And besides, I’m doing much better, thank you very much!
Mom’s writing another book, but this time, it’s a memoir of her true love, my
Dad, and the dreadful things my grandmother, Witch Viola has done to keep them
apart. That’s the tragic news which you’ll hear about soon.
The good news? We’re
still living on Puddledock Road. And I’m still at Lincoln Middle School!
And this is the first time we haven’t moved in as long as I have been
alive, which is twelve years! And, bonus, that snot-nosed Witch, my nasty
grandmother, Witch Viola, is out of our lives for good!... or at least for now.
…or at least I thought so, until Mom set me straight. My witchy
grandmother left on a broom, the first time! And the second time, before she
left, she told me that my father was still alive! I’m not exaggerating! If you
don’t believe me, just ask my two best friends, Jamal, and Lils. They can tell
you stories that will curl your hair, or uncurl it, depending!
Seriously, can you imagine how shocking it would be if you
found out that your grandmother was a witch? And that she has thrown
your father into a ripple in time- for all eternity? To separate your
father from his one true love, your Mom?
That’s exactly what happened to me! Truth is scarier than any
novel, says my Mom. And then, I find out in a shocking way, that I have inherited
Witch Viola’s powers? And that she is jealous of me!
Mom moved us to this haunted, run-down Puddledock Road last
year, so she could write her famous novel. That wasn’t the real reason though-
but you’ll find out soon enough! Well, the whole school was shocked to find out
that anyone would even think of living on that haunted street! Let alone with a
child! Cross my heart! It was haunted.
But in the meantime, ‘I suffered greatly!’ At least, that’s how Mom would have explained
it, in her mystery novels. She’d be more dramatic and flamboyant--another word
for you to look up. I’m serious! I‘ve got the vocabulary of a twelfth-grader ‘cause
Mom made me study the dictionary from the time I could take my first
step! “Learn a word a day,Veronica, and it will pay off some day when you
need to express yourself,” says Mom. She still says it, even now that I am
about to become a seventh grader, along with my best friends, Jamal and
Lily-Lou. Mom always says, There’s a little bit of magic in knowing your own
power. I thought she meant
vocabulary. But, nope! There are hidden messages in all the sayings she’s
passed down to me. I now know about double meanings!
Newsflash: Did I forget to tell you that I am
a genius? I am. All thanks to
Mom, and her great thirst for vocabulary –I’m being sarcastic, of course--! It’s all rubbed off on me! Even the magic
part!
Being a genius doesn’t hurt either! I can outthink anyone,
except maybe, Jamal! And did I mention I’m a witch, too? That’s a Double
Newsflash. One day you know nothing about your life and where
you came from, and the next day—poof!! You’re a witch! Go figure!
My best friends actually found an ancient book, dating back
to 1100 AD, in Mom’s writing sanctuary a few months ago. It’s called
a Grimoire, a witches’ book, just
like something out of a Harry Potter movie. They didn’t tell me about it until…later! In
fact, I used some of the magic spells and potions, just in time to fix the Terrible Troubles
at Lincoln Middle School. It came in handy, and it worked! The Grimoire
is called, “The Powers’ Book of Spells and Potions”. It’s an ancient
family book passed down through centuries by the Powers’ Coven. Each generation
wrote down spells and potions in their own handwriting that would be useful in
situations that needed fixing.
and potions written in cursive by my grandmother, Witch Viola. You remember? -- that nasty snot-nosed lady who keeps running away from me? Well, her! And the potions and spells worked! My grandmother left me her beautiful, ornate (‘fancy’, for those of you who need to find your vocabulary) mirror. It stands about six feet high by three feet wide, and honestly-- you can’t see your reflection in the mirror. I call it my wishing mirror, ‘cause I don’t care to see my image in any mirror, but I do like to day-dream or wish-dream into it… to ponder about important things.
But it’s really not a mirror at all! It’s magic! It’s a
real, honest-to-goodness portal to other time-space continuums. I can travel to
the fourth dimensions of time. Time is fickle and the minutes in another
dimension click by slowly and deliberately, and time and space collide in the
most unusual ways, and nothing in these other wrinkles in time make sense, no
matter which way you travel. I can time travel to the future or the past.
