9

"Kelbo, more pancakes?" It was Saturday morning and Theresa made her family a nice breakfast. Her brother-in-law, of course, was never one to shirk a good meal or a good story. Over the table on the top landing, Justin regaled him in the last few weeks' sequence of events concerning the movie to be filmed in the shop over the summer, the mystery of Miranda and William Russo and the riddle of their history partially documented in his novels.

"Yeah, sure, sis!" Kelbo grinned a big smile to her then turned to Justin. "So let me get this straight…" He sat and listened to his nephew's story. "Sometime back, Justin dated this Goth girl…"

"She wasn't a Goth girl." Justin insisted. "She just dressed in black and listened to loud music."

"Yeah, Goth!" Alex persisted.

"And in the future, she becomes a witch, has a kid then travels back in time with her son to live in our time." Kelbo repeated their story. "Her son also grows up and writes a novel that may or may not bust you as wizards."

"Pretty much…" Alex loved her Uncle Kelbo. He was a lot of fun to be with.

"And you guys think this guy is Justin's future son." Kelbo added.

"Pretty much…" Justin sat with his uncle on the family sofa with his arms crossed. "But she denies it."

"And you believe her?" Kelbo asked his nephew. "Justin, newsflash…. Girls lie all the time!"

"Not all the time…" Alex protested. "Only when we have to!" She lifted another fork of pancakes to her lips.

"So, Justin…" Kelbo lit up at another plate of pancakes. "What are you to do next?"

"I'm going to go see Miranda again." Justin finished his juice off as the last part of his breakfast. "I know William is my future son." He shook his head frustratedly and slumped tiredly in his seat. "He had us down pat; our likenesses in the story perfect. Our personalities were disturbingly accurate… even if he did make me a little…." He fished hesitantly for the right word. "Arrogant."

"No, he got you perfect!" Max disagreed and poured more chocolate syrup on his pancakes. "I just loved it when you met Jason Russell and said, "Please tell me I'm not really as obnoxious as he sounds." " He imitated his brother as best as he could and started cackling uproariously with Alex.

"I'm not conceited!" Justin denied it. "I'm just…. Proud." He rose from his seat.

"Please tell me I'm not really as obnoxious as he sounds." Alex was now imitating Justin's self-discovery and started laughing louder.

"Mom!" Justin looked to his mother trying to load the dishwasher.

"Oh, Justin," Theresa sighed and strolled back over to the table. "You got to admit, every once in a while you do get to be a bit unbearable." She noticed Kelbo already down to his last bite of pancakes. "More pancakes, Kelbo?"

"I better not, Theresa…" Her brother-in-law patted his stomach and sipped his chocolate milk. "I'm supposed to be on a diet!"

"Mom," Justin lifted his big brown eyes hopefully to his mother. "I gotta try again to get the truth from Miranda; can you tell dad I'm going to see her again."

"Justin…" Theresa faced him down. "Every time you guys come back from her, you guys return scuffed, bruised and sore. How many times do you want to be mystically tossed out of her house?"

"I'm going too!" Alex spoke up.

Theresa made a face of defeat and disdain.

"Great…." Justin looked at Alex coming to join him. "Everything ends so well when you come along." He responded sarcastically.

"Stuff it, Justin!" Alex pulled out her wand. "Transportus Immortus, William Russo's Boston home…" The loft around them warped away again in a maze of twisted colors distorted in smoke and lights and untwisted back into the New England Colonial parlor of William's Boston home. Miranda's cat screeched and rushed from the room. Sitting in the chair at her fireplace, the ageless sorceress relaxed by the flames in the fireplace as Boston experienced a light rain. She lifted her head to her young former classmates, tugged her glasses from her face and made a light annoyed noise.

"Oh, great…." Miranda groaned. "You're back again. You know… I was worried you might not come to see me again, but… there you are!" She reacted sarcastically.

"You lied." Justin was upset. "Tell me the truth, Miranda. William is my son, isn't he?"

"We were actually in his story!" Alex's voice was annoyed and acidic. "He described us perfectly! He had everything perfect! There is no way he created those stories based on a few vague dreams."

"I didn't lie." Miranda tossed her book through the air, and it retook its place on the shelf. "I said he wasn't your son."

Justin and Alex looked at each other and contemplated the alternate solution.

"With Max?" Alex made a face of stunned disgust. "Ewwwww…"

"No!" Miranda gestured and grabbed another book flying at her through the air. "Now, do you mind? You guys may still be teenagers in this time, but I've got other responsibilities than indulging your bad wizard habits."

