Tales of the Misplaced - Books 1-4

Chapter 1-2

As we left the house that morning, I saw something move in the corner of my eye and turned to look. No one was there. I started to look away when I noticed that there was some kind of shadow hanging in the air about twenty yards from the front gate. Nora accelerated at that point, and when I tried to look back over my shoulder, I couldn’t see anything.

The whole day seemed strange, and I kept feeling like I was being watched. Plus, I kept seeing odd lights, and sometimes when I felt like I was being watched, I could see some kind of shadow. Or, almost see a shadow. I was glad when the school day was over.

We went straight to the antique store right after our last class. The guy in the store couldn’t tell us anything about the knives.

“But you know what?” he said. “I may know someone. She has a strange little place that is part antique store, part herbalist shop, and I don’t know what else. She’s a bit odd, but something about this filigree reminds me of things I’ve seen in her shop. Maybe she can help you.”

The game was afoot and we went right over to the place he’d told us about. Nora pulled her scooter up near the door. A little bell rang as we went inside.

“Good afternoon girls, I’m Katya,” a woman looked up from behind the counter, where she’d been reading something. “What brings you to HAC?”

“Hack?”

With a smirk and a flip of her auburn hair, Katya angled her green eyes pointedly at the sign that read, Herbs, Antiques, and Curiosities. The first letter of each word was larger than the rest and in a fancier font.

Herbs, Antiques, and Curiosities“Oh,” I laughed. “I get it. Well, I got some things that belonged to my mother and I’m hoping they can tell me about her. She died years ago. Someone said you might know what these are?” I pulled the daggers out of my backpack and put them on the counter.

Katya peeled the cloth from one and paused. “A knife?”

“Two knives,” I unwrapped the other one. “They look like they go together. They’re the same, except the handles, where that one is silver on this part, but on the other one, it’s black. Everything else is the same. They’re really sharp, too.” I pulled one of the blades out from its sheath. “And shiny. It’s like they almost glow.”

Katya looked at both daggers intently without touching them.

“Sheath it,” she said, her face tight as she watched me slide it back in the sheath. “Where did you say you got these?”

“They were my mother’s. I just got a box that had some of her things in it. It had a false bottom and these knives were in there. I thought they might be important, like they could mean something about my family?”

“What’s your name, girl?”

“Mira. Mirabella Cervantes. Why? Do you recognize these?”

“No, not precisely. But…” she seemed to be considering her response. “This box you received, did it have any odd markings or carvings inside?”

“Yes. How did you know? They were all over the inside of the box. Even the false bottom had them.”

Katya nodded. “The box must have been warded to hide the contents.” Her eyes fell on the pendant hanging from my neck. “That was in the box as well?”

I nodded. She wrapped both knives back up in their cloth and pushed them into my hands.

“Listen to me very closely, Mirabella Cervantes. You need to take these daggers and put them back in that box exactly how they were. And you need to do this quickly. They are not safe for you. Come back another time and I can tell you more, but not now. Go.”

“But—”

“Quickly!” She ushered us out the door as I clumsily shoved the knives in my backpack. “Come back tomorrow.” She closed the door behind us.

“Okay, that was weird,” Nora commented.

“Yeah, too weird for me. I don’t think I’m going back there. Maybe we can find something out about these on the Internet.”

Two hours of following search results that night from page to page and discussion to discussion didn’t get us anywhere. It seemed that a lot of people really liked knives and swords, and had a lot to say about them. I wouldn’t say I have a photographic memory, but once I’ve read or heard something, I pretty much remember it. That night, I learned more about knives than I ever wanted to know. It was sort of interesting, but not helpful.

I put the knives on top of the dresser. I’d had enough of researching for the night.

Tomorrow would be Friday, and then only one more week before the end of the school year. Graduation for the seniors would be on Wednesday, and Nora would get her diploma. Maybe we could do more research over the weekend.

I met up with Nora after my last morning class the next day and headed to the lunchroom to get a dose of whatever they’d be serving up.

“Hey! Here comes the Wicked Witch! Nice wart!”

It was Darek. He was such a jerk! Nora was very self-conscious about the mole she had on the tip of her nose. I could see her face flushing from rage as laughter sounded from other students. He probably wouldn’t give her such a hard time if she didn’t get upset so easily.

“Just ignore them!” I told her. “They’re just jealous because they’re stupid and you’re not.”

