Phoenix and the Dark Star Read online

  Once Richard found what he was looking for, he grabbed a memo pad and proceeded to write down the information. He ripped off the sheet once he was done and held it out for Ellen to take.

  Ellen took the paper and read, “Ethan Downing…”

  “Ethan has performed at Six Flags and in several theaters around the U. S.,” Richard informed. “The address I gave you is his home address, so when you go there, tell him that Richard Hampton had sent you.”

  “Okay. Thanks,” Ellen said.

  “Since we’re here, we should check out the magic kits that you do have,” Harris suggested.

  “Sure,” Richard agreed just as Ellen was noticing a ‘Help Wanted’ sign that was lying face-up on the counter, next to the cash register.

  “You’re looking to hire someone?” Ellen inquired while gesturing towards the sign.

  Richard glanced towards the sign. As he faced her again, he replied, “I hired someone yesterday actually.”

  “Oh,” Ellen let out, slightly disappointed.

  “He’s supposed to start Monday,” Richard continued. Ellen just politely grinned. “Anyway, those magic kits are this way.”

  When Richard stepped away, Ellen, Harris and Devon followed.

  Ellen, Harris and Devon looked at the magic kits that Richard had in stock, and then went with the larger kit.

  The kit was pricey and Harris paid with a credit card. As Richard was bagging the purchase item, he asked Ellen, “How old are you?”

  “Sixteen,” Ellen replied cautiously, in an uncertain tone. “Why?”

  “You acted interested in a job here, and I was wondering if you’re even old enough to work.”

  “I know I don’t look sixteen, but I am,” Ellen insisted as Richard reached underneath the counter.

  “I believe you,” Richard said before bringing up a job application and holding it out for Ellen to take.

  “What’s that?” Ellen asked without taking the application.

  “It’s a job application…” Richard was only able to get out.

  “You said that the job’s been filled,” Ellen reminded him.

  “It has, but I never know if a new hire will work out or not,” Richard said. “And if he doesn’t work out, it doesn't hurt to have other applicants in the system to choose from.”

  “Alright,” Ellen agreed while taking the application. “I’ll need a pen to fill this out.”

  “If you’d like, take it home, fill it out and bring it back by Tuesday,” Richard suggested.

  “Alright,” Ellen agreed.

  “So I know what to call you when you return, what’s your name?” Richard asked.

  “Ellen. Ellen Anderson, and I know yours as Richard Hampton.”

  Richard grinned before saying, “I’ll see you in a few days, Ellen Anderson.”

  “Bye,” Ellen said.

  “Bye,” Harris, Devon and Richard echoed.

  Ellen, Harris and Devon turned and walked towards the exit. Ellen had the application while Harris carried the bag.

  Harris—with Ellen and Devon at his side—stepped up to Ethan’s front door and rang the doorbell.

  After a short wait, a thirty-something-year-old man opened the door.

  He glanced at the three before resting his eyes on Harris—the one directly in front of him—before asking, “Yes? May I help you?”

  “Ethan Downing?” Harris questioned.

  “Who’s asking?” he asked while shifting into a slightly more defensive posture.

  “I’m Harris,” he began before gesturing towards the others. “This is Devon and she’s Ellen. And assuming that you are Ethan, we were told by Richard Hampton that you could help us to obtain the magic supplies that Richard doesn’t sell.”

  “I’m Ethan,” he admitted while relaxing his posture and crossing his arms, “and which one of you three wants the supplies?”

  Ellen slightly raised her hand without saying a word.

  “What do you know about magic, Ellen?” Ethan asked.

  Ellen sucked her lips together and shook her head a couple of times before saying, “Not a thing.”

  “And you think that buying magic supplies is going to change that?” Ethan quickly questioned.

  “I think buying the magic supplies and learning how to use them will change that,” Ellen retorted, “and I know that learning magic will be more difficult to do than my simplified answer.”

  Ethan thought for a moment before asking, “You’re what… fifteen?”

  “Sixteen,” Ellen corrected.

