Story Part 3
"What? Aunt Zelda's in the hospital?" Sabrina cried. "How? She's going to be alright, isn't she?"
"I don't know, Sabrina. The doctor isn't very hopeful. She's in a coma right now." Hilda said. She felt so helpless. Zelda was the smart one who always took care of everything and now for all intents and purposes, her sister was gone, lost in a coma, leaving Hilda in charge. She could feel the pressure of her sudden responsibility weighing down on her but she forced herself to be strong. Zelda needed her help now.
"A coma? Isn't there something that we can do for her? Some sort of spell that would cure her?" Sabrina said as she started to sob. "What do witches do when things like this happen?"
"Sabrina, as far as I know, something like this has never happened before. If a witch gets hurt, they usually recover fairly quickly or very rarely die. I've never heard of one that ended up in a coma before."
"What? Then what can we do for her? We have to help her, Aunt Hilda!"
"I'm going to try talking to Drell. Maybe he knows of something that I don't."
"Drell?" Salem said. "You're going to Drell for help? He'll probably just offer to turn her into a vegetable or something."
"He won't do that!" Hilda said as she glared at the cat. "Besides, according to her doctor, she's already one anyway. That reminds me of what I have to do when we go back to the hospital. Fire that doctor and find one that doesn't want to kill poor Zelly."
"The doctor wants to kill her? I thought they had to take some sort of oath not to kill people in medical school!"
"Apparently this doctor was out sick the day they took that oath or something. He wants me to pull the plug on poor Zelda, as if I could ever do that."
"Pull the plug? Aunt Hilda...."
"Sabrina, it will be okay. Zelly's strong. We just have to find a spell to fix things."
"Aunt Hilda, how bad is she really?"
"I don't know. According to the doctor she hurt her head pretty bad. I knew that it was a bad idea for her to go out with Willard Kraft! This is all his fault!"
"What happened?"
"They got hit by some idiot and Zelly's seatbelt gave because Willard was too cheap to take care of his car, I'm sure, not to mention the fact that he should never have been permitted to get a driver's liscense!! That idiot walked away with scratches and my sister.... If I ever see him again, I'm going to kill him!"
"I want to be next in line." Sabrina whispered. "Aunt Hilda, can we go and see Aunt Zelda?"
"We'll go as soon as I get back from talking to Drell." Hilda said as she stood up. "Sabrina, I need you to do something for me. I need you to get in touch with Vesta and your dad and let them know what happened."
"What about Grandma?"
"Don't call her now. Zelly's too sick to have to suffer through a visit from mother right now. Just tell Vesta and your dad to get here as soon as possible."
*********
"Drell, I need to talk to you!" Hilda called as she came into Drell's house. The Witches' Council hadn't been in sesson when she arrived forcing her to waste time hunting Drell down. Every moment that she searched for him, Hilda grew more frightened for her sister. She was terrified that Zelda was suffering horribly and she couldn't stand that thought.
"Hilda?" Drell said as he came in. As soon as he saw the blonde witch, a suspicious expression appeared on his face. "What do you want? We didn't have a date that I forgot, did we?"
"You've only forgotten our dates a million times." Hilda grumbled before getting to the reason that she was there. "Drell, I need your help."
"You want a favor? Hilda, you know that I don't do favors!" Drell said.
"Drell, this is serious! Zelda was in an accident and she's hurt really bad! I need your help to cure her!"
"What? Hilda, I don't know...."
"At least come with me to see her! Once you see how serious this is, there's no way that you can tell me no!" Hilda cried as she pointed them to the hospital. She didn't know what she would do if Drell refused to help her.
As soon as they appeared in the room, Hilda immediately hurried to her sister's side. She carefully took her sister's hand and tears started to flow. It was so painful to see Zelda like this and Hilda knew that her sister would hate being in this condition. "Drell, you have to help her. I can't loose my sister!" she sobbed.
"Hilda, look." Drell said as he pointed and a model of a brain appeared in front of them. Large areas of the model were colored black. "See all of the black areas? Those are areas that are damaged. It can't be fixed, Hilda."
"No! There has to be something! I can't loose her!" Hilda sobbed.
"If it will help, I'll send flowers to the funeral." Drell said.
