Okay, guys. I just realized I made a mistake on the last chapter. When they're on the drawbridge, I accidentally included Henry in the conversation. That was supposed to be Veronica. Sorry about that!
Chapter Ten
About fifteen minutes after they set off for the mountain, Puck, Peter, Daphne, Mr. Canis, Uncle Jake, and mom returned. They all looked defeated.
"What did he say?" I asked.
"He said he gave the prophecy to someone else," Daphne replied.
"Who?" Dad said.
"We didn't ask. They're supposed to keep it for a thousand years, so it wouldn't have helped," said Puck.
I smashed my fist into a tree. I felt kind of stupid, but it was good lo let out my anger. Why was this happening to me? I would have hit the tree again, but Daphne stopped my hand. I sighed.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
Nobody knew. So we headed back to the drawbridge, and Peter repeated the summons.
There was a big flash, and then we were back in the Big Apple. In Central Park again. When I was little, I had always thought that New York was magical. How right I was.
We were as far away from other human beings as was possible in a place like New York, so Uncle Jake pulled an amulet out right there in the middle of Central Park and wished us back to Ferryport Landing.
We were right outside the Blue Plate Special again. I headed to my car and climbed in. I drove home automatically, sort of paying attention but not really. I knew this town like the back of my hand. There were two traffic lights now, and some of the streets had been totally redone recently after an unfortunate incident involving Baba Yaga, the abominable snowman, and some very angry chickens, but it was still tiny and quaint.
I parked my car in the driveway, and walked up to the house, feeling totally numb. After a few minutes, Puck walked in the front door. Neither of us said anything, we just got ready for bed and fell asleep, completely exhausted, mentally and emotionally.
The next morning, I got straight up. I wasn't going to dive headlong into depression and sit there like a vegetable, I was going to do everything I could to save my baby. I brushed my teeth and got dressed, wondering where Puck was. Probably off trying to find out what we were going to do.
I picked up the cordless phone and walked over to the fridge, scanning down the list of important numbers till I found the one I was looking for.
I dialed the number and waited. Someone picked up after the second ring.
"Hello? I need an appointment right away. It's an emergency!" I said.
"Ok, ma'am, please don't panic, just come down to the office and we'll see what we can do," a calm, reassuring voice said.
I hung up, then thought that they might want my name or a description of my problem. But I decided to just go down to the office now, and sort things out when I got there.
Thirty minutes later, I walked into the offices of Sprat & Jones, and headed straight for the desk, ignoring the people patiently waiting, reading copies of National Geographic.
"Excuse me, I need to see Dr. Sprat immediately," I said. "I think my baby is in trouble."
The woman at the desk frowned over her glasses at me. "Do you have an appointment?" she asked.
"No, but this is important!"
"Then you will have to wait. I'm sorry, but there are people in line," she said severely.
I groaned and stalked off to a chair in the waiting room. Fortunately, it was only half an hour until Dr. Sprat was available. After the war, she had gone back to school to get her doctorate, and a year after that started Sprat & Jones with a human classmate of hers. Dr. Jones was in the dark about magic and Everafters, but Dr. Sprat still managed to treat magical sicknesses and pass them off as normal illnesses. Everafters never got sick, but there were plenty of little injuries in the course of their long lives.
A young woman in scrubs showed me into Dr. Sprat's examining room. A few minutes later, I was getting an ultra sound. I didn't want to look at the picture on the screen.
"Isheokay?" I asked super fast.
"Yes. Seems perfectly healthy. What had you so worried?"
"Well, there's this prophecy, see, and-wait a minute."
I squinted at the screen for a couple of seconds, then grabbed for my bag, fished around, and pulled out my cell phone.
I dialed Puck's number and tapped my foot impatiently while I waited for him to pick up.
"Sabrina? What is it?" he asked, sounding worried.
"Puck, honey, I don't think the prophecy is a problem anymore," I said.
"Why? How come?"
"Because it's a girl."