“I’ll call and see if there’s an opening at Shady Pines,” Kaitlyn said practically, talking about the only other apartment complex in town. “Maybe they won’t notice if your mom smokes.”
“Thanks, but I really kind of doubt it,” I said dolefully. “Considering she smokes like a chimney.”
“I’ll call my Aunt Deli and see if she’ll budge on the no-smoking thing at all,” Megan said. “Maybe if your mom promises to stay right by an open window or something…” She didn’t sound too hopeful, but it was nice to know my friends were trying to help.
“Bran and I will be here if you need us,” Lachlan told me. “We need to talk about a way to focus your magic, little one.”
“I’m afraid Lachlan is right—it’s out of control right now—not that I blame you,” Bran said fiercely, glancing at Groperson’s shut door. “He got exactly what he deserved—the bastard.”
“Thanks guys.” I took a deep breath and lifted my chin. “I better go tell my mom what’s going on now.”
Then, feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, I went to my mom’s apartment—correction, ex-apartment—to tell her she had to move out.
Immediately.
56
Mom was already at the door when I went to knock. She must have heard all the shouting because she had a worried look on her face.
“Emma, honey—what’s going on out there?” she asked, enfolding me in a hug.
I tilted my head away by force of habit—I didn’t want my hair to catch on fire from the lit cigarette she always had in one hand. But then I realized something strange—for once, she wasn’t smoking.
Well, she’ll want to light up for sure when I tell her the news, I thought sadly.
Any kind of stress always made my mom want to smoke even more than she usually did. Which meant she’d probably be smoking two or three cigarettes at a time when I explained how I’d gotten her kicked out of her apartment and she was about to be homeless.
“Mom,” I started, pulling away from her. “I’m so sorry, but I did something really awful with my new magic.”
“What?” She looked at me, full of concern. “Oh honey, you didn’t hurt anybody, did you?”
I thought of Mr. Groperson and how his “boy parts” were now apparently permanently plastered to his face and his nose was between his legs. Considering how dirty he always looked, I was betting that he wasn’t exactly experiencing very nice smells right now—though that was probably the least of his worries.
“Well, kind of,” I said slowly. “But not how you think. The point is, what I did made Mr. Groperson really angry and now he says we have to move out of the complex right away.”
I said all this in a rush, feeling like I had to get it out.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” I went on, tears filling my eyes. “I know you can’t go to Shady Pines because of your smoking so I don’t know what we’re going to do! And I just feel so horrible because it’s all my fault!”
“Oh, honey…” She shook her head, looking down at her hands, as though trying to digest the information. Then she looked up at me and—to my surprise—she smiled. “Good,” she said firmly. “I need to get out of here.”
“What?” I asked, not sure that I’d heard her. “But Mom, where will you go?”
“Maybe I will go to Shady Pines,” she said lightly. “Emma, I have news for you—I quit smoking!”
“What?” I frowned at her skeptically. “That’s really nice, Mom, but for how long?”
In the past when she had “quit” her nasty habit, she’d been back, puffing away, before the day was out.
But my mom was grinning at me from ear to ear.
“I figured you’d say that and I don’t blame you, honey,” she said calmly. “I know I’ve tried to quit before but this time I didn’t even have to try. It just happened.”
“Really?” I still couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Okay, but when did it happen?”
“Last Sunday morning I woke up and reached for a cigarette,” she said. “Like I always do—or did—the minute I get up. But I took one puff and it made me sick as a dog! I barely made it to the bathroom before I puked—and all from one puff.”
“Really?” I asked again. “So how long has it been since you’ve had a smoke?”
“Not a single puff all week,” she said proudly. “Just the smell of them makes me sick now. I was just thinking before you came that I needed to move to someplace that doesn’t reek of old cigarette smoke. I’ve been trying to air out the apartment all week but it’s still just awful.”
Now that I thought of it, though the apartment did still smell of stale smoke, there was no fresh smoke in the air—no blue haze hovered over my mom’s head. And she didn’t have smoke on her breath either.
“But how…” I began, shaking my head. “I don’t understand how you could just quit cold turkey like that?”
“I don’t either. You know how many times I’ve tried,” she said. “I tried the nicotine patches and the gum. I even paid that guy a hundred bucks that one time to hypnotize me out of it—remember that? But nothing helped. Then all of a sudden, last Sunday morning, I just wake up and the urge is gone. Poof!” She snapped her fingers. “Like magic.”
Magic? Her words echoed in my head and suddenly I remembered leaning over her to kiss her cheek while she was sleeping the previous Sunday. Remembered whispering, “I wish you could quit smoking, Mom. I’d do anything if you could!”
I looked at my mom with wide eyes. Was the end of her habit due to me? Had I worked magic on her without knowing it? And if so, how long would it last? Would it melt away, like the gold coin I had somehow conjured? Or would it stick, the way Spike had stayed healthy after I had healed him with my tears?
“Mom,” I said to her. “I think it’s wonderful that you stopped smoking. Will you excuse me for a minute? I need to go talk to my friends.”
“Oh, are your friends here?” she asked, frowning. “Why didn’t you bring them in?”
“Because I wanted to tell you what was going on with just the two of us,” I said. “I still feel so bad—I don’t know where you’re going to live now!”
“I’ll spend a few nights in my car, if I have to,” she said calmly. “Don’t worry, Emma—I’ll survive. You go talk to your friends and then bring them in if you want to.” She smiled. “You know they’re always welcome here.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I kissed her cheek, marveling again that her breath smelled sweet instead of sour and smoky, and went out to talk to Lachlan.
Hopefully he would know if the magic I had somehow worked on my mom would last.
57
“How did she take it?” Avery asked, a look of concern on his face.
“Is she really upset?” Kaitlyn asked, biting her lip. “I’m waiting for a call-back from Shady Pines to see if they have an opening,” she added.