It was exciting seeing my bank balance of $1,127.58 printed in my bankbook. I made myself a promise on the way home, that I would never touch the $1000 except for something very important.
Halloween was coming. It was the one day of the year we let other people see us in our Wood Sprite cloaks. My bandage was soon off as nothing had been broken, so I got busy on a cloak for Michael, and Penny helped me — she had learned how to use the sewing machine. “Do you think he’ll make a good Sprite?” she asked.
“Yes. Remember how he wasn’t worried about the magic or the training, but just about what other people would think and what we would do to him?
Turn him into a frog or something!”
We both laughed.
“You like him, don’t you?” Penny asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it would be fun to have a boyfriend. We’ve started to eat lunch together at school and stuff. I’m just not sure I’m ready for it.”
“I am!” Penny said.
“I know. Just don’t get pregnant, okay?”
“That part I know all about. I just haven’t found the boy! Would you do a love spell for me?”
“Pink candle or red candle?”
“Both!”
“I think we should start with pink,” I said with a smile. I had been reading
about amulets, so I decided to try it for Penny’s love spell. At first I wasn’t sure if it was right to do, one Sprite casting a spell for another Sprite. Wasn’t that just a sneaky way of casting a spell for yourself? I thought about it for days. I talked to the Spirit of Counsel about it. I finally decided it was okay —
we were people too, and we needed things in life just like other people did. I bought some thin pink cord, found a scrap of pink material, and kept my eyes open for the most important part.
Halloween was on a Saturday. Everyone came over about noon and we made crazy hamburgers for us and my parents. We seemed to do things at my house most of the time because my parents let us do the most stuff. We had ketchup and pickles all over the table, and everybody was laughing. We didn’t have to feel guilty because we were the clean-up crew, too.
Michael was embarrassed as Penny and I put white and black makeup on his face. We were giggling the whole time. While Penny put glitter in his hair, I read aloud from our study book.
“Samhain was one of the two major fire festivals of the year, Beltane being the other. A prominent custom in Celtic lands was that each person around the bonfire would toss in a white stone with their mark upon it. In the morning, if any stone was not found, that person had received an omen that he or she would not live to see another Samhain . . .”
“Whoa!” Michael said. “I’m not doing that!”
“That’s not magic, it’s just a superstitious old custom,” I said.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief.
We got on the bus and went out to the college Haunted House. It was different this year, with lots of things you could touch. I liked the Witch’s Cauldron. You couldn’t see into it. We reached in . . . raw oysters! Penny screamed.
We haunted the campus awhile, then went back to town. Michael bought us milkshakes.
“I’m dying to see the Grove! Can we really camp out there?”
“If we can work around our parents. But it’s a special place, remember that. Only Wood Sprite things are done there. And no one but Sprites know about it, right?”
“Right!” he said.
At my house, Penny and I got into our cloaks. Michael got this pouty look on his face.
“Where did you guys get those?”
“We made them.” I had my hands behind my back.
“Can I make one?”
“No,” I said, and handed him his cloak. “Wood Sprites take care of each other!”
Penny
giggled.
“Thanks!”
The wind blew at us on the way to the park, and clouds skittered around the sky. It was going to be a wonderfully spooky night.
“How can it be at the park? I’ve been everywhere there, even in the wild area with you guys!”
“Everywhere?”
“Yeah. Except that thorny place.”
Penny and I cracked up. “Come on!”
We led him into the woods behind the picnic area, and to the Hedge.
Penny found an almost-invisible crawl hole and led the way in.
“You guys are crazy. Ouch! This place is all thorns!”
We came to the other side. “The Guardian Hedge goes all the way around the Grove.”
“Wow. I never would have guessed there was a forest inside here. This place is magical before you even get there!”
“Come
on!”
We wound through the alders and maples. I could almost see the place through Michael’s eyes, how special it must seem, hidden here in the thorns.
We climbed the hill into the cedars. “You guys are really lucky. I mean, we are really lucky!” he said.
We stopped near the middle of the Grove. “No one goes into the Magic Circle except for ceremonies and actual magic work.” We showed him all around, and Penny and I got ready to make fire. Michael watched closely.
Flames were soon leaping into the wood we stacked in the fire pit.
“Feels nice. It’s going to be cold tonight,” I said, warming my hands. “We
are casting a spell tonight. Are you ready, Penny? Are you prepared to receive what you say you want?”
A strange look came onto Penny’s face. “I think so.”
“I don’t want to do it unless you’re sure. Maybe you should go talk to some Spirits about it.”
“Okay. Let’s dedicate the Grove first.”
Penny got out a white candle and lit it at the fire. We stood around the outside of the Magic Circle. I said, “We dedicate this Grove to God and all good Spirits. Only white magic is done here. May evil and selfishness flee from this place!”
Penny stepped in and set her candle on the altar. I took Michael by the hand and led him back to the fire pit, putting my finger to my lips.
