The wind whistled a rolling song along the side of the house as the tree branches bounced and waved while the first few fall leaves scraped the ground as they were pushed along. Wanting to look outside to enjoy the afternoon weather, I turned my head. That was the completely wrong thing for me to do. I barely moved a few muscles, but my whole body silently screamed at me with its unending prickling soreness. Moving was too much of a privilege for it to handle. Sighing, I returned to my book only to be interrupted by a knock on the door several seconds later.
"Come in!"
I expected it to be grandpa with my next dose of medicine. However, a smaller brown figure entered instead of the taller red one.
"You and Gilly have a really nice room." Timber remarked, walking over.
"It is pretty nice, huh? It used to belong to Aunt Glade, but when Gilly and I needed a room she got demoted to dad's old room instead. From what I've been told, she was not pleased with that at all. Not that it even mattered because she was about to finish college and move out anyway." I explained with a smile.
"I get her annoyance though. Your childhood bedroom is kinda special."
"Well, that is true. I would be upset if I was kicked out of here," I agreed, "So, was there something you needed, Timber? I didn't know you were coming over."
"A lot of people called off tonight at dad's work, so he was forced to go in instead. He asked your parents if I could stay here for the afternoon. I also have something important I have to tell you."
"Yeah?"
Timber stood proudly and beamed me another smile like the one he'd worn at the library.
"Dad had to run out to the convenience store down the street the other day to get a jug of milk. While he was gone, I did some poking around in his stuff. I found a box he normally keeps hidden from me. Most of it wasn't interesting at all, but I found an old wedding invitation. My mom's maiden name is Silo."
"That's a good find, Timber! Now we can compare it against the names we found in the phone books."
"I already did." Timber revealed dramatically.
"What did you find?"
"It's pretty interesting. I-"
Timber suddenly fell silent, and I tilted my head in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Dia," he apologized, "I just realized I didn't even ask how you're doing."
"Oh," I laughed, "I'm slowly getting better. Slowly. I can walk around somewhat, but steps are still a big no-no for me. Dad has to basically carry me up and down them when I need to go visit the doctor or whatever, but most of the time I'm stuck here in my room. Mom and dad say I'm alright enough to go back to school tomorrow though. They're getting me a wheelchair for the time being."
"That's good that you'll be coming back to school. I hope you're able to start getting better faster."
"Me too. Most of the actual pain has gone away, but the soreness is another thing entirely. You should see all the bruises I have on my back."
"Ouch," Timber cringed, "I guess you coming over to my house today is out of the question then."
"You wanted me to come over?"
"Uh-huh. That way I can show you the interesting stuff I found."
Another knock hit against the door, and this time it was grandpa who slid himself in. Conversation ceased as I took my medicine before grandpa temporarily changed it to something different.
"We're going to put on a movie. Do you want me to bring you downstairs, Dia, so you can join us?" he asked.
"No, I'm okay. I was actually wondering...do you think Timber and I can get dropped off at his house?"
"Uhh," grandpa frowned, putting his hands on his hips, "Wasn't the whole point of him coming over for us to watch him as his dad isn't there? You want me to bring you there so you can be unsupervised while you can barely walk?"
"Please?" I tried.
"No." grandpa denied instantly.
"What if I ask mom or dad?"
"Both Holly and Coal will say no as well, and just because I'm your grandparent and not your parent doesn't mean you can get around what I say by asking them instead," grandpa waggled a chastising finger at me before smiling lightly, "But nice try."
"Is there a computer we can use? I just wanted to show her some funny videos." Timber jumped in with a lie.
"I'll see if Coal will let you use his laptop. That's easier than carrying Dia downstairs." grandpa finally relented.
Dad agreed to let us use his laptop, which was perfect. The family computer I usually had to use downstairs had way too many parental controls on it. Dad's laptop had none. It was set up at my desk, and grandpa departed downstairs for the movie.
"What are we looking for?" I asked.
"I can only show you one thing since the rest of the stuff is at home. Bring up the search engine, type in 'Roti Silo Apex Point Environmental Society', and click on the first link."
I did as instructed, and the first result brought me to an old forum.
"And you'll want to click on this thread." Timber pointed to the right one.
"This one?"
"Yeah."
Upon being clicked, the very first thing I saw in the top post was a picture of a bunch of women. I clicked it to make it bigger, and Timber didn't have to point at one of the brown women for me to realize what he'd found.
"That one. She's marked as Roti Silo, and I'm pretty sure she's my mom. Another posting in the forum mentions that she left because she got married, and the end year of her membership lines up with when she and dad got married."