"That wasn't funny!" Hilda waved her pointing finger menacingly in Drell's direction. She didn't understand why she had ever went out with Drell in the first place. He was such a jerk, making jokes when Zelda was suffering so. "Now help me fix this! There has to be something that can be done! I refuse to let my sister die!"
"The only suggestion that I have is to try to find the queen of the flower fairies. She's supposed to have healing powers. They might be strong enough to repair the damage."
"The queen of the flower fairies? Well, where do I find her? Is she in the witches' directory?"
"No. She disappeared over fifty years ago. No one has any idea where to look for her. Frankly, I think planning a funeral would be simpler. Let me know where to send the flowers." Drell said as he pointed himself home.
"I don't know what I ever saw in that man!" Hilda muttered as she gently kissed her sister's forehead. "Zelly, don't you worry. I'm going to take care of you. You're going to be okay. I have to go home now to get Sabrina but I'll be right back. I love you, Zelly. Just hang on."
********
The first thing that Hilda heard when she came into the house was Sabrina sobbing. She hurried into the kitchen and found Sabrina sitting at the table crying. Vesta was trying to comfort her while yelling into the phone at the same time. To Hilda's dismay her mother was also at the table with a shocked expression on her face. Her mother was the last person that Hilda wanted to deal with right now. Plus, when Zelda woke up, she was going to be very unhappy to find their mother there.
"I don't care that your planet's a war zone! Get him on this phone right now!" Vesta cried.
"What's going on?" Hilda said as she sat down and wrapped her arms around Sabrina.
"Ted's somewhere in the Orion Nebula trying to negotiate a treaty. Apparently he left messages that he wasn't to be disturbed." Vesta grumbled. "What did Drell say? Can he fix things? I suppose I should find out about that before I start turning people into pigs."
"He can't do anything. He told me that the only person that possibly could help is the queen of the flower fairies." Hilda said.
"What? Sabrina, be a dear and hold this line for me. If your father happens to answer by some miracle, turn on the the waterworks. Hilda, can I speak to you for a minute?" Vesta said as she grabbed her little sister's arm and pulled her into the living room.
"What's going on? Do you know something about this fairy?" Hilda asked. Maybe things were going to be simple after all.
"Hilda, no one's even sure that there is a flower queen anymore. Didn't Drell tell you that the queen disappeared over fifty years ago?"
"Yes, but it sounds like he left out something important." Hilda muttered. "Why don't you tell me what he forgot to mention and then I'll make a little sidetrip to turn Drell into something."
"Not a cat! I'm not sharing my litter box with that blowhard!" Salem said as he jumped onto the couch.
"I think a pig would suit Drell more." Hilda said. "Vesta, what do you know?"
"Well, I met the nicest air fairy a few years ago at a party and she told me the story of the flower queen's disappearance. It seems that the queen and her husband were overthrown. Her husband was killed and the queen vanished with her son."
"Okay. Drell didn't go into details but that doesn't sound too different from what he told me."
"Hilda, what he left out is what happened to the queen later. There's a flower in the royal garden that the queen plants upon taking the throne. When the queen dies, the flower dies as well. Ten years after the flower queen vanished, her flower died."
"What?! So, there is no flower queen? When I get my hands on Drell.....!!!"
"That isn't necessarily true. The powers of healing that the flower queens are supposed to have are only inherited by daughters so the queen's son wouldn't have had them. The queen was pregnant when she disappeared though and if that baby was a girl...."
"Then she could help Zelda! We have to find her!" Hilda cried.
"Hilda, don't get too excited. It's been over fifty years and this girl may not even exist. If she does, no one has ever seen her. It's going to be next to impossible to find her."
"I don't care! She has to be out there somewhere and we have to find her! She's Zelda's only hope!" Hilda said as they started back to the kitchen. "By the way, why's Mother here?"
"She was visiting me when Sabrina called. Sabrina, did you talk to your father?" Vesta asked as they entered the kitchen and she saw that Sabrina was off the phone.
"Yes. He'll be here as soon as he can but apparently things are pretty bad where he is. He isn't sure how long it will be. Aunt Hilda, can we go to the hospital to see Aunt Zelda now?"
"Sure. Come on." Hilda said as she headed for the door followed by the other three witches.
