But my mom was grinning at me from ear to ear.
“I figured you’d say that and I don’t blame you, honey,” she said calmly. “I know I’ve tried to quit before but this time I didn’t even have to try. It just happened.”
“Really?” I still couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Okay, but when did it happen?”
“Last Sunday morning I woke up and reached for a cigarette,” she said. “Like I always do—or did—the minute I get up. But I took one puff and it made me sick as a dog! I barely made it to the bathroom before I puked—and all from one puff.”
“Really?” I asked again. “So how long has it been since you’ve had a smoke?”
“Not a single puff all week,” she said proudly. “Just the smell of them makes me sick now. I was just thinking before you came that I needed to move to someplace that doesn’t reek of old cigarette smoke. I’ve been trying to air out the apartment all week but it’s still just awful.”
Now that I thought of it, though the apartment did still smell of stale smoke, there was no fresh smoke in the air—no blue haze hovered over my mom’s head. And she didn’t have smoke on her breath either.
“But how…” I began, shaking my head. “I don’t understand how you could just quit cold turkey like that?”
“I don’t either. You know how many times I’ve tried,” she said. “I tried the nicotine patches and the gum. I even paid that guy a hundred bucks that one time to hypnotize me out of it—remember that? But nothing helped. Then all of a sudden, last Sunday morning, I just wake up and the urge is gone. Poof!” She snapped her fingers. “Like magic.”
Magic? Her words echoed in my head and suddenly I remembered leaning over her to kiss her cheek while she was sleeping the previous Sunday. Remembered whispering, “I wish you could quit smoking, Mom. I’d do anything if you could!”
I looked at my mom with wide eyes. Was the end of her habit due to me? Had I worked magic on her without knowing it? And if so, how long would it last? Would it melt away, like the gold coin I had somehow conjured? Or would it stick, the way Spike had stayed healthy after I had healed him with my tears?
“Mom,” I said to her. “I think it’s wonderful that you stopped smoking. Will you excuse me for a minute? I need to go talk to my friends.”
“Oh, are your friends here?” she asked, frowning. “Why didn’t you bring them in?”
“Because I wanted to tell you what was going on with just the two of us,” I said. “I still feel so bad—I don’t know where you’re going to live now!”
“I’ll spend a few nights in my car, if I have to,” she said calmly. “Don’t worry, Emma—I’ll survive. You go talk to your friends and then bring them in if you want to.” She smiled. “You know they’re always welcome here.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I kissed her cheek, marveling again that her breath smelled sweet instead of sour and smoky, and went out to talk to Lachlan.
Hopefully he would know if the magic I had somehow worked on my mom would last.
57
“How did she take it?” Avery asked, a look of concern on his face.
“Is she really upset?” Kaitlyn asked, biting her lip. “I’m waiting for a call-back from Shady Pines to see if they have an opening,” she added.
“Well…” I sighed and shook my head. “Actually, she’s surprisingly okay with it.”
“She is?” Megan’s eye widened in shock.
“Yes, she said she wanted to move out anyway,” I told them. “And now it looks like she can because, well, she’s apparently stopped smoking.”
“She has?” Avery’s eyes widened. “But she’s been a chain-smoker ever since we’ve known you, Emmers!”
“I know,” I said. “But now she says she hasn’t had a cigarette since last Sunday.”
“That’s almost a whole week,” Kaitlyn said. “Is she climbing the walls?”
“No—she’s actually really calm and happy,” I said. “But…I’m not sure if it will last.”
“Really? You’re afraid she’ll relapse?” Bran frowned.
“What makes you think that, little one?” Lachlan asked me.
“Well…” I hesitated, hating to tell them what I had done. “Because I’m not sure the magic will last.”
“Magic—what magic?” Avery demanded.
I twisted my fingers together and bit my lower lip.
“The magic I accidentally worked on her last Sunday when I came to see her,” I admitted. I cast a glance at Bran and Lachlan, who were both frowning. “I didn’t mean to do it—honestly!” I said quickly. “She was sleeping and I bent over to kiss her and said something about how I wished she could stop smoking. That’s all I did and I didn’t know I was doing magic—really I didn’t!”
“Oh, little one…” Lachlan sighed and shook his head. “What are we going to do with you?”