"Wow, that's amazing. If this is true, then your mom is super pretty."
"Yup." Timber agreed eagerly.
An impossibly loud bang outside rattled the house and drowned out my words of response. The wind rapidly evolved from a constant yet calm hum into a screaming cacophony of fury. Seconds later an onslaught of heavy rain pounded against the roof.
"Geez, that came on fast." Timber said as he hurried over to window.
He barely reached it before a searing streak of lightning split the sky in two. Loving a good storm, I hobbled my way over to see approaching pitch black rain clouds swarming the eastern sky.
"You wonder if this storm is why so many people called off at your dad's work?" I asked.
"Maybe. I wouldn't blame them. That looks terrifying."
Having had no idea such a storm was making it way towards us, I returned to the laptop to check the weather. The entire front of the news website was devoted to the onslaught currently overtaking our area.
"It's going to be raining all week, and pretty badly too." I read out the general forecast.
"There goes having a fun recess."
No sooner had those words left his lips than did an overpowering whir rush throughout the house. A distant, echoing click came from somewhere, and everything was plunged into darkness. The only light remaining came from the incredibly faint sunlight outside and the now dimmed screen of the laptop as it went into power-saving mode.
"Great. Now the power's out." I sighed.
"There goes having a fun afternoon."
The laptop was shut off to conserve energy. Dad appeared to take me downstairs right as Timber asked if I had a flashlight. The black clouds weren't over us just yet, so with the more plentiful windows on the first floor it was a lot lighter.
"I wonder if the power outage has reached the school." Merlot asked excitedly.
"I think so. Mom said something about us being on the same grid. The building might have backup generators though." Gilly recalled.
"Well, if it doesn't and the power stays out, we won't have school tomorrow!"
"Maybe, but maybe not. There was one time back at my other school where the power went out midday because of a storm too," Timber said, "We stayed for the full day. It wasn't back on the next day either. A lot of people complained when we had to go in, but my dad looked into it. Whether there's school or not depends on the administration. Basically, as long as there is no danger presented by the lights being out, it's totally legal to have classes like normal."
"Oh." Merlot pouted.
"We could have looked up our school's policy," Gilly began with a shrug.
"If we hadn't lost the internet either," I finished, "I guess we should have kept those policy handouts, huh?"
The sky steadily grew darker and darker. We kept the space around us visible with the flashlight dad had given us, and eventually mom dug out an old oil lamp.
"Aww, I thought you said you were going to bring out the lava lamp." Merlot whined.
"That lamp is more reliable, so we need to save that for nighttime. I can't imagine the power coming on anytime soon." mom explained.
"We're rich, aren't we? Shouldn't we have a backup generator or something?" Gilly wondered.
"It's technically only Blaze and your grandfather who are rich, but they are good at sharing," mom chuckled, "In any case, ask your grandfather that question. He's the only person still around who planned the house's construction."
Grandpa wasn't around to ask that question though. He and dad were off going through our various supplies finding spare flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, and so on. Mom busied herself in the kitchen trying to think up something that could be made for dinner without any heat, she said it would probably be sandwiches, and us kids did what we could to entertain ourselves. Timber had complained about our afternoon fun having been thrown out the window, but the time that passed wasn't so bad. Merlot was interested to learn how the day with no power had gone at Timber's old school. Timber told that story before telling many more. It was the first time he'd gone in real depth about his other friends and the previous part of his life. Mom then handed out granola bars for a snack, and we made shadow puppets with the oil lamp's light. We tried to tell ghost stories only to realize we already knew all the good ones. Wondering what to do came after that, and then Ember's panicked call changed the whole course of the day.
"Aunt Holly!" she yelled across the living room.
Having her own laptop, she'd probably been still up in her room playing games on it or something. She had come downstairs, I'd seen her look out the window at the bottom with a frown, and now the expression on her face was unlike any I'd known.
"What?" mom answered back in concern.
"I can see smoke from across the street. I think your house is on fire!"
We all bolted over to a window fast, I even forgot the immobilized state of my body for a brief second, but no one bolted over faster than mom did. She had the sense to rush for the window Ember was at. Us younger four couldn't see much from the one we crowded around. Just wall and the glow of a light from a kitchen that shouldn't have been there.
"Coal!" mom shouted, taking two steps at a time to reach where he was upstairs.
