Chapter 6

"Let's see," Jennifer said as she looked carefully at the page. "I guess I just say these words, and it opens?"

"Here, put the cube right in front of you."

Drawing a deep breath, Jennifer exclaimed, "Here goes!"

After muttering the words on the page, Jennifer looked down at the box. However, it remained motionless on the bed.

"Hmm," Jennifer said in disappointment. "I don't think anything happened."

Peter fumbled with his pants for a few moments and replied, "Yeah, that's odd."

"What happened to you?" Jennifer asked, noticing Peter's actions.

"Oh nothing," Peter replied. "I just realized that I forgot to zip up my fly after the shower."

Jennifer giggled. "Did you do that on purpose to get my attention, you sly dog?"

Peter blushed. "No, of course not!"

Shrugging, Jennifer continued, "Well, maybe I mispronounced the words. Do you think I should try again?"

"I don't see why not. In the worst case, nothing will happen again. It doesn't seem like any wormholes opened," Peter joked.

"Ha ha, very funny," Jennifer replied dryly.

Looking down at the page again, Jennifer took extra care to pronounce each word as best as she could. After she finished incanting the spell, she glanced at the box. Again, it looked like nothing happened.

Peter scratched his head and said, "Maybe there's some lock in the box that's undone, just that we can't see it?"

"Maybe," Jennifer replied as she looked towards Peter. "It doesn't look like anything happened though. Oh my god, Peter!" Jennifer exclaimed as she pointed to Peter.

"What?" Peter jumped. "Did something happen to me?"

"Your fly," Jennifer said. "It's open!"

"Hmm," Peter said as he zipped his fly again. "I could have sworn I just zipped it up a moment ago."

"Do you think the spell caused that?"

"I guess that's possible," Peter agreed. "I don't know why there'd be a spell to unzip my fly though."

Jennifer giggled. "Maybe the witches wanted a way to embarrass the wizards?"

Peter laughed at Jennifer's joke. "Try it once more and see if it happens again. Let's make sure my zip is done," he said as he touched his zip. He nodded at Jennifer.

Jennifer repeated the spell once again. This time, she skipped the box and looked straight at Peter once she was done. "It doesn't look like - oh!"

Peter watched as his fly slowly moved down, as if a hand was pulling it.

"Whoa," Peter said softly, "that's kind of strange to watch."

"So now we know the spell did it for sure," Jennifer said triumphantly. "I should memorize that spell," she continued. "I'm sure it'll be fun to try in school."

"It's still kind of odd that the 'Open' spell unzips my fly though," Peter noted. "Perhaps it does more than that?"

"I guess so," Jennifer said. "But I cast it three times and the same thing happened thrice."

"Hmm, maybe it has to do with what you're thinking about?" Peter suggested as he raised his eyebrow.

Jennifer reached over and slapped Peter on the shoulder. "You!"

Peter rubbed his shoulder and grinned.

"But I was concentrating hard on the box, at least the first two times."

Peter thought for a moment, and replied, "What about your mood?"

"What?" Jennifer asked, bewildered.

"Remember what Leena said about emotions and magic being linked? Maybe that has something to do with it?"

"Yeah, I remember something like that," Jennifer said. "I don't know what I have to do though."

"Let's see, how were you feeling when you cast the spell?"

Jennifer blushed. Peter started to chuckle and Jennifer punched him lightly.

"You went to shower right after we made out," Jennifer defended herself. "Of course I was still feeling a little horny."

Peter's smile widened and he replied, "Yeah, I know what you mean. That's part of the reason why I went to shower."

Jennifer placed her hands on her hips. "Yeah? To leave me wanting more?"

Peter chuckled. "No, not like that. I didn't want us to go too far, or I'd take advantage of innocent Jenny," he continued as he ruffled Jennifer's hair.

"What if innocent Jenny wanted to be taken advantage of?" Jennifer replied softly.

"Then," Peter said as he kissed her on the cheek, "innocent Jenny wouldn't be innocent much longer."

Just then, they heard the main door of the house open.

"Kids," Sally announced from the hall, "I'm home!"

Peter snapped his fingers and said, "Darn, what great timing!"

Jennifer giggled and touched her cheek where Peter kissed. "I guess innocent Jenny will stay innocent for a little while more."

Peter helped Jennifer up from the bed. "Okay, we need to get your mind off other things, or my fly will keep getting unzipped."

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's what you want," she replied with a smile.

"I know! Let's play a game of Bejeweled on the computer."

"How will that help?" Jennifer asked.

Knowing how competitive Jennifer could be, Peter kept quiet and brought up the high score page in the game.

Jennifer glanced at the screen and exclaimed, "What?! I don't believe you beat my high score! Move over buster, I'll push your name off the top of that list once more."

Peter smiled and scooted off, while Jennifer dropped down on the seat. Before long, she was engrossed in the game, waving off Peter's taunts.

"Argh," Jennifer cried out. "Time's running out!"

Peter grinned.

"Nevermind, I was just warming up. This time, I'll do it!" Jennifer said out loud, mostly to herself.

Peter stared at the screen for some time, watching as Jennifer methodically remove squares in the game.

"Hey Jenny," Peter called.

"Hang on," Jennifer replied. "Don't distract me while I'm beating your high score."

"I think I may have figured out the cube," Peter continued.

"Huh? What cube?" Jennifer answered, still focused on the game. "Oh!" She paused the game and turned towards the bed. "So," she asked, "what did you figure out?"

Peter pointed at the small engravings on the sides of the cube. "There are strange markings all over the cube, but I think there are repeats."

"What do you mean?"

"See, this symbol here appears many times, like here, here and here," Peter explained as he pointed around the cube.

"So?"

"Well, what if it's some sort of puzzle, where we have to remove the symbols by matching them?"

"Hmm," Jennifer said as she picked the cube up. "So if I press a number of them, they'll disappear?" She then touched three identical symbols with her fingers.

"Nothing seems to be happening," Peter noted. "Maybe I was wrong then."

"Since my mood is back to opening the cube, maybe we can try the spell again?" Jennifer suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

Jennifer flipped open the spell book to the 'Open' spell. She gasped.

"What's wrong, Jenny?" Peter asked.

"Look," Jennifer said as she pointed to the page. "The symbols here look like the ones on the cube."

"Why didn't we notice the symbols before?" Peter wondered.

"I noticed them in the book before, but I always thought it was just some strange language translation and ignored them."

"Maybe that's it," Peter suggested. "Maybe it is a translation, and the symbols are the original language of the book. So the spell for 'Open' is written this way," Peter continued as he traced the symbols on the page.

"Do you think we should touch the symbols on the cube the same way then?"

"Yeah," Peter said as he checked his fly again. "Let's do that."

Jennifer giggled as she saw Peter touching his fly. "Yep, your fly is done. Now let's see what happens."

Jennifer compared the symbols in the book, and methodically touched the corresponding symbols on the cube. When she was done, she heaved a sigh and stared at the cube.

Peter commented dryly, "Nothing's happening, that's not it after all."

"Wait," Jennifer said. "I feel tingly for some reason, maybe something is happening."

Jennifer watched the cube as it glowed briefly. Over the span of a few seconds, the cube shimmered and became less distinct, as if its edges were becoming fuzzy. Finally, the cube jumped up from Jennifer's palm and disappeared in a puff of smoke. A small roll of paper appeared as the puff of smoke dissipated and landed back onto Jennifer's still-open hand.