A False Heart
Thaumatophyllum xanadu
The house bristled. Its front door whined on rusty hinges and scraped the floor as it opened, pushed by a man carrying a video camera and shouldering a heavy backpack. His hesitant footsteps on its sagging hardwoods forced the house to remember better days. Like a nervous tick, broken memories of laughter and games of hide-and-seek twitched through rotted walls with every step. And somewhere in the dark, its heart beat. It was a strange, false heart, dried out and green, as thin as tissue paper. So frail it could crumble at the slightest touch.
“Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty!”
“I’ve been dying to get into this place to record. And I know you guys have been requesting it forever, but I’m finally here and I’ve got something epic planned.”
“Ready or not, here I come!”
Portia’s hand shook as she brought the scrap of paper out to show to Connie. The page was yellowed and scrawled in a messy hand.
“I found it in the woods.”
“So?”
“Look at it,” Portia pushed the page toward Connie. “Be gentle, it’s old,” she said, the fragile page resting on her upturned palms. Connie pinched a corner and held the page up to her face as though it might be diseased.
“I can’t really read it. Can you?”
“It took me hours, but I think I figured it out.” Portia handed a looseleaf version to her sister and took back the original. Connie groaned.
“This is loooong.”
“It’s not even one page! Geez you’re lazy.”
“Just tell me what it says.” Connie fell back onto her sister’s bed, launching the looseleaf page into the air. Portia scowled and snatched it.
“It’s a spell, from a witch.”
Connie snorted.
“It is! It’s about this plant you can use to make crazy stuff happen around you.”
“What plant?”
“It’s got a long name, I don’t know how to say it. Thaumsomething exanadu,” Portia tried her best to sound out the plant’s scientific name.
“Oooh, it’s pronounced zanadu, and there’s one out in the back. Grandma talks about it all the time, it’s like, her baby or something. You’d know that if you ever came out of that forest and hung out with her.”
“I have to go into the forest, how else would I find cool stuff? Plus grandma doesn’t like me as much as you.”
“You’re dumb. Grandmas love all their grandchildren equally, she just doesn’t know how to relate to you. There’s a difference. If you spent less time in the forest, you’d probably have better social skills and know that already.”
Portia was quiet, weighing her love of the forest against the desire to be closer to her grandma, whom she only saw for a couple weeks every summer. And would see for only for a few more days at that. But the forest, too… she only had a few more days with the forest as well. Then it would be back to the city and its manicured parks and playgrounds. And constant supervision. Her eyes drifted out the window to the pines stretching as far as she could see. Could she help it if they seemed to call to her?
“Ok,” was all she could distill her busy thoughts down to. “Connie, can we do the spell?”
“You really are dumb, magic isn’t real.”
“So it won’t matter if we do it, just for fun?”
It was Connie’s turn to scowl, “I guess not. But it’s dumb, I just want to state that for the record.”
“I’ll jot it down!” Portia jumped up from the bed. “Tonight! Tonight! Let’s do it tonight!” She hopped up and down as she shouted.
Connie rose more slowly and went to the door of her sister’s room.
“Fine, tonight, but it better not take long,” she mumbled as she left.
Portia knelt on her grandma’s intricate Persian rug waiting for Connie. She had both the original spell and her transliterated copy laid out before her. On the yellowed, thin page she’d found in the forest lay a small bit of leaf, rounded on one end and jagged on the other where she’d torn it from the plant outside. It was no bigger than a nickel. Through the open windows crickets chirped and jasmine pushed its intoxicating perfume.
Connie walked in, her feet bare and her face a disbelieving smirk.
“Ok ya dope, let’s get this over with.”
“It’s gonna work,” Portia grinned, oblivious to her sister’s doubt. She picked up the bit of leaf and held it in her palm. “This spell is really easy, all you have to do is activate the plant.”
“Activate it? Is this spell or a credit card?” Connie rolled her eyes.
“What’s a credit card?”
Connie shrugged, “It’s how Mom buys stuff when she doesn’t want dad to know.”
Portia nodded, “Maybe Mom can explain it better, then.”
Connie rolled her eyes.
“Ok, this spell is super easy, no gross stuff at all. And then weird stuff should start happening, like the walls turn to marshmallows and the crickets giggle instead of chirp and stuff. It’s gonna be so fun.”
“How do you know what’s in other spells?”
“Internet. Now shush. I hope this works, some of the words were big and I had to look up how to say them.”
Connie sat back on her heels and watched as Portia picked up the small bit of leaf from its resting place on top of the spell. She blew on it gently then recited the words scrawled on the page.
“Hello dreamer Asleep, but waking Clutch the ephemeral The gossamer of figment And drag it with you To the daylight”
Portia looked up at Connie.
“What, that’s it? I had to come down here for that?” She stood. “You’re so-“