I always knew I had a sixth sense, that gut-feeling, that
magnetic pull that helps me solve
problems. My name is Veronica Danger
Powers, known by my friends as Danger-Girl! I thought Mom had
gone bonkers-- when she named me that hot-mess of a name. I thought it
was a cruel joke, a concoction of weird words strung together. Mom has an
imagination that allows her to be one of the top writers in the universe! But she never would tell me why she’d named me??...a…crazy…name…like…that!
Newsflash: I hated my name for almost
twelve years, until I learned, it actually had some meaning.
It wasn’t some crack-pot name Mom picked out of one of her
novels. The kids in all the schools I went to, which were exactly six schools
in seven years, always made fun of my name, as soon as they heard it: Veron-ick-a
Danger Powers! The teacher would practically scream it out each year as she
assigned seats the first day of school. I think I even saw the teacher smirking
behind my back! And one year, one of the bully-boys in class got everyone to
call me icky all year long. That was the longest year of my twelve
years on this Earth! Well, needless to say, I tried everything I knew, from
being nice, which comes hard for me, to giving that bully a black eye—which
landed me in detention for a solid week! He got nothing! Did you even hear me?
He got away with it! Until I finally used my genius brain and came up with a
nickname that scared the daylights out of everyone, including the teacher. My
secret! It worked. He shut up! That was the deal! And I haven’t seen or heard
from him in three years now!
Newsflash: I absolutely love my name now.
Let me tell you why!
It’s only been a
couple of months since my nasty witch of a grandmother magically popped out of
the oval mirror and gave me a lesson about just where my name came from! I wanted to hug her, but
nasty witches don’t like to be hugged, so I backed off. Turns out my middle name, Danger, is a
family name. I’m named after Witch Viola’s middle name! Viola Danger
Puddledock (Viviano--her married name, first of four husbands).
And bonus, her son is my father, Lord Talon Powers, a
powerful witch from the Powers’ Coven of witches. I also know my father can
turn into a very powerful bird of prey and snatch up unsuspecting people or
objects, by extending his Talons and gripping his prey. But he doesn’t really
need to use that magic—at all! Yet! That’s my Grandmother’s son, my Dad.
I get the feeling that Witch Viola knows more than she’s
letting on, though. She’s nasty to Mom, but Mom tries to please her anyway,
which is why we moved back, I think, to Puddledock Town, to be closer to Witch
Viola. Then the witch keeps moving away on us! I sometimes see Mom crying in
the garden, when she’s tending to the wildflowers she planted now that we
bought grandmother’s old house. Something’s not right there. Isn’t a Mom
supposed to love her children, even if it is her daughter-in-law? And me? Her
only granddaughter?
And this last time, my ugly, snotty old grandmother, appeared
as my next-door neighbor, with a make-believe husband. She fooled me for a
while, I have to admit. Until the cute, round old lady baked her famous
Chocolate Chip cookies that were outright addicting to eat—they’re so yummy. Just
like… Witch Viola’s chocolate chip cookies. I think I suspected who she was
right then and there.
Did I mention that Jamal loves, loves, loves her
cookies, witch or not! But then again,
Jamal loves anything that’s food! He’s the most interesting boy in all of
sixth, I mean, soon-to-be, seventh grade! He’s won the county science fair for
two years in a row, and his project on some kind of astronomy-thingy won second
place at the State contest. The first-place winner was a high school student!
He’s the smartest kid I know, almost as smart as I am. But don’t tell him, ‘cause
he already thinks he’s my equal. He takes photography courses at the local
community college and is the best basketball player in middle school, besides,
Iggy, our new neighbor on Puddledock Road. But Iggy is in high school now, and
so Jamal is top dog again! He’s short for his age, but I swear with all the
food he shovels down his throat, he’s growing in front of my eyes.
