Miss Enchanter - Ophelia's Story (5 page)

“Did your mother
comfort you?”

“
No, not
really. She told me not to run in circles and not to mention this
to anyone at school. Then that brat Donald came in and nothing was
said again. I found a ring once, a bright red beautiful ring and I
had it on my hand and my mother came and demanded that I give it
back to her and insisted it was nothing to play with. I didn’t mean
to play with it, it was pretty and I wanted to wear it. Come to
think of it, we brought it with us, where is it?” Ophelia asked,
turning to Thelma.

Thelma didn’t answer
her, but said “And your mother did not tell you anything about the
ring then?”

“
She said
something about the ring being our only way back to Enchanted. She
took it from me and put it into a velvet jewelry box she kept on
her dresser. After that, I would threaten to
take it and run away and find my way back here to
Enchanted.”

“Did you actually
ever try to use it to come here?” Luna asked.

“Well, no, I took it,
but I didn’t really know anything about it, so I would rub it and
talk to it.”

“What do you mean,
talk to it?” Thelma asked.

“
Silly stuff,
like oh sacred ring, take me home to Enchanted. Stuff like that, as
if a Genie might pop out of it and grant me wishes or something.
Nothing ever happened and when I got back home the ring
disappeared. I know now that my mother hid it in that chest that
found its way to where Thelma was. Luna, Thelma and I found my
mother’s journal and it had a poem in there about the ring and
Thelma did use it to make the rocks open and that is how we were
able to come back here.”

“
You and your
mother were living far from here, Ophelia. You would have probably
never found the correct place to use the ring yourself.” Thelma
said.

“
We were far
away because that is where my mother moved us
. Far from here because of some man named John. I
remember him and he was a nice enough man, but his son was a brat
and I always blamed them for us having to stay where we were and
not come back here.”

“
You keep
saying
come back here,
Ophelia, but do you remember living here before? Although this is
indeed your home, you need to learn about Enchanted and find your
inner peace before you can fully understand everything. This is the
purpose of Enchanted. Does any of this make sense to you yet?”
Thelma asked.

“
I know I found
The Spa and that saves me from having to find a job where I
actually have to work somewhere
. You talk about peace, the massage and the hot oils they used
made me feel fantastic! Is that what you mean?” Ophelia said and
then watched as her cousins looked at each other, sorrow in their
expressions.

“What?”

Thelma spoke.
“Ophelia, you were told that your mother had died. We went through
great lengths to bring the urn of ashes here to E
nchanted. Correct me if I am wrong, but I
haven’t seen any indication from you that you are grieving your
mother or miss her at all, and frankly, you seem to be very selfish
and have a superior inflated opinion of yourself.”

“
Why don’t you
tell me how you really feel?” Ophelia said, looking very annoyed,
but somewhat sad at the same time.

“Gertie has always
been a great beauty, but she is also very kind and strong. It
really does not seem like you know your mother at all, or even that
you care to find out what kind of a woman you had for a mother.”
Luna said, eating a piece of a chocolate cookie from the plate of
chocolates Thelma had placed on the table.

“
I guess you
are right about me not knowing my mom. But you can’t blame me for
that.
” Ophelia said,
challenging her cousins with a stare. “I know in my heart that I
was here with my mother and that she took me with her when she
wanted to be with that mortal. I know it, so why don’t we cut to
the chase and you two tell me what you expect of me instead of just
watching me and waiting for me to screw up? Also, why did you both
recoil in horror because I want to rename The Spa? The truth I
mean.”

“I just don’t know,
Ophelia, this isn’t my story to tell.” Thelma said. Ophelia looked
at her cousin Luna “Then you tell me.”

“Perhaps this
occasion calls for a glass of wine.” Luna said. “I am not sure if
this is the right thing to do or not, but Ophelia does deserve to
have her questions answered. She is right that we can’t expect her
to understand if we don’t explain. Are you ready for this,
girls?”

“
Depends, how
many bottles of wine do we have?” Ophelia said.

“
Years ago our
mother Ophelia, whom you are named after, and her sister, who is
your mother, lived in the old country. Our home was in a beautiful
forest area with water falls and vast areas of greenery and
flowers. It was owned by The Crown, of course. The medieval area
had ponies, cattle, pigs, various kinds of wildlife as well as the
deer, all roaming free.”

Luna paused to
take a drink of her wine and a glance at Ophelia.

“
Your mother
helped the Crown in the king’s castle that had been there since
William The Bastard was on the throne. The people who were not of
royal blood were called commoners. The king let us live in the
woods and for the most part did not bother us. There were many long
stretches of time where the king would not be in the castle. He
would be traveling and back then, travel could take months. There
were laws that protected the animals there, not out of any great
humanitarian traits of the royals, but because there had to be
enough of each species of animals for the monarch to hunt at
will.”

“What do you mean my
mother helped the Crown? Like she fought in their army?” Ophelia
asked, sitting up straighter.

“No, like in helping
with the laundry.” Thelma answered.

“She was a maid?”
Ophelia said a bit too loudly.

“
She helped
out. At that time, everyone was in servitude to the king. It was
just the way of life. Everyone worked hard. However, even then
people mistrusted what they did not understand or could not easily
explain. We had to keep certain things to ourselves and even to
this day it is the same even here in Enchanted.” Luna
said.

“
Yeah, about
that – it would help if you two told me who knows and who does not
know about us.
” Ophelia
said.

