1936
The group of children were rather innocuous – there was nothing special about them or the teacher who was guiding them. To those who saw them – and there weren't many who took notice - they looked like nothing more than a group of children on a school trip. However, to a more trained eye perhaps it could be noted that these children were far better behaved than most of the neighbourhood children and they seemed to be dressed far more smartly – but very few people lingered on them long enough to notice this.
There was, however, something special about this group. The group of 30 children and 5 adults had a secret which nobody would guess to look at them. This is, perhaps, the result of the socialisation of mortal children in the belief that these people have long pointed noses, warts and pointed black hats. Yes the children who were visiting The Thompson Green Memorial Park on April 30th 1936 were witches.
Within this group were two little girls who appeared to those whose gazes lingered to be twins due to the unerring similarities in their young faces. In fact these girls were not twins nor were they sisters but instead cousins. The girl with the darker hair was the slightest bit older and far more daring than her younger cousin. She was also the least well behaved of the visiting children and was, at most times, accompanied by an adult to try to prevent magical mishaps. This little girl was named Serena. Her cousin, who was blonder, was far kinder and much better behaved. She was one of the most skilled in the class but she did not use her powers as often as the others. She was Samantha but better known as Sammy to her friends.
These were not the only children in the park that day. It was after school hours and as such it was quite busy. Most of the children were not of interest but there was one little boy who was rather special. He was a dirty kneed and dirty faced child with a rather comical face and overly large ears. He was also fairly gangly for his eight years. This little boy was not the most popular child in the playground nor was he the brightest but he was one of the most creative children in his class. Usually he was not allowed in the playground on his own because his mother was far too protective of him but she was out of town visiting her sister and his father was far more lenient. This little boy was Darrin Stephens.
"You may now go and play" The witch teacher, Hagatha, said watching the children carefully. She moved down the line until she was level with Sammy and Serena who were stood side by side. Sammy was looking up at the teacher waiting for her cue to tell her that it was now ok to go. Serena was looking around the park obviously trying to decide what mischief she could cause. "Serena, I am going to trust you but no magic. You are here to study mortals and mortal behaviour not to cause problems or expose witchcraft – do you understand me?"
"Yes miss" Serena smiled up at her teacher, perfectly imitating the innocent expression which was more often seen on her cousin's face. The teacher sighed and started to move along down the line before making a gesture for the children to scatter. As the children ran off she kept her gaze firmly on Serena.
"I'm going to go over there" Sammy announced with a wide smile pointing towards the play equipment which was at one end of the park. She was drawn to the brightly painted swings, slide and roundabout. Serena rolled her eyes not really seeing the attraction. The playgrounds in their home were far more exciting. Still the two cousins ran together down to the play area.
Darrin Stephens was already in the play area of the park, swinging himself higher and higher on the swing. He knew full well that this would annoy his mother – she would have shouted long before now that he was going to high but he didn't care. As he went higher he caught sight of Sammy and Serena and allowed the swing to slow. He was almost at a standstill by the time Sammy came to claim the swing beside him while Serena went to try out the roundabout.
"Hello" Sammy spoke nervously, flicking a strand of hair behind her ear before climbing up on to the swing and kicking off with her feet. She loved the sensation of zooming through the air although she wasn't brilliant at flying yet. Darrin smiled at her nervously.
"Hi" He responded, speeding up the swing so that he was going at nearly the same speed that she was. "I'm Darrin" He added, she turned to him paying little attention to what she was doing. She gave him a big smile which lit up her face.
"I'm Sammy" She said with a nervous laugh. She knew her mother wouldn't be very happy to know she was talking to a mortal boy like this. Endora had been very reluctant to allow Sammy to even come on this trip but Arthur had convinced her that it would be good for the two girls to go together and get the experience of the mortal world because as Arthur said it would put them off living there for life.
"You don't go to my school do you?" Darrin asked, knowing the answer full well because he was certain that if she did he would have noticed her. She looked down at the ground for a second to consider her response to him before looking back at him.
"No. We are on a class trip. That's my cousin Serena over there" She released one hand from the swings chain in order to point over to the roundabout. Darrin turned briefly to look and found that a dark haired version of Sammy was pushing the roundabout with great force while Thomas Jackson sat on it looking utterly terrified. Darrin felt slightly pleased about this because Thomas was a notorious bully. He had been terrorising Darrin and most of his class for as long as any of them could remember so it was rather amusing to see him so scared. "So what do you like to do?"
"I like to draw things and make up lots of different things. I made all the posters for the school bake sale and came up with a catchphrase for it and everything" He sounded so proud as he said this that it made her grin broadly. She could see the flash of excitement in his eyes.
