Helene & Team
I check my watch. If we are going to get back in time, we need to leave now, if not three minutes ago. I know Anna said she’d shapeshift time, but what does that mean? I don’t want to be kept from seeing her.
“Jake is my great-grandson,” Anna says. “I’m afraid I married bad, and my daughter, Helene, is like her father. Bad, through and through. You hate to say that about a child, and you love her no matter what. But it does you no good to pretend things are other than what they are.”
I nod, though I don’t really get it. How do still you love a child that does something like what Helene has done to Anna?
“Helene’s daughter, who is my grand-daughter and Jake’s mother, is neither good or bad. She is simply lost. Drugs, poor dear, the hard kind, and not one of us could help her. The magic doesn’t take well to drugs. I’ll warn you of that now.”
“What happens?” I ask.
“The magic passes you by because not enough “you” for it to work with. You are left to live the ordinary life. Any magic is accidental, and impossible to direct.”
Something in that idea really gets to me, like life without magic—especially in a magical family—would be a fate worse than death. “So is Jake good?” I have to know.
Anna smiles. “A little good and a little lost. He was heading in a direction that was far too dangerous for our comfort. We could not simply leave him to his fate. That’s why we started teaching him so young. It was a great risk, but the risk of withholding a taste of magic was far greater. He needed to know what he had to look forward to. He took to it quickly. I think he will be fine, given enough time and teaching.”
“And Michael?” I beg to know.
Anna sighs. “Yes, our Michael. You know I have not seen him in years, before today. His grandmother was Bea’s daughter, of course. She was a fine balance of good and bad. Just perfect for what you hope for. Married a good man and produced a very good daughter. A fine young lady, really. Like you. Wide eyed, open, and willing to learn. She started too young, though, which was our mistake. Michael’s mother was just so eager. The magic was too powerful, too soon. And she met a good man. That’s what took her life. Too much good, too concentrated, and then Michael.”
I don’t get it. Why would that take her life? But I’m just going to listen for now.
“I still do not know,” Anna says in an voice that is airy and sounds far away, “if she gave consent to have Michael grow up in Helene’s custody as a protection for him, so that he would not learn the magic too young, or if Helene forged her signature on the papers. In any event, they held up in court. Michael was Helene’s to raise.”
“But she wasn’t even fully related!” I insist, indignant. “Why didn’t you fight? Why didn’t you use your magic to get him back?”
Anna offers a sad smile. “It was best he was with her.”
“Why?” I demand. I mean, I know first hand what it’s like to be in the wrong family. It’s not best. There is no way it was best for him.
“Because Michael is too good,” she replies. “In fact, his goodness is greater than any I’ve seen in any clan. Helene has tempted him, I am sure, and in doing so, has tempered him. We cannot know how much. It would be hard to have been too much. I wouldn’t be surprised if the magic is leaking through already.”
“It is!” I blurt out. “I saw it. He can spin spoons without touching them, and move them toward you, and…”
Anna laughs quietly. “Then it is as I have expected. You know, he was magical at birth. That is why Helene wanted him in the first place.”
The idea stops me short. I hadn’t though about why Helene might have wanted Michael.
“Does she want his magic?”
“No. She wants his magic to die so that Jake’s might live. As her great-grandson, she intends for Jake to be the lead male of the family. Jake, or no one.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. All this comes down to who will the rightful heir of the Bayless clan? “You’re kidding, right?”
Anna shakes her head. “As you yourself spoke, Michael is barely kin to her. Yet she saw what we all saw in Michael—a true prince of magic. He was born with a countenance that outshone every child in the nursery. Jake could be no match for that. Helene took custody with only two things in mind. First, to keep Michael from following the magical path, thus insuring Jake as the leading male. Second, to be in a position of such great power that if Michael ever began to take the lead, she could cause the family magic to die out altogether. In the mean time, she is holding us all hostage.”
“Then how can you possibly say it was good for him to be with her?” I nearly explode.
“As I have said,” she replies, all the more calm for my fury, “too much good is not good. That much goodness killed his mother, and we had to save him from that fate himself. That much magic—even Bea and I didn’t know how to manage it. It’s tempered now. At least, we hope it is.”
