Not surprisingly, there is a small and decreasing population of witches in the New England area. Word about Cindy, Bobbie, and Randi is out there; thanks to publications like The Journal of Witchcraft and word of mouth, much initiated by The Wizard. The New England Coven holds a meeting in the girls’ home town, and they and their mothers are invited. Marissa and Sally find out who they really are, but Marissa probably knew for a long time. Maddy and her two students, Silky and Chloe, perform for everyone, and Randi is up to her usual tricks.

I decided to go on and post Chapter 5, also. There is not a lot of action; however, there is an important discussion concerning the event that led to Sally’s early mind erasure. This chapter is really the set-up for Chapter 6, which concerns a significant confrontation between Cindy and Bobbie.

If you haven’t read the previous stories about Cindy and how she arrived where she is now, you should probably read them. Start with An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, and Cynthia and the High School Years — Part 1. This story, the twelve chapters, completes the Cynthia Chronicles, Volume 1.

Part 2 is almost as long as part 1. It is 12 chapters and 27,500 words long. There are many more stories out there, and bits and pieces are being discovered almost every day.

I have researched the Spell’s—R-Us Universe diligently and cannot find anything that violates it, other than that The Wizard is a bit kinder and gentler than sometimes reported. Don’t get me wrong. Given an opening, The Wizard could resort to some of his more ironic and nasty transformations. I’m sure that could happen at any time.

Holly really took me to task this time due to my poor sentence structure and punctuation. She wields a firm ruler and isn’t afraid to use it; my poor knuckles. Thank you so much, Holly, for making this more readable!

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Chapter 4 — The meeting of the Coven. Mistakes and secrets revealed.

“Mom, there’s a little mother - daughter thing this Saturday night, and we’re invited. Cindy, Randi, and her mom will be there. We’d like for you to be there, too. You might meet some nice people.

“Does this have anything to do with all that magic stuff that you and Cindy are involved in?”

“Well, yes. The Wizard said he thought it would be nice if some of the families could get together once in a while. After all, we are a rather select group, and we have to work on the fringes as it is. It might give you an opportunity to meet some other families who have to deal with having magical offspring.”

“This is not like one of those Tupperware Parties is it? I don’t like going to those things, and then feeling obligated to buy something I don’t really need.”

“No, it won’t be like that at all. I think some folks will be coming in from Massachusetts and New York. It’s going to be like a mutual support group. We have a lot of responsibility, and this will give us a chance to talk about some of the problems we have to face?”

“How many non-magical people are going to be there?”

“I don’t really know. We’ll just have to find out when we get there. I think it will be fun. The Wizard is going to do a presentation on multiple object levitation. That should be interesting.”

It was October, and Bobbie and Andy had just spent most of the previous weekend together. Andy had caught a commuter flight from Winston-Salem for the Columbus Day Holiday and Bobbie had driven to Hartford to pick him up. He had been one of the first to get off the plane; however, the gate area was empty by the time their embrace ended. There had been a few tears of happiness. His single bag was by itself at the baggage carousel when they arrived to pick it up.

They spent Friday and Sunday nights with their families; however, they’d spent Saturday night at the same bed and breakfast they had gone to before school started.

True love is a precious thing, and Bobbie and Andy were very secure in their relationship. They had spent a wonderful weekend together before school had started, with their parents’ approval. They had held off making love for quite a while; however, they had known it was going to happen, and the consensus was that they were better off having a private weekend together, rather than sneaking off. It didn’t hurt to know that infallible birth control was being used thanks to The Wizard’s spell that Bobbie and Cindy were now practicing.

The mother/daughter meeting/get together was held in the club house of a local condominium complex. To everyone on the outside, it appeared to be a DAR meeting. And in all actuality, most of the attendees probably could have qualified for DAR membership if they’d cared to.

The Lewis’s and Schmedlaps were greeted at the door by Esmeralda Mather and Evelyn Alden, the two ladies who had brought the kittens to the animal shelter. Although the girls hadn’t been aware of it at the time, the two ladies were sisters.

