Enchantment Page 3

  Relief filled his face. “Ah. That is better.”

  Holly frowned, worried. “Are you sure no other—spirit, or creature, could be stealing your power?”

  “I know of none who could.”

  “But something is.”

  He nodded, looking troubled. “Something has weakened me.”

  Holly bit her lip. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

  She held out her hand. Ohlan raised his from the water to clasp it, cool and dry. He smiled at her, but the trouble remained in his eyes.

  “See you tomorrow,” Holly said.

  Reluctantly, she let go and stepped away. Ohlan lay back, closing his eyes. As his head disappeared beneath the water, Holly leaned forward, peering into the spring. He looked just as he had when she first saw him, peacefully asleep.

  She turned and strode away down the trail. Ohlan didn’t know what was causing his weakness. Holly had access to information he didn’t have, though. Next stop: the library.

  She rode her bike across town and got to the library by four o’clock. Dropping her books in the return slot, she made a beeline for the catalog terminals, and called up a search on “Enchantment Spring.” She had to add “New Mexico” to narrow the search down to relevant results.

  There weren’t many. A hiking guide to the mountains. A memoir, written in the fifties by someone who had come to Las Palomas when it was founded to work on a secret project for World War II. That one sounded interesting.

  Holly jotted down the call numbers, then hunted through the shelves until she found both books. She opened the memoir and started reading. The first line caught her attention:

  Before the war brought government operations to the vicinity, the mountains of Las Palomas had only their own more natural secrets.

  An electronic “bing” startled her out of her reverie. A woman’s voice came over a loudspeaker: “The library will close in fifteen minutes. Please bring your items to checkout now.”

  Fifteen minutes? Holly glanced at her watch. It was quarter to six. She was going to be late for dinner.

  “Crap!” she muttered as she grabbed up the books and her pack and hurried to get in line for one of the checkout kiosks.

  She had to bite her tongue to keep from telling off the people in front of her: a mother helping her two young daughters to check out their books themselves, which made it take forever. She glanced at the other kiosk, but the line there was four people deep.

  The family in front of her finally collected their books and left. Holly had her card ready and checked out her two books in less than thirty seconds. She slid them into her pack, slung it onto her shoulders, and dashed outside to her bike.

  ~ 3 ~

  Traffic was heavy, and by the time she got home it was almost six fifteen. Her mom was looking out the kitchen window as Holly coasted down the driveway. She stashed her bike and hurried into the house.

  “Hi, Mom! Sorry I’m late.” she called as she breezed through the kitchen to put her pack in her room. She came back and grabbed a handful of silverware to set the table.

  “Good day at the library?” Mom asked, picking up the salad bowl.

  “Hm? Oh, yeah. Found some interesting stuff.”

  She could hardly wait to get through supper so she could read what she’d brought home. She wolfed her pot roast and fidgeted in her chair while the others chatted about Madison’s college. To help pass the time she took another helping of salad, and pushed the lettuce around her plate, hunting out the goodies.

  At last everyone finished eating. Holly collected the plates and took them to the kitchen, rinsed them and left them in the sink. As she dried her hands, Mom walked in.

  “Strawberry shortcake for dessert,” she said, opening the refrigerator.

  “Sounds great. Can I have mine later?”

  “Holly. Your sister is leaving tomorrow.”

  Mom’s voice had that tone—halfway between hurt and angry—that meant Holly wasn’t going to get away with skipping dessert. The family social hour had to be seen to completion.

  Making the best of it, she managed a smile. “Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot. How can I help?”

  Mom pulled a bowl of sliced strawberries from the fridge and handed it to her, gesturing toward the cookie sheet of fresh-baked cakes on the stove. “You can dish up the shortcake and put these on top while I whip the cream.”

  Holly got out plates and assembled shortcake and berries, then started a pot of coffee. Her mom smiled as she dished whipped cream onto the desserts.

  “Thanks, hon.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Holly picked up two of the plates and carried them out to her father and sister. Madison looked up with a smile.