I gazed into the flames and thought about the spell I might be doing — if Penny was ready. It would be okay if she wasn’t. Sitting beside Michael made me start thinking about love too. I’m probably less ready than Penny.
Michael gazed into the flames.
Penny came back a few minutes later, sat down, and took a deep breath.
“I’m ready.”
I smiled at my friend. Michael and I got out more white candles, and the three of us stepped into the Circle.
“First we have a lesson, requested by Michael. How do we tell the difference between white magic, black magic, and superstition. Penny and I came up with four things that make it white. Penny?”
“It doesn’t hurt anyone. It helps someone other than the magician. Umm
. . . it isn’t done for reward. And it follows the laws of God.”
“Black magic,” I went on, “is forceful or selfish. It tries to force nature or Spirits or people to do things. It’s done for reward, glory if nothing else.”
“You mean we shouldn’t do magic as an ego trip, right?” Michael asked.
“Exactly. If you did, you wouldn’t have the wisdom to know if it was right to do it, or even how to do it. Superstitions are just things people make up and don’t have any way to work except by people believing in them.”
“Don’t we have to believe in the magic we do?” Penny asked.
“We sure do, because we have to show God we’re sincere. But the power comes from God. If God and his Spirits don’t agree, no magic. Superstitions
don’t need God.”
Everyone, including me, thought about what I had said. “Any other ideas?”
Everyone was silent.
“Let’s have prayer time.” I closed my eyes. Spirit of Understanding, I hope this doesn’t break any of God’s laws. I don’t think so. As long as it’s only our intention? Yes, I understand.
I brought the pink candle out of my cloak, lit it and set it on the altar.
“Spirit of Water, we offer this flame so that love will flow to Penny, and her love will flow to others. We ask that you fill her cup of love to overflowing, and that she will find the very best boy to share her cup with.”
I had Penny hold out her hands, I brought out a little paper bag from my cloak, and poured pink flower petals into her hands. “Spirit of Courage, please let these rose petals remind Penny of her strength and beauty, so that the boy that is best for her will also see her clearly.” I brought out a pink cord, and a tiny little pouch about an inch wide I had made from the pink cloth. I poked several petals into the tiny pouch, and tied it closed with the cord.
Another knot made the cord into a necklace. I slipped it over Penny’s head, and sprinkled the rest of the petals into her hair.
“Wear this everyday. Remember that you can never force or hurry love. It will come when God is willing, and when your lover is ready for you.”
We were all silent for a minute. Michael’s mouth was hanging open.
“Our special celebration tonight is trick-or-treating,” Penny began, “but first we have bread to share.” She brought out a big dinner roll. “God, we want to remember all the people who have died. They were your children too.” We shared the roll, each person quiet with their own thoughts. I remembered my grandmother who had died. I think she knew a lot about God. I hope I get to see you again, Grandmother.
We finished, took up the candles, and stepped out of the Magic Circle.
“Thank you, Grove, for letting us be here on Halloween to pray and do magic,”
Penny said.
Back by the fire, Michael was still speechless as we warmed our hands and let the fire die down.
Penny said, “Ariel, we need to bring a shovel here to put out the fire. I
think my mom has a little one she doesn’t use. I’ll find out.”
“Okay. We can use sticks today. Everybody ready for trick-or-treating?”
A smile crept onto Michael’s face. “Yeah!”
We put out the fire, put away candles and stuff, and got ready to leave.
“Hey! It’s dark! I can’t see a thing!” he said.
We giggled. We could see just fine. I took him by the hand and we headed out.
Michael hadn’t been trick-or-treating in years. But he liked our style —
lurking from house to house through yards and behind bushes. He caught on fast how to move quickly and silently in the dark. On one street some egg throwers came by. We hid, came up behind them with hoods on, and practically scared them into eating their own eggs!
We collected lots of goodies, and were just about to go home, when we heard the sound of someone crying. We stopped and listened. A few houses down, there was a little girl in a skeleton costume, standing on the sidewalk, all alone.
“Okay, Wood Sprites, no hoods, or we’ll scare the pee out of her,” I said.
We went up to the little five-year-old. “Can we help?” Michael asked her.
“My big brother was going to take me trick-or-treating. But he forgot and went to a party,” she said through sobs.
I looked at Penny. “We could use a little more candy and stuff, couldn’t we?”
“Sure!”
“We’ll take you trick-or-treating, okay?” Michael said.
“Would you? I’m not supposed to go alone.”
It occurred to me that she probably wasn’t supposed to go trick-or-treating with strangers either, but it wasn’t our fault she was alone. “Let’s go!” We picked a street we hadn’t been down yet. The little girl loved it. Her bag wasn’t very big, and it filled fast. At the last house we went to, a man opened the door.
“Let me see here. A skeleton, and three Druidic Bards. Wonderful! Is chocolate okay?”
Now
my mouth was hanging open. How did he know? I memorized the
house number. I kept it to myself, but someday I had to find out how he knew.