Wonder Wand Way (Witch of Mintwood Book 10) Read online

  He looked up with a grin. “Did you see Tom?”

  “We did, but he didn’t want to stay and chat. I had the distinct impression that he didn’t want to be seeing us,” Charlie huffed.

  The shop owner had a twinkle in his eye. “He has a crush on someone. I just can’t figure out who. Give me time, though, and I’ll manage it,” he promised.

  Liam and I both loved to gossip. I very much appreciated that when he saw me he instantly shared the latest news around town.

  “So that’s why he was acting so awkwardly!” I said.

  Liam nodded, his eyes bright. “He definitely has a thing for someone. He was in here looking for women’s gloves. I’m not sure what kind of gift that is for a woman, but who am I to say? He said something about how her hands were always cold. I thought that was nice. He got my last pair.”

  “Now all you have to do is see which woman around town is wearing the gloves,” I said.

  “I have a feeling it might be unrequited love,” said Liam. “We might have to wait a while before we see anything.”

  “While we wait, do you want to come over to Bright Lights with us?” said Charlie.

  He grabbed the edges of the counter, suddenly entirely focused. “What? How did you get permission to go in there? It’s as if my most dearly held life wish just came true!”

  “Who knew it was that exciting!” said Charlie with a grin.

  Liam looked even more delighted as the news sank in. “Are we breaking in? I’ve always wanted to do that. Kids did when we were in high school, but I never dared. Then they added a few more boards to the windows and no one could get past them. Such a shame,” he said.

  I held out the key that Mrs. Cook had given me. “We’re not breaking in. We have permission to go inside and everything.”

  Liam clapped his hands, as excited as a little kid in a toy store. “You just made my night. Maybe my whole week. I am so in. Just let me finish counting the money and I can come,” he said.

  It didn’t take him long to close up shop and join us. He gathered his things from the back room, and the three of us walked over to Bright Lights together.

  The old cinema was a little ways down the street, but still on Main Street. It was a two-story building in an area where all the rest of the storefronts were a single story, so it stood out. A huge sign out front proclaimed the name, but it had been years since the sign was lit up. Even worse, some of it was falling down, and the building’s brick façade was edged by bits of peeling paint around the windows.

  “I can’t believe she just asked you to do this. She should have asked me,” said Liam. “I would be all about it.”

  “She seemed to think we didn’t have anything to do. I think the fact that we all have unconventional jobs that aren’t nine-to-five worries her,” said Charlie with a laugh.

  “Yes. The three of you do tend to cause trouble. It’s good that they keep you occupied,” said Liam.

  “Speaking of work, what did you think of Hansen’s article in the Chronicle today?” Charlie asked.

  “You’re the only one speaking of work,” said Liam with a grin. He knew Charlie’s ways almost as well as Greer and I did.

  “Personally, I have always thought that there are witches around here,” he went on. “I have even thought that my mother was one from time to time. I used to ask her when I was little, but she’d just laugh it off. Sometimes I still wonder about her, though. To be honest, I’m jealous. The outfits a witch gets to wear are just to die for. I thought about having a section in my store to sell them. Maybe someday.”

  Charlie looked at me and glared. Her biggest fear was that the secret of my witchiness would get out. Now here was Liam saying that he suspected there had been witches all along. Not only that, but he suspected that his mother was one. What if he ever found out that she actually was? I might have to speak to her about doing a better job of hiding from her family.

  Either that or maybe she needed to know that her son should be told the truth; maybe that would be easier on everyone.

  But that was a worry for later, not for tonight. I met Charlie’s glare with a steady gaze and shrugged, and Liam was too busy telling us about his theory to notice the secret looks that passed between us as he talked on.

  “Evening. I’ve been invited along for the fun. I can’t wait,” said Liam to Greer as we walked up to where she was waiting outside the door of the cinema. There were ropes across the door and even some spray paint, making it clear that no one should use the front entrance. The only way in was through one side door that was free of warnings and barriers.

  “I’m pretty excited about it myself, to be honest,” said Greer with a smile. “I didn’t realize what a legend this place was until Mrs. Cook asked us to go inside and clean it out. There’s no way I’d turn that opportunity down, even if it’s going to be a lot of work.”

  “There just better not be mice,” said Charlie.

  Greer rolled her eyes and the four of us headed for the side door.

  Liam, forging ahead, said over his shoulder, “I’m sure there are no mice. There are probably just rats. Maybe ones the size of small dogs. Like Mrs. Cook’s Yorkie.”

  “I don’t understand dogs like that,” I insisted, for not the first time, ignoring Charlie’s reaction to the idea of rats.

  “Me either,” said Liam. “I’ll take a good cat any day.”

  “Electricity in this place still works?” Greer asked.

  “I guess they shut it off for a few years, but it’s back on now,” I said. “Mrs. Cook said they replaced some of the light bulbs, so we should be able to see easily enough. If we can’t, we’ll just have to come back in the morning. But in that case we should talk to Mrs. Cook about getting some lighting into the place, because evenings are going to be one of our best times for working.