Nora stormed to the lunch counter and we got our food, then she headed straight for a table in the center of the room. One thing Nora would never do was slink away or back down from anyone.

“Hey guys!” I looked up to see Shelby. She was a friend, but we weren’t very close. Shelby didn’t seem like she was very close with anybody. She sat down with us. “What’s up?”

“Hi Shelby. One more week of school,” I told her. “Then we’re free for the summer!”

We’d just started eating when something struck the side of Nora’s head and fell to the ground. A paper airplane? Darek again. We just ignored him and kept eating.

A paper airplane?After a couple of minutes, Shelby’s face showed surprise and she grabbed my arm. Nora quickly looked toward Darek and his friends. I turned to look, and another paper airplane was coming straight for my face! Before I could react, Nora flung her hand out as if to block it, but it was out of reach.

I saw another weird light. It seemed to come from her hand and the airplane looped up and back and headed for Darek.

Darek was looking at Nora instead of the airplane and it hit him square in the eye. He screamed and raised his hands to cover his face. His friends gathered around him, and then one of the brighter members of the group suggested they take him to the nurse’s office.

“That was strange,” I said as they escorted him from the lunchroom.

“Serves him right.”

“What just happened?” Shelby asked.

I didn’t know what to make of the light I saw coming out of Nora’s hand, and Nora hadn’t mentioned it. Had anyone else seen it? Had Shelby? What about the shadows I kept almost seeing?

Was I being haunted or something?

Nora and I went to the girls’ room, and Nora waited by the sink. I was just about to flush when I saw a bright flare of light from the front of the bathroom. Then I heard Nora storming out the door.

I flushed quickly and put my hands under some water at the sink before running after her. “Hey! Wait for me!”

She paused long enough for me to walk with her. She was being impatient, but I knew it wasn’t about me. I glanced at her. She didn’t look the same.

“Something’s different.”

Nora just shrugged, and we went to our separate classes for the afternoon. After my last class, I went to where Nora had parked her scooter, but she wasn’t there yet. I started to feel that itch on the back of my neck again, like someone was watching me.

About ten minutes later, I saw Nora coming. She wasn’t in any better of a mood than she’d been after lunch.

“Vice Principal Riordan wanted to talk to me,” she explained.

“Nora—”

“Let’s just go.” She started up the scooter and I got on behind her.

Once we got home, I held open the gate so she could push the scooter through the side yard and into the garage.

That’s when I noticed what was different. Her mole was gone.

“Nora?”

“What?”

“What happened to your mole?”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s not there.”

“You’re not funny.”

“No…look in the mirror. You didn’t notice?”

Nora bent and examined her reflection in the side mirror of the Vespa suspiciously.

“It’s gone!” She was suddenly grinning.

“Yes, but how? What happened to it?”

“Um…” Nora shrugged. “It fell off?” At my look, she went on. “Well, it was there after lunch. Hey! Mrs. Riordan said I looked different! It must have been before that.”

“Wait a minute, I noticed it, too, when we came out of the bathroom.”

“You did? I remember looking at it in the mirror. I was so mad about it. And at Darek.”

“There’s no trace of it now. It"s like it was never there.”

“I just wanted it to go away.”

“And you’re just noticing now?” I teased her. “Maybe you should work on those keen powers of observation.”

“Girls!” Jill’s voice sounded from inside the house. “Is that you out there?”

“Coming, Jill!” Nora called back. “Should we tell Jill and Tony?”

“You mean Mom and Dad?” I ignored her eye roll. “I wouldn’t mention it if they don’t. But this isn’t normal. We should figure out what happened.”

“You don"t have to always over-analyze things, little sis.”

“I am not over-analyzing. I’m just being practical.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

We stepped into the house and hit a wall of something wonderful.

“Something smells good,” Nora took a deep breath.

“See,” I teased her. “You do have keen powers of observation.”

do“What are you making?” she asked Jill.

“Just a pot roast.”

“Smells yummy!” I told her. “I can’t wait to taste it!”

“Yeah,” Nora studied her critically. “What’s the special occasion? The last time you made that was my first dinner here.”

“What?” Jill tried to look offended. “Can’t a woman make a pot roast without a special occasion?”

“Maybe a normal woman,” I laughed. “But you, Mom? It’s suspicious.”

“Oh, hush! I just thought it sounded good. Now go do your homework.”

