Hey, everybody! Wow, it's been one busy summer, but chapter 14 is finally up. Hope it was worth the wait. Please read, review and enjoy.
It was around four in the morning when Hattie was awoken by a knocking on the closet door. It was totally dark, except for a few streaks of moonlight shining in through the window. It was completely quiet except for the knocking. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Hattie hopped out of bed and slowly made her way over to the closet, step by step, inch by inch. When she reached the closet door, she slowly reached for the door handle and yanked the door open. She was greeted by a hideous, green-skinned, wart-covered, old hag. Upon see Hattie, the hag smiled a sickening smile and reached at her with her clawed, warty hands.
"Come to granny, dearie!"
Hattie screamed…and woke up.
Hattie's heart was racing as she sat up in bed, gasping for air. She looked around. It was still dark and deathly quiet. She looked back at the closet. It was still, but Hattie wasn't taking any chances. She got out of bed, walked over to the closet, took a chair seated next to the closet and propped it under the door handle.
"Nothing else is coming out of there tonight!" she told herself.
"Hey, Hattie."
Hattie screamed and turned around. Olive was standing behind her with a large sack in her hands.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed.
"Well, I…" Before Olive could answer, they heard noises outside the room.
"Quick, back in the bed," Hattie muttered. Both girls hurried back into the bed and ducked under the covers.
The door opened and Aggie entered, carrying a kerosene lamp.
"Is everything alright in here, girls?" She held her lamp up to the girls, both of whom seemed to be fast asleep. "Girls?" No response. With that, Aggie shrugged and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Once she was gone, Hattie and Olive popped out from under the covers.
"What are you doing up?" Hattie said, trying to whisper.
"I was…" Olive stated, very loud.
"SHHHH!" Hattie whispered, "Keep it down."
"I was downstairs," Olive said, quietly, "I remembered the combination to Mrs. McPhiney's safe, seven, seventeen, forty-nine. I actually remembered something, me! Can you believe it?"
"Impressive," Hattie replied. Although she was just trying to humor her sister, she was mildly impressed that Olive had remembered something.
"So, I opened the safe, and I found this inside." Olive opened the sack, revealing a small fortune in gold.
Hattie's jaw dropped. "I knew she was holding out on us. Olive, for once, your kleptomania has paid off." Olive smiled, it wasn't often that Hattie gave her a compliment.
"So what do we do with it?" Olive asked.
"Give it to me," Hattie said, "I'll hide it, then tomorrow, while she's not looking, I'll stash it in our basket, and we'll head home rich again. C'mon, hand it over."
Hattie reached to take the bag from Olive, but to her surprise Olive wouldn't let go. In fact, she tightened her grip.
"Are we sure we can do this?" Hattie asked, "We're robbing a little old woman."
Hattie's jaw dropped from the shock of what she was hearing. "What are you talking about?" she exclaimed, "You steal all the time!"
"Well, then it's different. I get caught, and I put back what I took."
"What about at the mall? When we had Ella stealing things for us? You didn't seem to mind then."
"That's because Ella was the one stealing. I just watched."
Hattie groaned and buried her face in her hands.
"And besides," Olive continued, "Mrs. McPhiney is going to give us a big gift if we're good."
After a second of thinking, she looked back at Olive.
"Think about it this way. Mrs. McPhiney has been a terrible hostess. She's boring, she's rude, and she's made us her servants. Don't you think she owes us?"
Olive thought about it. She took too long thinking, so Hattie answered for her.
"She does. Now give me the sack."
Olive finally loosened her grip, and Hattie grinned as she stashed the sack under the bed.
Just then, they heard more footsteps outside in the hall.
"Back under the covers," whispered Hattie. Both girls dove back under the covers.
The door opened and Aggie entered the room again.
"Are you girls making all that noise?" she asked.
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZ!" both girls snored.
"I know you girls are up to something," she stated. "Keep it down."
Aggie rubbed her sore back and left the room.
Hattie smiled at the thought of her ill-gotten gains, and then went back to pounding the lumps out of her mattress.
As the sun rose and lit up the bedroom, Hattie was awoken by a knock at the door. She looked toward the closet.
"Go away!" she shouted. She tried to go back to sleep, but the knocking continued.