Esmeralda and Evelyn introduced the Lewis’s and Schmedlaps to several groups of ladies. In all, there had to be about thirty present. It became quickly evident that Cindy, Bobbie, and Randi were the youngest there. The Wizard was talking with one group of ladies who seemed a bit in awe of the old master. They were equally in awe when he was greeted with hugs and kisses from the Schmedlaps and Lewis’s. Randi’s familiarity with him raised some eyebrows. Apparently, this sort of thing just wasn’t done; however, no one had bothered to inform the two families.

There was some sort of agenda, and Esmeralda herded the ladies to their seats. Evelyn took the floor. “Ladies, we have a very special evening in store for us tonight. I want to thank the representatives from Long Island, the Hudson River Valley, Greater Hartford, and western Massachusetts for being here. Unfortunately, the Boston representatives could not be here due to the untimely death of Margaret Hamilton this morning. I know many of you will be attending her funeral next Tuesday.

“This is a very special time for us. Today we are welcoming two families into our little association. In a time when our membership continues to decrease, it is so heartwarming to recognize Cindy and Randi Lewis, and Bobbie Schmedlap into the sisterhood. We never knew until a few years ago that there were three new members just learning to spread their wings in the noble art of witchcraft.

“Please also welcome their mothers, Marissa Lewis and Sally Schmedlap. We are so glad to have you here.”

Evelyn’s little speech was interrupted by the sound of a door opening and closing at the rear of the room. Neither Marissa Lewis nor Sally Schmedlap looked back; however, Bobbie and Cindy did. Bobbie gave a little gasp. It was Grandmother Naomi who put a finger to her lips as she sat at the back of the room, the wolf sitting at her side.

Evelyn continued. “Our latest census indicated there were 173 of us in the New England/New York area, and to find there were three new members in one city has been very exciting. Hopefully, we will find more before the conference in Salem next year.

“In addition to our new members, we are honored tonight to have in our presence the SRU Wizard and his companion, Wolf. His Wisdom will be discussing the art of multiple levitations. As you are well aware, our talents may be stronger in some areas than in others. For those of us who are not levitation specialists, learning how to do multiple levitations might prove to be very useful.

“We are also honored to have a special guest from Visalia, California, Naomi Ward, President of the Central California Coven. Naomi is Bobbie Schmedlap’s grandmother.”

Sally Schmedlap gave a startled turn toward the rear of the room. “Mother! What are you doing here?”

“Why, I came to see my daughter and granddaughter. We’ll talk later.”

“Obviously, this is a surprise for her family as well as for the rest of us,” Evelyn remarked. Then picking up where she had left off, “As I mentioned a moment ago, His Wisdom will be talking about the art of levitation. Not only is His Wisdom an expert on levitation, he has recently written monographs on “The Effects of Slow Transformations Versus Fast Transformations”, “Gender Change as a Disciplinary Tool”, and “The Proper Treatment of the Male Chauvinist”. All have gone into multiple printings.

“With that, I welcome His Wisdom, The SRU Wizard.”

There was light applause as The Wizard came forward accompanied by two chairs, a floor standing ashtray, and a coat rack.

He spent several minutes demonstrating and discussing how to partition spells to address multiple objects. He kept several objects suspended while at the same time, he imparted different motions to each. He had some rotating in place, while others were in various orbits around him.

Randi watched intently for a while before she went to the refreshment table. She retrieved eight chocolate chip cookies, and soon had them imitating the motions of the objects The Wizard was using for demonstration. Only Naomi and The Wizard picked up on what Randi was doing.

The Wizard placed the objects on the floor; then looked back at Randi. He didn’t smile, but winked at her. She got the message immediately. Saving two cookies, she sent the other six back to the tray at the refreshment table.

“Now, we need some volunteers for the next demonstration. Randi, if you would be my assistant, please bring those two ping pong balls that Gramma Naomi has to me.”

Randi, very pleased that she could be involved in something important, ran over to Naomi and grabbed the two ping pong balls. She raced up the aisle and handed them to The Wizard.

“Did you bring that other ‘thing’ I asked you to bring?”

“Yes, Your Wisdom.”

“Fine, bring it up here and put it on the table.”

Randi raced back to her seat, briefly rummaged through the small satchel bag she seemed to carry everywhere, and pulled out half of the pet door she had modified. She returned to the front, and The Wizard took it from her and placed it on the table. He had Randi stand to one side.

