Page 63 of The Book of Magic

They pulled off their clothes and dared each other to get into the water first, then they both counted to three and took off running. Birdie slept in the shade, not in the least bothered when the sisters splashed through the shallows, shrieking before immersing their entire bodies. As they swam out to deeper water, they both were thinking of Franny and Jet and of their summers here when they were young. Sometimes you don’t know how lucky you are until the time has passed you by. Sally had the urge to sit her daughters down and say, Don’t waste a minute, but it would do no good. A person had to live through her life in order to make sense of it.

“Do you think there’s really a sea monster?” Gillian asked, her voice lazy. They’d heard such stories ever since they’d first come to town.

“Anything’s possible.”

“But would it still be alive if it had been sighted in the 1600s?”

“Time is relative. There’s probably a loop of us sitting on the porch in our pajamas having chocolate cake for breakfast.”

They laughed and held hands, and then Sally surprised Gillian by diving into the blue depths. She could do that now that she had lost her powers, and, as it turned out, she was quite a show-off in the water.

“Unfair!” Gillian cried when Sally reappeared, bursting through the dark green weeds, spitting water and laughing. “You get to dive.”

“You get to float,” Sally shot back, paddling up beside her sister.

Oh, day they never wanted to end.

“We got what we wanted,” Gillian said in a soft tone. “Both of us.”

Sally felt a wash of love for her sister. Things didn’t last. They both knew that. “Will we have to pay a price for being happy?”

“Everyone does. That’s what it means to be alive.”

The water was so deep it was said there was no bottom, it reached all the way to the end of the earth. They were drifting among the lilies, abloom with their cream-colored flowers, their long, tangled roots dangling. They were shivery with the cold when they climbed out onto the banks. They waited until they were mostly dry, then pulled on their clothes, which they’d hung on the low boughs of evergreens. Birdie was still asleep. There were crows in the branches of the trees, peering down at them. Toads gathered in the shallows, calling softly.

“What do you think it all means?” Gillian asked.

“It means that no matter what, we will never be normal,” Sally said cheerfully. “With or without magic.”

“Never,” Gillian agreed.

They walked home along the dirt path that was called Faith’s Way by the locals. The last of the day’s hazy sunlight beat down on them and the air was still. There was the song of crickets, a trilling that filled their heads. It was still officially spring, but it felt like a summer afternoon.

“Will you miss being here?” Gillian asked.

“I’ll miss you.”

“We’ll spend every summer together at Vincent’s house in France.” Neither of them could bring themselves to call him grandfather; though they had come to love him dearly, Vincent just seemed too young for that title.

“We won’t wear bathing suits, even when we’re very old.”

“And no shoes. All summer long.”

Once upon a time they were as different as night and day, but that had changed. Each had what they’d wished for most. How lucky they’d been to be raised by women who taught them what was most important in this world. Read as many books as you can. Choose courage over caution. Take time to visit libraries. Look for light in the darkness. Have faith in yourself. Know that love is what matters most.

All the way home they held hands, exactly as they had when they were little girls who had taken a plane through a storm to reach Massachusetts. It wasn’t so long ago. It felt like only yesterday. They had worn black coats and patent leather shoes as they walked up the bluestone path to the house on Magnolia Street, with no idea of what might come next.

Then and there, their lives had begun.