"Alice, why is Mommy broken?"

Alice was raking leaves in the backyard, and Nancy was playing in them, drawing the pile up to make herself a bed of orange and red.

Alice checked, making sure that no one else was around, before sitting down with her back against a trunk facing the house.

"Broken how?" she asked. Her sister abandoned the leaves to come and sit in her lap.

"Well, you and Clark and Ethan and Emma all have the same spot with strings and webs of light coming out of it. Mom has the spot, but the threads are all cut. Dad doesn't have the spot at all," the child said.

"Do you know that those threads and webs do?" Alice asked, and Nancy nodded.

"The repair lady told me. They connect us to the energy in the world so we can make magic happen. She says Daddy never could do magic, but about Mommy she said I had to ask you," Nancy finished.

"Well," Alice said, thinking of a way to make such a young girl understand what had happened. "When you turn thirteen, someone will come over and explain about you being a witch if you didn't already know."

"Can I be a good witch?" Nancy interrupted, clearly worried.

"Yes, of course," Alice said smiling. "Why, do you think I would be going to magic school if I had to be a bad witch?"

"Oh," was all Nancy said. "You'd never be bad."

"Anyway, if you say that you do want to learn to be a witch, you get sent to school when you turn sixteen like Clark and I," Alice continued. "Some people, though, do not want to be a witch or a wizard. If they say they don't want to be one, they get their magic cut."

"And that's what happened to Mommy, she didn't want to do magic? Why?" Nancy asked.

Alice proceeded carefully. She did not want Nancy to think that their mother had hated their grandfather, after all. She had probably just thought him indifferent towards her. "The other thing they do to you if you decide that you don't want to learn magic, but you already know about magic, is erase your memory."

Nancy's eyes widened. "They can do that?"

"Yes. You aren't allowed to know about magic if you can't do it yourself," Alice said. "That's the rule."

"I know, the repair lady told me that I couldn't tell Mommy or Daddy about it," Nancy grumbled. Alice suspected that her sister did not like this rule.

"Well, Mommy's parents were a witch and a wizard, so she knew all about magic when she was growing up," Alice continued. "And they were very, very rich. They were so rich, other wizard families were wanting Mom to marry one of their sons when they grew up so they could be rich like her parents were."

"And Mommy didn't like that," Nancy said.

Alice nodded. "The other thing she didn't like was that her mommy died in an accident just before she turned thirteen."

Nancy's eyes widened. "Mommy would have been so sad! But Granny isn't dead, did she and Gramps adopt her like Uncle Mark and Aunt Kay adopted Sally?"

"Sort of," Alice said. "Mom said that she didn't want to be a witch, so they erased her memories; even her memories of her real parents and everything else. The people in charge put her with Granny and Gramps, and changed all their memories so they would think that they were her real parents."

Nancy frowned. "That's not right! Did Mommy know that that was what they would do?"

"I wasn't there sweetie, and Mom can't remember," Alice said softly.

Nancy just sat in her lap, quiet for a long time before she finally said, "Is Great Uncle Ed Mom's real daddy, the rich wizard one?"

Alice nodded.

"Do the repair people work for him? I remember hearing one saying that they couldn't mess this job up or someone named Lord Carleton wouldn't like it," Nancy asked.

"I think he's actually the boss of their boss," Alice said.

"Oh," Nancy said, thinking some more. "Can I meet him sometime? Have you met him? If he's rich, can he take me to Disneyland? I know that's why Daddy says we can't go, because we aren't rich enough for us all to go right now."

Alice laughed at her sister. "I don't know, I'll have to ask him. And maybe once the twins go off to school, Mom and Dad will be able to take you. It's easier to pay for three than it is for seven."

"But if they can't go till they are sixteen that will be three years!" Nancy wined.

"Sometimes," Alice told her sister, "the longer you wait for something, the better it makes it."

Nancy looked doubtful.

"Anyway, what have you been doing while I'm away at school?" Alice asked, changing the subject.

"Well, Mommy said I could ask you if I could have your old Barbie dolls if you don't want them anymore."

Alice laughed. "You can have them." A married woman with Barbie dolls? It was high time to pass those on. She had only let Emma have a couple of the more beat-up ones, knowing that any she gave would have had their hair cut within the first week.

"Did Emma write that letter like I told her? Since the repair lady started coming over, I have to play with my invisible friends outside, but I'm not having those scary dreams anymore."

Alice nodded, wondering what type of spirits her friends were. Hopefully the 'repair lady' had looked into it.

"And Daddy's dreams were loud last week. I was sleeping, but I could see a bunch of men fighting and there was red stuff all over the place like they were playing with ketchup."

