Chapter 5

The house where the O'Neill sisters and their Mother, Laura, lived was several miles from the strip mall where the bookstore was located. It didn't take long to arrive there with their Mom giving directions.

Annie and Sara were very nervous as we entered the house. Sean and I held their hands to reassure them that all would be well. In the living room, Stan was still frozen in the same position they had left him in last night. We passed him by for now, and went to the bedroom first. We could see where the door had been kicked open, as the door frame was broken out where the lock plate had been. There were still two large frogs in the room, and they both retreated to a corner, as we entered the room.

"Do you know how to remove the spell?" Dad asked the O'Neill sisters, who were not reassured by the question.

"Yes," Annie answered, as she took in a ragged breath.

"Do we need to?" Sara asked, hesitantly.

"Yes," Dad answered, smiling. "I need to talk to them and inform them exactly what will happen to them if they ever try anything like this again." On seeing the sisters' anxiety over this, he added, "Don't worry, they won't try anything," and Fragarach appeared in his hand in addition to the Bata staffs appearing in our Mothers' hands.

"Go ahead and remove the spell," he told them. Both sisters recited the removal spell and the frogs changed back to men instantly - two hungover and rather sorry looking men.

"What happened to us" the taller one asked.

"You picked the wrong girls' room to break into," Dad told them with out any preamble. Fragarach was vibrating in his hand and eager to taste blood again. It had been very disappointed to learn that the witch La Maris had been consumed by Dad's magic flames.

"But ... but we were... !" the shorter of the pair started, but stopped as Fragarach began vibrating harder.

"No Buts!" Dad told them sternly. "We are not the police and are not concerned about your rights. YOU have NO rights. YOU are guilty simply by being here.

"When you broke in here these girls, who are Apprentice Sorceresses, cast a spell that turned you into frogs. At my request, they have removed that spell so that you can hear your punishment.

"From this instant, if either of you ever again attempt to attack another girl or woman, no matter the circumstances, you will both be changed into andirons in a fireplace - a very active and well used fireplace. The fire will burn on your backs there for a full six years before you are released," Dad told them and then recited the powerful spell and made the glyph in the air that accompanied it. The flames appeared when he started the spell and frightened the two men more than Fragarach had.

"Now get out and never return here," Dad instructed them when he had finished and the flames had withdrawn. The two men quickly shambled out of the room and the house when released. We returned to the living room then.

"What do you want to do with him, Laura?" Dad asked when we all stood facing Stan.

"Do with him?" Laura asked, puzzled. "I want him out of my life. I don't ever want to see him again. You warned him - warned both of us - at the bookstore, and he still tries something like this. I've had reservations about having married him for the last few years. I want out. I don't need to stay with someone who beats me up. I want him gone and a divorce," she told us in no uncertain terms.

"Very well," Dad said, and used the word and sign that removed the spell on Stan. He in turn completed the action that he had just started when the spell froze him and turned him into a statue. His right foot came forward and he said, "I'll give... !!" before he stopped, shocked on seeing the eight of us standing there. He quickly looked at the floor where he had just been kicking his wife.

"What? How?" he demanded in shock.

"It's late on Saturday morning, Stan. You've been frozen into a wooden statue for the last twelve hours or so," Dad informed him.

"What are you people doing here? This is my house!" Stan demanded belligerently.

"This is not Your house!" Laura shouted at him angrily. "It's MY house."

"Don't give me any crap woman, or I'll beat you again like I did last night," Stan growled.

"Yes, try that! Please, try that!" Mothers Katie and Margie begged, as they stepped forward with their Bata sticks. "We would be glad to give you a little of what your wife suffered last night!" I had never seen my Moms so upset. Stan was startled enough to back up several steps, as he wasn't used to women that would challenge him.

"No, Stan wouldn't try that," Dad said, and returned Fragarach to his scabbard. "He is too much of a coward for that." Stan turned red at these words, and the anger returned, but he thought it better not to do anything when he looked at the two angry women directly in front of him.

"Stan, you have two hours to pack your things and move out of this house," Dad continued. "From then on if you come within one mile of Laura, you will be changed back into a wooden statue for the next ten years. It will make no difference if it's your fault, her fault, or no one's fault. You WILL be turned in to a wooden statue for ten years. The only exception will be for any appearances in court during your divorce proceedings.

"Also if you attempt to get anyone else to harm Laura or her daughters, you and they will automatically be turned into wooden statues. I would advise you to move to a different area of the country to avoid running into Laura after your divorce," Dad told him before renewing the wooden statue spell. "Your two hours have already started. Move!"

"I'm going to watch that bastard. I don't want him stealing me blind," Laura told us.

"We'll go with you!" Mother Katie told her, and all three women followed Stan into the bedroom.

"We need to pack too," Sara said. "Will you guys help us?"