“But he’s been miserable! I know it. I can just tell. Couldn’t you tell?”
“For that we are so deeply sorry.”
Sorry? That’s all she has to say? Sorry?
For the first time, Anna looks at me like I’m young—too young to understand. I know the look well, and it hurts to see it coming from her.
“Do you imagine,” she asks, “that any child who was raised to be a king or queen of a tribe or country was happy in their tutelage? Do you believe they enjoyed being kept apart, enduring the constraints and burdens that other children were not required to? Of course not. Yet this is expected of someone like Michael, because in his case the role is greater than the man.”
“And it’s a man’s world, in your family? Staring with your father?”
“Not at all. We don’t really have kings or queens—that is simply a metaphor, you undersand. But we do have leadership within the clan. Both a male and a female serve equally together. That is the nature of our magic, and without it, we are too far out of balance to be effective. This is part of why we are having trouble now. Too many daughters with power, and not enough sons.”
“But you only have two great-grandsons,” I challenge. “What about great-granddaughters?”
“That is why we need an outsider,” she says quietly, looking me dead in the eye.
My head starts to buzz. She can’t mean what I think she means.
“Do you recall,” she asks, “that we spoke just yesterday about whether I saw a boyfriend for you?”
I’m sure the absolutely horror must show on my face. “You said there would be someone,” I say with a near gasp, “if you had anything to do with it.”
“I must admit, it was Jake I had in mind. But with Michael back, perhaps the magic itself is interested in having a say on who you are with.”
“Are you trying to say magic, itself, is interested in ME?” I nearly yell. I totally have to calm down. But how? This is… This is…
“You have free will, always, you remember I’ve told you that,” she says, ever so calm.
I don’t know what to say. I mean, I totally don’t know what to say.
Anna laughs me off. “We are getting so far ahead of ourselves here, Mayden. You are so young. You won’t be expected to choose for quite some time.”
“Choose? Between Michael and Jake?”
“Not today,” she assures.
This is so not happening. So not possible. Two days ago, I didn’t have a guy in sight. Now I have two awesome guys, both vying for leadership in a magical clan, who might want me? And the magic itself, whatever that is, is interested in that? No way. Just not possible. Beyond what the brain can manage even considering.
Anna laughs, and I realize I must look pretty stupid with my jaw dropped open this way. I close it, but really, what could there possibly be to say?
More and more, I’m thinking this can’t be real. Things like this don’t happen. The modern world doesn’t have clans or arranged relationships—does it? Can you really go zooming past dysfunctional family and take a flying leap into a dysfunctional dynasty?
And what is this idea that I could be some kind of queen of it? No, it can’t be real. It just can’t be. I’m sitting outside an old folks home, with a woman who lives in a wheelchair, and I’m totally, totally losing it.
“Perhaps we should get back now,” Anna suggests, trying again to lean up on one elbow.
I nearly leap up. What time must it be? I look at my watch. Way, way late. I’m amazed we haven’t heard sirens blaring and had a search team combing the place. “We have to go,” I say, really, really scared. Because while I don’t’ have any idea what this all is with Anna and Bea and Jake and Michael, I do know I don’t want to lose my chance to find out. And that is so very possible if I get caught beyond hours.
“It will be fine, Mayden dear, I assure you,” Anna says.
Even so, I hurry her into the chair and back through the woods, then into the building. I’m sweating like crazy and my heart is going a million miles an hour. First thing, I check the wall clock. Coming right up on it as we round this corner…
It can’t be. It can’t.
I look at my watch. We were gone…by the wall clock…five minutes?
“Itoldyou, Itoldyou, Itoldyou,” Anna mumbles, just loud enough for me to hear the words.
I roll her into her room and look at her personal clock. We have fifteen minutes to spare.
I look at my watch, which reads exactly the same as the one on her dresser. Only a minute ago, it didn’t. A minute ago it was…a lot more minutes ago.
Despite my earlier warning from Nurse Edna, I close the door to the outside and check the bathroom. Empty. I put away her medicine bag, tuck her new glasses back into my coat jacket, and kneel in front of her. Already she’s got that pulse thing going with her drooping head and that totally checked out look. Only now, I know for sure, it’s an act.
