Embers of Magic

Hands Down, The Longest Drive Ever. Or So I Hoped.

Do I have to tell this part of the story? It’s downright embarrassing. I refuse. Have a good day.

Fine, I’ll just get it over with. The drive wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, but it was uncomfortable. The cab driver wove through traffic like a man driven to insanity and of course, the air-conditioning didn’t work. Couldn’t risk opening a window and risking letting in the wave of heat that resonated off the cars around, either.

It was these kind of days when the heat was so much that you became moody and wished to swim but I wasn’t headed to the beach or any backyard pool party like normal teenagers, no. I was headed to a stuffy old museum in town that no one really knew about. Why? Because my father owned it and my grandparents figured it was a good idea for me to stay with him during every summer break. Obviously.

I sighed in the backseat, mumbling. Heat and I never really got along all that well. That and I tended to get car sick extremely easy? This cab was pretty much hell, yet I couldn’t help to hope he’d drive slower. Not so the car sickness would level out, because it wouldn’t, but so that I would spend as least possible time in that place then I needed to.

Alas, we pulled up at the entrance before I could finish mumbling in complaint. The museum stood out from the other buildings around it, but not in a good way. They all stood up taller with escalators running all the way up to the top and glass corner office’s – why hadn’t he worked in one of those? Surely it would pay more then working in this dump. It was a sore thumb. A spec of dirt in the middle of a booming metropolis.

“It’s been a while, Ember.”

The voice nearly got carried away by the wind. Icy yet the familiarity behind it reminded me of a hot cup of coffee in the middle of a winters Sunday afternoon. Felix Ryker stood behind me. His blonde hair combed backwards exposing his eyes – the colour of fresh ice – and dressed in midnight black.

“Yup.” My vocabulary completely deserted me as I tried to answer. Of course, I had a lot more to say to him then yup. I wanted to greet him like normal people did. I wanted to tell him that I missed him, yet nothing. All I said was yup, like some hormonal teenager swooning over her crush. No, I don’t have a crush on him. That’s just… no.

He smiled as he tucked his hair behind his ear. “Hello to you, too.” The cheek! I thought to myself. He started the conversation without a hello, I shouldn’t be saying that to him! Then again, all I had to say was yup.

Wow, Ember. Just wow.

“Hey. Yeah, it’s been a while.” I said as he nodded. I hadn’t seen him since last year and I would be lying if I hadn’t said I had missed him. Despite only being  here during the summers, Felix and Josh had been the closest friends I had. We spent more time together then we did with anyone else and to be honest, they felt like family.

“So, where’s Josh? Life guard duty?” I questioned.

“Uh, no. He went to visit our mother. Something about her needing him.” I could hear the guilt creep into his voice when he said that but I hadn’t blamed him for not tagging along. Felix always had a rocky relationship with his parents and he wasn’t really to blame. Things were…  “I see.”

“Yeah. Anyway, you find out anything about your mother?” The air around us chilled as he asked that question. We both had family issues. Where he couldn’t bring himself to visit his mother, I hadn’t known who mine was. I’ve spent years trying to find her but to no avail. I shook my head.

“I see. Well, Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place.”

I looked up towards him, folding my eyebrows together in curiosity. I’ve searched everywhere worth searching. There wasn’t anywhere that I could find anything anymore and the trail has gone cold. I’ve started to accept that. But still, my curiosity won. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. You know nothing about her, right?” He asked as he looked towards the entrance of the museum. “Not who her parents were. Not her name. Nothing.”

“Yeah.”

“Yet, you’ve been trying to find pictures, letters and documents at your grandparents. What if they know nothing, either?”

“There’s no one else I can ask, Felix.” I asked as he was still looking towards the museum.

“Places like these hold secrets. Sometimes, you might find something magical. Maybe try asking your father. He seems like the only who has met her.”

“The only thing magical about this place is how it hasn’t crumbled.” I joked to cover up the fact that he might have been right. I didn’t want to rely on my father for this. I couldn’t. But was it the only way? Felix dusted off his sleeves as he walked back towards me, patting my shoulder. “Seems like your dad’s here.”

I turned around to face the door as I saw him standing in the door way - his shirt creased and stained and his hair, a mop more unruly then anything I have ever seen. “I'll catch up with you and Josh later, okay?” I said as I walked towards the front door doing my best to ignore him.

Standing in the entrance hall, I noticed nothing had really changed. The first room still stood bare and barren or both exhibits and people. “Em! Don't you give your old man a hug?”

“I'd rather not.” I said as I walked through the hall, with what Felix had said still ringing through my thoughts. But, what could possibly magical about this place? It was a drag. My father walk to my side and began pointing out new exhibits as we walked towards the Greek hall.

"Did you knock the wall through, or something?" I asked as I looked down a corridor that I was sure wasn't there before with a single exhibit right at the end of it -– a pithos. My father looked at me, confused, then stated at the hallway like someone staring into a sharp light – widely alert, yet seeing nothing.

He walked away, seemingly in a daze leaving me in the corridor, staring at the Pithos at the end as curiosity nearly dragged me towards in.

“Ember, are you coming or what?” He spoke as I snapped out of daze and pulled myself out of its influence and followed with a single thought rushing through me.

What was that?