Petunia Evans loved magic. Well, the magic that her dad did, anyways. Ever since she could remember, her dad could do all types of card tricks, pull marbles out of her ears, or even bend spoons with his mind. Her sister, Lily, loved magic, too. But Petunia didn't have the heart to tell her that magic isn't actually real. Petunia knew that her dad wasn't really magic; the tricks were just tricks. Lily, however, really believed that magic was possible and Petunia blamed this on their dad.
School had just finished and now Petunia and Lily had all summer to do whatever they wanted. Petunia had finished the eighth grade and Lily had finished the fifth. Even though Petunia was in secondary school and Lily was in primary, they were still close sisters. They had promised each other that this summer, the summer of 1971, would be their best summer yet. For Petunia, "their best summer yet" meant walking around their neighborhood and watching all the neighbors. For Lily, this meant tagging along with Petunia while trying to do all the magic tricks that their dad could do.
It was Friday, the first day of summer, and Petunia had planned out their entire day. Mum and Dad would be gone at work until around 5 o'clock and it was only 10 in the morning. They had an eternity to do whatever they pleased. Petunia already had one foot out of the front door before she realized that Lily wasn't behind her. She turned her blonde head and called for her younger sister.
"Lily! Come on! I've planned everything and it'll all mean nothing if we don't leave now. Let's go!"
As soon as she finished her sentence, Petunia could hear her sister bounding down the stairs and heading towards the front door. And soon enough, she saw her red-haired and green-eyed sister with playing cards in her hand sprint past her and jump down the steps that lead to the front door. She turned and smiled up at her older sister.
"Tuney! I thought you planned this all out, why are you behind me? We can't be late if we're to spy on our neighbors!"
"Ha, ha. Very funny, Lily. And it's not spying! It's just watching."
Petunia closed the door behind her and made sure to lock it as well. The key was attached to a bright white lanyard (that her parents gave her because she was now a responsible 13-year-old) that she stuffed into the bag that hung across her shoulders. It contained their lunch, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, sliced apples, and water bottles, because they didn't want to go back home around lunch time.
The sisters turned left and went down Turner Street towards the end of their neighborhood, Willow Grove. They walked side by side, once Petunia caught up to Lily's head start, and talked about the neighbors that were either inside or out of their homes. Petunia stopped in front of the Wilson's house and eyed the short and white picket fence that surrounded the property. But what her eyes eventually wandered to was the tacky and colorful garden gnome that was knocked over near the front porch. The screen door has smudges of wet dirt on it, as if someone with dirty hands had had trouble finding the key hole and unlocking the door.
Petunia pointed this out to Lily. "See the knocked over gnome, Lil? That means that Mr. Wilson needed to use the hidden key to get into the house last night because he was too drunk to realize that his key was in his pocket the entire time."
Lily's eyes were bright with curiosity. "How did you know that, Tuney? You're so smart."
Petunia just smiled and shrugged and started away from the Wilson's house. Truthfully, Petunia had overheard the Wilson's arguing last week about Mr. Wilson's drinking problem, but she didn't tell Lily this. She wanted Lily to be in awe of her, and this was one way of doing it.
Lily and Petunia continued walking around.
"Tuney, why did we skip all those houses? I thought you knew everything about everyone in our neighborhood."
"I do know everything about everyone, Lily, but often those people don't live interesting lives so I don't want to waste my time on them."
"That's not very nice, Tuney. Everyone is interesting. That's what Mum and Dad say."
"Whatever you say, Lily."
The sisters had reached the end of Willow Grove and decided that it was time for a break. Petunia was a little tired from carrying the bag full of food so the girls headed to the park that was shared by the two neighborhoods, Willow Grove and Spinners End.
The park was wonderful. Despite the July heat, the flowers around the perimeter of the park had blossomed beautifully and the trees near the benches offered cool shade from the bright and high sun. Petunia liked this park especially because petunia's, her namesake, were planted this time of year. Just like the picket fence from earlier, the perimeter petunia's were stark white.
"Tuney, do you think there are kids our age in Spinner's End? That way we could play with them too? We should go and check out their neighbors instead of the ones in Willow Grove. I mean, you said so yourself, most of the people in Willow Grove aren't that interesting to you."