Gilly, Merlot, Timber, and I took over her space at the southern window. There we could see reality. Off over there in the distance, the writhing flames of a growing fire already consuming one counter pulled and stretched as it reached for more. I could hardly take my eyes away as the same sense of disbelief from the fall caught in my chest. The flames were beautiful somehow. From this distance, they hardly appeared any bigger than little wisp of light merrily dancing on the candle's wick of the oil lamp. And yet, it threatened the home my grandparents loved. It threatened the house I loved. It was a consolation that it didn't threaten the people within. Papa Al, Mama Lia, Aunt Mimi, and Rosey were all out at a cooking exhibition Aunt Mimi was a part of down in the city.
Mom returned, flying down the stairs with dad and grandpa on her heels. Blaze slowly followed, although he tried his best to get down the stairs in a timely manner, and he watched over us as we watched the adults take care of the situation. Dad was the first one to reach the fire. He rolled off to the side to grab the fire extinguisher the flames were about to steal. Mom fought back with the extinguisher from our house. Grandpa ran around moving flammable stuff out of the way while he spoke hurriedly with someone on the phone- I assumed the fire department. By the time the fire engine could be heard coming down the street with its loud siren, it seemed that things were thankfully at least under control. The fire hadn't grown big enough to be utterly disastrous, and I learned later on that someone had left one of the kitchen windows open. The heavy rain had snuck inside, which had wet most of the area where the flames were in addition to falling on those flames itself.
Aunt Cerise jumped out of the fire engine along with her co-workers. They easily silenced the remaining clumps of fire, and I was glad Timber's and my presentation wasn't until next Friday. Now we had first-hand experience we could add to give it some extra flavor. I hoped Aunt Cerise would come inside, but she only talked to mom and dad for a while before taking off when the fire engine departed. After that, Papa Al and Mama Lia arrived home with tense expressions. They talked on their porch with grandpa, mom, and dad for the longest time before they went in their house with mom and dad while grandpa came back to ours. Waiting with curious expectation, we were told no long lasting damage had been done. A leaky pipe within the wall had dripped onto an exposed electrical wire, and that had led to the small inferno.
The excitement wore off, although that didn't mean the subject matter disappeared from our lips. Gathered around the oil lamp once more, we remarked on the ridiculousness of it all.
"I wonder if we're cursed. We've been having so much bad luck lately," Gilly pointed out ominously, "Merlot hurting his ankle, Uncle Eden passing away, Dia falling down the stairs, the big storm knocking out the power, and now this. It's a lot to happen in little over a month."
"We're not cursed. It's just coincidence." Ember rolled her eyes.
"How do you know?" Gilly asked defiantly, putting her hands on her hips.
"Because things like curses don't exist," Ember shook her head at her in exasperation, "Although, if you're so adamant that they do, I heard once of a little ceremony one can perform to banish bad luck. Not that I believe in it of course."
"What's the ceremony?" Merlot asked.
"It's explained in a rhyme. 'Take a standing mirror and place it in the light. Dress male in black and girl in pure white. Plead to your reflection with all your heart's might: Bring balance back to us and make the world right!' That's how it goes."
"We don't have any light though. It's cloudy, and the power's off." Merlot said.
"The oil lamp's light should be fine, and we can use Ember's standing mirror. We also have your black clothes from the funeral you can wear." Gilly started to plan it out.
"You and I don't have anything pure white to wear though." I reminded my twin.
"Well, if you guys seriously want to bother with this, you can use my mirror. I'm going back upstairs though." Ember dismissed herself.
Putting aside what we didn't have at the moment, the four of us started to gather what we did have. Ember did at least help Timber bring down her mirror. Merlot got changed while Gilly desperately searched through our clothes for anything we could use. I sat downstairs on the couch being useless while I pondered other options to get white clothes. Merlot reappeared a moment later tugging at his collar and adjusting his clip-on tie.
"I don't like wearing this," he pouted, staring uninterested in the mirror, "I hate black."
"I know, but it's only for a little bit." I smiled, patting his hand.
Soft, carpeted footsteps came from behind, and Blaze stood there looking at us in confusion.
"What are you guys getting up to?"
"We're doing a ceremony Ember told us about to get rid of the bad luck we've been having," I explained, jumping up as much as possible to reach him as an idea came to my mind, "We need a boy dressed in black, and we need a girl dressed in white. I was wondering, do we still have any of grandma's old clothes? Didn't she used to wear white as a kid?"
"I mean, she wore some white, but that white was usually mixed in with green on the fabric. I don't recall us having any of her clothes from when she was young either. We would have gotten rid of them they would be so old. I know Am has a few outfits of hers from when she was an adult, but those are much more special. Like her wedding dress. He wouldn't appreciate you touching them."
