Resurrecting another one! Short chapter, but my current focus was to change the Rowe story.
I had known Kendra for several years and while she exuded the necessary quirkiness of any artist stealing something from a friend and running off with it was quite beyond her. The worst of explanations whirled through my thoughts. Finally I was back upstairs, where my hand found my phone and I dialed her number. Repetitively.
There was her message over and over again. Ringing in my ears followed by her snappy little message. I fell back onto the couch. What was the big deal? What was a decorator going to do with a magic wand? I barely knew what do with one.
I should have followed her. I should have jumped in my Cavy and followed her. That sounded reasonable enough protocol for when someone steals one's magic wand.
It was a prank, though. No need to rush to desperate measures. A little prank and soon she would be right back. But what would a magic wand unleashed into the world do? What would Mr. Maser say?
Oh, wait. I no longer cared what Mr. Maser said. Whoever he was. He was probably evil anyway.
I stood up and screamed. I screamed about everything related to my job. The job I suddenly found myself hating. Too bad I did want to go to that ball. But if it were to help Mary against a wicked fairy…
Monica.
Keys in hand, I ran back down to the parking lot. Monica hardly ever left her salon.
I turned out onto the road, approaching Harrison Boulevard. If it were a prank, Monica would be involved. If it weren't, and Monica really were a fairy… well, then I was probably doing something incredibly stupid.
Finally, there it was. The little beauty school tucked into its charming position against the street. Kendra's PT Cruiser was there. The lights were on. I parked and with a deep breath climbed from the car.
The door was unlocked. Oh, but I probably was walking into a trap. How blonde could I be and what was preventing me to go back home like a normal person? But girls didn't get to become Homecoming Queens or apparently fairy godmothers by being smart. I pushed it open.
The school was empty save for the very two people I expected. Kendra sat stiffly in a chair, smile wiped from her face. Pacing the floor in front of her was Monica, hair perfect, make-up perfect, smile perfect as she tapped my wand against her palm.
"Tansy!" she exclaimed as I entered. "I am quite happy to see you here. I hoped you would show up. Didn't know if you'd try to ignore Kendra's bad behavior and just hope no one noticed a missing magic wand."
"It really is magic, Tansy," Kendra whispered. "I thought you were just joking, I thought Monica was just joking, but it really is magic."
I rolled my eyes at her. My dear best friend was an idiot. "I told you it was magic."
"I asked Kendra to get it for me. Couldn't find it when I went through your apartment." Monica ran the wand under her nose as if to smell it. "Who makes these for your boss?"
"I don't know," I said. "He just… just gives them to us."
"Of course he does. Churns them out by the dozens in hopes of finding the fairy godmother who can break his curse. Quite the enterprising business he made of it, I must admit. Fairy godmothers. I should have thought of it first. Princesses. So much more interesting than the bored housewives sitting in my graduates' chairs. Did I ever tell you, Tansy, just how proud I am of you? Working on princesses! Fairy tale princesses! Of course, I had never much cared for them. Princes, yes."
"Fiardiltia." The name was odd on my tongue. I felt geeky just saying it.
Monica, of Fiardiltia, looked up. "Oh, I love it when people are nice enough to use my real name! Yes?"
"Why do you need my wand?" Lovely question. Had I really come so far to ask something so stupid?
"If it belongs to Rowan," she said. "I want it. I cursed him. I want to keep track of him. And I certainly do no want him trying to get out of his curse. He rejected me! Look at me. This form is quite beautiful. My latest daytime model of Rowan, a sloppy middle-aged gentleman, why wouldn't he like this? But were I in my real form…"
A blast of light lit the room, and there stood a tall woman, blindly beautiful, though that could have just been the light. A second later and it was once more Monica.
Kendra started to cry.
"You cursed him, then. That part was true."
"I prefer the classics. Come on, he's human all the way through. He could be a dog or something during the day. I don't know why it bothers him so much. But getting wands like these…" She pursed her lips. "Someone is helping him. Who is helping him? Do you know, Tansy?"
"I don't know."
She laughed and handed the wand back to me. "Then find out."
I probably should not have trusted her. But my wand was back and Kendra was hyperventilating at my side and repeating over and over how sorry she was and how she had no idea what was going on.
I just wanted to sleep.