"No, Lily. We shouldn't go to Spinner's End. It's full of people who don't make as much money as Mum and Dad. And you know that people who are poorer are more dangerous than the families who actually have money."
Immediately, Petunia knew that she had said the wrong thing. Lily's face had changed from its usual smiley self to one of disgust. Her green eye's narrowed and Petunia realized that what she had said was more rude than she had initially thought.
"Tuney. That wasn't ni—"
"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I don't know why I said that, to be honest."
There was a silence between the two of them. Petunia hated this. Their parents would always praise Lily for being outspoken but when Petunia would do the same, it was never praise that their parents would give.
Breaking the silence, Lily pulled out the deck of cards from her jacket pocket and emptied the box and shuffled the well-worn cards before fanning them out and holding them in front of her sister.
"Pick a card, Tuney."
Hoping that they could both forget the rude things that Petunia had just said, she quickly picked a card and made sure to give an encouraging smile towards her younger sister. Making sure that Lily couldn't see her card, Petunia glanced down at it and quickly memorized it. Ace of hearts.
"Got it memorized? Okay, put it back in the deck, please."
Petunia put the card face down back into the fanned out deck that Lily still held in her hands. She made sure to put it in a different spot than where she had initially pulled it out. With some elaborate shuffling and reorganizing the deck not once, not twice, but three times, Lily finally seemed satisfied with the deck of cards. Pulling out the card that was now on the top of the deck, she handed it back to Petunia.
"Is this your card, Tuney?"
Petunia turned the card around and tried not to frown immediately. It wasn't her card. It was the 10 of spades. In the moments that Petunia didn't respond, Lily knew that she hadn't done the trick right. Grabbing the card from Petunia's hand, she reshuffled the deck and pulled out the card from the top of the deck, once more.
"How about now? Is this your card?"
Again, Petunia grabbed the card and tried not to show the disappointment on her face. It wasn't her card. It was the 7 of diamonds. But before she could tell Lily that it wasn't her card, Lily snatched the card up again and reshuffled three more times. Taking the top card off and placing it in Petunia's hand, Lily spoke again.
"That your card?"
It was the 4 of clubs.
"Sorry, Lily. I think you just need a bit more practice before you can get it. This isn't my card."
Lily groaned and spread out the cards, face up, in an even line on the ground in front of Petunia. She sat crossed legged on the green grass and gestured for Petunia to do the same.
"Could you at least tell me where your card is, Tuney? So I know where and what I did wrong?"
Petunia nodded and looked down to see where her card was in the line. And then she looked again. And again. Petunia had looked at each card three times before realizing that the ace of hearts wasn't in the pile. She glanced up at Lily to see if this was just part of the magic trick, but Lily still looked sad.
"Uh, Lil. My card isn't in the deck. Is that the point of the trick? Did you hide it or something?"
"No, it's supposed to be in the deck. Are you sure it's not there? Which card was it?"
Petunia continued to look for the card, making sure that she wasn't skipping over any of them. "It's the ace of hearts, and it's not in the pile. But I swear, that's the one that I picked out of the pile at the beginning."
"Well, it can't have just gone missing. That's impossible."
The sisters spent another five minutes poring over the deck to make sure that they hadn't simply missed the card but they still couldn't find it. Checking their surroundings, both Lily and Petunia walked around the area to see if maybe the card had fallen during Lily's various shuffling or blown away at some point. But both of them knew it was impossible. If it had moved or blown away, they would've seen it happen.
Petunia and Lily ate their snacks in silent contemplation as they thought of all the ways a single card could have escaped the deck when the idea itself was impossible. But once their sandwiches and apples were eaten and their water bottles emptied, the girls brushed themselves off and headed back towards the entrance to the park and the beginning of Willow Grove.
But as they reached the perimeter of the park, Petunia noticed something quite odd. Out of all the white petunia's that surrounded the park, a solitary red one had blossomed right next to where Petunia stood. It moved gently in the warm wind, but Petunia felt cold. Turning to her right, she saw that Lily had failed to notice the red flower. Soon enough, the park was far behind them and they were safely in Willow Grove.
Petunia thought about the red petunia over in her mind the entire time they walked home and it was then that she made two firm decisions with herself. The first one was that the red petunia must have been a figment of her imagination. It was a hot day and she was tired, so it must've been a hallucination. And the second decision…
Petunia Evans does not like magic.