Agatha pressed yet another cup of tea into Naomi’s hands. She pushed it back. “No, no more. My eyeballs are swimming in this stuff,” she croaked. Her throat was still sore, but she didn’t like tea. She’d already drunk three cups, and she did feel better, but no more. Her gag reflex wanted to kick in, and her throat definitely couldn’t handle that.
“Don’t argue. You’re going to drink this cup too. It’s only your fourth,” the witch whispered. She’d completely lost her voice due to the chanting. She’d been sipping the tea too, but Naomi had been keeping tabs, and she was only on her second cup. Tavik was dabbing at the unicorn slash on his chest with a wet cloth. Yula moved around the cottage straightening the home. Many things had crashed to the floor when she had dropped onto the Golgoffs. Amazingly, the floor hadn’t buckled or anything. Naomi wondered if the Golgoffs were as flat as pancakes. She figured the witch would have to move the house soon or else it would begin to smell.
“Why do you think the unicorn attacked Tavik?” Mr. Squibbles asked. He’d been swift to tell everyone that he’d helped Yula. He’d directed her on how to get the cottage airborne and how to set it down soundly on the beasts. Agatha had given him a huge chunk of cheese for his reward, which he had gobbled up and now his stomach bulged out so much he couldn’t see his feet.
Agatha looked inquiringly at him for the answer. Naomi turned too with the mug up to her mouth. She was only pretending to drink it. “The unicorns recognize more than just chastity as a type of purity. Pure hearts are also highly regarded.”
Agatha cocked an eyebrow. “Pure hearts?”
He didn’t respond. Naomi lowered the cup, and put her hand over his. He uncurled his hand and let her fingers slip in.
“Tell me it’s safer where you’re going,” he said softly. She lowered her eyes and nodded her head. “And you’ll be happy there,” he added. She looked around the cottage. Happy? But she was happy here. “No, don’t think about what you’ll miss here. Think only of what you have there. Can you be happy?” She thought about her family and nodded again. Tavik squeezed her fingers. “All I want is for you to be happy,” he murmured. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.
“Will you be happy?” she croaked. He slipped his hand from under hers and stroked the column of her throat. Dark purple bruises had already begun to blossom. They would be in the shape of his hand.
Agatha came up behind him and put her arm around him. “I’ll make sure he’s happy, even if I have to beat him with a stick to do it.”
“And I’ll stop her so don’t worry,” Yula declared from across the room. Agatha turned to the other mother, and her eyes narrowed in challenge. She raised her hand and swatted Tavik upside the head. Tavik ducked at the smack and glared at his mother over his shoulder.
Yula shook her finger at the witch. “Don’t challenge me. I will win.” Agatha bristled back.
Naomi laughed though it sounded more like a wheeze. “Careful Agatha, she might drop a house on you, and even on my world, we know that’s a sure way to get rid of a witch.”
“Really?” Tavik asked. She turned to him, and her face broke into a huge grin. She threw her good arm around his neck, and when her head hit his shoulder, her laughter turned to tears. Tavik held her tight as Agatha and Yula gathered round and patted her on the back.
“It’s time,” Agatha whispered. He nodded his head and picked her up. She tried to stop crying, but she couldn’t. She was going home, but it didn’t feel like that.
Tavik carried her out to where the unicorn waited. As they approached, his horn brightened. He set her down gently, and the unicorn gently dipped his head toward her. He touched her neck with the tip of his horn. A warm glow spread over her throat, and the dull ache disappeared. She raised her good hand to her neck in wonderment. “Are the bruises gone?” she asked. Her voice was back to normal. Tavik nodded and set her on her feet. The unicorn tipped his horn again and lightly touched her broken arm. She shrugged off the sling in amazement. She flexed her arm and looked up at Tavik in shock.
“Can you hear him?” he asked.
She turned back to the unicorn. He stood motionless staring at them. She tilted her head, and her jaw dropped. It wasn’t like a voice in her head, but more a stray thought or an urge. They didn’t think in words, but she was able to understand. “He wants to know if I have any other injuries!”
Tavik smiled. “Do you?”
She looked down at herself and really didn’t think she had any other aches or pains that would warrant the unicorn’s help. She turned to Tavik and raised her hand to his chest, lightly touching the slash the horn had made. The unicorn shook his head. He couldn’t heal wounds inflicted by the horn. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not bad,” Tavik said. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight. He hugged her back just as strongly. “It’s time,” he reminded her softly.
She turned her head and said the words that she hadn’t been able to say aloud when Errilol was strangling her, “I love you.”
