Wednesday, a week and a half before arrest

As I sit at my desk going through the last of the files my phone beeps.

I recently downloaded an app that let the townsfolk message me sooner about anything they need help with. It's been pretty successful so far.

I pick up my phone and read the newest one.

Grove farm - There's a hole in the wall and my crops have been dying from something not normal. How soon can I get help with this?

I glance at the time. Three o'clock. I should be able to get this done before supper if I leave now.

I head downstairs and find mom in the kitchen. "Can I borrow the car?" I ask. "The Grove farm needs some help."

"Sure. Just don't be out late."

"I won't."

I grab the keys and hop in the car.

***

When I pull up to the Grove farm Mrs. and Mr. Grove wait on the porch and stand when they see me. They walk down the steps and stand outside of the car as I get out.

"Thank you for coming Lumi," Mrs. Grove says.

"You're welcome."

"We really appreciate this," Mr. Grove says as he takes my hand and shakes it.

"It's my job." I turn to Mrs. Grove and shake her hand. "Can you take me to the problem?"

"Sure. Follow me." Mr. Grove turns and walks into the field of wheat.

I follow him down the narrow path that separates the wheat rows. As I walk past them they brush against my arms. They're soft and tickle me.

We walk for a good while before I see the problem.

A few rows of wheat are black with green vines with thorns spiraling around them. Just behind that is the protective wall that surrounds the town with a gaping hole in it.

"These weeds have been popping up for a week. I've tried to pull them but they keep coming back the next day. It's been spreading too. Started from one to four to this much." Mr. Grove explains.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Didn't have anyone to deal with it then."

"I'm sorry." I lay a hand on his arm. "You have someone now though."

He smiles. "And I'm glad for that."

"Can I work on this alone? It shouldn't take more than an hour."

He nods. "Holler if you need anything. My wife and I will be listening."

"Thank you."

He nods and starts back the way we came.

I bend down and examine the vines closer. Everywhere that they touch the wheat is punctured by a thorn. The thorns must be the way that the poison is spread. But where did they come from?

I lay a finger on the vine, careful to avoid the thorns. My finger starts to tingle as I freeze the vine. The ice spreads slowly, starting like a layer of frost before it freezes completely.

I look around the area trying to find something strong enough to break it. My gaze lands on a small rock sitting by itself.

I pick it up and aim it at the ice vine. With all the force I can muster I throw it.

The ice shatters against the force of the rock. A sound like glass breaking rings throughout the field.

I sigh and head to the next one, doing the same thing.

If this is my method, this could take longer than I expected.

When I've finally gotten to all the vines I wipe my hands on my pants and admire my work.

All the vines are gone. The ice has melted, making the soil darker. The wheat is still black and looks like ash but that's something I can fix.

I hold my hands out before me and make my voice loud before saying; "Restoration!"

The blackness crumbles away to reveal vivid yellow stalks.

A smile creeps its way onto my face as I admire my work.

It fades fast when I see the hole in the wall.

The hole isn't very noticeable. But it is if you know what you're looking for. The wall gives the outside world a blue tint, and the place where the hole is doesn't.

I'm tempted to peek out of it. See if I can see anything besides the green fields that go on for miles.

No one visits the town. So the lone road that heads in and has been empty for years. No one leaves anymore either. They're all scared of what could be out there. To be honest, I'm with them.

I turn my attention back to the hole.

It's not big, but not small either. Probably big enough for someone to stick their head in and that's it. Which is good. It means no one or thing has gotten into town.

I place my hand in front of it and close my eyes. As I wave my hand over it I whisper, "To'siqni tuzatish."

When I open my eyes the spot where the hole had been has a blue tint to it.

I smile. My work here is done.

As I approach the house Mrs. Grove exits it. She wears oven mitts and holds a pie tin in her hand.

"Mrs. Grove. You didn't have to," I tell her, smiling a little.

"No, no dear. I did. Here take it, it's not hot, just warm." She passes the pie to me.

I grab it from her. It smells like freshly picked apples. I almost start drooling over it right there. "Apple?"

She nods. "My own family's recipe."

"Thank you."

She smiles. "Don't thank me. It's payment for what you did."

I nod, too struck for words. I was doing this because it's my job. I never expected to get paid for it in any way. Even if it is just food.

"You get home now dear. You and your folks can enjoy it together." She reaches up and pats my cheek.