  “Hey, kiddo—how’d you like to drive up to Boulder with me?”

  Holly’s heart clenched in dismay. The last thing she wanted was to leave town right now.

  “Don’t you have a lot to do? I mean, I’d just be in the way, wouldn’t I? You have to get ready for school—“

  “My first course doesn’t start until Wednesday. I could show you around the campus for a couple of days. You could check out the courses, maybe even meet some of the profs. There’s a good science program.”

  “I’ll spring for a plane ticket home,” Dad said, smiling.

  Wow. He must really want her to go.

  “Um, that’s really nice of you, Dad. Can I think about it?”

  “Don’t think too long. We should buy the ticket enough in advance so you don’t automatically get searched at the airport.”

  Mom came in with the other two dessert plates, along with forks. Appetite gone, Holly sat at her place and stared at the pile of berries and whipped cream in front of her.

  She so did not want to go to Boulder. Following her sister up there had zero appeal. If she had to go to college, she wanted her own school, away from all her family. Not that she didn’t love them, but she was ready to be on her own.

  She couldn’t think of an excuse not to go, though.

  No one was talking, she realized. They were all watching her. She picked up her fork and cut a bite of dessert, but it tasted like dust in her mouth.

  The coffee maker gurgled in the kitchen. Holly stood.

  “Anybody want coffee?”

  She busied herself with fetching mugs of coffee for her family, spoons, sugar bowl and half & half. By the time she settled back with her own mug, Madison had finished her dessert.

  “I’d better pack. May I be excused?”

  Mom nodded. “Sure, honey.”

  Mad stood and collected Dad’s empty plate along with her own. She kissed Mom’s cheek on her way to the kitchen, earning a smile.

  “Me too?” Holly asked.

  “You hardly touched your dessert.”

  “Guess I ate too much pot roast. Can I save it for breakfast?”

  Mom sighed. “OK, honey.”

  Holly did Mad one better and threw her ams around Mom’s neck, hugging her from behind. That got a chuckle out of Mom. Holly picked up her dessert, tossed some plastic wrap over it in the kitchen, and stuck it in the fridge. Grabbing her coffee mug, she escaped to her bedroom.

  She sprawled on her bed with her books. First she picked up the hiking trail guide. It had a three-page write-up on Enchantment Spring Trail, one of the pages a map. It didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know.

  A soft knock at her door made her jump. Her first instinct was to hide the stuff she was reading, but that was crazy. What did her family care if she was interested in the spring?

  She set aside the hiking guide and sat up, picking up her coffee. “Come in.”

  The door opened and Dad peeked in. “Got a minute to talk?”

  “Sure.”

  She pushed her books aside to make room for him on the bed, then took a sip of coffee. It was lukewarm.

  Dad smiled as he sat. “Studying already? School doesn’t start for two weeks.”

  “Just some stuff I was interested in.”


  “You know, I’m really proud of you. You’re a great student, and a natural researcher. You’ll do well in college.”

  “Thanks.” Holly took a bigger swallow of coffee.

  “I’d like to go ahead and buy your plane ticket tonight. That OK?”

  Holly put down her mug. “Seems like a big expense. I don’t know if I’m interested in CU-Boulder.”

  “Well, just take a look. You don’t have to decide right away. Even if Boulder’s not the school for you, visiting a campus might help you figure out what you do want in a college. And you’d be doing Mad a favor, keeping her company on the drive.”

  Holly stifled a sigh of frustration. She couldn’t think of an excuse not to go.

  She’d be letting Ohlan down, though. She’d said she would come back on Sunday. Would he miss her?

  “Something bothering you, Holly?”

  Dad’s eyes held that look of guarded worry that meant he thought she was spending too much time alone. He didn’t like when she holed up in her room with books, or spent hours listening to music or surfing the web. He thought she should be out hanging around with other teens.

  She did some of that. She had friends, but she also liked just being alone. She wasn’t like Madison. She wasn’t a people person.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said.

