Second Chance Idol Week 3: Busman's Holiday

“Where is the bus?” Myrtle asked with a sigh, fanning herself with her hand. 

“How would I know? Someone has decided we’re not allowed to use magic on this trip,” Agnes growled, shooting a look that would have been deadly had she wanted it to be. 

“You could look up the schedule like normal people do,” I said. 

“And how do normal people do these things, Eris?” Myrtle asked. 

The problem was, I didn’t know. This was my first time out of the house without the use of my magic charms. We didn’t wait for the bus, we could just teleport wherever we wanted to go. But this had been my idea, I thought it would be good for us to see how the rest of humanity managed. 

“When you said we’d take a magic vacation, I thought you mean like, a vacation where we do magic.” Myrtle continued to sigh dramatically and act like we were burning in hell. I’d been to hell, a few times, and while the sun was bright and the air heavy with humidity, it was nothing compared to some of the places we’d been. The difference was, we had magic to keep us cool then, and now, we simply had to deal with the elements naturally. 

“And how would that be a vacation? That would be a normal day for us,” I snipped. “No, you knew what I meant - I meant we’d take a vacation from using magic. Agnes thought it was a good idea at the time.” 

“I was humoring you, dear,” my sister said. 

Agne's white-blonde hair was shinier than usual, and the way it moved around her face as if the wind as blowing it seemed strange to me. There was no wind. Her dark blue eyes sparkled with twilight, and that's ultimately what gave her away.  

“Agnes, are you using glamor?” 

Agnes cackled. “No, just because I am beautiful doesn’t mean I’m cheating and using magic,” she said, flipping her long hair over her shoulder and looking away from me, so I couldn't get a closer look at her eyes. 

“Agnes!” 

“Alright, yes, but it’s harmless magic. I don’t even realize I’m doing it half the time,” she said. 

“Well stop it. You’re cheating.” 

“I hardly consider that cheating unless it’s competition on who can woo that drunk man passed out on the ground.” 

I scowled at her, placing my hands on my hips. “You know what I mean, Agnes.” 

Myrtle sighed. “She’s right, Agnes. If I can’t use magic to check where the bus is at, you can’t make yourself glow with eternal youth. At least my spell would be useful.” 

Agnes let the glamor fall, and for the first time in centuries, I saw my sister as she really was. She was still beautiful, and while none of us aged the same as humans, she was starting to get smile lines - or rather, frown lines since Agnes hardly ever smiled. 

“See, you look beautiful even without the glamor,” I said, leaning back against the bus stop. 

“What time is it?” Myrtle asked. 

“How would I know?” Agnes responded. “Not like we can-- well, you know.” 

Yes, we did know. Because that’s all my sister would talk about. How unfair it was. I was starting to think the hardest part about all of this would be living with her complaints. 

I looked around, trying to figure out if there was some way to tell the time. I’d heard you could tell the time based on where the sun sat in the sky. Was that the way humans did it? 

A sound pulled my attention away from the burning, bright light of the sun. 

“What was that sound?” I asked. It was almost like music, but tinnier. Just a buzzing, rhythmic sound, unlike anything I'd heard before. 

A woman had walked over and sat down at the end of the booth. My sisters and I were gawking at her, but she didn’t seem to notice. She pulled something from her pocket and held it to her ear. 

“Hey, Frank. Yes, I’m on my way,” she said. “The bus should be here in a few minutes. Sorry I’m running a bit late.” 

“Who is she talking to?” Myrtle whispered. 

“I think she’s communicating through a portal of some sort,” Agnes answered. “But she’s not a witch, so how is she--” 

The woman removed the flat metal object from her ear and her fingers moved over the screen. I couldn’t help myself - I scooted closer to try and see what she was doing. 

She looked up at me and smiled, and I knew I’d been caught. I had to come up with something. 

“Excuse me, uhh, I was just wondering--” Think, Eris, think. Then I remembered Myrtle’s question from earlier. “Oh yes, do you know what time the bus is coming?” 

“Which one?” she asked. 

“Which one?” 

“Yes, there’s three that stop here. The 103, the 85 and the 10.” 

“Uhhh--” 

“Where are you going?” she asked, giggling. “Maybe I can help.” 

“We’re trying to get to the airport. We’re going on a vacation.” 

“Oh, you need to take the bus to the train station,” she said. “There’s no direct route.” 

Myrtle whispered beside me, “I knew we should have just used magic.” 

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said. “Do you think you could help?” 

“Sure, let me see what time the 10 comes, then we can see what train you’ll need to take.” The woman began tapping on the object again, and I scooted even closer. 

“What is that?” 

“It’s Google Maps,” she said, giving me a weird look. “Do you not have a smartphone?” 

“A what?” 

“A smartphone. You know, like an Android or--” 

“No, we don’t have any robots,” I laughed. 

The woman stared at me, blinking and confused. “Right-- so I assume you don’t have one. Good thing I can help you look all of this up. Here you go - it looks like the 10 comes in fifteen minutes, only once an hour on Sundays. Then from there, you get off at the Fifth Street station and hop on the purple line. It’s about a twenty-minute train ride to the airport, but I believe it’s the last stop,” 

“You got all of that from--that thing?” 

She laughed. “I did.” 

“Wow, that’s--that’s--” 

“It’s magic,” Agnes said from beside me. “And that means you cheated, Eris.” 

My cheeks flushed red, and I had to admit - it sure felt like magic to me. My sister was right. 

“Can we just give it up already? Even humans use magic, so why can’t we use ours?” 

The woman next to me said, “Pardon me?” 

Agnes waved her and the woman blinked, then stared at the three of us like she’d not seen us before. 

“Oh hello there,” she said. She blinked a few times, then looked around as if she didn’t know how she got there.  

“That was cheap, Agnes,” I muttered, scooting back toward my sisters. “A memory loss spell?” 

“She’ll get over it,” Agnes said. “But can you finally admit that humans aren’t any different than us and let us use our magic already?” 

I glanced back at the woman. The object in her hands was now playing music, and people were dancing on the screen. My sister was right. It was a portal or some magical instrument of some kind. 

Even humans used magic. 

“Fine, but when we get where we’re going, I think I’m going to buy myself one of those robots,” I said with a swish of my wrist. In a puff of smoke, we were teleported to the other side of the world. 

Humans, I thought to myself, what a disappointment.