Chapter 32

“Dad, Vance, I’m home!” Carmody called out loudly as she opened the apartment door.

“Sis!” shouted a gleeful boy’s voice and Vance rocketed from his room into the main living area, crash-tackling his sister before she got three steps into the apartment. Carmody “oofed” comically and Vance laughed, then he noticed the other girl standing uncertainly behind her.

“Dad, Carmody has brought her girlfriend over!” the boy announced, eying Angelina with a mix of jealousy and interest.

“Vance, don’t be rude” Carmody chastised her little brother and disentangled him from around her waist. “You have met Angelina lots of times, so you should greet her properly!”

Vance duly planted himself in front of the other girl and regarded her with his small arms crossed.

“Hello, Angelina” he said solemnly. “Welcome to our house”

“Thank you Vance” Angelina responded with an equally solemn tone, trying to keep her smirk hidden. “It is nice to be here”

“Why are we all so formal today?” Carmody’s dad asked, stepping out of the adjoining kitchen with a wooden spoon in hand. “Angelina is practically one of the family, isn’t that right Kiddo?”

“Yes, she is” Carmody agreed. “Actually dad, I have a favour to ask in that regard”

“Yes, Angelina can stay with us for as long as she wants to” her dad said with the scary premonition skills of a parent.

“How did you know?” his daughter gasped.

“I am not stupid Carmody” he laughed. “You have extra bags plus I heard about the stuff her parents are going through right now. It would be best if Angelina stayed here for a while”

“Sorry Mr Brentwood” Angelina spoke up in alarm, “What have you heard?”

Angelina and Carmody exchanged worried glances, wondering how the battle with Hammerton had become known outside of the Order.

“Forgive me Angelina, I did not mean to be rude. It’s just that the arrest of your father and the investigations into Brackenridge Transportation are all over the news feeds”

“Oh, that!” Angelina sighed in relief. “Yes, my parents will be caught up for some time dealing with that. I appreciate the offer but I am hoping to go and see them tomorrow”

“Christmas day? Not a problem” the father responded. “We’ll have a great Christmas Eve here with all the family then tomorrow morning I’ll get a company Auto-Cab to drive you to see them”

“Thank you Mr Brentwood” Angelina replied gratefully. “Your family is much too kind to me”

“It’s Okay. Like I said, you are practically family. For now go put your bags in the bedroom and get changed. Dinner is still a couple of hours from now and hopefully Shelby will be home in time from work”

Assisted by Vance, the girls took their bags into Carmody’s bedroom, then the boy did not want to leave. They finally managed to get him out of the door so they could change in privacy.

“Your bruises have faded already” Angelina observed. “That herbal drink of the Bishop’s works really fast” The Telekinetic flexed her fingers, twisting them in the air. “My hands feel back to normal too, it is incredible”

“For a girl whose mother is an actual Witch you seem amazed about what magic can do” Carmody commented as she put on fresh underwear, topping it with a fleecy hooded jumper and dark grey sweat pants.

“Yeah, like I said before, my mother hid that stuff from me” Angelina answered without spite. “I don’t really know what kind of magic she can do, or even if she can still use magic now her Master has been returned to the Before”

“Is that why you want to see them tomorrow?” Carmody wondered.

“Partly” Angelina agreed. “I still love them, they are my parents after all. I always knew they were bad people, considering the family business and all. But now I know about the Pact I have to find out everything I can about my mother’s Master and how magic works”

“So you are going to ask your mom to teach you how to be a Witch? As an Awakened isn’t that impossible?”

Angelina finished pulling her own hooded top over her narrow chest and flicked her pig tails out from the neck opening. She met Carmody’s eyes steadily and smiled a little secretive smile.

“You’re an Awakened but you were able to draw power from the Darkside. You activated that Candlestone”

“But I don’t know what that means” Carmody replied uneasily.

“Neither do I” her friend agreed. “According to everyone what you did is totally impossible, yet somehow you did it”

“Maybe I’m just special?”

“Well, I knew that already you silly girl!” Angelina laughed and hurled a pillow at her friend.

=====

Carmody’s mother, Shelby, returned home from her stint at the restaurant just after seven PM. She had been cooking madly all day for customers it seemed, leaving the final serving and clean up to her trusted kitchen crew.

Angelina could see she was tired as the family greeted her return enthusiastically, so she hung back to avoid imposing on their joyful celebration.

“Is that my other daughter hiding back there?” Shelby Brentwood called out and practically dragged Angelina into her arms, while still holding Carmody and a squirming Vance in her grip. She smelled of cooking oil, turkey stuffing and mint, overlaid with a feminine perfume she must have spritzed on her neck just before she entered the apartment.

It was not a really great combination, but it was the smell of a loving, hard working mother and Angelina drank it in.

“Hi, Mrs Brentwood” she managed to get out before being engulfed in her warm embrace again. Vance managed to slip loose and danced away, watching and laughing as his sister and Angelina were hugged mercilessly by his mother.

“Shelby, let the kids go” Carmody’s father called out from the kitchen. “Dinner will be in ten minutes, so get out of those smelly work clothes and take a shower!”

“Okay, my dear heart” she agreed and released the two girls. With that she stripped off her jacket and dropped it over a protesting Vance’s head before heading into the main bedroom.

“Your mom is so cool!” Angelina enthused to Carmody.

“Huh? She’s just a regular mum” Carmody replied.

“No, she is quite special I think” Angelina mused. “I can see where you get such a loving heart from”

Carmody laughed easily, as if the dramas of the past few days had not even happened.

“My heart has no idea what is going on, so don’t rely on it. My head is pretty confused too so I am just doing what I always do”

“What is that?” Angelina asked with interest.

Carmody shrugged her shoulders and gave her friend a smile.