"You should do that as your job. Imagine the Darrin Stephens Agency" The two of them laughed at that. He couldn't imagine himself as a thirteen year old let alone a thirty year old so it seemed impossible to him that this could ever happen but she seemed genuine enough.
"I think I would rather work for someone – not to have all the responsibility" He said sounding rather grown up for a moment. She smiled and nodded seeming to understand where he was coming from. She gave him her biggest smile.
"I bet you're amazing. You could be famous one day and it'll be all thanks to me – because I've told you that should be your job" She seemed very pleased with herself but Darrin had gotten slightly bored of the topic and had turned his attention back to Serena and Thomas.
"She's very strong" Darrin said warily watching how, with almost unnatural strength, Serena pushed the roundabout faster and faster. It seemed to be going at a greater speed that it seemed possible for a child's toy to go. Sammy laughed nervously as she tried to mentally tell her cousin to knock it off. She could see in the distance the teacher whose eyes were trained on Serena. She knew that any minute now her cousin's name would be shouted and all hell would break loose.
"SERENA!" Sammy didn't have to wait long for her vision to come true. Even from that great distance her teacher sounded as if she were mere centimetres away. The shock of it did cause Serena to step away from the roundabout which continued to spin wildly until it gradually started to slow in its course. Thomas was by this point looking rather green. Darrin, who had not been expecting such a loud noise, found himself rather startled and he couldn't help but jump out of the swing seat. Rather unfortunately he was in mid air and his startle reflux caused his hands to release the chain of the swing and he found himself crashing down to earth with quite a bump. By this point Serena had dashed off and the teacher was chasing after her not willing to risk flying although she knew trying to catch up through running was futile. Sammy feeling rather shocked got down off of her swing and looked at Darrin who was splayed out on the ground with his leg at a rather odd angle.
"My dad is going to kill me" He moaned rather pitifully. He was feeling a great deal of pain but did not really want to let on to Sammy – as he was still trying to impress her although he had to admit falling of the swing did not really help matters. She knelt down beside him.
"Why? You've not damaged your clothes or the swing so he won't have to pay for anything" She answered rather earnestly. He looked at her and tried to force something of a smile believe this was her attempt at humour.
"He'll kill me for hurting myself because then mom will know he let me go to the park and then she'll kill him and then she'll get a sick headache – and it'll all be my fault" he moaned, he was really feeling the pain in his leg now. She sighed deeply and seemed to be deep in thought. He watched her carefully wondering what she was going to do. For a second she turned to see what the rest of her class and teachers were doing and when she saw that they were not paying her any heed she turned back to Darrin.
"What about if I could fix your leg so your dad and mom would never know?" She asked, giving him a strange smile. There was a look of worry in her eyes and he couldn't help but laugh at her.
"You certainly don't look like a doctor – you can't be old enough – so how can you fix my leg?" was his reply. She laughed and gently took hold of his hand. It felt strange to him to be holding hands with a girl he had only just met. He didn't even hold hands with girls he had known his whole life.
"I can't tell you how and you have to close your eyes – okay?" He nodded warily – the pain wearing him down a fair bit. He squinted his eyes so they appeared closed but so that he could still see a little bit. She looked at his leg, her face so serious he almost laughed. Then she raised her left hand and placed her index finger to her nose and wiggled it from side to side. He felt a strange sensation in his leg but he had to admit the pain was less. Slowly he tried to move it and found that he could although it ached a little. He opened his eyes fully and grinned at her.
"You're amazing – but how did you do it?" He asked her, wanting to know her secret but in a way too scared to find out. He didn't believe in a lot of mythical things. She smiled sadly knowing that she wouldn't be able to tell him.
"It's my skill – like you can draw and make up catch phrases" she said finally. She had to admit it was true. She didn't believe herself to be very spectacular at anything other than magic. He looked at her and smiled.
"I bet you are amazing at everything. You can probably write a million catch phrases with a click of your fingers or draw works of art with a flick of your wrist. I bet you could even fly" He said jokingly. Her eyes widened in surprise. He was laughing now at her expression and she felt confused by this.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked her carefully. She grinned at him and shook her head. There were lots of witch and warlock boys but she didn't really like any of them. They showed off too much and only cared about magic. She liked boys who were sweet and kind and who could make her laugh without pulling tricks.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked him just as carefully. He too shook his head and grinned. He didn't really mix with many girls only the daughters of his mother's friends and they weren't really girls. They just wore frilly dresses and laughed at a lot at nothing and didn't really talk to you. He wanted a girl who was normal and who he could actually hold a conversation with.
"Maybe" They said in unison until Sammy heard the call of her teacher recalling the class. She sighed deeply but smiled at him nervously. She held his hand tighter and slowly leant forward. She closed her eyes for a second and then opened them to find his face was closer to hers than before. Gently she placed a kiss of his cheek before looking deep in to his eyes.
