The Unlucky Birthday

This is a fantasy series of short stories I'm currently writing, entitled The Magical Misadventures of Holly Strange. Holly is a thirteen-year-old witch who owns a talking cat by the name of Melvyn.

            There are many feelings which rainfall typically invokes in people.  You might, for instance, feel very happy if your mother had planned your entire day to be spent outside in the boiling sun, simply because she wanted you to get out of the house.  Or you might feel somewhat angry, perhaps, if you had originally planned to spend a nice day on the beach with your friend, sipping lemonade.  You might feel embarrassed if you had previously predicted an entirely rain-free afternoon to all your friends and family, or you might feel apathetic if you simply didn’t care about your afternoon at all.  You might even feel scared, particularly if your worst fears include clouds, water, or a combination of the two.

            Whatever emotion you might experience during the worst of thunderstorms, you probably wouldn’t feel sad, but now, as Holly Strange stared out the drizzly parlor window, watching her dreams of a raindrop-free afternoon wash away, she couldn’t have felt sadder.

            “What a terrible day,” she lamented aloud, fists pressed disappointedly into rosy cheeks.  “What do you think of it, Melvyn?”

            At that moment, the black cat that had been curled comfortably on the cozy armchair perked an ear.  “I don’t think you can go into the forest today, Holly dear,” said the cat.  His accent was noticeably English, and today, slightly annoyed.  “Perhaps you should take a nap?”

            “But I don’t want to take a nap,” said the girl, plopping into a neighboring armchair.  “I want to venture the woods, and do magic, and talk to fairies, and fight monsters!”  Dismayed, she picked up her favorite book, 101 Magic Spells and How to Use Them.  When she wasn’t playing outside, Holly’s favorite thing to do was practice witchcraft.

            Melvyn left his place in the armchair and leapt onto the windowsill so swiftly that he nearly lost his monocle.  In addition to this small bit, Melvyn’s fashionable appearance also consisted of a button-up vest and the occasional top hat.  Holly had always thought that, for a cat, he was very modest.

            “Maybe you should read something else,” Melvyn suggested nervously.  He had once been a human man, until an evil witch turned him into a cat.  Once he fell into Holly’s care, she had spent the first several weeks trying to reverse the curse, but only managed to render him hairless.  It had taken forever for all that fur to grow back.  Ever since the incident, Melvyn had been more than a little skeptical of Holly’s abilities as a witch, and was always hesitant to voice his wish to be human should she attempt to grant it again.

            “What’s that word you always use?  Ah, yes - that’s rubbish, Melvyn.  You of all people should know by now that it’s my only desire to be the greatest witch who ever lived!  I can’t very well do that if I don’t know the spells, now can I?”

            “Might I remind you that I’m not a person,” said the cat bitterly.

            “Oh, Melvyn, is that what you took from that?  No worries, I’ll change you back in no time at all.”

            “No, really, do take your time.”

            Holly buried her nose in the book of spells.  “I’m currently working on an invisibility spell,” she said proudly.  “As I’m sure you know, tomorrow is my thirteenth birthday.  Do you know what the number thirteen signifies, Melvyn?”

            “An unlucky number, I suppose, Miss Holly.”

            “Right.  Thirteen is the unluckiest number of them all, and I happen to be very superstitious.”

            “Black cats have never seemed to bother you.”

            “Oh, Melvyn, what a jokester.  You’re more than an old cat!  But tomorrow is my thirteenth birthday, and I’m terribly worried about it.  So I figured, what if I were invisible?  Just think, Melvyn, if no one could see me, there would be no bad luck to give!”  Holly pulled a long, crooked wooden stick from her pocket and brandished it high in the air.  “Let’s see if I can remember the exact words… oh, yes: Magic new and magic old, grant this wish that you’ll be told, to make my problems disappear, and make what I see turn to air!”

            As she said this, the magic wand shook in her hand and a bright light shot from the end; it blasted straight forward into a small coffee table, which immediately vanished from sight.  Melvyn was quite shocked.  He hopped onto the table to make sure it was still there, and sure enough, it appeared as though he were suspended in mid-air.

            “Good heavens, child!  I can’t believe you’ve done it… you made this table disappear!”

            Holly smiled shyly.  “Don’t get too excited, now.  I need to test it out on something larger.”  She tapped her chin thoughtfully, gazing around the bland room.  “Hmm… I suppose this mirror will work, won’t it?”

            Holly repeated the magic words and fired another spell at a tall mirror against the wall.  It ricocheted off the glass and flew back at the underage witch, who managed to duck just in time.  It went right over her head, barely missing her.

