Chapter 14

On the porch of the Duffield’s house, we rang the doorbell, and a woman answered the door after a short time.

“Oh, you must be the couple Sam said was renting the north cabin. I’ll need to send one of the children to get him,” she told us in a rush of words. “He’s out in the tractor shed. There’s a problem with the big tractor. It will only take a couple of minutes. Come in and have a seat in the front parlor,” she finished explaining. I could feel Sam’s Talent with my Magic senses, and it was obvious to me that he was very upset.

“Allen, go in and have a seat. I’ll transfer to the tractor shed and help Sam. He’s having a real problem with one of his tractors,” I told Allen and Sam’s Wife before casting the transfer spell and appearing in the tractor shed. I scared the stew out of Sam when I appeared some three feet from him.

“Lord, Maureen, don’t do that! I felt the two of you arrive, but this tractor is giving me a fit. I can’t figure out what is wrong with it. It seems to be something different every couple of days,” he told me on recovering from gasping for breath from the fright I had given him by appearing so suddenly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” I told him.

“How long has it been doing this?” I asked looking at the tractor that couldn’t be more than a few years old from the good condition that it was in. Many of the O’Donnell’s tractors were a lot older than this, but ran very well.

“Just the last couple of weeks,” he told me in a worried voice.

“Do you know Max’s equipment repair spell?” I asked him to an embarrassed look from him.

“No, it requires a stronger Talent than mine to cast it,” he told me in a quiet voice.

“That’s okay. I’ll cast it and this baby should be running fine in a couple of minutes,” I told him and cast the equipment repair spell. Sam just looked at me in shocked surprise.

“You know that spell?” he asked after I had finished.

“Of course, remember that I grew up on a number of farms and there were always equipment problems. If not one on our farm, then on the farm of one of our neighbors. The spell works on cars and trucks as well. Someone was always having a problem,” I reminded him, as I started the tractor, which fired right up now. I turned it off with just a thought after a couple of minutes.

“Do you have any idea what it would have cost me to have a repairman come out here and look at that tractor, or to tow it to one of the larger towns to have it repaired?” he asked in a happy voice on seeing the tractor run without any problems.

“No, I don’t, but those kind of things are never cheap,” I told him, as we left the tractor shed and headed for the house.

“You got the tractor fixed!” Sam’s Wife said, as we entered the house through the kitchen door. “I heard it start from here,” she finished.

“Maureen knows the equipment repair spell. She grew up on several farms,” Sam told his Wife in a happy voice.

“Really!” his Wife asked in surprise, before remembering why we were there. “Your Husband is sitting in the front parlor waiting for both of you,” she told us after hearing what her Husband had to say.

“Let’s go see him, and I’ll give you the keys to the cabin,” Sam told us, removing a set of keys from the place in the kitchen where a number of sets of keys hung. Sam and Allen shook hands when we reached the parlor, before Sam said anything.

“You made good time,” he told Allen.

“The roads and the weather were very cooperative once we got everything together. Additionally, the Leader of the Magic Council came to see us on Tuesday night and advised us to leave as quickly as possible. We were already prepared and left Boston early on Wednesday morning,” Allen told him. Sam just stared at us again in shock.

“You ... you know the Leader of the Magic Council well enough that he would come to your place to warn you to leave town?” Sam asked on recovering, once again.

“The Members of the Magic Council are the ones who removed the Black Magic spell that was hiding my Talent, and preventing me from using it or learning any Magic,” Allen told him. Sam was surprised again.

“Really!” Sam’s Wife asked in surprise. She had followed us to the parlor.

“Oh yes,” Allen assured her with a smile, before turning back to Sam.

“We are prepared to pay the first month’s rent,” he told Sam.

“Since Maureen fixed my tractor with the equipment repair spell, and that is worth a lot, the first month in the cabin is on me. It would have cost me more than the $400.00 in rent to get that tractor repaired, and that’s not counting the time lost,” Sam told us and handed Allen the keys.

“Are you sure that you want to do that?” Allen asked. “You might need the money.”

“Even minor tractor repairs usually run $600.00 or more, plus you lose the use of the tractor while it’s in being repaired, which puts you behind in your work. I’m actually saving not only money but time by her repairing the tractor,” Sam assured him with a smile

“Well, okay if you insist,” Allen agreed, taking the keys from him.

