Page 71 of Charmed, I'm Sure
Scrambling to my feet, I brush off my dress, and look at both of them. “Okay, the first thing we’ve got to do is make it back to my shop. I’m pretty sure that somewhere in my shop is Ivora’s book on how to do barriers. I’ve never done one before, so this is gonna be a test of my knowledge and power.”
Both Miles and Elora stand up, brushing themselves off with a look of determination in both of their eyes, then let me know that they will do anything they can to help me.
We all rush back to my shop, bypassing the last remnants of partygoers and mingling ghosts. Nobody seems too concerned when they see the three of us running down the cobblestone paths. Instead, it seems that they only shrug their shoulders, as if it’s a normal occurrence to see the light witch and the dark witch with a wolf running down the streets of Pumpkinridge.
My hands shake as I try to put the key into the lock of my door. I’m so scared that I’m gonna get this wrong and only make things worse. I swing open the door and whisper an incantation to illuminate the room.
Both Miles and Elora look around as if maybe the book will just magically appear in front of us. When no such thing happens, they both look to me with curiosity in their eyes, as if I hold all of the answers they seek.
“Not really sure what I’m looking for here, but maybe you could give us the title and we can help look for it?” Miles says nervously as he scratches the back of his neck.
Elora lets out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, I’m not really sure either so it would be helpful to know what we’re looking for. Especially since you have at least 100 something tomes in here.”
“It’s going to be ancient, leather binding, and the title is quite literally, ‘Barriers 101.’ It seems our great-grandmother was rather blunt.”
Miles laughs. “Huh. That must be where you get it from.”
I cut my eyes at him. “Watch it, Dog Boy. You’ve only just barely gotten into my good graces.”
We spend what feels like an eternity looking through all of the books along my shelves, pulling out the ones that we think might be right only to find that they’re not.
“Uh…is it normal for a book to growl? I’m pretty sure this one growled when I touched it. Now I’m concerned it might bite me.”
Elora snorts. “Miles. Don’t touch a book that growls.”
“Okay,” he says shakily as he pulls his hand back. “I’ll just…uh, move on.”
I shake my head as he takes a more careful approach to the next shelf. He is a walking accident waiting to happen. I’m not sure which will happen first, a lost finger or him cursing himself.
It doesn’t take him long to walk into another situation, but this time he opens the book and it throws confetti in his face. That, my friends, is the prank book. Designed to prank someone who doesn’t know the proper way to approach it.
His face is hilarious as tiny pieces of confetti cling to his eyelashes as he just blinks at us, shock and confusion written all over his face.
“Serves you right for opening books that you don’t know anything about,” I huff.
“How was I supposed to know the prank book would actually prank the person opening it?”
I can’t help but laugh. “It’s kinda in the name, don’t you think?”
He whines as he wipes his face, then moves on to the next row of books.
Miles sneezes, and abubble floats out of his mouth. He stares at it in horror, as it expands in front of his face before popping against his nose.
Elora is dying as she holds her side, tears streaming down her face, laughter ringing through the air.
Me? I’m biting my cheek, praying I don’t give away how much I love him already. “Don’t worry,” I say as I snort. “It should wear off…eventually.”
“Eventually!” he croaks.
Another round of laughter starts as we all move to different shelves.
I’m this close to throwing my hands up and saying that it’s all doomed to fail, when all of a sudden I hear Miles squeal like a little girl. He’s shaking a book in front of himself as if he just found the Golden Egg in an Easter Egg Hunt. I’m talking arms wailing, pure elation on his face, and even a squeal of happiness.
He runs over to me, shaking the book in my direction. “I found it! This is gotta be the one, it literally says ‘Barriers 101’ like you said it would!“
“Well if you would stop shaking it for a half a second, I can check that,” I say while trying to hold back a laugh at his dopey behavior.
He stops moving, just barely, the man is practically vibrating with the excitement of being the one to have found it. Grasping the book from him, I look over the front cover and realize it is in fact what we were looking for.