Nature of Magic Blogfest

It's time for Tessa's Nature of Magic Blogfest!

THE TASK:

Write or share something you've already written that, to you, shows the nature of magic. It can be an excerpt from your WIP, something you've written especially, poetry, whatever strikes your fancy. It just needs to show the nature of magic as it exists for you or for those you write about. Unless you're writing poetry, try to keep the entries somewhere between 250-1000 words.

MY ENTRY:

So of course I wrote another episode of Happy Acres, and as usual it's kind of long. It seems I can't write a short episode...they get away from me.

If you are behind on the episodes, you can go to the Happy Acres Episodes link above and catch up on this ongoing story.

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I sauntered down the hall of Happy Acres as if I didn’t have plans to raid Nurse Cratchit’s office. Artie and Tessa sauntered behind me, as nonchalant as mental patients are capable of being.

When I reached Cratchit’s office I ducked inside, followed by Artie and Tessa, then peeked out the door, checking the hall first left then right. Cratchit was nowhere to be seen. Mia and the zombies had set themselves up to work on their crayon mural and act as our last warning of danger. Bill and Simon were in the day room acting as the first line of defense, ready to waylay any staff heading our direction.

“Okay, guys,” I said. “This is it. Fan out. Check the closet, all the drawers, anywhere she could hide fruit and writing utensils.”

“That could be anywhere,” Artie deadpanned.

“Then you’d better get busy,” I said.

Artie took the closet, Tessa went to work on the filing cabinet, and I started in on the desk. Two drawers in I hadn’t found any of our stuff, but I’d confiscated some lip balm, a box of paper clips, and some breath mints. There were plenty of pens, but not our pens. I took a couple anyway.

“Do you believe in magic?” Tessa asked, breaking the silence.

“What?” I asked, turning from my search to find her sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor, twirling her hair, and glitter spilling from her pocket. Where she got her endless supply of it, I could never figure out.

“Magic,” she repeated. “Where do you stand?”

“I didn’t know you could take a stand on magic,” I said. “And we really don’t have time for this discussion.”

“That’s easy,” Artie said. “It doesn’t exist. Now let’s get back to the search.”

“Em?” Tessa asked, her eyes telling me she’d be seriously disappointed if I agreed with Artie.

“Well,” I said. “I’m not so sure.”

“That’s sad,” she said.

“You’d better be careful who you talk to about magic, Tessa. You tell your shrink you believe in it you’ll end up with a couple extra pills in your drug cocktail every day,” I said, kneeling to help her with the bottom drawer in the cabinet since I’d finished my search of the desk.

“I’m not worried about that,” she said. “I’m more worried that nobody believes anymore.”

“Why would that bother you?” Artie asked, checking the toe spaces of a pair of boots in the closet. He was thorough.

“Because the power of magic is diminished when people don’t believe,” she said.

“Like fairies die when you don’t believe?” I asked, teasing her.

She took me seriously. “Exactly,” she said.

“That’s ridiculous,” Artie said. “The planet was still round even when everyone believed it was flat. And it was still viruses and bacteria that made people sick even when they believed it was mysterious humors that ruled the body. If there is such a thing as magic, it will still exist regardless of how many people believe in it.”

Tessa’s eyes lit up and a she grinned, “so you do believe?”

Artie rolled his eyes. “I do not believe in hocus pocus, magic wands and spells and potions, witches and wizards kind of magic. And I do not believe in fairies,” he said.

“But you believe in something, right?” Tessa asked, ever hopeful.

Artie just grunted.

Tessa apparently took that to mean yes. She clapped and tossed some glitter. “Yay! Now, Em. What about you?”

I shoved some files aside in the bottom drawer. “Well,” I said, thinking about Tonja and Tammy, my twin haunts. I had no way to explain them, though I wasn’t so sure they were magic, and the one and only time I told my shrink about them he insisted they were figments of my imagination. But I suspected there was more to them than that.  "Let's just say I'm not ruling it out. There are plenty of things that defy rational explanation."

We all finished our searches and found nothing. “Where could she have put our stuff?” I asked, standing in the middle of the room, fists planted on my hips.

“Are you sure you checked all the desk drawers?” Artie asked, moving for the desk.

“Of course I did,” I said, insulted that he’d doubt my ability to execute a meticulous search of Cratchit’s office. It’s not like this was the first time, after all.

Artie pulled open the bottom drawer. “There’s a box in here,” he said, opening it. “Hey! Here’s my pen and pencil set.” He pulled it out and held it to his chest, sighing his relief. He pulled out several apples and a handful of pens, my favorite pink one among them. My scarf was the last item out of the box.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “I searched that desk completely. How could that be there?”

Tessa stood, giggling, and hugged me. “Magic, of course!”

She skipped out of the room humming ‘Do You Believe in Magic,’ tossing sparkly glitter in her wake.


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Hope you enjoyed. Now go check out the rest of the entries!