“I forget to ask you,” I whisper, “what can I tell Michael?”
“Welcomehome, welcomehome, welcomehome, welcomehome,” she says, smiling with her eyes.
Anna on 
Cessalee on 
Sue H on 
Robin Rice on
Oh I needed this today!
I don’t know that I’m in alignment with the concept of “too much good”
Yes we need contrast.
But too much good?
Nah, I’m not there, but I am loving the story.
And the really funny part is I don’t have any problem with accepting magic and vision and shape-shifting time. LOL – all of those fit into my paradigm of possibility.
Oh, it will be fun to see where this “too much good” is going, won’t it? It’s far enough off what you expect to keep up curiosity, at least that’s what I hope! What could she mean….
Thanks for commenting, Maran!
I LOVE this story and look forward to every new chapter.
I must say that this “all bad” and “too good” business is really pushing my buttons. Maybe it’s supposed to and I’m just being impatient. Maybe this is just disagreement about fundamental spiritual beliefs, but in case it’s not and in case you meant to say more than you did… Does Anna really mean that people can be completely bad – as in irredeemable, no good in them at all, and *born* that way? Or is she getting more at the types of energy people let in – or let themselves channel into the world (or…?). If it’s something more like the latter, it would help to have more explanation of this in the story. This notion of “too good” – same thing, meaning that maybe I just disagree with Anna, but perhaps it is more of a clarification issue. Is “too good” referring to energy type issues – and lack of balance on that front? As it stands, it seems like Anna is implying that we should be wary of joy, because we’ll be punished for being too happy. If this is what she means, fine (and I simply disagree). If this isn’t what she means, more explanation would be helpful. But then again, maybe you are wanting to build the very type of tension I’m feeling! : )
Thanks for all these wonderful chapters!! Namaste
At least the way I’m seeing the “too much good” at the moment is an imbalance. Perhaps too much good can lead to making “bad” wrong, having no compassion for bad, or at the extreme to destroy “bad”…. just pondering… I’m looking forward to see how the story unfolds itself through Robin.
Robin, are you ever surprised by what you’re writing as it’s coming out of you? Do you have a favorite anecdote about that?
Hi All! I’m actually really enjoying this conversation about good and bad so wanted to wait to jump in on it. But Pat, you nailed it… I’m not sure where it is going, or if I want it to go where it is going. I might have to backtrack, and that happens when writing a book. I’m okay with that if the good/bad thing sends me back to the drawing board. But I didn’t want to test the idea in only one chapter, and I have a feeling the Muse has something in mind with it, so I want to keep exploring. I’m okay with that, too, because good things can come from “wasting” my time.
I do know that shamanism, which has ancient traditions that I’ve studied in many cultures and formats, has a very balanced look at light and dark, good and bad. Also known as the right hand or left hand path. Even the symbol of the yin-yang shows that once something is too much of one thing, it naturally goes to the opposite thing. Very much an Eastern Thought kind of thing. So Anna may know that too much good would tip and start something bad.
Most books are obvious about good and bad–is Harry Potter good? Of course. Is He Who Can’t Be Named bad? Sure… So I think it is interesting to consider what if this were just stated boldly, upfront? What more could come of it? Right now, I’m not sure, but I am staying curious.
I’ve ideas for the next chapter, and look for my video coming soon in regards to working with this topic. We may scrap the whole good/bad thing, or we may find it takes its own tipping point and turns good/bad on its head. The only things I can say for sure is 1) I have tons of stories of a story going in a direction I am not expecting with my writing and 2) I don’t have an “agenda” for good/bad or any sense of preaching behind it at this point.
Hmm….. can’t wait to see what I write next. Thanks everyone for joining in!
This is so addicting! The plot thickens, characters evolve, magic unfolds…
I’ll instantly jump to the guys topic…hey I’m a teen, what can I say? lol. So now it’s between Jake and Michael. Jake, having more of a ‘magic’ upbringing is so interesting and quite frankly adorable, but Michael and his longing to be taught the ways of magic is also very interesting. Right now I’m leaning towards Michael though because I’ve seen more of him and not as much Jake. I’m excited to see how that unfolds!