And then there’s my other best friend, Lils or Lily-Lou as
we sometimes call her, short for Lily Louise. Everything matches. She’s always
on some kind of diet, but she always looks beautiful to me. She’s what I call a
fashionista! She’s the best dressed kid at LMS! And she’s trying to get me to
go shopping with her this summer. Nope! I still don’t want to have any part of
that.
Lils is smart and nerdy, and her red hair and freckles make
me smile! She’s a true friend, and insists on honesty and loyalty from me and
Jamal. She means well. Give me a clean pair of jeans with some holes here and
there for design, of course, a Panthers’ basketball tee and I’m good. I
don’t and I repeat, I don’t wear my clothes twice anymore,
once right side out, and the next day, inside out! Imagine a Mom teaching her
only daughter to do that and be the laughing stock of every single school she
has attended? …The kids only said those things behind my back, but since I am a
lip-reader, I could understand every single word. Those aren’t real friends at
all! But Lils, well, straightened me out
on that little problem! And that’s a big step for me, one that Lils made me
stop doing.
Newsflash: I’m still mad at you, Mom! Your
words still sting. “No use washing your clothes more than you absolutely
have too,” said Mom for almost my entire life!
Well, no more! Lils has figured out my wardrobe for the next
year! I can’t keep up with her! I promise to wear what she tells me too, but I
always change right away back to jeans and a tee!
Double Newsflash: Don’t worry, Mom, you’re
not making Mother-of-the-Year, anymore… ‘cause I wash my own clothes and most
nights make us dinner! I have for the last three years. And, what do you
do? Write! That’s it! Day and night! You’re a great writer, I’ll
admit, but you can’t do that writing stuff all the time! You’re obsessed! Get
a life, I scream, but only in my own head.
I wouldn’t dare be disrespectful to my Mom. She is a
stickler for politeness. She’s all I’ve got since Dad left us when I was a
baby. Mom wouldn’t say why! And I thought I had a grandmother, who
re-appeared next door, disguised as a chubby, old grandmother. My gut was
right! She turned out to be Witch Viola. I went over to see her about a month
ago, to get more of those Chocolate Chip cookies, and all her furniture was
cleared out and --poof! Out the window she flew. I’m exaggerating. I
didn’t actually see her fly out the window, but I know she pissed me off ‘cause when I got back home, I found a
note scrawled on the oval mirror, the ornate one (look it up, yet?) The note
said: It’s not the Power of Two; It’s the Power of You! Scrawled
in her awful handwriting that I’d recognize anywhere.
Like I said at the beginning, I’m not going to start at the
beginning. And I didn’t! That’s the past. There’s no time left. We’re talking
magic here. And a story of two powerful witches (hint: I’m one). You just won’t
believe this story--until you do—believe, because it did happen.
Want to know what snot-nosed Viola is up to!? She’s taken my
Dad away from my Mom, and I’m the only one who can find him
somehow. Mom sat me down and told me this. Imagine the shock? Mom said, “It’s all about magnetic portals
which are small and short-lived and which open and close without warning.” And did I mention portals in other time
dimensions can open and close dozens of times each day, and when they
open, I must be totally observant as they project auroras, which bubble up in
the skies over Puddledock Road. Am I dreaming? Mom told me and she never lies!
Newsflash: I hope, simply, that you will
believe me! This kind of stuff cannot be made up!
My best friends are willing to risk their lives to help me
find my Dad. That’s true friendship! And I’m at war with that snot-nose, old
grandmother of mine, Witch Viola. She as much as challenged me when she
scrawled, It was always the Power of One, on my wishing mirror.
skillful. Now, that’s the greatest threat to Witch Viola who has tossed my Dad a few ten thousand kilometers from Earth where the geo-magnetic field meets the on-rushing solar wind. The magnetic portals—and there are hundreds of them in the universe, leave ripples in their wake. They’re invisible, unstable, and elusive. They open and close without warning. And this is the most frightening part. I might never have another chance to save my Dad. And…
Newsflash: And… I’m… willing to place my life and
the lives of my two best friends in danger by traveling through these hidden
portals in the earth’s magnetic fields to find the one ripple in time through
which my Dad is a captive for all eternity!
