Marti and the Doppelganger
Chapter 2

 
Introduction: This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Charli and the Girl Cave, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling, Randi and the College Professor, Adam and the Three Wishes, Lisa and the Culinary Quest (aka Howard and the Completed pass), Cynthia and the Solicitous Sisters-in-Law, Cynthia and the Queen of the Knight, and Cynthia and the Dropped Ball. The time frame of this story follows about three to four years after Charli and the Girl Cave. This story takes place a little more than a year after Bobbie Anderson wins the (British) Open and about ten years after Simoné and the Second Time Around.

It turns out that Lanu is a rather special witch, and she demonstrates her powers to the two unpleasant girls. She may have done quite a bit to win the two over. Then, Marti begins to realize who Lanu is. This is big!

 

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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.

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Chapter 2
 
Making sure they were assigned together was not a problem, nor was it a problem to get Lily and Wanda in the same cabin with them. The two African American girls were also assigned to their cabin. It was all part of a plan that Marti was cooking up. The only problem was Marti wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do. She just knew she had to do something that brought out some positive results. Humiliating the two girls probably wouldn’t end with positive results. Of course, the two girls were not happy about being in the same cabin with two black girls and another foreigner from the South Pacific.

Part of Lily and Wanda’s problem was in their upbringing. No, that was not correct. The whole of their problem was their upbringing. They had been raised in an ultra-right wing environment and had never attended public schools. As far as their parents were concerned, Armenians, Latinos, Philipinos, Vietnamese and the rest were fit only to work in the fields and run restaurants.

Marti overheard Wanda talking to Lily about their roommates who at the moment were outside. “I’m going to the director. My parents didn’t send me to this camp to sleep in the same room with a couple of niggers. If we can’t get moved to another cabin I’m going to call my parents and have them come and get us out of here. I don’t like that other foreigner, either.”

“I agree,” Lilly replied. “Those niggers really creep me out.”

Marti approached the two. She knew she had to do something before things really got out of control. “Okay ladies, there are going to be a few rules around here. First of all, you will never use the “N” word again. Do you understand?”

“What the hell are you talking about? I’ll call them African Americans any time I want to. I mean I’ll call them black any time I feel like it,” Lily said rather angrily.

“What the fuck did you do to me?” she said when she suddenly realized she couldn’t say the “N” word.

“I just cleaned up your vocabulary a bit. We’re going to be here for two weeks, and I don’t want to have to break up a minor race riot. I want you to be nice to Tamesha and Tanya. You might learn quite a bit over the next few days.

“If you’re wondering how I can do this, I’ll tell you. We’re not going to have many secrets among us, anyway. Lanu and I are witches. You won’t be able to tell anyone that little bit of information. We’re young and really just learning what we can do, but I can assure you we can already do quite a bit. I caused your little accidents earlier today. You pissed me off just a bit. I’ll let both of you finish in the next couple of days so you don’t have to be bothered for the rest of our time here.”

“What a bunch of crap,” Wanda almost shouted.

“Keep it down,” Marti said rather strongly. “I’ve erected a wall of silence around the cabin, but I don’t think shouting like that is very ladylike.”

Lanu had been sitting quietly while watching what had been going on. “I have an idea, Marti. Let me do something that might convince them.”

Turning to Wanda she said, “You have a bit of acne there. What if I cured it for you?”

“Right, my folks have paid a fortune to the dermatologist, and he hasn’t been able to do a thing. Fat chance you could do anything for me. Besides, we’re going to be here for only two weeks.”

“Would you let me try?”

“Sure, go ahead. What do I have to lose?”

Lanu sat next to Wanda and gently ran her hand over her face.

“That feels good. What are you doing?

“Shhhh.”

After about a minute, Lanu stopped. “There, I think that’s much better. What do you think?” she said handing her a small mirror.

Wanda looked at her image, turning her head from left to right. “What did you do? This can’t be real,” she said as the tears began to flow. The cystic acne scars that had been there before were gone. Her complexion was flawless.

“Take off your shirt. I have a little bit more work to do. Your bra, too. We’re just girls here.” Wanda hesitated only briefly before she did what Lanu asked. Lanu ran her hands over Wanda’s shoulders, back and breasts. The results were the same. Her skin was as clear as it had been on the day she was born.

“You had a little hormonal imbalance: too much testosterone. I fixed that.

