The Enchanted -- Book I

By Ricki Walters

Thirteen-year-old Miriam just wants to be a normal kid, but that's the last thing she gets when fairies break through the back gate searching for her little sister, Lillian. In a backyard skirmish with Fairy Queen Badb, Miriam unknowingly wields a powerful, protective blue flame. To safeguard Lillian, Miriam escapes with her sister into the fair

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ricki Walters Author
• Release date: Jun 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798986378411

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The Enchanted -- Book I

The Enchanted -- Book I

The Enchanted -- Book I

Ricki Walters

Ricki Walters Author

Maps

Copyright © 2022 by Ricki Walters

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Edition Printing, 2021

Second Edition, 2022

ISBN (paperback) 979-8-9863784-0-4

ISBN (eBook) 979-8-9863784-1-1

https://www.rickiwalters--author.com/

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my immediate and extended family who have always abided my chasing after fairy tales, and to my writers' group who always have good advice--and regular smiles and support. 

 I especially want to thank Benet Stoen and Jeff Ollman for their careful reading and good advice over several iterations of this book.

Chapter 1

Miriam, Michael, and Lillian Winterfell had been going on family outings that their mother orchestrated for them for years. Mrs. Winterfell took great pride in providing her children with twice monthly family outings, often expounding on how the outings strengthened family bonds, allowed for better communication between family members, improved the children’s academic performance, and encouraged creativity. Today was another one of those trips.  ​

Miriam enjoyed the activities and spending time with her family. She just wished her mom wasn’t always hovering over her. She also wished her mom would stop interfering with her at school. Today, if Miriam had her choice, she’d be home, curled up with a book in the giant green bean bag chair that filled a corner of her bedroom; or maybe, hanging out with Alicia, her best friend who lived down the street. ​After window shopping around the first floor of the Mall of America, the family arrived at their destination—the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium. Lillian bounced around at the ticket desk, tugging at their mother’s blouse, hurrying her. Miriam and Michael waited behind them as Dad paid for the tickets. ​

The guy at the counter stared at them, which was the usual reaction when they were all together. The fact that all three siblings had perfectly straight blonde hair, and looked so much alike, seemed to surprise people for some reason. Their parents were blondes too, so Miriam could never figure out why their similarity surprised people. Mostly, that reaction just annoyed her. ​

Yeah, we look alike. We’re family, Miriam muttered, just loud enough so the ticket clerk could hear her. ​

The clerk flashed a scowl at Miriam, and Michael nudged her with his elbow and whispered, You don’t need to be rude to everyone all the time. 

Miriam gave him a dirty look and turned to walk into the aquarium behind their parents and Lillian. Their first path, as always, was through the Rainforest Exhibit. Their dad stopped at each and every exhibit--no matter how many times they'd been there--and said, Look kids! ​

Miriam rolled her eyes and stepped up next to her dad to view each display. When he reached out and touched the cockroach exhibit glass, Miriam shivered and wrinkled her nose, Gross, Dad. ​

Michael and Dad broke out laughing, but Mom said caustically, Miriam.  ​

After the Rainforest path, Lillian dragged Mom and Dad to the Rock Pool, immediately reached into the water and touched a Sea Star. Lillian leaned as far over the pool as she could and talked quietly to one of the Starfish. How are you today, Little One? You seem pretty happy. Do you like your home here?  ​

Be careful, Mom said, I don’t want you to fall in. 

​Lillian laughed. That’d be fun!

​Miriam, Michael, and Dad joined them at the pool. Lillian played in the water for a while before they moved on. ​

Miriam’s favorite place was the underwater tunnel. She always felt at peace here; as if she was walking at the bottom of the ocean among all the fish and other sea creatures. Lillian took Miriam’s hand as they walked through the exhibit, and Michael and their parents followed them through the tunnel. Sharks and rays swooped around and above them—as if they were following Lillian. The girls sat on a viewing ledge for a time, watching the fish. Their parents and Michael stood near them, talking quietly. Miriam wished she could always feel like this; calm and at peace with herself. She smiled at Lillian and hugged her close. ​

The last exhibit of the day was the jellyfish tanks. There, water-filled tanks resembling pillars stretched from floor to ceiling. Lillian was always fascinated by them. She ran to each tank, pointing at the jellyfish and yelling back to their parents, Look at them floating. They look like angels.

​Miriam stood next to Lillian at the tanks and watched the jellyfish pulse. Lillian stretched her arms out and around the circular tank, hugging it. Jellyfish swarmed to the edge of the tank, their tentacles reaching toward the glass—and Lillian. Except for the glass tank, they would have been touching Lillian’s face. ​

Miriam gasped and pulled Lillian away from the tank.

Lillian looked up at Miriam and said, They’re trying to hug me. 

​I don’t think… Miriam started. It looks more like they’re trying to sting you. ​

Michael came over to the tank. Geez, Miri, let her be. Let her enjoy the jellyfish her own way. 

