I decided to walk to meet Marcia at the restaurant she’d chosen rather than ride the subway to the next station. I’d only walked a couple of blocks when I noticed an elderly lady who seemed to be following me. I tried to ignore her and kept going on my way. That was one of the city survival lessons Marcia had taught me when I first moved to New York. I reached the restaurant and stepped inside to find Marcia already waiting in the foyer. “You’re right on time,” she said, greeting me with a hug. “They said our table should be ready in a moment.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then a voice at my elbow said, “Well, now, aren’t you being rude today?”
I turned to see the lady who’d been following me. She stood next to me, looking at me as though she was astonished that I hadn’t recognized her. I mentally ran through every place I might have met someone during my time in New York so I could figure out why I might know her. No bells rang.
“I know you were angry with me,” she said, “but that’s no reason to snub me entirely.”
Only then did I notice her facial structure and put it together with her voice to recognize Ethelinda. So, that’s what the rest of the world saw. Without her wings, tiara, and layers of out-of-date evening wear, she looked like an entirely different person. It would have been nice if I could have ignored her, but I was afraid Ethelinda would make a scene. “I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t recognize you right away,” I said, frantically scrambling for an excuse to get rid of her.
“Who’s your friend?” Marcia asked.
“Oh, this is Ethel—” I cut myself off because Ethel was a perfectly reasonable, if a little old-fashioned, name, unlike Ethelinda. “She, uh, we…”
“I’m her fairy godmother,” Ethelinda declared proudly, putting an arm around my shoulders.
Seventeen
I froze. This wasn’t how I’d planned to tell my friends about magic. Then I tried to recover. “Ha, ha! Yeah, that’s what we call her at work. She’s like a fairy godmother to all of us in the office. She gives us such great advice on dating, relationships, and stuff like that.”
Marcia didn’t act like she’d noticed anything odd, which made me relax a little. “It’s nice to meet you, and you must be doing a good job, from what I’ve heard. It seems like Katie has found a good man.”