"Will we see each other again?" He asked, hating the idea of her leaving already. She stood and looked down at him still on the ground. She grinned.
"Of course we will. Its destiny" She said before dancing away. She joined Serena and whispered something in her ear which caused Serena to look back at the boy in a critical manner. She shook her head and looked disapproving.
It wasn't until later that night that Sammy's use of magic was discovered by Hagatha who was more than a little displeased. In fact she was so annoyed, and so shocked, that she actually for a short time forgot that she had actually arrived in that room to punish Serena. It was eventually decided, much to Sammy's annoyance, that the memories of all of the mortals in the park on that day would have their memories wiped. This was rather upsetting to Sammy because she didn't want to believe that Darrin would forget about her – and even Serena was a little bugged because she wanted Thomas to remember that he had been beaten for a girl.
1992
"What you thinking about?" Darrin asked, studying the rather comically look on his wife's face. He was sat beside her on the sofa having just finished reading the newspaper and finding absolutely nothing which actually interested him. She turned and gave him a dreamy smile.
"I was just thinking about the day we met" she answered. Her eyes were slowly losing the faraway look and she seemed to be returning to the present day. Darrin smiled at her and gently reached up and pushed a stray strand of hair which was slipping towards her eye.
"It was strange how we kept bumping in to each other – lucky too" he replied. She tilted her head slightly and gave a soft sigh. She gently took hold of his hand and looked in to his eye.
"No before that" she told him which earned her a completely confused look from her husband. He raised his eyebrows to almost comical proportion.
"Now Sam, I know my memory is a little bit worse than it used to be – but we definitely met bumping in to each other countless times. We could have caused each other serious injuries y'know" He said with a smile. She gave a small laugh. She hated to think that he couldn't really remember anything of that day. She had been sure that some degree of memory would remain because she had felt such a connection with him. Sam shook her head causing a cascade of now greying hair to bounce around her face.
"Do you remember a park near where you used to live?" She asked, wondering if that might trigger some sort of memory. He frowned for a second in thought as he allowed himself to drift back over the years.
"Sure, mother was so worried I wasn't allowed to run or play really" He answered. He continued to drift over his life and his memories of the park where he used to envy the other kids who were allowed to do whatever they wanted there – or at least that is how he had seen it. "The only time I really remember playing there is when mother was away for a few days and dad let me loose" He grinned. It was strange, he remembered that time very clearly apart from around an hour which was so hazy in his mind.
"Really? Did anything happen then?" She questioned further. He looked serious – a comic expression on his face with his tongue poking out slightly in a similar way to a child's. Slowly he shook his head. She sighed "concentrate Darrin" she said. He closed his eyes for a second and tried desperately hard.
"I remember that Thomas never bullied anyone again after that day. He became quite a nice kid. Never could remember what caused it though – he did stay away from girls a lot after that day" Darrin said with a smile which caused Samantha to laugh out loud. She'd have to remember to tell Serena that the next time she saw her. Samantha knew full well it would tickle Serena greatly to think that she had tamed the bully and had scared him of girls.
"Maybe he got beat by a girl?" Samantha questioned, hoping that maybe that would trigger something. He gave a small smile and squinted his eyes as she tried to clear any imagine in his mind. As he did so he felt his hand moving in circles which were getting ever fasted. Finally he opened his eyes.
"I sort of remember him going really fast on the roundabout – it's really fuzzy just a blur but then that's probably to do with the speed of the thing. I think a girl pushed him. A funny girl with dark hair and a real super strength" he grinned feeling proud of himself. "I owe her really. She stopped Thomas getting me" Samantha smiled at that and for a second was certain she could make out the ghostly image of Serena in the corner of the room grinning at the idea of getting a thank you from Darrin. She could almost make out the wicked glint in her cousins eye. "You know to think of it that girl really reminds me of someone"
"Is there anything else?" Samantha asked. It hurt her a little bit to think that he remembered Serena far more than he remembered her. He thought and almost unconsciously rubbed at his leg. He looked down at his leg in confusion until something sort of clicked in his mind.
"Since that day I've had a bit of a funny leg. It aches a little in certain conditions but I don't really know why. Guess it wasn't used to that much running around" He grinned at her. She frowned for a brief second because the recurring ache he felt meant that her magic hadn't worked perfectly. She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by this but it was very complicated magic for such a young witch to do.
"I guess so" She was sounded very disappointed now. He squeezed her hand gently.
"I suppose it was from that day that I got really in to the drawing and things. I used to try to redo advertisements I saw to try to make them better" he grinned at that and she couldn't help but smile. It surprised her that certain aspects of that day had remained in both his memory and Thomas's.