"Hmm..." I mumbled, wondering what in the world to do now.
Blaze took off to his room wishing us the best of luck, and another idea popped into my mind when mom and dad returned from across the street.
"Mom! I have a favor to ask." I began as I rushed over.
"Dianthus, you shouldn't move so fast," dad reprimanded, "You're going to fall over again like you did yesterday."
"Sorry."
"What did you need?" mom wondered, sounding rather tired.
"Gilly, Merlot, Timber, and I are going to do this ceremony to get rid of bad luck since we've been having a lot of it lately, but we need a girl dressed in white. Blaze said grandpa has some outfits of grandma's that grandpa won't want us to touch, but if you wear one it should be fine, right?"
"No. Your grandfather is very protective of those clothes, and I am not in the mood to begin with to participate in whatever ceremony you want to do." she declined.
"Maybe we could make a quick run to the store to get an outfit for Gilly or me? It's only a few blocks down." I requested, glancing more at dad.
"I'm not taking you shopping for a brand new outfit you're never going to wear again, especially not with this storm going on." dad declined as well.
"Please?" I pleaded.
"Dianthus, we said no," mom denied much more sternly, "Perhaps we can discuss this another day, but your father and I are exhausted at the moment. We're going to our room to lay down, and we would like to not be disturbed for a while."
A small, submissive, pouting frown got me quick hugs from them both, but I didn't feel any better watching them go up the stairs. Surely with how exhausted and stressed the fire made them be they would want to do whatever they could to make the bad things stop happening? I definitely did. That's why I motioned Timber over to my side. I was able to basically half crawl up the stairs with his assistance to reach my room once more.
"Gilly already said she couldn't find anything you two had that was white, didn't she?" my friend wondered as I rummaged around in our wardrobe.
"I'm not looking for white clothes," I revealed, "I have my stash of money hidden away in here. I'm taking out just a usual outfit too. That clothes store is close enough to walk to. I'm just going to buy something white for myself."
"Would your parents even let you go out shopping by yourself normally? With this rain and how it's hard for you to move..."
"Timber."
I gave him a look.
"Right. You're not going to tell them. I'll at least come with you then to make sure you don't fall over or whatever."
"Thanks," I smiled widely, "You can borrow Gilly's umbrella."
Gilly wasn't too happy about the two of us taking off, and even less so about Timber using her precious umbrella, yet as neither she nor Merlot wanted to come instead, Timber and I were off without many further complications. All of the adults were off in their rooms, and the rain wasn't too bad as a weaker section of the storm now swirled above us. The lone thing that truly hindered us was me, of course. The few wet steps at the front of the house nearly had me landing on my backside, and the walk was painfully slow. It wasn't as hard as I expected, probably because my medicine kicked in, but we still crawled at a snail's pace. Timber and I, however, eventually made it the few blocks where the clothes store came into view.
Thankfully open, Timber and I went right for what we needed. One thing I had forgotten, unfortunately, was just how expensive solid white clothes were. White was a common accent for colored clothes, but purchasing it on its own cost a pretty penny considering how few people bought it. I frowned as all my hard earned money went into getting a simple sweater and skirt while I barely had enough left over to get a basic pair of flip flops. I couldn't give up though.
"You know, I'm surprised you're so into this," Timber admitted as we left the store, "You struck me as more of a realist."
"I would have thought this was silly earlier in the week, but something happened at the hospital."
"What?"
"My roommate, Pebble, told me of this ghost lady that appears every once in a while to comfort the kids. I didn't believe her, so she put a sign on our door inviting the ghost to visit. Nothing happened during the night, but when we woke up we found the sign had been moved. It had been tapped to my bed."
"Couldn't it have been one of the nurses?" Timber rationalized.
"All of them swore they hadn't touched it. Plus, something was written on the sign too. On the back it said 'I hope you get better soon, baby.' Mom and dad have specific pet names for me and my siblings. Ember is 'Honey', Gilly is 'Sweetheart', I'm 'Baby, and Merlot is 'Kid.' The nurses wouldn't have known that, but a ghost who could peek down from heaven could."
"That is very interesting. And suspicious." Timber agreed.
An exceptionally deep roll of thunder threatened the return of a much harsher storm while also cutting off the next words I had wanted to say once again. Even worse, an absolutely screaming wind whipped around the corner to snap without hesitation the ribs on my umbrella before yanking it out of my hand. My few wobbly steps got me nowhere, and the now pitiful umbrella got even further away as the wind bounced it across the street like a ball. There was no way I was going to catch it.
