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Shape of Things to Come
Part 1:In the Fullness of Time Chapter 2
Justice with favour have I always done;
..........(Henry VI Part II William Shakespeare ) |
Sometime after Tempus had sat on this throne and surveyed his minions during the celebration of the Birth of Evil, Piper Halliwell closed the front door of her family home often called The Manor. Knowing the kids were all at school, her sister Phoebe was visiting her publisher, and her brother-in-law Cole kept incredibly long hours working as guardian of the realm and a mortal lawyer so he was never home in the day, she indulged herself by with kicking off her shoes and tiredly leaning back against the door, shutting her eyes, and breathing deeply. Piper was often tired. Her body struggled.
“Probably” she acknowledged aloud, because there was no one to hear her and worry. “The result of having two children when I’m not supposed to have any.”
To say nothing of the damage done to her body in her fights with evil. How many times had she died, how many times had she broken her back being flung across space by evil.
“To damned many,” she thought as she tried to stretch the pain out of her back. “Growing older may give you wisdom” she decided “but it’s hell on everything else.”
As well as dealing with her aching body, Piper also had the responsibility for her children and the others of the Halliwell family, and her two sisters, the pressure of being one of the most powerful witches in the realm, and managing a now very successful club business. It was no wonder she got tired.
Despite her tiredness, however, she had some gratification as well. She spent the morning proving she was a capable and effective businesswoman. She had made it known to the local councils what would be the consequences of the parking controls they wanted to put on the whole entertainment precinct located around her nightclub P3. She had then dealt with problems over imports and liquor licences, not to mention reacted responsibly and calmly when she was informed by the club manager of a fortunately, resolved crisis about bands.
“Why is the club business just a succession of repeat after repeat of the same old problems? Except” she thought “The scale of the problem just became bigger as the business becomes more and more successful.”
Just for a second despite her pleasure, Piper felt seriously aggrieved that she had been dealing with these problems. After all, as far as she was concerned, the family supported her brother-in-law Cole’s successful but not exactly profitable law practice just so she did not have to deal with the legalities of zoning, federal import laws and state charges and rules.
However, when the issues had come up unexpectedly that morning, a call to his practice, was answered by the witch Clarissa who worked as his office manager. She told Piper that Cole was in court, an urgent request when yet another judge who hated him had insisted that he turn up or be in contempt. This information in no way placated Piper. Cole generally did not worry about judge’s threats any more than he worried about warlocks attacking. In fact, in general, he tended to treat judges and warlocks with the same amount of disdain. Piper therefore was seriously aggrieved with Cole and was happy to blame him for all of the trials in her life that morning. But then her life would not have been normal if she had not been aggrieved with her brother-in-law about something.
Piper glanced in the mirror in the hall and for a second was disconcerted at the image she saw. Just for an instant, the mirror reflected some of the soul tiredness that Piper was feeling. This mirror was not an antique like many of the fixtures in the Manor but a relatively modern one that nevertheless fitted in well with the eclectic furnishings and decorations. The original antique mirror was destroyed after Cole had trashed the Manor in one of his jealousy fits before going to fight in Burvjara, well over a decade ago. So, the disconcerting image she saw was definitely Cole’s fault. Piper smiling to herself. Nothing had changed over the years. Everything was always Cole’s fault.
She stopped, turned again regarding her image in the mirror. On reflection, it showed a woman who had hardly changed since the day she and her sister’s became witches so long ago now. Maybe a little fuller in the face, she thought, but her hair, admittedly helped by the magic of hair products, was still long, thick and dark, but the tiredness which frighted her in her quietest moments showed in her eyes.
Although quietness was a rare commodity in the Manor these days with four adults and four children living there, to say nothing of those living next door regularly joining the family, plus the four dogs and two cats, that her daughter Melinda had brought home over the years.
Piper’s eyes lit up as she thought of her family and the all-consuming tiredness lifted from her soul. She had a happy marriage and a satisfying life, just thinking about her children made her happy, worried but happy. Piper’s daughter Melinda, always a handful, was now fifteen and her volatility and intense passions, mostly to do with animals and how to care for them and protect them, combined with very raging teenage hormones made everything around her an explosion of emotion. Melinda’s passionate soul frightened Piper. Halliwell witches were well-known for their fiery natures but there was a long list of Melinda’s ancestors who had suffered for their passions. Piper constantly worried her daughter would be added to that list. Her sister Phoebe did not worry, because she said worrying about what might be just gave you wrinkles.
