I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 179: Penelope lifted a knotted clump of chain.
Penelope lifted a knotted clump of chain. There were so many things she didn’t know and many of them weren’t things she could learn from books. She could and would study the books on beginner magic and on creating charms, but it was the day to day that she didn’t know about.
Was it customary for those with magic to walk around with charms on display where any other person with magic could see them? Did it serve as an identifying mark between magicians?
‘After all they have only been in the open for a short while but hidden for centuries,” she mused as she began to slowly untangle the knots in the chains. She could use the hand on her broken arm if she only used her fingers to hold things in place and let her other hand do the bulk of the work. As long as she didn’t move her arm too much there was less pain.
Untangling the charms let her thoughts untangle as well.
She could see the charms being an identifying mark, but she could also see others wanting to hide the fact they were wearing them. She imagined going to visit another magician while wearing a protective charm might seem a bit untrusting.
“And a charm designed to make people trust you would most definitely be rude,” she decided. Penelope frowned. “Ride might not be the right word,” she mused. “But it certainly wouldn’t be something you would want anyone else to see.”
As she worked through the snarled chains and charms, laying out each untangled on on the kitchen towel she put on the countertop, she wondered if there were some charms others expected as well as some charms hidden. She glanced at the box with the small packet of charms hidden back in it’s base. She once had a box with a false bottom when she was little. She made it herself.
It wasn’t a complicated thing. She had two of her father’s cigar boxes and cut the bottom out of won, making it slightly smaller so it would fit inside the bottom of the other. She decoupaged it with pictures cut from magazines and in the upper part used it to store little odds and ends like paperclips and the refills for ball point pens. She made certain that it held nothing of value and was displayed openly on top of her desk.
The most enticing thing she put in it were decorative erasers. As expected there was one she knew Trinity would like and when Penelope was out of the house, she took it from the box. After Penelope moved the decorative erasers into her school bag so Trinity lost interest in the box. By the theft of the eraser she liked, Trinity proved that it was not a safe place to hide things she wanted to keep. Once Penelope knew that Trinity would take what she liked from it then she felt she won. Penelope knew she checked it periodically, but she seemed satisfied with the useless odds and ends she stashed there.
Once Trinity was certain there was nothing of value in the box, Penelope used the slip space between the bottom and false bottom to hide things. Once it held a small diary, occasionally a note or letter she wanted to keep safe. Once she started working, she used it as a place to keep her bank book. While most banking was done on the laptop, Penelope liked having a written record she could check when she needed to.
She also knew letting Trinity know she had anything extra was a bad idea.
Ten til Midnight 