He gasped, but he turned her around to face the unicorn again. “Hold out your hand, Naomi, close your eyes, and think of home.”
She closed her eyes. Her hand shook as she held it out. Tavik steadied it with his. The unicorn dipped his horn again, balanced for a second on her fingertip, then flicked across her middle finger drawing a single drop of blood. She saw a flash of light through her eyelids. She jerked her hand back, but the deed was done. She now stood in her kitchen. A broken unicorn horn was on the floor at her feet. A dose of vertigo washed over her as she stared at it. Her hands shot out and grabbed the edge of the sink. It was full of soapy water. She dipped her fingers in and found the water was still warm. Had any time passed? She knelt down and picked up the broken horn. It was just a piece of bone now. There was no more magic in it. There was no going back.
She felt like she was going to be sick. She rushed to the bathroom and put her face over the toilet, but though her stomach rolled, it did not heave. She picked herself up and brushed back the shower curtain. Unable to think of anything else, she decided a nice long shower might help her. It would at least give her something mindless to do while her mind stayed in free-fall. She began to undress, and as she moved around in front of the medicine cabinet, something in the mirror caught her eye. There on her left shoulder was a branding mark. It was shaped like a demon’s head. It was all she had to remember Tavik. She ran her fingers over it gently and felt an ache in her chest.
She called her parents once she regained her composure. They were happy to hear from her, but they had seen her just that morning. Her mother told her how well the yard sale had gone and who she’d seen. Naomi held the phone numbly as she listened to her relaxed and happy voice. When a couple of tears fell onto her lap, she quickly said her goodbyes and hung up. She was home, and nothing had happened. No time had passed, and no one had worried about her. She didn’t know if she would go insane or if she already had.
That night she dreamed that the unicorn stood before her, but instead of reaching out to capture it, she shook her head and backed away. She didn’t want it. She held up her hands to ward it off. She shouted at it to leave. The unicorn didn’t hear her though. She was not pure. It leveled its horn at her. She turned to run away, but he ran her through. She looked down at the horn sticking out of her breast and touched the point with her index finger. The horn pricked it and a single drop of blood was absorbed. The world began to swirl, and she screamed.
She jerked up in bed and looked wildly around. She was in her bedroom but that didn’t seem right. She knew why. She’d become accustomed to stone walls, tall beds, and Yula’s cheerful good morning. Home did not feel like home. She dragged herself out of bed. She was grateful that it was Sunday, and she wouldn’t have to worry about work. She didn’t think she could handle the bank. She wondered if she should call in sick on Monday. She needed a mental health day or maybe a week.
Deciding not to worry too much about Monday, she lounged around the house. She did a little cleaning, but neither the television nor a book could hold her attention. She finally settled beside the front window and stared out. It was a sunny day, and people were going about enjoying the lazy afternoon. She watched people walking dogs, children playing, cars rolling by at sedate paces. The sound of lawn equipment droned quietly in through the closed window. She was startled when it began to grow dark. She’d been sitting there in a daze the entire afternoon. She hadn’t eaten a thing for lunch, and her stomach grumbled.
The phone ringing made her jump. She picked it up, and her mother invited her to their house for dinner. She thought about declining, but she’d missed them so much. She wouldn’t let her depression keep her from them. It would be good for her to see them.
When she arrived, she perked up some as she slipped into the home and called out to her family. Her father answered her from the living room, and her mother came out of the kitchen to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She still looked sad enough for her mother to ask if she were all right and to check her forehead. Naomi quickly told her she was fine and slipped away with the excuse of wanting to see Bobby. Her younger brother was still home for the weekend. He was staying for dinner and to finish his laundry. She crept up to his old room where he was doing homework.
She knocked and stuck her head around the door. “Hey.”
Bobby looked up from his textbook and smiled. “Hey, come on in.”
“How’s life?” She flopped down onto his bed.
“Going okay. Would be better if I could miraculously memorize all these Chemistry formulas for the quiz on Tuesday.”
She nodded and rolled onto her back to look at the ceiling.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I had a weird dream. I dreamt I was married to this really scary guy who turned out not to be so scary, but I couldn’t stay with him because I had to get back home. I didn’t want to go home, but it was like that was the only thing I could do. If I didn’t go home, I wouldn’t ever see you guys again.”
“What’d you do, have a burrito before going to sleep?”
She sighed and hugged herself. “I didn’t want to wake up from the dream.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to see us ever again?”
“Because the guy was on another planet. If I stayed with him, I’d be too far away to even call and talk to you all. I was scared it would upset everyone if I left and never came back.”
