"The moment
you're ready to make the move, do let me know." Angela rested her hand on
Jane's wrist for a few seconds. "I know a good two, three dozen people who
would be ecstatic to have a place like yours come into town. In fact, if you
started now, you could be open in time to take advantage of the Christmas
rush."
"Oh... I...
Well..." Jane fought not to yank her hand out from the soothing warmth of
Angela's hand. “It’s not that easy.”
Demetrius and Beauregard
would never let her abandon Fendersburg. Even if the Rivals were ignoring the
town lately.
"Anything is
possible."
Later, as Angela was
ringing up the shirts Jane had picked out, and a bag of two pieces from every
candy jar, the Wishing Ball caught her attention. Angela laughed and nodded at
it.
"Go ahead. Make
a wish." A chiming laugh escaped her. Something in her gaze dared Jane,
while quashing the automatic, unspoken response: Wishes are for children.
Jane waited a moment
for the colors to swirl gently in the reflective, black opal surface. They
didn't. When she put her hand flat on the top curve, she didn't feel that
zip-tingle she had always gotten as a child when she made her wish. The
disappointment was thick enough to block any words she might have tried to
speak.
Please... I want to
get out of Fendersburg. Away from those lazy, greedy, totally oblivious people.
I want to find a new place to live, and a spa even better than the one I have
now, where people use common sense and don't expect a miracle to come out of a
jar. I want... I want there to be magic again. Something beyond me, bigger than
me, stronger than me. Something mysterious and awesome.
A single spark leaped
off the Wishing Ball as she removed her hand and Jane gasped, staring at her
index finger where the spark rested for a moment, a golden-green, swirling ball
that seemed to have a core of black, just before it vanished.
She thought Angela
frowned at her, but a moment later she wore her usual serene, slightly
superior, slightly amused expression. What her friend Katie always called a
"Vulcan smirk."
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