“
I did not mean
to imply that it is the same here as it was back then and there.
No, there were very real dangers at that time to be aware of. A
time came when a Great Evil came to the land and everyone was
afraid this force would take over and slaughter all of the animals
and place all the commoners into prisons as slaves to the Crown.
Things were so different back then, dear.”

“
Why did our
family leave there?” Ophelia asked.

“
I’m getting
there.
When the Great Evil
came to the land, suspicions of witchcraft and sorcerers became
rampant. Witches were thought of to be old and ugly, with long
noses and warts, not unlike the Halloween costumes you see today.
It was also thought that if you had a cat, that made you more
suspicious of being evil. The Crown royalty kept dogs and horses as
pets and even monkeys, but never cats. In fact, cats were likely to
be destroyed when found.”

“That is horrible.”
Ophelia said, getting up to refill all three of their glasses with
the cherry wine.

“
Yes, so you
see it was a good thing that our family kept our powers to
ourselves, we could have been wiped out otherwise. Such a beautiful
place to have such evil try to take over.”

“Wasn’t my mother
afraid to work in the palace?” Ophelia asked.

Thelma chuckled
“Your mother wasn’t afraid of anything. There was another young
lady who lived in the Palace, a second cousin to the man who
was
King at the time. She
herself had powers, but she told no one. She married and had a son
and when she noticed that her son appeared to be one of us, she was
instantly terrified that someone would take him away to harm
him.”

“
I
f her second cousin was
King at the time, wouldn’t he have protected them?”

“
Perhaps, but
no one would take that cause up without fear of being
pu
t to death, not even the
King. You have to understand how that fear and terror played out to
fully understand. It was somewhat like what the Salem witch hunts
were about here long ago, but much worse. If someone was suspected
of being a witch they would tie her thumbs to her feet and throw
her in the lake. If she floated, she was declared a witch and put
to death, most witches died in fire, they burned them.”

“I am certainly glad
everything worked out well.” Ophelia said.

“It took years and a
lot of blood, sweat and tears, but we managed. One day the Great
Evil noticed your mother in the palace and decided that he just had
to have her.”

“
Even though
she was one of the hunted?
Wait – the Great Evil was a man?”

“
The Great Evil
was a man, but a very powerful one, he made sure everyone was
afraid of him, he was ruthless and a murderer. As to your mother
being one of the hunted, no one knew that. Remember, people with
powers were thought to be only the very old and ugly and your
mother was neither. She was a great beauty and young. One day the
Great Evil cornered your mother and had her trapped to where she
could not escape.” Luna said, looking sad and taking a big gulp of
her wine.

“So she killed him,
right? Tore out his heart with a bolt of lightning or something,
right?” Ophelia demanded.

“
To do so would
have placed our entire family in great danger. The Evil would have
had us all destroyed, wiped from the face of the earth. Although
your mother suffered greatly that day, it would have paled in
comparison to what The Evil would have done to our
family.”

Ophelia could
not control the tears that were streaming down her face. “Can we
stop for now? I can’t take anymore tonight. I never knew any of
this. M
y mother never told me
a thing about this. No wonder she wanted me never to know of my
powers.”

“
You don’t know
that for sure, dear. Your mother told you at a very young age to be
careful in
the mortal school
and at home because of John and Donald. By the time you were of
mortal teenage years, your defiance could have led you to somewhere
not safe. Then you were gone, jumped into Mrs. Johnson’s car and
gone. Your mother not even knowing where you were for several
years.” Thelma said.

“
What do you
mean not for several years? She never knew
. I never came back, I was stuck in feline form
living with that old lady Johnson. I would still be there if not
for Thelma finding me and bringing me back home.”

Luna stood up. “It is
late, we shall stop here and continue when we all have time to rest
and recoup. It has been a long day.”

Thelma and
Ophelia stood on the porch and waved good night to Luna, who left
in a wagon pulled by one of the miniature ponies. The snow had
started again and the peacefulness of the night did not match what
Ophelia felt in her heart. She wanted to hear about her mother,
needed to in fact. But she had not realized that the story of her
mother’s life would be so hard to hear. She felt a great sadness
that her mother was not there to wrap her in her arms one more
time.

Neither
cousin spoke to the other the rest of
the night beyond saying goodnight, each lost in their own
thoughts.

Ophelia was up
early the next morning. She had the coffee and French toast
made by the time Thelma walked into
the kitchen.

“Well, this is a
treat, you are up early.” Thelma said, reaching for the mug of
coffee Ophelia was handing her. “I trust you slept well.”

“
Not so much. I
would like to go back into town today. I didn’t get to see much of
it yesterday since I spent most of the time in The Spa. I was
thinking, if I did take over the day to day running of The Spa,
what would happen to London? Wouldn’t I be putting her out of a
job?”

“
Her job would
change, of course. You could keep her on as your assistant so you
could have more free time. I supposed it is entirely up to you.
There are other jobs that London could work at if you would rather
take over completely.
She
would not have to be out of work, there are plenty of jobs to do in
Enchanted.”

“Thanks, I am not
sure yet, but it is something to consider. In any case, I would
like to go back there today and have another look around and at all
the pictures on the walls.” Ophelia said. “Some of them were taken
in the old country, right?”

“
Yes, they
were. They are all in black and white of course,
some are drawings. But you can still see the
true beauty of the area in them.”

“About that – that
was so many years ago. Did they really have photography back then
and there?” Ophelia asked her cousin.

“No, not really. If
you look closely at them, you will notice that they are drawn or
painted.”

“By whom?”

“Most were done by
Hugo’s mother, but Luna and others had a hand in some of them.
There might even be some painted or drawn by your mother.” Thelma
said.