Page 23 of Her Wonderful Wonder Bell
“Come on, you can even watch me make it,” Rosa says as she stands.
“Mom. Are you sure?” Sharon says, and for the first time in a long time I hear some actual emotion in her voice. She sounds…annoyed.“We don’t let people watch us.”
“Don’t be jealous, mija. They’re part of this now. It’ll be fun.”
“I’m not jealous.” Sharon pouts in a way that says she definitelyis jealous.
“Come on, everyone put on a white coat and gloves, and make sure your hairnet is secure. I like a clean kitchen.” Rosa looks Pearl up and down. “If you have to touch anything I’ll draw you some gloves or something. Just try not to.”
Rosa sets bowls, utensils, and measuring cups on the stainless-steel counter. Sharon pours the contents of the vial into one of the smaller cups, then helps her mom get the rest of the ingredients.
“We’re making the gum first,” Rosa says as she sets down a jar of food coloring. “It’s going to be mostly regular bubblegum ingredients, but I’ll be adding the river water, pomegranate, oleander, and fine dust of broken mirror glass. The magic to make it all work, however, is up to us.”
As soon as Rosa has all the ingredients prepared and takes the giant pot from its shelf, Sharon lets out an annoyed sigh. Then, both of their appearances begin to change. Pearl and I glance at each other, eyes wide, as the two of them transform into something neither of us would have ever expected.
“I—what? Why don’t you tell anyone about this?” I ask Sharon.
She blows a glittering pastel curl out of her eyes as she picks up a spoon. Rosa laughs, sparkles filling the room that Sharon waves away with her baby blue satin gloved hand.
“No one needs to know. It’s family business, okay? Promise you won’t tell anyone.”
Pearl and I both cross our hearts at the same time and in unison say, “I promise.”
So, I guess I won’t be telling anyone about Sharon and Rosa’s story, but watching them make the candy was awesome, and I feel privileged to get the information I did.
Chapter Nine
Pearl
“Meow. Pbft.”
Mavis is hungry, again, so we feed her. It’s about time to start getting ready for bed. Things took a long time at Rosa’s, which I feel bad about considering she had to stay closed most of the day to help us. Then we did actual chores for Delia, like groceries and laundry and stuff, because I wanted to learn how things are done these days. It tired me out pretty early.
“Meow.” Mavis rubs against my leg before heading to her bowl to eat. Ever since the egg incident she’s been incredibly friendly.
“I’m gonna clean myself up, then I’m gonna put on a movie I think. I put the super magic gum in the fridge, so it doesn’t accidentally meltor something. Also, so Mavis can’t get at it,” Delia says as she heads out of the kitchen.
“Sounds good to me.”
As soon as she leaves, I open said refrigerator, snag a piece of turkey meat, and hand it to Mavis. The cant gobbles it up greedily, butts my leg with her head, then returns to her normal food as she makes that strange wheeze-purr sound. I pat her head and exit the kitchen.
As I’m walking through the living room, about to pass the front door, there’s a knock. It’s strange, considering the hour, and that Delia told me she rarely has visitors. Generally, I would consider it rude to answer someone else’s door; however, I can hear that Delia is currently in the shower. This would be one of those times it would be appropriate to answer, I would think. As I’m debating, there’s a second knock. Oh, heck. I’ll do it. It’s a nice town, who here could cause any trouble?
Smiling brightly, I pull open the heavy door—which is much more difficult than I’d anticipated, with my weight being so unfortunately low—and freeze. It seems there is one person who can cause trouble after all.
“You gonna invite me in, or what?” Mr. Brigley asks. He puffs his cigar, a cloud of smoke floating into the room.
“Uh, Delia doesn’t allow smoking inside,” I squeeze out.Gotta buy time somehow.
“Oh, well, if the hostess insists,” he says in a mocking tone as he drops the cigar to the hall floor and grinds it out with his shiny, brown shoe.
Brigley pushes past me, crumpling my shoulder and nearly knocking me over. He plops his massive body down onto Delia’s sofa and stares at me as I shut the door. All the shadows in the room seem to lean into him as if he were some kind of magnet for them. His mustache twitches and he sniffs.
“Sit, Pearl. Can you sit? I don’t know what you can do when you’re—what the hell are you? Cardboard? Fucking Christ. Just sit down.”
I scramble to sit in the chair across from him. Anything to keep him from making me poof before we can find a way to get him to eat the gum. If we can.
“Where are the other girls?” he asks.Right to the point, I guess.