  Ethan acknowledged the correction with a nod before saying, “I don’t sell magic supplies, but I can get you three the information on who does. However, Ellen, magic props are not cheap and until you learn how to use them, you’ll be wasting your money buying them…”

  “Yeah, well, I want to learn it, so what other choice do I have?” Ellen interrupted.

  “You’re too young to be a stage assistant, so the other option is to find someone who will give you lessons,” Ethan replied.

  “Do you give lessons?” Ellen quickly asked.

  Ethan slightly laughed without humor before saying, “No.”

  “Where can I get lessons then?”

  Ethan shrugged before saying, “As far as I know, I’m the only professional illusionist in the city of Savannah, Georgia… and wannabes will only teach you bad habits.”

  “Okay, so again my only choice on learning magic is to buy the props and learn how to use them on my own. Now can we get the information on who sells them?”

  Ethan stared into Ellen’s eyes with an unreadable expression on his face for a few seconds before sighing and asking, “Can you spare Wednesday and Thursday evenings between four and six?”

  Ellen shot him a curious look before saying cautiously, “I’m sure I can.”

  “Okay. Come back here on Wednesday at four to start your lessons.”

  Ellen slightly grinned before asking, “How much will the lessons be?”

  Ethan thought for a moment before saying, “I’ve never given lessons before, so I’ll have to ask around and find out what the going rates are. So I’ll let you know Wednesday.”

  “Okay,” Ellen agreed. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”

  Ethan nodded before saying, “Bye, for now.”

  “Bye,” Ellen, Harris and Devon echoed.

  As Ellen, Harris and Devon were walking away, Ethan backed up and closed the door.

  As Harris was driving up to the house, he, Ellen and Devon saw two other cars parked in the driveway, one behind the other. The first car was parked alongside the rented car.

  “You need a bigger house, Harry,” Ellen commented.

  “I haven’t had this many visitors since my and Allyson’s wedding,” Harris replied before parking behind the rented car.

  Ellen—while carrying the shopping bag—entered the house first followed by Devon and then Harris.

  Once Ellen stepped into the living room, she saw an elderly couple and a man in his early-twenties sitting on a couch. A woman in her mid-forties and a woman in her mid-twenties were sitting on the love seat. The younger woman was cradling Sonya in one hand and holding Sonya’s bottle with the other as Sonya drank. Alison, Sadie, Blaire and Trevor were sitting in dining room chairs. The armchair sat empty. Eight photo albums sat on the coffee table.

  Ellen stopped a few feet from the entrance as she looked over the room. Harris and Devon stepped in and stopped next to Ellen.

  The elderly woman—with a pleasant smile on her face—stood up and walked towards Ellen.

  “You have to be Ellen,” the woman told her while taking her first step.

  “Okay, well, I don’t really have to be, but I am,” Ellen replied while watching her curiously and apprehensively. “And you are?”

  “I’m your Grandma Deloris.” A big smile came across Ellen’s face as Deloris continued to say, “And I had to come here after finding out about you.”

  Ellen allowed the shopping bag to drop to th
e floor at her side as she rushed towards Deloris. Deloris barely had time to prepare herself before finding herself in Ellen’s hug.

  “I was hoping to meet you,” Ellen said before breaking the hug and taking a step back. As Ellen wiped the joyous tears from her eyes, she asked, “How long can you stay?”

  “We’re not leaving anytime soon,” Deloris assured Ellen with a grin. She then continued while pointing everyone out. “So you’ll have plenty of time to get to know me, your Grandpa Wendell, your Aunt Amanda—your Uncle Tucker’s wife—your cousin April and your cousin Joshua.”

  “Nice to meet you, Ellen,” Wendell, Amanda, April and Joshua pleasantly said in an uneven chorus.

  Ellen grinned, and as Wendell was standing up, she echoed, “It’s nice to meet all of you. So, where is Uncle Tucker anyway?”

  “He’s here too,” Deloris quickly assured Ellen. “He went to use the bathroom just before you came.”

  “I would sure like to get one of those hugs like you had given your grandma,” Wendell told Ellen as he stepped closer.

  Ellen smiled before rushing into Wendell’s arms.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your mom, Ellen,” Wendell remorsefully said as he broke the hug.