"Sure," Sean agreed, and he and I followed the sisters back to their room. We spent the next hour or so helping them pack. They changed their minds several times about what to take. They also ran out of suitcases to put things in, as they only had one each. Sean and Sara went to the garage to get some heavy duty plastic bags to put things in and a few boxes. By the time we were finished, a very upset Stan had finished packing and left in his car. Laura still had an older car that she would now need to use for transportation. When she saw that her daughters were packing as well, she was very surprised.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, angrily.

"We're packing too," Sara told her Mother.

"Where do you think you are going?" she demanded.

"We're moving in with Gus and Sean, Mother," Annie told her.

"You aren't old enough. I won't give my permission!" Laura told them angrily.

"WE are moving, Mother. With or without YOUR permission. YOU will NOT stop us!" Annie told her mother quietly, but with 'Steel and Power' in her voice that had never been there before. "We intend to marry them as soon as we are old enough. Until then we'll just live with them."

"How can you do this to me?" Laura pleaded in tears.

"It's very simple, Mother!" Sara told her. "They have comparable Talents to ours. There are few people in this world with our level of Talent. We are meant for each other. If necessary, we will use a spell to cause you to forget that you ever had daughters. Do you want that?" Sara asked in a much quieter manner than she usually used.

"No! No, not that! Oh God, Michael! What have you done to me?" she wailed in misery.

"We will come to visit you, Mother," Annie told her, "but we are going to live with our future husbands. You may come to see us also, if you wish. We will arrange it with George at the bookstore."

We started loading the sisters things into the van after that. They kissed their Mother goodby then.

"We'll take good care of your daughters, Laura," Mother Katie told her before we left. It was a rather crowded van that pulled up to the bookstore shortly after that.

"Gus, go through the portal and get one of the carts to carry some of this," Dad told me. "Sean and I will bring the suitcases."

I hurried through the portal and retrieved one of the carts that we use for book delivery and brought it back to start loading the bags and boxes on it. We soon had everything moved to Statesboro, and Dad had parked the van back in its regular place. He returned the keys to George and thanked him for the use of the van. Annie and Sara had also spoken to George about their Mother using the portal if she came in. We all returned home after that.

Sean and I spent the rest of the afternoon helping our now permanent girlfriends move into our rooms. We moved and consolidated our things so that the women would have adequate space for their things. Compared to our sisters, who loved lots of clothes, they seemed to have a lot fewer clothes. Our Moms had also noticed this and promised to take them shopping - later. It was dinner time that surprised the O'Neill sisters.

"We'll be going down to dinner in a bit," I told Annie. "You'll need to get ready."

"Ready!?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, now that we are older, we are expected to dress for dinner. When we were younger, it wasn't necessary, but now that we have become young adults, to quote our Mothers, 'you are expected to dress formally or at least semi-formally for dinner'. It will probably be in the main dining room tonight," I explained.

"But what should I wear?" Annie asked, perplexed.

"Your best Sunday church dress will be okay for now," I told her. "We should probably shower again, also," I added.

"Yes, I'm a little sweaty from all of the moving. Don't you have air conditioning? It seems very warm here for early May," Annie told me.

"It's a lot warmer in Statesboro than in Denver. I can cool down the room if you like," I told her, and used the spell to change the air in the room. Annie seemed confused for a few seconds, then smiled.

"I know how you did that," she said in amazement. "But how do I know that?"

"It's one of the spells the 'Book of Dreams' taught you. There is a lot of information from the book that you will become aware of when you need to use it. The air spell is one of the most often used spells, both in the summer and the winter," I told her, as we left for the bathroom. We arrived there just as Sean and Sara did.

"I think we ladies should shower first, by ourselves," Sara told us. "It takes too long when we shower with you guys because you enjoy it too much."

"And you don't?" Sean asked with a big grin.

"Yes, I do. That's why it takes so long," Sara told him with a wink, a smile, and a giggle. The ladies went in to shower first while we waited in our study room.

"Did you wear each other out last night?" Sean asked, as this was the first time we had been alone since last night before the sisters arrived.

"If you must know, yes," I told him. "Annie and I made love three times. God, it was fantastic!" I finished.

"Yes, Sara is pretty fantastic, too," Sean admitted, and had a huge smile on his face. "We had sex until we both passed out, but she was a bit tender when we got up," Sean added.

"Yes, I know. Annie was a bit tender also," I admitted, and fell silent. I didn't want to discuss what we had done even with my brother, and we had always talked about everything that we had done. This was still too personal to talk about yet.

The sisters came out of the bathroom giggling like young girls, and when they looked at us, it made them giggle even more. They returned to our rooms to dress while Sean and I went in to shower.

"What was that about?" Sean asked, when we were alone in the bathroom.

"I don't know. Our sisters would do the same thing, and I never figured them out either. It must be a girl thing," I told him. After showering, we all dressed and went down to the dining room. Our sisters and their boyfriends were just arriving when we got downstairs. Our sisters all had their very best dresses on. Ed and Bill were wearing slacks and sports coats; the same as Sean and I were.