  I glanced back at the brightly twinkling Main Street. It was a beautiful view from the cinema. It made me wonder if maybe Jasper would turn his redevelopment skills to this place next. It would really revolutionize the downtown if the cinema were brought back to life.

  Then I pushed that thought right back out of my head. No way should I be thinking of Jasper at a time like this.

  Meaning any time.

  I was surprised when I heard a click beneath my fingers that told me the lock worked perfectly. We were in.

  Chapter Five

  As we stepped inside a dark lobby, the smell of must and dust made me sneeze. I couldn’t see much, but I had the impression of a cavernous space. Greer, of course, had brought along a brigade’s worth of flashlights. She handed them out to the rest of us and then beamed hers around the wall as we all crowded in. A musty smell met my nostrils and I sneezed.

  “Found the switch,” said Greer. The next moment several lights came on.

  “Whoa,” Charlie said, shielding her eyes.

  We were standing in the lobby of the old cinema. It was a grand, immense room with red-tiled flooring and what must have been the ticket counter in the center. Along the back wall was the concession stand. One sweeping staircase rose up in front of us, with a red carpet that had turned a sort of brownish maroon with age. The walls were covered with old movie posters.

  It was a good thing Mrs. Cook and the committee had dealt with the lighting, because otherwise the space was so big that we would have had to work in dark corners for a lot of the time.

  “Even the dust is an antique,” Liam joked, but reverently. He walked around with his hand outstretched as if he wanted to touch every piece of history, while simultaneously being afraid to.

  “This place is definitely going to be worth some cleaning effort,” said Charlie. She braced her hands on her hips and got the same look on her face that she did when she surveyed the vacuum cleaner at home.

  The four of us spread out to look around. I knew this wasn’t the actual cinema room, but I still wanted to take my time. These sorts of places always made me sad, and in a funny way I wanted to savor that feeling before we started to
spiff the place up. Previously I had only seen pictures, but it did sort of feel as if people had walked out of the place right in the middle of a movie. It was as if an employee had started the last film and left before the credits rolled to “The End.” They hadn’t locked the doors behind them, and everything had stayed just as they’d left it.

  “There’s no cash register,” I said. At least this disproved my image of someone leaving in the middle of the movie. Or if they had, they had taken the money and split.

  “I’ve never even heard of most of these movies. Think we should watch them?” Greer asked, peering at the faded movie posters on the walls.

  “We may have trouble finding some of them, but I bet it would be fun,” I said. “Evenlyn might have some in boxes somewhere.”

  “I can’t believe anybody would come in here to vandalize stuff,” said Charlie, gazing at the graffiti in the middle of the counter. It wasn’t real graffiti, of course; there was none of that in a town like this. Someone had just taken spray paint and drawn smiley faces and daisies.

  We looked around for a few more minutes, then I asked, “Should we head upstairs?” Part of me was reluctant to leave, but I wanted to get a look at the rest of the building.

  “Yes, definitely,” said Charlie, scurrying toward the stairs.

  “What did you find out about this place in your binders?” I asked as we made our way up the wide staircase.

  Greer had a hard time tearing herself away from the movie posters, but she managed to catch up with us halfway to the second floor. Liam was even slower. I could just see dollar signs in his eyes. He was also probably plotting a fashion show for all the old clothing. You just never knew with Liam.

  “So much stuff. It’s really the most fascinating story,” said Charlie. “First of all, it’s another one of those buildings that no one really knows who owns. Like half of Main Street.”

  It was a commonly known fact that a lot of Mintwood was privately owned by . . . somebody. We just didn’t know who. Nobody really cared, because for the most part the downtown was allowed to exist as it always had without interference from this secret owner.

  “The cinema was started by a husband who lost his wife,” Charlie began. “Mrs. Curtain had loved the cinema and always wished that there was a picture house closer to them in the early days of their courtship. Mr. Curtain wanted to bring that to this county. He thought people would be able to see more movies instead of having to spend so much time in the car getting there and getting home.

  “Mr. Curtain died in the war and left the cinema to his son, who passed away last year at the age of a hundred and one. Lots of people tried to buy the business from him over the years, and there were various developments in the works from time to time. But he would never sell. He didn’t want his parents’ memory to be forgotten. Apparently there’s a plaque dedicated to them in one of the back rooms, and some saying that goes along with it.”

  “So when he passed away, who inherited Bright Lights?” I asked.

  “It was put up for sale and bought privately, presumably by the same person who owns a lot of the rest of the downtown,” Charlie explained.

  I shook my head. “At least the son got to own it all his life.”

  “I know, right? He kept it open for a long time, too. It only closed about thirty years ago, at which point he said that times were changing and it didn’t make sense to run it anymore. But he still wouldn’t sell it, and he kept everything inside the place. He really wanted his parents’ memory to be honored. Mostly the love his father had for his mother.”

  “Do we know how she died? Could there be a mystery there?” Liam asked.

  I was a little bit amused that it was Liam who asked, especially given that I was the one who always stumbled upon ghost mysteries.

  “Car accident. Rainy night and slippery roads. That sort of thing. Her son was with her, but he survived. A very sad story,” said Charlie.