  Ellen slightly hesitated before sharing, “I miss her.”

  “Me too, kiddo,” Wendell assured her. “And I can definitely see her when I look at you. In fact, with the exception for a few subtle differences, you’re the spitting image of your mom when she was sixteen. And to prove that, your grandma had brought photo albums with her.”

  Ellen glanced at the photo albums and took a troubled breath.

  “What’s wrong?” came at her from Allyson, Sadie and Deloris. Only Allyson added ‘Ellen’ at the end.

  Ellen saw the concern looks that she was getting. As she looked at Deloris, she said, “Mom had only ten photos to show me that predated her nineteenth birthday.” Ellen didn’t notice Deloris’s slightly uneasy reaction as Ellen continued, “Mom had told me that you had a lot of photo albums, but when she went to get them out soon after hearing about the accident that supposedly had killed you, they were gone. I was nine when she shared that with me, and I saw in her eyes that she hated… and was frustrated with herself for losing those albums.”

  “Your mom didn’t lose those albums,” Deloris confessed.

  “What do you mean?” Ellen quickly asked.

  “I couldn’t be anywhere without my photo albums and after being in the witness protection program for only a week, I disobeyed the rules and I contacted a friend. I asked that friend to retrieve my photo albums, plus other items that I wanted. After I got the items, the handler caught me with them. He tried to make me get rid of them. I wasn’t allowed to have anything that would connect me with the past, but I refused.” Deloris gestured towards the albums as she continued with, “My stubbornness won out because those photo albums that your mom thought she had lost are right here.”

  Harris amusingly grinned while asking, “Are you where Ellen gets her stubbornness from?”

  Ellen shot Harris a smirk.

  Deloris amusingly grinned as she answered with, “Most likely she gets it from me, from her Grandmother Holly and from her Grandfather Alexander. We were all stubborn children growing up.” Ellen shot Deloris a confused looked as Deloris asked, “Anyway, are you Harris or…?”

  “Yes, I’m Harris,” he said before gesturing. “And this is Devon.”

  “Nice to meet everyone,” Devon said.

  “Likewise,” Wendell said as he extended his hand to shake Harris’s hand.

  Harris accepted the handshake offer.

  When Wendell’s handshake offer was offered to Devon, Ellen asked, “Grandma, did you know my Grandma Holly?”

  Deloris grinned before saying, “Yes. From when I was two to when I was thirteen your Grandma Holly and her parents were my next door neighbors. I could look out my bedroom window and see right into Holly’s bedroom window. We were also best friends and we would get into trouble by communicating through signs that we would write out and hold up for the other to read when we were supposed to be sleeping.”

  Ellen grinned while saying, “Old time text messaging.”

  “Pretty much,” Deloris said with a grin. “Anyway, Holly was eleven months older than me and soon after she turned fourteen, she and her parents moved across town. The house had remained empty for several weeks before Alexander and his dad… Felix moved in…”

  “Wait,” Ellen demanded. “Grandpa Alex and Great Grandpa Felix had lived next door to you too?”

  “They did,” Deloris replied as she was moving back towards her seat on the couch. Wendell went to retake his seat as well. “Your Grandpa Alex was an angry boy back when I had met him too.”

  “Angry?” Ellen echoed as she watched her grandparents retaking their seats. “Angry how?”

  Tucker was walking in as Deloris was saying, “Alex was thirteen back then…”

  “He was younger than my Grandma Holly?” Ellen questioned as she smiled and waved at Tucker.

  Tucker gave Ellen a hug and a kiss on her head as Deloris was replying, “He is… or was anyway. In fact, your Grandpa Alex was even a few weeks younger than me.”

  “Mom was two months older than Dad,” Ellen shared. An amused expression came across Deloris’s face. “Which I don’t really need to tell you.”

  Deloris gave an agreeing grin as she slightly nodded. Tucker went and retook his seat in the armchair.

  “Anyway, your Grandpa Alex was angry at his dad. His mom was missing and presumed dead back then and he was angry over that. He was angry for being in Kansas City… he was simply an angry kid, and he wanted his dad to suffer along with him, and so he began hanging out with the wrong crowd—the rough crowd.