Not to say Phoebe and Cole’s son Patsy was any easier. Patsy or Patrick which was the name he answered to everywhere else, was seemingly a studious, almost introverted boy who lived in his head, his mind following patterns and ideas that no-one in the family understood. Which for some boys may have not been a problem, but Patsy had a magic soul, a core inherited from his ex-demon father that absorbed all floating good powers with which he came into contact. When he decided to use those powers, Patsy was immutable. When he took it onto his mind to change or undertake anything he never let go the idea. Patsy was thirteen still small for his age not quite at puberty, something Piper secretly dreaded when she thought about a hormonally out of control teenage boy becoming magically out of control. Worrying about Patsy out of control sometimes kept Piper awake at night. She had to worry because his parents never did. Phoebe kept saying worrying was not going to altar what was written. They had some assurance from the visions that were seen in the magic eclipse over ten years ago that Patsy turned out well. How he got there they did not know.
“Why worry?” Phoebe said brightly. “It’s just a process”
Piper went into the kitchen, nearly falling over her son Wyatt’s tennis bag left in the passage because he could not be bothered moving it. Twelve-year-old Wyatt often could not be bothered moving things he dropped. Incredibly intelligent, he only did what he wanted to do and mostly he seemed interested in not doing much.
“Wyatt will be who he wants to be” Phoebe said brightly “Why worry?”
Piper had to worry. She was his mother. She put the bag on the dining room table, then she went into the kitchen.
She sighed as she glanced at the notice board beside the refrigerator where all manner of papers, notes and reminders were pinned. On the top was another request from a teacher to come to the school to discuss Wyatt’s lack of interest in the classroom. He has the brains teachers kept telling Leo and Piper but its just impossible to keep him applied. He gets bored and goes to sleep the teachers informed his concerned parents.
Beside the request was a picture of Mandy, eleven years old, still not having come into her magic powers and despite being Cole and Phoebe’s daughter and a witch, remarkably uncomplicated. In the picture, Mandy was holding a horse from the riding stable she visited as much as possible. Mandy was about as normal as a girl could get. All she was interested in was horses, all she ever talked about was horses.
“How the hell did Phoebe and Cole have a little witch daughter who was as normal a child as ever existed,” her aunt thought.
Piper worried about Mandy and her obsessive passion. Phoebe never did and someone had to. Phoebe said not to worry because all little girls love horses, they grow out of it when boys become more interesting but Piper did worry because the woman who owned the riding school had laughed at the idea of growing out of it.
“Look at me” the woman who was in her fifties told Piper “Look around” she said and indicated the number of women at barn, all passionate about horses.
To be sure that she was alone in the house Piper called out “Leo” but there was no answer. He could have been called in his capacity as whitelighter to the guardian Durand, once again explaining the rules of modern living to the Guardian whose crudity was as legendary as his powerful understanding of right and wrong.
Then she thought again. No dogs had greeted her. Therefore, she concluded that Leo was over next door working on the never-ending renovations because the dogs were never far away from him. Useless to call his phone because Leo did not answer it, simply not hearing the ring above the noise of his tools when he was renovating.
Piper prepared the coffee machine then went upstairs to change from her business woman suit to much more comfortable leggings and sweater, picking up Wyatt’s bag on the way. Piper smiled to herself. Surely the most obvious sign of her getting closer to a fifties body was that she always opted for comfortable clothes around the house.
Upstairs the doors to the bedrooms were open, and she glanced at them noting how the rooms reflected the children’s characters. Melinda’s large room that had once been the guest bedroom, was covered wall-to-wall with posters about animals. Piper went into the boy’s shared room which had once been Paige’s room and dropped Wyatt’s bag on his bed, grimacing because Wyatt’s side of the room was just a plain mess.
“Another battle with him to clean it” Piper thought, unless she could get Cole to click his fingers but that always left a very angry Wyatt complaining he could not find anything, about the only time he ever aroused himself. Patsy’s side of the room was the opposite of Wyatt’s, meticulously arranged in a pattern that no-one else in the Manor understood and no-one bothered to try these days because it would be changed tomorrow. Why the boys could share with relatively little conflict despite their completely opposite natures was one of the mysteries Piper could not understand and had long since stopped puzzling over.
Mandy the youngest had the smaller room that had been Melinda’s original nursery. It was covered in pictures and statues of horses and her pride and joy, her riding helmet was neatly placed on the dresser.