“Yikes,” Holly exclaimed, dusting herself off.  “I keep forgetting that mirrors aren’t affected by magic.  They reflect it, don’t they, Melvyn?”  She turned around, but her feline companion was nowhere to be found.  “Melvyn, where on earth have you gone?”

“You ignorant child!” came a disembodied voice, though it was distinctly recognizable.  “You’ve made me invisible!”  And it was true, indeed.  The source of the cat’s voice was directly in front of her, but he wasn’t there at all.

“Oh, Melvyn, I’m so sorry!  I’m sure it will wear off in no time at all.”

“It had better, Miss Holly.  I can’t go around looking like this!”

Holly returned to the mirror, staring up and down at her own reflection.  “I suppose the only thing that’s left to try it on is me.”  She drew her wand and turned it around so that the tip touched the end of her freckly nose.  “Magic new and magic old, grant this wish that you’ll be told, to make my problems disappear, and make what I see turn to air!”

There was another blinding flash of light, and the next thing Holly knew, she was lying on the carpet, flat on her back.  She stood to get a glimpse of herself in the mirror and was only half-surprised to find that her reflection wasn’t there at all.  There was only an empty room, and where there had previously been a twelve-year-old witch, a talking cat, and a coffee table, there was now nothing at all.

“Look, Melvyn, I’m gone!” she exclaimed, rubbing her head in disbelief.  “It worked!”

“Yes, I’m well aware, Miss Holly.”

“Oh, just think!  Now that I’m invisible, no one will be able to give me bad luck.  I can do as I please, and no harm will befall either one of us.  Tomorrow is going to be the best birthday I’ve ever had!”

But when Holly woke up the next morning, she was slightly concerned to discover that she was still invisible.  She was sure that the spell would have worn off by now, and certain that she would have to recast it, but as she threw off the covers and sat up in bed, it was shocking to find only a slight imprint in the mattress where her body should have been.

“Oh, no,” she groaned, staring through herself in the mirror.  “What if this never wears off?  I look terrible!”

“If I may say so, Miss Holly, it seems as though you don’t look like much at all.”

And he was right.  For the rest of the morning, no one seemed to notice either of them.  Holly’s mother came in to wish her happy birthday, only to leave confusedly when her daughter was nowhere to be found.

“I can’t let her see me like this!” Holly whispered to the cat.

Even breakfast proved to be a challenge; it was very difficult to sneak pancakes out of the kitchen without alerting her mother of a floating plate.  By the time she went to school, Holly was certain that she had not, in fact, succeeded in restoring her good luck.  None of her friends could tell where her voice was coming from, she couldn’t stop bumping into people in the hallway, and the teachers just would not call on her, even when her hand was raised.  Worst of all, not a single person wished her happy birthday.

When Holly came home that afternoon, she was exhausted and depressed.

“Melvyn?  Oh, Melvyn, where are you?”

“I’m over here, Holly, dear.”

“Today was absolutely terrible!  The unluckiest birthday of my life, no doubt.”

She moved toward the armchair, but tripped over an unseen coffee table and landed clumsily on the rug.  Dismayed, she didn’t get back up.  “I was sure this would wear off after a few hours, but it hasn’t!  Oh, Melvyn, what if we’re stuck like this forever!  How dreadful!”

“Perhaps there’s a spell to make invisible things, well, visible again?”

            Holly sat bolt upright.  “Of course!  What a wonderful idea, Melvyn.  You sure are smart for a cat.”

            “Thank-you.”

            Holly found the book of spells and threw it open to the invisibility page.  She searched the text for any mention of a reverse spell, but there was nothing of the sort.  Nowhere did the page say anything about the effects of the spell wearing off, nor did it offer any sort of help as to making someone visible again.  In fact, there was a note that warned specifically not to use the spell on people (or animals, for that matter).

Then Holly noticed, to her great horror, a few tiny words at the very bottom of the page, almost so small you couldn’t see them:  The only way to reverse an invisibility spell is by means of an external source of magic.

Holly repeated the line out loud.  “An external source of magic?  What’s that?”

“Perhaps,” suggested Melvyn, “it’s referring to non-human magic, like a crystal ball.  I’ve always wanted one of those.”

“Don’t be silly, Melvyn.  Crystal balls can’t fix the future, they only predict it.  I need an external source of magic that will grant my wish to be visible again.”

“Like a genie in a bottle?”

“You’re on the right track, I suppose.”