  “Liam Seawall was in his mid-twenties back then, and was a part of a thieving group. He and his group went around breaking into nice homes and taking anything that wasn’t nailed down. As Liam ventured out into other criminal avenues he began hiring minors as runners. Within a year of me knowing Alex, Alex and his hooligan friends began running errands for Liam. Liam was paying them well too.

  “By the time when Alex was sixteen, he bought a nice car. Felix was furious when Alex came home with that car. He didn’t know where Alex was getting his money, but he knew that he wasn’t making it legitimately.

  “Holly came to visit me during that fifteen-minute shouting match between Alex and Felix. At the end of those fifteen minutes, Felix kicked Alex out of the house. Holly and I were outside doing… whatever it was that we were doing at the time. Holly was also attracted to the bad boy type, and when Holly saw Alex that day for the first time, I swear I saw cupid’s arrow go straight through her heart.

  “Alex moved in with one of Liam’s thugs and within six months after that, Holly and Alex became an inseparable couple…”

  “How did she die?” Ellen interrupted. “Grandma Holly?”

  “I don’t know,” Deloris admitted. “Your Grandpa Wendell and I were living in Germany at the time of her death…”

  “Mom told me how she grew up on army bases until she was seventeen,” Ellen interrupted.

  Deloris nodded before continuing with, “After your Grandpa Wendell was given his medical discharge, we moved back to Kansas City. I went looking for Holly to find out why she had stopped calling and sending me letters. Your mom and I had located your Grandpa Alex fairly quickly, and that was when I found out that Holly was dead—she died the year before, and he wouldn’t tell me how it had happened. That was also the day when your mom and dad had met—two weeks later, your mom and dad became a couple.”

  “Mom told me how she had met Dad,” Ellen shared.

  Deloris gestured towards the photo albums while asking, “Would you like to see the photos?”

  “I would,” Ellen quickly said with a nod.

  As Deloris reached for one of the photo albums, Ellen kneeled down next to the coffee table. Harris went into the kitchen to bring back kitchen chai
rs for him and Devon. Devon picked up the bag from the hobby shop and moved it out of the way.

  The first page that Deloris came to was filled with old and partially faded photos of a young couple.

  “Meet your great-grandparents, Ellen—Leonard and Mary Richards,” Deloris informed.

  “Your parents?” Ellen asked Deloris.

  “My parents,” Deloris replied with a grin.

  “Are your parents’ pictures in here, Grandpa?” Ellen asked.

  “Their pictures should be in one of those albums,” Wendell said. “I don’t know which one though.”

  “They’re on the next page,” Deloris said while flipping and showing pages two and three of the album. She then indicated to the photos on the second page. “Here they are.” Ellen examined the photos as Deloris continued to say, “Their names are Benjamin and May Wiley.”

  On the third page of the album was an old photo of a young woman. The woman was inside a pen with a bull and had looked to be aggravating the bull with a jacket.

  “Who’s the torero?” Ellen quickly asked as she pointed to the photo.

  “That is your Grandma Holly on her eighteenth birthday,” Deloris began with a grin. “I loved your Grandma Holly like a sister, Ellen, but she was too much of a thrill seeker. There was nothing that she wouldn’t try, nor was there a risk too great. I was the levelheaded one and I think that God had put us together so I could keep her grounded… or at least I attempted to anyway.” Deloris gestured towards the photo. “I failed that day.”

  “I’m very glad that Ellen has your levelheadedness, Deloris, and not her other grandmother’s thrill seeking trait,” Allyson told her.

  Ellen just amusingly grinned. Deloris shot Ellen a pleasant grin before continuing with, “Luckily for your Grandma Holly, your Grandpa Alex was there. Your Grandpa Alex had an unnatural… and slightly eerie charming effect with animals—” Ellen held her grin along with making a facial expression as if what Deloris was saying was old news. “—and when the bull began to get too close, he would step up to the bull and calm him down.”

  “You don’t look surprised,” April pointed out. “That your Grandpa Alex was capable of charming the animals.”