On the day before Halloween, 13-year-old Jen was helping her 17-year-old sister Christie clean their grandmother's attic, when she found a locked wooden box in the shape of a very thick notepad.
"What's that, pipsqueak?" asked Christie, pulling it from her hands. Christie held the box up to her ear and rattled it. There was no sound. She tossed it to her younger sister. "Feels empty."
Jen took it and clutched it to her chest. "I don't care. I like it. I'm going to see if Maimeó will let me have it." She couldn't explain why she wanted this box, she was simply drawn to it.
Two hours later, Jen and Christie's mother gathered the sisters for their flute lessons. Jen intended to ask her grandmother for permission to take the box, but her grandmother seemed busy. Not wanting to part with it, Jen took it with her.
***
On Halloween, it was tradition for the Murphys, the Alvarados, and the Ahmads to get together and take their children trick-or-treating. The three families lived in the same suburban neighborhood, and had similarly aged pairs of daughters. Whenever the families got together the girls automatically separated into two groups by age. The 13-year-olds, Jen, Adi, and Abia, ran off to change into their costumes. The 17-year-olds, Christie, Rosa, and Dwaa were too old for tricks or treats, and went off to the living room to watch a scary movie.
After the parents returned to the Murphys' house with their younger daughters and their bags of candy in tow, the girls ran to the living room to organize their candy stashes. The girls poured the candy out on the floor, beginning to separate gum from the candy and the like. Distracted by their task, the younger sisters didn't notice as their older sisters snuck into the room. Christie, Rosa, and Dwaa raided their younger sisters' stashes, pushing the candy back into each respective bag, then prancing around their younger sisters, bags held high and out of their younger sisters' reach.
"Aw, so sad... pipsqueak can't reach it. I guess that means it's all mine..." Christie said, shoving her younger sister to the ground and walking off with all of her candy. Tears welled in Jen's eyes.
The three younger sisters, upset and holding back tears ran to the basement, the wonder and excitement of another holiday spoiled by their bullying older sisters.
"I wish we were bigger than them," said Abi.
"I wish we were stronger than them," said Adi.
"I wish we could have what they have," said Jen.
"I wish were were prettier than them too," said all three friends, in unison.
At the moment that the final wish was complete, the three girls heard a click. Whirling, Jen remembered the locked box that she had brought home the day before. It was sitting on a shelf with some of her other toys. She walked over to it and realized that it had come unlocked by itself. Bringing it to the others, she opened it.
Inside, was a scroll with strange Celtic writing on it. Jen sounded it out, trying to remember the bits of the Celtic language that her grandmother had taught her. She chanted it over and over until she believed that she had it right. Joining in, Adi and Abi began to chant with her.
The moment that they all completed the verse together, a green mist formed over the scroll. Jen and Adi, surprised, stopped chanting. Abi kept going one more time through the verse before stopping. As she finished the final verse, the mist flowed to her, disappearing inside her chest.
"What was that!" said Abi, rubbing her chest and looking to see if anything had happened where the mist had touched her.
"I don't know," Jen said. "Should we tell our moms about it?"
"No!" said Adi. "Our sisters will find out and take it away from us too! I think we should keep it for ourselves."
The other girls agreed. They all went home and sleep well on Halloween night, dreams of scrolls and green mist highlighting their dreams.
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