The Magic Touch (2 page)

Ambrielle walked through the entire apartment
like that, moving from room to room, pausing only long enough to
murmur a few magic words and give a wave of her wand to set the
rooms to tidying themselves.

Danny followed after her, mouth hanging open
in a very unattractive way, but Ambrielle told herself she
shouldn’t be too hard on him. A lot of people had never seen magic
before and it took some getting used to. Besides it must feel to
him as if this was all happening very fast.

By the time they had made their circuit of
the small apartment and were back in the living room, he had at
least managed to stop gaping like a fish. “I uh, think maybe I’m
ready to hear that explanation now about what you are and why
you’re here.”

She had to give him credit for a reasonably
steady voice. His legs must have been weaker than he was letting
on, however, because he dropped heavily to the couch.

She took pity on him. “Poor baby, you’re
having a hard time with this, aren’t you?” She sank into the
armchair opposite him. “Maybe I should have introduced myself and
my magic in a less shocking way.”

He just shook his head. “You’re not even as
old as I am,” he said disbelievingly. “How can you be my
godmother?”

She smiled sympathetically. “Now you’re
talking silly. I’m hundreds of years older than you. We godmothers
just age slowly, that’s all.”

“So you can live forever?”

“Of course not, nobody lives forever. But I
do have an extended life span, as a side effect from so many years
spent working with magic.”

“And you use your magic for what?”

“To look out for you, naturally. You might
say you’re the whole purpose of my existence. But don’t go and get
a big head over it. Disappoint me too much and I can always abandon
you to handle your own troubles.”

“My troubles?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean.
Anyone can see you need help managing your life. I’ve let you do it
your way for nearly thirty years and look how far it’s gotten you.
You’re unhappily single and you have a terrible job.”

“Actually, I have a very good job.”

“A very good
paying
job that you
hate,” she amended. “That’s hardly indicative of a bright future.
Then there’s Charlotte.”

For the first time since learning her
identity, he showed signs of annoyance again. “Don’t worry about
Charlotte. I’ll get her back and I don’t need your help to do
it.”

She didn’t allow herself to be ruffled. “That
just shows how little you know your own abilities. Charming the
ladies has never been one of your talents. It didn’t win you Hottie
Haley Hart, did it?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“On the contrary. Anything that affects you
is completely my business. I’ve told you, I exist for no other
purpose but to guide your life.”

Apparently he didn’t like the sound of that,
because he became suddenly abrupt. “This is crazy. This is not
happening to me.”

He rushed to his feet but as soon as he got
there he appeared uncertain as to what to do with himself. He began
pacing around the coffee table. “I know you’re real,” he said, as
if working things out in his mind. “I’ve seen your magic and I’m
surrounded by the results, so there’s no use denying it.”

“I’m glad we agree on that.”

“But there’s something else I know, too, and
that is that there’s only so much a man can take in a single day.
I’ve lost my girlfriend, as you’ve already pointed out, and as you
no doubt also know, my job is just hanging by a thread. Any day now
I expect to be the next victim of the downsizing. They’ve already
taken out half the department. And now, on top of everything else,
there’s… well, you. I just don’t think I can handle all this right
now. I’m sorry.”

She frowned. “What are you getting at? This
sounds like your break-up speech from two girlfriends ago.”

He glared, probably unhappy to discover yet
another personal event in his life she’d been an invisible witness
to. “I’m saying I’m going to have to let you go. Or however it is
that you fire a fairy godmother. I release you from your ties to me
and I set you free. Whatever. Just don’t be hovering around in the
sky watching me anymore. It’s enough to give a guy the creeps.”

She straightened in her chair to fix him with
an evil look. “Is this the thanks I get for going out of my way
help you? I have other things to do with my time, you know. Do you
think I don’t have other charges to look after? That’s right,
believe it or not, baby-sitting you isn’t my idea of a great way to
spend the next twenty-four hours, either.”

“Then why do it?” he shot back.

