Phoebe had
arrived home, in the middle of a rainstorm.
"Phoebe's
home!" I said with mock excitement to Prue.
Phoebe had
forgotten about the cab she had out front, so I paid for it, from
Prue's purse. It was the one closest to the door and if there was
any more tension in that room the Manor would probably explode. I
paid the cab and stood at the door listening to my sisters argue.
"So
what? Are we gonna have a tense reunion with boring small talk and
pointless chit-chat?" Phoebe ended up asking.
"Well
otherwise we'd have nothing to talk about." Replied Prue coldly,
"I'm still furious at you, remember?"
"I
didn't touch Roger, you know." Phoebe blurted.
Oh no, not
this again, Prue had separated from Roger after she had seen him and
Phoebe in a compromising position. She had blamed Phoebe for the
whole thing, and Phoebe had stormed off to New York to find Dad. Prue
had then found out from the security tapes at the museum that it was
Roger who had come onto Phoebe, and his ex assistant Mandy, and one
of the female accountants and various other women. Prue was
devastated at this, and had returned Roger's engagement ring and
moved in with me in North Beach.
"Whoa,
that's heavy." Prue responded to Phoebe's confession.
"I know
you think otherwise because that's what that Armani-wearing,
Chardonnay-slugging, trust-funder told you ..."
I chose
that moment to walk back in the room, to stop my older and younger
sister from arguing. That's me, the middle sister.
"Hey, I
have an idea, why don't I make us a fabulous reunion dinner!" I
said interrupting.
"Not
hungry." Mumbled Prue, heading off toward her room.
"I ate
on the bus," added Phoebe, as she turned and went up to the room
that had always been hers, which Prue and I were using as a guest
room, my suggestion, because I knew that Phoebe was coming back.
"Okay,
we'll try the group hug later!" I yelled sadly at the two of
them.
I walked off into the kitchen because I knew Phoebe would be hungry, and started to make some iced tea. While I was looking for the lemons, I glanced at the calendar and added my audition to it, looking at today I noticed it was the Autumnal Equinox. I decided to prepare some carrot sticks and other nibblies for Phoebe because I knew she wouldn't have been eating very healthy in New York. Once I was done, I poured two glasses of tea and placed the pitcher along with the nibblies on a try before heading up to Phoebe's room.
When I
arrived in Phoebe's room she was laying on her bed, looking at the
TV but not paying any attention.
"It's
me." I announced at the door,
"Come on
in," she responded, then noticing the snacks, "Thank God, I am
starving!"
I sat down
on the bed as Phoebe grabbed a carrot stick and took a sip of her
drink. Looking at the TV, I spotted Jeremy at the scene of some
crime.
"Figured,"
I started, "Hey, that's my boyfriend Jeremy! What happened?"
"Oh,
some woman got whacked." Phoebe responded casually.
"Whacked?"
I asked a little amused, "Phoebe, you've been in New York too
long."
"Yeah, I
should have stayed there," she added, "Why didn't you tell her
I was coming back?"
"And
risk her changing the locks?" I laughed, then more seriously, "and
besides, you should have been the one to tell her, not me."
"Good
point Chicken Little," she said, grabbing another carrot stick,
"It's just so hard for me to talk to her. She's always been more
like a mother."
"That's
not her fault. She practically had to sacrifice ..." I started
"Her own
childhood to raise us." Phoebe helped me finish, "Yeah, yeah. But
I don't need a mom now, I need a sister."
We chatted
another moment when Prue came in with a blanket.
"This
was always the coldest room in the house." She announced, turning
and leaving as Phoebe thanked her.
"Heeeey,"
I started, "You know, Prue found our old spirit board in the
basement today, maybe we should go play around with it for old times
sake."
"Sure!"
replied Phoebe, and we trooped downstairs to find it.
After some
time of us messing around with the board, and Phoebe's incessant
'What will I have for breakfast in 2010?' type questions, I
decided to go get a top up on my wine.
"Wanna
refill?" I asked Phoebe,
"Nah,
I'm fine," she responded,
"Ok, you
take my turn." I finished.
"I
forgot your question!" she yelled as I walked toward the kitchen.
I popped
my head back in, "I asked if Prue was going to have sex with anyone
other than herself this year."
I didn't
quite hear Phoebe's answer, but I think it was "Ew, please say
'yes'."
The next
thing I knew, she was saying the pointer had moved.
"Piper,
get in here!" she yelled.
"What?"
I asked as I came back in,
"What
have you done now?" Prue asked, entering the room.