"Anything else?" she asked. She felt quite proud that what she had said to him had impacted him in his choice of career. She just wished that he remember her and the fact that he had been her first kiss.
"no" he shook his head softly. He felt a little confused about why she was pursuing this topic especially given he doubted she had ever been to that park. He'd certainly never taken her to the place where he'd grown up and it seemed highly unlikely that she would have gone there by herself. It was hardly exciting – it was just filled with lots and lots of mortals. It was then that a picture entered his mind – the blond girl from the park. He couldn't believe he had forgotten her. He had believed then that there was something different about that girl. She wasn't like the other children, no that wasn't true she was like the dark haired girl. The memories came out of order. He remember her leaving him and giving him his first kiss. He remembers talking to her about drawing and catch phrases. He remembered falling from the swing and the feeling in his leg. Then in a flash it came in slow motion – the finger to nose twitch. He had seen Tabitha do it a million times but it had never clicked in his mind that he had seen it before. The haze which had surrounded his memories of that day seemed to have lifted and he could see it far clearer now.
"You remember?" She asked, looking up at him with a look of complete sweetness. She had changed so little. Little Samantha was almost identical to how Tabitha had looked at that age. She was definitely her mother's daughter.
"I remember you Sammy" He said softly, gently leaning forward and placing a kiss on her cheek. She smiled. "So how come I forgot?"
"The magic I did wasn't allowed and so Hagatha, she was one of the supervisors on the trip, decided that it would be safer to erase the memories of everyone in the park but" She frowned trying to remember the incantation which had been spoken. She had been so upset at the time she hadn't listened carefully but now she could hear what sounded like a loophole. "I think she worded the incantation wrong. I think she worded it in a way which meant that you could remember if the right trigger arose" She tilted her head a little. She remember writing over and over Sammy loves Darrin and I, Samantha, take thee Darrin in her little notepad. She remember a strange expression on Hagatha's face as she read the incantation. A little bit of annoyance mixed with confusion. And with that she understood this was all destined to happen. That was why Endora hadn't wanted her to go because she feared that her daughter would met the mortal man who she was supposed to marry. Hagatha had known too but obviously hadn't expected it to happen at that time. Everything that had happened was destiny.
"So how come you were a child then? When you've spoke of being alive long before that?" Darrin asked carefully not sure if he really wanted to know the answer. She sighed deeply as she thought of how to explain the process to him. Many times over the years the question of her age had arose but she had never actually had to explain it to him and now she found she didn't really know how.
"Well you see Darrin witches age a lot differently to mortals. With mortals you have a relatively short childhood and adolescents and then you are an adult for the rest of your life" She sighed thinking about the shortness of the mortal childhood and how quickly her own children had grown. Their aging had occurred very much in the mortal way although now in the middle of their mortal adult lives it was slowly becoming evident that they did not look as old as their peers. "with witches it happens differently. Our adulthood is the longest part of our existence too but we do not reach adulthood until much later in our lives. Our childhood and adolescence years are very long compared to yours. To you I appeared eight years old but in reality I was many a great deal older. Things get a little more complicated when we hit the adolescent period. Like our childhood adolescence lasts a great deal longer than it does in mortals but with our adolescence we appear to be adults. When we first met I was just an adolescent witch" and she added quietly to her sentence I still am. She had never told him that she used a secret spell to make her body age at the same rate that he did. She was barely on the cusp of her adulthood even though he was nearer the end of his own. Sometimes it stung her a little to see those girls she had gone to the park with still looking so young but all she had to do was look at Darrin to realise that she had gotten the best deal.
"I love you" He said quietly, and gently kissed her again. She smiled back at him. For a second as he had leant towards her she could almost believe he was eight years old again. She loved him just as much then as she did now.
"I love you too" She responded and gave him a kiss of her own wrapping her arms around his neck. He wrapped his own arms around her and held her close to his body.
"I'm sorry I forgot" he whispered in to her ear. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty even though he was perfectly aware of the fact that it wasn't his fault.
"You remember now though and that's the main thing. We have so many memories together – it's nice to have one more" she said smiling. He kissed up once more enjoying the feeling of holding her in his arms. It felt so right holding her there. They fit each other perfectly.
"We are two hearts beating as one, and two souls in one" she paused for a second before whispering in her husband's ear with a smile on her face "shoe" for a second allowing herself to give an answers she would have given the day she had first met Darrin.
"We've been together 56 years and here's to another" He said laughing quietly. He felt her squeeze him tightly in her arms, her head pressed tight in to his neck.
"and when are times come we'll meet again as twin stars in the night sky" she said quietly knowing that she had the potential to live many centuries more while his years were becoming limited. She hated to think that she would be separated from him but she had known in 1936 that she would see him again and now in 1992 she knew the same thing – but that it would be a little bit different this time around.