Having changed her clothes Piper came down stairs and noticed through the conservatory window that the adjoining gate was open so she went into the garden and walked through to the large house known in the family as next door. The old house’s kitchen door was open and she went in calling to Leo. He finally answered from the downstairs bathroom where she found her husband lying in his back trying to adjust some plumbing for the toilet. Four mismatched dogs, a poodle, a terrier and two lord knows what, all collected by Melinda as foster cares that simply never left the Manor, sat watching Leo work. Two jumped up to greet Piper.
“Hello dear” she said sweetly as she patted the dogs.
“Hello dear yes” Leo muttered “The wrench, the red one against the bath.” She bent to pick it up. “Love you too” she muttered.
Leo took the wrench and with a supreme effort managed to loosen the pipe before he staggered to his feet. “I love you” he said leaning to peck her mouth “But I don’t love the person who bought this house.”
“Persons” corrected Piper. “Paige and Cole. Do you want lunch? Just about to make some.”
“Be over in a minute” Leo replied.
“Kay” Piper wandered off, followed by two of the dogs, glancing through the door to the lived-in looking kitchen and living room as she left. What could she say. Nothing. Piper had learned over the years. Five young adults and Paige rushing between magic and work and college. Who had time for things like cleaning? If it got too bad, she could always make Cole to do a magic flick his fingers to clean it, because he had no problem with personal gain.
Back in the Manor kitchen Piper busied herself making coffee and warming a homemade quiche, knowing full well that Leo’s minute would be the better part of forty-five minutes.
Leo finally arrived in the time she predicted. He looked very much as he had when she met him, maybe a little thinner and a little browner, he still dressed in the jeans and workman shirts. Piper heard him scrubbing in the downstairs bathroom and he finally entered as she was laying out lunch, quiche and a pasta salad. She had a slight smile and a small intake of breath. Leo was a good-looking man, and as they got older, he was keeping his looks, with a little help from magic. A smug smile appeared on Leo’s face, knowing from her expression what Piper was thinking it.
“I still can’t get used to this place when its so quiet” Leo commented “I must be getting old to look back on noise nostalgically.”
“You won’t tonight” Piper pointed out.
“Boys won’t be home until later” Leo reminded her. “Tennis lessons.”
Patsy who had no interest in team sports did enjoy tennis because he liked its geometric patterns and precision and after a strong talking to from his father reluctantly played to the level of his human side. Wyatt was not really interested in any sports but Leo insisted he had the same opportunities as Patsy and sometimes Wyatt could be motivated to play doubles with Patsy if Patsy did all the running.
“You’ll have to take Wyatt his bag” Piper told Leo. “He left it on the floor.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “How was the club?” he asked because complaining about Wyatt was useless. Wyatt did not care if he played or not. Leo would take the bag because he wanted Wyatt to play.
“Usual import problems. The punk band pulled out but Danny came up with an interesting new one that he says are going to be the next thing.” Piper explained.
“He always says that” Leo replied.
Danny had first come to P3 as a music director nearly 13 years ago. He had parlayed that into a successful career as a band entrepreneur working for many successful groups in San Francisco but he had never forgot that Piper had given him a job and made a point of keeping P3 in the black by contracting his best groups to work there. That and he talked his brother-in-law, Reggie who still managed the club into allowing some of his clients to use P3 as a practice venue including access to all the state-of-the-art equipment. Quite a few were grateful enough to play at P3, one of San Francisco’s iconic night clubs, at severely reduced rates.
“Finally found a replacement pianist for Noel” she said. P3 kept its space in use in early evening as a very sophisticated piano bar.” She’s bringing a pipe player. Interesting sound” Piper said. “Different.”
“Different keeps us operating” nodded Leo.
Piper smiled at Leo. Once all Piper had wanted was normal in her life. Now she happily enjoyed her far from normal life married to a magic creature who she knew loved her passionately. She looked up a little shyly and met Leo’s eyes. If the eyes were the window of the soul, Leo’s soul had drastically changed. His eyes had lost the peevish good that they had reflected some years ago. This was replaced by a kindness and humour which now seemed to govern him. He was a man who could laugh with a wry self-depreciation that had never been part of him in those first years they had been married. Certainly, as he retold stories of his magic life counselling the demon guardian Durand, including the far too many times he had found Durand in Vladivostok brothels, laughter had danced in his eyes. Leo was a far more understanding whitelighter than the one Piper had first known even when he bemusedly recounted Durand’s exploits. When she thought about how much she loved this wise and humourous man who sat opposite her, Piper also wondered whether her passion would have lasted had he not grown into this man who shared her life and even understood her need to keep the mundane.