"Thank you," I whisper.

She nods and turns away.

***

I received two more messages that night. One from the app and one from Neo.

I check Neo's first.

Does tomorrow after school work for the first session?

Sure

Library?

That works

See you then!

I don't bother to reply and instead go to check the app.

Merrick Family - There is a hole in the wall by our house, please come fix it when available.

I sigh.

Great. The Merrick family is Mia's family. Guess I'll be spending the rest of my evening with her.

I tell Mom where I'm going and then grab the keys and leave.

***

Mia's house is in the richer part of town, so it's bigger and fancier with its decorative pillars. I'm not surprised when I pull up and see every room is lit up. It's like a lighthouse out at sea guiding sailors back home.

I raise my hand to knock on the door. But before I can it's thrown open and Mrs. Merrick is standing there.

She's wearing a black blazer and a white top with a black skirt. It looks like she's ready to go to the office instead of lounging at home. Her black hair is up in a bun. "Lumi. Hi," she says and then walks away.

I don't bother replying, she probably wouldn't hear me. I walk in, closing the door behind me.

She turns around a corner and I follow her. I don't know what else to do. I follow her into their living room. Mia sits on the couch with a laptop.

"Can you show Lumi the hole? I need to get to work." Mrs. Merrick says, gesturing for Mia to get up.

Mia looks over her laptop at her mom, then me. "Sure." She sits up, places the laptop on the coffee table and stands up.

"I'll see you later." Mrs. Merrick kisses the top of her daughter's head.

"Love you," Mia whispers, hugging her mother.

I feel like I should look away but by the time I start to, they finish and Mia's grabbing my arm to follow her.

She lets go right before climbing the stairs.

"Aren't you taking me to the hole?" I ask, looking between her and the front door.

She nods. "But you have to be up high to reach it." She turns away and continues back up the stairs.

I sigh and follow her.

The top floor hallway is small but long. There's three doors on each wall and a window at the end of it.

Mia walks to one of the doors on the left and opens it. The room lets out a musty smell. We walk in and Mia flicks the light on to reveal a bedroom.

It can't be hers though. The bed is made, everything's in its place. But there's something off about it all. The desk in the corner and the bookshelf above it are all covered in dust.

Mia walks over to the window. She struggles with the latch but when it finally listens to her it opens. She pushes it all the way up and moves aside. "If you look up you should be able to see it."

"The hole?"

She nods.

I move in front of the window and peek out. She's right. I can see the hole. I reach out as far as I can and repeat the same process as earlier. When I'm done I pull myself back into the room and turn around.

Mia's looking around the room with a glaze over her eyes. Her arms are wrapped tightly around her stomach as if to comfort herself. She must sense me watching because her gaze snaps to me.

"I'm done."

She nods.

I move out of the way so she can close the window. We leave the room and I ask the question that has been sitting in my mind. "That wasn't your room. Was it?"

She shakes her head and wraps her arms around herself again. "No. It was my sisters."

"I'm sorry."

She nods. When we get to the stairs instead of walking down she sits on the top one. "Remember in the bathroom when I told you about the smoothie?"

I nod.

"I came home that day and found her in her room."

A gasp espaces me lips. "I'm sorry! I had no idea!"

She doesn't look at me. Instead she brings her knees to her chest, wraps her arms around them and rests her head on them. "You were too busy with Madam Mara." She doesn't say it meanily, just sadly.

"She always liked to give me weeks where I was forced to study hard."

"That was her."

"How did you find out about your magic?" I ask. I'm hoping it's not a sensitive conversation and that she'll be okay with talking about it. It's nice to have someone who understands.

"When my parents came home that day, they were panicking. It made sense because neither of their daughters were answering their phones. But when they came into the house I felt their panic."

"Felt it?"

She nods. "I don't have cool powers like you. I just know what people are feeling."

"Are you kidding?" I ask. "Those are super cool! You can tell what people are feeling!"

"And manipulate them," she whispers.

"You can do that?"

She nods.

"That's so cool!"

"Yours are cooler." Her face reddens.

I turn away and look down the stairs. "At first they weren't. I hated them."

"Because it appeared after something bad happened?"

I nod and rub my hands together. "My friend - Anastasia, and her family were going on a ski trip. Everyone thought it was crazy that they wanted to go and leave the safety of the wall, but I thought they were super brave. I still do.

