A young girl of 9 walked up the old squeaky wooden stairs of her grandmother’s white house in Camden, Maryland to the attic. Sydel have never been in the musty attic and she was scared. Her eyes darted to one corner to the other hoping there was nobody there. She reached the top step and asked herself where she should start looking. The attic was dark, even though it had two windows at on wall. Setting down her candle on an old cardboard box she sat down and tried to open a trunk lid. It wouldn’t budge. Trying harder she flung it open and saw old black dresses.
She stood up and grabbed one of the moth eaten dresses. Smiling she put it over her head and turned to look at herself in a mirror. She spun around the black dress that went all the way to the dirty attic floor, floated in the wind. After a couple model poses she put it back. That is not why she came.
She tried another trunk lid. It was easier than the last one and she barely put strength in it, when it popped open revealing papers and photographs. Picking up a photograph of a girl of about 17 who was standing beside a grown black bear. Something told her it was her mother that she so longed to know.
Sydney, Sydel’s mother, died in a car crash when Sydel was just 2. Ever since early last year she wanted to know everything about her. Her dad told her a lot but she knew there was something more… something more secret. She was determined to find out what. So she decided that when she went to visit her grandma over the summer she would go to the attic and snoop around. Sydel is snooping all right and she found what she was looking for… her mother’s history.
“His name was Cinnamon.” Sydel quickly turned around to face a smiling white haired old lady.
“What?” she asked her grandmother.
The lady pointed to the photograph, “The bear, his name was Cinnamon.”
“Really? Was he wild?”
“Very wild.”
Sydel picks up a large hardcover dusty, book. “Grandma, what is this?”
Her grandma brought up a stool and smiled at her, “Sweetie, this is your mother’s first spell book. She loved that book. She would cook up spells all day.”
“Spell book? Grandma, why would she have a spell book? What is a spell book?” Sydel asked looking confused. Her grandma smiled bigger, “Come sit on my knee, while I tell you a story that’s been in our family for years.”
Sydel’s grandma told her an amazing story about their family history. She found out about her mother’s secret, that was also her own. Knowing that her secret shall never be told, she put a spell on herself that she would never love. Because if you were married you would have to tell your husband, she didn’t want to tell because she was afraid of heartbreak. So she asked for qualities in a man that could not be possible.
What Sydel did not know was that everybody falls in love even though you put a spell on yourself. You can’t run away from love. It will sneak up behind you when you least expect it. When it catches you… you fall… hard. Not even a spell can prevent you from that.
copyright © 2001 AngelH