  It wasn’t like she could tell him about Ohlan. Then he’d really think she was nuts.

  “So, I’ll buy you a ticket?”

  This time she let out the sigh. “Yeah, OK.”

  Dad smiled and jostled her knee. “You’ll have fun. One last getaway before school. And there’s that great shopping mall Mad was talking about … ”

  “Pearl Street.”

  “Right. I’ll give you some cash, and maybe you can pick up something nice for Mom.”

  Holly managed to smile, though she wasn’t thrilled about this trip. Three, three and a half days before she could get back to the spring. She hoped Ohlan wouldn’t be mad.

  She couldn’t picture him being mad, though. He was a perfect example of unconditional love in action, as far as she could tell. Thinking about him made her heart soften.

  Suddenly she wanted to be as generous as Ohlan. She looked up at her father, then hugged him.

  “Thanks, Dad. This is really nice of you.”

  “Well, I want to make sure you’re happy when you go to college. It’s going to be a big change. Not too early to start planning.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  He gave her a squeeze, then stood. “I’ll go buy that ticket, and I’ll get your suitcase out of the garage. Mad wants to hit the road pretty early.”

  “Don’t worry about the suitcase. I’ll just use my gym bag. It’s only a couple of days.”

  “OK, hon.”

  He left, quietly shutting the door. Holly stared at it, feeling her spirits drop again. She didn’t want to go on this trip, but she had committed, so she had to suck it up.

  She got her gym bag out of her closet and plopped it on her bed. Took out her running shoes, padlock, and the gym clothes that still needed washing from last semester. Those went in her laundry basket; the shoes back into the closet and the lock on her cluttered bookshelf.

  She packed some jeans and a couple of tops, picking at random. She didn’t have anyone to impress. Added clean underwear and her toiletry kit, then zipped up the bag and plopped it by the front door, and came back to fetch her laptop case down from her closet shelf.

  Laptop, headphones, power supply. She folded the copies of the Forest Service stuff and slid them into the case’s outside pocket along with the memoir. She’d read that on the drive, because she sure didn’t want to talk with Mad the whole way.

  Whose idea was it for her to go along, she wondered—Madison’s or her father’s? Didn’t really matter. They wanted to get her away from home. Away from the forest, and the spring.

  She set the laptop case beside the gym bag and flopped onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. Faint sounds from the television reached her. She ought to go watch TV with the family, but she wasn’t in the mood.

  Ohlan. She closed her eyes, wishing she could talk to him, explain what had happened with the trip and why she wouldn’t see him for a few days. Maybe she’d dream about him again. It would be great if she dreamed about him every night.

  She turned her head to look at her bedside clock. Eight-thirty, way too early for bed, even with getting up at yuck-o’clock tomorrow.

  She ran over the day’s events in her mind, lingering on the moment when Ohlan had kissed her hand. That had made her feel the way her favorite romantic stories did, kind of breathless and tingly.

  The few times she’d gone out on dates and been kissed a little weren’t the same. Maybe she hadn’t liked the guys enough, or something. She hadn’t liked those kisses at all, and had been relieved when the dates were over.

  She had a feeling she would like being kissed by Ohlan.

  ~ 4 ~

  “So, what are you taking this semester, Hol?”

  Holly rubbed her eyes, yawning. “The usual. Finishing up credits. Need one more year of French.”

  “Anything for fun?”

  “New Mexico Geology looked interesting.”

  “I wish I’d taken that one. Sally took it and she said it was fun. They did a lot of field trips.”

  Holly had her own field trips in mind. A lot of them up one particular mountain trail.

  Madison slowed as they passed through a small town. Her car—a Vega wagon that had been the first car both she and Holly had driven—was aging but still sound. The front wheel drive was good in snow, and Boulder got even more snow than Las Palomas.

  “Last chance for junk food for a while,” Mad said. “I think I want some coffee at least. Want to be bad?”

