Space Witches 1: The Book of Witches

10. Booking a Flight

The next afternoon I was back home. Mother spent the day checking every piece of food we had in our cupboards, throwing away anything with nuts in them (or anything made in factories where they handled nuts). Tina grabbed all the snacks that were on their way to the garbage and carried them into her room for private consumption.

I checked to see where my diary was, and found it in the bottom drawer of my desk. The magazines were piled back on the desk top, and the pieces of the little cat ornament were in my waste paper basket. Tina was not carrying on like her normal cheeky self and when I caught her staring at me it was with a new attitude of respect, which didn't feel bad at all. It's always good to have the upper hand over a curious, foul-mouthed sister.

I was not asked to do any chores, which put a sour look on Tina's face as she had previously been the expert at vanishing when anything resembling domestic duties needed to be done. But now she just sulked and filled the dishwasher and wiped the dust away, when she was not hoarding the munchies.

I sat in my room, by the window, and stared through it and up into space. On higher plates where there was a lot more nature and almost no industry, the globe above was almost completely transparent. This meant there was a beautiful view into space. The Earth was clearly visible in the distance as were many of the other plates. They rotated around the sun in their carefully calculated orbits, at about the same distance as the Earth, at the appropriate angle so that the sun would reach down according to the natural season each plate was supposed to have.

Our plate was Scandinavian. It was winter here now, even though we were nearest to the sun in our orbit. But our plate was now tilted so that the sun's rays reached us at a lower angle, which in turn caused autumn and winter. This was assisted by the temperature control machinery of the plate. In this way, animal and plant species were kept alive in their natural rhythms. From my window I could see low artificial hills behind a high fence rising behind neat houses some blocks away. Sometimes, if I used binoculars, I could see animals there, mostly reindeer and moose. I knew there were bears there too, in a separate fenced-off area of their own. Only a few people were allowed to enter these fenced areas to tend the animals and plants.

The plates were not completely horizontal, but curved upwards at the center, as if a piece of the planet had been cut out and placed in space. And it had, in a way. Our home was not far from the medieval Turku cathedral which had been transported here from Finland when the plate was made. Not far away was the medieval Riddarholmen church from Stockholm. Other historic buildings from the Nordic countries were dotted across out plate as well. Some were brought up before and some after the catastrophe.

I watched the shuttles glistening in the sunlight, flying from one plate to another. A force field was built around each bubble to protect them from anything flying our way from space – I could see the machinery needed to maintain the force field as a net of little shiny dots all around us in space. If anything major were to hurtle through the space they wouldn't help – then we would just have to try to steer the plates away, as we had done when Earth was hit. We had sufficient warning and were able to build these platforms in space to live in before the immense asteroid came. It had been clear it would cause catastrophic damage and so the first plates were hastily built.

I opened my screen and went to the page where the shuttle timetables were. I found what I needed soon enough, and took up my pen and pad. Two flies appeared on the paper, so I knew my dead friends were close by.

"OK, in which library will I find information about the curse?"

"The Library of Ancient Tomes" wrote the pen and under that a curly letter M.

"M as in Mia?" I asked

"Yes," the pen wrote, before continuing "University Plate. Can you get there? Soon?"

A new letter M appeared on the paper, this time without any curls and "Matthew".

"Ok, got it," I said. "I'll think of something."

Then the pen wrote a very fast and large G and at least five flies performed a little dance around it.

"And George, yes, hello," I said, waving my arms to shoo the flies off. "Now I hope you are keeping the... dangerous one in check. Whatever her name is."

"I am," the words came in an almost unreadable handwriting, "and she refuses to talk. Or can't talk. Not sure which."

I opened the window and managed to shoo the flies out – I was not particularly interested in what would happen to them in the frosty air. And probably George wasn't either – if they were his past bad deeds, no amount of cold would kill them off.

I then spent a few moments booking a shuttle flight for the next day. I didn't expect mother would be willing to let me leave and so I paid for the trip before telling her. The payment was nonrefundable and mother was always very particular about spending.

I was right. She definitely would not have wanted me to go, if I hadn't already set it up. She tried her best to stop me.

"But you can't go anywhere yet! You've only been let out of the hospital today!" Mother protested.

"Exactly. I am no longer in hospital. The crisis is over and I definitely won't be eating any more nuts," I tried to sound as calm as I could. "And I have decided to try to apply for university after all. That means I need to take an entrance exam."

"Oh, really?" Mother immediately forgot her objections. "Well in that case - I think that's great news! Where did you think of applying? And to study what?"

"Well...I was thinking about studying history. And... ancient Egypt, to be precise."

"Oh..." Mother's face furrowed as her practical mind turned this news over for a while. "But are you sure that will give you employable skills?"

"Oh, but of course," I said, impressing myself with the speed of my imagination as I invented an answer there and then. "You know how people love to decorate their homes, and I could specialize in Egyptian home decoration. I could study interior design on the side, you see. As far as I know there is no Egyptologist home decorator, so I would be the leading expert in the field."

Mother positively beamed.

"Egyptian-themed interior decoration? Yes, that would be a great combination, come to think of it..."

"Good, that's settled then. I already booked a flight to the University Plate for tomorrow and paid for it too."

"Did you have enough money for all that?" mother asked.

"Yes, just enough for the tickets and a bit of lunch while I am there," I said.

"Here, let me give you some more... you need to eat somewhere where they can guarantee some nut-free food! Oh, and take this with you."

Mother opened her bag.

"The doctor gave it to me – if you go into shock, shoot yourself with this immediately. It is first aid, adrenaline I think, and will keep you breathing until you manage to get to a doctor."

She gave me a little tube that resembled a pen. It was a medicine dispenser that shot the medicine straight through the skin and into the bloodstream.

"Sure thing!" I said.