Bobby’s eyebrows scrunched together as he thought about what she’d said. “There’s like a lot of issues in there. Deep Jungian stuff. I mean I usually just dream about meeting Natalie Portman.”
She rolled to her side to look at him. “You going to analyze me?”
He grinned and shook his head. “It seems pretty obvious to me. You’re afraid to grow up.”
She propped herself up to better glare at him. “Afraid to grow up!”
“Well yeah! You meet this great guy who you could marry—“
“We were already married,” she interjected.
His eyebrows rose. “Even clearer. You have this husband you love, but you leave him to go back to your mommy and daddy when you could stay with him and start your own family.”
“But I would never see you guys again!”
“Oh come on Naomi, that’s nearly impossible in this day and age.”
She bristled. “We were on another planet.”
“Fine, say you met like the King of Mars who was perfect for you and wanted to marry you, are you saying you wouldn’t move back with him to his home world to be with him?”
She looked at her brother incredulously. “No!”
“Why?” he asked smugly.
“Kids, dinner’s ready!” Their mother called.
She rolled off the bed. “Because Mars sucks.”
Dinner wasn’t formal at the Tailor household. Elbows rested on the table. People happily ate with their hands. Food picked off and passed to others plates. Naomi dug into her plate with gusto. Yula’s cooking had been good, but she had no pasta to work with so had never fixed spaghetti. Naomi caught up with her father. They hadn’t seen each other on Saturday like the rest of the family.
Bobby spoke over them to announce, “Guess what, if Naomi met the King of Mars and fell in love with him, she wouldn’t move there to be with him because she wouldn’t want to abandon us.”
Both parents stopped to absorb this piece of weird news. Their father nudged her with his arm. “That’s because she’s daddy’s little girl.” Naomi smiled thinly at him.
“If you were able to come back and visit, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to marry the King of Mars,” Naomi’s mother said.
Naomi rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t be able to come back.”
“But if this king were able to come here, and you were able to go there, I would think you would be able to repeat it.” Naomi wished this hadn’t become the topic of discussion.
“There would be no guarantee that we could. I would wind up stranded on Mars, and you guys would never hear from me again.”
“Yeah, but you said you loved this guy so why not be his queen?” Bobby asked wanting to prove his theory.
She glared at him. He wasn’t taking the idea seriously. He thought this was just some hypothetical metaphorical argument when she’d already faced this decision and chosen.
“Why don’t we drop this? No need to have bloodshed at the table,” their mother said. Naomi looked at her plate and didn’t say anything beyond one or two word answers for the rest of the meal.
She was in the kitchen helping her mother with the dishes when the matter was brought up again. Her mother was at the sink washing while she stood by with a towel. “You know the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to know that you’re safe and happy, but I might give up the knowing part if the rest could happen.”
She stopped drying the plate in her hands to look at her mother. “But if you didn’t know what good is the rest of it?”
Her mother turned to look at her. There was a frown on her face. “Naomi, I don’t know all the time if you’re all right. I had to start dealing with that the first day you went off to school. I had to convince myself that you were okay, and nothing bad would happen to you, and that hope was rewarded every time you hopped off the school bus and began jabbering about how your day at school had been. Then you went off to college and found your own place. I only see you now on visits. It was hard to deal with the fact that you weren’t living here anymore. I had to let you go, but I know you’re okay even if I don’t have hourly updates. I just have hope.”
“But what if the possibility of even visits were taken away?”
Her mother handed her another dish. “I would learn to deal with that too, and I would if you were safe and happy.”
Naomi looked down at the glass in her hands and began slowly wiping it dry. She wouldn’t have been safe that was one of the reasons why Tavik had wanted to send her back, but she thought she could’ve been happy.
When she got home, she put Mom’s leftovers in the fridge. She was struggling with the nasty realization that her family would’ve wanted her to stay with Tavik. Sure, they might not have been overjoyed with her moving to another planet, but they would’ve seen her off and wished her well. It was a difficult realization. Her family would let her go if it made her happy, and she was starting to realize that she could let them go. But all this was moot now. She’d made her choice, and she had to deal with it.
She went to her living room to submerge herself in television to watch something mindless but stopped short when she saw a mouse sitting in the middle of the room.
“Hello, Naomi.”
She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The mouse was still there.
He stood on his hind legs and peered up at her. “Now you’re supposed to say hello back. It’s just general good manners. You do remember me, don’t you? You better not come after me with a broom. That’d be just rude.”
Next she pinched herself.
“Are you about to faint? Maybe you want to sit down.”