"How does William know about us, Miranda?" Justin stood and glared at her.

"I'm sorry…" Miranda moved from the parlor area of the house toward the kitchen. "But all questions must be saved for the end of the tour. The front door is in that direction…"

"How would you like me to…" Alex pulled her wand out and received a violent electrical shock from touching it. "Ow!" Her eyes looked back at Miranda smiling at her with a slight toss of her long dark hair. Holding her hand close to her chest, she rubbed her fingers. It felt as if she had grabbed a car battery. Justin stood before her.

"You're not going to tell us how he knows about us, are you?" He realized the truth. "Because it's connected to how he's related to us."

"I'm sorry, but I'm trifle deaf in this ear." Miranda eccentrically humored him. "Now, will you be leaving by force or by free will?" She beamed nonthreateningly. She heard something hit the floor. Miranda's cat had jumped on to the kitchen counter and into her arms. Alex had picked up a plate and dropped it on purpose.

"Whoops?" She was playing a game she enjoyed called blackmail. "I wonder how much of your nice things are going to get broken before you tell us the truth."

"Don't touch my stuff, Alex…" Miranda stroked her cat. "Some of this stuff I've enchanted."

"Oh, I'm really scared…." Alex began indiscriminately poking, touching and palming objects from the pictures to the plants to the bric-a-brac. "What are they going to do? Jump up and bite me?"

"Miranda…" Justin tried using logic. "If William isn't our son, then why does he have my name?"

"Why not?"

Alex pretended to drop another decorative plate from the kitchen cabinet.

"Whoops!" She giggled delicately with a little grin. Miranda's cat hissed at Alex.

"Alex, stop breaking her dishes!" Justin tried stopping her. "Miranda… please? Why are you keeping this a secret from me? Did something happen between us?"

"Here, Justin," Alex noticed a crystal ball on a solid brass base and took it off the top shelf of the cabinet. "How many pieces do you think this will break into?" She cupped the ball in her hand and started swooning. Her mind was being barraged by multiple visions and prophecies she couldn't take. The glass ball was not just enchanted, it had been brought back from the future. It had been enchanted by Miranda using her precognitive abilities upon it. All Alex could do was stand witnesses to her entire future being forced upon her from within it. Faces and names and events overwhelmed her senses. Through several years of experiences, only a few stood out to her. For a moment she was back at the shop and Mason was before her. He was a young British heir who had traveled the world searching for a cure of his werewolf curse. The last time she had seen him, he had been permanently transformed into a full wolf due to the family curse between his family and that of Juliet's family, but their reunion was not a happy occasion.

"Mason, " Alex was tired of him. "I can't take your jealous side any more! We're through!"

"Alex…" The young heir implored her. "I'm sorry… it's just the…"

"Werewolf curse in you?" Alex was livid. "You use that as an excuse for everything!"

"But I love you."

"And I don't…" Alex returned a necklace to him. "Not anymore…"

The vision changed and Alex was not in the shop but in the loft. She was a bit older, some time after Mason had left her, and she was in danger. Her parents and brothers were trapped, their feet stuck to the floor by the wizard comptroller known as Jerold Flick. He was a tall thin figure with a thin hairline and wire glasses just slightly perched on his nose. Dressed in a violet jacket and tan corduroy pants, he looked like the father of Willie Wonka. With the Russo family stuck to the floor, Flick raised his wand to Alex.

"Alex Russo!" He stood before her. "I find thee without humanity or compassion! I'm therefore permanently stripping you of your mystical powers!"

"Alex!" Justin tossed his wand to Alex for her to save herself, but Flick batted it out of the air before could touch it. Before Alex could rationalize what was happening, the vision had changed. She wasn't in the shop or the loft. She was in the studio apartment of a former chapel off Park Avenue surrounded and filled by her artwork. Max was older too. He was just as tall as Justin was now, sporting a goatee with short hair and sitting in a leather chair across from Alex on a large sofa. She was sitting across from him with her dainty hands around his. She was twenty-seven years old.

"Max…" Alex looked at her younger brother. "I'm marrying Kevin. I'm letting you be the family wizard…."

"What?" A big goofy grin rushed to her brother's face. "Yes! Yes! It's my turn now!" He held the wand up as if it were Excalibur. When it exploded, the vision had changed again, and Alex was five years older and in a hospital bed in Los Angeles, California. A large sheet was spread across her legs spread wide and her husband, Kevin Mitchell, was by her side trying to remind her of her breathing exercise. Her son, Nicholas, was being born. Her face was sweating, her hair was drenched and it felt as if her body was being pulled inside out.