She hesitated. It was a sticky point he’d
brought up, one she’d hoped not to have to share. She fiddled with
the bangle bracelets on one slender wrist and suddenly found an
excuse to look anywhere but at him. “You could say this is a
special assignment for me, a chance to, well…” There was no way
around it. She might as well admit the truth. “A chance to redeem
myself, so to speak.”

There was a moment of silence, during which
Danny gave a polite cough. “So you’re telling me out of all the
fairy godmothers in the world, I get the one who’s on
probation?”

“Listen, honey, I can tell you there’re a lot
worse fairy godmothers out there than me.”

He wasn’t to be deterred. “So what did you
do? To get into trouble, I mean?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Nothing so bad. I
might have been distracted once or twice and let some of my
less-bright charges get into a bit of hot water while I was busy
elsewhere. There was a little incident of one in particular who
suffered a brief lapse of judgment and ran away with the
father-of-the-groom on her wedding day. Then there was another
minor situation where I let a charge get drunk, shave her head, and
take an axe to her boyfriend’s car. The good news is the first girl
is now happily married to her would-be father-in-law and the second
only has a little jail time left. All in all, no big deal.”

“And how do I enter in to all of this?” he
asked.

She shrugged. “A couple of bigwigs on the
godmother council came up with the crazy notion I wasn’t cut out
for godmothering. It was nonsense, but between them they had the
power to cut me out of the business forever, unless I complied with
a skill test to prove I still have what it takes. The hardest part
was coming up with some loser so far gone it would be an all but
impossible task to drag him back from the brink.”

“Someone like me, you mean.”

“Don’t take it the wrong way. You were one of
my charges, anyway, and it was clear you needed intervention of a
supernatural sort. So I’ve been changed into low-profile form to
come down here and walk you through the steps to lifelong success.
If I can accomplish that, no one will ever doubt my talents
again.”

He looked unhappy. “In other words, you get
some kind of fairy points for helping me?”

“Now you’re getting it, sweetheart. So what
do you say, are we going to whip you into shape or not?”

“Not.” He frowned. “Sorry to cut into your
plans but I’ve got my own life to live and I think I’m capable of
managing it without fairy assistance.”

As he finished speaking, a small pendulum
clock on the end table chimed the hour. Danny glanced at it. “And
now, if you don’t mind, tomorrow is a work day and I’ve only got a
couple hours left to get in some sleep.”

She stood. “You’re right, it’s late. We’ll
both have clearer heads and be ready for tackling all of this in
the morning.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I
prefer to live my life for myself. But,” he said, sticking out a
hand, “it’s been, uh, interesting meeting you. I’m sure you’re a
lovely fairy and I wish you a lot of success in the godmothering
field.”

She was only half listening as she gathered
her wand and bag. “Uh-huh. I won’t be bothering you any more
tonight, I’ll just find a place to crash and we’ll talk this out
over breakfast. Sweet dreams.”

He followed her across the room. “Um, where
are you going?” he asked.

She shook out her hair. “Well, the bedroom’s
this way, isn’t it? I like my space, so you’ll have to sleep on the
couch in the living room. Sweet dreams.” She didn’t give him a
chance to protest as she disappeared into the bedroom and shut the
door in his face.

Dropping her purse in the corner, she
surveyed the new quarters she’d be living in. The bed was roomy,
the furnishings adequate. But she could do better than that.
Digging out her glass wand, she mouthed a couple of special spells
she knew and transformed the plain surroundings into something a
little more to her taste.

Danny didn’t know what it was that woke him a
few hours later. One minute he was deep in the middle of some
bizarre dream, a weird journey back to his high-school days where
Coach Simpson was yelling at him on the basketball court and
invisible fairies were giggling at him from the sidelines. The next
minute he was airborne, leaping out to make a slam dunk, the likes
of which he’d never made in real life. The net was coming closer,
he felt light as air, he was sure he was going to make the basket
this time…

And then he came crashing back to earth. The
high school gym disappeared and Coach Simpson’s voice in the
background faded to nothing. For a brief instant Danny didn’t know
up from down. And then his head bashed into something solid and
wooden. With a yell, he rolled around until he got his head above
the level of his feet again. Dazed and disoriented, he took in his
situation and found himself sprawled on the living room floor, his
head throbbing from its impact against the edge of the coffee
table.

