A-Sides

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  “Lisa?”

  Jenny stood in Lisa’s bedroom doorway, small and pale, her blond hair laying like a loose sheaf of straw on her shoulders. She held a tiny, silver pinwheel that would throw off magical rainbows when held up to the wind and light. Lisa was brushing her hair crossly when she turned and caught sight of Jenny.

  “I didn’t tell.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Lisa rasped, her voice a sandpapery croak. “I know it was you.” She cast a look towards the corner where her now untorn and unspotted bride’s maid dress hung from a hook. The broken high heels were miraculously whole, and the construction of the shoes themselves seemed to have changed from gaudy plastic to soft, dyed leather.

  “You think you can buy me off with this fucking fairy godmother routine? I don’t know how you do this shit, but it ends tonight. I’ll make you wish you’d never learned to talk.”

  “You won’t,” Jenny said softly, her eyes conferring the look a judge gives to a convicted felon. She held the pinwheel up in front of her lips and gently blew on the silver leaves. They spun slowly, catching the light, gathering energy.

  Like a bolt from the blue, a bright flash issued from the pinwheel with a fizzing sound. The hairbrush in Lisa’s hand suddenly thickened and squirmed like a living thing. A limp, dead weight made her hand sag and it was only when looked that Lisa saw the triangular head and forked tongue of the viper in her face. The snake started to twine itself around Lisa’s neck and she heaved it away, falling on the floor at the same time with an unflattering thud.

  There was a second thump as the snake hit the floor. Lisa saw it start to slither away in its undulating “S”’s when, in a tenth of a heartbeat, the brown body contracted and rolled itself into a pink, plastic handle with black bristles. A perfectly ordinary hairbrush.

  Jenny watched, captivated by this potent magic. She smiled at Lisa, just as any little sister will smile with adoration at their older sibling. Then she walked away.

  Lisa watched her go, Jenny terrifyingly tall from Lisa’s vantage point on the floor. She seemed to hear buzzing in her ears and angry rumblings around her, but that was most likely from the thunderstorm trapped in the dome of her skull. Whatever it was that Jenny had, it had to be dealt with, sooner rather than later. Lisa would sneak up behind her if she had to, but she would put an end to it.

  She rose from the floor and looked at Jenny’s receding back thoughtfully, while somewhere behind her, she distinctly heard the low rumble of something chuckling with delight.