#OriginalFiction – Nov 7 & 8

The dinner shift was just getting into full swing when Mina stopped by the table of Mr. & Mrs. Whitehaven, the local real estate agents.

“Steak dinners for both of us, Minuet. We’re celebrating.” Mrs. Whitehaven disdained nicknames and would not use them for anyone.

Mina smiled. “Of course.” As she took the order to the kitchen, though, she wondered what it was they were celebrating. The Whitehavens had no kids and were too old to be having kids. It was not their anniversary or either of their birthdays; she knew because the whole town was invited to those parties. And given that it was a small town, everyone knew when a property came on the market, and right now, there were not any.

Busy as she was, though, she did not have a moment to ask them until she was bringing out their dinners. Trying not to seem nosy (everyone in the town was nosy, but it was more polite not to seem so), she said, “I meant to ask earlier, what are you celebrating?”

Mr. & Mrs. Whitehaven both beamed at her, so she knew they had just been waiting for someone to ask. He smiled and spoke more loudly than was necessary. “We sold the riverfront property. There is a developer who wants to put up vacation cottages and offer river rafting adventures.”

The whole restaurant seemed to go quiet for a moment.

“Isn’t it exciting.” Mrs. Whitehaven exclaimed. “Tourists, coming here. Think what it will mean for your restaurant, Minuet, and the whole town.”

Mina smiled back at them, because it was expected. “That is exciting. Can I get you another beer?” Tourists would be good for her family’s restaurant, and the whole town, that was certain. But losing the riverfront, to Mina, that was a blow. It was not just there, behind the shack, that she hid when she wanted to be alone, it was where she and Aria and Dorian had played as children. The land was right next to her home, and it would be like losing a piece of her childhood. No wonder the magic had taken her today.

The Whitehavens opted to stay sober, at least for the moment, and Mina went away to continue serving the other customers. Of course, the sale of the riverfront property was all anyone could talk about for the rest of the evening, but it did put everyone in a good mood and, perhaps because they all started counting their chickens before any eggs were even laid, led everyone to tip just a little more generously than usual.

Mina left with over $40 in her pocket, double what she would normally expect to get on a night like this. She determined that she would give half to Aria. While Mina worked the family restaurant for only tips, her sister no longer lived at home and had her own bills to pay. By not working tonight, she missed out on not just tips, but the regular paid hours she had negotiated with their mother, too.

The other $20, she figured would be more than enough to convince Dorian to help her find the key to the lockbox. She had thought, for about a minute, that perhaps all the magic had really wanted was for the box to be found and moved before the developer came and knocked down the shack. But surely local crews would be hired for that part, and they would have found the box and opened it.

The second she had that thought, she knew that was really why the magic had taken her to the box. It was meant to be opened, but not in a public spectacle. The contents of the box were not meant to be the source of gossip. Whatever it was, it was private. It was not Mina’s job just to find the box and keep it safe. It was her job to protect whatever it was the box held, to give it to whom it belonged, without everyone and their brother talking about it at the diner.

That night, after her mother was asleep, Mina slipped out of the house to the woodpile. She took the lockbox out from under the tarp and brought it in the house. Tomorrow, the search for the key would begin.