I also like the idea about the balance between good and bad. It’s a cool twist on things that sparked my intrest and got me thinking.
Shapeshifting time! That was awesome. It’s all so enticing; thinking about all of the possibilities with magic and wondering just what is going to happen next with it.
The plot is incredibly interesting! I can’t wait to read more!
Love,
Alesia
In a blockbuster novel, something should be essentially “happening” on each page that compels the reader to continue reading. I wonder why two whole consecutive chapters were dedicated to this talk. It was very interesting to read up on the family’s history but I feel like too much was spoiled. Knowing so much already makes me feel less excited to read the next chapters. Announcing that Mayden has to choose between Jake and Michael might be more effective later when their characters have been developed beyond introductions. Then the readers would have more to consider as they consider who they would choose if they were in Mayden’s shoes.
I’m just reading the comments after a week’s absence. And I just watched your video about good and bad. My thanks to Pat’s comment (following my first one) about good and bad – that really helped me. Here’s a question, Robin. Would using words like “light” and “dark” be better than “good” and “bad”? As Pat notes in her comment – seeing the bad as “wrong” is problematic – out of balance. But the word “bad” already is loaded with a value judgement of wrongness. The word “dark” is not loaded in this way. Perhaps such a shift in terminology could help the growing process of these ideas. Perhaps not. But this termiology issue is now on my mind after seeing Pat’s comment, your response that follows Pat’s, and the video.
Namaste,
Lara
Well, let’s see if I can pull this whole good/bad magic out of a hat for you all. It’s a challenge to have you all not know where I’m going, and also not have the page for you to turn. See if I go somewhere you like… And Nadine, I’d agree with you about spoiling the big choice…if that was what it was really going to be about! Hint, hint. And as for the blockbuster, if you are going for an action/adventure, I agree. I don’t want to lose a reader, but there will be some depth and slow parts… gives the reader a breath and also sinks down a bit. Hopefully, not so long, so slow, that we lose you. Again, hard to tell in this post-per-ten-days medium! I’m sure all of you will let me know if I nail it or not. Hugs! Robin
Robin~ From where I “sit”, I think the whole good/bad thing is perfect. Because, for me, it’s about balance. Using the words “good” and “bad” may be buttons (as Lara noted) but isn’t that kinda the point? Aren’t we supposed to GROW? Anyway, regardless of whether you choose those words OR “light” and “dark”, it’s all the same to me. I like the way Mayden is reacting…and that, too, is part of what makes your story so alluring. BRAVO!
Personally, I like the use of the words good and bad precisely because they are such “loaded” words… Look at how much discussion they’ve sparked in us!!! I love it! For me, I love the opportunity to explore the archetypal perhaps unconscious definitions of these broad meaning words within myself. When I can uncover the definitions and meanings that I personally carry of such simple (ha!) words like good and bad, I have the access to get to know some of the building blocks of who I am. That leads me to greater self acceptance and deeper wonderment of “me”… AND on a bigger level it helps me to tune into “the human condition”.
Many of Robin’s stories do this for me.
Anyway, thanks allowing me to share. Hope I’m not too off topic.
Pat
Not off topic at all, Pat. Why not write things that stir people up? In my view, that’s what writing is for. I don’t plan to let you down by offering you another version of the same… let’s hope for better than that from every book. Good, bad… buttons, loaded… oh yes, I love it!
Hi Robin, Being let down isn’t on the radar…
Digging deeper and peering behind the veils is! This story is very timely for me, on many levels. Looking forward to the next installment!
A comment above: “Shapeshifting time! That was awesome.” No doubt about that! Even more awesome in being able to do this. ;~) But do it willingly/knowingly – or just because it needs to be done?
“The idea stops me short. I hadn’t though about why Helene might have wanted Michael.”
Change ‘though’ to ‘thought’
““And it’s a man’s world, in your family? Staring with your father?””
Change ’staring’ to ’starting’.
““I forget to ask you,” I whisper, “what can I tell Michael?””
Change ‘forget’ to ‘forgot’
:~)