Steph gestured at the notebook. “We’re super excited about getting community service hours for painting. We did litter cleanup last month, and it was totally gross. Book art is way cooler.”
Nora frowned. “About the whole community service thing—are you sure this project qualifies?”
“The only requirements are that it benefits the community and is supervised by an adult,” said Sid. “We have a service sheet. Before we leave, you write in how many hours we worked and sign your name.”
“Sounds easy enough.” As Nora paged through the notebook, her eyes widened in wonder. “These are terrific.”
“Thanks.” Steph beamed with pleasure. “They’re not all doors, but there are lots of other ways to travel in books.”
Nora beckoned for the girls to follow her. “I’ll show you what we have to work with. I love your idea for The Phantom Tollbooth. And the doorways Will Parry makes with his knife in the Philip Pullman novels are incredible, but I don’t want any weapons in our display.”
“What about the door from Coraline?” Sid asked, pointing at another sketch. “Is that too scary because of the ghosts?”
“Nah. It’ll be Halloween on Friday,” said Nora. “Besides, they’re the ghosts of kids. They can be cute and cartoonish instead of creepy.”
The girls were bursting with ideas. They’d already come up with color schemes and were determined to use lots of glitter.
When they shared this with Nora, Sheldon wriggled his fingers in farewell and left the shop.
“He really has issues with glitter, doesn’t he?” Sid said to Nora. “He groaned when we asked him to buy the bulk-sized bottles.”
Sheldon loved glitter. It was Nora who hated it, mostly because she had to vacuum the floors, and glitter did not come up easily. Her gaze traveled over her tidy stockroom.
“Bulk-sized? Maybe you girls should work outside.”
After showing Sid and Steph the box of phone booth cutouts, Nora gave the girls a quick lesson on how to use safety box cutters.
“It has a ceramic blade with a rounded tip, which retracts when not in use.” Nora sliced off the corner of a flattened box. “If you get thirsty, there’s iced tea in the fridge.”
“I’ll keep them hydrated,” said Vicky. “I’m going to read to them while they work. That’s not me helping you. That’s just me, hanging out with my friends.”
For the rest of the afternoon, Sid and Steph listened to Vicky read from Holly Black’s latest novel while they made magic out of cardboard, paint, and glitter.
Nora saw herself as more of a purveyor of magic. To her, the greatest magicians of all were writers—those individuals possessing the ability to breathe life into a group of words. Nora felt that spark of magic whenever she put a book into a reader’s hands. It was a magic she believed in with her whole heart. The kind of magic worth fighting for.
*
In the end, there was no protest the next morning. The storm that drenched Tennessee all day Wednesday headed east over the Appalachians but didn’t turn north as predicted. Instead, it crawled toward Miracle Springs. Warnings were broadcast via radio, TV, and cell phone, alerting those in the storm’s path to expect flash flooding.
While the absence of protestors made Nora happy, the lack of customers didn’t. A fraction of the usual lodge guests braved the storm, and those setting out for the Highland Games would likely delay their journey until tomorrow. No one would go out of their way to visit Miracle Springs today. Not with the storm perched overhead, expelling waves of fog and rain from a mass of dark gray clouds.
Since there were hardly any customers and she’d given Sheldon the day off, Nora cleaned, caught up on paperwork, and tried to reach Jed. She called and texted multiple times, but he didn’t respond.
Finally, Nora decided to stop leaving messages. Once Jed was back in Miracle Springs, she’d show up at his house and bang on his front door until he let her in. At that point, she’d do her best to breach the divide between them. But for now, all she could do was wait.
Nora also called Bobbie. She didn’t answer her phone either, so Nora left a message and went back to her book. It was one of several she’d gathered based on their inclusion of terms like spells, grimoires, herbals, symbolism, arcane magic, witch, and ancient medicine. Though the research was fascinating, it gave her no fresh insight about the mysterious book page.
It was four in the afternoon and still raining when Nora finally heard from Bobbie.