It was him. It was really him. She sat down on the couch. She did feel a little dizzy. “Mr. Squibbles, what are you doing here?”
“Thank the dark gods for small favors, you had me worried there for a moment when you seemed shocked to see me.”
“I am shocked.”
“I would think you’d have gotten over that by now.” He lifted his nose and sniffed the air. “Got any wine and cheese?”
“Wine and cheese?”
“Do you really remember me? Yes, wine and cheese.”
She dumbly went to the kitchen. She poured a saucer of Merlot and chopped some cheddar. She went back to the living room and set them down before him. She sank back down onto the sofa and stared as he took a moment to savor his refreshments.
“How is everyone? How did you get here?” she finally asked. She was still having trouble believing the familiar was there.
Mr. Squibbles wiped his mouth with his paws before answering. “Everyone is not well. I’m here to ask you to come back, and I got here the same way you did. I hitched a ride from a unicorn horn.”
“How can we go back?” That word had become Naomi’s favorite. How, how, how?
He merely shrugged his shoulders and told her, “With the horn you have.”
Her eyes went to the horn that sat in the glass case on her mantle. “We can’t use it. It’s broken.”
“No, we can’t use a broken horn, but we may be able to use a mended one.”
Her eyes grew round as she turned to stare at the mouse. “There’s a way to fix it?”
The mouse nodded, “I got the spell straight from the horse’s mouth, or rather the unicorn’s.”
She could go back? She hadn’t considered the possibility, and that was strictly true, but she had daydreamed about going back. She’d tried to stop herself and would deny it if asked. It had seemed just too impossible, but here was a talking mouse telling her it was.
“What do I have to do?”
He tilted his head up at her, and his front teeth showed. She assumed it was his equivalent of a smile. “It would be good to write this down. The list of ingredients is long.”
None of the items Mr. Squibbles rattled off would be impossible to obtain, but it wasn’t like she could just hop over to the grocery store and pick them up.
The other things Mr. Squibbles had said began to nag at her. “What did you mean everyone is not well? What’s happened?”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “Tavik is in peril. He broke allegiance with Errilol.”
“But that’s good, right?” Naomi asked.
“Yes, but we’ve lived at war for so long that no one knows quite how to handle it. Bands of ex-soldiers roam the land plundering towns, and Tavik won’t take up his sword to stop them.”
The news made her stomach twist with worry. She couldn’t believe Tavik would just give up like that. She knew her departure had upset him, but he had seemed resolved to it. He was so strong and determined. Surely, she wouldn’t have weakened him so much. Mr. Squibbles quickly offered what little good news he had. “Agatha has come out of her woods to help Tavik’s remaining men keep order. She even visits the castle now.”
Naomi gave Mr. Squibbles a thin smile at this added news. “I’m sure Mrs. Boon loves that.”
“You look tired. Why don’t you go to sleep, and we’ll start work tomorrow.”
“Shouldn’t we do something now? Time is of the essence and all that right?” she said, but talk of sleep made her want to yawn.
“How much time had gone by when the unicorn delivered you back?”
She shrugged. “No time really. I don’t think but a few minutes may have passed.”
“That’s right, and that’s how it will be when we go back. It won’t be hardly any time at all has passed.”
“How much time had gone by before you came here?”
“Four months. How long have you been back?”
“Less than two days.”
The mouse nodded. “The unicorns are very clever. It’s amazing that they’ve been nearly hunted to extinction.”
She nodded sluggishly. She heaved herself up and stumbled into her bedroom. She had barely any energy to think before her head hit the pillow but to wonder why the unicorns would help them. It hadn’t sounded like Tavik even knew that Naomi had been sent for so who had spoken to the unicorns and got their help or…and Naomi’s mind slipped away into sleep. She dreamed that night of unicorns. They spoke to her, and she understood what they said, but when she awoke the next morning, she couldn’t remember what they’d told her or what she had said in return. She scratched her head and tried to make herself remember, but the dream was like water. It slipped away faster the harder she tried to pin it down. She heard the television from the living room. Still struggling to remember, she shuffled into the room to find Mr. Squibbles had found the remote and was channel surfing.
“Good morning.”
“Naomi, your world is very strange. This box is amazing. What’s it called?”
“Television, and it will rot your brain.” She shuffled into the kitchen to scrounge up some breakfast. Something was nagging her in the back of her mind. She was forgetting something. She looked at the kitchen clock and jumped. It was nine fifteen. She was supposed to have been at work at eight. She looked around the kitchen in panic. She grabbed the phone and called the bank. She spoke to one of her coworkers and apologized saying she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t come in. Luckily, she didn’t abuse her sick day privileges so her coworker didn’t harass her too much for not calling in sooner. She thanked her for wishing her well and hung up. She stared at the phone after replacing it in its cradle. She needn’t worry about her job she realized. If she wanted to do the right thing, she should just call and say she quit. She doubted she was going back to work ever again. The thought actually perked her up. She hadn’t loved the bank. It’d been an all right job but nothing special.
