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After the day she'd had at school, Sylvia was happy to be home.  Her sister had taken over the living room with a bunch opf the drama kids and they were running lines.  She recognized Greg's handywork instantly and realized it was part of the script he'd been working on.  He wanted them to read sections to tell him if it felt right.  He'd written screen plays, but a stage play was something different indeed.

Heading upstairs she called the number that David Banner had given her and it wasn't long before she had arranged a meeting for the group with the Banners.

Sitting there she realized there was something she should do before meeting these people again.

During dinner, after her sister Virginia explains her day and what she's been up to, the attention turns to Sylvia.

Carolyn: "So, how was your day Sylvia?"

Sylvia takes some time forking through the mass of mashed potatoes, vegetables, and soy burger that constitutes Mitzi's shepherd's pie.  She's looking at her plate when she manages to squeeze out the words, "There were witches.  Donnie cast a spell to find them.  They tried to get Colin in trouble."

Carolyn turns her gaze to Mitzi at the other end of the table, "Witches you say."  Her tone seems to be one of simmering unhappiness, "Who are Donnie and Colin?"

Mitzi: "Donnie is the heavy boy with the preoccupation with dragons and Colin is the sweet boy."

It's obvious from Mitzi's body language she's trying to convey suprise at Sylvia's comments.

Carolyn: "This was some game that you were playing, Donnie is the one that plays games right?"

Sylvia almost takes the out.  It's so tempting, and it's right there.  "No.  I mean, yes.  He plays games.  But this wasn't a game.  There were witches, and they cast a spell on Colin."  She looks up to search her parents' faces in a kind of desperate hope that they can intuit the rest of what she wants to say.

Mitzi: "What kind of spell honey?"

Carolyn: "MITZI!"  The tone Carolyn uses is sharp and the volume well above that she normally uses at home.  she looks down at her plate for a moment, then back at Sylvia, "Are you in some sort of gang?"

Mitzi: "Carolyn, please."  Mitzi rolls her eys, "Why don't you start from the begining Sly, this doesn't sound like the begining.  More like the middle."

Sylvia looks at Virginia as if Ginny might know what's going on and take the lead, but of course her sister doesn't know what's going on.  She's been wrapped up in her own dramatic struggle, what with the creative differences between the drama teacher and the dance coach and all the other creative personalities involved.  It's Sylvia's moment on the stage, and she does her best to shine.  "There are powers."  But that's pure cowardice.  "I mean, we have powers.  I have powers."  And then, despite all the drama of the moment, she feels like an utter ass.  She mutters the rest.  "I mean, kind of.  Sort of.  Kel and Colin are a lot tougher.  They can do more.  But. . . ."  She shrugs fitfully, not sure there's much more to say.  "Pass the salad bowl?"

Mitzi reaches for the salad bowl and Carolyn stops her by putting her hand on it.  "You have powers?  What kind of powers do you mean?"

Sylvia brings her eyes up just enough so she can read the look on Carolyn's face.  There are so many ways she could try to explain, and they would, none of them, accomplish what she can demonstrate by closing her eyes and. . . .

The salt and pepper shakers, sculpted by Mitzi to look like Bell Jar and Ginny's old rabbit, Clint, begin to wobble and then dance and then march across the table, spinning and singing, "Let's go out to the movies!  Let's go out to the movies!  Let's go out to the movies . . . and have ourselves a snack!"  It's harmless, or meant to be.  Sylvia doesn't mean to scare the bejeezus out of her family first time out of the gate.

Mitizi and Virginia burst out laughing at the display.  Carolyn is more astonished, her eyes wide with suprise.

Mitzi: "Glamour, that's a wonderful gift Syl."

Carolyn (swallowing): "So you're a witch?"

Virginia: "Are you, that's so cool."

Sylvia looks at Mitzi like she doesn't follow what she just said.  "It's not really glamorous.  Glamorous is being able to move like you're in the Matrix, like Kel does."


"No.  No, I'm not a witch.  It's the other girls, the girls who took Colin into the basement.  They're the ones who're casting spells.  This--"  The salt and pepper shakers stop.  "--is just--"  She's shrugging again.  "--me."

Mitzi: "Glamour, it's illusion magic Syl.  So, you're gifted.  See Carolyn, she's not a witch, she's gifted."

Carolyn: "I take it that your friends know about this, Donnie and Colin and Kel.  I'm wondering, why are all your friends boys?"

Virginia: "Oh, rumor has it she's stringing them all along anyway."

Mitzi: "Ginny, that's not a very nice thing to say."

Carolyn: "What about other people, who knows about this?  Are you in some kind of danger becasue of these friends of yours and these witches you mentioned?"

Sylvia throws Ginny a dirty look, but it doesn't quite staunch the blush.


"It's not because of my friends.  It's because of the witches.  There are these girls at school who were casting spells on Colin.  Not harmless spells.  Mean spells.  They took him down in the basement and tried to use him for something, and we couldn't let it happen.  We couldn't let them do that kind of thing, and we--"  There's the crux of it, something Sylvia's been doing some heavy-duty thinking about when she stares at her ceiling at night.  "We have the power."  But that makes them sound like bullies.  "We have the power to make things right.  I think."