What was he doing here? It took a moment for
the memory of the previous night to sink in. Then he remembered a
strange dream about an “I’m a fairy” woman sleeping in his bedroom
and him being pushed into a restless night on the narrow living
room couch.

Right. The godmother chick. Was she just
another dream? Beneath the broad light of day, any other idea
seemed impossible.

He scrambled to his feet, rubbing at the
tender spot on his head, and loped off down the hallway to peer
into his bedroom. He expected to find his clothes scattered around
the floor and the bed messy but unslept in. What met his eyes
instead was nothing short of a nightmare. The godmother woman of
his dream was nowhere in sight, but whatever had hit this room had
been very real and had left its mark.

The comfy blue-and-tan plaid comforter he
used to bury himself in at night had been replaced by a
green-and-brown bedding set with a swirling design and a decidedly
hippy-from-the-sixties vibe. Floor-to-ceiling curtains of carved
wooden beads separated the bed from the rest of the room, and the
theme was continued in swathes of green fabric looped over the
dresser.

The furnishings hadn’t been tampered with,
but they had been rearranged to create an open look he didn’t
approve of. His clothing and personal belongings seemed to have
evaporated. Worst of all was the sight of Brutus, the traitor,
sleeping happily, curled up on a tiny, canopied dog bed.

As Danny stumbled away from the doorway, he
asked himself if he could be dreaming even now. Then his ears
caught a soft rushing noise from down the hall. Running water.
Following the sound, he arrived at the bathroom door just as the
water was being shut off. The door stood open a crack.

Peeking cautiously around the corner, he was
met with the sight of a strange woman exiting his shower, wrapped
in a blue towel. Her black hair was sleeked away from her face and
ran in long, wet strands down her back, a few short, loose tendrils
clinging interestingly to her bared neck and shoulders.

She was busy detangling her wet locks with
her fingers but must have caught a fleeting glimpse of his
reflection in the mirror. Or possibly it was just some eerie fairy
sense that informed her of his presence.

“About time somebody woke up,” she said.

He jumped, guiltily, but she didn’t seem
concerned about being stumbled upon in a strange man’s bathroom
with no more clothing than a wide strip of terrycloth.

She said, “I thought you were going to sleep
the day away. Why don’t you go and get us some coffee and breakfast
started? I could use it.”

Danny found himself at a loss for words. He
stepped silently aside as she passed him in the doorway and moved
off down the hall. In the kitchen, when he didn’t make a move
toward the cabinets she sighed and helped herself, dropping a pair
of Pop-Tarts into the toaster and starting up the coffee maker.

He tried not to stare as she moved around
preparing breakfast. Conversation seemed the safest way to ease the
awkward lull, although he seemed to be the only one who was
uncomfortable.

“So, you’re real after all,” he said.

“Did you think I wasn’t?” She brought two
coffee mugs down from the cabinet over the sink, moving
unhesitatingly, as if already knowing where everything was kept.
But then, she would know, wouldn’t she?

His head ached and he was no longer sure if
it was the blow to the head or this whole strange situation that
was causing the pain.

“I thought maybe last night was just a
dream,” he admitted. “I figured my imagination had conjured you
up.”

“Well, that’s very flattering of you, Danny.
But, between the two of us, I don’t think your imagination has ever
been quite this creative. Even as a kid you didn’t invent imaginary
friends like most children do.”

“Would you stop doing that?” he asked.
“Referring to my childhood as if you were sitting around even then,
watching me grow up.”

“But I was.”

“I know, I know. But I’m not exactly
comfortable hearing you talk about little boy Danny like some
doting old aunt. Especially not when you’re walking around like…”
He let his words trail off and gestured at her partially bared
figure.