"I said-,"
"I think it's coming from the door," Olive yawned, nodding to the hallway door.
"Oh, it must be Mrs. McPhiney," Hattie replied, "One moment, please."
Hattie grabbed a nearby robe and put it on, and then she went to answer the door.
"Good mor-," She tried to sound sweet and innocent when she answered the door, but when she opened it, there was nobody there. Olive joined her a second later.
Hattie looked up and down the hall, but didn't see anybody. She was about to close the door, when she felt something holding the door open. Looking down, Hattie and Olive found themselves face to face with the dishes from last night, still covered in last night's leftovers. The girls stared at the dishes for several minutes.
"I think they want to be washed," Olive finally said.
"Oh, I don't think so!" Hattie scoffed.
Olive followed as Hattie stormed downstairs. The dishes tagged along. They found Aggie in the kitchen. She was seated at the table, she was still wearing her blue pajamas, and she was jotting down notes from a leather bound book in front of her. A large, delicious-looking (certainly an improvement over last night) breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, porridge, fruit and other good things was set out as well. Hattie and Olive took a second to admire the feast. Then, Hattie wrestled her attention back to Aggie.
"Good morning, girls," Aggie said, calmly, without looking up.
"Oh, don't you 'Good morning' me!" snapped Hattie, "What is this?" Aggie lowered her reading glasses and looking to where Hattie was pointing, at the dirty dishes.
"Well, I'd say it's the dishes and they need to be washed," Aggie replied.
Hattie scoffed and glanced out the front window. She could see the elves hard at work in the field.
"Well, maybe you should get one of your elf servants to do them."
"They have their own work to do," Aggie stated, "and besides, didn't you agree to do the dishes last night?"
"What?"
"Yes, I remember; you were tired and agreed to do the dishes in the morning, and I said, they'd be waiting for you then. That was the agreement, wasn't it? I certainly don't think you're the kind of person who makes an agreement with someone and then goes back on it, are you, Hattie?"
Hattie cringed. She could again argue that nobility and shouldn't have to work, but she'd agreed to this last night. Besides, Mrs. McPhiney didn't seem to have any respect for nobility.
"You said she wouldn't remember?" Olive whispered over her shoulder.
"Shh, I'm thinking," Hattie murmered. She thought for a little bit longer, and then looked back at Aggie.
"Alright, Mrs. McPhiney," she said, "Olive and I will do the dishes. But first, we'll have some breakfast."
"Yeah," Olive agreed.
As the two of them reached for a cup of coffee and a piece of sausage, they were repelled by a blue mist that surrounded the meal side of the table.
"Why don't you get it done now, girls?" Aggie smiled. "That way you don't have to worry about it later."
Hattie started to protest again, but Aggie interrupted her. "You know, my father used to say that if you don't have any oxen in the stable, you're spared the inconvenience of feeding and cleaning up after them. But how can you get any work done if you don't have any oxen?"
Hattie was confused. Olive was too, but that was normal for her. "What are you saying?"
"Wash the dishes! Don't waste time complaining about them!"
"Fine," Hattie grumbled. Excitedly, the dishes jumped up and down, then rushed over and jumped into the basin.
It took Hattie and Olive almost ten minutes to get started. Hattie spent most of her time searching for the soap and Olive needed time to figure out how the water pump worked. Once they finally got started, things seemed to be going well, but Hattie continued to complain.
"This is taking too long, and I think I broke a nail!"
About fifteen minutes in, Hattie turned to Olive.
"Stall her," she whispered, "I'll go get the gold."
"What should I do?"
"Anything! Just make sure I'm not missed."
Hattie headed for the kitchen door.
"Where are you going?" Aggie asked, looking up from her notes.
"Oh, I just haven't had a chance to go to the bathroom."
Aggie sighed. "Very well." Hattie hurried off upstairs.
"It's outside, remember?"
Hattie darted upstairs, then a few minutes later, rushed back down.
"I knew that," she said, acting embarrassed. Then, she hurried outside.
While Hattie was gone, Olive's short attention span led her back over to Aggie, who continued jotting notes on her notepad. Peering over Aggie's shoulder, Olive read Aggie's list: "Bloodroot, agave, aco…" That last one gave her some trouble.
"Aconite?" Aggie said, looking up at her.
"Yeah, that. Are these all for potions?"