Holly and Melvyn thought long and hard about any magical objects they might own, but a genie in a bottle was not one of them.  They didn’t know any monsters who would grant the wishes of children, nor did they think the fairies in the woods would be nice enough to do so, and dandelion wishes never seemed to come true, even if you managed to blow off all their seeds with one puff of air.  The closest wishing well was still miles away, and even if it wasn’t, Holly and Melvyn both agreed that throwing perfectly good money into a hole filled with water was nothing short of wasteful.  Even shooting stars seemed to be hard to come by.  They exchanged ideas for a good while, but in the end, nothing helpful came to mind.

“I give up!” sobbed the newly-thirteen-year-old girl, sprawling hopelessly on the carpet.  “Face it, Melvyn, we’re stuck like this forever!”

“Yes, it appears that way,” Melvyn’s voice muttered grimly from somewhere in the room.

The cat and the girl sat in silence for a long time, and anyone who happened to walk in would probably have thought it were empty.  Holly not only wished she were visible again; she wished she could have her birthday back.  After all, you only turned thirteen once and she had spent it by erasing herself from view.  In trying to protect herself from bad luck, she had managed to do the exact opposite.  What had she been thinking?

At just that moment, Holly’s mother came into the room holding none other than a bright pink birthday cake, complete with Happy Birthday spelled out in crooked letters and an array of birthday candles - thirteen, to be exact.  Holly instinctively hid behind the couch, then realized no one could see her anyway.  “Holly?  Holly, dear?  I’ve brought you a cake for your birthday.”

Her mother seemed worried at the following silence but left for the kitchen.  Holly put her face in her hands.  “This is all my fault!”

“Can’t argue with that,” grumbled Melvyn.

“I won’t even get to have a birthday party,” groaned Holly.

“It’s a shame, too.  I was rather looking forward to that birthday cake.”

Holly looked up.  An idea suddenly came to her.  “That’s it, Melvyn!”

“What’s it, Miss Holly?”

“The birthday cake!  I can make a wish on the birthday cake!”

Holly darted for the kitchen; the patter of Melvyn’s pawsteps followed her to the table, where the birthday cake sat expectantly, its thirteen candles glowing bright.  Holly bent over it, as if inspecting its magical properties.

“When you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, you get to make a wish,” she explained.  “But only one, so this had better work.  Quick, Melvyn, sing me the Happy Birthday Song.”

“Er… I don’t sing, Miss Holly.”

“It’s a ritual, Melvyn.  That’s the only way this will work.”

After a reluctant pause, the cat started to sing the Happy Birthday tune.  It sounded funny in his voice, and when he was done, Holly gave a slight applause.

“Very good.  Now all I need to do is make a wish.”  She thought hard about her one wish, eyes shut tight in intense concentration.

“Well, spit it out, child,” said Melvyn after a good bit of silence, not enjoying the happy birthday ritual as much as his friend.

“You can’t say your birthday wish out loud, or it won’t come true,” said Holly, matter-of-factly.  “Everyone knows that.  You have to think about it and focus really hard on how much you want it to be true.  You have to want it more than anything.”

With that, Holly inhaled as much air as she could hold and blew out all the birthday candles in a single puff.  She and Melvyn waited on the tips of their toes, hoping desperately for any sort of reaction, but nothing happened.  In fact, the cake just sat there, the candles smoldering like little smokestacks.  Holly frowned, but no one could see it.  Melvyn shook his head, but he was still invisible.

Then, something happened - it started as a slight quiver, as though the plate beneath it were shaking.  Then the cake began to wobble, faster and faster, until it was vibrating at such a speed that it almost fell off the table.  The icing started to bubble, and smoke was billowing from the candles…

With a loud pop that sounded horrifically like a gunshot, the birthday cake exploded, sending waves of charred candles and bubbling pink icing all around the room.  The next thing she knew, Holly was laying on the kitchen floor, coated in sticky icing and bits of fluffy cake.  She wiped the mixture away from her eyes, and, pulling her hands away, realized she could see them - all ten digits!  Melvyn emerged from the goop; he, too, was visible, and his black fur was coated in the pink mess.

“It worked!” said Holly, standing and dusting herself off.  A glance at the mirror on the wall proved her appearance; not only was she visible again, but she would have been quite hard to miss: her face was dark with ash, her black hair was frizzed beyond belief, and the pretty dress she had been wearing was now covered in pink icing.

“Yes, it did, indeed,” said Melvyn in between cleansing licks to his fur.  “It’ll take weeks for all this to come out.  Heavens, Holly, why did that cake explode?”

“I suppose it overheated from all the magic,” she said.  “After all, birthday cakes aren’t used to granting such extreme wishes.”

Author's Note

Just keep in mind this is the first draft, and I plan to add more to the ending, and maybe a few other parts. Feel free to critique whatever you want, and please tell me what you thought of the story!