"Me and my parents had met them at the wall to say goodbye. It was like a snowglobe in here, the perfect amount of snow. But outside was a blizzard. You couldn't see anything in front of you.

"So, after we said bye they left. A week later I heard my parents talking to each other. And the one and only thing I remember hearing was; Anastasia and her family were dead. They had died when they were on the hill. An avalanche or something.

"I remember having felt empty and cold. Then, a week later Madam Mara appeared and told me about my powers."

An arm wraps around my shoulder, and before I know it Mia has pulled me into a hug. "It sucks that we had to come into magic this way."

"Yeah," I croak.

"When do you think it changed? How we got our magic?"

"Madam Mara told me it was because of this super powerful wizard. I don't remember his name, but she said that he had cast a spell to rip magic from blood-lines because he felt that too many un-worthy families were inheriting magic."

"That's ridiculous!" She throws her hands up. "So he thought it was better that we all had to go through something horrible?"

I nod. "He felt that we had to earn it to be special." I stare down at my hands. "Maybe I agree with him."

Mia starts to say something but I cut her off. "Not with the getting magic through a tragedy but how some families are unworthy."

"But won't you feel bad that no one else in your family will ever have magic?"

I shake my head. "It's a burden that I wouldn't want anyone I love to have."

"Didn't Madam Mara teach you to love your magic?" She tilts her head and her black hair falls off her shoulder.

I nod. "And I do. Don't get me wrong. It can just be hard and lonely."

"But if your family had magic it wouldn't be," she says.

"But it wouldn't be as special," I whisper.

She doesn't respond, just looks forward at nothing.

We fall into a comfortable silence. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. Sure, I knew it before, but it didn't feel like there were others. Now, I'm really not the only one. I can grieve with Mia, practice with Mia and talk with her about stuff that I couldn't with Amber.

Amber's great. Don't get me wrong. But there's just some things you can't talk about with a non-witch. They just don't get it.

"I miss her," Mia whispers, breaking the silence.

"I do too."

"Tell me your favorite memory of her."

"One time I went for a lesson and when I walked in, there were frogs lining her hall. Their beady eyes were staring right at me and I screamed and then the frogs started croaking and- and," at this point I'm laughing to the point where it's hard to get words out. "And Madam Mara came running out of her room and was like," here I put on an impression of her, " 'What are you screaming about? They're just frogs!' "

Tears are streaming down my face, but this time they're happy tears. Mia isn't laughing as hard as me but she does chuckle and smile at the story. "What about yours?" I ask.

"At one of my very first lessons she could tell I was still really sad, so she asked me questions about my sister. At first I really didn't like it. I didn't want to talk about her, but slowly, something in the air changed. I looked up and..." she trails off. Her eyes are unfocused as she thinks of the memory.

"And what?" I ask.

She smiles. "All the memories I had been talking about were playing right in the air. I got to see my sisters face alive again."

"I know that spell! It's called Good Old Memories."

Mia's eyes light up. "That was the first spell I learnt. I still use it to remember my sister and see her face."

We smile at each other. "I'm glad you told me this," I tell her.

She nods. "So am I."

I don't stay for longer after that.

When I get home Mom and Dad are sitting on the couch in the living room watching tv.

I walk over and plop down next to Dad. "Haven't seen you much. How's the novel coming?" I ask him.

Any time Dad disappears for a long time it tends to be because he's in his office working on his next novel. It never lasts long though.

He glances at Mom. "I... actually haven't been working on a novel this time."

"Oh?" I look between him and Mom. "What have you been working on then?"

He turns towards me now. "I've been working on getting back into school to be a therapist to help kids your age."

I stare blankly at him until the information settles in. How did I not realize that? Have I been that busy and distracted? "That's... great Dad!"

His face reddens. "Seeing you go through all of this has made me feel helpless and has reminded me of what I had wanted to do with my life."

I stare at him. My Dad's always been a really sweet guy, but I didn't know he was this sweet. "I'm glad you're getting back into it," I tell him.

"So am I," Mom chimes in. "You both are doing great things." She reaches out and grabs our hands. "I'm so proud of both of you."

Tears well in each of our eyes. They're happy tears.

"I'm proud of you both too," Dad says, squeezing our hands.

"I am too." I mean it.

Dad's doing a great thing, trying to help kids. And Mom. Well, she's doing great just being there for the both of us. "I love you guys."