Mitzi: "Is Colin alright?  What did the witches do to him?"

Carolyn: "Is there anything we can do, to help you or the others?"

Carolyn and Mitzi are taking this well, almost too well.  The whole situation is kind of surreal.  "They knocked him out, he said.  They took him into the basement and used him for some kind of ritual.  And when we found one of them, she tried to blame Kel and Colin for assault."


Sylvia looks at Carolyn, measures the spazz-factor, and then tests the waters with "We've been meeting in Dave's family's bomb shelter.  It doesn't have Internet, and it kind of smells.  We have an appointment to meet with the Banners--remember them?  Can they come here?  The Banners and my friends?"

Carolyn: "You want to meet them here I take it?"

Mitzi: "I'll bake."  Mitzi says, and Carolyn gives her a look, "I'll use sugar."  Mitzi says, almost down trodden.

Virginia: "Oh man, the girls are gonna flip out when they hear about this."

"NO!"  Carolyn and Mitzi have these moments when it seems like they share a brain.  that fact that they said it at exactly the same time and with the same tone shocked Virginia almost out of her seat.

Carolyn: "This is not something that you need to spread around.  If Sylvia wants it to be broadcast, she'll do it.  Is that understood?"

Virginia: "Yes."

Mitzi: "As much as Carolyn will be against this, you should let me help.  I might be able to help with the witches some."

Carolyn: "I think in this case I can overcome my objections."

Sylvia nods, waiting for the spazz-out.  It's coming.  Surely not even her parents are this well adjusted.


Sylvia gives Virginia a regretful look.  "They'll come after us if they figure out who we all are."


"Help how?"  Sylvia imagines Mitzi brewing some kind of anti-witchery potion in the Crock-Pot with home-grown yogurt and puréed brown rice.  Bubble, bubble, toil and intestinal trouble.

"I suppose, I'd feel safer having them here then you going into a bomb shelter I guess."


Virginia: "I wont tell anyone."  Virginia gives Sylvia a smile and reaches out to take her sister's hand.


Mitzi: "I have some books and stuff."

Carolyn: "She swears to this day that we bet because she cast a spell on a friend."

Mitzi smiles, "What you send out will come back to you three fold.  I wanted Evey to have someone to love and I got three someone's in return."  She smiles at her family.

Carolyn turns to look at Sylvia, "You haven't told any of your friends besides Kel that you have two mothers, have you?  That's why we've never met any of these friends.  Are you ashamed of us?"

Mitzi: "Carolyn, for goodness sakes.  the girl just wants to fit in for a little while in her life."

Sylvia and Ginny tussle sometimes, but today Sylvia takes her sister's hand and feels grateful Ginny's got her back.


Sylvia would smile back if her jaw weren't hanging open.  "Wait.  What are you saying?"


Sylvia doesn't know what to say.  She's ashamed of herself, really, for not having mentioned her parents except in the most oblique way.  "I don't know.  They're mostly guys.  Can't ask them over to play Barbies or anything."  Somehow she doubts Sarah plays with Barbies, or ever played with Barbies, and frankly Sylvia's a little beyond them, too, by now.  "I figured sleepovers were right out."

Mitzi laughs again, "Well, for a few years yet."  The look Carolyn sends her can't knock the smile off her face, then Carolyn has to smile too.

Carolyn: "Mitzi and I had this mutual friend, Evey.  Back when Mitzi was far more hippie then she is now and a practicing witch, she cast a spell or so she claims to help her friend find someone to love her.  Evey had had a pretty hard life.  Well, I met Mitzi at the bridal shower.  We were both maids of honor, and one thing led to another.  So, she's always claimed that she was responsible for us being together even though I had to make the first move."

Mitzi: "You were scary.  I didn't think you wanted to date me, I was afraid you'd smash me with a beer glass."

Carolyn: "Hey!, he totally deserved that.  So, anyway, after we got together she moved more towards my world and I moved more towards her.  She gave up magic and I gave up beating up drunken assholes.  And here we are."  Now Carolyn smiles.

Mitzi: "In the kind of magic traditional witches do, the things you do are visited back upon you three fold.  Harm for harm and good for good.  It's the balance."

Carolyn: "So, when we were told that there were two girls eligible for adoption, she screamed so loud she broke my wine glass.  That told me that we had to get the two of you.  So, her blessing for Evey was visited back on her three-fold."

Sylvia spends a couple of seconds wondering at what point much information becomes too much information.


"Does that mean you know what to do about these girls?  Someone told us there's no way to make someone stop doing magic."

Mitzi: "Let's see what you have to work with first.  Maybe we can figure somethig out."

Carolyn: "So, when are we hosting this meeting, and keep in mind that you have to be at the game Saturday afternoon."

"Soon as possible," Sylvia says.  "Tomorrow night?"

"Okay, tomorrow night it is then."

She makes the calls she needs to make after dinner, and maybe, when she talks to Colin, Sarah, and Donnie, she gives them a hint of things to come.  "Guess what?  My mom's a witch."