“As some of you are aware, Randi is a rather talented young lady. This is half of the pet door she constructed a while ago. You may have read about it in my article in The Journal of Witchcraft last fall.”

He turned to the door. “Are you ready, Maddy?”

“Yes, Your Wisdom.” Maddy’s sweet little voice came through the door. She, followed by Silky and Chloe, popped through the door, and sat quietly on the table, drawing several gasps of surprise from some in the audience.

“For those who haven’t met her, Maddy is Cindy’s associate, Chloe is Bobbie’s, and Silky is Randi’s. Maddy is very proficient at levitating, and she is an excellent instructor. They are going to demonstrate with these ping pong balls some of the things she has been teaching the two kittens.

“The floor is yours, Maddy.”

Maddy and the kittens put on a very entertaining demonstration for several minutes. They had the balls going all over the room, doing loops and drastic changes of direction. For their finale, Chloe and Silky played a very vigorous game of ping pong on the ping pong table, never touching the balls. When the game was over, they received a nice round of applause. The three, cat and kittens, stood on their hind legs and bowed to the audience. Maddy then shooed the kittens through the door and followed.

“Now, for the final demonstration, I would like two volunteers. I think Sally Schmedlap and Marissa Lewis will do nicely.”

The two looked questioningly at each other, but stood and came slowly forward. The Wizard had them stand at opposite sides of the table, facing each other. He then levitated a ping pong ball about two feet above the surface of the table.

“I am going to hold the ball at its current level. I want both of you to concentrate on the ball. You may close your eyes if you want. I want you to imagine its weight and feel. I’m sure you’ve played ping pong in the past, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“Now, Marissa, try to imagine that you are pushing the ball. It might help to think that it is on a slope. Imagine that it is on this slope and that you are pushing it towards Sally. Just feel the ball in your mind. Feel that dry, slick surface. Sense how light it is. Now, just gently push it. The ball is very light, isn’t it?”

Slowly, the ball began to move towards Sally. Marissa was watching the entire time. If anyone had noticed, a little smile was showing at the corners of her mouth. The ball stopped about a foot in front of Sally.

“Okay, Sally, I want you to do the same thing Marissa did. I want you to imagine, no, I want you to sense the ping pong ball. I want you to sense how light it is, how easy it is for the slightest breeze to move it. Pretend your thoughts are that breeze. Now, just push the ball down the slope towards Marissa.”

“Why, I can’t do anything like that. I’m just Bobbie’s mother.”

“And, Naomi’s daughter,” The Wizard added.

Sally suddenly panicked. She looked at Evelyn, and then at her mother, who just smiled back at her daughter. “Mother, you’re a witch?”

“Yes dear, as Evelyn said, I am the President of the Central California Coven. Why don’t you try to do what The Wizard said? You’re doing pretty well so far.”

“I’m not doing anything. The Wizard’s doing that.”

“I’m not doing anything, Sally. You’ve been controlling the ball ever since Marissa turned control over to you. Go ahead, give it a little push. Just feel it in your mind. Remember Newton’s Law of Motion. Once you start it rolling, it won’t take much to keep it going. The only resistance you will feel is due to the air.”

Sally looked at the ball, and it slowly started to move towards Marissa, picking up speed.

“Push it from the side a little, so it goes around Marissa.”

The ball started to deflect a bit to the right. As it passed Marissa, she reached out and grabbed it with her left hand.

“What are you doing? I mean, why are you telling me that I am doing this?”

“For the simple reason you are, my darling daughter,” Naomi said while pulling Sally into a hug. “You are one of us, and always have been: just as Marissa is. We’ve known about both of you for quite a while. I’ll explain everything to you in a while.”

“That’s why you knew about Bobbie, the way she was before. I knew there was something strange there.

“How did you get here? I mean, I talked to you this afternoon, and you were in Visalia.”

“We came with His Wisdom. We met him at the Mall, and he brought us here in his shop. Your father is down the hall watching a football game. We thought we would surprise you with a visit. We’re going to have dinner at the Lewis’s tomorrow. Then we will go back to Visalia tomorrow evening with His Wisdom.”

“What’s going on, Mom?”