“Just keep putting one foot in front of the other”

=====

Dinner was a raucous affair and remarkably good considering Carmody’s dad had cooked it all. Since he was often home before his wife, the household chores and in particular the cooking of family meals mostly fell on his shoulders.

As was discussed during the meal, Mr Brentwood had not always been such a good cook. With a professional chef for a wife, he had a lot to live up to. According to Carmody, her father’s early efforts at a meal showed his skill as a vehicle mechanic, a very back handed compliment.

Still, he had improved a lot and by the time Vance was old enough to determine good food from bad, he was making passable meals for his children and late night working wife. Angelina had lived in a household where she was treated to expertly prepared food all of her life, yet she often ate her meals alone, attended only by servants.

When she ate with the Brentwoods, she truly felt like she was eating with a family.

“Thank you so much for a wonderful dinner” she said drowsily, patting her over-stuffed stomach. Around the table, the family were also leaning back, burping appreciatively and loudly in Vance’s case.

“I think we might have to wait a while for the plum pudding” Mr Brentwood declared. He was pleased with his own cooking too and gave Angelina a nod of thanks at her praise.

Something seemed to occur to him then and he leaned forwards, eyes on his daughter.

“Hey, Kiddo, I didn’t see you bring Excalibur home tonight. Did you leave it somewhere?”

Carmody let out a sudden sob and Angelina, sitting close at her side, threw a comforting arm around her friend.

“What’s the matter, Carmody?” her mother said with concern and got up from the table, joining Angelina in hugging her daughter.

“Um, sorry everyone” Carmody managed to say. “The bat got busted in an accident yesterday”

“An accident?” demanded her father loudly. “What kind of accident?”

“Oh, it was just a sparring practice with Carmody’s friends at the Dojo” Angelina improvised hurriedly. “She got a bit too enthusiastic and managed to break the bat. She forgot to use her Kinetic Enhancer properly and the old timber just broke in half”

“Is that so?” her father said with narrowed eyes. “Is that true, Kiddo?”

“Yeah, I guess so” Carmody answered, wiping her eyes and refusing to look at her father.

Jonathon Brentwood regarded his daughter and Angelina for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders philosophically.

“These things happen” he conceded and stood up from the table. “It is a tradition in our family that we open one present each on Christmas Eve. Tonight I think it will be appropriate for Carmody to open this one”

He went to the heavily decorated Christmas Tree in one corner of the living room and felt around at the back of the pile of wrapped presents. With a grunt he located the one he wanted and came back to the table, a long paper wrapped box in his hands.

“This was dropped off for you late last week. He brought it over especially” Mr Brentwood said. He handed it to his daughter, who took it with a look of confusion warring with her tears. It was a long, narrow package and had a decent heft to whatever was inside.

“Who brought it over?” Carmody asked.

“The name is right there on the card” her father told her. “Maybe you should read what is says”

A plain white envelope had been taped to the wrapping, Carmody’s name printed with an ink pen on the outside. She laid the box on the table, moving aside some plates and cups, then opened the envelope. Inside was a hand written card, addressed to Miss Carmody Brentwood. It began:

“Dear Carmody, For reasons that will become clear to you one day, I am not the man you believe me to be. I hope that day will be many years in the future, yet we cannot know how the tides of fate will affect our course.

I know you are inordinately fond of your cricket bat and as a man from old England I can only applaud your choice of implement. However I see a day when your trusted bat may fail.

Accordingly I have tracked down the original manufacturer of the Excalibur brand of cricket bats. Even I was surprised they are still in business, operating from a small workshop deep in the valleys of Wales.

Their master craftsman is a bearded old carver who goes by the name of Merlin Jones, I kid you not! He advised me they have not made the Excalibur model since before the First Global War, but as a special favour to a dedicated batter like yourself he crafted a new model.

Please accept this gift from me as a token of my respect for you.

Yours sincerely, Sergeant Giles Hammerton”

Carmody sat stunned then dropped the letter from her nerveless hands.

“Open it up, Sis!” Vance demanded, bouncing on his chair. “Hurry up, cos’ I can’t get mine until we finish yours!”

“Okay, give me a moment” Carmody whispered then slowly unwrapped the package. Beneath the paper was a wooden box made from polished pine, with three small brass catches down one long edge. With fumbling fingers she opened them and then lifted the lid.

Nestled inside lay a polished and oiled cricket bat, the lines and shape just like her old one. She reached in a trembling hand and lifted it out, turning the bat to examine the unblemished face. Printed in silvery lettering it had a short message:

“I have crafted this gift with love. Use it with love and it shall never be defeated.

Regards, Merlin”

On the other side, printed down the spine like her old one, it read: Excalibur Mk Two.

“Did he know somehow?” Carmody asked Angelina, her voice trembling. “How could he....?” she trailed off.

Angelina reached out and touched the cricket bat as if to prove to herself it was real.

“I guess we’ll have to ask him next time we see him” Angelina said softly, her own voice struggling to speak aloud.

“Did something happen to Mr Hammerton?” Carmody’s father asked them.

“He was called back home suddenly” Angelina replied. “We don’t expect to see him again for some time”

“Yeah, a lot of people are worried about family in the Euro-Bloc” Mrs Brentwood said. “Some of our cousins in the RUK have been re-posting a lot of stuff that is happening over there”

“Well, Mr Hammerton seemed quite able to look after himself” Mr Brentwood added reassuringly. “I’m sure he’ll be fine wherever he goes”

“Uh-huh” Carmody agreed. “He’s absolutely unkillable”

That set Angelina off on a bout of manic laughter that Carmody joined in. They laughed for quite a while until Vance shushed them imperiously.

“Knock it off, you two” he demanded. “It’s my turn to open a present!”