Aggie smiled, "Indeed."
"Like love potions and flying potions and-,"
"I'm back!" Hattie announced, as she came back in (as if it needed to be announced). She pointed to Olive, who seemed more interested in Aggie's notes. "Get back over here. I can't do this all myself."
"Gotta go." Olive rushed back over to the basin to help Hattie.
Aggie smiled and turned to Socrates who was sitting on his perch, picking at his feathers.
"You know, I don't think Olive's not really as dumb as she looks."
Socrates looked back at Olive as she rubbed suds all over her face, and then giggled about it.
"Could've fooled me," he replied.
"I think she wants to be smart, but she doesn't know how. Maybe I can't do something to help."
Socrates shook his head. "It would take a miracle."
Aggie smiled. "I'm up to the challenge."
Half an hour later, the girls were tired, and their clothes were soaked from splashing themselves, repeatedly, but the dishes were done.
"Can we eat now?" Hattie whined. Aggie smiled and invited them to sit down. The blue mist dissipated, and the girls rushed over to the table.
As the girls dug into the delicious feast laid out on the table, Hattie realized something.
"It's cold!" she griped, "You made us do the dishes, and now, our breakfast is cold!"
"She's right," added Olive.
"It would've been warm if you hadn't complained so much while you were washing the dishes," said Aggie.
"So were just supposed to eat it cold?" complained Hattie.
Aggie leaned back and tapped a large pewter cauldron perched on top of a large iron box, which was set up behind her. She opened the iron box and added a log to the fire, and then pulled a lever which pumped the bellows and stoked the fire.
"You can put it in the warmer. It should just take a few minutes to warm."
"I've already waited 45 minutes to eat."
"Or you can just eat it cold."
"The warmer it is."
Once the girls had reheated and breakfast and were eating, the crystal ball began chiming. Aggie summoned it over and answered it. It was her daughter, Celeste, and she was clearly distraught about something.
"Mom," she sobbed.
"Celeste," Aggie replied.
Celeste wailed, "I-I want to come home."
"Good heavens. What happened?"
"Well, remember that guy that I was dating, who said he'd help me land a theater role?"
"Mm hmm," Aggie nodded.
"Well, I woke up this morning and he was gone, and so was all his stuff and all my money." Celeste wailed.
"Oh my goodness!" Aggie exclaimed in shock.
"Wow, you're an idiot," chuckled Hattie. Olive didn't think it was as funny, but chuckled along anyway.
"Hattie!" Aggie exclaimed, "Don't be rude!"
Celeste stopped sobbing long enough to turn around and face the girls who were laughing at her.
"Who in Hades are you?"
Hattie glared at Celeste with a sense of dignity. "I am Hattie of Lamia," she announced. She turned toward Olive. "And this is my…eh…special sister, Olive. And you'd do well to show us some respect."
"That's enough, girls!" Aggie stated.
Celeste turned back to her mother. "I know you and everyone else said that Iago was no good for me. I should have listened. But I really thought he could get me into an acting career."
"Well, I guess that makes you both gullible and stupid." Hattie guffawed.
"Hattie!" Aggie shouted. Hattie stopped laughing and straightened up.
Celeste glared at Hattie. "Seriously Mom, who are they?"
"They won't be staying long," Aggie reassured her. "They're leaving after breakfast."
"Okay. Look, I was wondering, would it be alright if I came home?"
"Sweetie, you shouldn't even need to ask. The farm is your home and you're welcome here anytime. Where are you?"
"I'm at the depot in Dunbar. I'll get a ticket for the 9:30 stagecoach and I should pull into the depot in Lamia around 3:00."
"I'll be there to pick you up. I'll wait for you all day if I have to."
Celeste was sobbing again, but it was a happy sob.
"Thank you so much, Mom."
"You're my daughter, I love you and I'll always be there for you."
"Last call!" they could hear the ticket man calling from the other side of the crystal ball. "9:30 coach! Dunbar to Lamia!"
"I've gotta go, Mom."
"I'll see you at 3. You be safe now."
"I will, Mom. Love you, Bye."
Celeste disappeared from the crystal ball and Aggie set it down. She glared at the girls, clearly annoyed.
"Finish your breakfast, girls. Then, get your things together. It's time you were on your way."