“Well, for now, you just need to know that you and Marissa are witches, too. We’ll explain everything later. Right now the only thing that matters is for you to realize you are part of a very special group, and that you are very welcome.”

Evelyn had a few more remarks, and announced the next meeting would be in Providence, Rhode Island. After the meeting was adjourned, the other ladies lingered to welcome Sally, Marissa, and their daughters. Warm hugs were shared by all.

Chapter 5 — A very pleasant dinner

“Cindy, you have no idea how much you mean to us. You have been a catalyst for so many things. When Sally called us and said that that someone was harassing Bobbie about her being transgendered, and had given her a gift certificate from the Spells ‘R’ Us shop, we didn’t know what to say. I had carefully avoided any discussion of magic around Sally.

Then you show up and wanted to give Bobbie the one thing she desired the most. It brought me out of my shell, my self imposed exile, so to speak.”

“Mom, it wasn’t your fault. How were you to know that I would pick up your spell book and do what I did? Besides, I’m learning things already. The primer His Wisdom gave me has been very helpful.”

“Sally, what parent leaves a loaded gun sitting on the dining room table? I violated so many rules. I couldn’t believe it when I heard an infant crying. There you were crying like a newborn. You had forgotten everything. It took six months before you started talking again, and nearly a year before you were toilet trained. We were lucky you lost only a year of school.

“I finally went to His Wisdom to tell him what happened. If anyone around here should have been turned into a toad, it should have been me. Of course, he knew who Bobbie was, and steps were being taken for a transformation even before Cindy got involved.

“That was when we found out what sort of stuff Cindy was made of. The Schmedlap family, like the Lewis family, is blessed in that all the members carry the magic trait. That’s why they could read the certificate. That was why everyone had to agree that Bobbie could try to redeem the certificate. But it took Cindy’s perseverance to make it happen.

“We were so happy when it did happen, and I couldn’t resist later that year telling Sally how beautiful and happy Bobbie was. She gave me a funny look, because I wasn’t supposed to know. I guess it was six years ago when I gave Bobbie her first set of adult golf clubs. I know she never told you that I was in Visalia when I did it. I believe she told you they came by UPS.”

The two families were sitting around the extended dining room table at the Lewis’s home. Randi and the two youngest members of the families were down in the recreation room playing video games. Randi had promised not to use any magic to affect the outcome of the games. The Wizard was sitting at the place of honor, and Don and Cindy were sitting across from each other at the far end on either side of Stan Lewis.

Bobbie’s brothers were there, too. The Wizard had made arrangements for his shop to be in a mall near where they went to school. They just showed up, walked through to the back of the shop and out the service door into the mall in Cindy’s home town, where Bobbie was waiting for them in the parking lot. It was all very convenient.

The last few months had been … well, to say they had been interesting for Donald Brewer would be an understatement. For the last seventeen years of his life he had grown up in a wonderful environment with his adoptive family. He had traveled all over Europe, thanks to his father’s being in the military. He had a nice, well as nice as little brothers could be, brother and a sweet little sister. His brother had come from the same town he had, and had been abandoned like he had. His sister was Vietnamese, with probably Afro-American ancestry.

He loved his life and was looking forward, like his entire family, to settling down in one place, and not be subject to the whims of the military. Like many boys and young men of his age, he fantasized about women and sex. He had dated frequently, and had, like most boys, experimented with how far he could go. He found out rather early, that with his Latin good looks, athletic ability, and affable personality, that he probably could have had his way with just about any young girl he wanted. Yet there always seemed to be something holding him back. He just couldn’t connect. Somewhere between second and third base was as far as he wanted to go.

The something bothering him was the image of a young woman. She was beautiful beyond anyone he had ever met, tall, golden blonde, and rather well endowed. She appeared in his dreams, and it was obvious that she loved him. She was warm and affectionate, never demanding. They were very close, equals on all levels, and although they never went as far as having intercourse, his dreams of her frequently had ended with a wet dream.

Then, about half way through the previous summer he’d run into The Wizard at Tyson Corner #2 while shopping for a computer game. Within seconds, his life in a parallel universe had been revealed to him. He had been a young woman, Donna, whose life had been turned upside-down by a series of tragic events. Then she had met Cindy, and fallen in love with her, as Cindy had with her.