"Me? I
didn't do anything?" I responded
"The
pointer moved on its own!" said Phoebe, obviously panicked as Prue
and I stared at her. "It spelled 'A-T'."
"Well
did you push it?" I asked, sceptical.
"No,"
she replied.
"You
used to always push the pointer." Prue retorted, almost coldly
"My
fingers were barely touching it! Look!" Phoebe protested, but it
was no use, Prue and I turned to walk out of the room. "Ah! It did
it again!" The pointer was still on the letter 'T'.
"It's
still on the letter 'T'." Prue announced
"I swear
it moved!" she protested as Prue left the room.
After Prue
left, something really creepy happened. The pointer moved to the
letter 'I'.
"There,"
she said standing up, "You saw that, didn't you?"
"I think
so," I said, still unsure myself. The pointer moved to the letter
'C' while Phoebe wasn't touching it. "Prue! Can you come in
here?"
"Now
what?" asked Prue, walking back in, obviously annoyed.
Phoebe
wrote the letters on an envelope. "I think it's trying to tell us
something," She showed us the envelope. "Attic"
And then
the power went out.
I
immediately started off towards the door. I was going to Jeremy's,
right or wrong.
"I'm
going to Jeremy's!" I announced.
"Don't
you think you're overreacting?" asked Prue asked as I headed
through to the foyer. "We're perfectly safe here."
"Don't
say that!" I responded. "In horror movies whoever says that is
the first to die!"
She
pleaded with me about how he wasn't home, to which I said I would
wait in the cab until he got there. Not the cheapest option, and Prue
pointed that out to me.
"I saw
the pointer move." I protested.
"No, you
saw Phoebe's fingers push the pointer." Prue replied, "There's
nothing in the attic, it's all a big joke."
"We
don't know that. We've lived in this house for months and we've never
been able to get that attic door open." I went and picked up the
phone, "Great! Now the phone doesn't work!"
"Of
course not, the power's out. Now come with me to the basement."
Prue replied rather snappily.
"What?"
"I need
you to hold the flashlight while I check out the main circuit box."
She replied, a little friendlier this time. I spotted Phoebe out of
the corner of my eye.
"Phoebe
will go with you. Won't you Phoebe?"
"I'm
going to the attic." She announced.
"No
you're not, I thought we agreed." Prue started.
"No, you
agreed. I am not waiting for some handyman to check out the attic and
I'm certainly not waiting until tomorrow. I'm going now."
Phoebe
headed off up the stairs and Prue headed down to the basement.
"Prue!
Wait!" I yelled and ran off after Prue.
The door
to the basement was in the kitchen. I was comfortable once I reached
the kitchen, my favourite room in the house. It was an old kitchen,
which we had paid to have renovated after Grams had a heart attack. I
tripped on the dishwasher door.
"Ow! Who
left that open?" And then I realised that I had left it open after
putting the pitcher in there.
Prue was
already in the basement inspecting the circuit box.
"Well
there seems to be no problem here, it must be a street-wide thing."
She announced, closing the circuit box door. "Wonder what Phoebe's
doing in the attic."
"She
probably couldn't get in and could be sitting on the stairs when we
go back out." I replied, still a little scared.
Prue and I
headed back to the stairs, where there was no sign of Phoebe, but we
could hear her reading something upstairs. Prue and I headed up to
the attic."…We
want the Power, Give us the Power." We heard Phoebe finish reading.
"What
are you doing?" asked Prue, headed toward Phoebe like an angry
mother to a two year old that had just jumped in the mud.
Phoebe
explained that she had read some sort of incantation, and that there
were three essentials to magic, time feeling and moon phase. She then
went on to say that if we were ever going to receive our powers,
midnight on a full moon was the time.
"Wait?
Our powers? You included me in this?" I asked
"No, she
included all of us." Prue replied, "Hmm 'Bring your Powers to
we sisters three?' It's a book of witchcraft."
Phoebe and
Prue then argued about how all this freaky stuff started after
Phoebe returned, but then again, it was Prue who found the
Spirit Board.
We all
went downstairs after Phoebe made some gag about split pea soup.
"Everything
looks the same doesn't it?" I asked
"You're
right." Said Phoebe
"The
house still needs work." Prue joked
"And
everything feels the same. So nothing's changed." I added.
The next
morning, I noticed that a photo of my sisters and I, which I
remembered us deliberately standing as far away from each other, now
had us standing close together. I assumed Grams had made friends with
someone who was good with a computer.