​ Mom stepped closer to the tank, put her hand on Miriam’s shoulder, and said to the kids, Jellyfish are not aggressive. Did you know they existed in our oceans even before the dinosaurs? They’re not actually fish. They’re invertebrates. They move by opening and closing the jelly-like part of their body called the bell. ​

Miriam and Michael rolled their eyes at each other and burst out laughing. Here was the inevitable lesson. ​Mom shook her head. Lillian stepped closer to the tank. ​

Dad was standing at another exhibit across the room, and waved Mom over. She patted Miriam’s and Lillian’s shoulders as she left and nodded at Michael. ​

Miriam and Michael were still chuckling about Mom’s lesson when Lillian looked up at them and scolded, Stop laughing, you two. I can’t hear what they’re trying to tell me. ​

Miriam’s cheeks flushed. She looked around the room to see if anyone near them had heard Lillian. Everyone seemed to be absorbed by the other jellyfish tanks. Lillian was always doing something like this. She had no filter.

​ Lillian leaned toward the jellyfish. What are you saying? I can’t quite hear you. There are too many people talking. Then, suddenly, she stood straight up, and said to Miriam. They told me that you, and me, and Michael need to be careful. But… that’s not quite what they said. I couldn’t understand everything they were trying to tell me. I don’t know what they meant… or what you need to be careful about. ​

Miriam peeked around again, and this time, a couple people were staring and giving them odd looks. Miriam put her arm around Lillian, and said, Remember what we talked about the other day? You have to be careful who’s around when you’re talking to animals or your imaginary friends. Some people won’t understand. They’ll think there’s something wrong with you. ​

Yeah, I remember, but I can talk to them, and they talk to me. ​

I know, I know. But still…  ​

Michael stepped up, put his arms around both girls, smiled and nodded at the folks who were watching Lillian suspiciously, and said to the girls, I think it’s time to go now. He walked them over to where their mom and dad were standing at the other exhibit. ​

Lillian turned back toward the Jellyfish, and said, They really were talking to me.

​ Miriam looked around one more time. Thankfully, no one was taking notice of them since they had moved away from the jellyfish tank. ​

Miriam hated herself for feeling embarrassed by Lillian and her beliefs, and hated that she often felt ashamed of her little sister. She wished that she could accept her little sister’s differences, but mostly she wished that for just one day they could be a normal family; that Lillian didn’t talk to animals or imaginary friends; that Mom had a job like her friends’ moms did and wasn’t always there, fussing over Miriam and planning out her entire life. The fact that Mom had agreed with the school principal that Miriam could be promoted into the high school because she had scored so high on her last equivalency tests upset her to the point she didn't know what to say to her mom.

Miriam scowled and shook her head as she remembered that meeting. Mom hadn’t listened to her at all when she told them that she didn’t want to be advanced, that she didn’t think she could do it, that she wasn’t ready.

Chapter 2

Miriam, Lillian, Mom yelled from the kitchen. Hurry up now. You’ll be late for Pumpkin Night. Michael’s already waiting for you in the car.

Miriam slammed her bedroom door on the way out. She was so tired of dragging Lillian around to activities that their mom had coordinated for them. They had gone to Pumpkin Night in the Park at the Springbrook Nature Center for every year that Miriam could remember, and this year, like every year before, their mother thought it would be a good idea to celebrate Halloween by carving Jack-o-Lanterns at Pumpkin Night. Lillian thought it was a great idea, but Miriam wasn’t so sure. Carving pumpkins at the Nature Center with a bunch of first graders seemed beneath her somehow. She was getting too old for this kind of foolishness. She was, as her mother loved to remind her, going to be thirteen years old soon. Miriam thought that phrase was her mom’s sideways system of telling her she should just accept the fact that she needed to do some work around the house or watch Lillian again.

Miriam stepped out the back door onto the brick patio, holding the door open as she yelled back into the house for Lillian, Come on, we have to go. She waited for her sister, and then the two girls got into the car, where Michael was waiting. He and Miriam never hung out much anymore, and never talked about anything more serious than what TV show or movies they liked best—or which online game he was currently obsessed with—but he was always there, and he always knew how to navigate conflicts with their parents better than she did. Tonight, he drove them to Springbrook and dropped them at the Nature Center on his way to a movie with friends. Their mother would pick them up when pumpkin carving was over.

Pumpkin Night at Springbrook was exactly how Miriam had imagined it. There was a guided walk along candlelit paths; actors in zombie, ghost, and witch costumes jumping out from behind trees; and then, there was the pumpkin carving with a dozen six-year-olds. Miriam was the oldest kid at the event, except for two dweeby siblings who were about her age, a boy and a girl. She didn’t want to talk to, let alone be seen with them, but they kept talking to her. Your little sister is so cute! And she looks just like you with her long blonde hair and blue eyes. How old is she? asked the girl.

She’s six. Miriam looked over at Lillian and cut an eye into her pumpkin, hoping that if she didn’t make eye contact with dweebs, they’d stop talking to her. 

It didn’t work.

Everyone in our family looks alike, too, said the boy, Mom says it’s genetics.

Yeah, I suppose it is.

Do you go to Coon Rapids Middle School? he asked, I think I saw you there once. I heard you scored super high on some of those tests we had to take.

Yeah. These kinds of conversations made Miriam uncomfortable. They reminded her that people saw her as something different, something special was the term her mom used. They also reminded her that she had been separated from her regular class and her friends, and that her mom just wouldn’t listen.

She turned back to Lillian