“Bloody council just sent notice that they want to change the parking to two hours, metered” Piper told Leo. “Other places are up in arms.”
“Cole will have to fix it” Leo insisted, always quick to protect Piper from anything remotely stressful when he could. He considered the problem. “Do you ever think evil is targeting us through councils and state laws?”
Piper snorted “Do you ever think the bloody elders are so annoyed the Charmed Ones aren’t broke and dependent on charity they are trying to sabotage us.”
Leo rolled his eyes. This had been a long-standing discussion in the family.
In these times, the Halliwell family had achieved a certain affluence which came from several factors. The family had thought they had protected themselves financially when they bought the warehouse that contained P3 but then not two years later the other two warehouses in the precinct were put up for sale. At that time the site had been a little way from the main city in a seedy area and was not considered a valuable property which is why the family could afford the P3 warehouse, but the location caused the family concerns about prospective buyers of the other two warehouses and their intentions. Therefore, using a hefty deposit gained from Phoebe’s first book sales the family bought the two warehouses and relied on Cole to deal with all the issues of zoning and development through his law practice. Leo then slowly set about renovating so they could to lease the two warehouses to other entrainment venues.
It had been slow going but the warehouses over the last five years had been leased to several different clubs and restaurants and now the whole area was becoming quite a fashionable entertainment precinct which was causing new problems for the family. The council that Cole had happily screwed over to get zoning permits needed for the club regularly tried to find ways to extract more money, which was the reason for the sudden change to the generous parking laws that made the site so viable that Piper had been dealing with that morning.
The other big investment the family had made was what was known as next door which had been a neighbourhood problem for years. Like the Manor, it was an old-time house with a city heritage listing and a reputation for being haunted. Unlike the Manor it was unloved and unkempt, as the owner who had inherited it from a distant relative let it fall apart in the hope the council would give permission to pull it down. It never happened, the house became more and more derelict and to the neighbourhood’s concern, it became a cheap rent house. Rooms were let to constantly changing tenants who never stayed long because their experiences added to its reputation as a haunted house which the Halliwell family knew was because the magic nexus that surrounded the Manor spread into the land next door.
About ten years ago the hauntings and weird magic became too much for even the cheapest tenant and it stood empty for two years. Finally, eight years ago its owner had put it on the market at a bargain rate. At that time, the Manor was packed to the rafters because the three Simpson girls, daughters of the lost witch Jade who had been an integral part of the Charmed Ones destruction of the warlock Willem had of necessity moved in and more often than not their two brothers stayed as well. Paige had faithfully fulfilled her promise to the girls’ mother that she would look after Jade’s family.
However, the more or less permanent residence of three young witches and semi-permanent residence of their two brothers put a huge pressure on both the accommodation of the Manor and the finances of the family to Paige’s horror. Luckily the problem was sort of solved when Phoebe’s second book had begun to sell well and with a large deposit from her and a small mortgage, next door had become part of Halliwell holdings. Not that it was much of an investment because the house like the Manor was heritage listed but for once the Halliwell family was glad of zoning laws because they could afford to buy it. However, to say the house was a renovator’s delight was being kind to the condition it was in.
Next door thereafter had become an eight-year battle for Leo to restore it to some sort of decent living standards. Originally, Leo fixed four bedrooms and a bathroom for Paige and the girls, intending to work on the downstairs afterward, but he was distracted by the new warehouses, then neighbourhood complaints about the condition of the exterior forced a large investment of Phoebe’s book funds from the extra editions published of her first book based on the good sales of the second, into restoring the outside.
Phoebe being Phoebe decided anything worth doing was worth doing well or even to excess and with time on her hands since she quit her agony aunt newspaper job set about creating a spectacular garden. Therefore, it was only recently that Leo had undertaken any more interior work but Phoebe was able to maliciously but graciously accepted the neighbourhood compliments about next door’s truly beautiful garden.
As Piper sat at the kitchen table, she smiled at the memory of how next door got its garden. Enjoying a quiet moment with her husband, she reached out to touch his hand. Certainly, she had her worries but for Piper life had reached a certain level of comfort, where she was at peace with herself, with her lifetime choices and even to her surprise magic.
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