A Peculiar Party ~ Part Five

“Okay.  We can’t read the plaque or reclaim Betty’s necklace.  Not yet, anyway.  Let’s go over what has happened since that night.  What have you noticed?”

“Well, we can pop about like strobe lights . . . into scenes and out of them.”

“Like Betty did earlier!”

“Yes.”

“Describe the sensation for me.  As best you can.”

“I suspect it’s a bit like time travel.  But only in the NOW.”

“Place to place.  Not time to time.”

“Yes.”

“Makes sense given the plaque’s word choice:  The sands of time be not stilled.”

“The best we can tell, the spell affects the time-space continuum, but only the space axis.”

Wikipedia ~ Merlin (in Public Domain)

“So you haven’t popped back in time to visit King Arthur or . . .”

Freddie finished the thought.  “Or Merlin.”

“Ah . . .  Merlin would be the one to see.”

“Indeed he would.”

“When you say ‘we’ . . . just you and Betty?”

“Teddy too.”

“Teddy?”

Freddie looked apologetic.  “I touched him when we got back that night.”

“And that was enough?”

“Yes.  What we touch, changes.  And not always in predictable or pleasant ways.  Fortunately Teddy is still steady.”

I looked around at unweeded beds.  “Is that why the garden is untidy?”

“Yes.  We haven’t gardened.  We don’t want to turn this space into a second Magic Kingdom with singing flowers and dancing palms.”

“Good thinking.  One Magic Kingdom is enough.”

I leaned back against Flipper’s tail to consider Freddie’s tale, “That’s why Teddy offered me an imaginary cocktail from an empty tray.”

Freddie nodded.  “If Teddy had mixed you a cocktail, it might have been as volatile as a Molotov ~ anything from the nectar of the gods to toxic waste.”

“A sludge smoothie.”

“We haven’t figured out how to predict IT yet . . . whatever IT is.  We’re still in the dark.  Hence the S.O.S. to you.”

“Give me a few examples.  If Teddy had fixed me a drink, what would have happened to the glass?  If you know.”

“We never know exactly.  But, if you picture the dancing teapot in Beauty and the Beast, you’ll be on the right dance floor.”

“Really?  So . . . have all your pots flipped their lids?”

“No.  We haven’t eaten since that night.”

“Nothing!?”

“Not a thing.  We can drink from the fountain.  It provides full nourishment . . . but I miss chewing.”

“Rather like being on a juice fast, eh?”

“Yes.”  He chuckled.  “Betty is delighted.  She’s never hungry AND she’s losing weight.  As far as she’s concerned, it’s the perfect diet.  She feels younger and more energetic than she has in years.”

“Almost like having your own fountain of youth.”

“Almost.  In fact, Betty’s gotten a bit vain.”

“I noticed her eyeing the mirror as she passed by.  It seemed out of character.”

“She’s feeling rather like the Belle of the Ball.”

“She’s Belle and you’re . . .”

“. . . the Beast!”

I continued considering, doing most of my thinking out loud so Freddie could correct any misapprehension on my part.

“If you can’t fix food or serve drinks, it’s rather hard to entertain.  That’s why there are no other guests tonight.  And your King Midas Touch is why you couldn’t get me a chair.”

“Yes.”

Wikipedia ~ Contract Bridge (in Public Domain)

“Could I have gotten a chair myself?”

“Most are out of commission ~ any that we’ve sat in are off doing their own thing.”

“Such as?”

Freddie grinned.

“Most seem to enjoy a good game of Bridge.”

To be continued . . . 

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