She had met The Wizard, and he eventually told her about the paradox that was developing. There was only one solution that would allow her to remain with Cindy, and that was to come back as the boy that she was inside, something that had always bothered Donna. That was something that had not dominated her life as a woman; however, the thought had been there. With Bobbie’s support, Donna agreed to go back, become Don, and grow up so that he could return to Cindy. Her universe as Donna would disappear.

In spite of the Wizard’s and Bobbie’s assurances, Don had had some doubts that Cindy would accept him. After all, they had had a very intense and loving relationship as women: a relationship that had been accepted by all close to them.

His family had moved to Cindy’s city where they had purchased a home. His father was going to work for the company that Cindy’s father co-owned with several others. Don had quickly found a group of young men who played soccer, many of them of European and Latin American origin. During the summer there seemed to be a pickup soccer game going almost every morning, and Don fit right in.

On that fateful Saturday morning, he convinced his parents to come down to the park to watch him and his new friends play. Just as The Wizard had promised, Cindy showed up with Bobbie, and they sat next to his family. She was beautiful to the point of being a distraction. He could see that she was watching him rather intently. He could also sense her unhappiness. Finally, the opportunity was there. The ball went out of bounds right in front of her.

It was probably a bit cruel, but he couldn’t resist, he was so damn happy that she was there, and because he had talked about her and Bobbie with his family, he had to introduce the two to them. Needless to say, the shock Cindy suffered when she realized who he was, was not expected. Cindy fainted, but The Wizard arrived to ease her back to consciousness, and prevent what Don found out a bit later would have been an over the top emotional reaction on Cindy’s part.

Cindy’s acceptance of him was seamless, just what The Wizard and Bobbie had said it would be. What’s more, all of his close friends from his previous life accepted him, too. Their lives, and his picked up with hardly a hiccough. There was one difference. They were not quite as sexually intimate as they had been before. That would happen soon enough, without a doubt, and he already felt that Cindy’s parents were not going to prevent their consummating their love. Just when it would happen was entirely up to Cindy. He wasn’t worried about it at all, because he was certain nothing would ever come between them.

There were the lingering thoughts about what this whole thing was about, and the group had discussed it several times. Cindy’s mother had said the same thing. There was so much going on that they didn’t understand. They knew they were being manipulated. The magical world had gone through too much trouble to make sure Cindy and Don could be together. For that matter, Andy and Bobbie’s relationship might have been influenced, too. There just seemed to be too much interest in both of the families: too much concern.

Cindy continued to work hard on her academics. She found that regardless of her previous education, much had changed. Many of the high school courses she was taking were as advanced as the college courses she had taken in her previous life. She had made up her mind that she was going to go the pre-med route when she went to college.

Bobbie was going to major in psychology and counseling. She had determined that she would probably turn pro as a golfer very soon. Her experience in her first pro tournament had convinced her that she had what it took to play professional golf. She knew she could win. She also knew that she was going to go at least one step further. She was going to compete on the men’s tour, and she was going to also win there.

A number of other things kept Bobbie focused. She and Andy had agreed they would get married before they finished college. Wake Forest was already making scholarship offers to her, and she was pretty sure that was where she would go to school. She and Andy would live together, that was without question. Bobbie determined that she would play golf, if successful, only into her early thirties. She might play some after that, but she was going to concentrate on her family and career as a guidance counselor. She and Andy were going to have a family, and they weren’t going to let her professional golf career override that. She made that very clear. She also felt that if Cindy’s career went the way she thought it would, that they would probably work together.

It looked more and more as if Cindy and Don would be going to Boston College for their undergraduate work. Don felt he would try for Harvard Law, and Cindy felt she would try to go to medical school there as well, but that was still many years in the future. There were more immediate concerns.

Next time: I am tired of the agony, so I will post the remaining chapters two or three at a time. Chapter 6: Bobbie confronts Cindy about Cindy’s reluctance to take the next step with Don. She makes a very convincing argument. Meanwhile, Marissa wields a little magic of her own. Cindy is going to have a little brother or sister.

Chapter 7: Avery Mankowitz is brought into the circle of friends. The cats demonstrate some of their magical ability. Avery remembers Donna.