“That not what it feels like,” Mia said. “I stuffed myself full of gumbo, and yet, my dessert stomach is empty.”
Audrey got up, pulling Orion up after her.
They walked out to their car and returned with a three-tiered birthday cake. “I thought that since we have never celebrated one of our birthdays due to scheduling conflicts and Mia not knowing when she was born...”
“Mia was hatched,” Murphy said from the corner.
Mia waved a finger his way. “That’s only a rumor.”
“Back to the cake,” Audrey said, pleased that Murphy and Mia weren’t at each other’s throats. “I thought that we could celebrate all our birthdays at once. Now, Orion, where are those candles?”
“Here,” Orion said, putting a basket full of interesting looking candles down.
“Choose a candle, and put it on the cake. We found these at a fair downtown. The old man that sold them to us guarantees that at least one of us will get our wish.”
“Clever way to get rid of old candles,” Glenda said, choosing hers.
“Murphy, you too,” Audrey instructed.
“But all my birthdays have stopped,” he argued.
“Be a sport,” Orion said. “It’ll make Audrey happy.”
Murphy walked over and drew out a candle. He leaned over and inserted it in the cake.
“Who’s got a match?” Audrey asked.
Mia cleared her throat. “Who needs a match,” she said, clicking her fingers and pointing to the topmost candle. A flame appeared, and once the candle was lit, it jumped to the next candle until all of them had been lit.
“Neat trick, Minnie Mouse,” Ted said.
“It’s a happy birthday to us…” Audrey started to sing.
The group sang a verse and finished by taking a gulp of air and blowing out the candles.
Mia laughed when Mike’s candle relit again and again.
“Mia, stop it,” he warned.
“It’s not me. It must be a trick candle,” she said, holding out her hands.
“Yes, I can see you washed them. Stop lighting the candle…”
Mia laughed so hard. “It’s not me, I swear!”
Audrey reached over and tapped Orion on the shoulder. “Dear, please, the icing is melting.”
“Alright,” Orion said and snapped his fingers. The candle stopped flickering.
Mike blew it out. “Phew! That was a hard wish to get.”
“But I’m still here,” Ted said, patting down his body.
Everyone laughed.
Chapter Three
Wyatt pulled out of Mia’s mind. “I know what happened,” he said and walked over to a wall of shelves, positioned the ladder, and climbed it and selected a book. He motioned for Mia to come over to the table.
“What did you find?”
He turned the page and tapped on it, asking, “Did any of the candles look like this one?” He showed her a candle with symbols etched into it.
“I’m not sure, maybe. Why?”
“One of the partygoers wished for this to happen.”
“Wished me a kid? Why?”
“No, they probably wished that they were twenty years younger. But you must pay for wishes; nothing is ever free. The candle made the person younger by reversing time. Everyone is younger by twenty years,” Wyatt decided. “The others probably don’t even know this has happened. You only know because of your gifts.”
“This is when my gift becomes a curse because, unlike everyone else, I know what I’ve lost.”
“True, but you can also try to fix this.”
“It can be fixed? How?” Mia asked.
“The person who wished this must break the candle in two. Everything will revert to the time of the wish with nothing having been changed. But it must be done before the next moon,” Wyatt said, tapping the book. He walked over to his calendar and called out, “Mia, you have two weeks.”
“And if I don’t succeed?” she asked.
“You’ll have to live out this timeline.”
“That means, in order for me to end up with Brian and Varden, I’ll have to do everything the same. That means…”
“Losing all you have lost. Bearing all the pain again. Stopping yourself from correcting mistakes. Every moment of your life must be the same. It is a curse, Mia.”
“It’s also an impossible feat. I don’t remember everything I did in the last week, let alone the last twenty years, and then there’s the others…”
“I think that’s the caveat of the candle,” Wyatt said. He rang the bell beside him.
Nordin walked in.
“Have this picture copied and the text dealing with the candle curse translated for Mia.”
“Yes, sir,” Nordin said. “It will take me a little time.”
“In the meanwhile, Mia and I will have a few games of chess,” Wyatt told his butler.
“Very well, sir,” Nordin said and left them.
Mia pulled herself away from her thoughts and spoke, “K, just to be clear, I can change things with impunity as long as the candle gets broken before the full moon ends.”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t make any sense. It should affect the future no matter what.”
“It would if this was science, but it’s magic,” Wyatt said.
Mia took out a nub of a pencil and folded up an old card Ralph had sent her from her purse. She wrote down the names of those who took a candle:
Mia Cooper Martin
Theodore Martin
Cid Garrett
Mike Dupree
Glenda Dupree
Burt Hicks
Stephen Murphy
Audrey McCarthy Stavros
Orion Stavros
Mia sighed, tapping the card against the table. “I can already see problems.”
“How can I help?” Wyatt asked.
“You’re going to help me?” Mia asked, surprised. “Why?”
“I was in your head. I know what’s in jeopardy.”
“Your wings,” Mia said.
“Much more than that,” Wyatt said.
Mia got up. “I’m going to start right away. I guess it’s Audrey I should start with. She’s local. I don’t know how I’ll find Orion. Maybe my grandmother would know? But maybe my grandmother is in on this. It smells like something the Council of Women would