  “You can say that again. Way to bring down the day,” Liam scolded.

  “You can’t help history,” she said with a shrug.

  We were now standing in front of a set of old wooden double doors, which surely led to the main theater. Long hallways stretched right and left, with several other closed doors along each one. We could examine what was in those rooms later, but the main room was really what Mrs. Cook had asked for help with. She had said that it was packed full of stuff, and that we’d have a time going through it all. Having now gotten my first glimpse of the rest of the place, and felt it transport me back in time, I couldn’t wait.

  “You ready?” I said. My hands were on the double doors, ready to open them.

  “Let’s do this thing,” said Charlie.

  I pushed on one of the doors, but it turned out to be heavier than I expected, and what’s more it scraped against the floor when I finally managed to push it open a bit. I told myself that the building must have shifted over the years, plus the hinges were old and the floor was rough.

  I dropped my shoulder and shoved, still without making much progress until my friends came to help. When we finally got the door open, all four of us piled into the theater.

  But now we had a problem. In this space, unlike the lobby, there was no light anywhere, and I couldn’t see a thing.

  “Greer? A little help with the flashlight, maybe?” said Liam.

  “Don’t have to ask me twice,” said Greer.

  Despite the fact that I couldn’t see her, I felt her brush past me. Then her flashlight clicked on, and it was as if a beam of moonlight was fluttering around the space. I caught a glimpse of stadium-style chairs, but that was about it. Greer quickly directed her light toward the wall behind us, and I turned to look.

  “I think those are the switches,” said Charlie, pointing to a wall panel covered in dust.

  Greer went over and tugged on the switches, and for a split second nothing happened. It was as if the very building was thinking about it before it decided to do anything at all.

  The next instant the lights came on, but they were not what I was expecting. Lights on both side walls flared, but there were none overhead. I blinked several times. I couldn’t see well, and at the same time I was impatient to look around.

  Liam wasn’t as flummoxed as I was. “Whoa,” he said delightedly. “This is going to take months to clean. And they’re going to be the best months of my life,” Every inch of the huge space was covered in stuff. The stage was covered in stuff, the central aisle was covered in stuff, and the aisles on either side of the theater were covered in stuff.

  Unlike Liam, in that moment I started to seriously wonder what I’d gotten myself into.

  Some of the stuff was old furniture: chairs, tables, and shelves. Some of it was boxes, and some of those boxes were labeled, while others looked thrown together and haphazard. There were also more unusual bits and ends. There were frames without paintings, dresses thrown in a heap, lamps without shades, shades without lamps. There were random stacks of books, and there was a laundry hamper that appeared to be filled with a collection of blue clothing.

  The vast majority of it was covered with dust.

  I had never seen anything so incredible in my life.

  “How old do you think that fan is?” Charlie asked. The fan she pointed to was green and looked very old indeed.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think it works anymore,” said Greer. “But look at all of those.”

  Greer was pointing to a mountain of glassware. I had some vague knowledge of the fact that you drank different types of drinks out of different types of glasses, but Greer knew a lot more about it than I did; she was a bartender, after all.

  Not even Greer, however, would be able to name what all of these glasses were used for. They were stacked and then stacked again on a table on the stage.

  “I’ve never seen staging that looks like that, either,” said Charlie. At the very back of the stage was scaffolding, plus some ladders. I assumed those were for the performances. A curtain hung
low, with possibly a screen hiding behind it.

  There was a good chance that the old movie screen was long gone, but on the other hand, it seemed like nothing whatsoever was gone. We’d find out soon enough.

  “I can’t believe she asked only the three of us to do this. It’s so much stuff! How are we supposed to do all of this? We’re never going to be able to get it all out of here,” said Charlie, despairing before we had even begun.

  “Sure we are,” said Greer. “Most of it can be auctioned off. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would love to have a piece of Bright Lights. In three years when we’re finished.” She turned to me with a wink.

  “It is going to be a lot of work, though,” I said. “We’re going to be going up and down those stairs a million times.” Just as I said it the lights flickered a bit, as if in agreement.

  “Should we get started?” Liam asked.

  “Now?” Charlie asked, horrified.

  “Should we get started looking through the boxes, at least?” he murmured. “I’ve never been so excited about anything in my life. Look at those racks of clothes! I’m definitely going to buy those at auction. They’ll make a great addition to my store. I could keep some back for any time I need to do a special window display. I’ve wanted to come in here for years, but I never thought it would be this stunning.”

  “Mrs. Cook said we could keep anything we wanted to, within reason. You can definitely have any dresses you want for your shop,” I said.

  I slowly started to think about looking through everything and cleaning it up. There were so many layers of junk to deal with that I wondered if Greer’s estimate of three years would turn out not to be a joke.

  The cinema was quiet. Every so often we could hear the wind rattling the roof, or a board groaning, but for the most part there wasn’t anything to worry me.

  Just as I was thinking how relieved I was about having some peace in a creepy old building for once, I heard it: a creaking noise, and then the sound of scuffling that said we had company.

  I just didn’t know what kind.