Of Lorenz Theory & Love

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

30 Signed, Sealed, Delivered

5:15 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)/12:15 am Azores/3:15 am Greece, Vera Manor, Macy's bedroom, Seattle, Washington

Harry and Macy orbed home to Vera Manor, thoroughly exhausted from their Grecian adventures; traveling between time zones truly sapped one's energy to the core. Harry had read Macy's heartfelt letter, and they had hand-delivered it together to Matias' doorstep in the Azores at the stroke of midnight when he turned 80 years old. The envelope was a distinctive gold color, with a dark red seal impenetrable only by the true recipient himself, Matias.

Without bothering to undress into their pajamas, they promptly flopped onto Macy's bed and were soon sound asleep, snoring quite loudly.

8 am, Vera Manor, Seattle, Washington

The next morning, Harry and Macy quietly traversed the staircase into the kitchen; the table was covered in glass beakers, test tubes, bottles, and a two-foot stack of ancient texts that looked as though they belonged in the local natural history museum.

There was a sticky note on one of the test tubes. Intrigued, Macy read it.

"I figured out how to merge Harry and Jimmy. Don't you DARE move a thing from this table. -Mel"

Macy sighed. Her neat freak tendencies were heightened into overdrive, and she really wanted to grab a wet paper towel and wipe the entire counter surface clean with strong-smelling, lemon-scented disinfectant. Just then, she noticed Maggie, hidden behind the glass bottles and ancient texts, sipping her latte, her eyes not-so-subtly darting back and forth between Macy and Harry. "So, you guys, how was last night?"

"Ok, I suppose," Macy responded somewhat casually, "if by ok, that means confronting a drunk-off-ouzo Celeste at the crack of dawn in her Mykonian retirement abode, remorseless about wiping Jimmy's memory of my great-great aunt Darcy and her baby Matias, who Jimmy rescued from a Sarcana orphanage. Then writing a letter to said baby, who is now 80 years old and probably hates us for abandoning him."

Maggie visibly flinched, then shoved her latte toward them. "Want a sip, Mace? You need this more than I do. Mel filled me in yesterday."

"No, I'm good, thanks though," responded Macy, who ventured over to the coffeemaker to create her daily brew of unadulterated caffeine, extra strong. "I don't think I ever heard Harry curse so much in my life."

Noon, Vera Manor, Seattle, Washington

Mel arrived home on her lunch break from working at Spellbound, slamming the front door shut and striding into the kitchen, where Maggie, Macy, and Harry were gathered. "Merging time!" she sang aloud. "Gonna see if these books work, glasses, bottles, and a," here, she spun around and twerked.

"Someone's been spending too much time in the magic lab," said Maggie and Macy, both giving Mel a rather long side-eye.

"Or drinking too much caffeine," said Harry. "Mel, what was your caffeine intake today?"

"Two cups of coffee, a shot of espresso, and an energy drink...or two," replied Mel, currently still racing around the kitchen.

"Mel, are you sure you're up to the spellwork?" asked Macy cautiously. "It's ok if you're not, I mean, it's Harry's safety we have to think of—"

Mel suddenly halted in her tracks, pivoted, and faced Macy. "I'm fine. More than fine. Enthusiastic, more like. I've always wanted to try this spell. Really, I'm good. I'm ok." She took a few deep, soothing breaths. "I got this."

12:30 pm, Vera Manor, Seattle, Washington

Mel took a few of the glass bottles from the kitchen, while Maggie and Macy carried the ancient texts up to the attic, where Harry was waiting, pacing back and forth. Once they checked and double-checked that they had all of the necessary ingredients, they had Harry lay on the floor, with a chalk circle drawn around the outer perimeter of his body.

Then, Mel opened the most decrepit looking of the texts and began reading aloud; her sisters joined in as well.

Merge Harry with Jimmy, two separated souls,

Amalgamate their light and dark roles.

Meld their bright and clever minds,

Agglutinate their body, heart, in kind.

Combine their spirit, soul rewind,

Unify Harry and Jimmy, let them be one,

Before the setting of this very sun.

Macy knew her solo role was coming up next; to lure Jimmy to the attic, she had to wear clothes similar to the ones she wore in her dream of Jimmy months ago, a low-cut silk garment and a thin black petticoat sweater. For this spell to work, Harry wasn't supposed to know beforehand. She stepped out of the shadows, dropping her sweater on the ground, her breasts clinging tightly to the sensuous negligée. She continued chanting softly, oblivious to the fact that Harry was watching her every move, out of the corner of his eye (and liked what he saw).

12:45 pm, Vera Manor, Seattle, Washington

The chanting grew louder, as phantom winds swirled and surrounded them; Maggie uncorked Jimmy's bottle into the chalk circle, and soon there were two identical men in the space. Jimmy was putting up a struggle, screaming, trying to push his way out of the circle—banging his fists—but was mollified by the sight of Macy in her tight outfit, after she walked to the very edge of the chalk circle, close enough for her eyelashes to touch Jimmy's, for her fingertips to lightly brush against his.

"Please, Jimmy," she pleaded softly with Jimmy. "Do it for me. Do it so we can be together again."

"For you? Anything." And with that, Jimmy relinquished his fight, and his form grew less opaque and more transparent, as he stepped onto, and combined with, Harry's physical body laying prone on the floor.

12:50 pm, Vera Manor, Seattle, Washington

"Did it work?" Macy asked cautiously. She, Maggie, and Mel walked closer to the circle from their previous stations throughout the attic. Jimmy's form, transparent or otherwise, had disappeared, and all that remained was Harry's motionless body. Please be ok, Macy thought to herself silently.

Just then, his body stirred. "Darcy?" Harry whispered, spotting Macy, their memories flooding back in droves.

"Jimmy," Macy's eyes teared up as they quickly embraced, as she too began having flashbacks she never knew was probable or even possible. A flash of a scene came before her of a plum-brocaded Mauve Flat, where Jimmy was regarding her with awe, saying "hot damn, Darcy" before their backstage date, the very same words Macy read from his mind as they exited the cemetery all that time ago, before heading to Galvin's birthday party. Their outfits in those two separate instances had been virtually identical—Harry's pinstripe suit and Macy's pearl-colored floral dress. How was this even possible? This defies every scientific law and theory imaginable. Macy's brain then rewound itself to the time in which the necromancer brought her limp, doll-sized body back to life; perhaps this Jimmy/Darcy resurgence of memories was one of the violations of laws of nature that Celeste alluded to, regarding the possibility of time loops. Was it? But all she knew was that her true love, Jimmy-turned-Harry-turned both was in front of her, however which way she looked at it. And she, Darcy-turned-Macy, was finally reunited at last with her long-lost soulmate.

After a moment's pause, Macy and Harry broke down sobbing; Celeste's spell was finally broken.