Can't Remember September (ONC 2023)

Chapter 16 - A Happily Ever After?

The altar ignited into a giant fireball as smoke filled the clearing. The witch's shriek grew briefly louder as she cried out in agony and then it gurgled to a stop. She burst forward from the fireball, a charred black figure completely engulfed in flames before she dissolved before our eyes.

The fire burned bright and hot for several minutes, but luckily it stayed contained to the center of the clearing and didn't spread to the surrounding trees. It gradually began to lessen in intensity until only a small bonfire remained.

In the meantime Amelia Earhart drifted to the ground in a parachute. She landed a few feet away from us and cut herself free. "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. That was a stroke of luck."

"Amelia!" Magic Al shouted. "What happened?"

"I was circling around up there trying to provide aerial surveillance when all of a sudden I heard a loud booming voice speaking some of the most deadly boring words I've ever heard in my life. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I managed to point the nose of the plane towards that witch and hit the eject button before I nodded off."

"Hooray!" Antony shouted. "Amelia Earhart saved the day!"

"Pardon me," I said. "I think my novel also had something to do with it."

"Your novel didn't do squat, man. The witch woke up and would have just started casting the spell again if Amelia Earhart hadn't flown a plane into her. Nope, one hundred percent of the credit goes to her. Say, you want to come back to my house and party, Amelia?"

"That sounds like a jolly good time, but I'm afraid I feel a little funny. Like I'm vanishing or something."

I blinked my eyes and looked at her. She did seem to be a little less substantial.

"The effects of the spell are vanishing now that we have prevented it from being cast," Magic Al said. "That means Amelia is most likely returning to her own time."

"It was nice meeting you all," she said as she began to grow increasingly translucent. "Good luck..."

And then she was gone.

At the same time Chaucer began to feel lighter in my arms. "Oh no!" I shouted. I tried to hold him tighter, but I could feel him fading away. "So long, old friend. I'm glad I got to spend a little more time with you."

And then he, too, was gone.

Magic Al gave me a brief consoling pat on the shoulder. "He was indeed a worthy comrade, but this isn't his time. In fact, this now isn't any of our time. Now that the spell has been stopped I suspect we will imminently find ourselves back..."

And then everything suddenly faded to black.

*

September 1st, 1994

I was awoken abruptly by some sort of commotion taking place outside my window. I got out of bed blearily and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I opened the window and was pleasantly surprised to hear the sound of insects buzzing and birds chirping.

And then I heard a woman shouting "You're a jerk, Antony! Tiffani and I are leaving!"

"Come on, don't go! I told you I didn't ditch out on you guys! My next door neighbor and I were off saving the world!" Antony was standing in his driveway in nothing but a pair of tighty-whities confronting the two blonde women I had seen him with the night I met him. He looked up and saw me standing at my window. "Come on, bro! Tell them about how we saved the world from the evil witch and her spell that made everyone disappear!"

"Gee, I don't know, Antony. Did a certain book have anything to do with our success?"

"All right, all right! Fine! That guy wrote some super boring book, which put the witch to sleep, and that may have played a small part in defeating her. But mostly it was me. And also Amelia Earhart smashing a crop dusting plane into her."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," I said. "Except for the boring part. I think of my novel as being one of those that you just can't put down. But he's correct. We stopped the witch and saved the world."

"You guys are weird," one of the blondes said.

"Also old," the other blonde woman said with a look of disgust on her face. "Come on, Traci, let's get out of here."

"At least let me give you a ride home," Antony said.

"No thanks. We'll hitchhike."

Antony stood alone in his driveway looking dejected as the two blondes walked away down the street with their thumbs in the air.

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself and I took one more breath of fresh air and then closed the window.

I turned to see my typewriter sitting on my desk, right where it was supposed to be. It hadn't gotten destroyed during our assault on the witch after all. Or at least whatever destruction it had suffered had been undone once the spell had been prevented from being cast.

It felt like it had been ages since I'd had a chance to sit down and write. I cracked my knuckles and then took a seat. I rolled a fresh sheet of paper and centered it in the typewriter and wrote the words "Chapter One."

I paused and stopped to consider. I still really wanted to write my epic story about the melted scoop of ice cream, but perhaps it could wait. I'd just been through quite the adventure and maybe I had a more pressing story to tell. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts gather. Yes, I thought I'd like to maybe tell another story. A story about a couple of unlikely heroes and their battle to save the world from an evil witch. And maybe, just maybe, I'd keep it a little more concise. Maybe I'd simply write a novella.

But before I typed a single word, I thought there was something even more important I should do. I grabbed the telephone and began to call my family and friends. I don't remember what we spoke about, but the conversations I had with each and every one of them were more meaningful than any book I would ever write.

Books have the potential to last forever, but you never know when you may wake up one morning and someone you care about might be gone.

Believe me, I know from experience.