I laughed, then quickly stopped when my head demanded I do so and fast.
“We were playing around with a silly little spell we made up when we were little.”
Sarah shook her head as she looked through the book, then bent down and moved the items around. She picked up the picture of Lucas and then stood up and glared at me. “Which spell did you use?”
Kristin stood and pointed to the spell that was on the page she had marked. “Don’t get your panties into a wad, Sarah. It was a little notice-me spell, that’s all.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “You did this spell?”
“Apparently,” I said as I made my way to the sofa. “I need aspirin.”
“I’ll go get some,” Kristin said as she walked out of the living room.
“Are you sure this is the spell you did, Hollie?” Sarah asked, this time in a softer, quieter voice.
“Um…I don’t know. Something with bat wings and eye newts and spider legs. We never finished writing the title…so I filled it in. I think we copied the spell?”
“I told you, we wrote them from one of your aunt’s spell books,” Kristin called out from the bathroom. “Hollie filled it in and said to make him fall for her, or something like that.”
Sarah showed me the spell. “To Make Him Fall in Sunder?”
I shook my head. “No, I think it was, like, to make him fall under my charms or something like that.”
“No, Hollie. It is to make him fall in sunder.”
Frowning, I said, “Sunder? Yeah, I think that word was in there.”
Sarah closed her eyes. “Hollie, look at this spell. Was this it?”
“Jesus, Sarah, what difference does it make? It was all in fun.”
“Look at it!” she cried. I felt the urgency in her voice and walked over to her. After I read the unfinished title and the first two lines, I nodded. “Yes, that’s it. I filled in the title.”
Slowly shaking her head, I could see the disappointment on my sister’s face. I knew how seriously she took the craft, and I felt guilty for making it seem like it was nothing.
“You put a hex on him, Hollie. You put a hex on Lucas.”
I laughed. “A hex? Sarah, listen to yourself. I mean, we didn’t even use the right things. I mean…I used mustard and decorations. We were drunk and just messing around.”
She sighed. “Hollie, it doesn’t matter. If you cast the spell, and you truly believed at the time that you were casting it, then you put a spell on Lucas. And not a spell to make him fall underyour charm. A bad spell! The full title of this spell is To Make a Man Fall a Sunder.”
That caught my attention. “Bad spell?”
“Yes! You copied this out of the spell book Lucy told you to stay out of, didn’t you?” Sarah asked.
At about that time, Kristin walked in and handed me a bottle of water and a few Tylenol. “We copied the spell out of a book that was at the store. It was a big black book that she kept in her office. We were in there doing homework and got bored. I remember Hollie said it was a secret spell book and that Lucy never wanted her to open it.”
“How do you remember this stuff?” I asked as I took the Tylenol from her.
Kristin shrugged. “I don’t know. I have a really good memory.”
“Because it’s one of your gifts,” Sarah said before she looked back at me with worried eyes.
“It’s fine. So what if we copied it down? We didn’t even use the right things. I used a rubber spider!”
Closing her eyes, Sarah shook her head. “She never let us see it because they aren’t spells, they’re cures. You cast a hex on Lucas.”
Kristin laughed this time. “Sarah, I totally get that you’re heavy into this, but do you see what is in the pile? Those are Halloween decorations!”