Page 20 of The Vanishing Bookstore
Dora thought it was the most beautiful house she’d ever seen; it wasn’t like the others along the street, this one was set back from the rest. There was a huge oak tree in front of it and behind the white fence was a front garden full of pretty pink roses, lavender, rosemary, basil, thyme, every single herb she could name and some she couldn’t. There was a turret that looked like a pointy witch’s hat, with white windows and sills. Intricate trellis work adorned the house and the white arch that led intothe front garden was covered with an abundance of the smallest but most fragrant tiny blooms.
‘Mayflowers,’ Dora whispered to herself. A beautiful porch wrapped around the front of the house, on it a swing and a couple of rocking chairs. She sighed. It was like a real-life gingerbread house. Whenever she’d pictured living in America this was the kind of house she’d imagined.
Sephy opened the gate and stepped through. Dora could smell the flowers and the scent was intoxicating, although there was something else as well. A distant memory of planting the seeds for the herbs, working the ground on her hands and knees, singing while she raked her fingernails through the crumbly, fertile soil. She shook her head; she had as far as she knew never planted a garden in her life but something about this place was so distant, yet familiar. Sephy came back towards her, linking her arm through Dora’s, and leaned close to her ear.
‘Welcome home, Dora, we’ve waited a long time to see you.’
At that moment, Dora was almost overwhelmed by such a strong sense of love for the woman standing next to her, even though as far as she knew she was a complete stranger. Lenny was already dragging the two cases from the boot. Sephy walked Dora through the arch, smiling.
‘A garden planted with love is sure to bloom for all of eternity. Look at how these lilacs bloom; they knew you were coming home and opened in time for you to marvel in their beauty.’
Dora looked at the lilac bush, its branches so heavy with blooms they were bending in the breeze. They looked as if they were bending towards her. She stepped forwards and gently lowered her face to the flowers, inhaling their sweet, heady smell, and whispered, ‘Thank you for being so pretty and flowering for me, you are incredibly kind and beautiful.’A low sigh of pleasure filled Dora’s mind. She looked around to seeLenny was already at the front door and Sephy was standing back, nodding her head with the biggest smile on her face.
‘Was that you who sighed?’ Dora asked.
‘No, although I could have. You speak the language of the flowers and it’s a rare and beautiful gift. They were sighing in appreciation of your thanks and also, I think, because they’ve waited as long as I have to have you here. They should have bloomed in April or May, but they didn’t, they held on. I think the flowers knew exactly when you’d be coming home.’
Home.Dora felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. Yes, this was what it felt like. She had come home to the place she belonged, despite having had no knowledge of it until five minutes ago.
Sephy reached out her fingertips, trailing them across the delicate petals. ‘Did I not tell you she was coming home; I thank you for this glorious display too.’ She hooked her arm back through Dora’s.
‘Magic is truly everywhere. If you open your eyes and your heart you will feel it deep inside of you. It will also find you when you’re ready to accept that and let it in.’
A loud squawk from above them made Dora jump; she felt as if she had been intoxicated by the heady scent and Sephy’s words. She looked up to see a bird, with midnight-black feathers like her hair. It flew down from the upstairs windowsill it had been perched on, landing softly on one of the branches of the twisted hazel tree next to them.
‘Dora, this is Hades. He is our watcher, a very wise and a much-loved member of this family, aren’t you, Hades.’
She held out her arm and he swooped towards it with such grace that Dora was mesmerised. He perched on Sephy’s arm and stared at Dora, his two shiny black eyes watching her every move.
‘Hello, Hades, it’s lovely to meet you.’
Hades looked at Sephy and tilted his head to one side. Sephy laughed.
‘Of course she remembers, don’t you, Dora? He’s very sensitive for a bird, aren’t you, Hades?’
Dora had always been a little scared of the pigeons that were everywhere in London and would swoop down to land on your head if you weren’t careful. But she held out her arm. Sephy nodded at the bird, and he hopped across to sit on Dora’s forearm, making Sephy clap her hands in delight.
‘Oh, look at you two, you always were inseparable.’
Hades bent his head towards Dora and, before she could stop herself, she bent hers and kissed his small head. He squawked loudly then took off circling around them both.
‘Did I scare him?’
‘No, you just made an old crow very happy. He’s showing off.’
Lenny appeared at the door smiling, her head shaking, showing two different emotions at the same time.
‘Will you get Dora inside; I’m sure the neighbours are wondering what’s going on. It’s like a scene from Harry Potter out here.’
Sephy rolled her eyes. ‘My dear Lenny, trust me, the neighbours have seen much worse. Come on, Dora, let’s do what she says before her head implodes. She’s such a mortal at times it really is hard to understand that she’s a bloodline witch through and through.’
Dora laughed and followed her aunts into the picture-perfect pink house wondering if she was ill or if this was all a dream. Would she wake up any minute now with a stiff neck from the plane seat and a broken heart, longing for the life she had just been shown that could not possibly exist? Sephy talked about magic as if it was a very real thing, like it was a part of her daily life, and Dora wanted to believe that it was, more than she’d ever wanted to believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.
13
The inside of the house was as beautiful as the outside, but it was the kitchen that stole Dora’s heart. It wasn’t as big as Lenny’s open-plan kitchen in her penthouse, but what it lacked in size it made up for with everything else. There was an old-fashioned drying rack adorned with bunches of flowers and herbs above a well-worn, but much-loved pine table. There was a matching dresser that filled one entire wall of the kitchen, holding rows of jars with neat, handwritten labels filled with everything under the sun. Dora could read some of the scribbled black handwriting from afar: there were dry flowers of all varieties, herbs and spices. It truly felt as if she had stepped into a fairy tale about good witches – there was even a black cat sitting on the bottom tread of the staircase watching her. She smiled at it, wondering if she knew the cat also. Its eyes narrowed and it turned its head away, and she let out a little sigh; maybe this wasn’t a fairy tale after all.
A woman appeared at a doorway and Sephy rushed towards her.