“Mom,” I scolded her. “There’s only one week left of school. We don’t have any homework.”

“Oh, really? Well, if you hang out in the kitchen, I’ll find some work for you to do!”

“No, no. We wouldn’t want to get in your way.” Nora grabbed me by the shoulder and we cleared out.

We ended up in my room. We usually did. When Nora went to her room, it usually meant she wasn’t feeling sociable.

“So.” I looked at her. “Wanna watch a movie?”

Nora just grinned. “Sure. What do you want to watch?”

“We haven’t watched Gilda in a while?”

Gilda“Who can get tired of Rita Hayworth, right?”

“Exactly!”

It was nice. Watching these old movies was one of our favorite things to do. We’d seen this one several times.

“I’m glad they finally stopped being stupid with each other,” I told her when the movie was over.

“Well, they have to do something stupid so they’ll have a story.”

“Rita was so awesome,” I said, ignoring her cynicism. “She could sing and dance and act. Of course, most of them did in those days, but she was so glamorous, too. I can’t believe she started as a flamenco dancer as a kid.” Rita Hayworth was definitely one of my favorites, but I also liked how stylishly they dressed in the old movies.

“Glenn Ford was pretty good, too,” Nora pointed out. “Maybe we can watch the original Big Heat this weekend.”

Big Heat“Girls! Time for dinner!”

Nora and I looked at each other with a chorus of, “Pot roast!” We raced down the hall in anticipation.

It was a full family dinner with Jill and Tony and Nora and me. I really felt like I had the best family. And the pot roast was so good!

“This is dreamy,” Nora told Jill.

I laughed, “It’s dinner, not your date!”

“Beef is beef,” she shrugged with a smile.

“Girls, please!” Tony rolled his eyes.

“Well, thank you,” Jill beamed. “I’m glad you like it!”

“Seriously though.” Nora looked at her, “What’s the occasion?”

“Well, there is something to celebrate.” Jill exchanged glances with Tony before turning to me. “The legal stuff is finally over. After six years of fighting, we can finally go through with the adoption. We’ve already signed the papers.”

“Really?” I was shocked. I had wanted this for so long. I was out of my seat before I knew it and was hugging Jill and Tony. They were going to be my parents for real!

Finally, I went back to my chair. I glanced at Nora on the way and felt a lump in my throat. Nora had only been with us for about a year. She had just turned eighteen and wouldn’t need to be adopted. But I knew she really wanted to belong somewhere.

“I’m sure they’d adopt you, too, if you want.”

“Sweetie,” Nora looked at me. “Tonight isn’t about me; it’s about you. I’m really happy for you. You deserve a good life and all the wonderful things the world can give you. Congratulations.”

“Thank you! You’re the best sister ever!” I put my arms around her and gave her a big hug. I had such a great family!

“Does this mean I’ll have to change my last name?”

“That’s up to you, Mirella.” Tony liked to call me Mirella. “And if you want, you can even go Spanish style and just add Ramirez to the end.”

“Mirabela Cervantes Ramirez. I like it!”

“Nora?” Jill asked her as we finished up. “Can you help with the dishes while Mira takes her shower?”

“Sure.”

I turned on the water in the shower to let it get hot and grabbed a towel. I stripped down and waited until I could see the steam start to rise, looking forward to the luxurious feel of the hot water over my skin.

“I don’t know!” I suddenly heard Nora’s voice shout from the kitchen, then I heard a loud banging sound from the front of the house. I wrapped the towel around myself and hurried down the hall to see what was going on.

Jill and Tony were standing by the front door and I didn’t see Nora anywhere.

“What happened?” I asked. I could see that something was wrong with the door.

“It’s okay,” Jill told me. “Go ahead and take your shower.”

“Where’s Nora?”

“She went for a walk,” Tony answered. “She just needs to think about some things.”

“But—”

“Shower,” Jill repeated. “We can talk later, once you’re clean and have some clothes on.”

I looked down at the towel and decided my questions could wait for a few minutes since nothing seemed to be happening at the moment.

I cut my shower time a bit short. I was distracted by whatever was going on, and I wasn’t able to let go and just enjoy the heat. I dried myself off and threw on a clean pair of sweats. I started down the hall and Jill sent me right back.

“Uh-uh. Dry your hair.”

It was easier not to argue. Besides, I did want to dry my hair.

Finally, with everything in order, I went to see what was happening.