"Oh no." I whined.
"Do you want me to try and go get it?" Timber offered.
"No, it's completely broken, and we need to get back to my house as fast as possible. At least it was my umbrella that broke. Gilly would have thrown a fit if it was hers." I sighed.
With a comforting smile, Timber offered that umbrella out to shield us both. Pretty close together to both fit, we pushed ourselves as fast as we could to reach our destination before more bad luck jumped up to get us.
Too exhausted to go up to my room to change, Gilly and I banished Merlot and Timber to the sun room while I slipped into my new outfit in the dark kitchen. My brother and I then struggled on where to stand to get as much as we could of both of us in the mirror.
"I don't remember the words." Merlot said when we were set.
"Oh, shoot. I don't either," I admitted, "Something about bringing balance back and making the world right?"
"Should I go ask Ember?" Gilly offered.
"I think it was just 'Bring balance back to us and make the world right.'" Timber put out there.
"That sounds correct. Okay, Merlot, so we say that with all our hearts' might." I instructed.
"So, loud?" he wondered, tilting his head.
"More like you have to believe. You have to be sure that this is going to work."
"I can do that." Merlot smiled.
Holding hands for good measure, the two of looked squarely at our reflections and chanted in unison,
"Bring balance back to us and make the world right!"
And...
Nothing really happened. The brief two seconds it took us to say that sentence were quite anti-climatic against all the effort that had been put into the preparation. Not even a dramatic thunder roll or streak of lightning came.
"Maybe we should do it again to make sure?" Merlot proposed.
"Maybe." I replied uncertainly.
Holding hands again, the ceremony was interrupted before we could open our mouths.
"Dianthus," mom's suspicious and disapproving voice came, and I whipped around to see her staring at me firmly while she folded her arms, "Where in the world did you get that outfit, and why is your hair wet?"
My heart sinking, it wasn't hard now to accept that the ritual to get rid of bad luck was just a bunch of nonsense.
I did as instructed, and the first result brought me to an old forum.
"And you'll want to click on this thread." Timber pointed to the right one.
"This one?"
"Yeah."
Upon being clicked, the very first thing I saw in the top post was a picture of a bunch of women. I clicked it to make it bigger, and Timber didn't have to point at one of the brown women for me to realize what he'd found.
"That one. She's marked as Roti Silo, and I'm pretty sure she's my mom. Another posting in the forum mentions that she left because she got married, and the end year of her membership lines up with when she and dad got married."
"Wow, that's amazing. If this is true, then your mom is super pretty."
"Yup." Timber agreed eagerly.
An impossibly loud bang outside rattled the house and drowned out my words of response. The wind rapidly evolved from a constant yet calm hum into a screaming cacophony of fury. Seconds later an onslaught of heavy rain pounded against the roof.
"Geez, that came on fast." Timber said as he hurried over to window.
He barely reached it before a searing streak of lightning split the sky in two. Loving a good storm, I hobbled my way over to see approaching pitch black rain clouds swarming the eastern sky.
"You wonder if this storm is why so many people called off at your dad's work?" I asked.
"Maybe. I wouldn't blame them. That looks terrifying."
Having had no idea such a storm was making it way towards us, I returned to the laptop to check the weather. The entire front of the news website was devoted to the onslaught currently overtaking our area.
"It's going to be raining all week, and pretty badly too." I read out the general forecast.
"There goes having a fun recess."
No sooner had those words left his lips than did an overpowering whir rush throughout the house. A distant, echoing click came from somewhere, and everything was plunged into darkness. The only light remaining came from the incredibly faint sunlight outside and the now dimmed screen of the laptop as it went into power-saving mode.
"Great. Now the power's out." I sighed.
"There goes having a fun afternoon."
The laptop was shut off to conserve energy. Dad appeared to take me downstairs right as Timber asked if I had a flashlight. The black clouds weren't over us just yet, so with the more plentiful windows on the first floor it was a lot lighter.
"I wonder if the power outage has reached the school." Merlot asked excitedly.
"I think so. Mom said something about us being on the same grid. The building might have backup generators though." Gilly recalled.
"Well, if it doesn't and the power stays out, we won't have school tomorrow!"
"Maybe, but maybe not. There was one time back at my other school where the power went out midday because of a storm too," Timber said, "We stayed for the full day. It wasn't back on the next day either. A lot of people complained when we had to go in, but my dad looked into it. Whether there's school or not depends on the administration. Basically, as long as there is no danger presented by the lights being out, it's totally legal to have classes like normal."