“If you have anymore trouble with your equipment, just call me,” I told Sam, as we moved toward the front door.

The cabin looked the same as Allen stopped the car in front of it. He went to open the front door, while I cast a transfer spell to move our things including the groceries that we had bought, into the living room of the cabin.

“We have a lot to do to make this place livable,” I told him, as I joined him in the living room later. He had been sorting out our things while I put the groceries away, especially those needing refrigeration.

“For instance?” he asked.

“Additional clothing, dishes and utensils, pots and pans, sheets and blankets as well as our other personal items,” I told him.

“Most of those things are at your storage site in Salem,” he reminded me.

“They certainly are, but it won’t take long to transfer there and move them back here. We can even retrieve some of your books from Angus’ house, and your music system also,” I reminded him.

“Yes, it would be nice to have some of my music here,” he admitted with a smile.

“Shall we get started?” he asked next, and I cast the transfer spell to take us to Salem and my storage site there. Arriving there in the dark, I flicked the light switch on from memory, and we began sorting through the things we had left there for the items we would need at the cabin. It wasn’t long before we had a nice pile of things to take with us. After casting a ward around them, we joined hands, and I transferred them and us back to the cabin in Miller’s Cove.

“Should we put all of this up, or go to Angus’ house first?” Allen asked looking at the large pile of things now on the living room floor of the cabin.

“If you want to listen to music while we work, then Angus first. If not, we can go later,” I told him.

“Music would make things go better,” he told me with a smile.

“SO, it’s Angus first,” I said before remembering the Black Magic book that I had taken from Destouches, and calling it to me from the pile of our possessions. Allen seemed startled when it appeared in my hand.

“How do you do that? I didn’t feel you cast a spell, or do any Magic,” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “It’s just something I’ve always been able to do. Jill showed me how to do it on the trip to Uncle Thad’s farm when we left Boston. I was seven at the time,” I told him.

“Could I do that?” he asked.

“Probably, I’ll show you how later. We’ll have lots of time to work on your Magic while here,” I assured him before transferring us to Angus’ house, where we appeared inside the small shell surrounding it. Since the snow was gone, there was nothing to indicate the size of the shell. The front door opened as we approached the house.

“I felt you arrive,” Steve, Angus and Calisa’s Son, told us, as we joined him on the front porch.

“Your Talent is really growing,” I told him after checking it with my Magic senses. Steve was a bit embarrassed by my praise but quickly recovered.

“Are you here to see Father?” he asked.

“Yes, but we are also here to retrieve Allen’s music system and some of his books. I also have a book for Angus,” I told his Son.

“A book for me?” Angus asked, as he appeared beside Steve.

“Yes, I took it away from a Frenchman with a small Talent before he got into trouble with it. He is also working for an organization called ‘the Equal Rights for Humans Party’. Their goal is to remove all Paranormals,” I told Angus to a dark look from him.

“Yes, I’ve heard rumors of them, but where did you meet this Frenchman?” he asked.

“He was working for the government and the FBI sent him and two American Wizards to Boston to protect the FBI building there,” I told him.

“Three of them?” Angus asked, a bit surprised.

“Yes, let’s go inside and I’ll explain everything,” I told them, as Calisa and their three cats had arrived as we were talking. We all went into the parlor, and Allen and I explained what had happened since we had last seen them in detail.

“And here is the book of Black Magic that I took from the Frenchman,” I told Angus, as we finished our story.

“You certainly have been busy,” Calisa said, as Allen and I held their three cats and talked to them between our parts of the story.

“We’re ready to settle down and relax for a time,” Allen told her to a smile from her.

“It’s getting late. If you are going to get anything done today, you will need to return to that cabin shortly. Can we help you move any of the items you came for?” Angus asked looking at his mechanical watch.

“We only came to get the music system and a few books. It won’t require long to collect them and be on our way,” Allen assured them, as we set the cats back on the floor, and we all stood.

“Let us know if there is any help that you need,” Calisa told us, and we thanked her and Angus for the offer.

Upstairs, we had soon collected what we had come for. I cast a ward around all of it, joined hands with Allen, and cast the transfer spell to take us back to the cabin. It was well after 5:50 when we arrived back there and I looked at Allen.

“If you would start in the bedroom, I’ll get the kitchen set up, and we can eat by 7:00 or so,” I told him.

“That will be fine. We can work on everything else after supper or tomorrow,” he agreed.