"But what about our present?" Hattie asked.
"I'm not sure you deserve a present."
Hattie and Olive gaped in shock. After everything this hag put them through, looking down on them for having opinions, making them work, treating them like commoners, now she wasn't going to give them the present she'd promised them. Hattie clenched her fists in rage.
Sighing, Aggie muttered a quick charm and removed her scalp from her head. As she started to comb it, Hattie and Olive stared in disgust.
"Eww, gross!" Olive exclaimed.
Hattie suddenly had an idea. She stormed over and yanked the scalp away from Aggie.
"Hattie!" Aggie exclaimed.
"Now you listen to me, you old hag!" Hattie shouted. "For the past day, you have been the world's worst hostess! You've treated me and my sister like dirt!"
"How so?"
"How so? How so? You've made us do you're chores!"
"All I asked you to do was help out a little."
"That's what servants are for! My sister and I are nobody's servants! Moving on, you've made us wash up in that pig sty you call a bathroom, and you wanted us to sleep in that dank, cold bedroom!"
"Okay, first, I gave you the spell to access the washroom,"
"That's true," interrupted Olive.
"Shut up you!" shouted Hattie.
"And second, I told you the beds in the guest room were quite comfortable."
"And Hattie, you remember the bed last night was so uncomfort-"
Hattie glared at Olive, and she shut up.
"And just now, you critize for stating the truth. If your daughter is dumb enough to let some stranger make off with all her money, she's an idiot. And in this glorious society, people that dumb are meant to be laughed at. And you come down on us for pointing out something so obvious?"
Aggie was starting to lose her patience. "Is there a point to all this?"
Yes! The point is that you owe us our present! After working and slaving and putting up with you for the last 28 hours, you owe us a present! Give us our present and you'll get your scalp back!"
28 hours? Aggie held back a chuckle. Then she sighed.
"Very well. Go out to the chicken coop. Take all of the eggs that say "take me," but leave the ones that say "don't take me."
Hattie smiled, suddenly much calmer. "Thank you," she said, feigning sweetness. She tossed Aggie her scalp and headed for the door.
As Olive got up to follow her, Aggie stopped her. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Uh, okay?" Olive walked over as Aggie rose and replaced her scalp.
"Huh, neat trick," Olive said, nervously.
"Thank you," Aggie replied. "Tell me Olive, what makes you think you're dumb?"
"Huh?" Olive was confused now.
Aggie continued. "Do you try to think or do you just let other people think for you?"
Olive thought hard for a second, and then replied. "Well, Mother and Hattie tell me not to think too much. It'll just make my brain hurt."
Aggie chuckled. "Well, I think you can be smart" She tried using small words so Olive would understand. "I think the main problems are that you don't know how to be smart, and your mother and sister have kept you from trying."
"Really?" Olive exclaimed. "You think I can be smart? Wow, no one's ever said that to me before. How does one go about being smart?"
Aggie smiled. She went over to the cupboard and returned with a small bottle.
"Take these." She handed the bottle to Olive.
Olive stared at the bottle for a few minutes. She shook it a few times and laughed at the rattling noise it made. Then, she turned back to Aggie.
"What is it?" she asked.
"They're called gingkos," Aggie answered. "They're smart pills. I want you to take one everyday. Can you remember that?"
"Uhh?" Aggie took out a pen and wrote, 'take one everyday' on the side of the bottle.
"You can swallow them or you can chew them. It doesn't matter to me. But take one everyday, and they'll make you smarter."
Olive jumped up and down excitedly. She looked like a happy monkey. "I'm gonna be smart!"
"Olive!" Hattie called from outside, "Get your lazy bum out here. You expect me to do all the work myself?"
"Coming!" Olive replied. As she headed outside to help her sister in the chicken coop, Aggie stopped her.
"Put the pills in your purse. Don't tell Hattie about them."
"Why not?"
Knowing that Hattie pretty much hated her, Aggie assumed that Hattie would think that the pills were poison, and that she was trying to poison Olive. So she lied, "Hattie might get jealous. And you'll definitely want these for yourself."
Olive didn't quite understand, but smiled and nodded in agreement anyway.
"You're right!"
She stuffed the pills into her purse.
"Olive!" Hattie yelled.
"I'm coming!" Olive replied, and ran outside.