"Screw natural childbirth!" Alex pulled Kevin into her face. "Give me the epidural!"

"Alex, you told me…."

"The epidural!" Alex's eyes rolled back into her head. "Now!" She was screaming louder than she had ever screamed before in her life. The pain vanished from her body when she jumped other into the future closer to when Miranda had traveled back. It was another five years later and Alex was an actress in Hollywood. She sat on the floor of the living room of her California home, squeezing her three-year-old daughter, Sophie. Four-year-old Nick played with cars a few feet away. Tears were streaming down her face. Kevin was there too. He guided a police detective into the house who stood over her with unpleasant news.

"Mrs. Russo…" The Los Angeles detective knew her by the name she acted under. "We identified the woman who took your son. We believe it's someone you may know…."

"Who?" Alex was grieving for a son the hospital had misplaced.

"Miranda Hampson…" The detective showed a photo faxed from New York City. "She went to school with you and President Russo on the East Coast…" The vision blinked out at the moment left Miranda had escaped her future by traveling into the past, and Alex swooned backward again. She was back in Boston in the modern day. Her eyes panned William Russo's house again. It took her a minute to realize where she was. Several years of memories had flooded her mind in a few seconds, but in that instance she realized William wasn't Justin's son… he was hers!

"No…" Alex was slowly forgetting the majority of the visions she had seen, but a few held close to her. "No, it's not true…" What maturity she had gained in that mystical psychic barrage was getting replaced by the personality of her youthful selfish counterpart once more. "It can't be true…" She tried to get her bearings as the crystal ball slipped from her fingers to the floor, bouncing slightly but not shattering. "Justin, he's not your son! He's my son!" Her face congealed with the pain and heartbreak she had felt in the future… she was going to get Mason back if but to drive him off? She was going to give her wizard powers to Max? Justin was going to be President of the United States? She was going to marry a guy she had only dated once? Have children? One of them was going to be abducted? Her eyes looked at Miranda filled with tears. "She stole him!"

Justin looked back to Miranda Russo.

"Looks like someone's been having visions…" Miranda stroked her cat and tossed its rubber mouse into the foyer to pursue and bring back to her. She picked up her crystal ball and rose slowly, returning it to her base and returning it to the shelf. She looked to Alex and back to Justin.

"Justin, if you want to know the truth, I guess I have to tell you." She turned away embarrassed. "But after my parents died, I was messed up for a while…" She paused eager to tell the truth. "I was dabbling in drugs and alcohol, I was married to a guy who divorced me when I got pregnant, but when I miscarried my little boy… I lost it. I had a complete mental breakdown and spent two months in a hospital on suicide watch, but when I heard Alex and her husband were expecting their third child, I took him to replace my baby boy." She confessed awkwardly embarrassed and looked to Alex wandering around in a daze. "Alex, I'm so sorry, but I love William just as much as if he was my real son. Please don't take him away from me. I love him so much! He completes me!"

"So that's why he knows all about us!" Justin scoffed trying not to believe it. "Because of our wizard heritage, he's developed a psychic link with Alex and her memories when you brought him from the future!"

"Dad!" Alex was recalling her father's funeral years before it had happened. She dropped to the floor of the laundry room crying her heart out. Mason, her father, her mother, the loss of her second son… Too many memories, she couldn't take so many unhappy memories at once. Her heart screamed from the sadness. Why did she pick that crystal ball to try and break?

"Miranda!" Justin took charge. "This is your fault! Take those memories away from Alex; she shouldn't have discovered what the future has for her."

"That's not her future she's living…" Miranda welcomed her Siamese running back. "That's my past. What happens now is up to her. Just as Harper from one future changed the time stream, so as I have changed it again. Maybe Mason stays with her this time."

"Make her forget them!"

"I guess I'll have to." Miranda placed her cat on the countertop and descended down to the floor where Alex grieved events that had only happened in her head. Clinging to the door of the mud porch, Alex felt Miranda coming up next to her. Her sorrowful eyes turned to her. Miranda's matured visage came upon her as if she were an eccentric aunt. Their eyes met each other.

"Alex…" The older woman stroked the hair of the younger girl. "Look into my eyes and let go of your emotions. Your thoughts are a river pouring into mine; my mind is an ocean flowing into yours. Let me in and take away your sadness. You will forget everything that has happened to you… Listen to my voice and let go of the pain…" Her hand rubbed away Alex's tears from her face. The young sorceress's mind was drifting away as the sound of Miranda talking to her became the only sound in her head…