"Oh." Merlot pouted.
"We could have looked up our school's policy," Gilly began with a shrug.
"If we hadn't lost the internet either," I finished, "I guess we should have kept those policy handouts, huh?"
The sky steadily grew darker and darker. We kept the space around us visible with the flashlight dad had given us, and eventually mom dug out an old oil lamp.
"Aww, I thought you said you were going to bring out the lava lamp." Merlot whined.
"That lamp is more reliable, so we need to save that for nighttime. I can't imagine the power coming on anytime soon." mom explained.
"We're rich, aren't we? Shouldn't we have a backup generator or something?" Gilly wondered.
"It's technically only Blaze and your grandfather who are rich, but they are good at sharing," mom chuckled, "In any case, ask your grandfather that question. He's the only person still around who planned the house's construction."
Grandpa wasn't around to ask that question though. He and dad were off going through our various supplies finding spare flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, and so on. Mom busied herself in the kitchen trying to think up something that could be made for dinner without any heat, she said it would probably be sandwiches, and us kids did what we could to entertain ourselves. Timber had complained about our afternoon fun having been thrown out the window, but the time that passed wasn't so bad. Merlot was interested to learn how the day with no power had gone at Timber's old school. Timber told that story before telling many more. It was the first time he'd gone in real depth about his other friends and the previous part of his life. Mom then handed out granola bars for a snack, and we made shadow puppets with the oil lamp's light. We tried to tell ghost stories only to realize we already knew all the good ones. Wondering what to do came after that, and then Ember's panicked call changed the whole course of the day.
"Aunt Holly!" she yelled across the living room.
Having her own laptop, she'd probably been still up in her room playing games on it or something. She had come downstairs, I'd seen her look out the window at the bottom with a frown, and now the expression on her face was unlike any I'd known.
"What?" mom answered back in concern.
"I can see smoke from across the street. I think your house is on fire!"
We all bolted over to a window fast, I even forgot the immobilized state of my body for a brief second, but no one bolted over faster than mom did. She had the sense to rush for the window Ember was at. Us younger four couldn't see much from the one we crowded around. Just wall and the glow of a light from a kitchen that shouldn't have been there.
"Coal!" mom shouted, taking two steps at a time to reach where he was upstairs.
Gilly, Merlot, Timber, and I took over her space at the southern window. There we could see reality. Off over there in the distance, the writhing flames of a growing fire already consuming one counter pulled and stretched as it reached for more. I could hardly take my eyes away as the same sense of disbelief from the fall caught in my chest. The flames were beautiful somehow. From this distance, they hardly appeared any bigger than little wisp of light merrily dancing on the candle's wick of the oil lamp. And yet, it threatened the home my grandparents loved. It threatened the house I loved. It was a consolation that it didn't threaten the people within. Papa Al, Mama Lia, Aunt Mimi, and Rosey were all out at a cooking exhibition Aunt Mimi was a part of down in the city.
Mom returned, flying down the stairs with dad and grandpa on her heels. Blaze slowly followed, although he tried his best to get down the stairs in a timely manner, and he watched over us as we watched the adults take care of the situation. Dad was the first one to reach the fire. He rolled off to the side to grab the fire extinguisher the flames were about to steal. Mom fought back with the extinguisher from our house. Grandpa ran around moving flammable stuff out of the way while he spoke hurriedly with someone on the phone- I assumed the fire department. By the time the fire engine could be heard coming down the street with its loud siren, it seemed that things were thankfully at least under control. The fire hadn't grown big enough to be utterly disastrous, and I learned later on that someone had left one of the kitchen windows open. The heavy rain had snuck inside, which had wet most of the area where the flames were in addition to falling on those flames itself.
Aunt Cerise jumped out of the fire engine along with her co-workers. They easily silenced the remaining clumps of fire, and I was glad Timber's and my presentation wasn't until next Friday. Now we had first-hand experience we could add to give it some extra flavor. I hoped Aunt Cerise would come inside, but she only talked to mom and dad for a while before taking off when the fire engine departed. After that, Papa Al and Mama Lia arrived home with tense expressions. They talked on their porch with grandpa, mom, and dad for the longest time before they went in their house with mom and dad while grandpa came back to ours. Waiting with curious expectation, we were told no long lasting damage had been done. A leaky pipe within the wall had dripped onto an exposed electrical wire, and that had led to the small inferno.
