt Ruby walked in right behind her, breathing hard, the two spots of red in her cheeks telling me all I needed to know.She and Shelley must have had a major confrontation like the ones Aunt Ruby and I'd had in my childhood.
My aunt was a blue-eyed blonde and swore she’d be blonde "as long as God makes Miss Clairol." She wasn’t very tall, but she’d been a giant in my childhood—the source of hugs and cookies and kindness. But occasionally, we’d fought in spectacular fashion, and this looked like she and Shelley were following in those rocky footsteps.
"Tess! You need to do something with thischild!"
"Um …" I glanced between the two of them. "Donuts?"
"Yay!" Shelley changed course.
"You don't need more sugar," Aunt Ruby said in a voice just shy of a shout.
She was really worked up, and I was almost afraid to ask why. My aunt and uncle had loved, treasured, and even coddled Shelley since we'd taken her in, because my new sister had been through some truly horrible things. For Aunt Ruby to be this angry now, something awful must have happened.
Of course, Shelley wasn't just an ordinary child who might be acting up in a perfectly normal way. She was a powerful witch just learning to use her powers, and my aunt and uncle were trying hard to learn how to deal with all the issues this brought up.
"Did she float Bonnie Jo through the air again?" My elderly horse still avoided Shelley after that episode. There had also been the matter of a flying reindeer …
"No! She told us she doesn'tneedto go back to school, because she should attendmagicschool. And she refuses to do her summer reading list!"
This was serious. Shelley loved school, and she loved to read, so something major must be going on behind the scenes.
"Magic school?"
Shelley came running back out with a sticky mouth and half a donut in her hand. "I need to learn the ways of my people," she said solemnly.
"Your people? I thought Jack and I and Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby were your people now," I said. "And Zane? And Eleanor and Lorraine and?—"
My phone rang again before I could continue listing off every resident of Dead End. I glanced down to see that it was the same number.
"Hold on, let me get this." But when I picked it up and said hello, it was more of the same. Silence and background muttering.
"So, stop calling me already," I said, frustrated, and then I hung up and turned back to my family, just in time to see Shelley fasten the magic brooch on Aunt Ruby.
"Stop!" I yelled, but it was too late.
Both of them turned to stare at me with wide eyes.
"Tess," my aunt chided. "Since when do you talk to a child like that? I haven't been this surprised since you and Molly put the goldfish in the baptism holy water basin at the church!"
My mouth fell open. "Aunt Ruby!! Youpromisedme you’d never, ever tell anybody about that! Molly and I did all those hours of community service cleaning up town square after the Swamp Cabbage Festival that year!"
She blinked. "I said that, didn’t I? I’m sorry; I don’t know why in the world I’d bring that up. I have to admit I feel a bit dizzy, like when I first had champagne on our wedding night and your uncle caught me dancing in my underwear?—"
"STOP!" I shouted. It had to be that dang brooch.