Alice sat upright. This was new. Their father could have been having a dream or a nightmare about his days as a Navy Seal. She just blessed her lucky stars that her sister had thought that it was 'ketchup.'

"You should stay away from Dad's dreams," she told Nancy. "He was a soldier, so there were some scary times that he went through that you shouldn't see. It's over, and it would only frighten you."

Nancy nodded. "But he was so loud. I tried to leave, so I looked for you and Clark instead."

Alice went beet red, hoping her baby sister hadn't seen anything she shouldn't have.

"I found you first," Nancy continued. "You were kissing this guy with black hair. He had some sort of a wizard robe on. Was that my new brother?"

"Yes," Alice got out, hoping that she didn't sound strangled. She had started dreaming about doing a little more than just kissing Hieronymous lately.

"But that was boring, so I left and found Clark," Nancy continued, and Alice sighed in relief. "His dream was more fun. He was throwing things around with magic and making pretty lights out of fire."

"Oh," was all Alice could get out.

Nancy was silent for a moment, then turned around to look at her. "Why is your face all red Alice?"

"Well, it can be embarrassing when someone else looks at your dreams," she said.

"Oh, I should ask first?" Nancy wanted to know. "Like if I want to get into the bathroom to get something but the door is shut?"

"Exactly," Alice sighed, knowing that she would now have to admit to Potsdam that her baby sister had been looking at her dreams. She wondered how many magical families had to deal with this kind of thing.

Just then Clark came out of the backdoor and started walking toward them.

"You owe me," he said with a grin.

Nancy looked away bashfully. "I'm sorry, Alice told me I should have asked first, I didn't know before."

Clark looked at her curiously, and Alice mouthed that she would explain later.

"That's ok short stuff," he said tentatively, and Alice nodded and winked at him.

The almost five-year-old looked relieved for a second, and then stopped and put her hands on her hips. "My name is Nancy," she declared, "and not 'short stuff.'"

"But you are short," Clark teased.

"I'm a people, not 'stuff.'"

"Ok, I could call you something else...how about 'urchin?'" Clark teased.

Nancy got off her lap and ran into the house yelling, "Mommy….what's an urchin?"

Clark chuckled as Alice shook her head. "Come on Alice, I'm not going to be able to tease her for quite a while. As her older brother it's my duty to do so."

"Still…" Alice started.

"Well, what did she do that she thought I was upset about?" Clark asked.

"Well…she was watching your dreams."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "After that, I assume you consider a little teasing vindicated."

"At least she didn't see anything that bad," Alice mumbled.

"Don't tell me that she got into your dreams too," he said.

Alice grimaced. "She did, but only saw a little kissing, which she thought was boring so she left. I think she saw Dad dreaming about a fight he was in while with the Seals, but she thought that it was 'ketchup' instead of blood."

"Yeah, I can see where some of that might have been awkward to explain," he answered.

"Well, what did I owe you for?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, well I was talking about going to England to see Great Uncle Ed. I know we mentioned that he had invited us at lunch today, but we didn't talk much about it then," he began. "Mom thinks that we should meet Uncle Ed since it's been so long since we've seen him. She seemed a little confused about when that was."

Alice just nodded. "She would be. Due to the way the magic works, they are accepting a conclusion without knowing what led up to the conclusion. They think that he is their uncle, but can't quite remember in what branch of the family he is in. They think that they must have met him sometime since he pays for our educations but can't remember when."

"That makes sense," Clark replied. "Mom also wants to see us during Christmas break so we can have a Christmas, even if it's not on the right day."

"That would be all right I think," Alice said. "We just leave a little later."

"But they also think that England is too far for us to travel without supervision," he replied. "I mentioned that one of our teachers just happened to be from England and was planning on returning for the holidays."

"You little imp," Alice said, smiling.

"And I got them to agree that if Mr. Grabiner and Uncle Ed didn't mind, we could all travel together so they wouldn't have to worry. I have the feeling that Mr. Grabiner might even be able to pick us up on the way to the airport."

"Uh huh," she said.

"That way your hubby can meet the family without the awkward 'meeting the family' part. It's probably better if he makes a good first impression if he's going to be a permanent fixture in your life," Clark reasoned.

"And taking time out of his schedule so he can chaperone the two of us through the airports would be making a good first impression," she agreed.

"You realize that I had to arrange this myself," Clark said with a grin, "because I don't trust you to talk that much about him without blushing. Dad would have insisted on a chaperone for the chaperone."

Alice laughed. "Have I ever told you that you're pretty smart?"

Her brother was almost preening. "Not in so many words, but yes. And the only loose end is that the twins and Nancy just have to keep their mouths shut when he gets here and pretend that they don't know anything about him."

Alice sighed. "You give the twins death threats, and I'll freeze Nancy's thumb in her mouth if I have to."