The excitement wore off, although that didn't mean the subject matter disappeared from our lips. Gathered around the oil lamp once more, we remarked on the ridiculousness of it all.
"I wonder if we're cursed. We've been having so much bad luck lately," Gilly pointed out ominously, "Merlot hurting his ankle, Uncle Eden passing away, Dia falling down the stairs, the big storm knocking out the power, and now this. It's a lot to happen in little over a month."
"We're not cursed. It's just coincidence." Ember rolled her eyes.
"How do you know?" Gilly asked defiantly, putting her hands on her hips.
"Because things like curses don't exist," Ember shook her head at her in exasperation, "Although, if you're so adamant that they do, I heard once of a little ceremony one can perform to banish bad luck. Not that I believe in it of course."
"What's the ceremony?" Merlot asked.
"It's explained in a rhyme. 'Take a standing mirror and place it in the light. Dress male in black and girl in pure white. Plead to your reflection with all your heart's might: Bring balance back to us and make the world right!' That's how it goes."
"We don't have any light though. It's cloudy, and the power's off." Merlot said.
"The oil lamp's light should be fine, and we can use Ember's standing mirror. We also have your black clothes from the funeral you can wear." Gilly started to plan it out.
"You and I don't have anything pure white to wear though." I reminded my twin.
"Well, if you guys seriously want to bother with this, you can use my mirror. I'm going back upstairs though." Ember dismissed herself.
Putting aside what we didn't have at the moment, the four of us started to gather what we did have. Ember did at least help Timber bring down her mirror. Merlot got changed while Gilly desperately searched through our clothes for anything we could use. I sat downstairs on the couch being useless while I pondered other options to get white clothes. Merlot reappeared a moment later tugging at his collar and adjusting his clip-on tie.
"I don't like wearing this," he pouted, staring uninterested in the mirror, "I hate black."
"I know, but it's only for a little bit." I smiled, patting his hand.
Soft, carpeted footsteps came from behind, and Blaze stood there looking at us in confusion.
"What are you guys getting up to?"
"We're doing a ceremony Ember told us about to get rid of the bad luck we've been having," I explained, jumping up as much as possible to reach him as an idea came to my mind, "We need a boy dressed in black, and we need a girl dressed in white. I was wondering, do we still have any of grandma's old clothes? Didn't she used to wear white as a kid?"
"I mean, she wore some white, but that white was usually mixed in with green on the fabric. I don't recall us having any of her clothes from when she was young either. We would have gotten rid of them they would be so old. I know Am has a few outfits of hers from when she was an adult, but those are much more special. Like her wedding dress. He wouldn't appreciate you touching them."
"Hmm..." I mumbled, wondering what in the world to do now.
Blaze took off to his room wishing us the best of luck, and another idea popped into my mind when mom and dad returned from across the street.
"Mom! I have a favor to ask." I began as I rushed over.
"Dianthus, you shouldn't move so fast," dad reprimanded, "You're going to fall over again like you did yesterday."
"Sorry."
"What did you need?" mom wondered, sounding rather tired.
"Gilly, Merlot, Timber, and I are going to do this ceremony to get rid of bad luck since we've been having a lot of it lately, but we need a girl dressed in white. Blaze said grandpa has some outfits of grandma's that grandpa won't want us to touch, but if you wear one it should be fine, right?"
"No. Your grandfather is very protective of those clothes, and I am not in the mood to begin with to participate in whatever ceremony you want to do." she declined.
"Maybe we could make a quick run to the store to get an outfit for Gilly or me? It's only a few blocks down." I requested, glancing more at dad.
"I'm not taking you shopping for a brand new outfit you're never going to wear again, especially not with this storm going on." dad declined as well.
"Please?" I pleaded.
"Dianthus, we said no," mom denied much more sternly, "Perhaps we can discuss this another day, but your father and I are exhausted at the moment. We're going to our room to lay down, and we would like to not be disturbed for a while."
A small, submissive, pouting frown got me quick hugs from them both, but I didn't feel any better watching them go up the stairs. Surely with how exhausted and stressed the fire made them be they would want to do whatever they could to make the bad things stop happening? I definitely did. That's why I motioned Timber over to my side. I was able to basically half crawl up the stairs with his assistance to reach my room once more.
"Gilly already said she couldn't find anything you two had that was white, didn't she?" my friend wondered as I rummaged around in our wardrobe.
"I'm not looking for white clothes," I revealed, "I have my stash of money hidden away in here. I'm taking out just a usual outfit too. That clothes store is close enough to walk to. I'm just going to buy something white for myself."