“Okay, let’s see what we can do for Lily.”

Lanu took her hands and looked her in the eyes. “You’ve been a bit careless, Lily. Unprotected sex at any age is not a good idea. I’ll clear this up, but you need to tell your boyfriend that he has chlamydia. That can really mess you up over time.”

“I don’t believe you,” Lily said defensively. “Ricky was a virgin just like I was. We gave ourselves to each other. We’re in love.”

“I doubt that on two counts. He doesn’t love you and he wasn’t a virgin. You don’t get Chlamydia from dirty toilet seats. Your, I hope soon to be ex-boyfriend has been around. There’s an old saying: a stiff prick has no conscience. You’re only fifteen for goodness sakes. Wait a while. The right guy is out there and he won’t press you for sex right off the bat. Please wait until you’re at least eighteen. You’ll be better prepared.” Lanu turned to Marti.

“Marti, let’s go for a walk. We have a while before it’s time for dinner.”

Their walk took them past the archery range and miniature golf course.

“That was very impressive,” Marti said as they sat on a log bench. “There aren’t many of us besides His Wisdom who can do things like that. My mother can and my oldest sister can. I imagine my nephew will be able to one of these days. He’s the next wizard.”

“Your nephew’s magic? I thought only women could be magic.”

“It almost reached that point; however, Mom carries the wizard gene and has passed it on to some of us on one of our “X” chromosomes.
My oldest sister Cindy’s husband as far as we know might be the last male to carry the wizard gene on the “Y” chromosome. The Wizard has it of course, but he has Kleinfelter’s Syndrome and is sterile. He can’t have any heirs. Cindy has a fifty-fifty chance of her sons being a wizard, and their first boy, Don, is one. Of course, he’s not in preschool, yet. He has a ways to go.

“How did you learn your healing powers? You really impressed me.”

“Great Gramma is a healer. She’s very good at it. When she first got to Samoa she fixed Great Grampa’s face. He had a horrid cleft pallet and hare lip. Great Gramma’s first husband died in a ship wreck. They were going to New Zealand. Great Gramma figured she’d just stay there. They were going to start over in New Zealand.”

“When did that happen?”

“1877”

“Your Great Gramma is how old?”

“She had her 206th birthday last year.”

“And she’s been there since 1877?”

“Yes, she stays pretty much alone. She makes people forget what she looks like after they come to her.”

“That can be fixed. I’ll have to show you how to do it. Do you have her picture?”

“Sure, here she is at her birthday party.”

Lanu handed her phone to Marti. “Oh my God, I know who she is. What was her name when she came ashore in 1877?”

“Margaret Simard.”

“We thought she was dead. No one has heard anything about her since she disappeared. Her daughters are good friends of all of us. One lives not far from us and the other lives in Romania with her husband/wife and children. We’re very close. Do you have any other pictures?”

“Sure. You can scroll through. We call her Great Gramma; however, there are several more ‘greats’ in front of that. Until Mom arrived, there hadn’t been any magic in our family. Obviously, Mother is magic, and since my sister and I are magic, we know daddy carries the magic gene inherited through Great Gramma’s children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. Based on what I’ve learned in biology, if I marry a carrier, my daughters will be magic.

Marti searched in her purse finally pulling out a cotton swab. “I want to get a DNA sample. If it shows what I think it will, this will be very exciting.” Lanu allowed Marti to swab her inner cheek.

“Don’t let this spook you. I need to talk to someone.”

“Okay.”

Marti quickly accessed her phone. “Your Wisdom, do you have a moment. I’m on to something really big. Would you let me work on it and not interfere unless I asked for help?”

“Certainly.”

“I have a cotton swab. Would you send it to Myrna and ask her to do a full workup on it. Please don’t tell anyone, and ask Myrna to send the results only to me.”

“That I will, Marti. Let me know if you need any help.”

“You know I will.”

Suddenly the swab that Marti was holding between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand disappeared.

“Let me show you some pictures. I think you’ll understand where I’m going with this in just a minute.” Marti accessed her picture file.

“Who does this look like?”

“She looks a lot like Great Gramma.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Now, who is this?”

“No way! How did you get that picture? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”

“Of course you haven’t. That’s not your mother.”

Wow! I have a feeling that most of you who are familiar with this series have a pretty good idea what’s going on. Marti knows, and it won’t take a second or two for Lanu to figure it out.