As she poked around in her cabinets, she began to make a list of what she would miss, not the material things like she had done while on her first trip, but important stuff like the people who she would never see again. The thought of saying goodbye to her family and friends made her wonder if she were doing the right thing. Tavik may need her, but this was her home. The other half of her brain reminded her that she had friends on the other planet and a possible new family with Tavik. She decided to not think about it for now. She looked at the list of ingredients that she would have to get for the spell.
A metal nail
A bucket of fresh milk
A strip of non-dyed cloth
Five acorns
Nine drops of her blood
A fist-sized rock from a stream bed
Three long feathers
Seven fresh roses with thorns
A handful of rich earth
She knew she had nails in her toolbox and a roll of medical gauze in her first aid box so she didn’t need to worry about those. She picked up her purse and keys, told Mr. Squibbles to be good, and went out in search for the other items. She went to the local park first and got the acorns and the stream bed rock. Next she went to the craft store to pick up the feathers. She read the package carefully to make sure they were real and not synthetic. The organic supermarket had unpasteurized milk. The price took her breath away, but she got it anyway. The florist couldn’t supply her with roses with thorns. They only had specially grown thorn-less roses. She knew where she could get regular ones, but she’d hoped to avoid involving those she’d have to say goodbye to.
She parked outside her parent’s home. Her mother came out to greet her. “Naomi! What a nice surprise! Are you off from work today?”
She nodded and looked toward the rose bush against the front of the house. “The roses are doing really well this year.”
Her mother turned to look at them too. “I’m using a new type of fertilizer.”
She couldn’t bring herself to ask for the roses. She looked at the house, and her eyes settled on the window to her old room. It had been converted into her mother’s sewing room, but it was where she’d grown up, or not as Bobby would like her to believe.
“Mom, can we go inside and talk?”
Her mother looked at her, and her eyes crinkled a little when she nodded and led the way inside. They settled in the kitchen. Her mother poured them each a cup of coffee. Naomi held the mug in her hands and blew across the rim to cool it as she tried to think of how to say what she wanted, but her mother beat her to it. “You’ve met someone.”
She froze and stared at her. “You can tell?”
She smiled and nodded her head. “I know that distracted look. Only a man could make a woman think so hard. When can we meet him?”
She grimaced and sipped her coffee. Here goes nothing she told herself. “You can’t. He lives really far away, and I want to go be with him, but with it so far away, I don’t know if I’ll be able to visit you guys ever again. I wouldn’t be able to call or send letters.”
“Where are you going, Timbuktu? Of course, you can call us. Call us collect.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t be able to call. At least, I don’t think so,” unless Agatha had some spell, Naomi finished silently to herself.
“You wouldn’t be in trouble would you? This man isn’t into anything illegal is he?”
She was sure she’d land in trouble once she returned, but she didn’t want to tell her mother that, but then again she didn’t want to lie. “Things can get difficult where he lives, but I’m pretty sure I can handle it. He isn’t into anything illegal. He’s sort of in the government.” More like he is the law, she mentally corrected.
“Well, how did you two meet? What’s his name?”
Her eyebrows rose at the way her mother just breezed right along with the subject. “His name’s Tavik. We met sort of on a blind date. His mother set us up.” She was going to burn in hell for all these half truth, but if she told her the truth, her mother would be feeling her head and calling the doctor.
“Tavik? Well, that’s an unusual name. When did you two meet?”
She shrugged. The unicorn horn made judging time very difficult. “A couple of weeks or so ago.”
“A couple of weeks? And you want to move away and be with him? Are you sure?”
She nodded.
Her mother reached across and patted her hand. “You know you’ll always have a home here.” She smiled but couldn’t be too reassured by the idea. She highly doubted she would be able to run home when the going got tough.
“Mom, can I pick some of your roses and take them home?”
Her mother looked a little surprised by the request but nodded her head. “Of course, take as many as you want.”
She got a pair of clippers from a kitchen drawer and went outside to cut seven roses. As she was carefully wrapping a paper towel around the stems, her mother came out.
“Why don’t you come by for dinner again tonight? I know your father and brother will have questions. Your father will probably have a very tough time accepting this.”
Continue to Chapter 16.
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