"Would your parents even let you go out shopping by yourself normally? With this rain and how it's hard for you to move..."
"Timber."
I gave him a look.
"Right. You're not going to tell them. I'll at least come with you then to make sure you don't fall over or whatever."
"Thanks," I smiled widely, "You can borrow Gilly's umbrella."
Gilly wasn't too happy about the two of us taking off, and even less so about Timber using her precious umbrella, yet as neither she nor Merlot wanted to come instead, Timber and I were off without many further complications. All of the adults were off in their rooms, and the rain wasn't too bad as a weaker section of the storm now swirled above us. The lone thing that truly hindered us was me, of course. The few wet steps at the front of the house nearly had me landing on my backside, and the walk was painfully slow. It wasn't as hard as I expected, probably because my medicine kicked in, but we still crawled at a snail's pace. Timber and I, however, eventually made it the few blocks where the clothes store came into view.
Thankfully open, Timber and I went right for what we needed. One thing I had forgotten, unfortunately, was just how expensive solid white clothes were. White was a common accent for colored clothes, but purchasing it on its own cost a pretty penny considering how few people bought it. I frowned as all my hard earned money went into getting a simple sweater and skirt while I barely had enough left over to get a basic pair of flip flops. I couldn't give up though.
"You know, I'm surprised you're so into this," Timber admitted as we left the store, "You struck me as more of a realist."
"I would have thought this was silly earlier in the week, but something happened at the hospital."
"What?"
"My roommate, Pebble, told me of this ghost lady that appears every once in a while to comfort the kids. I didn't believe her, so she put a sign on our door inviting the ghost to visit. Nothing happened during the night, but when we woke up we found the sign had been moved. It had been tapped to my bed."
"Couldn't it have been one of the nurses?" Timber rationalized.
"All of them swore they hadn't touched it. Plus, something was written on the sign too. On the back it said 'I hope you get better soon, baby.' Mom and dad have specific pet names for me and my siblings. Ember is 'Honey', Gilly is 'Sweetheart', I'm 'Baby, and Merlot is 'Kid.' The nurses wouldn't have known that, but a ghost who could peek down from heaven could."
"That is very interesting. And suspicious." Timber agreed.
An exceptionally deep roll of thunder threatened the return of a much harsher storm while also cutting off the next words I had wanted to say once again. Even worse, an absolutely screaming wind whipped around the corner to snap without hesitation the ribs on my umbrella before yanking it out of my hand. My few wobbly steps got me nowhere, and the now pitiful umbrella got even further away as the wind bounced it across the street like a ball. There was no way I was going to catch it.
"Oh no." I whined.
"Do you want me to try and go get it?" Timber offered.
"No, it's completely broken, and we need to get back to my house as fast as possible. At least it was my umbrella that broke. Gilly would have thrown a fit if it was hers." I sighed.
With a comforting smile, Timber offered that umbrella out to shield us both. Pretty close together to both fit, we pushed ourselves as fast as we could to reach our destination before more bad luck jumped up to get us.
Too exhausted to go up to my room to change, Gilly and I banished Merlot and Timber to the sun room while I slipped into my new outfit in the dark kitchen. My brother and I then struggled on where to stand to get as much as we could of both of us in the mirror.
"I don't remember the words." Merlot said when we were set.
"Oh, shoot. I don't either," I admitted, "Something about bringing balance back and making the world right?"
"Should I go ask Ember?" Gilly offered.
"I think it was just 'Bring balance back to us and make the world right.'" Timber put out there.
"That sounds correct. Okay, Merlot, so we say that with all our hearts' might." I instructed.
"So, loud?" he wondered, tilting his head.
"More like you have to believe. You have to be sure that this is going to work."
"I can do that." Merlot smiled.
Holding hands for good measure, the two of looked squarely at our reflections and chanted in unison,
"Bring balance back to us and make the world right!"
And...
Nothing really happened. The brief two seconds it took us to say that sentence were quite anti-climatic against all the effort that had been put into the preparation. Not even a dramatic thunder roll or streak of lightning came.
"Maybe we should do it again to make sure?" Merlot proposed.
"Maybe." I replied uncertainly.
Holding hands again, the ceremony was interrupted before we could open our mouths.
"Dianthus," mom's suspicious and disapproving voice came, and I whipped around to see her staring at me firmly while she folded her arms, "Where in the world did you get that outfit, and why is your hair wet?"
My heart sinking, it wasn't hard now to accept that the ritual to get rid of bad luck was just a bunch of nonsense.
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