  Holly nodded, stifling another yawn. She’d had plenty of sleep—with no dreams, unfortunately—but getting up at six didn’t agree with her much.

  She pointed to the red and gold sign of a fast food chain ahead. “Hash browns. Orange juice.”

  “And coffee. Let’s do it!”

  Madison parked so they could make it a bathroom break as well. When they were back in the car with food and drinks, she headed north on the highway that would take them to Alamosa.

  Holly remembered the route, vaguely. Dad had driven the family up to Aspen for Christmas a couple of times.

  She bit into her hash browns—salty delicious crunch—and gazed out the window. Some of the roads that went through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado were pretty empty, though the scenery was good. Holly wasn’t surprised that Madison wanted company on this stretch.

  They would turn east at Alamosa, cutting across to I-25 instead of continuing up into the mountains. The Interstate would take them through Denver to Boulder. Holly remembered some family trips in that direction, too—but those memories were more vague, from when she’d been a little kid. She hadn’t seen Denver in years.

  “What are you taking this fall?” she asked Madison.

  “Basic stuff, mostly. Trying to get all the required courses out of the way. I’ve got one fun elective, though—Landscape Painting.”

  “You were always great at art. How come you’re not majoring in that?”

  “Because I’d like to earn a decent living. In art, the chances of that pretty much suck. Your best shot is to teach it, and that doesn’t interest me.”

  “Really? I always thought you’d like being a teacher.”

  “Nah. I don’t have the patience.”

  Holly noticed a slight tension in the way Mad gripped the steering wheel and leaned forward as if she wanted to see the sky as well as the road. Holly, remembering how differently she had seen the forest yesterday, looked at Madison differently now.

  Her sister had always radiated confidence, but she saw that there was a note of anxiety underlying it. Why hadn’t she noticed that before?

  “Well, you’ll do great in geology,” she said.

  “Actually, I’m thinking I
might go with a general science degree. CU has a good research program. There may be opportunities for developing new energy technologies.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “I think it could be fun.”

  Which wasn’t an answer. Holly gazed at Mad, suddenly feeling sad for her. The direction Madison was pursuing sounded sensible, but Holly suspected her heart wasn’t really in it. What if she went a few years down that road and discovered she hated it?

  Holly couldn’t say any of that, of course. Mad wouldn’t appreciate hearing her opinion.

  “Well, I hope you keep up the painting, even if it’s on the side,” she said.

  Mad glanced at her, quirking an eyebrow. “Thanks.”

  Mad changed the subject, bringing up a movie they’d both gone to a week earlier. Holly had read the book and thought it superior, but she kept that to herself. The film version had still been fun, and picking it apart occupied them for an hour or so. Another hour of reminiscing about family road trips brought them to Alamosa, where they stopped for gas.

  Holly went into the station and bought chewing gum, sodas, a bag of cheese puffs, and some mini-donuts while Mad filled the tank. When she got back Mad headed inside, and Holly hauled out her laptop case and extracted her library book.

  “Mind if I read?” she asked when Mad came back.

  Mad shrugged as she buckled in. “Sure.”

  “Or I could drive for a while, if you want.”

  “Nah. I might need you to talk to me later, keep me awake. The next stretch is kind of boring.”

  “Just say the word.”

  Mad popped open the soda Holly had bought her and took a long pull on it, then sighed. “You can read for now.”

  Like Holly needed her permission. She’d just asked in order to be polite, and here Mad was getting all prickly. Ordinarily Holly would bristle in response, but she thought about Ohlan’s patience and decided to let it go.

  Ohlan. Was he wondering where she was? Hoping she would show up soon?

  Holly bit her lip and opened the book, A Secret Summer. The introduction mentioned how the author, Amanda Cope, had worked as a secretary at the boys’ school in what would become Las Palomas, and how when the place was taken over by the military she’d stayed on to work for the secret high-tech wartime project. This was plainly the book’s main commercial appeal. Las Palomas was famous for that project even now, seventy years later, but back then almost nobody knew about the little boys’ school up on the mesa.